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WWF 1994 in Review


GuerrillaMonsoon

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Royal Rumble 1994

Ted Dibiase's only PPV on commentary. He shouldn't be this bad at it, but he is. Just super disinterested.

Tatanka vs Bam Bam Bigelow

Dibiase notes that Bigelow was a former bounty hunter, I feel like that never got mentioned in the WWF until his ECW run. Hot opening stand - not clean by any stretch, few wiffed arm drags, Was Tatanka a top 10 full time worker in the WWF in 1994? Probably not, looking at the roster, barely top 20. But he was decent - a good choice to open PPVs, his babyface comebacks are better than Lugers, he sells really well, and the pacing is generally smart to enjoyable. I remember he totally sucked as a heel for these very reasons though. 

I really don't understand why when given the choice of the monster heel to be the top guy, they swerved at Bam Bam, and went with creating a whole new character in Yokozuna? Misguided attempt at going to the xenophobic well that had run dry? Did they see more value in Bigelow as the gatekeeper heel because he made guys look fantastic? Both came in at the same time, and arguably Bam Bam had the better name recognition too - easily can put footage of him in there with other monsters like Bundy and Andre that he went over or went 50/50 with at least, and then have him win the Rumble instead of Yokozuna. 

This match has one of my favourite all time spots, where Tatanka starts hulking up, and doing his war dance, Bam Bam starts hitting him to no avail, shrugs and then enziguiris his head off before mocking his war dance instead, which gets a notable pop from the crowd. I wish that happened more.

Tatanka wins with a high cross body off the top relatively out of nowhere. Not the best finish going around. Match built around Bam Bam as a smart monster, almost a prototype of Rusev. Tatanka needs to get his win back against the guy who isn't there (Borga) - strange that they didn't involve him in the match, barely mentioned him in the play by play, and then just never mentioned again - was his ankle injury that bad? Tatanka is pretty much finished here as a meaningful babyface, despite the crowd still being somewhat interested in him. 

Same promo video for Quebecers/Harts that they've played on every other show to date airs..

Quebecers vs Bret/Owen

The Quebecers are the absolute workhorses of WWF TV from late 93 till just after WrestleMania 10, they have great matches with everyone - Luger, Steiners, Bret/Owen, the Headshrinkers, Marty/Kid.....OK, their matches with MOM sucked, but they're the MVP of this period for mine. Hindsight says its disappointing they finished up where they did- Jacques retires in October 1994, only to come back two years later in WCW as the Amazing French Canadians. In one of the few moments of Hogan getting outworked by someone backstage - he does the job to Jacques on a Montreal house show as a show of respect to the Rougeau family, only for the Quebecers to jump back to the WWF a few months later, where they did very little of note - Cagematch does note that there's an interesting 6 man tag dark match prior to a Shotgun taping in early 1998 where the Quebecers tag with Ray Rougeau (!) against Adam Copeland, Shawn Stasiak and....Tom Brandi.  I'd love to know the story behind that one.

Ray Rougeau comes out of retirement a few times - beats the Brawler on a nothing house show in 1993 for whatever reason. Has a boxing match against Owen Hart in Montreal in 1996, and this one. Dunno.

Anyway, I love the way this match is laid out. It's very Obi Wan/Anakin in a way. Owen's booked as a total force on the hot tag, but out of control of his emotions and makes needless mistakes. 

Was there ever any explanation for why Bret's gear has the weird jizz splatter motif? It sticks around a while in 1994 and never understood what the point of it was.

The match/angle works as well as it does because Bret is prepared to not be selfish about it, ironically enough, you could easily make the argument for Owen to be the one who gets beaten down, and makes the hot tag to the established star in Bret, only for the ref to stop the match. But it doesn't have the same impact as far as Owen being wronged, not just inadvertently as he has in the past few months with the Survivor Series elimination, or losing the shot at the Rumble momentarily after the Kid/Marty win the straps, but Bret chooses to be selfish and not give the hot tag, and goes for the finish, only for his knee to give out, despite the entire match giving the impression that Owen could potentially beat them both by himself. 

