The RAW era 1993-2001

[zendragon]

I am a lazy man, possibly the laziest in LA county putting me in contention for laziest world wide. So I'm just gonna do a mirror image of @SirSmUgly Nitro thread and review every RAW and PPV on Netflix from that time frame. Initially I was thinking about doing The Attitude Era to see what holds up but decided to include The New Generation Era as well. Probably one show a week,

Skipping the RAW Debut because one, it was already up on The Vault and it sucks. and two it features noted SA enthusiast VKM making multiple jokes about the subject.

[SirSmUgly]

Hot take: There are only like two good years of WWE television in this span, maybe three.

Godspeed!

[southofheavy]

1 hour ago, zendragon said:

I am a lazy man, possibly the laziest in LA county putting me in contention for laziest world wide.

Sometimes, there's a man, and I'm talkin' about zendragon here...

[zendragon]

11 hours ago, southofheavy said:

Sometimes, there's a man, and I'm talkin' about zendragon here...

Just don't call me a hero, cause what's a hero...

[southofheavy]

7 hours ago, zendragon said:

Just don't call me a hero, cause what's a hero...

Hey, yer takin' it easy for all us sinners. I don't know about you, but I take comfort in that. 

[RazorbladeKiss87]

22 hours ago, SirSmUgly said:

Hot take: There are only like two good years of WWE television in this span, maybe three.

Godspeed!

1997 and 2001. Maybe 1996?

[SirSmUgly]

2 hours ago, RazorbladeKiss87 said:

1997 and 2001. Maybe 1996?

1997 is the only full year that I think is good. Then, I'd rate parts of 1994, 1996, 1998, and 2001 (I think the Invasion angle was so awful that it makes most of '01 a tough watch). Maybe something like another twelve or fourteen months of consistency in those four years combined. 

 

[RazorbladeKiss87]

Yeah, I can see that. I haven't gone back to a lot of 2001 so it would make sense my brain blocked the bad out. However, I enjoyed the Invasion, at the time. In hindsight I doubt it holds up. 

The end of 96 is pretty good from what I remember off the yearbooks. 99 and 2000 were dreadful thinking back. 

[SirSmUgly]

I thought that 2000 WWF was a really good year for the longest time, and then I revisited some of it recently. It's just 1999 WWF with an infusion of good workers from WCW/the city of Pittsburgh and longer matches on TV. It's shockingly poor, especially with the increasingly unhinged storylines. 

I think WWF really picks up around the time Sid comes back and replaces Warrior at IYH: International Incident. You can see where they begin picking up momentum and moving toward what ended up being the apex of the Attitude Era in '97. 

It's interesting: I think 1997 in the U.S. was the best year for pro wrestling of that era (and arguably ever), but 2000 has to be the worst year for pro wrestling of that era. The Attitude/Nitro/post-peak ECW Era had an extremely short shelf-life of quality.

[zendragon]

We will see...

Royale Rumble 1993 starts with a shot of Gorilla and Bobby, which is a bit bittersweet as its the last time they worked a PPV together (not sure about TV at the time)

1st Match Steiners v Beverly Brothers. For those who don't know The Beverly Brothers are Wayne Bloom and Mike Enos of WCW & AWA doing a twincest gimmick. I really want to know the creative story behind this, what it a VKM special or did someone else have the idea? Anyway solid tag match with Scotty getting the pin after dumping either Beau or Blake on their head with a non-latino frankensteiner. This was a fun match.

Next up is The Coward Marty Jannetty v HBK. We get a video package of The Barbershop incident where Marty tried to flee, then he comes out of the crowd to hit Sherri with a mirror. I want to make a point about Marty's fashion, in this video he's wearing a Guns and Rose T-shirt. When Shawn was knocked out during his match with Flair he comes out of the back in street clothes wearing an Overkill shirt. I like his taste in band merch.

Anyway the match ends where Sherri try's to hit Shawn with her shoe only to clock Marty with it allowing HBK to get the win with a sweet chin music crescent kick, WCW fans will remember how devastating one blow with Sherri's shoes can be. Honestly I was looking forward to this based on the participants and found it underwhelming.

Bam Bam and Bigelow are up next due  to VKM love of watching large me fight. Solid but felt like it could have been featured as feature match on an episode of superstars and not a big five PPV. Bigelow sends Ray Traylor to WCW to try a variety for rip off gimmicks before returning to WWE in 99, via flying head butt.

Bobby The Brain introduces The Human Baked Potato The Narcissist 

 

https://www.facebook.com/poundingthemeat/videos/bobby-the-brain-heenan-simps-over-the-narcissist-lex-luger-during-his-debut-roya/756355453993685/

just watch this if you've never seen it. The whole thing is an ode to VKM's muscle fetishism, the segment ends with Bobby on his knees as if he's about to blow Lex.

