What the World Was Watching: WWF Monday Night RAW – July 26, 1993

Doink the Clown tells Randy Savage that he did not appreciate when he interfered in his match last month against Marty Jannetty. He tells the “Macho Boy” to stay out of his business and that he might have a surprise in store for him later in the evening.

Vince McMahon, Bobby Heenan, and Savage are in the booth, taped from the Manhattan Center in New York City. Savage tells Doink to bring it on. Bret Hart’s parents are also shown sitting in the balcony before the opening match.

Opening Contest: Bam Bam Bigelow (w/Luna Vachon) (27-3-1) defeats Bret Hart (6-1) via count out at 16:02 shown:

Like King of the Ring, Bigelow swallows Bret up. This time Bret does not have the excuse of wrestling two matches earlier in the evening. But he has issues nonetheless, failing to adequately slide under Bigelow off the ropes and clutching his knee after a flying seated senton. That does not amount to anything because Bigelow refuses to target that body part, preferring to use power moves like a backdrop suplex and powerslam. As the action unfolds, Heenan talks about Lawler coming to the show in a limo. It takes two commercial breaks and more than eight minutes for Bret to mount a rally. A positive aspect of the match is its physicality as Bret goes outside of his usual arsenal to headbutt Bigelow’s back to set up some of the moves of doom. When Bret goes for the Sharpshooter, Lawler appears in the balcony by Bret’s parents and makes fun of them. That distracts from the rest of the match, which keeps going as Bigelow attacks Bret when he tries to get to the balcony and rams him into the ring post. Eventually, Bret DDTs Bigelow and heads to the balcony and gets counted out. Lawler leaves before Bret gets to his parents, hugging them after driving Lawler away. The bout should have ended at the Sharpshooter bit as the rest of the action was meaningless. Bret and Bigelow also had several miscommunications throughout. Rating: ***

Mr. Hughes (w/Harvey Wippleman) (18-1-1) pins Ross Greenberg after the sidewalk slam at 3:05:

Another black wreath is delivered to ringside during the squash. Everything seems backward about Hughes’ program with the Undertaker since he has the urn and is getting these special deliveries but the Undertaker is booked to face Giant Gonzalez, who has not been seen in more than a month, at SummerSlam. Hughes works slowly and after he wins, he stomps the wreath.

McMahon hypes “WrestleMania: The Album” and shows footage of the RCA release party for the album. Tiny Tim got a new ukelele to replace the one Jerry Lawler destroyed on last week’s program.

The Smoking Gunns (8-1) defeat Duane Gill & Glen Ruth when Bart pins Ruth after the backdrop-piledriver combination at 4:22:

McMahon tells fans that Helen Hart is distraught backstage, even though she did not seem out of sorts at the end of Bret Hart’s match earlier in the program. The Gunns have some good double team moves but they have to drag out the squash to fit television time. It also makes some of those moves, like a double side Russian leg sweep, look weaker when the jobber either gets up or is not finished off.

A musical video package to Ludvig Borga’s theme shows off some of his in-ring action. A short promo from Borga airs where he says his name is “Ludvig Borg” and he wants fans to stand for the Finnish national anthem when he comes to the ring.

Video of McMahon interviewing Lex Luger in an empty Manhattan Center is shown. Luger repeats that he does not care about the forearm pad stipulation for SummerSlam even though he cared a lot about that as the Narcissist. One has to assume he has a different view because he is getting a WWF title shot. McMahon implies that Luger may have to field some questions about steroids. Luger responds that he is not afraid of answering hard questions on his tour of America. There is more footage of fans lining up to see Luger on his campaign.

Doink the Clown (21-5-3) beats Phil Apollo after a flying butt splash at 2:33:

In a continuation of the last segment, McMahon says that in upcoming weeks questions will be asked of Luger about his expulsion from the University of Miami and views about drug use. Doink gets chants from the crowd as he outwrestles Apollo. He seems partial to the flying butt splash as a new finishing move.

After a commercial break, Doink invites Savage into the ring. When Savage will not do that, Doink goes to the announce table and challenges him to a match. Savage does not immediately accept and Doink promises that when he faces Savage he will get triple vision. Two other Doinks then appear, one in the ring and one in the balcony. After another break, Savage accepts Doink’s challenge and promises that he has a surprise for Doink as well.

Tune in next week to see Randy Savage face Doink the Clown!

The Last Word: Lex Luger did his best to appear humble in the interview but he does not look comfortable with the role that the company has thrust upon him. Luger is also less charismatic than his contemporaries, at least as a babyface, as his promos were always much better as a heel. So the WWF’s dreams of him filling Hulk Hogan’s shows look premature. This show did a good job continuing the Bret Hart-Jerry Lawler feud, which has shifted over the past week to Lawler attacking Bret’s family verbally and in the ring. Plus, anytime fans could be treated to a decent Bret Hart match, it made RAW a must-see program.

Up Next: WWF Superstars for July 31!