Owen kicks Bret's leg out from under his...leg. I wish he'd put him in the Sharpshooter afterwards to really emphasise things. 

The other thing is that it really put the Quebecers over big time, as both a much more vicious side to them that you hadn't seen from them before, and being able to hang with the former World Champ. In hindsight, their tag program at Mania 10 deserved better. A nothing match with MOM where they hung on to the titles, just to drop them a few weeks later to the freshly turned Headshrinkers. The Headshrinker matches were great, and should have been given the Mania platform instead, especially if they weren't going to do the title switch to MOM.

IRS vs Razor Ramon

Commentary switches to Gorilla and JR for some reason. JR commentating the opening stanza like it's the main event of Wrestlemania. Razor takes a huge bump being thrown over the top rope to the floor early - and given there's a Rumble coming after, it's kinda selfish - no-one will top that bump for an elimination all night. Rotunda follows it up with a weird spot where he jumps off the top rope, looks like he takes a foot to the face, but no sells it and drops an elbow on him instead. Looks a botch, but the commentators really cover it well as something he scouted instead. Everything Rotunda does to get heel heat is just lame. To get extra leverage on a chinlock, he uses the bottom rope....not the middle or the top, the bottom.

PJ Walker gets a shout out on the broadcast no less. He went over Rotunda on RAW, and they really forget to mention that one in future broadcasts.

How did they never do anything with Rotunda's ridiculous levels of sweating? Surely the "heel slips on a banana peel" trope could have been applied literally if he were to lose matches by slipping on the giant pools of sweat underneath him? Terrible idea but still possibly the closest thing to anything being remotely interesting about Mike Rotunda.

There's another weird spot where the ref gets bumped, IRS brings in the briefcase, but Razor grabs it and uses it on him instead, only to get no count as the ref is still out, then the briefcase shot is barely sold for 1994 standards. Makes him look a shitty and ineffective face. Especially when Shawn comes out afterwards and blasts Razor in the back of the head with the fake IC title, and he's out on the canvas for about a week. 

IRS gets the pin only for a Dusty finish to happen as Earl Hebner tells Joey Marella what happened. But, Razor hit him with the briefcase first, so surely one outweighs the other? Before the match can be restarted, Razor hits the Edge on him from behind and the pin is counted and the bell rings?

What a shitty finish - makes Razor look incompetent, that he has to cheat to beat IRS, can barely do it, stays down for ages after a belt shot, and then has to beat IRS by attacking him from behind. 

Undertaker vs Yokozuna

Great idea, terrible execution. Taker gets double bluffed. Aware of what happened to Luger where he got cheated out of the title by countout, he sneaks in his pet match where there's no DQ or countout to worry about, only to get absolutely punked by half the roster instead.

It's also responsible for setting a shitty precedent with their booking of heel champions as being defined as nothing more than "how many fuck finishes can we get away with before we switch the title?".

Yes, the Honky Tonk Man did it first, but it was tolerable to an extent as it was a lower ranked title. In hindsight though, you could make the argument that as much money he made headlining house shows to see him get beat, he probably was responsible for losing a lot more by cooling off every potential top guy who failed to do it (Roberts, Beefcake, Dusty etc)

The authority figure trope is as dead as any in wrestling, but the chase inorganically extended by fuck finishes isn't far behind. It doesn't build heat, it changes the channel (JBL, Jinder, first Rollins reign). I think the only heels that pulled it off well were the New Day, but I wonder how much of that is credit to them as a unit, versus people being trained to recognise the tag titles as pointless and prone to being hot potato'd around for no reason.

There's a great spot in this where Yokozuna throws salt in the eyes of the Undertaker, and most of it gets in the eye of the ringside area, where one person sells it wildly in the background. It's pretty cool.