Bret Hart v Razor Ramon.

This is Razor's one WWF title shot I believe at least on a PPV, I almost said highest profile but the two ladder matches are probably that. Workman like solid match where Razor loses clean to the Sharpshooter. I like that out of the 4 matches 3 had clean finishes, this will change over the years. I feel like once you've got the people to buy a ticket or ordered a PPV you need to deliver on the finishes.

The Rumble!

Last year the Vacant title was on the line , this year we start the tradition of winner gets a title shot at mania.

Starts with Flair and Bob Backlund in a battle of the 1981 world champs. I swear Flair and Benoit had the worst luck with  drawing numbers in these things. Bob eventually breaks the longevity record set by Flair the previous year. Bobby is talking about a 43 year old Bob Backlund like a medical marvel as I sit here at 42 years of age sore from a MMA/Sub grappling workout. I don't know how I feel about that.Remember last year when Gorilla said "you can't eliminate yourself" (despite Andre doing it one year) regarding Savage? This year Brian Knobbs eliminates himself after missing a charge against Ted Diabase. We get a could of non-Jim Neinhart WHO? Entrants with Carlos Colon and Tenryu. The Natural Disasters fight. I hate the friends fight trope in these unless it leads to a break up angle. Wouldn't it make more sense to work together?  Undertaker gets attacked by Giant Gonazales which Is a match I am not looking forward too, and Flair fights Perfect which is a match that I am. Anyway the finish is for the second year in a row is Savage not understanding the rules of the damn match and going for a pinfall only for Yoko to bench press him over the top rope. I wish the announcers would

have said something about him going for the pin on instinct (unless I missed it) other wise its just dumb

https://www.amazon.com/King-New-York-Wrestling-Federation/dp/B09Z6MBTG2

Out man @Gorman has Yoko as him MVP but I would go with The Hitman holding down the fort s Champ. Not looking forward to a long Yoko reign followed by a long Diesel reign when they really should have had Bret as Ace, I mean everytime something Vince would just pivot back to him.

Also Savage should have won the Rumble. Gives us a Bret v Savage main event and you could have done Hogan v Yoko if wanted some old time Hulkamania Nostalgia of The Hulkster slaying a Monster.  

Overall I liked the WWF Title match and the opening tag. Everything else gets a pass. easily the worst rumble match yet. You can feel this is a transition period as Flair, Savage , and Hogan are still around yet on the way out with Bret and Shawn on the ascendency. You have Skinner as an early job guy with a job and various expansion era guys like Barry Darsow, Tito Santana, and Mike Rotuno still around as Repo man, El Matador and IRS respectively. Damien Demento shows up as an early Cartoon style character and John Nord, Earthquake, and Big Bossman are on the way out. really feels like Vince is gonna start throwing shit on the wall to see what sticks.

Edited January 4 by zendragon

[SirSmUgly]

Okay, I think I've written before that when I was a kid, we kids rented a second VCR from Blockbuster and a few tapes with our allowance and then did tape transfers onto blank tapes of a few wrestling shows. This was one of them, so it holds a special place in my heart. I've seen it probably thirty or forty times by now. 

3 hours ago, zendragon said:

We will see...

Royale Rumble 1993 starts with a shot of Gorilla and Bobby, which is a bit as its the last time they worked a PPV together (not sure about TV at the time)

I also think, IIRC, that this is the only PPV on which babyface Big Boss Man loses a match, but I'd need to double-check that. 

Quote

1st Match Steiners v Beverly Brothers. For those who don't know The Beverly Brothers are Wayne Bloom and Mike Enos of WCW & AWA doing a twincest gimmick. I really want to know the creative story behind this, what it a VKM special or did someone else have the idea? Anyway solid tag match with Scotty getting the pin after dumping either Beau or Blake on their head with a non-latino frankensteiner. This was a fun match.

This is one of my favorite WWF PPV openers, if not my favorite. The Beverlys had a dope theme, too. 

(Also, your use of the term "non-Latino Frankensteiner" is like Curt Hennig's WWF gimmick - perfect.)

Quote

Next up is The Coward Marty Jannetty v HBK. We get a video package of The Barbershop incident where Marty tried to flee, then he comes out of the crowd to hit Sherri with a mirror. I want to make a point about Marty's fashion, in this video he's wearing a Guns and Rose T-shirt. When Shawn was knocked out during his match with Flair he comes out of the back in street clothes wearing an Overkill shirt. I like his taste in band merch.

