Monday Night Raw - June 7th, 1993

Raw opens with a pair of surprises. Shawn Michaels is once again the Intercontinental Champion having regained the title at a non-televised event over the weekend. He also has a huge near 7 footer with him who he introduces as “my insurance policy” which I can’t believe is his name. This is Kevin Nash aka Diesel’s WWF debut and we’ll learn a great deal more about him in the coming shows including at the King of the Ring PPV. He is Shawn’s bodyguard, and Vince informs us that last night at a show in Albany New York he was responsible for Shawn regaining the title. The new Champion is back in action here and shows off against a lad who’s name I didn’t catch, defeating him with a piledriver, which looked great. Shawn being champion again means that his scheduled match with Crush at the King of the Ring is now an Intercontinental title match too.

During the King of the Ring report while running through the card for the show, Mean Gene confirms that the Michaels/Crush match is a title match, and back in the arena Shawn comes back to the ring and furiously yells at the commentators. That was the first he knew of it, but with his new Insurance Policy to have his back, he’s not worried about beating Crush and remaining champion.
Adam Bomb, whose arrival is heralded by stock footage and sound effects from an atomic explosion, takes on El Matador Tito Santana. Bomb’s stoic, serious outward appearance is somewhat negated by Johnny Polo’s big goofy smile and cheerleader routine. Tito puts up a good fight but Adam Bomb finishes him off with a powerbomb (called the Meltdown) to win this match.
Tatanka who has a big match with Lex Lugar at the King of the Ring has a warm up match with Chicago’s Fred Weeks. He looks a bit like a fat Super Mario. The crowd do Tatanka’s Native American war cry to cheer him on during this, and he wins with a chop off the top rope because Weeks is too big for him to lift for his normal finishing move.
After a commercial for ICOPRO, Jerry “The King” Lawler enters the arena for his interview segment The King’s Court. He says that he knows everyone is sick of listening to Macho Man and Vince McMahon so now he’s here to provide entertainment. He makes fun of New York (“you paint the trash cans red and gold so that your kids thing they’re eating at McDonalds” was a very good line) and says that anyone who wins the King of the Ring is a pretender and he is the only true King of the WWF. He then brings out his guest, who he calls the next WWF Champion, Yokozuna. Mr. Fuji does the talking - Yokozuna has an American accent so he can’t speak or else they’ll give away that he’s not really Japanese y’see. I could barely understand what Mr. Fuji said, but the important points are that Yoko is now up to 550lbs in weight because he eats 15 - 20 meals per day, and Hogan will be crushed by the Banzai drop.

An odd mismatch tag team match with the Smoking Gunns and Steiner Brothers coming out together. All four are a team at the King of the Ring but this match is Billy and Rick Steiner as a team (with Bart and Scott at ringside) vs. IRS and Fatu (with Ted Dibiase and Samu at ringside). The Headshrinkers make sure to finish their WWF ice cream bars before the match. Both teams work together seamlessly here with no drama. At least until IRS accidentally hits his own partner. IRS and Dibiase end up arguing with all three Islanders on the outside and are still fighting when we come back from a commercial break. Some money seems to calm things down. The match breaks down and in the chaos, Ted Dibiase gets a cheap shot in to Billy which is enough to knock him out and allow IRS to get the three count. I’m happy they won because it means I get to hear his awesome theme song.

Vince McMahon interviews Razor Ramon. Last week he’d upped his cash offer for a rematch with the 123 Kid to $5000. He’s so desperate for a rematch with the cockroach that he’s now offering $7,500 if he’ll get in the ring with him next week. He then moves on to the King of the Ring - there was a fan poll and only 7% of fans believe he can get past Bret Hart in the opening round. Razor is unsurprisingly very confident and says that he will be not just beating Bret, but winning the whole thing. We’ll see, Razor.

Which brings us to the King of the Ring - the first King of the Ring PPV or even on TV, but I’ll talk a bit about the history of the tournament later. For now, here’s the card heading into the event!

WWF Championship

Hulk Hogan © (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. Yokozuna (w/Mr. Fuji)

WWF Intercontinental Championship

Shawn Michaels © vs. Crush

Eight Man Tag Team match

The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott Steiner) and The Smoking Gunns (Billy and Bart Gunn) vs. The Headshrinkers (Samu and Fatu, w/Afa) and WWF Tag Team Champions Money Inc. (Irwin R. Schyster and Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase)

King of the Ring - Nutter Centre, Fairborn Ohio, June 13th, 1993

An energetic start to the PPV with Vince (via video package) and the commentators (at ringside) running down all the big matches tonight. They continually hammer home that Dayton Ohio is the “heartland of America”, something which was said every single time Dayton was mentioned in the run up to this event too. If you look above however you’re see that it wasn’t technically in Dayton - we’re out in the suburbs of Ohio

King of the Ring Opening

King of the Ring tournament - Quarter final match

Bret “Hitman” Hart vs. Razor Ramon

When Razor enters, JR immediately mentions the 1-2-3 chants directed at him due to his massive upset loss to The Kid on Raw a couple of weeks ago. During Bret’s entrance the camera pans over the coronation area where the winner will get their crown later. We’ll get a proper look at it later in the show.