It's actually a fun little hoss match before the televised murder. I like how its laid out - Taker throws bombs, big cut off spot, sit up, repeat. 

Taker has the match won only for Crush to stop the lid being shut. Crush being the guy to do it doesn't sit well with me when logically Savage should be coming out and trying to beat the piss out of him. The babyface roster look like shit here - no Tatanka? Steiners? Luger? Fuck them.

Kabuki comes out and looks a million years old, followed by Tenryu...and all I can think about is that old sleaze thread rumour he had penis enlargement surgery.  Bigelow out now.

Fuji steals the urn from Paul Bearer. I wish they explained the powers of the urn better for something that was used as a maguffin every few months. Paul Bearer hits a kickwhamnostunner on Fuji and gets the urn back, allowing Taker to fight back and dispatch the 4 guys. Adam Bomb and Double J now out, and guys are flying everywhere for wicker salt basket shots. the Headshrinkers now out.... Vince even calls out a Kamala run in that never happens. Diesel comes out now. This is fun. Bearer takes a bump for Yoko, urn again stolen. Bunch of green smoke comes out of it. All over.

It's topical to bring up again given the recent developments on Raw, but WWE have never really done character development post-participation in murder angles well at all. So many guys who did nothing otherwise, who could have spent the summer of 1994 coming to terms with their actions. Do the Headshrinkers turn face because they can't live with what they've done? Diesel can't sustain an erection for weeks after due to undiagnosed PTSD from willingly participating in a murder that he just assumed would be a Memphis style beatdown? Can Adam Bomb and Jeff Jarrett look at each other in the eye knowing what happened? Why doesn't Taker come back and at least attempt to murder these fools who did him wrong? Fatu ends up on his Survivor Series team a year later. 

Anyway, Paul Bearer is all "yoink!" and regains the urn, as I believe Marty Jannetty dressed as Undertaker ascends to... the top of the stadium. Weird night for babyfaces trying to get their heat back.

Royal Rumble Matchup

Scott Steiner is #1 and Fatu #2. Such a weird waste of Steiner at #1 if you believe that they were keen to have him turn heel and have a singles run here. I get that you probably can't run two brother breakup angles on the same card (although I'd have been more interested in a Bret/Rick vs Scott/Owen series than the Bret/Davey Boy vs Owen/Anvil series we ended up with), but surely you at least show case him here and build to the turn later in the year. 

The entrances without entrance music or titantrons is jarring to see. The lack of reaction pop makes the crowd seem a lot more dead than its later versions. And the weird sponsorship with Casio. Wonder if that was an actual endorsement or just thrown in to make it look legit, given there wasn't actually any timed entrances, just whenever it suited the booking.

Rick Steiner out at #3, both guys eliminate Samu. They square off but before anything can happen, Kwang comes in and mists Rick. I guess they put it out there as a test to see if there was a real want from the crowd to see Steiner vs Steiner, and there really wasn't much of a reaction at all. 

#5 is Owen, who eliminates Rick, presumably based on his dislike of lesser talented older brothers. #6 is Bart Gunn. #7 is Diesel.

Bart gets eliminated by Diesel. As does Steiner. Then Owen to a HUGE pop. Kwang does the only thing in his stint remotely ninjaish and throws a huge kick that misses...and then gets eliminated. 

#8 is Backlund who goes for the legs of Diesel. No mention at all of him breaking the record in last year's Rumble. Gets dumped pretty quickly.

#9 is Billy Gunn and gets tossed even quicker. Crowd are going fucktastic for him. Cut to Kabuki and Tenryu beating down Luger in the back.

#10 is Virgil...who is subbing for Kamala. Gone. Dibiase can't even be bothered making any real effort to shit on him given their history.