Anyway the match ends where Sherri try's to hit Shawn with her shoe only to clock Marty with it allowing HBK to get the win with a sweet chin music crescent kick, WCW fans will remember how devastating one blow with Sherri's shoes can be. Honestly I was looking forward to this based on the participants and found it underwhelming.

I like this match and didn't even notice them working the wrong arm when I was a kid. Sherri stewing in the corner is a highlight for me; she's a great character and in the strange transitional doldrums of 1992/1993 WWF, I find her to be a consistent highlight on the shows. I get why it would be underwhelming, but I was extremely into the Rockers breakup as a kid and have seen this show so many times that I can't help but view this bout through rose-colored glasses. 

Quote

Bam Bam and Bigelow are up next due  to VKM love of watching large me fight. Solid but felt like it could have been featured as feature match on an episode of superstars and not a big five PPV. Bigelow sends Ray Traylor to WCW to try a variety for rip off gimmicks before returning to WWE in 99, via flying head butt.

This is the worst non-Rumble match on the show, but it's watchable. Babyface Boss Man was one of those guys who it seemed would never lose, so I remember this loss to Bam Bam (which kid me was smart enough to see coming because of how the WWF liked to put their monster heels over against strong midcard babyfaces on PPV debuts) as being somewhat significant to me when I was in the thick of watching these shows back then. 

Quote

 

 

Bobby The Brain introduces The Human Baked Potato The Narcissist 

 

https://www.facebook.com/poundingthemeat/videos/bobby-the-brain-heenan-simps-over-the-narcissist-lex-luger-during-his-debut-roya/756355453993685/

just watch this if you've never seen it. The whole thing is an ode to VKM's muscle fetishism, the whole ends with Bobby on his knees as if he's about to blow Lex.

I don't know if pre-teen me had the word "homoerotic" in his vocabulary yet, but I understood the essence of homoeroticism because this segment was it. Heenan sounds like he's going to empty his balls in his pants as he sings Lex's praises. 

I feel that calling Luger a Human Baked Potato is unfair. He's a funny guy! It's just that VKM turned him into a Human Baked Potato All-American Flag Waver and blunted all the things that make Lex's personality shine.  

Quote

Bret Hart v Razor Ramon.

This is Razor's one WWF title shot I believe at least on a PPV, I almost said highest profile but the two ladder matches are probably that. Workman like solid match where Razor loses clean to the Sharpshooter. I like that out of the 4 matches 3 had clean finishes, this will change over the years. I feel like once you've got the people to buy a ticket or ordered a PPV you need to deliver on the finishes.

This is a very good match, as is their rematch on KotR '93. I don't understand why, if Vince was so hellbent on building around a not-Bret babyface on top, he didn't do it with Razor instead of Diesel. 

Quote

 

Also Savage should have won the Rumble. Gives us a Bret v Savage main event and you could have done Hogan v Yoko if wanted some old time Hulkamania Nostalgia of The Hulkster slaying a Monster.  

 

A sentiment that I've shared a billion times on this board. I would rather Yoko go over Hogan, or if Hogan won't lay down, Yoko go over Tatanka (thus breaking Tatanka's undefeated streak) and Hulk go over Bam Bam (who I never bought as anything more than a midcard guy). 

Quote

Overall I liked the WWF Title match and the opening tag. Everything else gets a pass. easily the worst rumble match yet. You can feel this is a transition period as Flair, Savage , and Hogan are still around yet on the way out with Bret and Shawn on the ascendency. You have Skinner as an early job guy with a job and various expansion era guys like Barry Darsow, Tito Santana, and Mike Rotuno still around as Repo man, El Matador and IRS respectively. Damien Demento shows up as an early Cartoon style character and John Nord, Earthquake, and Big Bossman are on the way out. really feels like Vince is gonna start throwing shit on the wall to see what sticks.

I don't know - the '89 Rumble chickened out and didn't have DiBiase sleaze his way to victory and basically cooled all the way off after the Hogan/Savage and Hogan/Twin Towers segments (that '89 Rumble is one of the all-time great Hogan performances, as an aside). The last third of the '89 Rumble match was worse than any run of the '93 Rumble match (or maybe I just loved the Backlund run). Then again, the '93 Rumble has Gonzale eliminate the Undertaker and Savage forget that pinfalls don't count, so on second thought, yeah, this was the worst Rumble match yet. 

[zendragon]

I might be miss remembering something but I recall 89-90-91 rumbles all had nice bits of intra-match storytelling. Various wrestlers interacting based on feuds and programs this one really didn't have that save for a Natural Disasters break up that went no where and Backlund doing the endurance run.

