WWF at San Jose Arena (January 14, 1994)

Original Airdate: January 14, 1994

From San Jose, California 

Opening Match: The Headshrinkers v The Bushwhackers: Members of the winning team get last names! The Bushwhackers are subbing for the Smoking Gunns here. Samu and Butch start, and nothing much happening. Things quickly break down into a brawl with all four men, and the Bushwhackers clean house. The dust settles on Fatu and Luke, and Fatu gets control, but misses an elbowdrop. That allows Luke a cover, so Samu comes in to save, but ends up hitting Fatu. The Bushwhackers clean house again, but Luke ends up in trouble as they get back in, and the Headshrinkers work him over. The heat segment drags on and on, until Samu gets his head caught in the ropes while trying a charge, and Butch gets the hot tag - Roseanne Barr the door! The Bushwhackers whip them into one another, but Butch makes the mistake of trying to knock their heads together, and ends up taking stereo headbutts at 11:13. Nyet good. ¼*

1-2-3 Kid v Diesel: Kid was in the midst of his one week tag title reign at this point. Diesel slugs him down right away, and takes him into the corner for a bootchoke, before bieling him across the ring. More choking, but a knee in the corner misses, and Kid goes to work on the wheel. Figure four, but Diesel blocks with such force that Kid goes flying out of the ring. Diesel follows to press him back inside, and he delivers a gutwrench powerbomb in the ring. Diesel with a sidewalk slam for two, and a three-alarm no-release backbreaker is further held into a backbreaker submission hold. Kid strikes to break, but he’s too battered to come back, and Diesel drops an elbow. He works a chinlock, but Kid fights free. Kid tries a sunset flip, but Diesel blocks, and chokeslams him. Sidewalk slam, but Kid counters with a headscissor takedown, and he knocks Diesel into the corner with a series of strikes. Spinheel kick gets him two, so Kid climbs with a flying bodypress - only to get caught, and clobbered with a snake-eyes at 7:53. Diesel was still not quite there as a worker yet, but Kid was game to bump around to overcome his limitations. *

Bret Hart v Jeff Jarrett: Bret is over huge here. Double J stalls in the early going, hiding in the ropes as an aggressive Hitman goes after him. Bret chases him to the outside, but Jarrett gets control out there, and the Hitman gets sent into the steps. Inside, Jeff with a backelbow, and a 2nd rope fistdrop misses, and Hart pops him with a headbutt. Into the corner to pound with rights, and Hart puts the boots to him there. Inverted atomic drop leaves Jeff hiding behind the referee, but Bret shows no mercy. Snapmare sets up a pointed elbowdrop, and Hart grounds him in an overhead wristlock. Jeff whips him into the ropes to escape, but Bret gets the better of it with a hiptoss, and he goes back to the arm from there. Jeff escapes with a drop-toehold, but Hart immediately shakes him off again, and throws a punch to put Jarrett down for another overhead wristlock. Jarrett finally fights him off on the next try, and this time he’s able to plant a dropkick for two. Snapmare sets up a chinlock, so Bret tries countering to another wristlock, but Jeff shifts him back to the mat in the chinlock. He works that for a while, including using the ropes for leverage, but Bret fights free. Jarrett responds with a sleeper, but Bret fights back to a vertical base. Hart tries a rollup, but Jarrett dumps him to the outside to block, and Hart scrambles to beat the count - only for Jarrett to knock him off of the apron. Bret gets back up, so Jeff tries that again, but this time Hart uses a slingshot sunset flip for two. Jarrett reverses for two, but argues the count, allowing Hart a schoolboy for two. Bret tries a backdrop, but Jeff blocks. Jeff tries a dropkick, but Hart dodges, and delivers a Russian legsweep for two. Small package gets two, and a backbreaker sets up a 2nd rope pointed elbowdrop for two. 2nd rope clothesline, so Jeff shoves the referee into harm’s way, and Bret takes him out. That allows Jarrett to slug the Hitman down, but the referee comes to, and disqualifies Jarrett for the shove at 17:54. Dull stuff. Bret Hart is my favorite wrestler in the world, but he could really phone it in on the house shows sometimes. ¾*

