What the World Was Watching: WWF Wrestling Challenge – June 13, 1993

All American Wrestling’s exclusive match was a best-of-three falls six-man tag team encounter, taped in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada on May 25:

Best-of-Three Falls Match: The Steiner Brothers & Tatanka defeat Money Incorporated & Doink the Clown when Rick pins Ted DiBiase after a powerslam to win the third fall at 8:55 shown:

Others falls: Rick Steiner pinned Ted DiBiase after Scott delivered a flying clothesline off the second rope to win the first fall in 31 seconds; DiBiase pins Rick after a piledriver to win the second fall at 6:34

The WWF has not had a best-of-three falls match since SummerSlam ’90 when the Hart Foundation won the Tag Team Championship from Demolition. One wonders what Money Incorporated and Doink have in common backstage to form a team for this bout. The babyfaces blitz the heels to start, with Scott blocking a DiBiase clothesline with a flying clothesline off the second rope and his brother pinning DiBiase for the first fall. The heels slow the action down in the second fall, wearing down Rick in their half of the ring. Rick tags his brother but the referee does not see it and a Doink flying elbow drop and DiBiase piledriver even the match at one fall each. In the third fall, Rick backdrops out of a Doink piledriver and Scott gets the hot tag. When everyone pairs off seconds later, Rick somehow ends up the legal man again and catches DiBiase off the ropes with a powerslam to win the match for his team. This took the formula for a typical match with babyface shine, heel beatdown, and babyface comeback and stretched it to fit the stipulation. And it worked! Rating: ***

Jim Ross and Bobby Heenan provide commentary on Wrestling Challenge for the last WWF television show before The King of the Ring. This episode starts a new taping cycle from Sydney, Nova Scotia. Heenan announces Yokozuna’s weight at 550 pounds.

Opening Contest: Tatanka (21-0-1) pins Reno Riggins after the Papoose to Go at 3:21:

Tatanka has been busy this weekend, wrestling on three of the last four shows. This is the second time that Tatanka has squashed Riggins this year, beating him previously on the March 22 edition of RAW. In the split screen, Tatanka says Lex Luger cannot do anything to keep him from winning the King of the Ring Tournament.

Mr. Hughes (w/Harvey Wippleman) (11-0-1) defeats Scott Despres after the sidewalk slam at 2:15:

Despero was trained by Brian Walsh and started his career in 1988. He worked a lot on the New England independent circuit in the 1990s and this was his first WWF enhancement match.

Mr. Perfect does an insert promo where he says that after their tournament match, Hughes can just call him perfect rather than Mr. The only two moves Hughes does in the squash are a big boot and sidewalk slam.

Lex Luger (18-0) pins Mike Davis after the running forearm at 2:19:

Luger does a funny split screen promo about how the closest that Tatanka will get to the King of the Ring finals is buying a ringside seat. It does not take long for Luger to knock Davis out with the running forearm.

Boni Blackstone interviews Bret Hart, who says he is going to right some wrongs in the King of the Ring Tournament. Bret warns Razor Ramon that a wrestling lesson awaits him and repeats his previous claim that Ramon has not been doing enough homework to win the tournament. He closes by leading the crowd is a “1, 2, 3” chant against Ramon.

Okerlund does the last King of the Ring Report. Yokozuna and Mr. Fuji talk about winning the WWF title for Japan.

Non-Title Match: Money Incorporated (WWF Tag Team Champions) (11-1) defeat the Smoking Gunns (5-0) when Ted DiBiase pins Billy with a schoolboy roll up at 6:29 shown:

This is the Gunns first feature match test. Before the bout, IRS tells the crowd that some people never heed his warnings not to cheat on their taxes. The Headshrinkers do an insert promo about how people are not going to live what they do in the eight-man tag team match at The King of the Ring. That is followed by the Steiners doing an insert about how they are coming for Money Incorporated in the eight-man tag. All of these promos reduce the match to the background and it becomes an abbreviated clash, finishing up when Billy does not learn his lesson from RAW when he jaws with IRS after getting tripped running the ropes. DiBiase takes advantage and knees Billy in the back and schoolboys him to hand the Gunns their first loss. Money Incorporated has now won eleven straight tag team matches. Rating: **

The Last Word: The Smoking Gunns took on some losses this week, relegating them to the bottom of the tag team rankings. Despite the loss, they showed good fire in the feature match so the potential is there. And while their gimmick is cartoonish it is not unrealistic and fits the Western romanticism that swept the American public in the early 1990s. It has been strange to see Wrestling Challenge be a better vehicle of King of the Ring hype than the WWF’s other shows, something that may be owed to Ross playing a bigger role in the production.

Here is a quick summary of the WWF’s house show action before The King of the Ring, with results provided courtesy of thehistoryofwwe.com:

Indianapolis, Indiana – Market Square Arena – June 12, 1993 (2,500): Owen Hart pinned Terry Taylor after an enzuigiri…Luna Vachon beat Sensational Sherri after Mr. Hughes interfered…Crush wrestled Doink the Clown to a double count after a second Doink interfered…The Steiner Brothers defeated Blake Beverly & Damien Demento when Scott pinned Blake after the Frankensteiner…Mr. Hughes pinned Virgil after the sidewalk slam…Yokozuna pinned Hacksaw Jim Duggan after the sit-down splash off the second rope after Mr. Fuji distracted Duggan…The Mega-Maniacs beat WWF Tag Team Champions Money Incorporated via disqualification in a match where Sergeant Slaughter was the special guest referee.

New York, New York – Madison Square Garden – June 12, 1993 (9,100): El Matador pinned Papa Shango with a roll up at 10:14…Razor Ramon beat Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels via count out when Diesel pulled Michaels out of the ring after the Razor’s Edge and carried him backstage at 8:51…Bret Hart pinned Bob Backlund with a roll over at 32:21…The Undertaker beat Giant Gonzalez via disqualification when Gonzalez hit the Undertaker in the back with a chair when the Undertaker grabbed Harvey Wippleman on the apron at 4:34. After the match, Gonzalez and Wippleman tried to use chloroform on the Undertaker but the Undertaker seized the rag and began using it on Gonzalez…Tatanka beat Bam Bam Bigelow via count out after hitting the Papoose to Go on the arena floor at 11:21. After the bout, Bigelow attacked Tatanka and hit the flying headbutt…The Headshrinkers & Afa beat the Smoking Gunns & Kamala…Lex Luger pinned Mr. Perfect after taking off his forearm pad and knocking Perfect out with the running forearm while the referee was distracted by Shawn Michaels and Diesel at 14:02. Luger was ordered to wear the forearm pad by the referee or be fined $25,000 and suspended for six months.

Up Next: King of the Ring 1993!