Human Baked Potato isn't a comment on Lex's personality but on the fact that he appears to be wrapped in a giant piece of aluminum foil 

Also this isn't surprising but Vince was really enamored with Diesels size especially in an era where they where doing drug testing.

Edited January 4 by zendragon

[zendragon]

RAW 1-25-93

We are greeted by Sean Mooney outside the Manhattan Center as Repo Man pulls up to cut a promo on Randy Savage. I guess Vince didn't have a problem with Shawn Micheals and Sean Mooney having the same first name with a different spelling.

Randy Savage v Hole in One Darsow feels like a WCW ass match (TM @SirSmUgly) that would have happened in 97 or 98 on a WCW C show. But a glance at cagematch shows that they only competed four times, Royale Rumble, WW3, and opposite sides of a six man in 95.

Our announcers are Bobby Heenan, Vince and Rob Bartlett, Rob is definably playing to an audience of one. Rob Bartlett has major Denis Miller on MNF vibes I wonder how long he sticks around. Bobby Heenan in a Monday Night Raw shirt feels weird, although its interesting to think what if he would got Jerry Lawler's spot if he stuck around or if he would have been phased out similar to Gorilla. Bobby and JR did at least one match together for Coliseum Home Video and had pretty good chemistry.

Savage wins with the Elbow in a bit of a blasé match. Lots of long leg sissors spots from Darsow in this one.

Kamala w Slick (lets get all the racial insensitivity together) squahes Brooklyn Brawler.

I like the look of these RAWs in the Manhattan Center.

Main Event is a Career Match of Flair v Mr. Perfect in feud that would continue four years later in WCW, speaking of WCW this really feels like Nitro with Flair, Savage, Darsow, Hennig and Kamala in ring with Bobby Heenan on commentary. Lots of spots where Flair uses the ropes, more heels should do that these days... Curt get juice seemingly hardway... Flair uses a foreign object bit Curt gets a leg on the bottom rope and wins clean with the perfect-plex to send Ric back to WCW.

Doink v Typhoon is next weeks main event!

of this show watch Flair v Perfect skip the rest.

 

[SirSmUgly]

The Repo/Savage feud over Savage's hat is peak post-Hulkamania/pre-Attitude Era WWF. So, so dumb, but also too goofy to hate.

What I dig about Darsow is that he's so good at carrying himself to look bigger or smaller when necessary. As Smash, he looks damn near as big as Andre; as Repo, he's so hunched over and crookbacked all the time that I forget how huge he is as he scuttles around ringside. His work in the ring sucks at this point - he was definitely best used as a tag guy - but his silly character work is good enough to carry him for me.

I just saw Flair/Perfect again recently, and it is very, very good, but it might be the only point at which those two men had a watchable match against one another in the '90s. Their WCW matches ranged from "okay, I guess" to "dogshit."

[zendragon]

I have to give Darsow credit for just how much he is leaning into this gimmick.

[caley]

On 1/3/2026 at 6:53 PM, SirSmUgly said:

This is a very good match, as is their rematch on KotR '93. I don't understand why, if Vince was so hellbent on building around a not-Bret babyface on top, he didn't do it with Razor instead of Diesel. 

I sometimes genuinely wonder if Vince forgot that Razor wasn't genuinely Cuban and kept from going all the way with him because he didn't want a latin wrestler on top. I still think Hall aping Scarface for Vince and him having no idea who it is and thinking he made it up on the spot is one of my favourite crazy Vince stories that may or may not be true but I love to death, either way.

 

On 1/3/2026 at 6:53 PM, SirSmUgly said:

I don't know if pre-teen me had the word "homoerotic" in his vocabulary yet, but I understood the essence of homoeroticism because this segment was it. Heenan sounds like he's going to empty his balls in his pants as he sings Lex's praises. 

It's so weird because it sounds NOTHING like Heenan. Like Heenan singing Flair's praises in the previous year's Rumble is COMPLETELY different than Heenan here and it JUST dawned on me that this was clearly something Vince wrote about Luger and then farmed out to Heenan. I can just imagine Heenan going "Uhh, can I change some of this?" and Vince being aghast: "But it's perfect."

 

On 1/3/2026 at 6:53 PM, SirSmUgly said:

The last third of the '89 Rumble match was worse than any run of the '93 Rumble match

It was like they sketched up until Hogan got eliminated and went "Eh we'll come up with the rest before the show" and completely forgot and went "Who's left? John Studd? Great, I guess."

 

On 1/5/2026 at 3:45 AM, zendragon said:

Kamala w Slick (lets get all the racial insensitivity together) squahes Brooklyn Brawler.

 

Racially insensitive or not, I still genuinely think Kamala's WWF theme was legit some of the scariest music I ever heard as a kid. And all these years later...still kind unsettling and scary! 
 

