WWF All American Wrestling (August 21, 1994)

Original Airdate: August 21, 1994 

Your Hosts are Todd Pettengill and Ted DiBiase from the studio 

Six-Man Tag Team Match: Adam Bomb and The Smoking Gunns v Kwang and Well Dunn: From the August 20 episode of Superstars (taped August 2) in Wheeling West Virginia. Bart Gunn starts with Steven Dunn, and Dunn takes a cheap shot, and pounds him into the corner. He tries a headscissors, but Bart drops him to block, and delivers a pair of dropkicks, ahead of an armdrag into an armbar. Tag to Billy Gunn for a slingshot clothesline that gets two, and he goes for a wristlock, but Dunn goes to the eyes. Tag to Timothy Well, so Billy rolls him up, but Kwang catches a bling tag, and blasts Billy with a spinheel kick. Kwang hammers him, but Billy fires back with a bodypress for two, so Kwang chop thrusts him in the throat. Back to Dunn for a jumping axehandle for two, but Billy pulls out a small package for two, before getting clobbered again. The heels work Billy over, until Dunn tries a flying bodypress, but Billy throws a dropkick to block. That looked ugly. No matter, Bomb gets the hot tag, and Dunn takes a sidewalk slam. Adam goes up with a flying clothesline for two, which draws the heels in, and Roseanne Barr the door! Harvey Wippleman with a distraction, but it backfires, and Dunn takes a pumphandle-slam at 4:39. This was actually not bad at all, with everyone working hard, and keeping a good pace. * ¾

Leslie Nielsen searches for the pizza taker

Mabel v Ray Roy: From Monday Night RAW, August 15 1994 from Lowell, Massachusetts. With the steroid trials done, it looks like Vince was in a spending mood, because this whole show has been loaded with really top notch lighting, including all those spinning graphics that shine down into the ring during the entrances. Love those. Miss those. The usual, though Mabel actually busts out a somersault necksnap before finishing him with a 2nd rope elbowdrop at 2:32. He was certainly limited, but you could see the effort from the big guy, as he tried to get over as a singles wrestler. And, hey, somebody must have noticed, because he headlined SummerSlam the next year. ¼*

This past Monday on RAW, Mabel came out and rapped at Jeff Jarrett. Which, you know, is about the most offensive thing possible. Apparently

Sunday Night Slam ad

Three-out-of-Five Falls Six-Man Tag Team Match: Andre the Giant, Chief Jay Strongbow, and Billy White Wolf v Bruiser Brody and The Executioners: From New York City on October 25 1976, presented as part of the Memory Lane feature. Joined in progress with Brody holding Strongbow in a bearhug, but Jay escapes, and gets a hot tag to Andre. He runs wild, and gets Brody in a bearhug of his own. The Executioners run in to save, so Andre goes over and wrecks them both, and we’re clipped to the heels working over Billy. Odd commentary deal here, as we have Gorilla Monsoon and Jim Ross doing it here in ‘94, but they do it over Vince McMahon’s original commentary, which can still be heard in the background. Odd choice. Gorilla, of course, has to get a bunch of shots in about how Strongbow has ‘let himself go’ since those days. Things break down, and Billy hits one of the Executioners with a chop for the pin at 3:17 shown of 20:34. That was actually the second of what would be four falls, but they gloss over the fact that this wasn’t a single fall match in our commentary, and act like it was the finish. Why not just show the actual finish, which featured Andre scoring the fall. Like, why even highlight Billy White Wolf in 1994? I’d certainly never heard of him at the time, and even today, I barely know who he is. Anyway, too much clipped out here to rate it, but I’m generally not a fan of the pre-Golden Age stuff, so it didn’t do much for me. Funny to hear Todd talk about how this was ‘real wrestling’ and the ‘good old days of wrestling,’ which is kind of the exact same way I feel about the 90s. It’s all relative 

This past Monday on RAW, Abe Knuckleball Schwartz was seen striking in the crowd, which Todd thinks is a terrible, terrible thing

We get clips of the Owen Hart/1-2-3 Kid match from last Monday’s RAW, which was a *** ¾ match, so of course, we only see the last thirty seconds of it. But we got Mabel in full, don’t worry

On Superstars, Vince caught up with Owen Hart and Jim Neidhart, inside a steel cage. Owen is still bitter over Bret Hart’s alleged bullying when he was a kid, and he’s going to return the favor at SummerSlam. Great promo, and setting them in darkness is a great touch. And then they paid of off with an incredible match, to boot

Roddy Piper’s Bottom Line, as he sends in a random rambling promo about the various goings on ahead of SummerSlam. I didn’t realize these things were still going on post-King of the Ring. They shouldn’t have been, to be clear

Diesel v Kevin Krueger: From the August 20 Superstars. The WWF Intercontinental title is not on the line. Diesel casually squashes Kevin, and delivers the powerbomb at 1:37. Diesel was definitely looking like a star during this period, and it’s not surprising that they pushed him to the moon. And it might have worked, too, if they let him continue to be a badass as a babyface, as opposed to cutting his balls off. DUD

Last Monday, Jerry Lawler hosted the King's Court, with guests Ted DiBiase and Paul Bearer. Man, I know DiBiase has a lot of balls in the air ahead of SummerSlam, but I never noticed how oversaturated these shows were with him while watching as a kid. Especially for the era. Anyway, you can guess what happens here, as they get into a debate over whose Undertaker is real, but when DiBiase actually produces his Undertaker (which Bearer has yet to do), Paul gets choked out. Give them credit, it may have been a shitty angle, but everyone involved sold it wholeheartedly

Thurman Sparky Plugg v Barry Horowitz: From the August 21 episode of Wrestling Challenge (taped August 3) in Cincinnati Ohio. The announcers make sure to note that Plugg is never not smiling, which, good for his ass. Not sure how that’s relevant, unless we’re trying to prove that he’s got some sort of mental issue. Plugg with a flying bodypress at 1:40. DUD

We close with a video package tribute to the recently deceased Joey Marella

BUExperience: What was the point of All American at this point? How was this different from what Mania was doing?