#11 is Savage who gets the biggest pop of the night to date and stops Diesel's run. #12 is Jarrett who gets eliminated really quickly - as much as I think Jarrett generally sucked in the WWF, and a lot of his failures are his own, his booking up until next year's Rumble completely sucked and made no sense. #13 is Crush and him/Savage brawl without anywhere near the intensity you'd expect for a feud of this nature, and its surprising - Savage is generally pretty good in that regard.

Crush and Diesel are beating down Savage and there's a real sense of who can come out and save Savage from this beating....then they tease no entrant, only for Doink to come out at 14 and save Savage, which doesn't even happen, as Crush eliminates Savage largely off camera while they focus on Doink's entrance instead....which is probably a really understated low point of Savage's career.

Doink mounts a comeback against Crush and Diesel with eye pokes and foot stomps which has big "DON'T TOUCH MY PURSE I DON'T KNOW YOU" vibes.

Bam Bam comes out now, and the beatdown segment of guys who hate Doink is far too short lived, as Bam Bam launches him outside, and it looks as though he lands right on the inside of his knee. Looked brutal.

16 is Mabel and yeah, the biggest pop of the night is now a WOOMP THERE IT IS chant. Crowd seems really into a Mabel vs Diesel collision....if only they knew what they were signing up for.  17 is Spark Plugg Holly and it's the quietest reaction to a Rumble entrant you'll ever see. There's maybe 15 seconds between  him and the next entrant being Shawn and they immediately tease a square off with Diesel. Shawn sits back and watches everyone else team up to eliminate Diesel, only to run it and the last second and help tip him over. It's pretty good long term story telling in hindsight.

Mo comes out next. We're spared another set of PARTNERS COLLIDE. Greg Valentine comes out and surprisingly the crowd reacts bigly for it - he didn't even get those reactions in his prime. This crowd is odd.

Everyone gangs up on Mabel except Mo, and this is what real friendship looks like as he won't get involved while Mabel goes. Doesn't necessarily try to make the save though..

Luger is out next. It's probably not quite the biggest reaction, but the one sign in the crowd is for him, so maybe he wins. Kabuki gets eliminated and I completely didn't even realize he was there. What a nothing appearance, couldn't even do the mist spot seeing as they gave it to Kwang earlier.

Tenryu comes out to one guy awkwardly applauding and one child loudly booing. Crowd briefly get interested at a teased Shawn elimination by Tatanka. 

No-one comes out next, and they pretend like it's Bret Hart, and talk of him like he's died. 

Shawn and Luger have the featured showdown next, and you can see why Shawn hated him, he just doesn't sell for him at all, and then nearly accidentally eliminates Shawn, causing Luger to sort of break character and attempt to keep him in whilst on-camera. What a fucking goof.

Rick Martel is in next - and finally they start dropping stats on guys with marathon Rumble experience. Him and Shawn pair off and start punching each other in the face, presumably due to the stipulations of their Summerslam 92 match?

And yeah, Bret Hart is out next and that's definitely the big pop of the night, and now they're talking up Sparky Plugg as a chance to win it all. "HE'S A HOUSE OF FIRE" as he stumbles around really....slowly...looking for someone....to punch....just once....and then moving away.

Fatu in next and then Marty Jannetty. AND YES MORE FORMER PARTNERS COLLIDING. Good times, it's probably the best exchange in this Rumble, including an awesome teased elimination by Shawn.

Adam Bomb is next out and he's definitely going to win the Rumble according to Vince. And he eliminates Sparky Plugg so thats a start. But the veteran duo of Martel and Valentine attack him instead. I'm surprised we never got an undercard Valentine/Martel tag combo at some point (Martelentine?) Bomb gets eliminated by Luger. There's not a lot going on - way too many guys in the ring, match goes way too long. Bam Bam gets revenge by eliminating Tatanka. Marty, Shawn, Fatu, Bret, Bam Bam, Luger and Tenryu remain. 

