The SmarK Rant for Monday Night RAW – 05.03.94
Taped from Burlington, VT. Apparently no live show this cycle, as this show was taped the week before according to the title history. A quick check of the WON reveals that Vince was busy with the steroid trial and had to move the taping cycle up a week and skip the live show.
Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Randy Savage
WWF tag team titles: The Quebecers v. The Headshrinkers
Despite weeks of hype, there’s still no clear issue and no reason why the Shrinkers are even supposed to be babyfaces in the first place. Fatu overpowers Pierre and it’s quickly a pier-six brawl as the Headshrinkers clean house. Like really, who would look at the scary Samoan crazy heels and think they would make good faces? The Quebecers try to walk out on the match, so we get the “If the Quebecers don’t return to the ring, they will lose the title” gag, which draws them back in. And then we take a break. No wonder Hebner got fired, making up the rules as went along like that. Only Vince gets to do that! Back with Samu working on Pierre’s arm and a sideslam gets two. Sadly, the momentum switches due to nefarious tactics from the heels and Fatu is samoan-in-peril as we take ANOTHER break. Back with the action accelerating, apparently, and Pierre gets backdropped to the floor and Samu gets the hot tag. He charges and gets his head tied in the ropes. Vince is convinced that Jacques can finish with a piledriver, but the Quebecers go for the double-team finish instead and Samu moves. The ref somehow misses the obvious tag to Fatu, and the Quebecers have some communication issues and split up, leading to Jacques getting pinned by Fatu’s flying splash at 20:14 to give them the titles. This was long and bland. **1/2 And they kept the belts for FOUR MONTHS! How dead was the tag division in 94?
Todd Pettingill briefs us on King of the Ring, with highlights like ART DONOVAN. Tickets are going fast! Yeah, I’m sure.
Tatanka v. Derek Domino
I wonder if that jobber is any relation to Layla? Chief Jay Strongbow cuts a promo on Tatanka’s behalf, talking about “his people” while sounding like he should be taking pizza orders in Brooklyn. We get a phone interview with IRS while Tatanka destroys the guy, survives a flurry of jobber offense, and finishes with his usual array of chops and the Papoose To Go at 5:07.
The King’s Court with Diesel, who is now Intercontinental champion and challenges Bret Hart.
Meanwhile, the Undertaker is being seen all over the place!
Yokozuna v. Mike Davis & Scott Taylor
Yoko lays them both out with Rock Bottoms and tosses one of the schmoes, then tosses Davis and finishes the future Scotty 2 Hotty with a double-stacked jobber sandwich at 4:14. Macho hopes things get better for the jobbers later on. Well, for one of them. Earthquake makes the save and challenges Yokozuna to a match. Goodie.
Next week: Razor Ramon faces future best friend Kwang in a King of the Ring qualifier! Hopefully it sucks less than this week’s show, but I’m not holding my breath!
"And they kept the belts for FOUR MONTHS! How dead was the tag division in 94?"
ReplyDeleteIt was them or M.O.M. at that point, because the Gunns weren't quite ready to take the tag division by storm yet. I still don't get the Headshrinkers face turn to this day and can only imagine that the logic was that because the Quebecers were such good heels that they'd become bizarre de facto faces.
Also, was this it for the Quebecers? Because I can't remember them doing anything of consequence after this.
"I wonder if that jobber is any relation to Layla?"
ReplyDeleteOh man, screw Fandango. They need to debut some NXT guy and call him Derek Domino and give him Layla. That sound you hear is ratings gold!
Gold, Jerry Lawler! Gold!
ReplyDeleteIt's shocking how in less than a year this show went from being one of the hottest wrestling programs ever put on television to a barren wasteland of suck. It's a miracle they hung on.
ReplyDeleteRSPW Joke: What's the sound of 300 pounds of shit hitting the fan?
ReplyDeleteDude, base a character on George Harrison (we'll call him...Greg Harrison, because that worked for Morrison) and the two can feud over her!
ReplyDeleteThey had a fun run in 98 in the WWF and a run in WCW right before that. They never got their due as a really good tag team
ReplyDeleteTheir second WWF run was so bizarre. They didn't bring up their prior history at all, they dressed them in generic attire, and they stripped them of all their personality. I had no idea what they were shooting for with them in '98.
ReplyDelete*ploosh*?
ReplyDelete*sploosh*?
ReplyDelete*pffffffftt*?
ReplyDelete*spluhhhh*?
ReplyDeleteIf I was older during this period then maybe I would have hated them, but I actually quite liked the Headshrinkers babyface act as a kid. Plus they weren't that bad. Just look at the Fatu/Barbarian pairing and you'll appreciate the Fatu/Samu pairing a lot more.
ReplyDelete**1/2 can be a good rating for a short match, but a bad rating for a long match.
