Raw Retrospective: Monday Night Raw 09.20.93

WWF RAW Episode Thirty-Two
September 20, 1993
Taped from New York
Hosts: Vince McMahon, Randy Savage and Bobby Heenan

Pierre (with Johnny Polo) Vs Scott Steiner
We kick the show off with Scott Steiner coming out – no ringside discussion or anything. This match comes from the Quebecer’s victory last week over the Steiners, giving them the WWF Tag Team Championship. If Scott wins this match, the Steiners get a rematch. I guess they didn’t have the rematch clause that everyone seems to have nowadays. I hope the Quebecers are on every week just to hear their theme song. Vince calls last week’s title change a “travesty of justice,” but it’s hard to feel bad when the Steiners cheated in front of the ref. We start things off with a big brawl in which Steiner wins. He climbs the top rope and hits an axehandle as Johnny Polo yells about Quebec Rules. Scott tosses him over the top rope and follows up with a piledriver back in the ring for two. Scott has broke about every Quebec Rule there is, which plays in well with last week’s match. Pierre survives an Indian death lock and eats a belly to belly off the top rope. Pierre seeks consultation from Polo on the outside but Steiner follows with a forearm. He grabs the hockey stick as Pierre and Polo run to the back and Steiner…walks back into the ring as we go to commercial break. We come back and Heenan is selling the water that Doink drenched him with by coughing loudly. Jacques and Rick come to ringside and both teams talk strategy. Rick is in the ring for some reason, and the ref doesn’t seem to mind. Polo distracts Scott, so Pierre attacks from behind and gets his first bit of offense in. Pierre hits a DDT and chokes Steiner on the ropes. Rick and Jacques tease a battle of chair Vs hockey stick ringside as Pierre hits a clothesline. Sunset flip by Steiner gets two thanks to a distraction by Johnny Polo. Pierre hits a bodyslam and a Vader bomb for two. He works the headlock until Scott fights his way up and slams him in the turnbuckle. Pierre hits another bodyslam followed by a leg drop for two. Polo cannot believe Steiner kicked out. Pierre misses a Vader bomb and eats a back body drop. Steiner hits the clothesline and an impressive double underhook suplex, followed by a sloppy Frankensteiner for three at 12:30! **1/2 Good match from both men, even if the tag partners coming out didn’t really factor in at all.
Winner: Scott Steiner

Bam Bam Bigelow (with Luna Vachon) Vs Laverne McGill
Bigelow hits a dropkick to start things off, but gets sent to the corner with a couple of dropkicks from McGill. Bigelow charges and misses, causing him to flip over the top rope and to the outside in something I didn’t expect to see. McGill misses, get this, a dropkick as Crush calls once again. Vince asks when he’ll return, and Crush promises it’ll be soon. Bigelow hits a suplex and a horrible dropkick as Savage tries to talk to Crush, where once again technical difficulties cut him off. Crush then drops the bomb – he’s not speaking to Savage again for as long as he lives and hangs up. Savage seems hurt, but the forearms to the back of McGill seems more painful. McGill gets dumped to the outside and Luna chokes him out. McGill goes for a sunset flip but gets nothing but ass in his chest. Bigelow finishes with a weird stalling suplex and a senton for three at around 4:30. Crowd popped for the finish, and it was partially entertaining if you don’t mind seeing dropkicks. * I do like where they’re going with the Crush/Savage build, however.
Winner: Bam Bam Bigelow

They show clips from last week where Doink turns face and douses Heenan with cold water. Vince’s face as he yells “NO! NO!” with a complete smile on his face is hilarious. They cut to the broadcast booth where he’s taking his temperature, sniffling and apparently has a collapsed lung. Vince looks disgusted at this whole ordeal. What the hell was in that water?

Vince does a promo in the ring with Bret Hart. Vince brings up Lawler humiliating Bret’s parents, his siblings and eventually Bret. For those unaware, at Summerslam Doink replaced the “injured” Lawler who submitted to the Sharpshooter. It’s revealed that Lawler isn’t injured, and they have an official match. Hart wins, but refuses to break the hold and, as such, Lawler won by DQ. This made Lawler the undisputed king of the WWF, which Bret disputes. Lawler didn’t beat anybody, didn’t win the King of the Ring, and thus he shouldn’t be Undisputed King. Hart doesn’t care about belts, crowns or anything like that – he cares about family. His only regret was that he didn’t hold the Sharpshooter on longer, and at some point he’s going to behead Lawler so he can’t wear the crown. Well, that’s one way to rectify a situation.

They then show the following commercial…

Mr. Perfect Vs Mike Bell
Vince says, “Talk about cheap imitation, the one and only, yes, there it is, perfection personified” during Perfect’s entrance. Uh…what? Is that even putting him over? Bell gets a slight advantage over Perfect, and thus gets the taste slapped out of his mouth. Bell takes a dropkick as they both roll to the outside so Bell can get chopped…ON THE OUTSIDE! They continue to put over the idea of a Diesel-Perfect feud, which would have been…interesting I guess? A kneelift is followed up by insults and punches. Bell makes the mistake of bending down and you know that what means – Perfectplex leads to the three at 3:48. * Good intensity for a jobber match, and Perfect continues to put on the best squashes on a consistent basis.
Winner: Mr. Perfect

Ludvig Borga is outside in jean shorts and a cut-off denim jacket checking out some pollution. America is not the land of “milk and honey, because down here it smells funny.” Oh shit, a rhyming America-hater. Luger doesn’t stand a chance. America used to be great until we started to, uhm, clean our houses? America and Luger stink, and we Americans can choke on that. Just awful.

Heenan is ringside talking to some dorky guy and his female friend. The dorky guy proposes to the girl and Heenan throws popcorn at them. That was awkward.

IRS Vs PJ Walker
IRS says Ramon doesn’t have the guts to face him on RAW, so he’s going to show us what he does to tax cheats. Walker tries to attack from behind but gets tossed to the outside for his trouble. He throws him into the stairs and back in the ring. Ramon comes out during an abdominal stretch and gets the biggest pop of the night. IRS gets distracted, which leads to Walker getting the roll up for three at 1:20. Well, I certainly wasn’t expecting that. DUD, as there was three moves in the whole match and it was more of an angle than anything.
Winner: PJ Walker

The Quebecers are backstage with Heenan. Polo makes it clear that they’re not afraid of the Steiners, but they’re not getting a title shot. Never fear, however, as the Quebecers will be giving the championship shot to another, more deserving team.

Next week it’s Tatanka, Ludvig Borga, Jimmy Snuka (for one night only!) and a tag team championship match!

The 411: The opening match, much like last week, was the bulk of the show and the best part of it. There was a lot of other good little things going on as well, such as the Crush-Savage build, Heenan playing sick all night, and the Bret Hart promo. A good episode that’s worth checking out, especially if you’re a fan of dropkicks.
Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]