What the World Was Watching: WWF Monday Night RAW – June 21, 1993

Footage is shown of the 1-2-3 Kid upsetting Razor Ramon a month ago on RAW.

Vince McMahon, Bobby Heenan, and Randy Savage are doing commentary, live from Poughkeepsie, New York.

Opening Non-Title Contest: The Steiner Brothers (WWF Tag Team Champions) (22-0) beat Barry Hardy & Reno Riggins when Scott pins Riggins after the Frankensteiner at 3:47:

The Steiners appear on television for the first time with the Tag Team titles, winning them two nights earlier from Money Incorporated. The longer squash lets Scott do a suplex display. Riggins jaws with Scott from the apron and is summarily finished with a belly-to-belly suplex and Frankensteiner. Riggins gets weird rotation for the Frankensteiner, flipping and falling onto Scott as he takes the move.

Best-of-Three Falls Match: Marty Jannetty (7-1-1) defeats Doink the Clown (18-3-3) via reverse decision at 20:42:

Other Falls: Doink wins the first fall with a flying butt splash at 7:15; Jannetty wins the second fall with a flying fist drop at 11:57

Doink incorporates a unicycle into his entrance. Both men are hesitant at the beginning and Doink tries to play mind games with Jannetty, getting heat by exposing his chin for Jannetty to punch. Jannetty responds by making Doink look foolish in a criss-cross by stopping his running of the ropes. After Jannetty crotches himself in the corner on a blind charge, Doink finishes him with a flying butt splash for the first fall. Action picks up in the second fall and Jannetty absorbs a lot of punishment. He weathers the storm, although he accidentally suplexes Doink too far from the corner and is forced to improvise a sequence to get his opponent closer to do his finishing flying fist drop. Desperation sets in for the third fall as Doink goes after Jannetty’s legs, although there is miscommunication between the combatants as to which limb has been damaged more. Jannetty refuses to submit to a figure-four and STF and throws Doink off the top rope, leading to another Doink running to ringside and hiding under the ring. The switch happens when Doink is knocked to the floor and the fresh Doink pins Jannetty after a piledriver. However, Savage is incensed at the injustice of the finish so he drags the original Doink from underneath the ring and when referee Earl Hebner sees this, he reverses the decision. In this era it was unheard of for a television match to get this much time. Jannetty and Doink took advantage of it. One wishes the finish made one of them look stronger. Rating: ***½

Mr. Hughes (w/Harvey Wippleman) (12-1-1) pins Bobby Who after the sidewalk slam at 3:01:

Heenan complains that ring announcer Howard Finkel does not know the jobber’s last name. Hughes has the urn in his possession and tells the Undertaker via the camera that he can come and get it. A few fans tire of the squash after a couple of minutes, working up a loud “Boring!” chant. Hughes does not help his cause by throwing a dropkick and not doing much else. Hughes picks up Who after a powerslam, preferring to win with his sidewalk slam. Who almost botches it but to Hughes’ credit he is able to salvage it halfway through and still spike Who into the mat.

Heenan and Gene Okerlund are set to visit the USS Intrepid on All American Wrestling. During the best-of-three falls match, McMahon announced that NFL football player Bill Fralic would be participating in the “Stars & Stripes Challenge.” He adds that Crush is going to take part.

$10,000 Challenge Match: Razor Ramon (16-3-1) wrestles the 1-2-3 Kid (1-2) to a double count out at 5:15:

Ramon carries the bag with $10,000 to the ring and there is little security over it as referee Earl Hebner just sets it underneath one of the corner turnbuckles. Due to television time remaining they have to blitz the action. The Kid gets a big reaction for a flying sunset flip after avoiding the Bad Guy’s initial charge. That gets a near-fall and the Kid follows with a spinning heel kick. However, a body press off the ropes is countered with a fallaway slam and Ramon starts extracting the revenge he has talked about. He delivers a devastating chokeslam, stretches the newcomer, hits the super backdrop suplex, and peels back the ring mats on the floor to try the Razor’s Edge on the concrete. However, the Kid backdrops out and tries a dive off the top rope but he slips and falls to the concrete. According to Sean Waltman, that gave him a concussion and fractured his skull. After getting a near-fall from a moonsault in the ring, the Kid grabs the unsecured bag of money and runs out of the arena and into a waiting car. This told a good, multi-layered story of the Kid fighting from underneath while Ramon cost himself a win and $10,000 because he aimed to punish his opponent rather than pin or submit him. It is also one of the few times that a double count out worked as the Kid had the foresight to have someone waiting for him so he could escape with Ramon’s money. And considering how the Kid rang his bell with the botched top rope dive it is amazing that they were even able to do the planned finish. In a weird way, that actually enhanced the match as it makes sense that a high flyer would wipe out if they tried to go to the well one too many times, and after the Kid blew that move and failed to beat Ramon with his finisher it was a shrewd move to steal the money and live to fight another day. Rating: ***

After a commercial break, McMahon interviews Ramon, who says that no one rips him off and the Kid cannot hide from him forever.

Tune in next week to see Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels defend against Kamala! Also, WWF Champion Yokozuna will appear for a special interview!

The Last Word: Monday Night RAW continues to find its stride as this episode was full of action and two entertaining feature matches. A danger of jobbing someone like Razor Ramon to a no-name act is that he would look like a loser but the WWF is finding a creative way to tell the story so that Ramon maintains his edge and the 1-2-3 Kid can hang with others on the roster.

Up Next: WWF Superstars for June 26!