It's May 24th, 1993 and Raw is live from the Manhattan Center once again. Vince tells us that we'll be seeing Crush in action, Money Inc in the building, a disgruntled Razor Ramon, and Raw will see the debut of a new superstar. We'll get to that superstar later in the program. After a great episode last week with two upset victories, it's hard to top it, but let's hope for the best with this edition.
And this Raw is indeed starting off strong as we kick off with Mr. Perfect taking on Doink the Clown so that they can finally have one of the wo qualify after Doink's double debauchery has caused issues in the past. Doink comes down the aisle, and goes underneath the ring.
Meanwhile, Lord Alfred Hayes is outside, and is interviewing another Doink. Doink claims it's an illusion, and squirts him with his flower. I guess there's a teleporter under the ring. It's no fake present stunt, but it's still a greatun.
As Perfect enters the ring, Doink gets a cheap shot in, and chokes him with his own towel. He wipes himself with Perfect's towel, but Perfect gets offense back. Both men exchange blows, but Mr. Perfect gets the advantage by working on the knee of the clown as we go to break. When we return, things are still in Perfect's advantage as he works on the leg some more. Donk gets in a kick and some shots in the corner. He throws Perfect out of the ring, and gets an axe handle off the apron, while still selling the leg. Perfect's head gets rammed into the ring post as Doink recovers.
Perfect eventually regains the offense with a leg scissors. Doink breaks, and lays more boots into Perfect. The commentators talk about the possibility of a second Doink, while he applies an arm bar. Perfect breaks out by working the leg some more. Doink begs for mercy, but Mr. Perfect gets more shots and locks a modified figure four leg lock. This leads into a great spot where Doink lays down, gets counted, gets up, and then gets slapped. This happens a couple times until Doink eventually gets a cheap shot on Mr. Perfect.
Doink takes Perfect to the outside and rams his arm into the steel post. Perfect tackles Doink on the outside and rolls back in, but Doink drags his arm in to the post and smashes it. He reapplies an arm lock, then follows with a stomp to the elbow. He slams Perfect on his arm and goes for the cover for a two as we go to another break. When we return, both men trade blows as Perfect gets in a clothesline. Doink sends Perfect head first into the buckle. Irish whip is countered by Perfect who sends Doink out.
However a second Doink runs under the apron while the other is out cold. The other drags him under the ring and crawls out. The crowd chants "There are two Doinks" as Perfect brings in the fresh clown who works offense on Perfect. The flaw to this plan however is the fresh Doink has his makeup intact, but Bobby Heenan makes the excuse that it's "resealable makeup". Doink two goes for an irish whip, but Perfect turns it into a perfect plex for the three.
The first Doink immediately returns to the ring and the two clowns begin to double team the spent Mr. Perfect. But eventually Crush shows up and works down on the double Doinks. He gorilla presses one of them and gets a stomp on the other. Both clowns escape as "the Original Hawaiian Punch" helps out Mr. Perfect.
This was a great opening match. Had a lot of time to it, more than most matches on Raw get, told a story throughout with both men injuring each other, and the double Doink dilemma, and both men worked really good with each other. I still feel a bit of a disconnect in character when I see a clown suddenly execute logical wrestling moves, but Matt Borne's so good, you really can't take much of an issue with it.
We go to the King of the Ring report, and hey look, it's that guy who's holding the WWF Trinket Toy championship. Of course it's a taping, because why the hell would the WWF champion actually be in front of a live crowd. Hulk Hogan talks about how Hulkamania's been more powerful than ever. He talks about the demandments, and how Monday Night Raw is special to both Hogan and Jimmy Hart. You know, that show you were only on once. Real special, I'm sure. But you know, the world revolves around Hulk Hogan. He promises he'll slam Yokozuna at the King of the Ring, and that he'll go down for the last time. I hate you Hogan-Senpai.
The King of the Ring brackets are set. Out opening quarterfinals will be Bret Hart against Razor Ramon, Tatanka against Lex Luger, Hacksaw Jim Duggan against Bam Bam Bigelow, and Mr. Perfect against Mr. Hughes. All in all, it sounds like a strong card for the inaugural version of this yearly tournament.
Up next is Money Inc in action against jobbers Mike Bell and Tony DeVito. Ted Dibiase cuts a promo telling that everyone has a price, and that he has a hundred dollars and is in need of a shoe shine. I wish they'd have picked Vladimir, but some kid gets invited to the ring. The kids does the job of shining the shoes of the tag champs, but before he gets his hundred, IRS reminds everyone about taxes, and the reward is cut to thirty bucks. Vince is pissed on commentary, but the kid seems fine with a mere thirty.
