WWF Monday Night RAW (October 31, 1994)

Original Airdate: October 31, 1994 (Taped October 17)

From Burlington, Vermont; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Randy Savage

Opening Match: Bob Backlund v Lex Luger: Lex snaps off a quick armdrag right away, and mocks Backlund's goofy duck walk. Might as well just write the obit now, kids. He manages to do it a second time, and even adds a couple of legsweeps. Lockup again, and Luger takes him down in a waistlock, so Backlund reverses, but Luger uses his power advantage to escape. Another lockup ends in Backlund taking him down in a wristlock, so Lex reverses, but Bob is ready with an escape, and he armdrags Luger down to reapply the hold. Bob goes for the Crossface Chickenwing, but Lex has it scouted, and does a tuck-and-roll into the ropes. Bob is right on him with a pair of cross corner whips into a belly-to-belly suplex for two, then a hammerlock-slam to go back after the arm. Tatanka observes from the aisle as Bob slaps on a bearhug, but Lex makes the ropes, so Bob drags him up for an inverted hammerlock. Lex powers his way out, and tosses Backlund into the corners, then puts him on his ass with a kneelift. Powerslam sets up the Rebel Rack, so Tatanka rushes down the aisle, and the distraction allows Backlund to slap on the Chickenwing. However, with Luger in a precarious position, Tatanka can't resist, and charges in to stomp him while he's in the hold - the referee calling for a disqualification at 11:00. Backlund still won't release the hold, however, and when WWF Officials can't pry him off, Randy Savage bolts in to make the save - again teasing a feud that I wish actually happened. Aside from the ending (I know top faces didn't submit back then, but would it have killed them to put Backlund over ahead of his pay per view title shot? Even with the damn distraction) I really dug the psychology of this, with Luger realizing that he had a power advantage, but unable to utilize it because Backlund was outwrestling him on the mat whenever he'd try. Plus, it's really unique to see Lex do this kind of match in his post-WCW days, and I can't remember any other time he worked like this up North. ** ¼

1-2-3 Kid v Tony DeVito: DeVito tries to take a page out of Backlund's book, and outwrestle Kid, but gets shrugged off, as Vince and Randy discuss the great Kliq tag match that aired on Action Zone the day before. And man, did that show go downhill fast! The first two weeks had some classic tag wrestling, and now they're already pimping Yokozuna/Mabel as the feature match for this weekends show. And I don't think there was ever a memorable match after that, actually. Kid with a spinkick, and a flying legdrop finishes at 3:16. ¼*

Survivor Series Report! People used to hate Todd Pettengill, but I'd take him over Michael Cole every day and twice on Sunday. Maybe three times if there's not a lot going on that Sunday. Someone should make one of those Bush-style 'miss me yet?' t-shirts with Pettengill’s face on it and start wearing them to RAWs

Over the weekend, some of the Superstars participated in a charity softball game. You'd think that would be a gimme for Savage, but he's nowhere to be seen, with Lex Luger handling pitching duties. Forget the Stephanie rumors, forget the broadcast stuff, why has no one yet seriously considered this piece of evidence as the straw that broke the camels back?

King Kong Bundy v Bert Centeno: What a lame return this was for Bundy. Even he looks bored out there! You'd think he'd have gone to WCW to get a nostalgia run against Hogan with the Dungeon of Doom instead, because even if they did less with him than Vince was (which would be difficult), the pay would have probably been insane. Avalanche finishes at 2:40, with a five-count. DUD

IRS visits the grave of John Dough to let him know that death doesn't get him a reprieve from having to pay his taxes. Forget his taxes, if our tax dollars are at work paying agents to go to graveyards and threaten literal corpses, we should rise up against them!

Jerry Lawler hosts The King's Court with guests Paul Bearer and The Undertaker, to hype the Casket Match with Yokozuna at Survivor Series

Jim Neidhart v Tony Roy: Neidhart and Owen Hart face Bret and Davey Boy in tag action next week, so this at least has a purpose. One great think about Anvil squashes in 1994, is that even if he was terrible in the ring (if?), Owen would always spend the whole match cutting a promo from the floor - and Owen's always entertaining. Camel clutch finishes Roy at 4:08. DUD

Backstage, Vince McMahon gets an update on Lex Luger - who is still suffering the effects of the Chickenwing when Tatanka decides to sneak attack him. Why this didn't lead to (at least) one Luger/Savage versus Tatanka/Backlund match on TV, I'll never know

BUExperience: Nothing game changing or historically significant, but the feature match is good this week, and the rest of the show was focused – even if a lot of the angles sucked in the long run