WWF Intercontinental Title Ladder Match: Razor Ramon v Shawn Michaels: Shawn gets in his face to start, so Razor tosses the toothpick at him, and Michaels bails for some stalling. That's one advantage the WrestleMania match had over these practice runs I've seen - Shawn didn't stall endlessly at the pay per view. Finally back in, Shawn tries to force it into a wrestling match, but Ramon decks him, and a clothesline sends HBK over the top. Razor follows him out for a Razor's Edge on the floor, but Shawn is able to block by shoving him into the post, and he follows up with a bodyslam out there. Back in, Michaels hammers the lower back, and he tosses the Bad Guy over the top to buy time to get the ladder. He manages to drag it down the aisle, but Razor is ready and waiting with a right hand before he can bring it inside, and Ramon hammers him back inside. Cross corner whip flips Shawn right into a punch, so Razor tries bringing the ladder in, but Michaels is ready with a baseball slide. Shawn goes to town with the ladder, and once Ramon is reduced to little more than a pile of grease, Michaels makes the climb. He gets to the top, but Razor manages to slug him down, so Shawn goes to the eyes to buy time. He chucks the ladder at Ramon to keep control, and feels confident enough to climb again following a backbreaker, but Razor pulls his challenger's tights down to stop him. He got a little overzealous there - even 1996 Shawn would have blushed. Michaels rips off a piece of his tights to choke Ramon with, and they spill to the outside, where Razor reverse a shot into the post. He hustles back in to climb, but Michaels dives off the top with a flying axehandle to knock him off. Criss cross goes Ramon's way with a sleeper, but Shawn drops his weight to escape, allowing him to dump Ramon to the outside in the process. Shawn wants to climb, but Razor is back in pretty quickly, so Michaels settles for whipping him into the ladder, but gets reversed! Shawn takes an interesting bump off of that, where it looks like he was trying to fall back with the ladder coming with him, but it wasn't working, so he did a kind of springboard off of it instead. Razor fires up and unloads on the challenger in the corner (complete with wild overselling from Michaels), then grabs the ladder to pay HBK back for earlier! He climbs, but Shawn is able to tip the ladder over to stay in the game, and he plants a superkick on the Bad Guy to knock him silly! He adds a piledriver to make sure, then makes the big climb, but Razor is able to tip him over to save, and Shawn takes a bump over the top to the outside! Razor sees his opportunity, and he climbs, but Shawn rushes in to climb up the opposite end! That results in a slugfest, and Ramon gets the better of it, but both men ultimately end up falling off of the ladder in the process! They both stagger back up opposite sides of the ladder for another slugfest, with Razor again controlling, but Shawn able to take him down with him! Both stagger up once more, and this time Ramon is able to slam him off, but falls in the process as well. I'm thinking that's what they were trying for the second time, but messed up. Not that it looked bad, though. Razor climbs, and this time Shawn can't stop him in time - Ramon retaining at 21:23! Not as good as WrestleMania, but still a great match! I've only seen two of the eight total 'practice run' matches they did ahead of the pay per view (this, and the one from the following night in Los Angeles), and this one is significantly better. This is #3 of 8, and they hadn't worked out a lot of the bits you'd see at the pay per view yet, but the chemistry was there. ****

Bob Backlund v Irwin R. Schyster: IRS works the arm in the early going, getting Backlund worked up, so Schyster bails. Back in, Bob grabs a standing side-headlock, but Irwin dumps him to the outside to escape. Irwin rolls him back in for an abdominal stretch, but it goes nowhere. Backlund hooks a cradle for two, but Schyster quickly fights him off, and delivers an elbowdrop for two. Back to the chinlock, but Backlund fights free. He tries a bodyslam, but Irwin topples him for two, and delivers a backbreaker. IRS goes to the top for a dive, but Bob lifts his boot to block, and he makes a comeback. He corners IRS, but Irwin hooks a leveraged cradle out of the corner for the pin at 13:25. God, Backlund was so boring before the heel turn. Both of these guys had great amateur backgrounds, and you’d think that might make for an interesting match, but this was just junk, and way too long. These two only crossed paths twice in their entire careers (here, and again the next day in Los Angeles), so it’s kind of too bad they didn’t do more with the opportunity. ¼*

