WWF Sunday Night Slam (November 1994)

Original Airdate: November 20, 1994 (Taped November 8)

From Bushkill, Pennsylvania; Your Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Stan Lane. Oddly, this show is taped a day after they did a three-week RAW taping from the same venue. Even with this small crowd of only 1,500, I can’t believe they were able to draw two nights in a row

Opening Match: The Smoking Gunns v The Heavenly Bodies: The Gunns clean house before the bell, and the dust settles on Billy Gunn and Tom Prichard to get us started. Gunn controls an armbar, but a kick to the gut allows Tom a headlock, and a big criss cross ends in Billy bulldogging him. Tag to brother Bart Gunn to work an armbar, but an eye rake allows Prichard to tag Jimmy Del-Ray. Bart quickly swats him down with a shoulderblock, and a reversal sequence ends in Bart hooking a side-headlock on the mat. Tag to Billy for a double-team sidewalk slam/legdrop combo that gets two, but Bart walks right into a cheap shot from Prichard as he comes back in, and the Bodies cut the ring in half. After taking an epic shit-kicking, Bart manages to dodge Prichard coming off the 2^nd rope, and gets the tag to Billy. He's a house of arson to trigger a four-way brawl, and Billy pins Prichard with a sunset flip at 14:00. These guys were on opposite teams for Survivor Series, so booking them made sense, but it overstayed its welcome a bit. *

Survivor Series promo

Review of the Bret Hart/Bob Backlund feud

WWF Hotline promo

Yokozuna v John Chrystal: What a weird feud this was, as I don't think we've seen the Undertaker compete since SummerSlam, let alone have any direct interaction with Yoko. Quickie squash, with Yoko hitting a uranage at 1:06. DUD

Survivor Series Report! Seriously, the graphic of Doink and his three midget clowns will be giving me nightmares for the next six months. I don't know how I ever watched this as a kid. It's like Chucky, but somehow scarier

Owen Hart v Davey Boy Smith: Owen aggravates him by stalling and playing to the fans, and they trade wristlocks for a bit. They trade hammerlocks next, but Owen gets uppity, and Davey press-slams him before clotheslining him out of the ring. Owen milks the count to lure Davey over to the apron, but an attempt to suplex him from the apron gets reversed, and a criss cross ends in Davey hiptossing him into an armbar - Owen immediately complaining of a hairpull. Criss cross leads to Owen taking over with a kneelift, and he dumps Bulldog into the corner for some abuse. Inverted atomic drop sets up some choking, and a straddling ropechoke is worth two. Chinlock, but Davey escapes, so Owen spinheel kicks him for two. He goes back to it, but Davey escapes with a sunset flip for two, so Owen puts him down with an enzuigiri for two - sold with a great somersault by the Bulldog. Bodyslam sets up a 2^nd rope elbowdrop for two, so Davey tries an inside cradle, but gets clotheslined for two. Back to the chinlock, but Bulldog powers up, and a criss cross leads to a double knockout spot. Owen decides to rip the turnbuckle pad off to finish this punk, but Bulldog reverses him into it, and then fires him into it again with a slingshot for two. Monkeyflip, but a charge misses, and Owen bulldogs him. Bulldog keeps coming, so Owen feigns a knee injury off of a leapfrog, and Bob Backlund runs in to slap on the Crossface Chickenwing on Davey for the DQ at 11:30. He wrenches it on, but of course, Bret makes the save. Not as good as some of their later matches, but still quite good - well paced, and well worked. The ending sucked, of course, but it was to be expected. ** ½

BUExperience: For a hype show this wasn’t bad at all, with a good Hart/Smith match, and a decent (if overlong) tag opener. Certainly nothing to go out of your way to see, but it makes a nice companion piece to Survivor Series, for those like me who like to see everything involved in the buildup for these classic shows