This is a rematch of their WWF Championship at the Royal Rumble which was good but I found it a bit slow personally. These first round matches only have a 15 minute time limit (that’ll be important later) so they need to pick up the pace tonight.

This is my second taste of Jim Ross on commentary since Wrestlemania and he’s so much better than everyone else it’s scary. He immediately offers insight into the size and strength of both men, suggesting strategies for them in the match. Good stuff.

They start slowly with lockups and feeling each other out but Bret puts his focus on Razor’s shoulder, taking him down with armdrags and locking in holds on it. Razor finally gets a break, sending the Hitman into the ringpost shoulder first. He turns this into more of a brawl with punches, kicks and a fallaway slam. Macho is made better by Jim Ross’s influence and makes some good comments about their different styles and which one the shorter time limit favours. I don’t mean to go on about the commentary but I really do feel like it added a lot to the quality of this match.

Bret comes back and goes into his familiar five moves of doom routine. Atomic drop. Nearfall. Side Russian legsweep. Nearfall. Perfect backbreaker. Nearfall. Diving Elbow. Nearfall. His attempted running bulldog is counted sending him crashing into the corner. Razor goes for the Razor’s Edge and that’s countered into a nearfall for a heartbreakingly close nearfall and Razor regains control with a big clothesline as Bret argues with the referee. Good stuff.

Ramon sets up a back suplex off the top rope but Bret counters that, floating over to land on top of Razor and that’s enough for the three count. Bret Hart advances to the semi finals in a really good match which I enjoyed far more than their last effort on PPV.

Before the next match, the Harvey Whippleman managed Mr. Hughes had a run in with another of his charges’ rivals - The Undertaker. He beat down Undertaker on WWF Superstars with some help from Giant Gonzales. Here’s the recap of it, seeing as it's the only Undertaker appearance we’re getting on this show.

Mr. Hughes beats up The Undertaker

King of the Ring tournament - Quarter final match

Mr. Perfect vs. Mr. Hughes (w/Harvey Whippleman)

Before the match begins, Bobby Heenan uses his Brain Scan gimmick to make fun of his former friend Mr. Perfect. I always liked the Brain Scan gimmick.

Perfect is obviously as a size disadvantage but he’s at a huge talent advantage and moves quickly, throwing dropkicks at Hughes but not knocking him off his feet. Hughes slows things down with a big blow and grinds down Perfect with a chinlock. Perfect does what he can to make Hughes look good, bumping wildly when he’s whipped into the corner. More interestingly, Bret Hart comes to us live from the back during the match to discuss who he’d rather wrestle - he’d rather wrestle Mr. Perfect because he likes him, which is lovely.

After what feels like an eternity of being slowly worked over by the lumbering Hughes (This whole match only lasted six minutes) Perfect mounts a comeback and like a big dumb idiot, Hughes grabs the urn which he stole from Undertaker and hits Perfect with it, getting disqualified and eliminating himself. Perfect advances.

Backstage, Mean Gene interviews Yokozuna and Mr. Fuji. The important point is that Fuji calls Hogan a cheater for beating Yokozuna at Wrestlemania after he’d already wrestled and that the title change shouldn’t have counted but they’ll right that wrong tonight. I also found it funny that Fuji referred to the Bret Hart Yokozuna match as having lasted “20 minutes” as it actually lasted just over 7.

King of the Ring tournament - Quarter final match

Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

Bam Bam doesn’t have Luna with him sadly, but I’m sure we’ll see her tonight. I commented a bit in the May shows that Jim Duggan never, ever loses matches cleanly, always being protected with a disqualification or countout. We did just see a disqualification though so lets see if they get creative.

Duggan is a huge man so this is a big man vs. big man match and they run into each other with clotheslines and shoulder blocks until Bam Bam goes down.

Duggan goes for a bodyslam but can’t do it, selling his ribs which Yokozuna broke earlier in the year. Bam Bam grinds him down with a short bearhug until Hacksaw mounts a comeback. His corner charge misses, hitting the ringpost and knocking himself out and Bigelow follows up with a diving headbutt to hand Duggan a very rare pinfall loss. He advances to the semi-finals.

King of the Ring tournament - Quarter final match

“The Narcissist” Lex Lugar vs. Tatanka

This is a battle of two undefeated superstars - Tatanka has been undefeated for well over a year by this point. Lex strikes many poses during his entrance to show off his body but my favourite was the withering look he shot to the camera when he first came out.

The story here is that WWF President Jack Tunney has finally clarified that the metal plate Lex has in his forearm is illegal as he keeps using it to knock out his opponents. The referee insists on putting a padded elbow pad on Lugar’s arm and has the ring announcer specify that if he refuses he will be eliminated by disqualification. Lex is furious but complies. I love the kayfave here as there’s literally no reason that a thin elbow pad would nullify his forearm smash but lets go with it.

