Tuesday, August 9, 2016

A Taste of the New Generation: Broken Harts: WWF Monday Night Raw: October 24th, 1994



We're still chugging through the Burlington, Vermont tapings for this, the October 24th edition of Raw. In action tonight is Diesel, Adam Bomb, The Smoking Gunns and... sigh... Tatanka. But opening action tonight is the WWF Intercontinenal Championship match between champion Razor Ramon and Yokozuna. Yoko starts with a cheap shot to the back of Razor while he's distracted. He lays in some strikes and a headbutt. Razor ducks a clothesline and lands some right forearms and several clotheslines. It takes a third big clothesline to send Yoko to the mat and one more to send him tumbling on the outside.

After some stalling, Yoko returns to the ring and consults with Mr. Fuji. Razor ducks a clothesline and tries a cross body, but gets caught into a body slam. Yoko tries an elbow, but Razor avoids. Razor tries a clothesline, but Yoko reverses with some hard whips to the buckle and a big leg drop. Yoko is already gassed and it shows. Yoko tosses Razor out of the ring. When Razor gets back in, he tries a few rights, but gets taken down quick by Yoko, who follows through with a nerve hold as we go to break.


When we return from break, Razor tries to break the nerve hold, but Yoko knocks him down. He works in some hard rights to Razor in the corner. He reapplies the nerve hold for another couple minutes. Yoko whips Razor into the buckle and sets up a hip bump in the corner, but misses. Razor gets a bulldog off the second rope for a two count. More boots and fists by Razor as a casket is being carried to ringside.


Razor knocks Yoko out of the ring. Yoko ends up bumping into the casket. When he notices, he hauls ass as fast as possible out of the ring, giving Razor the win via count out.
Not a bad opening match. Some good offense and energy from Razor and Yokozuna early on, but you could tell that Yoko was getting winded way too quickly, hence the slower nerve hold spots midway through the match. The ending was entertaining, continuing on Yokozuna's casket phobia and seeing him run as fast as he can is oddly hilarious.


It's Todd Pettengill with the first Survivor Series 1994 report. We're under a month away with the event airing November 23rd. Announced for the event so far is the WWF Championship match between Bret Hart and Bob Backlund, in an attempt to settle this feud once and for all. Also on the card is the first Survivor Series match for the event. It's Guts and Glory (The Smoking Gunns, Mabel and Adam Bomb) vs the Million Dollar Team (Tatanka, Bam Bam Bigelow, King Kong Bundy and the Heavenly Bodies).


Up next is the Smoking Gunns in action against Barry Hardy and Mike Bell. After an ad for Bob Backlund vs Lex Luger next week on Raw, we come back to see Bart with some offense on Bell including a monkey flip out of the corner. Billy comes in and lands a knee drop. Tag back to Bart who tags Billy right back in as both men land a suplex/dropkick combo. Billy hits a powerslam and tags back in Bart. Sidewinder double team gets the three for Bart and Billy in a quick squash.


Tatanka is in action next against Scott Taylor. Feels like it's been a while since Scotty's done some jobber work on Raw. Tatanka starts with some chops and hard whips to the buckles. Chop and a body slam followed by an elbow drop. Tatanka follows with a hard clothesline. The crowd chants "Traitor" at Tatanka as he stomps town Scott Taylor. Scott manages to dodge a back drop and gets a roll up for two. He tries a hiptoss, but gets a clothesline from Tatanka for his troubles. Body slam and a diving chop from Tatanka is followed with his End of the Trail drop for the three in what I'll admit wasn't that bad a squash. Post-match Tatanka drops Taylor with another End of the Trail


We cut to a funeral home as we see IRS in front of a hearse. There are two things in life. Death and taxes. The man in the hearse knows about death, but something's not sitting right with him. How many people try to get out of paying taxes by dying? Irwin even tries to claim the man died intentionally. The man is literally trying to tax the deceased. This gimmick has finally reached the point of absolutely amazing.

Up next it's Adam Bomb vs Phil Apollo. We've had the Kool-Aid tongue, the crazy eyes, the bomb footage, the goggles. And now finally, Adam Bomb has...

The fart pyro! 

Apollo tries offense early, but after some dodges, Adam Bomb gets a hiptoss and a slam. It's time for the USA Network shill of the week (it's been a while): A tribute to the late John Candy for three nights. Adam Bomb gets a whip to the buckle and a back suplex. He goes up to the top buckle and lands a flying clothesline. He hits the Atom Smasher for the three in a fast squash.


And then literally out of nowhere comes Bob Backlund, who sneaks up behind Adam Bomb, locking him in the Crossface Chicken Wing. After almost a minute in, the officials finally get him to remove the hold.


 Up next is the King's Court. "You people are so ugly, you should say boo instead of hello". These people aren't ugly, just facially challenged. Last time of the King's Court he introduced Queasy. And last week we met Sleazy. But this week, it's time to meet yet another king. you see, Doink now has another clown in his party named Pink, so Lawler evens it up with Cheesy. Lawler issues a challenge to Doink. He's got three kings, Doink has three clowns and nobody gets the last laugh on the King. If the clowns have the guts then come and get it. The fans call him the burger king, well he has a whopper for Doink. This gets dumber by the week.


In our last match of the evening, it's Diesel in action against Ben Jordan. Diesel gets a choke toss early and rams Jordan hard into the buckle multiple times following with a clothesline. Jordan tries an offense, but is denied. Diesel lands a big sidewalk slam amd a snake eyes in the corner. He locks in a head vice for a few seconds and a hard body slam. Diesel drops an elbow to the chest of Jordan and followes with a brief bearhug, sending him in the corner. After more wrenching of the head, Diesel eventually finishes this with a big boot and a jacknife powerbomb in a dominant (but waaay too long) squash.


Next week it's the Undertaker on the King's Court, more on the Survivor Series and Lex Luger vs Bob Backlund. Speaking of Backlund, he's already in the ring ready for his match with Lex Luger.

An overall decent episode of Raw this week. Moved by very fast, which is always a plus for these types of shows. Yokozuna vs Razor was solid fare, though nothing outstanding save for Yoko freaking out over the casket. The squashes were all simple and to the point, though Diesel's was a bit too long for my taste. The King's Court was more stupidity for a stupid angle, but that wasn't even that hard to sit through. Overall this Raw is nothing special, but nothing to give you a headache. Final rating is a C+.

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