 

Edited January 9 by caley

[zendragon]

Yokozuna takes on Savage. I want to note that Savage is incredibly over here I maintain my stance that he should have gotten the spot that went to Hogan in the New Generation, yet for some reason Vince wants to force him into a commentary role. The finish is Savage hitting a top rope double sledge, which stagers Yoko, goes up top again only for Fuji to do the ole flag pole up the ass move allowing Yoko to get the win with a belly to belly. Yoko was pretty agile here in 93 shame his weight got away from him. Like Jim Cornette said  "A 250lbs Yoko might have been modern day Jacob Fatu doing springboard moonsaults", a lot of wrestlers have demons his was food.

Kamala squashes Kim Chee, presumably writing him off the show. I guess Kamala was supposed to wrestle Bammer at mania. he hangs around in diminishing  capacity. a bit of "comedy" as Kamala try's to figure out how to do a pin. As an aside I'd love it if one member of The Bloodline was a Samoan Savage character, you'd have the erudite urban Roman and then some wild eyes dude who speaks no english eating raw fish in the background.  

Mr. Perfect beats Skinner with the Plex. Only thing of note is that Fonzie is the ref, he allows Skinner to use the belt which seems uncharacteristic for a future State of Pennsylvania Athletic Commission Official. I once heard Joey Styles say that Fozie had the record for most wrestling matches as either a ref, a manager or a competitor. Might be true who knows, he did ref a bunch.

Million Dollar Man Ted Diabase and "Mr. Excitement" IRS squash Reno Riggens and "Italy" this just leads into a Hulk Hogan promo where Brutus wears a mask that resembles Ultimate Warrior's face paint. Talks about how they going to make sure all the beautiful, female Hulkamaniacs are going to get an even tan at the Cesar's Palace pool. Not as good as the promo where he claims Donald Trump is gonna give up all his earthly possessions and climb on his back while Hulk swims to safety. Hogan is really starting to feel out of place in 93.

at some point the replay the Narcist Royale Rumble debute so Vince can presumably bust a nut. I just watched that and FFwd.

Takanka Squashes George South. Ole George has a great jobber look with a handle bar mustache and a but of a skullett. Nothing match but better than the GCW match I saw George have a few years ago (yes he's still active). I saw Mr. South wrestle a Michael Jackson impersonator who at one point when under the ring reemerged as a werewolf and proceeded to do the Thriller dance in the ring. I would have rather watched a rematch with Takanka, that's the shit I hate about modern indy wrestling "oh where all in on the work, its ok to act like everything is just a big joke". Bobby Heenan talks about Sherri coming to Wrestlemania backwards on a Camel... for shadowing

Up next a surprising fun six man tag between, The Bushwackers w/ Tiger Jackson and The Beverly's w/ Liitle Louie. Lots of fun comedy spots (I don't have any problem with a little (pun intended) levity with my wrestling just don't turn the whole thing into a joke that can't be takes seriously). This is a match of mixed sizes allowing Bobby Heenan to make us of repository of short jokes. Vince claims Bobby will have to wear a Toga at Mania, Bobby says he won't but that Gorilla will look like and unmade bed. I believe this is about it for the Beverly's who disappear for a few years from national prominence only to reemerge on WCWSN in  series of blood feuds with Disorderly Conduct and High Voltage. Match is almost as good as Finely and Hornswoggle vs Los Boogies

main event time

Undertaker takes a count out win over Bam bam. Are people high on the second bam bam WWF run? It seems like he hangs around only to sink lower and lower down the card. Match is fine power wrestling but nothing special. We end with Giant Gonzales standing in the entrance way, reminding us joy of joys  what to come. I really hope that guy disappears after mania

[SirSmUgly]

I wrote up a couple of alternate cards for WM IX when I watched the TV leading up to it (and the PPV) a couple of years ago. Here's what I wrote in that post:

Quote

OK, the heck with it, I've watched enough early '93 Superstars to re-book WM IX. I've done it before a little bit, but mostly the top of the card. Let's do a full-on teardown of that card.

