Raw opens up with a video package hyping up the Scott Steiner vs Ludvig Borga match that will open up this week's episode of Raw. Borga promises to finish Steiner like all the other American wrestlers, because he's superior, and Steiner ain't nothing. We then fade into Scott Steiner who promises to shut him up. Sadly, it's a pretty simple promo, not the more drugged up loopy Steiner promos of later years. Solid production on the video too, though in the middle it looks like Stiener and Borga are almost about to perform a romantic duet.
Raw makes it's debut in Pennsylvania. Bushkill, Pennsylvania to be exact. The Fernwood Resort welcomes Raw for the next two tapings before the Survivor Series. It's Vince McMahon, Bobby Heenan, and the returning Macho Man at ringside for the action. Heenan is wearing a parachute, as he plans to literally drop in on the Riddick Bowe/Evander Holyfield fight in Vegas.However, he missed the fight already. Savage says that if Crush shows up, all hell's gonna break loose.
For the people who bemoan the WWE's tactics of interactive voting in the modern era, it was just as bad in late 1993 apparently. Vince shills next week's show, and tells fans that they can vote for who will face Pierre the Quebeccer next week. The choices being Marty Jannetty, Doink, Lex Luger, or the 1-2-3 Kid. Considering the tapings will be dun by next week, this once again feels like fleecing a dollar off dumb kids.
Starting Raw this week is the match between Ludvig Borga and Scott Steiner. Before Scott can even get his jacket off, Borga goes in for a cheap shot.Some body blowd follow as Borga takes off Scott's coat and throws it out of the ring. Hard whip to the buckle and a clothesline by Borga. He then goes up on the tope rope and hits a clothesline with some great air. Vince says that if Borga takes out Scott, that leaves Rick and Lex for the All American team. Scott gets whipped to the ropes, but turns a back drop attempt into a double underhook bomb.
Scott then lands a pumphandle slam that sends Broga rolling to the outside to take a breather. Although why the ref is barely counting Borga out and focusing on Scott is annoying. Oh wait it's Earl Hebner. Makes sense now. Borga comes back in and applies a headlock. This is followed by a shoulder block by Borga. Scott manages to catch Borga and hit a belly to belly suplex for a two. Borga gets control back with some punches and another really awesome looking flying clothesline for a two count.
Borga lands a body slam and attempts a jumping elbow drop, but Scott Steiner rolls out of the way. He dropkicks Borga out of the ring as the Quebecers arrive to chat with their Foreign Fanatic partner. We return from commercial break as Steiner gets a suplex over the ropes to Borga. He locks in a Boston crab as Rick Steiner comes to ringside to help even some of the odds at ringside. After about a minute of being locked in, Borga breaks the hold. Borga tries a splash in the corner, but gets a boot to the face. Scott rolls him up for a two. A small package from Scott for only a two again.
Scott lands a better dropkick this time around and still only gets a two count. Body slam as Scott ascends the turnbuckle. He gets another bad dropkick as he only gets another two count. Borga grabs Scott off a whip and hits a powerslam for two. He punches Scott out of the ringas you can see some blood trickling down Borga's nose. Rick Steiner gets on the ringside to confront Borga, but a distraction causes Borga to grab Rick, who then turns it into a back suplex. The Quebecers get in to lay damage on Rick as Earl Hebner calls for the bell.
Scott comes back in and tosses the Quebecers out. The Steiners get a double clothesline on Borga as the referees come on in. Due to double interference, there is no winner. Overall, a pretty solid match to start the show. Scott Steiner continues to be one of the best wrestlers on the product right now, and Ludvig is actually not that bad a wrestler himself. I particularly like his focus on punches to the ribs, along with some rather nice flying clotheslines. For building to the Survivor Series main event, the end brawl really helped escalate the importance, especially considering that the All Americans are a man short right now.
Jeff Jarrett is now at the Ryman Auditorium, home of the Grand Ole Opry. Despite Jarrett being a struggling country music star, he does have enough money for his own personal driver and a vintage Cadillac. More ranting on the corrupt country music industry. He rants on the condemned state of the Opry. He rants on Conway Twitty and George Jones. Neither of them could sing, unlike Double J. The Opry reminds him of the Undertaker. He's going to use the Undertaker and the WWF. They're rename it the Double-J-F. The Ryman Auditorium will also be named the Double J Auditorium.
