WWF Superstars (July 31, 1993)

Original Airdate: July 31, 1993 (taped July 6)

From Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon, Randy Savage, and Jerry Lawler

Men on a Mission v Brooklyn Brawler and Brian Costello: Lawler cuts a great promo on Bret Hart here, as this feud continues to be the best thing going on in the promotion at the moment. It’s too bad they didn’t get around to the proper payoff when Lawler had to pull out of Survivor Series. Mabel with a spinheel kick at 2:10. That one almost looked like he busted out a koppou kick, but don’t get confused and/or impressed: it was just a poorly executed spinheel. DUD

Gene Okerlund is in the studio with Face to Face with guests Marty Jannetty, Bam Bam Bigelow, and Luna Vachon. Marty is watching WWF Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels, and I think that’s about all he’ll be doing. Meanwhile, Bigelow and Luna want to crush Tatanka 

Adam Bomb v Tony Devito: Lawler is still all over the Hart family here. Adam with a slingshot clothesline and a powerbomb at 2:22. Adam was a good character, but they never bothered to do anything with him. Seriously, he was in the WWF for about two years, can you name a single feud he was involved in? ¼*

Gorilla Monsoon is in the control center with Update, and once again, it’s the Lex Luger show. He’s like a broken record over the last few weeks. Lex Luger! Apple pie! Patriotism! Also, WWF Champion Yokozuna might even be 600 pounds by SummerSlam! Deal with it! Lex looks so incredibly uncomfortable in every single clip they show of him interacting with the public. Seriously, if that was the stuff they kept, I can only imagine what a challenge the editing was

Mr. Hughes v Jason Headings: Some kid gives us some great unintentional comedy with the perplexed look he gives Hughes. As I noted last week, this building looks good, but they need much smaller overhead banners, because the regular ones look almost comically oversized. Hughes works him over, as another wreath is delivered to ringside as a taunt from Undertaker. Hughes with a scrapbuster at 1:43. Hughes looked energetic out there. ¼*

On tomorrow’s Wrestling Challenge, Jerry Lawler has Undertaker as his guest on the King’s Court. And since we don’t want you to waste your time watching that show, here’s the full segment here! Lawler does his best to crack Undertaker up, but ‘Taker manages to keep a straight face. Undertaker cutting promos without Paul Bearer during this period is a weird fit. Not a bad fit, just odd. Undertaker offers Mr. Hughes a deal: return the urn, and his demise will be quick. Don’t, and Undertaker’s going to make it slow, agonizing, and painful. No wonder Hughes didn’t want to play ball with those choices

The Headshrinkers v Bret Tyler and Dave Thornberg: The Headshrinkers show fire this week, attacking before the bell, and getting right to the double team. The jobbers sell the heck out of it all, getting properly destroyed out there, before the flying splash finishes up at 2:34. Vince is disgusted that Fatu would pin an unconscious man for the win. What else is he supposed to do? This was quite aggressive. ¼*

Gene is in the studio with the SummerSlam Report. The big news this week is that Shawn Michaels will officially defend the WWF Intercontinental title against Mr. Perfect. I did how slowly they roll the card out, letting anticipation build up from week to week

Mr. Perfect v Glen Ruth: Perfect was looking good here, and I can understand why he was annoyed that they didn’t put the title on him, but I can see why they wanted to go with Shawn or Razor Ramon instead. He wasn’t any older than Ramon, but he’d been around the block on the national stage by 1993, and Razor had more potential as a future star. Perfectplex finishes at 1:55. Lots of energy to the squashes this week. ¼*

Ludvig Borga video package. Kind of backwards that they did his debut first, and the vignettes after the fact

Gene is in the studio with Face to Face, with guests WWF Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels, Diesel, and Doink the Clown. Why does Gene keep asking them, week after week, what Diesel’s role is? It was clear from day one! He was his personal chef! Meanwhile, Doink is just generally creepy this week, without much of note to say

WrestleMania: The Album ad, complete with music video! And Lex Luger looks miserable even in the clips for that. I get what they were going for with him, but seriously now, did they really, truly think this was the right guy to get behind in this role? He’s just such a natural heel

Sensational Sherri v Luna Vachon: Bam Bam Bigelow gets in Sherri’s face before the bell, so she slaps him, and ends up getting beat down before the match can start. Tatanka makes the save, but we don’t get the match. And this would be Sherri’s last appearance in the promotion until 2005

Lex Express tour dates ad

BUExperience: Fun episode this week. Really nothing special (and certainly nothing major) going on, but I just enjoy this stuff.