Falls Count Anywhere Match: Randy Savage v Crush: Savage attacks on the outside during the entrances, and bashes Crush into the post for a two count on the outside. Macho chokes him on the guardrail, and Macho pounds him around ringside, before rolling him in to cover for two. Savage with a bodyslam to set up the flying elbowdrop (and a poorly executed one at that) for the pin, and now they roll Crush to the outside, and he has one minute to return to the ring. That’s… a very weird take on this gimmick match. The WrestleMania version was weird enough, but a pinfall in the ring isn’t considered a win now? Bridge too far. Crush beats the count in, so Savage chokes him down for two. Macho with a series of jabs and an elbowsmash to send Crush to the outside, and Macho follows to feed him the rail out there. Randy with a flying axehandle on the floor for three, so now Crush again has sixty seconds to return to the ring. Crush makes it in just under the wire, so Macho pounds him with right hands, and he goes back to the top for another flying elbow - only for Mr. Fuji to whack him with the flagpole. Savage takes the bait and chases, but Crush recovers, and pounds him into the corner for a choke. Crush with a piledriver, but a cross corner whip gets reversed, and Macho hiptosses him on the rebound. Flying axehandle knocks Crush to the outside, but Savage gets into trouble as he follows, and they spill into the crowd, where Crush controls. Back to ringside, Crush delivers a backbreaker for the pin, but Savage beats the count. Crush responds by putting him in a headscissor hold, but it goes nowhere. Corner whips sets up a bearhug, but Macho goes to the eyes to escape, so Crush takes him to school on a Mexican surfboard. Crush with a backbreaker for two, but Macho hooks him in a schoolboy for two. Crush quickly cuts him off and delivers another backbreaker, but a flying splash misses. That allows Savage a flying axehandle, but Crush catches him, and runs Randy into the corner. Crush tosses him back to the outside for a smash into the steps, and they fight up the aisle. Kind of weird that they’d go over to an area where 90% of the live crowd can’t see them, considering this isn’t a televised event, and there were no giant screens for the crowd to watch on. Crush pins him by the entrance, and Randy fights, but fails to beat the count by less than a second at 20:51. They had plenty of time here, but didn’t do much with it. ½*

Main Event: Yokozuna and Ludvig Borga v Lex Luger and Tatanka: Yokozuna starts with Lex, and he goes to the eyes to get initial control, and he happens Luger into the corner with chops. Clothesline, but Luger ducks, and comes off the ropes with a pair of his own, before walking into a clothesline while trying a third. Yokozuna looks to add a splash, but Lex dodges, and passes to Tatanka to dive in with a flying axehandle. Yokozuna pokes him in the eyes to allow the tag to Borga, but Ludvig misses a corner charge, and Tatanka takes him down with a trio of clotheslines. Criss cross allows Borga a jumping clothesline, however, and he covers for two. Borga uses a bodyslam to set up an elbowdrop, but Tatanka dodges, and puts him in a wristlock. Borga fights to a vertical base, so Tatanka bodypresses him back down for two, but Ludvig throws a right to the gut to slow him down. That allows the tag to Yokozuna for a legdrop, but Tatanka dodges. Tatanka tries a dropkick, but Yoko dodges. Yoko tries an elbowdrop, but Tatanka dodges, so Borga just takes a cheap shot at him from the apron to ruin the fun. That allows Yokozuna to ground him in a nervehold, and the heels cut the ring in half on Tatanka. Yokozuna misses an avalanche to allow the tag to Luger, and Roseanne Barr the door! Lex knocks Yokozuna silly, but then Borga nails him with Mr. Fuji’s salt bucket, and Yoko and Lex are both left down as the referee restores order. They fight for the ten count, and Luger manages to get half an arm on him for the pin at 14:24. Oh man, that was a ridiculously bad finish. This started off well enough, but really died once they hit the heat segment, and it became a parade of restholds. ½*

BUExperience: The Ladder match is a classic, and it was interesting to see the road version of Savage/Crush (even if the match itself is a cure for insomnia). The rest was hot garbage, but the Ladder match alone is enough to make this worth seeking out.

**