Luger eliminates Bam Bam after a pretty impressive Flair Flop to the outside. Shawn eliminates Marty, and Tenryu takes on both Fatu and Shawn, and starts acting like a fired up babyface, despite being there ostensibly only to prevent Luger from winning. He only goes out after Luger/Bret both eliminate him - I think I underestimate his influence and name value having not ever seen him in his prime but I suspect it overstated here.

Final 4 time. As much as Bret is great at being consistently selling the knee here, it's simply not believable that he goes from a ref stoppage to lasting 30 minutes on one leg. Should have been #30.

Fatu and Shawn take turns trying to take the most exaggerated clothesline sell from Luger. Luger then nearly kills him on the elimination, throwing him over his head, headfirst onto the steel steps, whilst Fatu eliminated by Bret.

Double elimination time and I think Bret's feet clearly hit first. Luger's music rightfully plays. But nope, Earl Hebner is a dickhead to Joey Marella again and stops it for Bret's music to play instead.

The ending is just shit on by everyone, the crowd, both Luger and Bret who look disappointed rather than thrilled that they both won. This is an all time show for babyfaces being dickheads. Hey Bret never gave Luger a shot at the title after WM 10? Why not? What a fuck.

 

Weird, weird show...

 

 

 

 

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WWF Wrestling Challenge 23/1/94

Live from Todd Pettengill's living room, and I am really shocked he does not have a glass coffee table.

- Shawn squashes Tony Roy with a piledriver, and even throws in an inside cradle for good measure. It's fun watching Pettengill try to explain the timing of the commentary talking about last night yet the Rumble was last night, etc.

- There's a good Owen Hart/Scott Taylor match on here that's worth a look. 

- They run ads for a house show on Superbowl Sunday featuring a main event with Ludvig Borga despite his ankle being fucked to a point where he never wrestles again in the company, and an I Quit match between Crush and Lex Luger.....yeesh. Oh wait, what, Ludvig Borga was on the UWF Blackjack Brawl PPV? 

- Smoking Gunns vs Barry Horowitz and Bert Centeno happened. Gunns win in like 20 seconds.

- IRS gets his win back against PJ Walker

- Bam Bam beats Phil Apollo shortly before becoming Doink full time

- Luger squash match of little consequence.

 

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6 hours ago, RolandTHTG said:

Royal Rumble 1994

(...)

Tatanka vs Bam Bam Bigelow

(...)

I really don't understand why when given the choice of the monster heel to be the top guy, they swerved at Bam Bam, and went with creating a whole new character in Yokozuna? Misguided attempt at going to the xenophobic well that had run dry? Did they see more value in Bigelow as the gatekeeper heel because he made guys look fantastic? Both came in at the same time, and arguably Bam Bam had the better name recognition too - easily can put footage of him in there with other monsters like Bundy and Andre that he went over or went 50/50 with at least, and then have him win the Rumble instead of Yokozuna. 

(...)

Bigelow was somewhat spoiled goods as he already had a bunch of runs on a national level by this point, none above the mid-card level (okay, in his JCP run, he was working second from the top). Vince at that point was never giving such a guy a one year main event run (unless he were repackaged completely).

4 hours ago, RolandTHTG said:

WWF Wrestling Challenge 23/1/94

(...)

- Bam Bam beats Phil Apollo shortly before becoming Doink full time

(...)

Doink was Ray Apollo.

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2 minutes ago, Robert s said:

Bigelow was somewhat spoiled goods as he already had a bunch of runs on a national level by this point, none above the mid-card level (okay, in his JCP run, he was working second from the top). Vince at that point was never giving such a guy a one year main event run (unless he were repackaged completely).

Doink was Ray Apollo.

D'oh! (Were they any relation?)

Bigelow's main runs were generally second from the top than midcard I felt (the brief run against the Horseman, Hogan's second against the Heenan family) other than the Sullivan's Slaughterhouse stuff, which admittedly was his most recent at the time. 

