Vince McMahon and Mr. Perfect call today’s action, still found in Syracuse, New York. Perfect makes stomach puns to make fun of the Ultimate Warrior’s predicament.
Opening Contest: The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) (13-0) pins Bill Pierce after the Tombstone at 2:22:
Pierce attacks the Undertaker from behind and then begs off when it does not have an effect. In the split screen the Berzerker and Mr. Fuji promise to put the Undertaker six feet under. The ropewalk flattens Pierce and the Tombstone finishes him.
Gene Okerlund’s Update segment recaps what happened to the Ultimate Warrior on last week’s episode. Papa Shango does a taped promo gloating about owning the Warrior’s spirit.
Virgil (10-3) beats Dwayne Gill via submission to the Million Dollar Dream at 1:44:
McMahon continues to put over the WBF Championship on commentary, obsessed with his side project as his main company falls apart around him. Gill bumps well for some basic moves and Virgil goes back to his original finisher after using a super back suplex in recent squashes.
Non-Title Match: Money Incorporated (WWF Tag Team Champions w/Jimmy Hart) (7-1) beat Mark Kay & Jim Powers when Irwin R. Schyster pins Kay after the Write Off at 1:51:
All three WWF title scenes are stagnant, lacking good, marketable angles. This follows the formula of Powers looking good against IRS and then Money Incorporated destroying Kay when he is tagged in. DiBiase and IRS work better today with double teams. A DiBiase powerslam sets up IRS’ Write Off flying clothesline.
The British Bulldog (14-0) pins Barry Hardy after the running powerslam at 1:38:
Perfect promises that “damaging information” about Elizabeth is forthcoming after this match. Repo Man does an insert promo about how the Bulldog is not going to ruin his business. That feud learned nothing from the poor Bulldog-Perfect program the year before that was saddled with dog puns. The Bulldog uses his power offense to roll through Hardy, notching 15 wins for the year.
Ric Flair, Perfect, and a woman are shown at a picnic with Flair’s theme song playing on a Panasonic boombox. Flair complains about Elizabeth calling him all the time. As proof he has Perfect insert a new tape into the boombox that is from his answering machine. It is Elizabeth’s voice promising a “special homecoming” when whomever she is talking to returns from the road. All this is doing is trying to reheat the same angle from WrestleMania VIII but it is not working.
The Mountie (w/Jimmy Hart) (9-4) beats Bobby Knight after a dropkick at 1:18:
Sergeant Slaughter does an insert promo that talks about Memorial Day and how he seeks the Mountie’s surrender. After the Mountie makes quick work of Knight he unlocks the big shock stick and makes the jobber beg for mercy until the referee intervenes. Jacques Rougeau is doing a good job keeping the gimmick over despite some big losses this year, getting under fans skin by bragging about his abilities and annoyingly singing his theme song.
Okerlund interviews the Ultimate Warrior, who claims that he has recovered from Papa Shango’s voodoo. He puts over his fans and how Shango represents yet another challenge that he will survive. Brown liquid starts dripping from the Warrior’s head as he screams for his warriors.
The Bushwhackers (4-4) beat Vince Sola & the Dublin Destroyer when Butch pins Sola after the Battering Ram at 1:16:
Fans have left since its late in the taping cycle so the lights have been turned down a lot and McMahon explains that people are quiet because of the Warrior’s segment. 1992 has not been the Bushwhackers year, losing to every name team that they have faced. The squash does not feature much action and is sloppy in places. The Bushwhackers get in and out with a win to put them over .500.
Kamala (w/Harvey Wippleman & Kim Chee) (2-0) pins Kerry Davis after a splash to the back at 1:18:
The WWF wants fans to buy into Kamala as a vicious heel and some of his work helps that image, such as chopping Davis repeatedly and aggressively choking him. However, when he does not even know how to win a match after his finisher he looks goofy.
Tune in next week to see the Natural Disasters, the Big Bossman, the Legion of Doom, and Papa Shango in action! Also, there will be another update on the Ultimate Warrior’s condition!
The Last Word: Wrestling is a funny business sometimes as the Undertaker had a zombie-like character and got over but Papa Shango’s voodoo gimmick, which looks good aesthetically, is not hitting the mark. Part of that might be due to the Undertaker’s skills being used in matches to no sell offense or stuff people into body bags whereas Shango’s work is all about mind games, opening the character up to cartoonish sketches over the last two weeks. The Ultimate Warrior did great business with the Undertaker in 1991 but it tough to see fans having the same desire to pay for the Warrior facing Shango around the horn in 1992. Some of that is owed to Shango getting a lot of squashes but not beating anyone of note, unlike how the Undertaker was presented as a monster at Survivor Series and The Royal Rumble. In terms of the WWF title picture, this show would have been better served having an irate Ric Flair do a sneak attack on Randy Savage. The continued saga over what Elizabeth is doing makes it appear that Flair does not care about the title anymore and just wants to make Savage angry, resulting in an ice cold program because fans already saw Savage get upset over Elizabeth and avenge her at WrestleMania. Besides, Flair and Perfect were exposed as liars after WrestleMania so why would anyone believe their new evidence? Since WrestleMania Vince McMahon’s top priority has been to make the second WBF Championship a success, evidenced by how much talk and hype it has gotten on WWF programming, but that is distracting him from his core business and the product is showing it more and more each week. There is one more episode from this long taping in Syracuse but this is in the running for one of the worst WWF television tapings ever.
Up Next: Wrestling Challenge for May 24!