WWF Superstars (May 15, 1993)

Original Airdate: May 15, 1993 (taped April 6)

From Tucson, Arizona; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon, Randy Savage, and Jerry Lawler. Savage has a really weird hat this week, which thankfully didn’t become a regular thing

The Steiner Brothers v Jim Armstrong and Mark Ming: Lawler makes a stupid remark about how the Steiner’s will soon ‘have to’ challenge for the tag title, before Vince and Randy pounce on him for that one. The Brothers appear to be in a mood this week, taking turns dropping the jobbers on their heads, before finishing up with the elevated bulldog combo at 3:36. Interesting comment from Savage here, as he notes that things are better in the commentary booth than in the ring. Well, no wonder Vince stopped using him. ¼*

Gene Okerlund hosts Face to Face, with guests Yokozuna, Mr. Fuji, and Jim Duggan. Duggan would have made a great talking head on Fox News

Mr. Hughes v Bobby Young: They really haven’t done anything to get Hughes over. He just kind of showed up one day. Vince talks about how we ‘don’t know much about him,’ before rattling off a long series of things about his background, including even his education. Lawler, rightly, notes that it sounds like Vince knows quite a bit about the man. Meanwhile, Slick split screens in to offer Hughes his managerial services, and Hughes finishes with a scrapbuster at 1:48. DUD

Smoking Gunns vignette. They’d actually debuted earlier in the day on Mania, but the match was so underwhelming that I guess we’re just pretending it didn’t happen

Bob Backlund v Terry Zeller: The announcers are still debating Lex Luger’s metal plate, and Savage is super impassioned that President Jack Tunney do something about it. Why don’t you do something about it? You’re still a wrestler, aren’t you? Meanwhile, Lawler gripes about Bret Hart getting into the tournament without even needing to win a qualifying match, again foreshadowing their upcoming feud. They used to be really good at stuff like that. Backlund with a cradle at 2:28, as Lawler makes cracks about Bob’s age… despite only being a few months younger than him. DUD

Boni Blackstone (in her WWF debut) brings Lex Luger out, and I think this was actually taped on May 4 in Worcester Massachusetts. Which would make more sense than randomly debuting her during the fourth week batch of the taping. They debuted a lot of broadcasters in 1993, though only Todd Pettengill had any kind of lasting impact. It was a weird year, with a lot of their biggest names (Gene Okerlund, Bobby Heenan, and Sean Mooney) leaving almost all at once. Anyway, she’s all over Luger about the forearm, but Lex gets upset, and threatens to knock everyone out until they stop bothering him

Virgil v Jose Martinez: Lawler is still making cracks about Backlund’s age, to which Vince counters that Bob is still alive, and therefore not that old. Yeah, because that’s how athletics work. No wonder this guy failed at promoting every other sport he ever tried his hand at. Virgil with a Russian legsweep to finish this dishwater squash at 2:45. DUD

Shawn Michaels v Billy Jones: Shawn's WWF Intercontinental title is not on the line. Michaels is still firmly in this cow splotch period at this point. It should be noted that he’s already looking pretty pudgy at this point, so putting all the blame on him trying to keep up with big Diesel’s eating habits is clearly a lot of B.S. considering he hadn’t even debuted yet. Shawn with a superkick at 3:21. ¼*

Gene is in the studio with the King of the Ring Report, featuring yet another mailed in promo from WWF Champion Hulk Hogan, taped on the set of his latest film. Well, at least that’s something. It should be noted that, despite still being generally huge compared to most people (or even other wrestlers), the Hulkster looks really lean at this point, and not like the superhero he was just a few years prior. Gene puts over that people are saying that Hulk is too focused on Hollywood success, while Yokozuna is training and focused. They had a great set up for a Rocky III esque comeback story for SummerSlam if they wanted to go that way. Though, the bloom was very clearly off the rose at that point, and it’s better that everyone moved on

King of the Ring Tournament Qualifying Match: Tatanka v Giant Gonzalez: Giant works him over in his usual dull, plodding fashion, and delivers a big boot. Choke time, but Tatanka gets fired up, and tries chopping the big man down - complete with absolutely ridiculous selling from Giant. Tatanka with a few flying tomahawk chops to try and take him down, but he gets caught in another choke. The referee objects, so Giant shoves him down, and that’s a DQ at 2:58. This was embarrassingly bad. -½*

Gene is back with another Face to Face, with guests WWF Tag Team Champions Money Inc. And they’re still on about beating the Mega Maniacs at WrestleMania! I get that keeping a title when facing Hogan at WrestleMania was a rare occurrence, but move on. Gene grills them about defending against the Steiner Brothers, but they’re actually pretty open to the match, and don’t seem to be ducking them at all

Shawn Michaels is excited about a shot at entering the King of the Ring tournament next week, while Crush is… also excited. Okay, as long as we’re all on the same page, I guess

BUExperience: This show was pretty bad, but the commentary was entertaining, making it work.