What the World Was Watching: WWF Monday Night RAW – August 9, 1993

Footage of the Lex Express in Chicago, Illinois is shown. Luger goes to a Chicago White Sox baseball game, throws the opening pitch, and talks to White Sox player Tim Raines.

Vince McMahon, Bobby Heenan, and Randy Savage are commentating, taped again from Alexandria Bay, New York.

Opening Contest: Tatanka (27-0-2) beats Mr. Hughes (w/Harvey Wippleman) (21-1-1) via count out at 4:56 shown:

Less than a minute into the match another black wreath is brought to ringside by a WWF official. Hughes swallows up Tatanka until a blind charge causes him to collide with the ring post, breaking his sunglasses. Tatanka makes a quick comeback with chops and they fight on the floor, with Tatanka backdropping Hughes and getting back into the ring before the referee finishes his ten count. The loss is the first for Hughes in ten matches. Rating: ½*

After the match, Hughes hits Tatanka in the back of the head with the urn. He takes the black wreath into the ring and tears it apart over Tatanka’s body.

A new “Who is Lex Luger?” piece talks about his time at the University of Miami and how he ended up in the wrong crowd, which led to his dismissal from the football team for disciplinary reasons. That led to him joining a Canadian Football League (CFL) team at the age of 19, where he stayed for two years and later went to the NFL and United States Football League (USFL) for a couple of years. After finishing school in the offseason, he was preparing to go to law school at Stetson University but decided to go to wrestling school at Championship Wrestling of Florida and that got him into the professional wrestling business.

The Bushwhackers & the Macho Midget beat Blake Beverly, the Brooklyn Brawler & Little Louie when Macho pins the Brawler after a splash off the top rope at 6:29:

This is a recasting of the comedy tag team match that aired before WrestleMania IX as Tiger Jackson is now under a mask as the Macho Midget and the Brawler is taking the place of Beau Beverly. The WWF is reincorporating the Bushwhackers into the tag team division as McMahon hypes a future bout with the Quebecers. After the little people do their comedy, Butch takes out the heels, using the Brawler’s head to knock Blake out of the ring with a Battering Ram. The Bushwhackers give the Brawler a double DDT and put Macho on the top rope so he can splash the Brawler for the win. The crowd enjoyed this enough, which made up for some poor in-ring spots. Rating: *

For the SummerSlam contract signing, Jim Cornette comes out with WWF Champion Yokozuna and Mr. Fuji. Fuji announces that he has hired Cornette to be Yokozuna’s “American spokesperson,” which Cornette says is needed because WWF President Jack Tunney has taken advantage of Yokozuna’s lack of English language knowledge to mess up his contracts. Tunney is in the ring but he offers no rebuttal. Cornette looks over the SummerSlam contract and confirms with Fuji that a specific clause they wanted is in the document. Luger comes out to “Stars & Stripes Forever,” which will be his new theme song going forward. He gets a good reaction from the crow and Savage backs him up in the ring. After each man signs, Cornette tells Luger that the contract has a clause that prevents Luger from getting rematches if he fails to win the title at SummerSlam. Luger responds that all he needs is one shot to take the belt and bring it back to the United States. It seems naïve for Luger to sign a contract that only gives him one title shot but storytelling snafu aside, the segment made the SummerSlam main event seem like a big deal so it accomplished its objective.

Razor Ramon (16-3-2) pins Dan Dubiel after the Razor’s Edge at 2:10:

The crowd does not respond to Ramon, likely confused about whether he has fully embraced babyface ways or is merely a heel who has an issue with Ted DiBiase. It also does not help that this is his first match since the 1-2-3 Kid ran away with $10,000 of his money on the June 21 edition of RAW. If there are about doubts at Ramon’s alignment, he wrestles with patriotic wrist tape and does a crowd engaging taunt before doing the Razor’s Edge.

Backstage, Jim Cornette talks with the Heavenly Bodies.

The Heavenly Bodies (w/Jim Cornette) beat Bobby Who & Mike Bucci when Jimmy Del Ray pins Bucci after a moonsault at 2:35:

This was the third incarnation of the Bodies as the original team was made up of Tom Prichard and Pat Rose in Memphis in 1985. The gimmick, of two men who think they are God’s gift to women, was revived by Cornette in Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW) in 1992 and he put Prichard with former Midnight Express member Stan Lane. That version was abandoned in May 1993, when Prichard was paired with Jimmy Del Ray. Prichard was the older brother of Bruce Prichard, who worked for the WWF’s creative team. Trained by the Iron Sheik, he began his career in 1979 and wrestled in Los Angeles and across the South in Georgia, Continental, and Memphis, winning a bevy of singles and tag team titles that included the USWA Southern Heavyweight Championship. Del Ray was trained by the Mighty Yankee and entered the business in 1985. Prior to working for SMW, he worked for Florida promotions in the 1980s and spent time in Japan for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) and W*ING.

Bucci was a trainee of Mike Sharpe and started his wrestling career a year earlier. In 1996 he would attract attention as Super Nova in ECW.

The Bodies love DDTs as Del Ray superkicks Who in the back of the head into a DDT from Prichard and then Del Ray does a float over DDT to Bucci. The crowd does not react to much but they do appreciate the finish as Prichard holds Bucci in place for a moonsault. When the match ends, Cornette gets on the microphone and calls WWF Tag Team Champions the Steiner Brothers cowards for not answering their challenge for SummerSlam.

WWF Champion Yokozuna faces Hacksaw Jim Duggan and WWF Tag Team Champions the Steiner Brothers defend against Money Incorporated in a steel cage match on SummerSlam Spectacular on USA Network on Sunday night, August 22!

Tune in next week to see El Matador wrestle Irwin R. Schyster! Also, the 1-2-3 Kid faces Ted DiBiase! Ludvig Borga and Men on a Mission appear! And there will be a special interview with Giant Gonzalez!

The Last Word: One of next week’s feature matches will not take place because Tito Santana was gone from the company by the following Monday. The main event contract signing had a “big fight feel” to it and it is good that Lex Luger was well received by the crowd. That was not enough to make the show worth watching, though, as the segment was replayed on syndicated shows. The Heavenly Bodies had a decent debut but it is too soon to slot them against the Steiner Brothers. The Steiners have mowed down nearly everyone in the division and are undefeated whereas the Bodies have one mere squash under their belt and do not look physically imposing. That is going to make it a hard sell to fans that they have a chance to knock off the Steiners at SummerSlam.

Up Next: WWF Superstars for August 14!