Raw is still in Poughkeepsie for this week's episode. It's Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan on commentary for the evening, as if you recall last week, Macho Man was taken out by the turning Crush and his new ally the WWF Champ Yokozuna. They recap what is for the most part a pretty squash-a-riffic cartd featuring Diesel, Ludvig Borga, Crush, and more. This is followed up with black and white footage of the summit from last week complete with shouty Vince.
Speaking of Crush, he's opening Raw this week. Led to the ring by Mr. Fuji, he's sporting new "heelish" face paint and evil purple and silver attire. His opponent is Phil Apollo. Heenan mocks Savage's lacerated tongue. Apollo ducks a clothesline and dropkicks Crush, but doesn't knock him down. Crush squeeses the arms and powers down Apollo and follows with a superkick. A whip and a rather terrible spin kick follows up. Hard whip to the buckle and a clothesline connects, followed by a leg drop. Crush tears at the jaw of Apollo and follows up with a gorilla press slam. He applies the Kona Crush head vice for the win. He stomps on Apollo post-match and hits a leg drop. Not a bad squash match, but even with this new heel persona, Crush's in-ring is still kind of bland.
Johnny Polo has some words about the upcoming match between Marty Janetty and the 1-2-3 Kid. He believes that he can beat both men with both of his arms tied behind his back. He really thinks he can hold his own against both of them? What a raven lunatic.
Up next it's the 1-2-3 Kid taking on Marty Janetty for some reason. Weird to have a face versus face match out of the blue like this. Especially since both men will be teaming up at the Survivor Series. A sudden discussion on Minnie Pearl and Leona Helmsley while this match starts rather slow. Takedown and a headlock by Janetty to the Kid, as Jud turns it into a hammerlock for a little while. Both men turn the lock around for another minute until both men flip over each other, until both men manage to even out.
Headlock by the Kid for a while until Janetty breaks it off. Leapfrog by Janetty, but the Kid turns it into a roll up for a two count. Kid gets a big spinning heel kick for a two count. More kicks by the kid, who then tries a hurricanrana, but gets caught into a powerbomb by Janetty for two. Johnny Polo comes to ringside as we go to break. When we return, Polo trips Janetty as the Kid goes for a cover for two. A series of quick leg drops on Janetty. The Kid goes for a flip splash, but misses.
A facebuster by Janetty only gets a two count as Johnny Polo gloats that he could beat both men. He then trips the Kid, as Marty coves for another two. Polo distracts Marty as the Kid schoolboys for a two. Hard whip to the buckle and another hammerlock by Marty who turns it around into a cover for two. Crisp snap suplex as Marty is still focused on Polo at ringside. He goes for another suplex and connects. He tries a third, but the Kid turns it into a German suplex for a two.
A miscommunication causes the Kid to whip Marty into the referee. He then kicks Marty out of the ring and tries for a dive outside, but Polo shoves Marty into the ring post as the Kid crashes and burns. Neither man can get up for the ten count as both lose. Polo laughs at the loss of the two men, but gets caught by Marty. They bring Polo into the ring and hit him with a shot to the gut and a bulldog followed by a double superkick, knocking Polo out. They hit a double wishbone to finish the job.
Overall, an okay but underwhelming match between two guys that I know can put on a better match. While I still don't get the very concept of this face/face match, at least the addition of Johnny Polo made it make some sense. It had a logical ending, and the heel gets some much needed comeuppance. So in the end, it's hard to really complain.
Next up is another vignette for Jeff Jarrett. This week he's focused on the corrupt politics in country music. He's at Buddy Lee Attractions, but the talent company won't give him a shot because they clearly don't want a Tennessee boy. He then rants on Willie Nelson, who can't carry a tune in a bucket. Jeff is the greatest singer and the greatest wrestler. And when he's done with the WWF he will get Buddy Lee to crawl on his hands and knees and beg to sign Jeff Jarrett.
Up next is the newly coined "Hellraiser from Helsinki" Ludvig Borga, who wastes no time attacking his opponent Mike Bucchi. He hits a hard clothesline and follows with a double choke slam. More clubbing by Borga as we hear that Borga will take on Tatanka on Superstars. It's a battle of the undefeated. Hard suplex by Borga on Bucchi followed by an elbow. Sidewalk slam as he continues to call out Lex Luger. Borga hits several punches to the ribs and follows with a massive jumping clothesline. Borga wins with the torture rack. A pretty decent squash match.
