The SmarK Rant for Monday Night RAW – 10.10.94
Taped from Utica, NY
Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Randy Savage.
It’s a special HOLIDAY edition of RAW. Apparently it’s “Columbus Day”. Apparently this is a real thing that Americans celebrate. But then we get “Victoria Day” as a holiday up here, so who am I to judge?
Bam Bam Bigelow v. Lex Luger
Luger gets distracted by Dibiase’s parade of scrubs and Bigelow attacks and overpowers Lex. Luger slugs back FOR ‘MURICA and Bigelow bails, so Luger brings him back in and goes to the vicious armbar that is featured on the thumbnail for this episode. So that goes on for a while, until Bigelow comes back with a powerslam for two, but the diving headbutt misses. And it’s back to that armbar. And now King Kong Bundy joins us at ringside to really add to the marketability of the worst stable in wrestling history and we take a break. We return with Adam Bomb and Mabel coming out to even the odds, and this like the Survivor Series match from my tequila-and-pizza fueled nightmares. So now Bigelow goes to the chinlock as Vince clarifies that the Corporation is attempting to rid the WWF of Lex Luger. Well Ted Turner’s chequebook certainly accomplished that goal for them the next year. So Bigelow chokes away on the ropes and Luger finally makes the comeback as his steroid cycle kicks in. Bigelow collides with Tatanka and Luger cradles for the pin at 14:47. Bigelow and Tatanka argue over that, although that specific story thread wouldn’t get pulled on for months. This Corporation was just the dirt worst bunch of losers. *
Mr. Bob Backlund guests on the Heartbreak Hotel, and Bob’s not so sure that he’d want Shawn Michaels in his generation.
Mabel v. Reno Riggins
I have to wonder who got the honor of writing all of Vince’s topical banter about sports and pop culture for these taped shows, given that we know he’s about as savvy to the world outside of the bubble as I am. Riggins actually controls after a missed elbow, but Mabel quickly squashes him with the legdrop at 2:00.
Meanwhile, Randy Savage is at a parade either for or against Cooley’s Anemia. Either way, it’s very important to give them money. I think the people behind that disease need better PR because I’ve never heard of it.
Owen Hart v. John Crystal
Owen works on the arm and chokes him out after a dropkick while Vince plays “What’s in the news this week?” and makes jokes so lame that Bret would be forced to give them 1/10. Crystal briefly comes back, but walks into a suplex and the Sharpshooter at 3:39.
King Kong Bundy v. Mike Khoury
Bundy quickly beats him down and drops a knee for two while Vince talks current movie releases with Savage. Can we just fast-forward through this entire month? Avalanche finishes at 2:49 and they screw up the five-count gag by playing his music too soon. I am kind of curious why Bundy never migrated to WCW during the Hogan era, actually.
The King’s Court with Queezy the midget, which is Lawler’s first step in his war of the midgets against Doink. Kill me now.
The New Headshrinkers v. JS Storm & Cory Student
Barbarian throws Student around and no-sells all of Storm’s jobber offense, then finishes with the big boot at 1:50. They probably should have just gone right to the repackage of Fatu and saved everyone the boredom. Also, Fatu is concerned because Sionne is too violent or something. Later, the storyline would hit another gear when Fatu starting getting booked as being too stupid to figure out how to wrestle in boots. So the best is yet to come.
The Pulse
This show was only 45 minutes long and felt like a three-hour RAW. And it’s only getting WORSE as the year grinds to a finish! But at least we’ve got Jeff Jarrett v. Doink to look forward to next week.
Your endurance shall pay off.
ReplyDelete"We are going to burn Utica to the ground!" Michael Scott
ReplyDeleteOn the plus side, at least the building in Utica looked a hell of a lot better on TV than the high school in Liberty that had a RAW taping by the end of the year.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention those fans in Liberty had to sit through THREE 15 minute Lex Luger borefests. Did those fans run over Kevin Dunn's dog or something?
Seriously, what did they do to piss off the company to that extent?
The Million Dollar Corporation is perhaps the lamest wrestling faction/stable of all time.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely up there with The Cabinet and whatever the fuck Angle's crew of himself, Jindrak, and Reigns was called. Jesus Christ, 2004 Smackdown sucked.
ReplyDeleteWas WWF Magazine even around in 1983-4 when David died?