Men on a Mission are up next for a match against Steve Smith and Cory Student. Also this is actually Cory Student, and not PJ Walker, so Vince doesn't completely bungle things this week. Steve Smith tries to shove Mabel, but doesn't get much offense on the big man. Big back body drop from Mabel as he tags in Mo. Both men hit a double dropkick, to which I do find impressiv for a big man like Mabel in how athletic he can be. Tag to Student who gets a big clothesline by Mo. Mo gets a sunset flip for a two count.
Vince shills the USA movie about the Kennedys as Mabel gets tagged in. Heenan brings up the recent break up between Whoopi Goldberg and Ted Danson, which reminds me of just how frigging long ago this is. Big splash by Mabel and both men hit big elbows. Mabel stands on the back of Student, which I do not envy. Mo back in as he locks in a headlock. Tag to Mabel who splashes Student. He hits a DDT and finishes with the weird bulldog splash double team for the three count. A better squash match this week, but nothing all that amazing.
Todd Pettingill is live with this week's Survivor Series report. He shills the main events, The All Americans against the Foreign Fanatics, which is still in question thanks to the Elimination of Tatanka a few weeks prior. The answer to who will replace Tatanka will be made on Superstars this week, so we'll bring it up on the next episode. The Hart Family vs the King and his Knights is still on as well. Cut to an interview with Bret (which is the first time he's been on this blog since September) who promises that Lawler will be sorry for starting this war with the Hart family. Everyone's going to be there, including the cats and dogs. He doesn't care who the knights are, they're all going down.
Following that is a PSA with the Undertaker. If you drink and drive, sooner or later you're going to meet the Undertaker. Well, when you put it like that, you just made Drinking and Driving sound pretty damn cool. I gotta admit, Undertaker as an anti-drug and drinking spokesman was not something I thought I'd ever see.
Rick "The Model" Martel is in action next, complete with his spray can of Arrogance. He's taking on John Paul (Ain't that the white breadest of white bread jobber names). Armbar by Martel as the crowd is pindrop quiet. Back and forth arm wringers until Martel gets a hiptoss and a body slam. Leapfrog by Paul, but Martel gets in a cartwheel. Headlock takedown by John Paul. He tries again, but gets turned into a back drop. Gutwrench suplex by Martel. He tries to shoulder block Paul in the corner, but misses. John Paul gets in a dropkick. Matel reverses a whip, but John Paul misses a cross body. Martel locks in a Boston Crab to get the win in a rather dull squash. John Paul tried, but it was a little too blah.
The main event is Crush against Dan Dubiel. Macho Man wants to get his hands on Crush, but because of his ambassador clause, he's actually not allowed to interfere in matches. So out of desperation, Vince gives Randy a hug and tries to keep him from getting anywhere near the Heelish Hawaiian. However, Macho Man throws Vince and goes right after Crush.
He gets in some shots at Crush until the officials get involved. This includes Pat Patterson (Sporting a Hard Rock Cafe jacket) and Rene "Worzel" Goulet. Crush gets some shots on Savage and both men brawl up the entrance way.
Bob Backlund is in action against Barry Horowitz. But the focus is still on the Savage brawl. Which makes the fact that we're even having another match after that scuffle seem really out of place. I like Backlund, I like Barry, but the timing feels bad. Horowitz takes down Backlund. As both men grapple, we're told that Crush has been locked in his locker room to keep both men apart. Waist lock by Horiwitz on Backlund gets taken down as Macho Man returns to ringside. He goes back to the table and makes his focus on Heenan. Back to the match, a lot more stalling as Backlund gets taken down by Horowitz again. More stalling as we cut to the locker room of Crush.
Crush says to hell with locks and breaks out, and he brawls with the officials backstage. Randy runs back to the backstage. More brawling backstage as we go to break. When we return, Randy Savage has been locked out of the building, and we focus on the results of the fan vote. It's Lex Luger against Pierre next week, as Luger got a landslide 62% vote. But screw all that...
We're ending this show with more brawling from Savage and Crush.
I can call this Raw a reverse Oreo. You get the really awesome cream filling on the top and bottom, and in the middle is the okay, but not as satisfying cookie. Nothing wrong with that cookie, but it's just there overall. The Steiner/Borga match was a solid match between both big men, and the entire scuffle between Macho Man and Crush did not disappoint. These two want to kill each other, and it's proving to be the best stuff on the show right now. As for the Men on a Mission match and the Martel Squash, they were forgettable but nothing offensive. I give this Raw for it's great beginning and end a B-.