WWF Monday Night RAW (February 21, 1994)

Original Airdate: February 21, 1994

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

Opening WWF Tag Team Title Match: The Quebecers v Razor Ramon and 1-2-3 Kid: This was originally scheduled and set up as Ramon and Marty Jannetty challenging, but Marty left the promotion between the previous RAW taping and this show. The champs attack before the bell, and toss Razor to the outside to properly double-team Kid - only for Pierre to take a boot to the face while coming off the middle rope, and Jacques to get monkeyflipped. Razor runs back in and throws Kid at them with a blockbuster, and they bail out to manager Johnny Polo. They stall out there for a long while, until they settle on Pierre starting with Kid. More stalling, as Pierre hides in the ropes to avoid lightning kicks, and finally, Kid slaps on a side-headlock. He takes Pierre down to the mat in it, and then tags Ramon when he tries to escape. Razor works an overhead wristlock, but Pierre makes the ropes. Criss cross ends in Polo tripping Ramon up, and the champs pounce, but Razor takes them both out with clotheslines. He goes for Polo, and gives him the Razors Edge on the floor for his troubles. Unfortunately, that leads to more stalling, as Polo is carried out, and The Quebecers protest. Back in, Pierre ties up with Ramon, and ends up in another wristlock. Tag to Kid for a flying axehandle onto the arm, and he works a wristlock of his own - peppering it with lightning kicks. Back to Razor for a criss cross, and he responds to a leapfrog attempt by simply punching the spread-legged Quebecer in the balls. Looked like they messed up there, but a good save all around. Backdrop, and the challengers wishbone Pierre. Kid with a spinheel kick for two, and he goes to work on Pierre's leg. The challengers continue to cut the ring in half, but Razor ends up getting shoved into the corner, and Jacques tags. Unfortunately for him, Razor sweeps him almost immediately, and they start targeting his knee too. Kid holds him in a leglock, and Razor tries a spinning-toehold, as Diesel makes his way down to observe. The distraction allows Pierre a cheap shot, and the heels take over - cutting the ring in half on Ramon. Razor manages a sunset flip on Jacques for two, as we get a cool camera shot: seeing the match unfold in the reflection of Diesel's sunglasses. Would have been cooler had they went the St. Elsewhere route, and eventually revealed that the entire promotion is just a reflection in Diesel's shades. Tag to Kid for lightning kicks on Pierre (with Pierre hilariously begging off), but a dropkick misses - Kid landing on his knee. Oh, the irony! Quebecers with a double-team flapjack onto the top rope, and Jacques slams Pierre onto him for two, as they cut the ring in half on their new victim. Jacques tries backdropping Pierre onto him, but Kid rolls out of the way, and tags. Ramon is a casa of fire, and Pierre takes a side superplex! Razors Edge looks to finish, but here comes Shawn Michaels for the disqualification at 20:00. A bit too much stalling in the early going, but I really got into the story (Kid and Ramon working Pierre over with quick tags and double-teams was great stuff), and everyone worked hard. The ending wasn't ideal, but it was appropriate in furthering the Ramon/Michaels angle ahead of WrestleMania. *** ¼

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

Bret Hart v Tom Prichard: All pink look for the Hitman tonight - my favorite of his alternate tights. They trade waistlocks to start, and then onto hammerlocks. Prichard accuses him of hair pulling, as Vince compares Bret and Owen's issues to the 'dissention' in Michael Jackson's family. I could see it, actually. Moreso after everything we learned in later years, but yeah, I could see it. Prichard tries shoving him into the corner, but Bret hammers him, and hits a backdrop. Dropkick knocks Tom out to the floor to confer with manager Jim Cornette, and back inside, Bret takes him down in an armbar. Prichard uses a bodyslam to escape, but misses an elbowdrop, and ends up right back in the hold. Prichard manages to escape, and avoids ending up back in the hold by knocking Hart into the corner for some chokes. Hanging vertical suplex gets two, and Tom applies a chinlock. Bret goes back to the arm to escape, but Prichard wrenches the chinlock on, as now Vince tries to compare the Hart Brothers issues to jealousy between Mark and Donnie Wahlberg, since Donny will be at WrestleMania, and Mark won't. Uh, yeah. Meanwhile, Prichard holds the Hitman in a bow-and-arrow, and knocks him into the ropes for Cornette to abuse with the tennis racket - only for Randy Savage to hop over from the announce table to stop it! The distraction allows Bret to hit a Russian legsweep for two, and he follows with an inside cradle for two. Backbreaker sets up the 2^nd rope pointed elbowdrop for two, and another cradle gets two. Cornette trips him up during a criss cross, however, and Prichard knees him out of the ring, as Savage deals with Jim. Meanwhile, Owen Hart sprints down to 'check' on Bret, and shoves him back in for Tom to finish. Prichard misses a knee in the corner right away though, and Bret suplexes him before locking on the Sharpshooter at 16:00. Afterwards, both the Hart brothers tease a fight, with both Bret AND Owen pulling down the straps. Oh man! If I wasn't buying WrestleMania X before, I sure as shit am now! I really enjoyed this, as it was just old school goodness from bell-to-bell, with both guys trading off on the mat, and keeping even restholds interesting with counters and escape attempts. ***

WrestleMania X Report! The focus at this point is still all the CRAZY celebrities that are going to be in attendance, rather than stuff like, I dunno, that Ladder Match thingy, or the Hart Brothers' five-star classic opener. Fuck that! Sy Sperling will be there!

Little Richard hypes his involvement in WrestleMania X

Jim Cornette leads Yokozuna down to get revenge on Randy Savage for attacking him during the last match, as well as hype up their match for next week

BUExperience: Right down to business this week, with two very good, very long matches that worked to build up two very good angles for WrestleMania. Not much else, but what more could you want in a one hour show?