ReplyDeleteAnd the frustrating thing was Pierre could still go in the ring. If their ringwork was past their cell by date then I have no problem WWF doing this, but that wasn't the case.
ReplyDeleteThe Amazing French Canadians!
ReplyDeleteThe Amazing French Canadians debuted on Nitro in '96, but I really can't remember what happened to these guys between this show and Pierre's brief run as a pirate in '95.
ReplyDeleteIt still astonishes me to realize just how long Rikishi was with the WWF. At first, I always think he was around from about 1999-2004 but he was there since 1992. Doesn't he have a record for most rumble appearances or most consecutive rumble appearances?
ReplyDeleteJacques retired shortly after while Pierre continued to work the indys in Canada. Not sure if they were still under contract with WWF or not as I can see WWF putting them off screen with the idea that they'll repackage them later on.
ReplyDeleteHe's had one interesting career for sure and if he ever wrote a book, it'd probably be a good read as he was around quite a few wrestling eras. I liked how the guy mananaged to reinvent himself in 99 and get over because I thought his career was fnished at that point. Surprised WWE hasn't tried to hire him since 2004 as I figured the company liked him enough to use him as a road agent or manager for the Usos.
ReplyDeletewasn't there a story that one of refused to take the powerbomb, and got into a fight with Nash backstage? Getting on Nash's bad side during 1994-1996 was not a good thing, as he had a lot of influence.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it was 95 and led to Pierre's firing. Can't remember the story exactly, but I thought the story was Pierre not wanting to job in his hometown?
ReplyDeleteCourse not. Long matches in the ** range generally means that the story of the match is predictable, yet well told and the moves used are mostly simple moves, but well executed.
ReplyDelete** long matches basically means that there's nothing technically wrong with the match, but it's not a match you can sit through without being bored. IRS was the king of ** matches.
MOM should have had a non-fatass botch run with the straps.
ReplyDeleteKane holds both those records in fact, Kane holds almost every WWE record. Most Raw & PPV matches ever etc.
ReplyDeleteFatu would have probably come close in having the most Rumble appearances if he wasn't fired.
ReplyDeletePretty sure he was referring to the classic rocl tune Layla by the band Derek & the Dominoes...but I could be mistaaaaaken.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't even bother to do an angle with Diesel and Bret. He just walks out and asks for a title shot. Ok then.
ReplyDeleteKane? Or Glen Jacobs?
ReplyDeleteThe match didn't really need more than that, as it was just a backdrop to the Owen-Bret angle.
ReplyDeleteWWE Network's got the date scheming correct for the 1994 Raws, so no need to add a day to the date, Scott. This did indeed air May 2.
ReplyDeleteDetails, details, I know.
In this run? They do a rematch on the Countdown to the Crowning special and then are done. Pierre came back as a pirate in 1995 and then they went to WCW as a team in 96 as outlined below.
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered what actual Native Americans like Tatanka and Wahoo McDaniel felt like working with the "great Native American wrestler" Chief Jay Strongbow, who was about as white as they come.
ReplyDeleteI also don't know why WWE hasn't put Wahoo in the Hall of Fame yet. I know he didn't have much of a WWF career, but he has that legit tough guy sports background (he played pro football in the 1960s for a number of years, most notably for the Jets) that WWE loves to tout in the media.
I literally cant not think of anything else, everytime I either see one of his matches or even just see the name in print. I don't know why but that joke was always hilarious to me.
ReplyDeleteI liked them as heels, but I knew they were beating the Quebecers, which bummed me out. I was a big Quebecers fan back then.
ReplyDeleteThey run an angle on the King's Court in the next few weeks that makes up for it.
ReplyDeleteThe Hawaiian Superpowers of Yokozuna and Crush wrestled the Headshrinkers at KOTR '94. That would have been a great monster team to run the division while you build up your next babyface team.
ReplyDeleteI see your point. The fac t they branded a ppv around it and have to shoe horn it in does help either. I'm still a mark for thr gimmick and love seeing it come out tho
ReplyDeleteShame Pierre never had a run in ECW. It would've been interesting to see what Heyman could've done with him.
ReplyDeleteI always wondered why Tatanka had to be referred to as the Native American Tatanka, as if we'd somehow forget if Vince didn't remind us.
ReplyDeleteGood point, as if we couldn't tell from the loincloth, headress, beads, music, war cry, and the 50 other things that made him look like a cigar store Indian.
ReplyDeleteThe African American Big E!
ReplyDeleteYeah, he had a long run. 1984ish I believe
ReplyDelete"Chief Jay Strongbow cuts a promo on Tatanka’s behalf, talking about “his people” while sounding like he should be taking pizza orders in Brooklyn."
