What the World Was Watching: WWF Wrestling Challenge – August 8, 1993

All American Wrestling had an exclusive match, taped from the Monday Night RAW location in Alexandria Bay, New York on July 25. Jim Ross and Gorilla Monsoon provided commentary:

Non-Title Match: Owen Hart (7-5) beats Shawn Michaels (Intercontinental Champion w/Diesel) (20-4-1) via disqualification when Diesel interferes at 7:15:

Even though Owen has lost a good number of feature matches this year, the crowd still gets behind him for the match. These two would have better bouts later as this one is hurt by Michaels’ style at the time that leaned toward doing long rest holds in the middle. Owen scores near-falls from a facebuster and belly-to-belly suplex during his comeback. When he runs the ropes shortly after, Diesel trips him in view of the referee and that gets Michaels disqualified, giving Owen a small upset win. The loss breaks Michaels’ seven-match winning streak. Rating: **¼

After the match, Michaels gets his heat back by attacking Owen. Diesel enters the ring and they do a brief two-on-one attack on the younger Hart brother.

Wrestling Challenge had Jim Ross and Bobby Heenan on commentary and they wrapped up the taping in Salisbury, Maryland.

Opening Contest: Doink the Clown (23-6-3) defeats Tony DiMauro after the flying butt splash at 2:41:

Heenan puts over how much he loves Doink as the evil clown gets a second-straight win on the weekend syndicated shows.

Lord Alfred Hayes’ Special Report replays last week’s altercation between Tatanka and Bam Bam Bigelow on Superstars. Bigelow and Luna Vachon tell Tatanka and the Smoking Gunns that they are going down at SummerSlam. Tatanka rebuts that he will take care of Bigelow while the Gunns take care of the Headshrinkers.

Marty Jannetty (11-3-1) pins Reno Riggins after the flying fist drop at 2:25:

There is not much of a flow to the squash as Jannetty fires up the crowd and then plants Riggins with the Rocker Dropper to set up the flying fist drop.

Mr. Hughes (w/Harvey Wippleman) (20-1-1) beats Dave Thornberg after the sidewalk slam at 2:27:

Hughes gets upset when Thornberg refuses to shine his shoes so he puts the boots to him. Instead of asking for that, Hughes should have ordered Thornberg to block black wreath deliveries as another is sent to ringside. Hughes chokes a lot to give Ross time to talk about the mysterious RIP match at SummerSlam between the Undertaker and Giant Gonzalez. He tears up the wreath afterward.

Gene Okerlund does the SummerSlam Report. Bret Hart criticizes Jerry Lawler for going after his mother and father on Monday Night RAW a few weeks ago, saying that they have nothing to do with their feud. Ted DiBiase talks about losing sleep at night thinking about Razor Ramon and that Ramon will pay for that. Ramon fires back that he is not sure who DiBiase is going to blame when he gets carved up.

Non-Title Match: The Steiner Brothers (WWF Tag Team Champions) (28-0) defeat the Executioners when Scott pins Agony after the Frankensteiner at 3:14:

This is the third time that the Executioners have been sacrificed to the Steiners this year. One could argue that they have become the executed. Ross talks about the Steiners facing the Headshrinker soon for the Tag Team titles, out of step with the ongoing story from RAW where the Heavenly Bodies have issued a challenge to the Steiners through Jim Cornette. Like killer whales, the Steiners toy with their prey before winning again.

In a new “Who is Lex Luger?” segment, Luger talks about how doing a successful 50-yard dash and high jump as a kid showed that he had athletic potential and how much he loved basketball. He also talks about how he could have gone to the Naval Academy but settled on attending the University of Miami for football.

Non-Title Match: Shawn Michaels (Intercontinental Champion w/Diesel) (20-5-1) pins Glen Ruth after the piledriver at 2:29:

Angry about losing to Owen Hart on All American, Michaels corners Ruth and peppers him with punches. After Ruth misses a blind charge, Michaels takes him down with a flying clothesline and uses the superkick to set up the piledriver.

The show plays out with the “WrestleMania” song on the RCA album. That is funny because it is not the next pay-per-view and the Big Bossman is heavily featured even though he has been gone for a long time.

Tune in next week to see Men on a Mission, the Quebecers, and Mr. Perfect in action! Also, Razor Ramon appears on the King’s Court!

The Last Word: Without a feature match or interview segment, this episode had nothing going for it.

The WWF continued its tour of Europe during this week in its history. The August 6 event marked the last appearance for Brutus Beefcake, as well as last WWF in-ring appearance for Hulk Hogan for more than eight years:

Sheffield, England – Sheffield Arena – August 6, 1993 (10,000; sellout): El Matador beat the Predator…Brutus Beefcake defeated Terry Taylor…Bam Bam Bigelow wrestled Tatanka to a double count out…Owen Hart beat Papa Shango…Hacksaw Jim Duggan defeated Bastion Booger…WWF Tag Team Champions the Steiner Brothers beat the Headshrinkers…Hulk Hogan beat WWF Champion Yokozuna via disqualification when Mr. Fuji interfered.

Backstage News*: Lex Luger’s tour ran into some problems this week as he was showing up 30-45 minutes late for scheduled appearances because schedule makers did not allot him enough time to “train and tan.” Despite that, more fans are showing up. In interviews, Luger defended the WWF’s steroid testing program and admitted to using steroids in the past when they were legal.

-Since the WWF will be running more shows in the Northeast, it is urging talent to relocate there to reduce transportation costs. Randy Savage has moved to Connecticut to encourage others to do so as a locker room leader. Previous reports that Savage would have a big role in the WWF’s booking were incorrect, though.

-Hulk Hogan’s merchandise sold well on the European tour. His matches with Yokozuna got poor reviews. Hogan was first and Hacksaw Jim Duggan was second in terms of crowd reactions.

-The WWF started a 1-900 hotline number in the United Kingdom two weeks ago and it is bringing in good money.

-Due to a lack of bookings, Marty Jannetty is seeking out independent dates. Tito Santana was doing the same thing, winning the Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) Championship from Don Muraco on August 8.

*Backstage news is provided courtesy of Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer for August 16.

Up Next: Monday Night RAW for April 9!