WWF Monday Night Raw June 28, 1993
by SamoaRowe
-I’m writing this on a Friday night, so you can see that I care more about these old 1993 shows than I do about watching Smackdown.
-Vince McMahon, Randy Savage, and Bobby Heenan are hosting the festivities, broadcast from Poughkeepsie, New York. Tonight we get Shawn Michaels vs. Kamala for the Intercontinental title, Bastion Booger vs. Crush (maybe I should be watching Smackdown instead), and an appearance by WWF Champion Yokozuna.
Intercontinental Championship:
Shawn Michaels © (with Diesel) vs. Kamala
HBK is very cautious to lock up with Kamala in the early going. Kamala offers an unsure handshake but Michaels finally goes on the attack before getting swatted off. Michaels extends his hand but Kamala bites it (true to his cannibalistic roots). Michaels retreats to ringside. Kamala drags HBK to the ring and unleashes a scoop slam. Hard Irish whip by Kamala, but HBK blocks a head of steam. Michaels dives into a bear hug as we head to commercial.
The bear hug is still in progress after the break, but Kamala is using it as a cover. Michaels escapes and heads to ringside, luring Kamala into a pummeling. In the ring, Kamala blocks a drop-kick but accidentally drives his leg into the ring post on a missed head of steam. Michaels smells blood and begins to target the hurt leg. Kamala finally blocks a figure four and tosses HBK to the floor. Michaels is dumped back in the hard way and gets knocked down. Big splash by Kamala, but he’s still unclear on how to make a cover. Diesel is up on the apron to distract, allowing Michaels to hit a Sweet Chin Music to the back of the head. Perfectly solid match, with nice leg work by HBK and selling by Kamala, **¼.
Winner and still Intercontinental Champion: Shawn Michaels
-Diesel storms the ring and helps Michaels lay a beat down on Kamala.
-Vince McMahon introduces WWF Champion Yokozuna and his manager, Mr. Fuji, for an in-ring interview. They discuss the upcoming Bodyslam challenge. Mr. Fuji clarifies that they waited until the 4th of July so they could embarrass an American athlete to celebrate Yokozuna’s title victory. Vince shows some early “Mr. McMahon” fire as he stands up for American on the mic. Yokozuna compares American athletes to American products: they are no good. Vince conducts a “USA” chant to finish the segment.
The Smoking Gunns vs. “Iron” Mike Sharpe and Barry Horowitz
Billy Gunn starts the match cautiously locking up with Sharpe. Horowitz holds Billy for a double team but Sharpe unwittingly misses and hits Horowitz. Bart Gunn tags but Sharpe blocks his arm work by raking the face. They crisscross around the ring until Bart gets a small package, broken up by Horowitz. Horowitz tags and runs into an arm lock. Cover by Bart gets 2. Arm drag by Bart leads to more arm work. Bart misses a clothesline, allowing Horowitz to catapult him neck-first into the ropes. Northern Lights suplex by Horowitz gets 2. Sharpe tags but he and Horowitz fail on their double team attempt. Billy tags and cleans house. Bart tags and sets up Horowitz for a flying double team from Billy to pick up the win at 4:28. The jobbers got quite a bit of offense in, making for a more interesting match, *½.
Winners: The Smoking Gunns
-Vince McMahon brings out the former Tag Team Champions Ted Dibiase and IRS. The crowd chants “Irwin” obnoxiously to throw IRS off his tirade about reclaiming the belts. Dibiase makes fun of someone who can’t hold onto his money, Razor Ramon. The crowd gets behind Razor as Dibiase runs him down for being stupid.
Adam Bomb (with Johnny Polo) vs. PJ Walker
Walker is completely dominated from the opening bell. Side slam by Bomb, who is bleeding from the mouth for some reason. Bomb drops Walker gut-first on the ropes and tosses him to the floor. Slingshot clothesline by Bomb. The Adam Smasher (Powerbomb) finishes Walker at 2:07. Just a squash, DUD.
Winner: Adam Bomb
Bastion Booger vs. Crush
I don’t know how anyone expected Booger to be accepted as a wrestler when he had a bigger gut than Vader did in his brief 2005 return. Booger somehow manages to overwhelm the clearly more athletic Crush in the early going. Crush repeatedly tries to lift Booger, but cannot. Crush runs into Booger, which seems to hurt. Crush hits something resembling a botched body drop. Drop-kick by Crush sends Booger crashing to ringside. Booger pushes Crush into the ring post. Booger remains in control, smashing Crush’s head into the turnbuckles. Choking by Booger. A bear hug from Booger just makes me like this match even more. Crush counters with something resembling a suplex. Crush nails a series of power slams. Crush gets the win at 5:37. Absolutely brutal, DUD.
Winner: Crush
-Randy Savage is standing in Giants Stadium, hanging out with Giants star, Joel Morrison, who is going to try to slam Yokozuna.
-Next week: The 1-2-3 Kid, Bam Bam Bigelow, and Mr. Perfect. Plus, footage from the Stars and Stripes Challenge.
Final Thoughts: Things started out decently enough. The IC title match was perfectly good television wrestling and the Smoking Gunns match managed to be lively. The angles with Yokozuna and Money Inc were both nicely developed as well. Things nose dived from there, as Adam Bomb squashing Walker did nothing at all for me and the Bastian Booger match was five minutes of my life I will never get back. Kudos for Crush for trying so hard to not make the match look ridiculous.
Thumbs in the middle.