Monday Night Raw - December 6th, 1993

• Raw opens with a recap of last week’s events between Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon, and some pre-match comments from “the real intercontinental champion” Shawn Michaels who is still carrying around his own title belt from before he was stripped of the title. Little bit of trivia - the 1-2-3 Kid doesn’t have any eyebrows in this match graphic or in the image of him used for his first WWF action figure because the night before his first superstar photoshoot, prankster Mr. Perfect got him drunk and shaved off his eyebrows!

• This is a really fast paced match, especially by 1993 standards. Flips and dives, hurricanranas and counters off the top rope. Really good stuff. Michaels comes so close to defeat but after a superkick, he taunts Razor Ramon by giving him the Razor’s Edge. Michaels has the match won but lifts the 1-2-3 Kid and breaks his own pin. He’s not done and gives him a second one. He’s about to deliver a third when Razor himself comes down and pulls the Kid out of the ring and to safety. Michaels slaps Razor hard in the face and the Intercontinental Champion chases him around the ring and up the entrance ramp. It’s a rap and the big Diesel comes out from behind the curtain and lays him out with a big right hand. Michaels chokes at Razor with his own shirt as referees struggle to pull him off the champion. He finishes with a Razor’s Edge to Razor himself on the concrete floor (he struggled to lift the big man and so it was very safe, lowering him slowly to the ground so he didn’t squash his own head). He gives him a second one before the referees are finally able to stop the assault. This whole match and segment was great stuff. 

• The WWF Tag Team Champions Jacques and Pierre battle…two guys? Johnny Polo brings a deck chair down to ringside and puts his feet up to read a sports magazine as his clients score a quick and easy victory. Jacques was great, getting down on his knees to mock his smaller opponent. 

• Owen Hart had a fall out with Bret at Survivor Series and is now dressing and acting more like Bret in his matches. He wouldn’t talk about Bret winning Superstar of the Year last week but this week he will - he was surprised that Bret won that award but the REAL news is that he’ll have a big surprise for everyone next week.

• Doink the Clown - with Dink in a babystroller - takes on Tony Devito. Vince loves all of Doink and Dink’s comedy antics but I liked him WAY more as a heel. Dink is very distracting all throughout this match which is far longer than you’d expect - in addition to being a clown, Doink’s main gimmick is showing off what a good wrestler he is so there’s usually a lot of slow mat wrestling and submission exchanges in his matches. Another reason Doink kind of sucks now is that it’s not Matt Bourne playing him anymore, it’s Ray Apollo. 

• In this week’s Double J video he complains about how Nashville is no longer music city, it’s more like t-shirts and tourists city. He will finally make his debut on Raw very soon.
• Crush, with Master Fuji, squashes Tony Roy. This also serves to promote that Macho Man will be back in action next week taking on Headshrinker Fatu. Savage calls in during this match to discuss Crush and that match. 

• At Survivor Series and last week on Raw, Bobby Heenan insulted his long time broadcast partner Gorilla Monsoon over and over. They teased all night that Gorilla might be here tonight to give him a piece of his mind with Heenan still mouthing off the whole time. At the end of Raw, Gorilla arrived and threw Bobby “The Brain” Heenan out of the arena along with all of his belongings and told him to never come back. This sadly marks the end of Heenan’s WWF tenure as his contract expired and due to the reduced travel schedule and higher pay, took a job with WCW. This way of writing Heenan off TV was he and Gorilla’s idea and Heenan’s tears at the end here were very real. He didn’t leave the WWF with any bad blood and real life best friends Bobby and Gorilla held each other and sobbed about no longer working together for hours later on that night. I’ll miss you Bobby. This feels like a good time to also mention Mean Gene’s departure the previous month under similar circumstances - his contract expired and with the WWF struggling financially, Vince encouraged him to see if he could make more money elsewhere. WCW offered him a significant increase in pay to work fewer dates than the WWF wanted and so he took that and also left with no bad blood between himself and McMahon. The really tense relationship between the WWF and WCW was still a couple of years away, but we’ll talk plenty about that when we get to it! 

