WWF Superstars (October 23, 1993)

Original Airdate: October 23, 1993 (taped September 28)

From Worcester, Massachusetts; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler

Doink the Clown v Barry Horowitz: Randy Savage is out this week, selling the confrontation with Crush on Monday Night RAW. Barry attacks before Doink gets his entrance gear off, but that goes badly for him, and Doink polishes him off with the Whoopie Cushion at 3:22. DUD

Gorilla Monsoon is in the control center with Update, and all he’s got this week is basically a Survivor Series report. I get that they need to sell shows, but why do they need two reports on one episode?

Bastion Booger v Raymond Roy: Vince is really excited about seeing the Hart Family get their hands on Lawler at Survivor Series, as I’m sure we all are, so hopefully nothing unforeseen happens to derail that one. Interestingly, Vince refers to the ring post as ‘iron’ here, which may be the only time I’ve ever heard anyone refer to it as anything other than ‘steel.’ Booger with a sitdown splash at 1:58. I still don’t get what they were going for with Booger. DUD

Joe Fowler is in the studio with Face to Face, and boy, is he terrible. Between him and Boni Blackstone, things were really bad on the broadcasting side during this period. His guests this week are Johnny Polo, WWF Tag Team Champions The Quebecers and the Smoking Gunns. This never led to anything on TV, but they went around the horn on the house shows for a few months during this period

Irwin R Schyster v Ken Garrison: They’re putting IRS over as the first challenger for Razor Ramon’s WWF Intercontinental title, which feels like a fitting opponent for the new champion to pick up a win over, but also too far down the totem pole at the same time. There were some other choices they could have sacrificed (Adam Bomb jumps to mind right away), but I guess Schyster had the most rub to give, considering he was a multi-time tag champion, and had headlined the last WrestleMania. Schyster with the jumping clothesline at 2:27. DUD

The Rock 'n' Roll Express v Flex Armstrong and Richie Rich: The Express wear the SMW Tag Team title to the ring, which is certainly a thing.:Literally every time I see these guys in a WWF ring, it feels weird to me. At least this was still somewhat in ‘their’ era, when they showed up in 1998 it was like some weird time warp. They get a pretty good reaction here, though. Jim Cornette and the Heavenly Bodies split screen in to cut a promo, and apparently the Express ‘followed’ them to the WWF. Well, of course, I assume the WWF didn’t pay in Wendy’s coupons. Not everything is about you, jerks. The Express with stereo dropkicks at 2:49. This was energetic. ¼*

Jeff Jarrett vignette. I like the overall character, but when he leans too hard into the gimmick, it’s terrible 

Diesel v Ralph Mosca: Vince wonders if Diesel is one of Lawler’s knights for Survivor Series, which would actually have made sense once the switch to Shawn Michaels happened. So, of course, we got Barry Horowtiz instead. Diesel still hasn’t settled on the all black look at this point, and has got some animal print going on here. Diesel with a punch at 2:38. Giving him the powerbomb as a finisher was a huge step in getting the character over. ¼*

Fowler is in the studio with the (official) Survivor Series Report. Which apparently is taking place in some sort of rape dungeon, based on the sound effects here

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Razor Ramon v Tony Devito: Razor's WWF Intercontinental title is not on the line in this one. Razor won the belt the day before this taping, but that wouldn’t air until October 11, so seeing Ramon with the title belt must have been odd for the live crowd here. Razor’s Edge finishes at 2:49. Razor was sleepwalking through this one. Afterwards, IRS, Diesel, Rick Martel, and Adam Bomb surround the ring, but Mr. Perfect, Marty Jannetty, and 1-2-3 Kid hit the ring to back the Bad Guy up before the heels can strike. DUD

Fowler is back with another Face to Face, with the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, Jim Cornette, and the Heavenly Bodies. Fowler is way out of his depth trying to explain why we should care about this non-WWF feud

 

Ludvig Borga wants to crush Tatanka, then eat it 

BUExperience: This wasn’t good, and nothing of note happened this week whatsoever, but I will say that the episode flew by.