They start fighting while Lex’s mirror is still in the ring and hilariously he throws Tatanka out and then continues posing. Tatanka shoves the mirror into the Narissist’s face and starts the match properly. The fans do really love the Native American.

The match is slow and Macho Man is good here, offering insight that Tatanka’s strategy of working on Lugar’s arm with armbars and such is misguided, and that Lugar’s comeback where he uses big blows and continually goes for a cover is much smarter. They go back and forth, taking turns to be in control as Heenan makes jokes about Tatanka’s heritage which definitely wouldn’t be ok in the modern world.

Bam Bam calls in during this like Bret did earlier and says that he wants to face Tatanka - that’s not a shock as they’ve been feuding for a while and Bigelow actually cut a chunk of red out of his hair. The fact that they’re feuding does in theory make it obvious who’s going to win this match but let’s see if they shock us.

After a long period of slow wrestling, Jim mentions that we’re 11 minutes into the 15 minute time limit. It’s like the wrestlers heard him as they suddenly pick up the pace with Tatanka getting nearfalls off a slam and a chop to the head off the top rope. The drama is good for us at home with time running out but they should have done announcements in the arena so the fans felt it too. Lugar scores with a big powerslam with only 90 seconds to go but Tatanka kicks out.

A big suplex and another big slam seem to be the beginning of the end but the time limit expires. This match is a time limit draw and so now both men are eliminated. That means that Bam Bam Bigelow is now straight through to the finals!

After the match, Lugar grabs a mic and says that he wants five more minutes added to the clock and the match to be restarted. Tatanka is keen too and the crowd cheers but the referee says no. Lugar removes his elbow pad and knocks out Tatanka with his running forearm smash and so is the last man standing, but he’s still eliminated. Sorry Lex.

We have one half of the finals and now we need the other half - Mean Gene Okerlund interviews fellow babyfaces Bret Hart and Mr. Perfect. Mean Gene stirs the pot, bringing up Bret’s comments earlier and implying that he wanted to face Mr. Perfect because he’s an easier opponent. Perfect is offended of course and it gets heated including some funny stuff with Mean Gene asking who would win a match between their dads - they both know their dad would win. Perfect also brings up their previous match at Summerslam 1991 when Bret defeated Mr. Perfect to win the Intercontinental Championship. Perfect reverts to a more heel character, angry at Bret and determined to prove that he’s the better wrestler. I enjoyed this.

King of the Ring tournament - Semi final match

Mr. Perfect vs. Bret “Hitman” Hart

For the semi finals, the time limit is increased to 30 minutes so these two have time to lay out a nice, long PPV quality match which I’m sure they will.

The two men start with fast wrestling exchanges, taking each other down with headlocks and head scissors, evenly matched. Macho and JR get all over Heenan pointing out that he managed Perfect when he lost to Bret so its probably his fault.

The story in the early exchanges here is that both men are very evenly matched, but Bret does maintain advantage, coming out on top with a side headlock down on the mat. There’s a nice story that evolves as after several minutes of mat wrestling, Perfect gets frustrated at coming up on the losing end and so gets more physical being the first man to throw a punch. He knocks Bret to the outside and brawls, slamming him into the ring apron and then launching him off the apron and sending him flying into the metal security barrier. Bret comes up holding his leg in pain and Perfect now has a major advantage over the former WWF Champion.

Heenan is great here, saying that all these more heelish antics are his teachings and this shows how desperate Perfect is to win this match and the King of the Ring.

Perfect comes off the top rope with a missile dropkick which gets a big reaction - that was a rare move in 1993 - and Bret has to get his foot on the ropes to break the pin.

Perfect goes back to the top rope but pays for it and this time Bret blocks him and brings him down with a superplex for a nearfall. Bret shows some desperation of his own, aiming some big kicks at Perfect and locking in a figure four, and Perfect just barely makes it to the ropes to break the hold. The damage is done to his leg and Bret puts his efforts there now, weakening him up for the Sharpshooter.

Perfect comes back with a sleeper, but Bret makes it to the ropes. Perfect’s knee buckles beneath him and he’s now walking with a heavy limp thanks to Bret’s onslaught and goes back to the sleeper.

Bret drives Perfect into the top rope and goes into his finishing routine but when he goes for a Sharpshooter after the diving elbow, Perfect grabs Bret’s taped up fingers which the commentators have told us are broken after his match with Razor earlier.

Bret blocks the Perfect-plex and reverses it, sending both men tumbling up and over the top rope to the floor locked in the suplex position all the while. It’s a struggle but both men get back into the ring to avoid a count out.

In the ring, Perfect goes for a small package but Bret turns it into one of his own and it’s enough for the three count! The finish came out of no where but this was an excellent wrestling match between two fantastic wrestlers.