By the same token, Yoko was working six mans as Kokina Maximus in Mexico at the time.

It was doable, but unlikely for all the reasons we've both covered, and that he bailed on every other promotion before that after a year to go back to Japan as well. In hindsight he deserved more than just the midcard gatekeeper role

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On 12/29/2020 at 10:50 PM, RolandTHTG said:

Yes, the Honky Tonk Man did it first, but it was tolerable to an extent as it was a lower ranked title. In hindsight though, you could make the argument that as much money he made headlining house shows to see him get beat, he probably was responsible for losing a lot more by cooling off every potential top guy who failed to do it (Roberts, Beefcake, Dusty etc)

Honky's IC title reign had been over for a year or two before Dusty hit the WWF.

Quote

Luger eliminates Bam Bam after a pretty impressive Flair Flop to the outside. Shawn eliminates Marty, and Tenryu takes on both Fatu and Shawn, and starts acting like a fired up babyface, despite being there ostensibly only to prevent Luger from winning.

Yeah, I remember wondering if anybody even told Tenryu that that was the story they'd been telling on TV. He certainly didn't seem to make any effort to single Luger out during the match. I don't think Kabuki did either, for that matter.

 

Edited by tbarrie
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2 hours ago, tbarrie said:

Honky's IC title reign had been over for a year or two before Dusty hit the WWF.

Yeah, I remember wondering if anybody even told Tenryu that that was the story they'd been telling on TV. He certainly didn't seem to make any effort to single Luger out during the match. I don't think Kabuki did either. for that matter.

 

Kabuki was thrown out by Luger about exactly when Lex hit the ring, so he didn't get a chance. Maybe the crew thought that filming the backstage attack on Luger, Tenryu would get a clue even without anyone there to speak Japanese to him?

Vince 's idea of Japanese is probably just speaking English to him and adding a bunch of "E's" after each word. Like "Stirree, stirree" to Funaki during that one offensive "Get me coffee, you oriental servant"-skit in the 00's!

No wonder he may have been confused. Or he just Bruce Harted the whole thing and went to business for himself , in order to look good that night?

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On 12/30/2020 at 11:32 AM, RolandTHTG said:

D'oh! (Were they any relation?)

Bigelow's main runs were generally second from the top than midcard I felt (the brief run against the Horseman, Hogan's second against the Heenan family) other than the Sullivan's Slaughterhouse stuff, which admittedly was his most recent at the time. 

By the same token, Yoko was working six mans as Kokina Maximus in Mexico at the time.

It was doable, but unlikely for all the reasons we've both covered, and that he bailed on every other promotion before that after a year to go back to Japan as well. In hindsight he deserved more than just the midcard gatekeeper role

He definitely deserved more, or at least they could have gotten more out of him. Though at least with his last WWF run, there was never really an opening (besides maybe getting the push from the get-go, but then, they were more into Yokozuna and Hall regarding newcomers to push in late 92). In theory, they could have done something with him after his face turn (coming of the WM main event and doing the company a big service), but then, he was babyface number 6, at best (behind Nash, HBK, Hart, Undertaker and Hall, maybe even Luger and Bulldog - though with the Allied Powers thing, they went down a lot in the pecking-order), and I don't see who they could have put him against to push him higher up the card.

1995 WWF was just so weak on the heel side. I don't even know who the number three heel was after Jarrett left and before Goldust came in and getting a push (with Sid and Mabel being 1 and 2). Bulldog after his turn, maybe? And Yoko & Owen number 4 and 5? And after that, it gets even worse.

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Yeah its an interesting one, he gets promised this mega push if he does the job to LT, but like you say, he's well down the babyface pecking order, anyone can see its not happening (even before Shawn forces a face turn).

I wonder if the plan was for him to be the main challenger to Nash after Mania but then Vince gets enamoured with Sid again and goes in a different direction?

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in Bigelow's own words, being too good at getting yourself over is a bad thing, because it makes them think they don't need to protect you.