 

The card as it ended up:

 

Bret Hart (c) vs. Yokozuna (Royal Rumble winner) - WWF World Championship Match

 

Shawn Michaels (c) vs. Tatanka - WWF Intercontinental Championship Match

 

Money Inc. (c) vs. Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake - WWF Tag Team Championship Match

 

Lex Luger vs. Mr. Perfect

 

Crush vs. Doink the Clown

 

The Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez

 

The Headshrinkers vs. The Steiner Brothers

 

Razor Ramon vs. Bob Backlund

 

 

 

Matches that I see no reason to change in any permutation:

 

Crush vs. Doink the Clown

 

The Headshrinkers vs. The Steiner Brothers

 

 

 

Alternate Card A

 

Bret Hart (c) vs. Randy Savage (Royal Rumble winner) - WWF World Championship Match

 

Shawn Michaels (c) vs. Tatanka

 

Money Inc. (c) vs. The Nasty Boys - WWF Tag Team Championship Match

 

Hulk Hogan vs. Yokozuna

 

Razor Ramon vs. Mr. Perfect

 

The Undertaker vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

 

Lex Luger vs. Tito Santana

 

Crush vs. Doink the Clown

 

The Headshrinkers vs. The Steiner Brothers

 

 

 

I've long been a supporter of Ric Flair and Randy Savage being used to put over Bret Hart at the Rumble and WM IX respectively. I'd certainly do that here.

 

I want Brutus Beefcake the fuck off this card; the Money Inc./Nastys feud needs a blowoff, so doing it here makes a ton of sense.

 

If you can get Hogan to do a job, you put Yokozuna over huge here, with the plan of putting the big gold on him at KotR. You just move up Jim Duggan challenging Yokozuna on Superstars (and being annihilated by him) to January, pre-Rumble, and have Hogan return to defend the honor of Duggan rather than to defend the honor of Beefcake after Money Inc. jumped Beefcake and left him laying on RAW.

 

Razor/Perfect needs a blowoff after five months, and Luger/Perfect feels thrown together by comparison. Yeah, Heenan introduced Luger, but it's not like he's regularly managing the guy. Razor needs a win on PPV, preferably a bigger one than squashing Backlund.

 

I want Gonzales up out of here. I thought about Harvey Wippleman forming an alliance of convenience with Bam Bam, who wants to move rapidly to the top of the cards by targeting someone who he can get big notoriety from beating. You can still protect the streak in this case through a DQ if you want.

 

Lex Luger needs a squash match on this card, so Tito can do it instead of being relegated to a dark match with Papa Shango. I briefly thought about giving Shango a quick feud against his BSK buddy 'Taker, but I think the match quality is solidly better with the Bammer in the match.

 

Don't like that card? Here's another slightly different one.

 

 

 

Alternate Card B

 

Bret Hart (c) vs. Randy Savage (Royal Rumble winner) - WWF World Championship Match

 

Shawn Michaels (c) vs. Marty Jannetty (w/Sensational Sherri)

 

Money Inc. (c) vs. The Nasty Boys - WWF Tag Team Championship Match

 

Hulk Hogan vs. Jerry Lawler

 

Yokozuna vs. Tatanka

 

Razor Ramon vs. Mr. Perfect

 

The Undertaker vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

 

Lex Luger vs. Tito Santana

 

Crush vs. Doink the Clown

 

The Headshrinkers vs. The Steiner Brothers

 

 

 

Just don't fire Jannetty immediately after the Rumble. Wait two months and then fire him. Business is down, so I'm sure the reward of a WM payoff isn't enough of a reward that you absolutely must snatch it from him to punish him for being a drunken fuck-up. This should be a gimmick match of some type that involves Sherri (and that gets her off TV after the end of the match). Michaels wins definitively to end that feud. Then we don't need any surprise title switches on RAW or anything to end the feud later on in the year.

 

If you can't get Hogan to job to Yoko, you have him crush a shit-talking Jerry Lawler, who says that the Hulkamaniacs need a King to rule them. I would pay good money just for the promos. Lawler can still feud with Bret eventually for some reason other than being angry about Bret wearing a crown if you're worried about that (I'm not).

 

Yokozuna still gets a bit of a bump by definitively ending Tatanka's undefeated streak on the way to a run with big gold later this year.

Your thoughts, @zendragon?

14 hours ago, zendragon said:

Undertaker takes a count out win over Bam bam.Are people high on the second bam bam WWF run? It seems like he hangs around only to sink lower and lower down the card. Match is fine power wrestling but nothing special. We end with Giant Gonzales standing in the entrance way, reminding us joy of joys  what to come. I really hope that guy disappears after mania

Gonzalez jobs to Undertaker at SummerSlam later that year, so get ready for more of that guy. Undertaker got over as a babyface and Vince was stuck in the "give him equally huge dudes to feud with" rut as though he were Hogan in 1986. Though Hogan had better opponents - Bundy and post-peak Kamala sucked, but Akeem and peak Boss Man are quality opponents, and I'll even watch broken down Andre fairly happily. Undertaker had a dangerously overweight Yokozuna as his best feud partner until the Mankind feud in 1996. Vince wasted four years of prime 'Taker with his total lack of creativity in building interesting opponents for him and just defaulting to "find another big dude." 

