WWF Superstars (April 24, 1993)

Original Airdate: April 24, 1993 (taped April 6)

From Tucson, Arizona; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon, Randy Savage, and Jerry Lawler

Shawn Michaels v Dale Wolfe: Shawn's WWF Intercontinental title is not on the line. Lawler is very excited at how the ‘little girls swoon’ over Michaels. He also gets multiple jabs in at Savage about how Shawn is his superior in every way, so maybe this was around the period when Macho was pitching an extended program between he and Michaels that Vince shot down. Too bad we never got that one, it would have been a much better swan song for Savage in the WWF than the Crush match (even if the feud itself was good). Vince notes that Mr. Perfect wouldn’t put up with Shawn’s ‘shenanigans,’ though clearly Vince had no problem doing so. Michaels with a superkick, and he teases the Teardrop suplex, before just shoving Wolfe to the mat, and arrogantly pinning him at 2:46. ½*

Crush can get a taste of whatever he wants here in the World Wrestling Federation! Clearly

WWF Tag Team Champion Money Inc are still gloating about retaining their title at WrestleMania. Kind of weird that they’re talking about potential rematches with Hogan and Beefcake when both of those guys had already moved on, and in fact, Brutus wasn’t even being mentioned on TV anymore at all. Ted DiBiase has a pretty nasty bruise on his cheek here, did he give Elizabeth a place to stay, or something?

The Steiner Brothers v Reno Riggins and Billy Jones: Despite Money Inc’s focus being on Hogan and Beefcake, the announcers are clearly building up the Steiner’s as the next challengers, and obviously that’s where all the booking was headed at this point. I’m kind of surprised they even aired that weird promo. Vince notes that Steiner squashes are really fun to watch. Yeah, to watch. Not for poor Reno and Billy. Frankensteiner finishes Riggins at 3:59. The usual Steiner brutality here. ¼*

Raymond Rougeau introduces Bam Bam Bigelow, but Sensational Sherri crashes it, wanting to rant about Luna Vachon. Bam Bam objects, but Sherri backtalks him, so Bigelow gets physical. That draws Tatanka out to make the save, and Bam Bam takes a nice bump off of the platform during the pull apart brawl

Tito Santana v Louie Spicolli: The announcers note that Owen Hart blew out his knee during his match with Bigelow last week, so I guess that it was a legitimate injury, as I suspected. I know everyone really loves Bobby Heenan on commentary (and I do too), but Lawler is such a breath of fresh air here. He’s got the spirit of Jesse Ventura, where he gives as good as he gets with Vince, and doesn’t let him get away with anything. El Paso finishes at 2:03. Tito was a total non-factor by this point, though the crowd still liked him enough. DUD

Damien Demento v KC Cleric: Speaking of total non-factors. Demento is still totally committed to his character here, but it’s clearly going nowhere. Meanwhile, Vince makes KC and The Sunshine Band jokes, which I’m pretty sure he thought made him sound as cutting edge as Lenny Bruce. Demento gets one interesting spot here, forcing Cleric to bite his own finger, which prompts a funny line from Lawler about ‘biting the hand the feeds you.’ Demento with a neckbreaker to set up a kneedrop at 2:32. ¼*

Smoking Gunns vignette. I liked the Gunns as a team, but my God, this vignette makes them look like toal dorks

King of the Ring ad

Jim Duggan v Tim Patterson: Lawler rants about the King of the Ring concept, since he’s already the undisputed king. I have a feeling that might come up again sometime. Patterson looks like a young Edge, though he isn’t, of course. Vince suggests that he’s the cousin of Pat Patterson, which I have no idea if that’s true, but it would be interesting. Duggan screams about Yokozuna throughout the match, before polishing Tim off with the three point stance at 2:45. DUD

Gorilla Monsoon reveals that President Jack Tunney’s investigation into Lex Luger’s forearm has found that he has a steel plate implanted in it, the result of a motorcycle accident in 1992. So that’s how he keeps knocking everyone out. However, Tunney is ‘powerless’ to do anything about it. Then what was the point of the whole investigation? Like, there was only two possible results: he had something implanted, or he didn’t. Obviously, if he didn’t, there’s nothing Tunney would do about it. And, apparently, even with it implanted, there’s nothing Tunney can do. So why jerk everyone around?

Tatanka v Steve Vega: No match, as Tatanka gets jumped by Bam Bam Bigelow backstage, and Bigelow chops off some of Tatanka’s red streaked hair as payback for earlier. Savage seems to think some major line has been crossed, and anyone who remembers the similar Andre the Giant angle certainly knows how serious Vince would think this is. But, luckily, he doesn’t scream anything about ‘rape’ this time

Mr. Hughes v Raven Clark: Lawler thinks what happened to Tatanka is hilarious, which, of course, offends Vince. McMahon wonders if someone might step up to manager Hughes, and Harvey Wippleman split screens in to offer his services. Interestingly, most of his participation in the promotion would be as a manager/bodyguard for others. Hughes with his usual dull squash, as Savage sits silent, still fuming over what happened to Tatanka. Considering a guy is running around giving people potential concussions with steel plated forearms, is a little haircut really the biggest thing we have to worry about in this promotion? Hughes with a scrapbuster at 2:36. DUD

Yokozuna eats a lot. I get why they put Mr. Fuji with him, but Fuji is a terrible, horrible mouthpiece, especially for a main event level character. Thankfully they brought Jim Cornette in soon

Mr. Perfect is not a piece of garbage. Maybe Jack Tunney should investigate? 

BUExperience: Where’s Hulk Hogan? You know, the WWF Champion? Has he even been mentioned, other than the WrestleMania recap the week after the pay per view? Or Money Inc’s random, off direction promo? And I know that was kind of common during the 80s, where they’d do episodes of Prime Time, or whatever, without much mention of the Hulkster, but it feels really off base in this era. Has he even done a single victory promo? Just so weird, and thankfully they got the belt off of him at King of the Ring, and never looked back.