What the World Was Watching: WWF Superstars – May 22, 1993

WWF Mania featured an original match.

Tatanka (17-0) beats Terry Taylor (2-2) after the Papoose to Go at 5:55 shown:

This match was filmed at the Manhattan Center on May 10. It is joined in progress after a commercial break. The Wizard reveals on commentary that Tatanka will face Lex Luger in the King of the Ring Tournament. Tatanka’s hand drops three times during a chinlock spot and a confused Tim White almost calls for the bell. Surprisingly, the Manhattan Center crowd lets that slide and White opts to have the match continue when Tatanka gets back on script of holding his own hand up and fights out. Tatanka does his usual comeback, which Taylor cuts off with a swinging neckbreaker for a close two. He argues with White after that – and who can blame him – but that results in him turning around and eating the Papoose to Go to lose the last televised match of his run. Taylor was moving into more of a broadcasting and backstage role by this point but he deserved better in this run. Rating: **

Vince McMahon, Bobby Heenan, and Randy Savage call the action on WWF Superstars, starting a new taping in Worcester, Massachusetts. According to the historyofwwe.com, the taping took place on May 4 and drew a sellout crowd of 4,000 fans.

Opening Contest: The Smoking Gunns (2-0) defeat Dwayne Gill & Chris Duffy when Bart pins Duffy after a backdrop-piledriver combination at 3:04:

The Gunns outwrestle their opponents in turn but the only devastating move they land is a double side Russian leg sweep. They are trying to make the backdrop-piledriver combination a thing but it has the same coordination problem as RAW. For today’s match the piledriver from Bart looks more like a sit-out powerbomb.

Gorilla Monsoon’s Update segment recaps the big events of the recent Monday Night RAW. Monsoon says that Razor Ramon will have a special announcement to make on RAW next week.

Bam Bam Bigelow (22-1) pins Jerry Seavey after the flying headbutt at 2:22:

Seavey was a Killer Kowalski trainee who began doing WWF enhancement matches in 1985. In 1992 he worked four matches, losing to Tatanka, the Berzerker, Money Incorporated, and the Beverly Brothers. Seavey wrestled on the Northeast independent circuit as the Candyman.

During Bigelow’s entrance, Lawler tells fans that on this week’s Wrestling Challenge he will start a new interview segment called “The King’s Court.” Bigelow is bringing some of Tatanka’s red hair to the ring with him now in a plastic bag. While that is meant to taunt his adversary, the plastic sandwich bag takes some of the zing out of their program as it relegates it to grade school fare. The bag does get some use, though, as Bigelow tosses it on Seavey’s chest before doing a back splash. Instead of talking about Bigelow’s program with Tatanka, the announcers prefer to talk about Razor Ramon’s upcoming announcement on RAW.

King of the Ring Qualifying Match: Shawn Michaels (13-4) wrestles Crush (15-2) to a double count out at 5:22:

Since this show was taped while Michaels was Intercontinental champion he gets a jobber entrance so that he does not appear with the belt. Most of the match is Michaels getting rag dolled by his Hawaiian adversary. Late in the bout, Crush knocks Michaels to the floor and when Michaels gets on the apron he pulls down the top rope so send Crush to the floor. Shortly after Crush falls out of the ring, the bell rings and a double count out is announced. That is a third inconclusive outcome in a qualifying match and it clears the field for the winner of the Mr. Perfect-Doink Monday Night RAW match to get into the tournament. Rating: *½

The fight continues in the ring and Crush traps Michaels in the head vice. Michaels has had a terrible week.

Gene Okerlund does The King of the Ring Report. WWF Champion Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart do a taped interview on a Florida beach and promise to tie a rope around “Yokozuno’s” neck and drag him through the streets of Dayton. Hogan seemed tired in this promo and it came off as him going through the motions. A new match announced is an eight-man tag team match between the Steiner Brothers & the Smoking Gunns and Money Incorporated & the Headshrinkers. Bret Hart talks about how he is going to prove to people that he is not a beaten man. It is also announced that the Tatanka-Lex Luger match will happen on the bottom half of the bracket, so the winner will face whoever wins the Hacksaw Jim Duggan-Bam Bam Bigelow encounter on that side of the draw. Doink the Clown hypes his qualifying match with Mr. Perfect on Monday night as one that will have a winner.

Johnny Polo appears on the video screen and tells fans to get ready for an explosion. Footage of an atomic bomb blast is shown. Polo was Larry Sharpe trainee Scott Levy who had recently worked in WCW as Scotty Flamingo and had been Light Heavyweight champion there.

Adam Bomb (w/Johnny Polo) pins Burt Centeno after a powerbomb at 2:39:

Bomb was Bryan Clark, a 6’6” trainee of Jody Hamilton and DeWayne Bruce. Clark started wrestling in 1989 for the AWA as the Nightstalker, feuding with the Trooper. He moved on to WCW, where he had an uneventful run between 1990-1991 and wrestled three matches for Herb Abrams’ UWF in 1992. He got back on the radar screen in Jim Cornette’s Smoky Mountain Wrestling promotion, winning the Beat the Champ Television Championship from Tracy Smothers in February 1993. The WWF gave him a tryout a month later and gave him the gimmick of a survivor of the Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown. But he was almost given a gimmick as the Ringmaster, which would later go to Steve Austin in 1996.

Centeno was a Puerto Rican wrestler who entered the business in 1985 for International World Class Championship Wrestling in the Northeast United States. He worked enhancement matches for the WWF in 1988 and 1989.

Bomb provides another agile big man to the roster and he shows that off in the squash by planting Ceneto with a side suplex, doing a dropkick, and blasting Ceneto with a slingshot clothesline from the apron. For a finish, Bomb uses a powerbomb. This was a good debut but Bomb did not get a lot of hype coming into the company and that shows that there are not huge plans for him.

Hacksaw Jim Duggan (9-1) defeats the Brooklyn Brawler after the three-point stance clothesline at 1:56:

After an anti-drug ad, McMahon has to hilariously qualify a statement that people who do dope will have a date with the undertaker but NOT the WWF’s Undertaker. Duggan does his usual crowd-pleasing squash with “Hoos!” as McMahon simultaneously hypes Duggan’s appearance in the King of the Ring Tournament and his feud with Yokozuna.

Tune in next week to see Tatanka, the Steiner Brothers, and Yokozuna in action! There will also be a special interview with Sensational Sherri!

The Last Word: The taping had a hot crowd but there was very little to get behind with this show. What was most significant was the discussion of the latest Monday Night RAW. It was a subtle signal that Superstars was losing its position as the primary place for angles, title changes, and announcements. That pivot was forced on the WWF after it began losing syndicated markets and it elevated the importance of cable television to the survival of the company. Superstars would still have some life left in it but this was the moment when much of the show’s relevance began to wane.

Up Next: Wrestling Challenge for May 23!

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!