WWF Monday Night RAW (July 19, 1993)

Original Airdate: July 19, 1993

From New York, New York; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon, Bobby Heenan, and Randy Savage.

We start with footage of Lex Luger on the Lex Express tour across America to prepare for Yokozuna. God, Lex comes off like a prototype for the corporate John Cena we’re so used to in literally every way here.

Opening WWF Intercontinental Title Match: Shawn Michaels v Marty Jannetty: Shawn tries to use Diesel as a distraction for a sneak attack, but Marty lands on his feet to block a backdrop, and clotheslines Shawn to block a backslide - covering for a quick two count. Rollup for two, so Shawn tries his own, but Marty hits the deck, and sends him flying out through the ropes. Back in, Shawn manages a side-headlock, but Marty whips him into the ropes for a criss cross, and a reversal sequence ends in a stalemate when Marty ducks the superkick. Shawn rakes the eyes and chokes him, but misses a blind charge, and takes a pair of armdrags. Bodyslam gets two, and Marty grabs a wristlock. Shawn with a backelbow to break, but another charge misses, and Jannetty hits a 2^nd rope clothesline. Flying fistdrop, but Michaels rolls out of the way, so Marty changes direction in midair, and lands on his feet. He grabs a surprised Michaels with a DDT, and we have a new champion at 5:08. Oh, but wait, Diesel alerts the referee that Shawn's foot was on the ropes, and we continue. They slug it out on the floor, and inside, Jannetty blocks a backdrop with a snap suplex for two. Backbreaker gets two, and he hooks a sleeper, but Shawn escapes via a side suplex. High knee knocks Marty out to the floor, but Shawn helps him in for another criss cross - this one ending in a double knockout. Shawn makes it to the top and hits a flying axehandle for two, then slaps on a chinlock. He sifts into a front-facelock when Marty tries to break, but Marty manages to crotch him on the top rope to shake him off, and he hits a jumping backelbow for two. Backdrop, but Shawn counters with a piledriver, countered by Jannetty with a rana for two. Cross corner charge misses, however, and Shawn hits a flying bodypress, but Marty rolls through for two. Rocker dropper leaves Shawn flopping around, but he manages to duck a bodypress, and Marty goes flying out. Diesel helps him back in for Michaels to cover, and Shawn gets a rather anticlimactic pinfall at 23:00. I totally thought we were going to get a dramatic kickout there. This is a weird match in that the hype has actually lessened the impact. It's great on its own, but has been built up so much (it won PWIs Match of the Year, and earned rave reviews from Dave Meltzer) that its gross overrating (this wasn't even the best match on RAW in 1993, let alone best of the year) sets it up to be disappointing. It's still a really good match, loaded with neat former tag partner reversals, but the ending was out of nowhere, and it was pretty slow at times. *** ¼

Vince McMahon brings Money Inc out for an in-ring interview. They pick up an angle from a couple of weeks back, again taunting Razor Ramon for losing to the 1-2-3 Kid. DiBiase, kind hearted man that he is, offers Ramon a job as a pool cleaner to help him recoup his $10,000 loss. Though, really, Ramon's character was that of a Scarface-like drug dealer. I doubt ten grand meant all that much to him. Anyway, Razor comes down to reject their offer in person, and of course it ends up in a brawl to cement Ramon's face turn

Cute RAW Girl Sign of the Week: Have a RAW Day

Men on a Mission v Rich Myers and Hank Harris: The camera crew makes sure to focus on a couple of black people in the crowd, thus proving that these guys are legit, yo. MOM don't even wait for the bell, and quickly catch Myers with a drop-toehold legdrop combo, and Mabel slams him. Tag to Harris, but Mo is all over him, and Mabel finishes him with a bodyslam and a splash at 1:45. Standard debut stuff, as they ran through a few of their basic tandem spots to introduce themselves to the audience. DUD

SummerSlam Report! Gene Okerlund actually dances to the theme music, which was... interesting. After nearly twenty years of all pay per views running on Sundays, it's still weird hearing them hype a Monday show - though non-Sunday shows were still common until they switched to a monthly schedule in 1995

More aboard the Lex Express, as Luger literally shakes hands and kisses babies to prepare for SummerSlam. Look, I get the idea of building fan support for a hastily face-turned Luger, but wouldn't it make more sense for him to, I dunno, TRAIN in preparation for a WWF Title match with the guy who finished Hulk Hogan?

Bastion Booger v Scott Despres: Despres looks like a young JBL, actually. Not that Booger cares, slamming him and finishing with a sit-down splash in all of 1:00. DUD

The King's Court, with guest, musician Tiny Tim. Basically just Jerry Lawler running through his usual insult comic routine, and then smashing Tim's ukulele. Man, I guess they were really, REALLY desperate for ANY kind of celebrity rub in 1993, because this was so far down the barrel that I've never even HEARD of this segment before

1-2-3 Kid v Chris Duffy: Kid catches him with a quick takedown for two, as Money Inc come back down - looking to get their hands on Kid to show Ramon what a jobber he really is. Meanwhile, Kid unloads lightning kicks on the actual jobber, but gets hiptossed as Razor Ramon makes his way out to keep on eye on DiBiase and IRS. Kid comes back with a sliding legdrop, but misses a blind charge, and gets shoulderblocked. Kid returns fire with a spinheel kick, and a dropkick sets up a flying legdrop at 2:10. Afterwards, Kid notices Money Inc and Razor hanging out, and opts to leave through the crowd. Guess he didn't get the memo on Ramon's face turn there. Fun quickie with an angle in the background. ¼*

BUExperience: Michaels/Jannetty is worth seeing both for the match quality and for historical purposes, as well as Razor Ramon’s official face turn. Plus, the Tiny Tim bit (hehe, ‘tim bit’) is one of those ‘so bad it’s good’ segments, now that enough time has passed.