And Bam Bam should be in the Hall Of Fame just for figuring out that an enzugiri stops a Hulkup.  For heels that's a scientific breakthru on par with curing cancer.

Edited by BobbyWhioux
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When Tatanka returned from being squashed by Ludvig Borga and literally, not figuratively squashed by Yokozuna, he had obviously lost a lot of momentum. It was one of those times that once your no longer undefeated, you're pretty much just a guy, even though that wasn't really a thing yet, back in '94. That being said, I liked that Tatanka went with just the black hair after coming back. The full-on Strongbow/Wahoo head-dress was not so cool, though. The notion that Tatanka was done as a meaningful babyface after RR'94 is pretty accurate, but I really like his match against Owen Hart at KotR'94. He showed the exact babyface attributes you were referencing, only this time, against a smaller heel.

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Finding it difficult to write anything remotely meaningful about the individual recap/highlight shows, so will probably try and do it in week-long bursts.

Raw after the Rumble is a bit of a schmozz. 

- They should have made more about Luger potentially facing Crush at Mania should Bret have won the coin toss, with Savage getting involved and wanting the match instead of Luger. 

- MOM get beaten by the Headshrinkers, despite being the next challenger in line to the Quebecers. Quebecers have some interesting matches here - including a match with the Steiners on Superstars with the stipulation of a 10 minute time limit. Again - they seem really adamant about making the Steiners look like losers on the way out.  @BobbyWhioux's point about Bam Bam seems to equally apply to MOM here - they're arguably one of the most over acts on the roster, so of course, they put over guys left, right and centre.

- I think Tyrone Knox is my favourite job guy on here so far. He has a pretty good match with Shawn here, a so so effort with Crush and then a goodun with Jarrett. I like what he brings to the table - his offence looks good, and he bumps around a lot. Cagematch seems to have him wrestling sporadically in the Carolinas up to mid 1997 and then turning up again 8 years later?

- The short lived can't get along Adam Bomb/Rick Martel tag team is fun Seems to tease a Martel face turn, but nothing really comes of it, aside from a brief European tour run, and then Bomb's face turn on Harvey Wippleman a few months later. 

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remember thinking how much I would've happily gotten behind a Razor/Marty team and being sad I didn't see it.

best party bus since The Ultimate Maniacs, though sadly (yet just as understandably) short-lived, one would imagine

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2 hours ago, BobbyWhioux said:

remember thinking how much I would've happily gotten behind a Razor/Marty team and being sad I didn't see it.

best party bus since The Ultimate Maniacs, though sadly (yet just as understandably) short-lived, one would imagine

Razor and Marty did team up at least on occasion as they had a match against Diesel & HBK in late '93 (I think, since this was BEFORE Shawn got stripped of the IC-title). It's on one of the Colosseum tapes, I want to say Wrestlefest'94, but I'm not quite sure. It is a miscarriage of justice that Wrestlefest'94 isn't on The Network, btw. I've lamented this before.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I totally get all the storyline reasons why the quick title change back and forth happened, and why 1994 WWF wasn't going to do face vs face, but, Christ Almighty can you imagine Kid and Marty against the Hart Brothers for the tag belts?

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4 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

I totally get all the storyline reasons why the quick title change back and forth happened, and why 1994 WWF wasn't going to do face vs face, but, Christ Almighty can you imagine Kid and Marty against the Hart Brothers for the tag belts?

There has been some talk about this exact thing previously, and holy shit it would have been awesome! Sad that it never came to be! Hell, Quebecers - Steiners - Kid& Marty - Harts 4-way feud (title matches and contender's matches) on at least house shows would have kicked ass around late 93 -early 94!

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 1/20/2021 at 10:35 PM, Shartnado said:

Razor and Marty did team up at least on occasion as they had a match against Diesel & HBK in late '93 (I think, since this was BEFORE Shawn got stripped of the IC-title). It's on one of the Colosseum tapes, I want to say Wrestlefest'94, but I'm not quite sure. It is a miscarriage of justice that Wrestlefest'94 isn't on The Network, btw. I've lamented this before.

