WWF Monday Night RAW (October 25, 1993)

Original Airdate: October 25, 1993 (Taped October 18)

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

Cute RAW Girl Sign of the Week: Do You Like Home Cooking? I Prefer It RAW

We start with a review of the Savage/Crush Summit from last week - now in artistic black-and-white!

Opening Match: Crush v Phil Apollo: Crush now has Mr. Fuji, face paint, and his new silver/purple tights - which is actually the look I associate most with the character. Apollo tries a dropkick, but his attempt at a punch follow-up gets his fist caught, and Crush muscles him down. Savate kick and a spinkick hit, and Crush whips him into the corner to set up a lariat. Headbutt and a delayed press slam follow, and Crush finishes the squash with the Kona Crush at 2:49. Nothing, but it served its purpose of introducing us to heel Crush well. ¼*

Backstage, Johnny Polo offers his thoughts on the upcoming 1-2-3 Kid/Marty Jannetty match, which basically amount to Polo calling them gay. Strong words, from a man wearing an outfit that includes both a sailors hat and a tracksuit

1-2-3 Kid v Marty Jannetty: Appropriately slow start, as they spend some time sizing each other up, until the more experienced Jannetty takes him down into a front-facelock. Kid manages to counter into a hammerlock, and they trade a few reversals in the hold until a criss cross starts - won by Marty with a hiptoss, but Kid kips up, and they're back to square one. Kid hooks a side-headlock, but Jannetty triggers another criss cross - this one won by Kid with a victory roll for two. Back to squaring off, and Jannetty hooks a headlock, but another criss cross goes Kid's way with a spinheel kick for two. This time he follows up with lightning kicks, but a rana is blocked with a powerbomb for two, as Johnny Polo makes his way to ringside. Marty goes back to the headlock, but this time the criss cross is interrupted when Polo trips Marty up, and Kid dives onto him for two. Lightning kicks in the corner as the crowd tries to figure out if Kid has turned heel, or something. Kid with a pair of sliding legdrops, but a swanton bomb misses, and Marty hooks the leg for two. Marty with a facebuster for two, and another criss cross sees Polo trip Kid up, so now the crowd knows what's up. Jannetty bitches at Johnny about it, and gets rolled up for two, but quickly recovers with a cross corner whip, and a hammerlock into a cradle gets two. Pair of snap suplexes hit, but a third try is countered into a bridging German suplex by Kid for two. Marty railroads him into the corner before he can follow up, but another cross corner whip ends in the referee getting knocked down, and Kid kicks Jannetty out of the ring. He dives out after him with a somersault tope, but Polo shoves Marty out of the way, and Kid just splats on the floor with zero support. Both guys are down now, and Polo leads the referee through a ten-count for a double-countout at 13:00. Johnny gloats as the bell sounds, but Marty drags him into the ring, and Kid joins them to give the jerk a proper beat down. Not as good as I imagined it would be, as it was too short to tell the story they were trying to tell with all the feeling out stuff at the start, and didn't really go anywhere. Still good, and filled with crisp spots and near falls, just disappointing. ** ¼

Jeff Jarrett vignette. He spends more time aiming threats at Willie Nelson than anyone on the WWF roster, though

Ludvig Borga v Mike Bucci: In an awesome moment, Borga doesn't even wait for the bell - marching into the ring, and grabbing Bucci by the throat before Howard Finkel can even finish introducing him. He destroys him in the corner, and a cross corner whip sets up a clothesline. Flapjack and a suplex hit, then he adds a sidewalk slam before kidney punching Bucci, and finishing with the Torture Rack at 3:45. Wow, he just killed him. Afterwards, Borga stops by the announce table for a quick word with Bobby Heenan - hyping his streak versus streak match with Tatanka for Superstars that coming weekend. ¼*

Men on a Mission v Todd Mata and Steve Greenman: Mo starts with Greenman, and they trade wristlocks until Mo starts dancing, and pounds him. Turnbuckles smashes and a 2^nd rope clothesline hit, and he tags out to big Mabel. Mabel works a wristlock of his own (while still dancing, of course), and whips Greenman into the ropes for a clothesline. Bodyslam, and Mo comes in to hit a sloppy double-team dropkick before Greenman finally tags. Mata actually tries to wrestle the mammoth Mabel, but gets caught in a full-nelson, and taken to the mat with a drop-toehold into a bow-and-arrow - though everything done at about a quarter speed. Tag to Mo for an elbowdrop, and they finally get around to the pinfall with a Mabel hangman's clothesline at 5:33. Way the fuck too long. DUD

Survivor Series Report

Diesel v Dan Dubiel: Diesel's finally switched to the all black leather look here, and thank God, because that tracksuit wasn't doing him any favors in getting over. He muscles Dubiel into the corner for a couple of kneelifts right away, so Dan tries a 2^nd rope clothesline, but gets caught and tossed back into the corner for more shots. Gutwrench powerbomb (I guess the Jackknife wasn't his finish yet), and a pair of short-clotheslines set up a headvise, but Dubiel is too stupid to quit, apparently. Backbreaker and a stiff looking big boot hit, and Diesel finishes with simple punch to the face at 4:02. Diesel was still far from competent in the ring, but this was energetic, at least. ¼*

BUExperience: Pretty forgettable episode outside of a good Kid/Jannetty match this week, as they continue to build towards Survivor Series in the least exciting way imaginable.