What the World Was Watching: WWF Superstars – May 8, 1993

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WWF Mania featured the cancelled match of WrestleMania IX. Here is a breakdown of that encounter:

Bam Bam Bigelow (19-1) beats Kamala (13-1-1) after a schoolboy roll up at 3:51:

This bout took place at the Superstars taping in Worcester, Massachusetts on May 4. Bigelow’s bumping carries the encounter. After crotching Bigelow on the top rope, Kamala splashes his back but he still has not learned how to pin someone. It no longer helps that Slick appears to have given up on him. When Kamala questions referee Danny Davis about why he never counted the pin, Bigelow rolls him up and escapes with a win. Rating: *

Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler, and Randy Savage are doing commentary for this Mother’s Day edition of Superstars, taped once again from Tucson, Arizona.

Opening Contest: Money Incorporated & Mr. Hughes beat the Nasty Boys & Kamala (w/Slick) when Irwin R. Schyster pins Kamala with a schoolboy roll up at 7:38 shown:

IRS addresses the crowd about how tax laws will always change and people will always try to avoid them. Hughes is an atheistic fit for Money Incorporated, which would be a better direction of his character than aligning him with a heel manager like Harvey Wippleman. Early in the match Ted DiBiase tries to buy Kamala off. Kamala takes the money and gives it to Slick, attacking DiBiase after Slick tells him to do so. The babyfaces dominate before the commercial break and are able to briefly put Brian Knobbs in peril afterward. All hell breaks loose when DiBiase prevents IRS from getting pinned after a Jerry Sags piledriver, leading to IRS getting triple teamed and splashed by Kamala. However, Kamala’s inability to pin someone finally catches up to him as he fails to turn IRS over and when he gets up to communicate with Slick, IRS schoolboys him for the pin. This would be the last time Slick was seen for the rest of the decade on WWF television. He was ineffective as a babyface act as the gimmick of an overly enthusiastic preacher was better cast as a heel for the changing societal dynamics of the 1990s. Rating: **

Gene Okerlund hosts the first Face to Face segment, which is replacing Event Center segments on the program. These were supposed to be a more exciting way to boost house show attendance by having wrestlers interact with Okerlund, and later interviews, via a satellite hookup. For example, this segment’s guests are Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels and Mr. Perfect via satellite. They argue over how they started fighting at WrestleMania IX. Michaels argues that he was defending a friend while Perfect says Michaels put his nose into his business with Lex Luger. Since these were house show specific like the Event Center, they will be glossed over for the recaps of these shows going forward.

A third vignette for the Smoking Gunns is a rehash of footage of their previous ones. It lets fans know that they are coming.

Yokozuna (w/Mr. Fuji) (17-2) pins Sean Dakota after the sit-down splash off the second rope at 2:54:

Yokozuna works in slow motion for this squash. Dakota does not fall on his back after the avalanche spot and that must have made Yokozuna angry as he does not brace himself when doing the sit-down splash off the second rope.

Gene Okerlund does The King of the Ring Report. Yokozuna and Mr. Fuji talk about tearing WWF Champion Hulk Hogan apart piece by piece. Lex Luger says he feels bad for having to take out Bob Backlund because the WWF made him qualify. He also talks about looking forward to knocking Bret Hart out of the tournament.

Crush (13-2) defeats Steve Vega via submission to the head vice at 1:58:

Vega had done squash work for the WWF before, working matches from 1989-1990. His big claim to fame is that he was once in the Wrestling Challenge intro video when the Ultimate Warrior gorilla press slammed him to the arena floor.

There is a big size mismatch as Crush towers over Vega and shakes off the blows that Vega throws. Referee Bill Alfonso gets too close to the action, almost getting taken out by Vega’s legs when Crush does a belly-to-belly suplex. As Crush rolls to victory McMahon announces that Mr. Perfect and Doink the Clown will have a second qualification match to get into the King of the Ring Tournament.

Gorilla Monsoon’s Update segment recaps the Sensational Sherri-Luna Vachon feud. Vachon promises to haunt Sherri. Sherri says that she invented mean and will face Vachon anywhere.

King of the Ring Qualifying Match: Razor Ramon (12-1) pins El Matador (6-1-1) after Ramon rolls through a flying body press and holds the tights at 3:19:

El Matador surprises Ramon off the ropes with the flying forearm early in the match, forcing Ramon to place his foot on the bottom rope to escape. Ramon never musters more than punches and kicks, winning the match with smarts and cheating. Rating: *½

Ray Rougeau interviews Giant Gonzalez and Harvey Wippleman. Gonzalez is back to the darker skin suit that does not have hair sticking out of it. Rougeau announces that Gonzalez has a King of the Ring qualifying match coming up against Tatanka. Wippleman first addresses the Undertaker, saying that the Undertaker keeps coming after them because he is stupid. In terms of the tournament, Wippleman promises that Gonzalez will carve a path of destruction through it.

Tune in next week to see Tatanka battle Giant Gonzalez in a King of the Ring qualifying match!

The Last Word: The WWF continues to experiment with new production ideas into 1993 as this program featured the first Face to Face segments. Those were an upgrade over the Event Center because Gene Okerlund could directly interact with the participants. Event Center promos were not bringing fans out to house shows recently so it makes sense for the WWF to try something else. However, the talent hated it because they had to go to Stamford to film them versus older Event Center promos that were done at television tapings. The King of the Ring Tournament has a good field so far. The idea that the participants had to qualify and then be seeded by WWF President Jack Tunney was a good, sports-like way to book it as well.

Up Next: Wrestling Challenge for May 9!

And if you would like to read a compiled breakdown of 1990-1992 WWF, 1993 ECW, or of various promotions in 1995, check out my Amazon author page to purchase e-books or paperback copies!