What the World Was Watching: WWF Wrestling Challenge – July 18, 1993

All American Wrestling had a feature match that debuted two new talents in a six-man tag team match. It took place in Salisbury, Maryland on July 7:

The Steiner Brothers & Tatanka defeat Well Dunn & Blake Beverly when Tatanka pins Beverly after the Papoose to go at 9:08:

Well Dunn were a heel tag team composed of Memphis acts Timothy Well (Rex King) and Steven Dunn (Steve Doll). Well was a Dean Malenko trainee who started his career in 1987, doing enhancement matches for the WWF and Jim Crockett Promotions. Dunn was trained by Rick and John Davidson and made his debut in 1985 for Mid-South Wrestling. Well Dunn first worked together in the Pacific Northwest in 1989, wrestling as the Southern Rockers and winning the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship four times. They also had a stint in the USWA in 1990, winning the Tag Team titles four times, and won the WWC World Tag Team Championship in Puerto Rico in 1992. The WWF signed them as part of the company’s working relationship with the USWA.

During entrances, Gorilla Monsoon talks about needing to research whether the length of Tatanka’s winning streak has set a record, which is humorous when one remembers that Andre the Giant was hyped on a 15-year unbeaten streak before WrestleMania III, a pay-per-view that Monsoon called. This match is sink or swim for Well Dunn as they are tossed into a feature match without any squashes or vignettes. Their white singlets and purple shorts are color coordinated with Blake. The bout has poor pacing as the babyfaces do a few moves, the heels retreat, and each side walks around and stares at each other to kill time. It takes six minutes for something substantial to happen. Tatanka misses a reverse flying body press off the second rope to put himself in peril, which ends after a few minutes when he raises his boot when Dunn dives off the second rope. The Steiners clear the ring and Tatanka hits his finish on Blake in what was really an extended babyface squash. It was a poor showing for Well Dunn, who barely worked as a unit. Rating: *

Wrestling Challenge had Jim Ross and Bobby Heenan commentating. They wrapped up the taping cycle from Columbus, Ohio.

Continued from Last Week’s Program: Bam Bam Bigelow & the Headshrinkers (w/Afa) beat Tatanka & the Smoking Gunns when Fatu pins Billy after a thrust kick at 2:43 (14:38 total time):

To the WWF’s credit, they immediately go back to the closing moments of last week’s six-man tag team match that did not finish before Wrestling Challenge went off the air, something that did not happen for the Undertaker-Skinner match earlier in the year on Monday Night RAW. Bart dropkicks Bigelow to get out of peril and Billy gets the hot tag. After the Gunns throw Samu into the ring post, Billy decides to taunt but turns around and gets caught with a Fatu thrust kick. This breaks Tatanka’s unbeaten streak but his streak in singles competition continues. Tatanka was also busy this week, appearing in matches on all of the WWF’s programming.

Doink the Clown (20-5-3) defeats Ken Hamilton after a flying butt splash at 2:43:

Hamilton was trained by Charlie Fulton and Ron Cumberledge and this was his first year in the business. He would also wrestle as Kenny Hendrix on the independent circuit.

Doink takes his time deconstructing Hamilton with amateur wrestling takedowns and holds. Then he switches gears and decides to win with a flying butt splash.

Mr. Hughes (w/Harvey Wippleman) (17-1-1) pins Marty Jannetty (11-1-1) after a powerslam at 11:28 shown:

This is the classic big man vs. small matchup that starts with Jannetty maneuvering around Hughes until he tries a headscissors on the floor and gets stun gunned across the guardrail. Jannetty finds new life when he catches Hughes with a boot on a blind charge. Like a video game, Jannetty flies off the ropes with a facebuster, two missile dropkicks, and a double axe handle to the floor. However, spamming those moves tips Hughes off to what is coming next and when Jannetty tries a flying body press he counters with a powerslam for a clean win over the former Intercontinental champion. Like Crush last week, this loss bodes ill for Jannetty’s title hopes on Monday Night RAW. Still, Jannetty got a fun match out of Hughes because he was willing to sacrifice his body for big spots. Rating: **½

Jerry Lawler’s King’s Court has Owen Hart as a guest. Owen tells Lawler that he promised his mother, father, and Bret that he would not touch Lawler because he is leaving that task for Bret at SummerSlam. Lawler takes advantage of that to question Owen’s masculinity. In response, Owen challenges Lawler to a match on next week’s show. Lawler accepts and gets mad when Owen calls him a “burger king” to end a good interview segment.

Non-Title Match: Shawn Michaels (Intercontinental Champion w/Diesel) (18-4-1) pins Chris Hahn after the piledriver at 3:08:

Michaels and Hahn do some fun sequences of maneuvering around each other in the early going. Fans work up a chant for Marty Jannetty as Michaels does a superkick-piledriver combination to finish. Michaels’ decision to start using the piledriver as a finish is a certainly a choice as he cannot do it against bigger competitors and it is also Lawler’s finishing move.

Tune in next week to see Owen Hart face Jerry Lawler! Also, Men on a Mission and Mr. Perfect will be in action! And Ludvig Borga will make his debut!

The Last Word: For the second straight week, Wrestling Challenge had a fun feature match and it was complimented by a good edition of the King’s Court, an interview segment that was floundering before today’s program. Bret Hart’s angle with Jerry Lawler has been relegated to the C-show for the time being, showing how he is being pushed aside for Lex Luger’s babyface turn.

The WWF stuck to the East Coast for house shows in mid-July. Here are the results of some of those cards, courtesy of thehistoryofwwe.com:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – The Philadelphia Spectrum – July 16, 1993 (4,500): Damien Demento pinned El Matador…Jim Powers (substituting for Kamala) defeated Papa Shango…Tatanka wrestled Bam Bam Bigelow to a double count out…Bastion Booger pinned Bob Backlund…Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels pinned Mr. Perfect after the superkick after Diesel interfered at 14:01…The Smoking Gunns beat Afa (substituting for Fatu) & Samu…Bret Hart (substituting for Hulk Hogan) beat WWF Champion Yokozuna via disqualification when Mr. Fuji interfered when Bret had Yokozuna trapped in the Sharpshooter at 6:56. After the match, Yokozuna did the sit-down splash off the second rope before Lex Luger made the save.

Tampa, Florida – The SunDome – July 18, 1993 (3,500): Typhoon beat the Predator…Razor Ramon defeated Jerry Lawler…The 1-2-3 Kid beat Terry Taylor…Bret Hart defeated WWF Champion Yokozuna via disqualification…The Bushwhackers & Tiger Jackson beat Blake Beverly, the Brooklyn Brawler & Little Louie…Doink the Clown defeated Virgil…WWF Tag Team Champions the Steiner Brothers beat Money Incorporated.

Backstage News*: There are rumors that Randy Savage might become the WWF’s new booker. At the very least it is expected that Savage will have a big role in booking future WWF shows.

-Former Capital Sports part-owner and WWWF promoter Phil Zacko passed away at the age of 87 on July 18. Zacko oversaw the WWWF’s promotion of Philadelphia during the 1960s and 1970s and was a secretary to Vince McMahon, Sr.

-In talent relations news, Sensational Sherri was fired. Sherri did not learn about it until she was getting ready to fly to Philadelphia on July 16. There were previous reports that Sherri was looking to get out of wrestling and enter beauty school. And since Luna Vachon broke her wrist, the WWF had little for her to do anymore. (Note: In later interviews, Sherri said another contributing cause of her firing was marijuana use)

*Backstage news is provided courtesy of Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer for July 26.

Up Next: Monday Night RAW for July 19!