ReplyDeleteOh HELL yes. The Best of SNME DVD is nice, but having the entire run would be great. (It'd probably be $200US, but still.)
ReplyDeleteThe Angle/Jindrak/Reigns group didn't have a name. THAT'S how lame they were. (In fairness, Reigns got slightly better over time. SLIGHTLY.)
ReplyDelete15 MINUTES!!! ONE STAR!!! Thus, is Fall 1994 in a nutshell.
ReplyDeleteThe York Foundation has word processed your claim and decided it incorrect in less than 13 seconds of typing.
ReplyDeleteAt least some guys in the YF had talent. With the Corporation, it's pretty much Bigelow, then 50 feet of shit, then the rest of the stable.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've had a Columbus Day off since grade school. Damn sure haven't had a day off of work or gotten any holiday pay for it!
ReplyDeleteNope. The Natural Born Thrillers takes that title for me.
ReplyDeletePOSITIVE. ONE. STAR.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was the Angle Alliance? Or am I thinking of TNA's Angle/Tomko/Styles stable?
ReplyDeletewhich is NEVER going to happen - which is why "the return of SNME" fell flat, too.
ReplyDeletenot even close: the concept might have been lame, but at least they had some credible members.
ReplyDeleteAnyone else amazed that Moolah lived for over TWENTY MORE YEARS after this?
ReplyDeletethe WWF probably thought they were doing them a favor.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know why Yokozuna was marginalized in 1994? After WrestleMania 10 & Earthquake's departure, he was barely used for anything until Undertaker came back. You'd think they'd at least have him squash Typhoon at Summerslam just to make a point or something.
ReplyDeleteMike Sanders and Sean O'Haire disqualify the Thrillers from ever being in contention for that title, especially compared to Hillbilly Jim's stable.
ReplyDeleteTotally forgot about that! The song they dubbed over was "Land Of Confusion" if I'm not mistaken. Surprising they would actually bother to spring for that song in '87 especially just for a throwaway segment, you'd think they would use something as costly as a Phil Collins track as entrance music instead.
ReplyDeleteAlthough evidently, royalties to 12 Stones and Seether must not cost much because I noticed the themes to Judgment Day 2002 ("Broken" by 12 Stones) and Summerslam 2005 ("Remedy" by Seether) were kept intact.
At he 15 minute mark I lost interest and walked away. Came back from making breakfast and she WAS STILL TALKING. Sometimes a time limit is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteDirt worst bunch of losers?! But... but... they beat up Lex Luger for the better part of 4 months!
ReplyDeleteWhat is it with everyone jumping on my schtick of reviewing horrible wrestling shows?
ReplyDeleteTed Dibiase,Nikolai Volkoff,Bam Bam Bigelow,I.R.S.,Underfaker,Tatanka,King Kong Bundy,Kama,Sid,1-2-3 Kid,Xanta Klaus & The Ringmaster Steve Austin
ReplyDeleteVs.
The Master,The Taskmaster,Kamala,Shark,Zodiac,Big Van Vader,The Giant,Meng,The Yeti,Jimmy Hart,Lex Luger,Hugh Morrus,One Man Gang,Barbarian,Loch Ness,Z-Gangsta,The Ultimate Solution,Maxx,Big Bubba,Braun The Leprechaun,Jacqueline & Konnan
Sounds like something Chris Benoit will be forced to witness over and over again one day.
You are mistaken.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvp-CFF3gIk
.?
ReplyDeleteBundy liked sticking to the independent scene for whatever reason. Still, I'm surprised he never showed up for a quick run either.
ReplyDeleteYo, you're dealing with the X-Factor.
ReplyDeleteI read an artice last night where it mentioned that Bundy was originally booked to beat Undertaker at WM11 because Vince was high on him. Never heard that rumor before and found it surprising.
ReplyDeleteI'd say the Cabinet was the worst just because they were booked as a main event stable when no-one in the group was over enough to be a credible main eventer. Sure, there have been many lame stables, but for the most part they were just midcard stables.
ReplyDeleteMagnificent 7 was probably WCW's worst stable.
ReplyDeleteUsually I'm one to defend the New Generation era of Raw as it did have it's good points, but I can't remember anything good happening towards the end of the year, unless the Neidhart/Owen v Bret/Bulldog match took place on Raw.