ReplyDeleteHA that's great
What was the actual venue for this show? Gutterson Field House? Patrick Gymnasium? The former is the hockey arena at UVM, the latter basketball, and neither is very large (would probably max out around 5,000 for wrestling). Didn't know they ever went to Burlington. I've covered hockey at UVM, and it would be cool to add that to "cool things that happened in college hockey arenas." My personal favorite is Houston Field House at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, which was home to the Flair-Funk "I Quit Match." Also, every time I've been in the Times Union Center in Albany (formerly the Knickerbocker Arena), I recall that Flair won the Rumble there...damn, Flair has had some great performances in the Capital District...more than you would expect given the limited prestige of the region.
ReplyDeleteGood explanation. Perfectly defines alot of the WCW tag matches in 92-94 featuring teams like Sting/Road Warrior Hawk, Nasty Boy's, Miracle Violence, etc.
ReplyDeleteJust LOOOOONG matches that were very cookie cutter
Feeling lazy and dont feel like searching for it, so what again was the injury Shawn had that had him missing so much time in 94? Really don't remember
ReplyDeleteThe Irish American Sheamus!
ReplyDeleteProbably bitter revenge. Jacques and Vince had a falling out over booking shows in Montreal, which lead to Jacques (and Pierre) going to WCW in 1996. Bringing them back in as glorified Jobbers in '98 was probably a "that's what happens when you cross the boss" stuff.
ReplyDeleteThere was no injury. My timeline maybe wrong here, but I believe this is where Shawn failed the drug test. If I'm wrong then Shawn probably asked for time away from the ring because he needed to rest up some nagging injuries.
ReplyDeleteTheDemonKane
ReplyDeleteIn the interest of shortening his name, WWE has decided that Big E will now be known as "African."
ReplyDeleteO ok thanks. Didn't he fail a drug test as well in 93 for roids? Or is that this one?
ReplyDeleteLike I say, my timeline maybe off, it's either 93 or 94 and yes it was the one for roids. The story was that he failed the drug test, but Shawn claimed he was innocent.
ReplyDeleteWatching '94 stuff now, I think the 'shrinkers' act works really well as babyfaces. The hard-head act is a great bit for a stooge heel to play off of, better than stupid babyfaces, and they have a bunch of crowd-pleasing offense.
ReplyDeleteThey ran a localized angle in Montreal to set up Jacques' "retirement," with Pierre and Polo turning on him during a tag title match and setting up a singles match the next month.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the WON, it was a sellout of 2500, so wherever it was, it wasn't very big.
ReplyDeleteYup, nailed it.
ReplyDeleteI liked that tag match a lot more than Scott did. I actually get goosebumps every time, possibly because Savage yells "I'VE GOT GOOSEBUMPS ON TOP OF GOOSEBUMPS!!"
ReplyDeleteI say that because they've had so much dead tv time that could have been used to build it. At least have Diesel destroy some jobbers or something.
ReplyDeleteIt was a "good" match, but I agree with Scott: It went way too long and was a bit unremarkable for the most part. It was good, just not "hey, you need to see this" good. Other than being a title change, there's nothing about it that stands out.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Diesel vs. Bret was just kind of announced, and then they had one altercation where Diesel laid him out. Points for the latter, but KOTR '94 was hardly a show with a lot of detail behind the build. It had Lawler/Piper as the Main Event. Not because it went last, but because it had the most hype by a wide margin. Anyone remember Piper's "Bottom Line" stuff on all-American? Yeah, it sucked.
ReplyDeleteThe drug test was what caused him to be taken off TV in September '93. He didn't wrestle, but was on TV every week during his hiatus from the ring in '94, either as Diesel's cornerman or hosting the Heartbreak Hotel. I'm still curious as to the reason behind the non-wrestling role.
ReplyDeleteI give Vince a pass b/c he was preoccupied but what's Patterson's excuse? He wasn't on trial and he isn't a lawyer. Gots to do better Pat.
ReplyDeleteIf it's just Kane then he falls to 3rd behind the Undertaker & HHH on the PPV list but how many PPV matches did Isacc Yankem & New Diesel get? Can't be more than 4 or 5.
ReplyDeleteWithout really thinking, 3 as Yankem (Slam '95, Series '95, Rumble '96), and 3 as Diesel (Series '96, IYH: It's Time, Rumble '97). That's in wrestling roles, only.
ReplyDeleteProbably figured the KOTR was enough of a sell. Only problem is the '93 tournament blew '94 away with the roster depth and inaugural intrigue. 94 was just the Owen is gonna win show, and the match quality was average, with the exception of 3:00 of awesome with Owen and the 1-2-3 Kid.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it definitely should have been trimmed in half.
ReplyDeleteas a kid I actually thought that Razor had a big chance of winning, too.
ReplyDelete