As a kid, I liked the idea coming out of the 1995 Rumble that a coalition of heels of various shapes and sizes would decide to band together expressly to get the Undertaker out of the paint because he had become too dangerous to them, but instead, we got...uh, a match with Brian Lee. Fuck.

As for Bam Bam, I don't really rate him in any significant way. I always saw him as a guy with a cool look, but not much else. Cartwheels are cool, but he's not a guy who is going to have good matches unless he's got someone hand-holding him through the proceedings. Bammer's more of a marker for how good his opponent is. I'll make a case for Scott Hall's greatness by pointing to that ladder match he had with Bam Bam on Nitro. It's pretty apparent that Vince cools on Bam Bam pretty early in this second run, like right after KotR '93, because soon enough he's feuding with Doink and Dink and slumming it in the midcard. I do think Bam Bam has value as a guy you feed to your guy you actually want to get over, though. He's the epitome of a solid upper-ish midcard gatekeeper. He's basically Kane to me. 

 

 

[zendragon]

@SirSmUgly

 I think either of those cards are preferable to what we got. You could also do Hogan v Gonzales just to silo those two in a match if Hogan won't job to Yoko.

We are live for The Debbie Gibson Hotel Cesar's Palace! Our announcers are Macho Man, looking resplendent in a purple and gold outfit with a royal crest on the back pre good ole JR Jim Ross in his WWF debut. And Bobby Heenan who  enters backwards on a camel. Dickus Bigus  Finkus Maixmus is your ring announcer.

HBK defends his IC title against Tatanaka, Shawn is accompanied by Luna Vachon making her WWF debut looking like an extra from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome,  some good arm work Tatanka leading to a spot where Shawn goes for a clothesline only to hurt himself. Shawn gets a two off a not yet named sweet chin music. Tatanka gets a win by count out in kinda weird finish. I thought it was a DQ from Shawn yanking the ref out of the ring. Tatanka push is weird in that we go through lengths to keep him undefeated  only to have him lose to Ludwig Borgia.

Seeing the promo from Shawn make me compare him to The Hitman, both come off as guys trying to fit into the cartoon world of WWF when they would be much better suited as real people in the Attitude era. Shawn really doesn't hit his stride for a few more years.

A promo from Scott Steiner which features no math but he does promise to make their first Wrestlemania a memorable one.

What we get is a JR special between The Steiners and the Headshrinkers. A real hoss fight where JR drops "slobberknocker" and talk college athletics. I have to say JR is in fine form this whole card. You know when they say "so and so really had his working boots on"? JR is doing the announcer version of that, really sounding motivated after leaving WCW. Anyway I've seen this match before on a best of WM tape WWF put out that I think had Savage v Steamboat and Piper v Bret on it. Go out of your way to watch it, super underrated match in my opinion. Crazy spot where either Samu or Fatu go for a stun gun on Scott but just completely drop him over the top rope. Scotty picks up the win with a non-latino frankensteiner

Doink v Crush is match that kinda solely exists so they can have Steve Kern show up as the second Doink.

Razor Ramon, do you think that name is about alliteration or Razor being a reference to cocaine? v Bob Backlund in a match where they don't seem to be on the same page. I believe this is Backlund's first televised pinfall loss. I guess this is the start of a losing campaign leading to his heel turn. Don't know if this needed to be on Wrestlemania

Hogan and manservant/weed man vs Money Inc. Interesting that Hogan plays FIP, finish is Hogan getting DQed for using Brutus's facemask as a weapon. Second non-finish of the night.

Perfect v Lugar in an ok match. Perfect loses after a back slide where the ref doesn't see he got his feet on the ropes.

Undertaker v Giant Gonzales I guess we needed a Havey Whippleman v Taker feud? GG gets DQed for our third fuck finish of the night for using Chloroform. 

The main event is Yokozuna v Bret Hart, Bret does a yeoman's work of getting a solid main event match out yoko but loses when Fuji throws salt in his eyes. Some how this leads to an impromptu match between Hogan and Yoko where Fuji misses a salt throw leading to Hogan dropping the leg in 22 seconds. No even sure how that works? Fuji can make matches? And why was he allowed interfere right in front of the ref?

Seems like Vince wasn't totally solid The New Generation. First tag is really good, HBK Tatanka is ok, Bret does his normal workman like preformance but everything else is kinda skippable.