Perfect is frustrated but after a delay, does get back into the ring and shakes Bret’s hand. They’re still mates, still babyfaces and Bret Hart will now meet Bam Bam Bigelow in the finals.

Before the next match, Mean Gene Okerlund interviews the WWF Champion Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart. It starts with a long zoom in of the big airbrushed Hogan face on the back of Jimmy Hart’s jacket. This is a classic Hogan promo with lots of brother and whatcha gonna do, but they must say “heartland of America” 20 times. Jimmy Hart actually quotes from Hogan’s future WCW theme song (which Jimmy wrote) “He’s got the red white and blue running through his veins and he was born and raised in the U-S-A”. Indeed.

WWF Championship

Hulk Hogan © (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. Yokozuna (w/Mr. Fuji)

First important plot point made is that at ringside there are many photographers from Japan here at ringside, documenting Yokozuna’s pursuit of the WWF Championship. Hogan himself had just come back from wrestling in Japan, which I’ll talk about a bit after the match. The fans chant Hogan during Yoko’s entrance ritual, and there’s a prominent fan in the front row dressed entirely as Hogan. That’s commitment, brother. Macho’s real life dislike of Hogan comes out, talking about how he thinks Bret Hart should be in this WWF title match, and that his favourite colours aren’t red and yellow - they’re red, white and blue.

They lock up and Hogan shoves Yoko but the big man is unmoved. JR, Heenan and Macho discuss the strategies in this match - Yoko has bulked up and gained 50lbs for this match whereas Hogan has slimmed down significantly. That’s because he’s off the steroids and was more focused on launching his acting career than wrestling at the time. He looks easily 100lbs lighter than his WWF peak.

Hogan moves quick but does keep going for bodyslams on the giant Japanese monster. Yoko hammers on his back to stop it each time - he’s too heavy to be lifted. Hogan wrestles like a cruiserweight but with a string of clotheslines still can’t knock Yoko down and runs into a clothesline of his own. He focuses on Hogan’s lower back which he seems to have hurt trying to lift the 550lbs Zuna and grinds him down with a long bear hug.

Hogan absorbs a belly to belly and kicks out, Hulking up. He shakes and pulses with energy, rocking Yokozuna with punches and finally knocking him off his feet with a clothesline. He follows up with an Immortal leg drop and to everyone’s shock, Yokozuna kicks out! Hogan is flying and starts to tease that he’s going to bodyslam his challenger but then one of the Japanese photographers hops up onto the apron and his camera emits a bright flash of flame directly into Hogan’s face!

He goes down and Yokozuna drops a leg of his own and that’s enough for the three count. Yokozuna is the new WWF Champion! Hogan flails around holding his eyes, blinded by the camera flash. Bobby Heenan has a great line, saying that the bright lights of the WWF are too much for Hulk Hogan. That’s definitely an inside comment which I’ll talk about in a moment.

Yokozuna isn’t done and delivers a Banzai drop to Hogan as JR screams that he has crushed Hulkamania. “There’s children crying” is a pretty iconic line. Hogan is tended to by officials and referees, worried about his sight and now his ribs. He’s carried to the back and Yoko gets a moment to celebrate his title win in peace.

Hulk Hogan won his 5th WWF title at Wrestlemania 9, but he shouldn’t have. The WWF was trying to move past the Hulkamania era stars including benching people like Macho Man Randy Savage and Ric Flair. Vince always had a soft spot for Hogan and believed, rightly or wrongly, that the company couldn’t exist without him. Hogan did his best to manipulate that and convinced Vince to put the WWF title on him even though he wouldn’t be around for the next few months. Hogan was filming a movie (Thunder in Paradise) and went to Japan to wrestle, where he famously referred to the WWF title as a “trinket and a toy” and worthless compared to the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Thanks Hulk, glad it meant so much to you.

It made a lot of the younger talent roll their eyes, but wouldn’t have been as bad if he’d stuck to the original plan which was to pass the torch by losing the belt to Bret Hart at Summerslam 1993. Hogan didn’t want to do that and so chose to drop it to Yokozuna here. Bret didn’t want to ruin Yoko’s moment and so waited until after the match to confront the Hulkster. Hogan told Bret that he wasn’t in his league and “go fuck yourself”. Hogan felt he had grown far beyond the WWF and with his ego inflated, got what he could out of the relationship and then left doing no favours for anyone on his way out the door. Hogan worked a few non-televised events in July and August 1993 but this was his final WWF TV appearance until February 2002.

Mean Gene interviews the Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels and his bodyguard who is still only known as “the insurance policy”. That’s not a name though so Shawn gives him a name here - Diesel. “As in, Diesel fuel - that which makes a mack truck go”. I’m not sure if that’s a good line or not. He tells Gene that we’ve seen one upset already and won’t see another and he will retain against Crush. He also called Hulk Hogan a dinosaur which is funny because if he wasn’t leaving the company, I’ve no doubt the infamously petty Hulkster would have made sure Shawn paid for that insult.

