WWF Superstars (October 1, 1994)

 

Original Airdate: October 1, 1994 (taped August 31)

From Green Bay, Wisconsin; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler

Razor Ramon v Red Tyler: The WWF Intercontinental title is not on the line today. Lawler does an incredible job of finding segues between the different matches they’re hyping for today. He was a tremendous talent. Meanwhile, Razor says hello to Steve and Debra McMichael (seated in the first row) on his way into the ring. The announcers don’t even acknowledge it, but a cool ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ debut. Razor’s Edge finishes at 3:24. Nothing of note, but Ramon seemed to be playing to Steve and Debra. ¼*

Todd Pettengill narrates a video package documenting the issue between WWF Tag Team Champions Shawn Michaels and Diesel and former champions the Headshrinkers

Abe Knuckleball Schwartz v Ron Cumberledge: To this day, I still don’t get the point of the Schwartz gimmick. I mean, I get that there was a baseball strike, but why they felt the need to make a gimmick out of it still eludes me. Give Schwartz credit though, he does his very best with this loser gimmick. Abe with a vertical superplex at 3:04. ¼*

Live Event News is another look at the charity event that Ted DiBiase attended a few weeks ago. Bob Barker comes off like Senator Geary in Godfather II here

Pettengill narrates a video getting new viewers (like I was at the time) up to speed on the history of Bob Backlund. This was useful, as kids like me didn’t really know much about him beyond ‘he was a former champion a really, really long time ago.’ And since all of that happened prior to the Golden Age, you couldn’t even go and rent videos to catch up. Nor was there a database where you could go and read about the history. It was all word of mouth, or whatever you could find in your local video store. So Backlund’s glory days were essentially lost to history

Mabel v George Anderson: Vince is very excited about Mabel. Well, he was referencing Barney while discussing PBS earlier, so clearly he has a type. Mabel with a spinheel kick at 1:48. DUD

King Kong Bundy vignette

Jim Neidhart v Ike Andrews: They’re really trying to get Anvil over as a legitimate threat to Bret’s world title, which, yeah. And poor Owen is just kind of another guy now, though luckily they’d eventually find a direction for him when he started teaming with Yokozuna in ‘95. Neidhart with a modified camel clutch at 2:07. DUD

And speaking of Yokozuna, Undertaker promises to bury him alive

The Bushwhackers v Rock Warner and Tom Stone: We get a fan doing the ring announcing for this one. The Bushwhackers liking everyone will never not irk me. I’m still not sure how they remained over for years and years. Even as a kid, which I assume was the target audience, I thought they were disgusting AND boring. The battering ram finishes at 2:27. Is that all? Because it felt endless. DUD

Live Event News is Todd marveling at the giant inflatable Undertaker that’s going on tour at all the live events. Well, that at least qualifies as ‘live event news,’ I suppose

Irwin R Schyster v Gary Jackson: Lawler notes that everyone in the crowd ‘doesn’t pay taxes,’ they just ‘sit around waiting for a refund.’ Wouldn’t that mean they paid their taxes, then? It’s a refund. IRS with the jumping clothesline at 2:20. DUD

New Generation ad. The subtext of this one is really odd

Vince brings Lex Luger out, and they’re actually doing the interview in the stands, which is weird. A cool twist, just unusual. Anyway, Lex hopes Tatanka really enjoys counting his money, because the faces on all the bills aren’t presidents, they’re all the fans he betrayed. That sounds counterfeit. Did he join the Windham Corporation, or something?

BUExperience: Just kind of going along without anything of real note going on, but it wasn’t an unpleasant way to spend an hour.