What the World Was Watching: WWF Monday Night RAW – January 18, 1993

Vince McMahon, Rob Barlett, and Randy Savage provide commentary, live from once again from the Manhattan Center in New York City. Bartlett says “Fight the real enemy” as he tears up a picture of Bobby Heenan. According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the show attracted another sellout crowd of 1,000 fans.

Repo Man attacks Savage from behind and steals his hat.

Opening Contest: Mr. Perfect (1-0) defeats Terry Taylor (1-0) with the Perfectplex at 8:04 shown:

Try as he might, Taylor cannot get past his old Red Rooster act as he comes to the ring with his old theme music. He is also wearing his old Rooster ring jacket with a “Terrific” patch slapped on the back of it. This was supposed to be a match between Perfect and Papa Shango but Shango could not compete due to a shoulder injury. After failing to find Repo Man, Savage returns to commentary and rants about wanting a piece of the thief, shooting down Bartlett’s attempt at commentary because he is upset. Bobby Heenan calls into the show, upset that Bartlett tore up his picture. Heenan also tells Savage that Repo Man will end his career and adds that Ric Flair is going to do the same to Perfect. The “smart”-like nature of the crowd shows itself again, chanting for Flair and getting a counter chant against them of “Ric Flair sucks!” Amidst all of this, a good, competitive match develops. McMahon announces that Taylor will be in the Royal Rumble, so Taylor must be substituting for Crush. After Perfect catches Taylor with an inverted atomic drop, Flair comes to ringside and distracts Perfect, beating him up on the floor when Taylor knocks Perfect outside. Back in, Taylor goes for a suplex but Perfect reverses into the Perfectplex and prevails, racing back to the locker room to confront Flair. Rating: **½

McMahon conducts an in-ring interview with WWF Champion Bret Hart. Bret takes issue with Razor Ramon saying that he is going to slap his father, who is 78 years old. He promises to knock Ramon down “unconscious street” at The Royal Rumble.

The Undertaker and Paul Bearer do an awkward promo about how no one deserves to starve to death so fans should support the WWF “Headlock on Hunger” campaign.

Marty Jannetty (2-0) pins Glen Ruth after the Rocker Dropper at 5:09:

Ruth was a Larry Sharpe trainee, a product of Sharpe’s “Monster Factory” professional wrestling school. He worked his first match in 1990 and cut his teeth on the New Jersey independence scene. As the Spider he was the heavyweight champion in Sharpe’s WWA promotion and he also worked All Japan in 1991 as Frankie Favorite. Ruth had been doing enhancement matches for the WWF since 1990, appearing in 14 squash matches since 1992. He got his big break in Smoky Mountain Wrestling in 1995 where he would radically alter his look, putting on a skirt and donning face paint as Headbanger Thrasher.

Ruth attacks Jannetty from behind, giving him a short-term advantage until Jannetty drives his head into the canvas from the second rope. Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels calls in, repeating his claim that Jannetty was the weak link on the Rockers. Michaels uses word play, saying that he is going to “rattle Jannetty’s bones” out of The Rumble. The squash is not a great showcase for Jannetty a week before The Rumble as he works long armbars because of the need to kill time due to Michaels’ phone call. After some meandering action, he finally hits Ruth in the gut and wins with the Rocker Dropper, failing to get much of a pop for his win.

There is a replay of Doink’s attack on Crush on Superstars. McMahon says it is unlikely that Crush will make it to The Royal Rumble. He also sticks with the stupid narrative that Doink ripped his own arm off to beat Crush. Savage adds that the prosthetic arm Doink hit Crush with was full of lead.

Sean Mooney catches Repo Man leaving the building with Savage’s hat. Repo Man argues that Savage was late on payments for his hat and he is tired of Savage ignoring him so he got his attention. Repo Man and Savage spar on the mic for a bit, setting up a future match between the two.

Gene Okerlund does The Royal Rumble Report. Razor Ramon promises to have gold around his waist after Sunday.

Savage goes outside to try to find Repo Man. He runs into traffic but there is no trace of his adversary. One only wonders what a few passing taxi drivers thought of seeing a man in a pink and neon green wrestling jacket running out of the Manhattan Center.

El Matador (1-0) wrestles Ric Flair (1-0) to a no-contest at 6:54 shown:

These two had a good match the previous year on the USA Network’s SummerSlam Spectacular special. Like that match, El Matador dominates. He blasts Flair with the flying forearm but does not go for a cover. When he tries another, Flair ducks and Santana flies over the top rope. Mr. Perfect comes out and brawls with Flair and WWF officials separate the two, bringing the match to a close without a finish. The crowd was really into the brawl at the end. Rating: **¼

Flair and Perfect continue fighting toward the ring until a sea of WWF officials keep Perfect at bay so Flair can talk with McMahon. Flair says that the WWF is not big enough for both of them so he challenges Perfect to a bout next week where the loser leaves the company. And Flair is confident that Perfect will not accept the challenge because he knows he cannot defeat him.

Waiting for Perfect does not take long, as he comes by shortly after Flair, and he gladly accepts Flair’s challenge.

The Repo Man tows Bartlett’s car while wearing Savage’s hat to end the show.

Tune in next week for a “loser leaves town” match between Mr. Perfect and Ric Flair! Also, Randy Savage faces the Repo Man!

The Last Word: If fans were not convinced that RAW was going to be a different show from the pilot, this helped get that message across. It was uncommon in WWF for storylines to be built and then paid off the following week, so it was a nice change of pace to see that format adopted. If not for Flair’s quick departure, it was likely that his “loser leaves town” match with Mr. Perfect would have happened at WrestleMania and that could have been the hottest program on the show. Instead, that match will happen on free television the day after The Royal Rumble. Another great part of this show was that Rob Bartlett was significantly reined in from the pilot. In retrospect, Vince McMahon should have cut his losses and turfed him after that show and just brought Bobby Heenan back.

Up Next: WWF Superstars for January 23!

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