Wrestling scribe @Gorman has Doink as his MVP for pulling a fast one, but I'd go with The Steiners for winning the Hoss Fight and maybe Bret as my non Kayfabe MVP for continuing to hold it down in main event title picture

[Gorman]

On 1/10/2026 at 3:12 AM, zendragon said:

Million Dollar Man Ted Diabase and "Mr. Excitement" IRS squash Reno Riggens and "Italy"

I'm guessing "Italian Stallion" Gary Sabaugh

[SirSmUgly]

Steiners/Headshrinkers is wild, and yeah, Fatu just backing up and dumping Scotty over the ropes and onto his fucking head on the floor outside the ring is bananas. Scotty also kills himself on the landing when hitting the non-Latino Frankensteiner, too. 

Razor = alliteration, cocaine reference because of the Scarface implications, and also gangster-who-puts-razorblades-in-his-knuckles reference. That's what I'm going with. 

I liked Doink/Crush, but mostly because devious Matt Borne giving dopey idiot Brian Adams the run-around is a joy for me. Crush was booked like such a moron for their whole feud that they ended up turning Doink babyface with me because I appreciated how easily Doink kept outsmarting this big, dumb slowpoke. 

The HBK/Tatanka match should have ended with the spot where Tatanka leaps off the ropes and right into the SCM. That would have been a great way to kill Tatanka's streak and put HBK over as an elite wrestler. Honestly, Tatanka's not that dude to run a long streak angle with, but they did it all so that Ludvig fucking Borga could break it. Good God Almighty!

I agree with you about Ross working hard at the desk. How do you feel about the short-lived Ross/Savage/Heenan three-man booth in general? I think it works because it doesn't quite work, those three being somewhat disparate in their approach to PBP/color. I think the friction makes them somehow better or more interesting. They're in the Schiavone/Stevie/Tenay or Schiavone/Stevie/Madden zone for me: Three-person booths that shouldn't work, but absolutely do. I'm a fan of all of those combos. 

[zendragon]

I liked the three man booth probably cause no Vince, most of all. I do think Ross and Heenan have chemistry, with Ross doing an excellent job as a Moonson esqu straight man as evidenced by this Coliseum Exclusive, I've never really like Macho on commentary as he always comes off as a wrestler doing a guest spot as opposed to a straight color commentator. Needs to dial down the MACHO MAN ness to really make it work.

 

[zendragon]

RAW from May 19th, 1993

We open with Lord Alfred Hayes interviewing HBK, which leads to an altercation with Mr. Perfect. Lord Alfred feels like an anachronism on these shows I wonder how much longer he lasts.

RAW is still in squash match mode. Our commentators are Vince, Bobby and Savage. Looks like Rob Bartlett is gone hopefully for good.

The Smoking Gunns beat Tony Vadja and Glenn Ruth. Ruth would go on to become Headbanger Thrasher

Vince interviews HBK, which leads to a returning Marty Janetty coming out of the audience in street clothes (no metal band shirt this time). This sets up HBK defending the IC title in the main event.

We also have Ring Girls like in boxing one of whom is a frumpy middle aged heavyset woman who tries to put the moves on Razor. Some ones idea of "humor"

Razor loses to The Kid in 2 minutes. Upset!

Tatanka beats Scott Taylor who you may remember as Scotty Too Hotty. That dude had a hell of run (Scotty) doing, jobs to winning the tag titles was still with the company as of 2021 as a trainer.

Yoko beats Kamala

Marty beats Shawn when Perfect distracts him by throwing his towel at him. Maybe a better match than Rumble but these two strangely don't have much chemistry.  Marty would only hold the title till June 6 when he would lose it back to Michaels at a house show due interference by a debuting Diesel. I wonder what the logic here was. Lack of trust in Marty or an attempt to boost house show business by doing a title change off tv? You have about 5 of these between 92 and 95. Money Inc beating LOD ( due to Hawks failed drug test), Flair loosing to Bret, Diesel beating Backlund and Money Inc Beating The Steiners and dropping them back.

Overall this is a historic episode of with the title change and The Kid beating Razor but nothing is worth going out of your way to watch.

[BobbyWhioux]

if Tatanka and Crush were ever going to become something as faces (and, admittedly, maybe they weren't) they both needed to win outright at WM9 and failing to get those big wins ultimately ensured their doom.

if Tatanka was worth giving an "undefeated streak" gimmick to they might as well have tried to see if he had any juice as an IC Champ, and you could always have HBK take it back in a rematch if he bombed.

Kona Crush's theme was awesome  and it's a bit of a shame it got burned up on someone they didn't actually have a lot of faith in.

EDIT: seriously on my all time wrestling theme banger short list

barely in use for a calendar year, what a waste.

Edited January 12 by BobbyWhioux

[BobbyWhioux]

also, wow, out of the 8 matches promoted and delivered for WM9, 1 babyface pinfall and it's 2nd from the top. I didn't remember it was actually that bad.  No wonder its "the worst WM ever."