Monday Night Raw - December 13th, 1993

• Raw kicks off with an excited Vince McMahon showing Bobby Heenan’s ejection from the arena last week and introduces his new commentary partner Jim Cornette. Surely a conflict of interest. There’s also some big news for the Royal Rumble - Yokozuna will defend the WWF Championship against The Undertaker! 

• Macho Man Randy Savage returns to Raw to battle one half of the Headshrinkers, Fatu (with Afa). Vince confirms that as of this match, Randy Savage is back in the ring “full-time” which sadly doesn’t last long because of the bizarre issues Vince had with his age which I’ve mentioned previously. Macho fights off interference from Afa to score with his iconic big diving elbow off the top rope to pick up the victory. 

• There’s a fun video from Todd Pettengill on the set of WWF Mania where he encourages fans to call in and ask President Jack Tunney to restore Macho Man to his old broadcast job so that he can be Todd’s co-host on WWF Mania again. I love Todd, and the WWF loved doing these fan-vote-by-telephone gimmicks in 1993. They must have been making a good bit of cash from kids calling in (with their parent’s position of course). This is such a scam at 99 cents per call because in reality they’d already FILMED WWF Mania with or without Macho Man. 

• Lex Lugar presents a “say no to drugs” video, which the WWF did a lot of during this era, which allows Jim Cornette to talk about Lex - he thinks that he should NOT be allowed to enter the Royal Rumble match because if he wins, he’d then be facing champion Yokozuna at Wrestlemania (Vince protests that Yoko may not BE the WWF Champion at Wrestlemania) and per the stipulation at Summerslam, Lex isn’t allowed another shot at Yoko’s WWF title. It’s an interesting story-point. 
• The Smoking Gunns take on two no-names including one guy who is wearing the ugliest ring gear I’ve ever seen. He looks like Temu Cactus Jack. A diving bulldog headlock off the top rope by Bart gives himself and Billy the win. 

• After a recap of Shawn Michaels’ brutal assault of both the 1-2-3 Kid and Razor Ramon last week, IRS battles a chubby guy in neon green gear. Before the match, the camera man gets a good look inside Irwin’s briefcase where we can see Razor’s gold necklaces! He’s repossessed the Intercontinental Champion’s gold, presumably for tax money. He did also lecture the crowd on making sure they pay all their taxes before buying any Christmas presents - good advice. It’s a quick win with the Write Off clothesline. 
• An odd segment for the big scary monster heel WWF Champion, Yokozuna was at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City dressed as Santa, handing out gifts to kids. Then he woke up in bed! It was a bad dream, and a WWF Unbelievable commercial. I liked that one. 

• The Undertaker, the number one contender for the WWF Championship, battles J.S.Storm, who looks a bit like Edge. Vince spends much of this match winding up Cornette as he’s still Yokozuna’s spokesman and he is gravely (pin intended) concerned about The Undertaker defeating him at the Royal Rumble. It’s a Casket match! I’m sure they didn’t mention that earlier. Vince says that Cornette sold out Yokozuna by not reading the contract properly - Cornette and Fuji added the same “one time only” rule as Lex Lugar had at Summerslam, so Paul Bearer added the Casket match stipulation! The Deadman drills Storm with a chokeslam and finishes with a Tombstone. After the match, Undertaker and Paul Bearer dust off their original gimmick which he hadn’t done since sometime in 1991, rolling the unmoving jobber into a bodybag! 

• This week’s Jeff Jarrett is just a montage of all the previous ones because finally he’s going to make his debut for real - if you’ve seen the first one (which I posted last month) then you know what he says in ALL of them. 
• There’s a move-trailer style promotion for next week’s big match which is a rematch between Tatanka and the man who ended his undefeated streak, Ludvig Borga. We haven’t seen or heard from Borga since Survivor Series - I’ll talk a little more about him next week of course.
• Rick “The Model” Martel beats up Tim McNeany. The Model takes time out to do some jumping jacks and pose for the crowd before finishing him off with the Boston Crab. 
• This past weekend on WWF Superstars, Vince McMahon sat down with Owen Hart who addressed living in Bret’s shadow - he says he’s lived in Bret Hart’s shadow his entire life and so now he’s challenging him to a match so he can show the whole world that he can beat Bret. That’s a big challenge, and leads into the final match on Raw which is Bret “Hitman” Hart vs. The Brooklyn Brawler. For people keeping track, this is the third former WWF Champion we’ve seen in this episode. It’s funny because Bret Hart has a very distinctive way of laying out his matches so even though this is a classic jobber squash, he still lets the Brawler get in some offence so that he can mount his comeback. Bret hits the classic five moves of doom (Atomic drop, Russian Legsweep, Driving elbow and back breaker) with a pin after each one until winning with the fifth and final move - the Sharpshooter. 