ReplyDeleteThank God for Nitro................
ReplyDeleteI actually remember them saying on air that Yoko decided to skip Summerslam, due to his fear of undertakerS. (the "S" is not a typo)
ReplyDeleteThey had potential, they just... you know, didn't win matches. Had they been booked strong, I think there was enough star power to make it work.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Yoko's health was starting to be a concern around this time?
ReplyDeleteAnyone who sat through this Raw probably wished Dwight Schrute was around to do something to their eyes.
ReplyDeleteTruth Commission?
ReplyDeleteIt was fun to see heel HBK not quite know what to make of Heel Bob Backlund.
ReplyDeleteI don't know. Given the booking at times, I think a tribute to masturbation is highly appropriate music for pro wrestling.
ReplyDeleteAnd there are several "talking heads" on various WWE DVDs that suggest Ebersol said to Vince something along the lines of "You need to borrow more from WCCW when it comes to production of shows."
ReplyDeleteWhy would "Country Boy" need to be edited out?
ReplyDeleteDamn cool story man.
ReplyDeleteThe weird thing is that on the Network they run a commercial telling everyone that SMNE is now available, and Obsession plays in the background on that.
ReplyDeleteIt was then stolen by high school basketball teams all over the nation.
ReplyDeleteI'd pay an extra dollar a month to the Network to keep Phil Collins dubbed in.
ReplyDeleteMan, parenthetical format Scott rants aren't my favorite to re-read. I'm glad he got his smile back.
ReplyDeleteIs the Good Enough video by Cyndi Lauper in the first episode?
ReplyDeleteWasn't it "Take Me Home," which was played over the end credits until 1988? What do they use now?
ReplyDeleteYes. She is incredibly hot in that episode.
ReplyDeleteNot sure, I guess Johnston didn't produce it? I'd say they'd have to pay Jim for the vocals, but he's in good standing with the company.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny I started watching in 90 when Tornado was one of the top midcarders and I dont remember them using Kerry Von Erich at all when referring to him but rewatching stuff they do all the time. I must have just latched onto the Texas Tornado name and blanked everything else out
ReplyDeleteIm wondering if just by the time they started using commercial music as PPV themes in the 2000's they just were smart enough to get some contract that allows them to use it in all rebroadcasts and not just DVDs
ReplyDeleteDr. Evil
ReplyDelete"I shall call it . . . The . . . Allan . . . Parsons . . . Project!"
I remember collecting the WWF cards at the time that would have highlights of all the Wrestlemanias and then had a small assortment of wrestlers individual cards and Barry was one of them. I knew him from his NWA/WCW stuff at the time but was astonished he had just been in WWF recently.
ReplyDeleteThe only good part was bringing beers for Rey and Arn. Which Arn tried to grab both, one for each of his beer opening hands.
ReplyDeleteSo Richter's theme was "She Bop" and she was the victim of a Montreal-esque double cross?
ReplyDeleteThe phrase "Wendi screwed Wendi" seems oddly appropriate.
"They even kept that godawful Piledriver video intact!"
ReplyDeleteGood. The song was written by Jim Johnston, so cutting it would just be incompetence by the editing team.
Johnston actually wrote half the songs on that album (Piledriver, Stand Back, Girls in Cars, If You Only Knew, and that awful Hillbilly Jim song Waking Up Alone).
!?
ReplyDeleteIn house produced ripoff crap.
ReplyDeleteThe Cyndi Lauper music video is cut from The Network version of this episode. Good thing I have it on my Goonies DVD!
ReplyDeleteI bet Arn Anderson would win a best two out of three falls match with a 30 minute time limit against him!
ReplyDelete"She Bop" is also cut in favor of something that came out of an NES game, although you can still hear snippets of it under commentary where they couldn't mute it completely. Which sounds really kind of jarring.
ReplyDeleteThey ended up totally muting the original audio (including the introductions) for "Born in the USA" and playing some other generic USA music.
Yep, uncut and unedited. You know, exactly as promised during the launch announcement.
ReplyDeleteI must have blocked that video from my memory bank. It certainly gives the impression that Hulk was, you know, dead. Because a fat guy sat on him. Makes "Harley Race in the clouds" look comparative reasonable and subtle.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that video was the grandfather of Tell Me A Lie.
ReplyDelete