WWF Superstars (November 13, 1993)

Original Airdate: November 13, 1993 (taped October 20)

From Burlington, Vermont; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler

Men on a Mission v Iron Mike Sharpe and Chuck Greenman: It’s amazing how well they were able to dress up these tiny little venues. I mean, Google what the Burlington Vermont Memorial Auditorium normally looks like inside, and you wouldn’t expect that it would even be possible to make the place look good enough for TV. And while no one would confuse it with Madison Square Garden, it looks respectable. The jobbers actually get a fair bit in on the stars here, Mo puts Chuck away with an elbowdrop at 2:49. ¼*

Joe Fowler is in the studio with Face to Face with guests Bret Hart and Jerry Lawler. The angle is hot, but really, they’re building an eight-man match with only two stars. And they’re doing a pretty lazy job of trying to get the mystery of the King’s knights over. And then Jerry dropped out, and neutered the whole thing

Ludvig Borga v Dan Dubiel: WWF Champion Yokozuna and WWF Tag Team Champions The Quebecers split screen in to hype Survivor Series… though none of them actually say a word, we just get an off-screen Jim Cornette cutting a promo. Borga with a torture rack at 2:03. DUD

Irwin R Schyster plays the Royal Rumble video game on Sega. Well, nice that he was able to squash Razor Ramon somewhere

Howard Finkel brings The All Americans out, and holy shit, Finkel is playing interviewer? I guess that’s the end of Boni Blackstone? Kind of funny seeing Lex Luger in an Atlanta 1996 Olympic jacket, considering how closely that event became associated with Turner Sports. So they’re here to reveal their replacement for Tatanka at Survivor Series, and introducing Undertaker draws a big pop. Undertaker suddenly cutting a pro-America promo is a weird shift for the character. The Foreign Fanatics come out to respond, but officials intervene before it gets physical. This segment is mostly remembered for the bit where Undertaker opens his overcoat (pervert style) to reveal an American flag sewn into the lining, and that’s about the only notable bit. Seeing the full segment actually reduces the impact, as it was really odd hearing Undertaker do the flag waving deal

Bastion Booger v Joe Brenan: Doink the Clown shows up on the video wall to taunt Booger, in another pay per view match that doesn’t really promise much star power. ‘There will be four Doinks’ doesn’t exactly make me want to open my wallet, and then the payoff didn’t help much. Booger with a sitdown splash at 1:00. DUD

Jeff Jarrett vignette. I’m still not clear how cutting promos on Conway Twitty was supposed to make him a pro-wrestling star. Hell of a Cadillac, though

WWF Intercontinental Title Match: Razor Ramon v Rick Martel: Martel attacks from behind while Razor is giving the ring attendant the spiel, and the champ ends up on the outside for a beating. Martel nails him in the knee with a chair out there, and inside, Martel stays on the leg. Rick works a spinning toehold as Harvey Wippleman shows up, but Razor dumps Martel to the outside to escape. Inside, the Bad Guy works a wristlock, until Rick fights him off in the corner. Martel tries a 2nd rope bodypress, but Ramon ducks, and covers for two. Ramon with a fallaway slam for two, and he sets up the Razor’s Edge, so Harvey distracts him. That allows Martel a high knee to knock the champion to the outside, and Rick tries an axehandle from the apron, but Ramon blocks. Razor capitalizes with an atomic drop, and he rolls in to grab the countout at 6:05. This was pretty weak. Afterwards, Martel threatens to beat Harvey up over the loss, but Adam Bomb comes out to protect him. He and Martel get in each other’s faces, but Diesel and IRS come out to cool them down since they’re all teammates at Survivor Series. ¾*

Todd Pettengill is in the studio with the Survivor Series Report. I’m kind of surprised they didn’t put the Intercontinental title on Ludvig Borga just so the main event heel team could have all the gold in the promotion

Survivor Series Showdown ad

Diesel v Chaz Ware: No ring entrances here, oddly. And then Vince calls Chaz ‘Chris’ to really show us where these guys fall on the totem pole. And then Diesel went and won every title in the promotion within the twelve months of this, which just goes to show that you never know in this sport. Diesel with a heart punch at 1:27. DUD

Fowler is in the studio with Face to Face, and he’s got guests Jim Cornette and Johnny Polo to cry conspiracy over Undertaker getting shoehorned into the All Americans. But they’ve got a plan: pick off another guy to thin the ranks again

Irwin R Schyster promises to ruin Bret Hart’s quest for the WWF Title by beating him next week. How? The match with Yokozuna (for Survivor Series Showdown) is already signed

Bret Hart promises to, uh, not let that happen

BUExperience: Not great stuff, but this was at least a fairly eventful episode, with a title match, the Undertaker reveal, and even an angle with the Martel/Bomb/Diesel/IRS team.