Monday Night Raw - December 20th, 1993

• This week, Vince McMahon is joined on commentary by “the real Intercontinental Champion” Shawn Michaels. This is a BIG moment for Shawn as it gives him a chance to really show off some personality and basically cut an hour long promo. He cheers for the heels and talks trash about the babyfaces. 

• Raw opens with a dramatic recap of Ludvig Borga ending Tatanka’s over two year undefeated streak a couple of months ago (with a steel chair and help from Yokozuna) and then some pre-match comments from Tatanka who promises revenge tonight. 
• Kicking off tonight is the in-ring debut of Double J, Jeff Jarrett. He’s dressed very flamboyantly and takes on PJ Walker. Having had literally months worth of video packages to promote him, Jeff still feels the need to cut a prematch promo about how he’s the greatest wrestler in the world. He shows a lot of viciousness and finishes him off with a big swinging DDT. Double J won’t shut up and cuts ANOTHER promo after the match, spelling his name. 

• I commented on the WWF’s love of these call-in fan polls last week. This week’s question? Should Lex Lugar be allowed to enter the Royal Rumble match.

• Mabel, Oscar and Mo rap their way to the ring wearing Santa hats for the Men on a Mission’s match vs. Duane Gill and Barry Hardy. The 500lbs Mabel has no problem throwing around the two jobbers and finishes them off with a splash off the middle rope. Vince McMahon LOVED bringing up current events and news stories during these shows, often talking about politics or celebrity drama and this week Shawn brings up that a man in Argentina ate an entire pig during an eating contest and then “succumbed” which I think means died. 
• My boy Todd hosts the first Royal Rumble report to give us all the hard sell. I’m just happy to hear that this year’s event will continue to use the classic Royal Rumble theme song. Big selling point for the WWF title match is that The Undertaker is already working on a double-wide coffin for Yokozuna. There’s also another big match announcement - IRS challenging Razor Ramon for the Intercontinental title. That feud has been on the boil since Razor won the title and IRS has stolen all of his gold chains, but it still feels like a filler feud because Razor’s REAL rival is Shawn Michaels. 

• Ludvig Borga faces Tatanka. Ludvig has been on the weekend shows winning squash matches since Survivor Series but it seems that the WWF has already decided there’s no storylines for the anti-American goon. The crowd is actually red hot for this and Tatanka’s big comeback, hammering the big Finn with chops to the head and knocking him down. He’s dominating Borga but the WWF Champion Yozozuna makes his way down to ringside and Mr. Fuji hits him with his flag. Tatanka wins by disqualification. He’s attacked and beaten up two on one until Lex Lugar runs to the ring and evens the odds. Borga gets knocked out of the ring and Lex bodyslams the almost 600lbs WWF Champion again to send him packing. It very much feels like Lex vs. Yoko at Wrestlemania is still the plan, long term.

• Captain Lou Albano was on Raw last week but I didn’t mention him because all he did was wander to ringside during the Smoking Gunns match and didn’t interact with anyone. He’s introduced here and waves to the fans before a match between Adam Bomb (with Harvey Whippleman) vs. Mark Thomas. And then Lou disappears? Ok then. Adam smashes him with the Atom Smasher as Vince and Shawn discuss another news story from 1993 - scalpers selling tickets to a Barney the Dinosaur appearance for four times the face value. Shocking, but I’ve no idea why they brought it up. They made it a hat trick with the odd new stories, spending time later talking about Donald Trump’s marriage. It didn’t last. 
• There’s a video promoting the arrival of another new Superstar, Thurrman “Sparky” Plugg. Most long time fans will know him better as his Attitude era rebrand “Hardcore Holly” but it’s quite fun seeing him as a geeky, cheerful racecar driver.