Eight Man Tag Team match

The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott Steiner) and The Smoking Gunns (Billy and Bart Gunn) vs. The Headshrinkers (Samu and Fatu, w/Afa) and WWF Tag Team Champions Money Inc. (Irwin R. Schyster and Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase)

A decent snapshot of the Tag Team division in 1993 in this match. The Smoking Gunns only debuted a few weeks ago but they have a good look and gimmick so the fans are into them already. 1993 was a simpler time.

This will be a nightmare to describe. It’s Scott Steiner and Ted Dibiase who start this match for their respective teams and Dibiase gets the advantage with some wrestling exchanges - he has more experience for sure.

The teams move quickly, tagging in and out so everyone can have their turn of being in the ring. The Money Inc/Headshrinkers combo isolate Bart Gunn in their corner, tagging in and out to work him over as Heenan mocks Jim Ross for continually talking about the colleges and football histories of all the men in this match - something he was famous for during his entire career as a commentator. It’s funny that it started so early.

Ted locks in the Million Dollar dream on Billy and probably has the match won but releases his own finishing hold for no reason. He pays for it, being rolled up by Billy for the victory. That’s the third roll up finish tonight.

The four teams spill into the ring and start throwing punches and brawling but its quickly broken up and ended. Nothing here was settled.

Backstage, Mean Gene interviews the new WWF Champion Yokozuna, who is with WWF President Jack Tunney. He’s there to offer his congratulations to Yokozuna, but there’s no mention of the fireball or the cheating. That’s noteworthy as it draws a line under this story - you’d have to imagine if they wanted to give Hogan a rematch and play on the controversy, like they did at Wrestlemania, it would come up here. Fuji takes great joy in having killed a piece of Americana tonight in “the heartland of America”

WWF Intercontinental Championship

Shawn Michaels © (w/Diesel) vs. Crush

This match was signed because Crush blames Shawn for costing him a spot in the King of the Ring tournament (they’re light on details as to how or why - it happened on WWF Superstars) and when Shawn regained his title on a house show, the title was added to this match too.

The story is that Crush is big and strong so Michaels has to move and use his speed, however Crush is “just as athletic” according to Macho Man, who was legit best friends with Crush in real life so always very vocal in his support for the big man. Michaels leapfrogs and avoids contact in the opening exchange but then Crush throws a pair of dropkicks and sends HBK scurrying to the outside to regroup.

After showing off his speed, Crush shows off his power next with some big slams and a tiltawhirl. Michaels is dragged outside to safety by “his insurance policy” and Crush follows which he pays for when Diesel runs him into the ring post not once but twice. Michaels follows up with a cool spot, grabbing Crush’s head and bouncing it 5 or 6 times off the post and then struggling to get his unmoving opponent into the ring for a close nearfall. He probably should have just left him to get counted out - those shots to the post looked really vicious. Macho Man says that Crush is strong enough to slam Yokozuna. In fact, he says it four times during this match and every time it’s more or less totally ignored by JR and Bobby. Let it go, Randy.

Crush powers out of a long headlong and mounts his own comeback with a back bodydrop and a big backbreaker and has Shawn on the ropes. It’s all going so well until Doink the Clown marches to the ring. Actually, it’s two Doinks marching in unison so that you can’t tell that there’s two until he gets all the way to the ring. Crush is distracted by it and Michaels kicks him in the back of the head with his superkick and that gets him the three count. Crush hops up and immediately chases after the two Doinks but most importantly, Shawn Michaels is still the Intercontinental Champion, thanks to Diesel and a pair of Doink the Clowns.

The King of the Ring existed as a house show tour as selling tickets to live events was for a long time the main source of money in wrestling. It’s the same reason WCW’s WarGames match started as a house show attraction. You had to buy a ticket to see it. The WWF marketed this as the first ever King of the Ring so that’s how I’ll refer to it as well but the truth is that Macho Man Randy Savage, Jim Duggan, Harley Race and even Bret Hart himself had all won the King of the Ring previously. Some but not all were even acknowledged on TV with a King gimmick. Here’s a list of all the King of the Rings prior to 1993

1985 - Don Muraco

1986 - Harley Race

1987 - Macho Man Randy Savage

1988 - Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase

1989 - Tito Santana

1991 - Bret “Hitman” Hart

Mean Gene, who’s had a busy night, interviews Bam Bam Bigelow. The big story heading into this final is that Bam Bam had a short match with Hacksaw Jim Duggan and has now had about two hours to rest but his opponent, Bret Hart, had two much longer and more grueling matches and appears to be nursing a knee and a hand injury with far less rest time. It is quite the uphill battle for the Hitman.

King of the Ring tournament - Final match

Bret “Hitman” Hart vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

The commentators do a good job of hammering home the story I’ve just laid out, but Macho has done an especially good job all night of inflating the importance of this tournament. He calls winning this tournament “on a level” with being WWF Champion and says that as far as he’s concerned, whoever wins this is the number one contender for the WWF Championship which is more than fair in my opinion.

