What the World Was Watching: WWF Wrestling Challenge – September 19, 1993

All American Wrestling had another feature match, taped in Grand Rapids, Michigan on August 31. Jim Ross and Gorilla Monsoon commentated the bout:

The Heavenly Bodies (w/Jim Cornette) (5-1) defeat the Smoking Gunns (15-1) when Jimmy Del Ray pins Bart after Cornette interferes at 6:08 shown:

The Bodies struggle to slow down the Gunns early, losing several brawling sequences that culminate in a dazed Tom Prichard monkey flipping Del Ray. A blind tag finally lets the Bodies put Bart in peril, although Bart screws up that sequence by falling before Prichard can run into the ring and bulldog him. Bart avoids a Del Ray splash so that Billy can receive the hot tag. Not a lot happens there until the Gunns try to set up their backdrop-piledriver combination finish. As Prichard distracts the referee, Cornette gets in the ring and hits Bart with his tennis racquet. When Bart falls, Billy inadvertently ends up backdropping Del Ray onto his partner, with Del Ray rotating enough to splash onto Bart and that allows the heels to end the Gunns ten-match win streak. This quickly checked off all the requirements for a tag match but it was not given enough time to develop into anything better. The finish was unique, though. Rating: **¼

Jim Ross and Bobby Heenan commentate another episode of Wrestling Challenge, concluding the taping in Lowell, Massachusetts. Heenan gets mad when Ross steals his thunder by announcing that the Quebecers are the new WWF Tag Team champions, flipping over some phones.

Opening Contest: Tatanka (31-0-2) pins Chris Duffy after the Papoose to Go at 4:01:

Tatanka continues to enhance his unbeaten streak, spending a long time beating Duffy down. He gives Duffy some token offense so he can go on the warpath at the end, culminating in the Papoose to Go.

The new “Unbelievable!” ad has a guy in a Penn State hat talk down the toughness of WWF superstars and get beaten up by Razor Ramon, Shawn Michaels, and Yokozuna. He looks progressively worse and ends up on crutches, which is funny.

The Headshrinkers (w/Afa) (22-2-1) beat Mike Davis & Tony Roy when Fatu pins Davis after a splash off the top rope to the arena floor at 4:41:

The Headshrinkers, directionless in the tag division, annihilate each of their foes in turn. Roy is wiped out with a double clothesline after he rebounds out of the corner. And Davis gets the worst of it, given a double thrust kick, an assisted stun gun, and thrown out of the ring so that Fatu can do his finishing splash over Samu to Davis on the arena floor. The camera makes it a great visual, filming the spot from as low as possible. That excuses how long this squash took. After the match, the Headshrinkers eat pineapple over Davis’ body.

Gene Okerlund makes his last WWF televised appearance for almost eight years, hyping the next Madison Square Garden show on September 25 and hosting “Face to Face” segments that feature Shawn Michaels and Diesel and later the Undertaker and Paul Bearer.

Marty Jannetty (19-4-1) beats the Executioner after the flying fist drop at 4:10:

The Executioner thinks he has gotten an edge when he throws Jannetty to the floor. However, Jannetty grabs onto the second rope, gets back in, dropkicks the Executioner to the floor, and gives the Executioner a gourdbuster on the outside. Jannetty tweaks his arm in the squash, favoring and shaking it throughout, but he overcomes the pain to win his twentieth singles match of the year.

Ludvig Borga (7-0) pins Rich Myers via submission to a torture rack 2:31:

Never one to shy away from hyping a wrestler’s athletic reputation, Ross lists Borga’s boxing and power lifting credentials in Europe. After some boxing punches, Borga finishes Myers with a side suplex and torture rack.

The Smoking Gunns (15-2) defeat Fred Williams & the Brooklyn Brawler when Bart pins Williams after a flying sunset flip at 3:58:

In kayfabe it does not take the Gunns long to recover from their loss on All American Wrestling, winning their second match of the day against inferior competition. Like many matches on today’s program it goes longer than it needs to be. And since Williams is too big for the Gunns to do their typical finish, Bart wins it with a flying sunset flip.

