What the World Was Watching: WWF Monday Night RAW – October 4, 1993

Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan provide commentary, taped from New Haven, Connecticut.

Opening 20-Man Battle Royal Contest to Determine Top Contenders for the Intercontinental Championship: Razor Ramon and Rick Martel are the final participants after Ramon eliminates Pierre at 19:18 shown:

Other participants: Adam Bomb, Bam Bam Bigelow, Bastion Booger, Bob Backlund, Diesel, Giant Gonzalez, Iwin R. Schyster, Jacques, Jimmy Snuka, Mabel, Marty Jannetty, Mr. Perfect, MVP, Owen Hart, Randy Savage, Tatanka, the 1-2-3 Kid

Since the WWF needed to draw eyeballs to its television product, it is weird that they chose to do this 20-man battle royal + one match format to crown a champion rather than run a tournament. MVP, a baseball gimmick for Steve Lombardi, and Diesel make their in-ring debut tonight. Savage gets the match started by attacking Gonzalez with a flying axe handle and most of the participants help throwing Gonzalez out. Mabel, despite being a babyface, spars with other babyface talent like the Kid, Tatanka, and Jannetty. However, he gets tossed five minutes after Gonzalez by Diesel and IRS. Ramon and IRS battle to continue their feud. Ramon gets the better of his counterpart, throwing him out but nearly gets tossed himself when he chooses to jaw with IRS as WWF officials escort him to the locker room. The Perfect-Diesel feud also plays out in the match and Perfect backdrops the big man out when Diesel rushes him near the ropes. One would expect Perfect to last longer but there is more evidence that he is getting lost in the midcard as Bigelow throws him out without much resistance. There is also a nice nod to the Royal Rumble as Martel throws Backlund out after a commercial break to avenge his elimination. Bigelow betters old rival Tatanka by eliminating him after taking some chops. Based on his lack of a push it is surprising that Owen makes the final seven until he gets tossed by Jacques.

The battle royal reaches its endgame in the final six when Ramon and Savage are the last two babyfaces to battle Bomb, Martel, and the Quebecers. Savage is able to outmaneuver Bomb and toss him but that victory is short lived when the French Canadian heel trio throw him out. Ramon takes a beating but avoids a triple dropkick. He gets overwhelmed again but heel miscommunication leads to Pierre clotheslining Jacques over the top rope and Ramon immediately throws out Pierre to create an AWA alumni final between he and Martel. This was a fun battle royal because it played to existing feuds, had some logic when superstars ganged up on bigger men, and the end sequence told a story of the babyfaces fighting against the odds. It was also nice that Savage failed in his quest to fight off the heels, which made Ramon look better when he did so. Rating: ***

The Heavenly Bodies (w/Jim Cornette) (7-1) beat Mark Thomas & Scott Taylor when Jimmy Del Ray pins Taylor after an assisted DDT at 3:39:

Ring announcer Howard Finkel has a funny mix up Thomas and Taylor’s last names. Then McMahon mixes up their first names to compound the error. The match could end in the first minute when Tom Prichard takes Del Ray and flips him onto Thomas from an atomic drop position but Del Ray pulls Thomas’ shoulders off the canvas. As the squash plays out, Heenan announces that the Rock N’ Roll Express will appear on All American Wrestling and that they are coming to the WWF to settle a score with the Bodies. This was mind blowing for fans who never thought they would see the Express in a WWF ring, not to mention seeing another promotion’s feud having a match on WWF programming. Prichard refuses to pin Taylor after a spinebuster off the second rope, opting to let Del Ray beat Taylor after an assisted DDT where Del Ray does the move and Prichard clotheslines Del Ray to give it more english. If not for the fact that the Bodies were from another company and the Quebecers were also doing cool double teams, the Bodies would have been in line for getting the WWF Tag Team Championship.

After doing a long recap of the Doink the Clown-Bam Bam Bigelow angle from Superstars, Heenan rants about what he is going to do to Doink if he sees him again. When Heenan is told that Doink will be in the next match, he starts backing away from those comments.

Doink the Clown (27-7-3) pins Cory Student after the flying butt splash at 1:55:

This is Doink’s first match as a babyface. His theme music has eliminated its dark turn. He rides to the ring on a red wagon and pulls candy out of a trash bag and throws it into the crowd. Heenan begs for his life when Doink pulls a metal bucket from underneath the ring and walks toward him. Doink unloads the contents but it is just popcorn, although that does not stop Heenan from screaming “I’m freezing!” at first. There is less laughing by Doink in the squash as he uses amateur wrestling to set up the flying butt splash.

After the bout, Bam Bam Bigelow and Luna Vachon come to ringside. Bigelow tries to get in the ring but ring agents Tony Garea and Rene Goulet keep him from doing so. Frustrated, Bigelow stomps and punches the red wagon Doink rode to the ring. It is a great advertisement for the wagon’s product quality as Bigelow fails to make much of a dent in it. Doink also downplays the seriousness of the incident by laughing in the ring afterward.

Tune in next week to see Razor Ramon and Rick Martel battle for the vacated Intercontinental title!

The Last Word: The 20-man battle royal was one of the best that the WWF has ever put on. Razor Ramon getting the nod was a good call because he has been one of the hottest acts over the last few months. Rick Martel got the other spot for lack of better options. He did not have a good 1992 and most fans gave him little shot the following week since he had just shown up again and his biggest win was against the 1-2-3 Kid.

Up Next: WWF Superstars for October 9!

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