Bret moves fast and throws punches - he needs to get this over with quickly - but loses the fight to the bigger, stronger and fresher Bam Bam.

Bigelow hammers Bret on the mat, slowly working him over with headbuts and splashes, taking his time with a big back suplex and getting closer and closer near falls each time as the commentators talk about Bret like he’s already dead. Bigelow has a huge advantage and while Bret tries to fight back and jumps off the apron with a crossbody, he’s run into the ring post and then slammed in the entrance aisle. As Bam Bam argues with the referee in the ring, Bam Bam’s girl Luna Vachon comes down and blasts him in the back with a steel chair and runs off! Bigelow takes him back into the ring, slams him and connects with his diving headbutt and Bam Bam Bigelow is the 1993 King of the Ring! The commentators can’t believe it and it sucks all the air out of the live crowd.

Or is he? A second referee runs down and lets him know what Luna did, and a judgment call is made - the match is restarted!

We get a nice shot of the coronation area with Mean Gene standing by, and the match begins. Bam Bam rushes Bret and continues to hammer on him. Bret still has a chance but it doesn’t seem like he has much of a chance.

Bigelow continues to slowly hammer on Bret, working on his lower back as the commentators react with ongoing shock that the Hitman is still in this fight.

He locks in a long sleeper, hopping up onto Bam Bam’s back and wearing him down, and then dumps him over the top rope. In very un-Bret Hart style he dives out over the top rope and the high risk pays off. He peppers Bigelow with punches and back in the ring, followed with a diving bulldog off the ropes for a close nearfall. Bret sets up the Sharpshooter but Bigelow is too big and strong and blocks it with ease before going back to the bearhug. Bret catches a charging Bigelow in the corner and then comes down off the top rope into a victory roll which is enough to get the victory. Bret Hart wins his third match tonight to become the first ever King of the Ring. Bret had three long matches with three totally different opponents and three totally different stories and all three of them ranged from good to great. Bret Hart might be as good as everyone says he is.

The Hitman heads directly up to the coronation area and Mean Gene places the robe and crown on the new King. Mean Gene proclaims him the King of the Ring and tries to get some comments from him but it’s interrupted by Jerry “The King” Lawler. He calls Bret a pretender to the throne and says there is only one King in the WWF and it’s him. Bret calls Lawler a coward for not even bothering to enter the tournament and then leads the crowd in a Burger King chant. Lawler isn’t having it and blasts the Hitman across the back of the head with his sceptre, smashing his crown and then lifting and breaking his throne across Bret’s back. The PPV enters with King Bret down and out and badly hurt and Jerry Lawler stands tall over him, tearing his robe up for good measure.

This was a good PPV! Bret Hart was a one man show, providing three good matches which on any WWF PPV from this era is a strong showing. A new WWF Champion always makes a PPV feel momentous too, so good job everyone (Except you, Hogan)

Monday Night Raw - June 14th, 1993

Raw opens with Mean Gene interviewing the new WWF Champion Yokozuna backstage at the King of the Ring. He and Mr. Fuji broke the news that their championship celebration will take place on July 4th - America’s birthday - at an American landmark. It’s a USS naval carrier. More on that later, obviously.

In the arena, Raw opens with Mr. Perfect vs. one of the bushiest mullets I’ve ever seen. The commentators spend the entire match talking about Yokozuna and whether new King of the Ring Bret Hart will get the first title shot. Perfect wins with the Perfect-plex. This match and entire show was taped before the King of the Ring, but the commentary was recorded afterwards and edited in meaning that they’re able to give the illusion that it all took place afterwards. They were good at this.

In the ring, Vince McMahon invites Razor Ramon down to the ring to talk about his upset loss to the 1-2-3 Kid on May 10th. Razor swaggers down with a sack with a $ on the side. He says that he’s been thinking about it and the Kid (the stick man, the cockroach) doesn’t have to beat him, he just has to survive. He offers $10,000 to the 1-2-3 Kid to wrestle him again. Vince asks Ramon what happens if the Kid beats him again? Razor isn’t worried - it was a fluke and if he’s brave enough to take the $10k and face him a second time, he’ll make the little punk pay. Razor made me laugh as he was leaving taunting the fans with the cash, offering to give it to them and then putting it back in the bag.

Doink the Clown, who has quickly become my favourite part of these 1993 shows, faces Marty Jannetty. Doink comes down and goes right under the ring and then appears on the other side now wearing a jacket! Is it the same Doink? Genius. This is a back and forth match and Doink hits a new trademark move, a jumping sit down senton off the top rope. This ended up being a really good match and as they fight on the outside, the bell rings and both men appear to have been counted out. Marty keeps fighting and drops Doink with a hurricanarana and hammers him with right hands. It’s quite vicious, especially for a 1993 match, as they continue to brawl until referees manage to split them up. I enjoyed this a lot.
There’s a recap of the King of the Ring which serves as a commercial for the PPV replay but is also effective in showing what happened in the event. I left in a little bit of the bikini clad Raw girl, just for you guys.