• After a replay of last week’s challenge from Owen Hart to his brother Bret, Bret responded to Owen on Superstars. The Hitman was quiet and somber as he said that he will wrestle anyone but he refuses point blank to ever wrestle his own brother. He will never, ever wrestle Owen Hart. 
• From there, Owen is in action (in his pink and black gear and knock-off Bret Hart shades) against Mike Bell. Shawn is really good during this match, really hammering home how mistreated poor Owen is by his family, living in Bret’s shadow and confirming to the fans at home that Owen is definitely turning heel as he heaps praise on him. Owen wins with the Sharpshooter. 

• Paul Bearer welcomes us to The Undertaker’s workshop where he’s building a special casket just for the WWF Champion. A double wide, double deep casket for the WWF Champion. Nice little reference for the fans as he walks past the specially decorated casket he made for Kamala at the last casket match at Survivor Series 1992.

• The Headshrinkers battle Phil Apollo and some other guy with a mullet. They smash the two jobbers. Between this and the Men on a Mission match earlier this is a showcase show for the tag team division. 
• The show ends with the traditional plug for next week’s card. Of note, Razor Ramon in action which gives Shawn a chance to insult him and Johnny Polo’s in-ring debut against Marty Jannetty. See you next week! 

Monday Night Raw - December 27th, 1993

• This week’s weird commentary team is Vince McMahon being joined by both of the WWF Tag Team Champions, Quebecer Jacques and Quebecer Pierre! This is going to be chaotic and they keep speaking French to each other. 

• Lex Lugar is the first man in action tonight facing Barry Horowitz. He has a harder time with Barry then you’d expect before winning and Vince once again pushes for fans to call in and tell President Jack Tunney to allow Lex into the Royal Rumble match.
• Vince recaps the events of the October 25th Raw when Johnny Polo came out to mess up the match between Marty Jannetty and the 1-2-3 Kid, causing that to end via double countout. That’s the reason tonight for Marty Jannetty vs. Johnny Polo. He is a wrestler and later had lots of success as Raven but was only known as a goofy manager at the time. He’s going to get a lot of praise with his clients on commentary. Johnny Polo puts up a good fight in his first official match and he and Marty go back and forth with counters and nearfalls. Pierre gets up off commentary to go and help his manager and pays for it when a baseball slide puts them both down. Marty fights off both men but thanks to Pierre, Polo reverses a roll up and he grabs his hands for extra leverage to give Johnny the victory. Marty is furious and goes out to confront the Tag Team Champions, brandishing a steel chair. The referee ejects Pierre from ringside for his actions, leaving Jacques and Vince on commentary for the rest of the show. 

• Doink (with Dink) battles Spike Gray. Dink does all the comedy spots like chewing gum with a mousetrap on the finger, kicks Spike in the chins and then distracts him so Doink can win with a rollup. I miss the original Doink so much. 
• The big news from this week’s Royal Rumble report is that there’s now a WWF Tag Team Championship match added to the card. Bret and Owen Hart appear to have mended their relationship over Christmas and have returned to TV to challenge The Quebecers. Bret has promised to dedicate the rest of his career to being Owen’s partner and they’re super focused and determined to win the Tag Team titles.

• Led to the ring by Master Fuji, Crush takes on the vaunted Mike Moraldo. He looks a bit like Gerry Brisco, but with a mullet. It's a dominant two minute victory for the massive “Japanese sympathiser”. Vince calls him one of the favourites in the Royal Rumble. 
• After another spooky “Undertaker is building a casket” promo, Bret Hart tells fans not to drink and drive - good advice.
• Vince McMahon throws to highlights of the finals of the WWF Women’s Championship tournament. Alundra Blayze and Heidi Lee Morgan battled it out mostly on non-televised events and dark matches to make it to the finals, which Alundra won with a nice bridging German suplex. 

• There’s another video for a newly debuting superstar - Kwang. I’m not bothering to capture this one because it was very low effort. More on him when he shows up.