WWF President Jack Tunny makes an appearance on the King’s Court. Lawler tells Tunney that he needs to tell Doink the Clown to stay away from him or he will slap the paint off Doink’s face. Tunney recaps the events of SummerSlam and how he had to make Lawler wrestle Bret Hart. He adds that he will not hold Bret responsible for anything he does to Lawler. Lawler responds that he will prove to everyone that he is the undisputed King of the WWF. Tunney was too wooden to do a good back-and-forth with Lawler but Lawler’s mic skills still made the segment effective.

Bastion Booger (9-6) beats Mike Khoury after the sit-down splash at 2:03:

The big spot of the squash is Booger avalanching Khoury against the ring post. Khoury’s head smacks hard against the post and the back of his head starts bleeding all over the canvas after Booger does his finish in the ring.

Tune in next week to see Irwin R. Schyster, Ludvig Borga, and the Undertaker in action! Also, Doink the Clown appears on the King’s Court!

The Last Word: Gene Okerlund has been a staple of WWF programming since 1984 and he will be sorely missed for interview segments and pay-per-view hype. Okerlund had a strained relationship with Vince McMahon near the end of his tenure, saying that they were not on speaking terms. When WCW offered Okerlund more money to jump in 1993 he took the offer and he would not return to the WWF until 2001. Okerlund’s departure aside, this was a dreadful Wrestling Challenge taping with squashes that kept overstaying their welcome and a lack of exciting events and angles. The only memorable spots on today’s show were freak-like happenings such as Fatu doing a flying splash to the arena floor and Bastion Booger inadvertently splitting his opponent’s skull. There are too many superstars that are appearing on television that do not have anything exciting going on. Hopefully that will change on this show next week when Doink the Clown finally interacts with Jerry Lawler.

The WWF did a few Southern house shows to depart from its Northeast focus over the summer. Here was the result of one of those cards, courtesy of thehistoryofwwe.com:

North Charleston, South Carolina – North Charleston Coliseum – September 17, 1993 (3,300): Johnny Z beat Chris Canyon…The Smoking Gunns defeated the Headshrinkers…The 1-2-3 Kid beat Bastion Booger (substituting for Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels)…Razor Ramon beat Irwin R. Schyster via count out…Bret Hart defeated Doink the Clown (Steve Lombardi)…The Undertaker beat Adam Bomb…Mr. Perfect defeated Diesel…The Steiner Brothers beat Yokozuna & Bam Bam Bigelow.

Backstage News*: There were significant shakeups with talent within the last week. First, Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels has reportedly left the company. Michaels has been unhappy for weeks and had noticeably put on weight, getting up to 240 pounds. The WWF has preliminary plans to hold a 20-man tournament for the vacated title at its next television taping in New Haven, Connecticut on September 27. (Note: Michaels did not quit but was suspended for six weeks for testing positive for traces of elevated testosterone after he refused to admit to WWF owner Vince McMahon that he was using banned substances.) Furthermore, the Steiner Brothers and Doink the Clown have been taken off the road. Matt Osborne has been suspended for eight weeks and Steve Lombardi is going to pick up some dates with the gimmick because Steve Keirn is no longer employed. However, Osborne will still appear at television tapings as Doink because of an ongoing babyface turn. The Steiners will be removed from shows starting on September 24 because of Rick being suspended for undisclosed reasons. It is unclear whether the Steiners will reappear in the WWF or be given their release to go to New Japan. The Steiners took less money to jump to the WWF in 1992 but left WCW because they were unhappy with Bill Watts’ plans to break them up.

-The September 13 edition of Monday Night RAW drew its lowest rating ever at a 1.8. However, that could be a hangover from the show getting pre-empted by the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament for the last two weeks.

-For its next set of overseas shows, the WWF plans to visit Israel, Portugal, Austria, and Germany in early October.

-The WWF sent a legal threat to Jim Crockett, Jr.’s World Wrestling Network (WWN) promotion over its choice of initials.

-Lex Luger is expected to return from his back injury in two weeks.

-In talent relations news, Sergeant Slaughter was released as a road agent because the WWF is only running three to four house shows a week. Rick Martel is definite to return. The WWF has opened negotiations with Madusa and having her feud with Luna Vachon. There have also been talks with Pat Tanaka and Terry Funk. And tryouts are scheduled for Johnny Gunn and a Northeastern independent wrestler called the Condor.

*Backstage news is provided courtesy of Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer for September 27 and November 8.

Up Next: Monday Night RAW for September 20!

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