King of the Ring 1993 replay commercial

“The Rocket” Owen Hart, younger brother of the new King of the Ring Bret, takes on a guy with a rat tail mullet. The main point of this match is that the 1-2-3 Kid calls in to discuss Razor Ramon and talk to Vince McMahon. He’s in Osaka Japan and says his career has taken off since the victory. He basically plays his character like he’s a 15 year old boy, being amazed that he’s on TV right now. Vince tells him about the $10,000 challenge from earlier in the show and says he’s going to take the challenge! More interestingly for me, Owen Hart shouts “LETS GET BUSY!” as he has the jobber in a wrist lock which made me snort laugh. An awesome missile dropkick and then a bridging Northern Lights suplex gives Owen the victory.

On All American Wrestling, Owen Hart is scheduled to take on Bastion Booger. He’s a newcomer, but that’s the repackaged Friar Ferguson. I did mention last month that the Catholic Church kicked off about the portrayal so he’s already done and has a new name and gimmick. I’m sure we’ll see Booger here on Raw at some point soon.

They show a replay of The Undertaker’s match on WWF Superstars, in full. His opponent was PJ Walker but this is the same match we saw clips of at the King of the Ring when Giant Gonzales and Mr. Hughes, led by Harvey Whippleman, beat him up and left the Deadman laid out. It’s interesting seeing Superstars take place in a much larger arena - that was how they did things in 1993. They packed a bigger arena and then would have the fans there for up to 8 hours watching dozens of matches - sometimes as many as 30 - that would then be edited and chopped up for Home Video compilation tape release and for the weekly TV shows. Often on Superstars or All-American Wrestling fans were watching matches that had been taped weeks or even months before. You can see the important part of this footage in the video I shared during the King of the Ring, but I enjoy that in the screenshot below, it looks like Hughes is tickling Paul Bearer’s tummy (he gave him a sidewalk slam).

Jerry “The King” Lawler takes on Mark Thomas. Macho Man is disgusted that Lawler would dare to wear pink and black after what he did to Bret Hart at the King of the Ring. He berates the New Yorkers and tells them that they need to kiss his feet. Bobby Heenan actually gets up and walks out “in protest” which feels odd, and he does pass King on camera. It makes me think he had to leave for something real during the taping and they had to edit commentary about the fact that he just appeared on TV. The fans continually chant Burger King at Lawler who demolishes Thomas. Heenan does return to commentary (not on camera this time) because he’s excited about the scoop he just got. They haven’t yet confirmed WHERE Yokozuna’s championship celebration will take place but on July 4th he invites any and all American athletes to come and try to bodyslam him. It’s a bodyslam challenge on July 4th! Lawler wins with the piledriver and after a big plug for ticket sales for next week’s Raw taping, we’re out!

Monday Night Raw - June 21st, 1993

Raw opens with a replay of the 1-2-3 Kid’s shock win over Razor Ramon on Raw six weeks ago. The rematch is tonight and Ramon has paid $10,000 to make it happen.
In the arena, the first match is The Steiner Brothers - the new WWF Tag Team Champions. The titles have actually changed hands three times since we last saw them, all on non-televised house shows! The Steiners are now two time champions. Their opponents tonight are Reno Riggings and Barry Hardy, who has one of the ugliest mullets I’ve ever seen. A showcase win for the new Tag Team Champions.

Doink the Clown rides a unicycle to the ring! He’s the best. This week he’s taking on Marty Jannetty again but this time it’s 2 out of 3 falls after the double count out last week. This is good again and they wrestle back and forth until Doink wins the first fall with his top rope butt-splash which he debuted last week. Doink controls the match and mocks Jannetty, pretending to cry as he sells, but Marty comes back and with a well placed superkick and a diving first drop, evens things up to 1-1. Marty suffers in a long figure four leglock but reverses it and builds momentum. A second Doink comes down to the ring and hides under it and Party Marty gets distracted going to look for him. He can’t find him and pays for it when Doink baseball slides him into the security wall. Doink appears to switch places with his double under the ring and the fresh Doink hits a piledriver to win the match 2-1. It’s too much for the Macho Man and he rushes the ring, attacking Doink and exposing the original Doink hiding under the ring. The referee reverses his decision and Marty now wins the third fall by disqualification, winning this match 2 - 1. Great stuff, I loved all of this again.

Mr. Hughes takes on Bobby Who, who is my favourite jobber because Heenan is always a blast making jokes about his name. Hughes mugs for the camera like a gangster in a bad pantomime, daring Undertaker to come and take his urn back. He wins with his devastating “big push” finishing move.

There’s a promo for this week’s All American Wrestling which takes place aboard the USS Intrepid. That is now confirmed to be the location of WWF Champion Yokozuna’s bodyslam challenge on July 4th. I won’t be covering THAT show, but there is a big recap of the events on the July 5th Raw so we will be seeing the good parts.