Wrestlefest 94 has the only taped succesful title defense of Jannetty & 1-2-3 Kid against the Headshrinkers (a pretty good match, as far as I remember). After a quick look-up, there are actually two Hall & Jannetty tag team matches that made it into: Colosseum Home Video releases: the match against Nash & HBK (taped 7/27/93) is on Inside the WWF and there is a match against Nash & Rotundo (taped 10/20/93) on Bloopers, Bleeps & Bodyslams. Sadly none of those tapes are on the Network (the newest match compilation tape I can see is Global Warfare from Summer of 1993. The History of WWE assigns that tape number 120. They did 176 numbered releases (though after #151, there were almost only tapes of PPVs, besides an HBK compilation of his 96 and early 97 PPV matches).

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I'm up to the first 2 weeks after Mania.

- I'm convinced Jacques Rougeau is a shocking omission from the HOF. The question is how you add him in. The solo run as the Mountie had some great moments - the Jail House Match, beating Bret for the IC title, the 2 Piper matches. The Rougeaus tag team deserves a run too. But the Quebecers are the real MVPs of the company from post Summerslam 93 to dropping the belts to the Headshrinkers.

They were all over TV when most guys were on and off. Had great matches with so many different teams - Harts, Steiners, Kid/Marty, a great match with the Headshrinkers, they have some miracle efforts with MOM and the Bushwhackers. Razor/Kid was a really good one too. They made Luger look a million bucks. The tag scene never really recovered from them leaving till about....well, maybe 1999? 

My big what if from this period is how they react to the crowd reaction to Nash at the Rumble were they doing live TV every week, and they weren't already a month of TV in the can. 

As soon as new tapings occur, he's all over them, running through everyone. I wonder who they could have had him run over in no time at Mania 10? Maybe he squashes Earthquake instead of the Bomb match? The show ran over and everyone else was already occupied or not over enough. 

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  • 2 months later...

Still working my way through to KOTR 94.

So many stop start programs.

Luger and Perfect a throwback to Mania 9.

Lawler and Hart on and off from KOTR 93.

Earthquake and Yokozuna started at Rumble 93 and then randomly resumes after Wrestlemania. Earthquake wins definitively and then jumps to WCW?

Tatanka and Doink vs Bigelow and Jarrett seem to be interchangeable and never ending with no real start or end.

Throw in Razor and Shawn ongoing since mid 93, Bret and Owen since the Survivor Series, credit to them for at least showing uncharacteristic commitment to long term storytelling

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On 12/31/2020 at 11:14 PM, BobbyWhioux said:

in Bigelow's own words, being too good at getting yourself over is a bad thing, because it makes them think they don't need to protect you.

And Bam Bam should be in the Hall Of Fame just for figuring out that an enzugiri stops a Hulkup.  For heels that's a scientific breakthru on par with curing cancer.

I think I remember a Kevin Nash interview where he said about Bigelow wtte of "Scott was a dick, but he was so good you still wanted him on your team." It would not shock me to find out the Kliq guys put an embargo on working him. Maybe why he turned face, so they could ensure they didn't have to deal with him. Also, as great as Bigelow was, Yokozuna was a cut above, and the fact that Yoko hadn't been around long enough for fans to be familiar with him probably worked to his advantage.

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I was also just recently going through the Wrestlemania X to KOTR 94 Raws (now I am somewhere between KOTR and Summerslam) and yeah, 94 WWF booking is so weird. I get that they do these angles that are never resolved on TV to build up house shows, but who would buy a ticket to see IRS vs. Tatanka or Jerry Lawler vs. Duke Droese? Also, why does every Raw have to have a King's Court? Can't you show some variety in your interview segments?

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