Bobby Heenan congratulates Borga on his victory, as Borga brings up that the winning streak of Tatanka will be defeated. He's going to end his career like he'll end the American dream. So, let's take a detour and see just how well Tatanka fared on the October 30th edition of Superstars (Apologies on the image quality).
For the most part, Borga remains in control for the most part, and despite Tatanka's efforts, he can barely keep Borga down. Also yes, Borga does do what
EVERY
SINGLE
PERSON
HAS
DONE
IN
A
TATANKA
MATCH!!!!
He rams Tatanka into the buckle, which prompts the war dance. He no sells the body blows and tries for tomahawk chops. But this time, Borga tosses him right over the top rope. With Mr. Fuji at ringside, Borga hits Tatanka with a chair while the ref is distracted. Tatanka is knocked out and the mighty Tatanka runs ends with Borga pinning hin with one finger. The streak is dead and I've never been happier.
However, post-match things get worse for the Native American as Yokozuna comes to the ring as Borga drags Tatanka to the corner for the champ to hit the Banzai drop. He goes for a second, as Luger fights off the Quebecers to head to the rescue. However Pierre and Jacques continue assault as the officials pull them off. He manages to make the save and attacks Borga and Yokozuna.
This is great. Tatanka finally loses, Borga looks like a beast, the most pointless streak in wrestling is at an end, and there's some actual decent build to the Survivor Series main event. If ever there was a visual version of catharsis, that would definitely be it.
Raise your hands in the air as it's the Men on a Mission in action next against Tom Mata and Steve Greenman. Mo sporting a zebra mohawk which just looks silly. Greenman locks some arm locks and mocks the dancing of Mo. Hard chop by Greenman, but Mo rams him head first on the buckle, and hits a decent clothesline for a man of Mo's size. Tag to Mabel who lays blows on the arm and hits a jumping clothesline. Body slam and a series of quick tags. Double dropkicks on Greenman. I'll give Mabel credit, at least he got some height.
Tag to Mata as both men exchange hammerlocks. Drop toe hold by Mabel who then puts in a surfboard son Mata. Tag to Mo as both men drop double elbows. I'll give them credit, they're pretty over with the live crowd. Some gingerly chops by Mo who tags back in Mabel. they hit a drop toe hold and an elbow. Big splash in the corner to Mata and a sandwich by both men. Front bulldog by Mabel gets the three. Overall, a decent squash, and I am liking Men on a Mission a bit more. Though their squashes do feel a bit bland overall.
Joe Fowler is with us for the Survivor Series report. Added to the card from the past week is two new matches. Bam Bam Bigelow, The Headshrinkers, and Bastion Booger will take on four Doinks. I guess the miror move is still in effect. Also added will be Mr. Perfect, Razor Ramon, 1-2-3 Kid and Marty Janetty taking on IRS, Adam Bomb, Diesel, and Rick Martel. And this now officially makes for no championship matches on the card overall.
Our main event of the evening is the singles debut on Raw for Diesel, who now has "theme music" of sorts. It's not the cooler later theme, it's just the sound of a truck horn constantly blaring. Dan Dubiel is the squashee of the evening. Knees in the corner by Diesel. Dubiel goes for a move off the top but gets caught. Rather sloppy underhook slam by Disel as Dubiel falls on his ass. He follows up with a couple clotheslines and a hard shot to the head. He grips on the face of Dubiel in a rather hard facelock. Heenan shills Silk Stalkings, though fumbles through it as he calls it an "all new episisse".
More shots by Diesel, which seens to be all Diesel can do at the moment. He kicks around Dubiel and lands a rib breaker. A knee lift and a big boot follows up. Diesel finishes it off with a straight punch for the three. A decent squash, but not exactly the most amazing in ring debut. Definitely room for improvement.
We end Raw with the shills for next week's show. Mr. Perfect will be in action, The Smoking Gunns will take on Well Dunn (Their first Raw appearance), Razor Ramon vs Bastion Booger, and an interview with the Foreign Fanatics team.
This Raw was okay, but nothing memorable. The squashes were all pretty standard stuff, and the Janetty/Kid match could have been much better. I guess after a few weeks of decent episodes you do have to eventually land back to basics overall. Nothing overall wrong with any of that, but it ends up being kind of forgettable by the end. I do like that there's more of a build to Survivor Series as we only have a few Raws left before the event. As for this one, it gets a fair B rating.