The match begins after a break with Dibiase getting a shoulder block, and a face slam to the mat. Tag to IRS who lands a shoulder block off the ropes. The crowd chants "Irwin" as he slams Bell into the corner. Tag to Devito, but IRS continues his offense and tags back in Dibiase. We're also told on commentary that there will be an eight man tag match at the King of the Ring. Money Inc and the Headshrinkers will face off against the Steiner Brothers, and the Smoking Gunns. Strange they'd do that instead of the tag title match I thought the Steiners were due, but whatever.
Dibiase clotheslines Devito out of the ring. He brings him back in, and tags IRS in, who gets some punches and a leg drop to the groin. Irish whip and an elbow, which is followed by a tag again to Dibiase, who lays in a stomp. He wrings the neck of Devito in the ropes, and follows with a vertical suplex. He covers, but then picks Devito back up. Tag to IRS, who lands a double underhook suplex. Quick tak back to Dibiase who lays a powerslam. Tag right back to IRS who hits the Write Off clothesline for the three in a long squash match. Not a bad squash, just way too long.
Up next is Crush in action against another jobber in Bobby Who. A full nelso attempt by Who is quickly broken by the big Hawaiian. Heenan mentions how Crush and Shawn were both counted out, and neither men are in the King of the Ring now. Big suplex by Crush is followed by a leg drop. Clothesline on the outside to Who. He brings Who back into the ring and puts in a bear hug as Heenan and McMahon do a bit of a "Who's on first" routine. Belly to belly by Crush, which is followed by a gorilla press slam. He locks in his coconut crush head vice for the win. Still don't care much for Crush, but compared to Tatanka squashes, his are far more entertaining.
Vince McMahon is in the ring next to interview a still livid Razor Ramon, who last week was part of the upset of the decade as he lost to the newly crowned 1-2-3 Kid. Razor claims he wasn't beaten last week because nobody beats the bad guy. Vince however says that despite Razor's revisionist history, the records still show that he lost. The crowd chants "1-2-3" which infuriates Razor some more.
Razor says he's somebody important, and has an offer for the 1-2-3 Kid. He offers him twenty five hundred dollars if he'll come into the ring and wrestles him again. However, Razor doesn't get the kid, but he gets Bret Hart instead, the man who will face Razor in the first quarterfinal match at the King of the Ring. Bret leads the crowd into chanting "1-2-3" at Razor. He says that for a guy who should be focusing on Bret at the PPV, you'd think that Razor would have the ability to beat one of the "bottom guys" (well, at least he didn't call them Jobbers), it should be an easy win for Bret at the King of the Ring. This infuriates Razor even more as we go break.
As Raw returns, we see Heenan watching TV again. However, the screen somehow goes to static, and we see the face of a strange man with a cane and a fine Hawaiian shirt. This is the first Raw appearance of a manager by the name of Johnny Polo. He's quite the energetic personality. Certainly nobody I'd imagine quoting Edgar Allen Poe.
But this isn't the only debut, as Polo leads to the ring a massive man with a radioactive sign on his singlet, and weird goggles. This is the debuting Adam Bomb. And his first opponent is Phil Apollo. Bomb takes Apollo into the corner and rams him into the other side. Vince believes there could be an upset, but let's be honest. That ain't happening. Big hip toss by Adam Bomb. This is followed with a back suplex. Vince shills the USA Network movie "Duplicates" while Adam Bomb throws Apollo out of the ring and tosses him hard into the guard rail. He brings him back into the ring and scales the rop rope, landing a nice flying clothesline. Adam Bomb hits the powerbomb for the win. For his debut, I like what I see in Adam Bomb so far.
Next week on Raw, Bam Bam Bigelow will challenge Marty Janetty for the Intercontental title, Razor in action, Mr. Hughes against Hacksaw Jim Duggan, and the Steiners in action. All in all, sounds like a solid show. We'll have to see how much of that will be changed by next week. We end Raw with Bam Bam saying he's ready for all kinds of action. And not only will Marty have Sherri in his corner, but Bam Bam will have Luna in his. So now things are definitely heating up.
While not as exciting as the Raw last week, this was still a serviceable edition. Doink vs Perfect was good, and the Razor segment was fine too. And not a particularly memorable debut, I had no issues with the premiere of Adam Bomb. Other than that, the squash matches this week were okay, although they could have trimmed the Money Inc match a tad honestly. In the end, this was definitely a more cooled down show, but still a fun one to watch. A B+ is more than fair.