In the main event, Razor Ramon takes on the 1-2-3 Kid. He has his sack of $10,000 with him which he used to bait this rematch. The Kid doesn’t have theme music yet of course and the story here is that the small, babyfaced Kid is no match for Razor and got lucky last time but this time, he’s in real danger. I’ve mentioned it before but Sean Waltman and Scott Hall were already very close friends in real life and this is the first BIG example of The Klique looking after each other. I’m getting ahead of myself though. Kid moves fast and gets a couple of close nearfalls with roll ups, popping the crowd huge. The fans are solidly behind him chanting 1-2-3 but Ramon slows things down with a big clothesline. Ramon exposes the concrete at ringside and sets up a powerbomb on the floor but Kid backdrops his way out of it. His follow up dive off the top rope backfires and Razor avoids it. The Kid hits the same moonsault off the top rope into a pin which won him their first match but Razor kicks out. The 1-2-3 Kid grabs the bag of money and decides to just run away and to safety, so Razor Ramon chases after him. He runs right outside and into a waiting car, escaping! The match is a double countout, which Vince and Macho (and the fans) think is hilarious but Heenan is outraged by. After a commercial break, Razor is back inside the arena for an interview with Vince. No one steals from The Bad Guy. He is still after him and more focused than ever. We just the usual show closing plug for next week’s show - Heenan looks really bored while Vince talks - and we’re out. This was a really good episode of Raw. I’d have liked a finish to the main event but the 2 out of 3 falls match was great.

Monday Night Raw - June 28th, 1993

Shawn Michaels opens the show to defend his Intercontinental Championship against the Ugandan Giant Kamala. The massive Diesel (in his rhinestone denim jacket) is at ringside to watch HBK’s back and while he’s at a size and strength disadvantage, he is at a speed and brains advantage. This one lasts longer than you’d expect but Shawn picks up the win. Kamala is a sore loser and attacks so Diesel gets physical with someone for the first time, attacking Kamala from behind and the two of them beat him and leave him laid out. This is the last we’ll see of Kamala - he was released from his WWF contract a week later, showing up in WCW later on in the year.

Vince McMahon interviews the WWF Champion Yokozuna and Mr. Fuji. Vince does most of the talking, recapping all the things Fuji has said previously - the Stars and Stripes Bodyslam challenge takes place on July 4th (or July Four as Vince keeps saying), America’s birthday on the USS Intrepid. They’ve invited any American athlete to try and bodyslam Yokozuna because no one can, and it will humiliate America. Vince fires up and says that someone might just slam him and “hit a homerun!”. Yokozuna speaks and does a decent job of hiding his American accent when he says that Americans are inferior. Vince leads the crowd in a loud USA chant to end the segment.

There’s some pre-taped comments from American football players and baseball players who will be there on July 4th to try to slam Yokozuna. Some are better promos than others, but at least one of them was better than Tatanka. Crush and The Steiner Brothers are also confirmed to be taking part.
The Smoking Gunns, Billy and Bart, take on a barrel chested jobber and Barry Horowitz - one of the more famous job guys in WWF history. A double team off the top rope gives Billy and Bart the victory and we get zero time to dwell on it going straight into a commercial break, and then a replay of the 1-2-3 Kid stealing Razor Ramon’s $10,000 last week.
Vince is having a busy night and conducts his second in ring interview of the night with the former WWF Tag Team Champions Money Inc. He sarcastically asks them where their tag title belts have gone? IRS says they have a rematch for the Tag Team titles in their contract and that they’ll get their titles back and continue to earn the big bucks - tax free. Ted Dibiase mentions Razor Ramon struggling to hold onto his money last week and has a laugh at the Bad Guy, losing to an unknown and having $10,000 stolen from him. He calls Ramon an idiot and stupid for letting all his recent bad luck happen to him. That’s unprovoked but given that Ted’s whole gimmick has always been money, it's fair enough he’d mention the $10,000 business from last week.

Adam Bomb, with Johnny Polo, takes on PJ Walker. We get a good look at Bomb’s coloured contact lenses - he is radioactive. He has a bright red tongue too but I’m not sure if that’s part of it or if he was eating a lot of red sweeties backstage. He wins with the powerbomb. I thought it was called the Meltdown but Vince calls it the Atom Smasher. That’s a good name too.

In the main event, Crush faces the 400lbs Bastion Booger. I mentioned last week that this is Friar Ferguson, but his gimmick now is that he’s smelly and disgusting. Crush bodyslams him not once, not twice but thrice to hammer home that he’s the favourite in the bodyslam challenge on July 4th.

Before the end of Raw, Macho Man throws to a prerecorded video from the New York Giants stadium where he and Joe Morris say that they’re going to bodyslam Yoko. I wouldn’t know who any of these legit athletes were in 2025, never mind ones from 30 years ago.