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Dark Pegasus Video Review: UK Rampage ’93

October 28, 2007 | Posted by J.D. Dunn
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Dark Pegasus Video Review: UK Rampage ’93  

UK Rampage ’93
by J.D. Dunn

We are a week removed from the odious WrestleMania IX. Hulk Hogan has just won the WWF Title under much controversy. Bret Hart is now demoted to upper midcard, while Mr. Perfect is enjoying a career rebirth as a babyface. Meanwhile, on the heel side, Shawn Michaels is about to redefine “work” as it relates to wrestling.

  • April 11, 1993
  • Live from Sheffield, England.
  • Your hosts are Jim Ross, Bobby Heenan and Lord Alfred Hayes.

  • Opening Match: Brian Knobbs vs. Fatu (w/Afa).
    Knobbs is the babyface here, but the Nasties were outliving their usefulness. Fatu is the future Rikishi Phatu who found singles stardom through the power of dance. I believe he’s also the cousin of current WWE superstar Umaga. Here, he’s one half of the Headshrinkers who were known as the Samoan Swat Team in WCW. Knobbs dominates early before getting distracted by Afa. Fatu dominates the rest of the way, hitting a slam on the outside and slowing things down with a chinlock. Knobbs powers his way back but runs right into a foot. Fatu covers (with Afa providing an assist from the outside) for the win at 9:44. *

  • Alfred Hayes gets a word with Doink the Clown. The psychotic clown is money.
  • Doink the Clown vs. Kamala.
    The pre-match pat-down reveals a stick hidden up Doink’s sleeve. Doink has a great strategy, simply shooting for the legs at every opportunity. Kamala isn’t one for strategy, so he ignores it and avalanches Doink in the corner. Doink goes under the ring and comes out behind Kamala. Jim Ross: Is that the same guy that was wrestling? Brain: Yeah, big black guy from Uganda. Back in, Kamala splashes Doink, but he’s too stupid to roll him over. Kamala stops to argue with the ref, so Doink sneaks in and rolls him up at 4:35. Not much of a match, but a great example of character storytelling. Thankfully, they kept it short too. *1/2

  • Mr. Perfect vs. Samu (w/Afa).
    Mr. Perfect falls for all the same tricks that Knobbs did until he gets wise and goes after Samu’s leg. Afa keeps interfering throughout, though. Nothing really to recap. Samu does a lot of biting, chopping and throwing Perfect to the floor, but that’s about it. Finally, he misses a diving headbutt, and Perfect just pops up and finishes with the Perfectplex at 13:35. 3/4*

  • Bob Backlund vs. Damien Demento.
    Demento was kind of a smaller, nuttier version of the Warlord. Backlund was not yet crazy, though. This follows the same formula as the Perfect match with Demento clubbing Backlund around the ring. Again, nothing to recap. Finally, Backland pushes him into the ropes and comes out with an O’Connor roll for the pin at 7:57. 1/2*

  • Mr. Perfect vows to stalk Lex Luger all the way across Europe.
  • Typhoon vs. The Brooklyn Brawler.
    Well, this’ll save the show. Brawler gets absolutely nothing, so he stalls a lot. Typhoon misses an elbowdrop, allowing the Brawler to take over. I don’t know who decided to let this go more than five minutes, but they deserve to be kicked in the nuts. Brawler literally holds a reverse chinlock for four minutes. Typhoon elbows out of it but misses an avalanche. Oh my God, the match is going to continue. NO! Thankfully, Brawler goes for a bodyslam. Smart. That allows Typhoon to reverse and hit that avalanche he was looking for earlier. A powerslam ends it at 8:41. Eight minutes for this! 1/4*

  • Has there ever been a show where the combined score did not reach five stars? Ah, nevermind. It’s about to be a moot point.
  • Intercontinental Title: Shawn Michaels (w/Sherri) vs. Crush.
    Okay, it’s been an hour. Time to put away the air horn. Shawn has problems dealing with Crush’s power advantage early on. Crush sets him up on the top rope just to mock him. Shawn runs away and tries to sucker Crush with a clothesline, but Crush no-sells. Crush charges, but Shawn tosses him to the floor. Shawn pushes him into the post. Back in, Shawn hits a trio of double ax-handles. A DDT gets two, but Crush gets a big kickout. Shawn grounds things with a chinlock, but Crush powers up. Crush blocks Sweet Chin Music and boots Shawn in the face. He hits a legdrop, but Shawn rolls to the floor to take a countout at 8:52. Crush tracks him down and gives him the Kona Crush for fun. These two have had much better matches, and what’s with Typhoon and the Brawler getting as much time as the IC Title match. **

  • Bobby Heenan (who sounds like he came directly from the pub) interviews Mr. Fuji and Yokozuna about the controversy at WrestleMania IX. Fuji still recognizes Yoko as champion, though, because Yoko never signed to meet Hogan. Bobby agrees. But Hogan decided he didn’t need to work for a living right around this time, so Jim Duggan has issued a challenge to Yoko. That would result in Duggan being squashed again.
  • Lex Luger vs. Jim Duggan.
    Yoko is at ringside to watch Duggan, which is somewhat ironic because Luger would be the one he would have to worry about. Lex was in the final months of his heel run before he was turned face without explanation in an attempt to copy the Hogan formula. Duggan, meanwhile, was having something of a career rebirth in 1993 because he was actually doing Hogan’s old job of the jingoist babyface. The UK fans start a “USA” chant, prompting Heenan to call them dummies. Duggan knocks Luger out of the ring a few times, but Luger takes over with a clothesline (he has a plate in his arm) and kills the match dead with a LONG chinlock. Duggan fights out of it, and they collide. Duggan falls to the floor where Yoko jumps on his sternum. Duggan is half-dead anyway, so Luger hits the forearm. Mr. Perfect runs in to break up the pinfall attempt for the DQ at 6:44. Mr. P is HUGE in the UK. Yoko and Luger take over on Perfect, but Perfect avoids the Banzai Drop. Duggan clears the ring with his 2×4. Horrible match, hot ending. 1/2*
  • The 411: At this point, they were still experimenting with Bret Hart, Mr. Perfect, and Crush to see if any of them could fill the Hogan void. The crowd loved all three, but Crush was undependable and Mr. Perfect had injury problems. So the next step was a no-brainer – turn Lex Luger babyface and leave Bret where he was. Step three: profit!!! As a rule of thumb, any major show from Survivor Series 1992 to Survivor Series 1993 is horrible, which is odd because Raw was tearing it up.

    Anyway, thumbs way down here.

     
    Final Score:  3.0   [ Bad ]  legend

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