What the World Was Watching: WWF Superstars – November 27, 1993

Vince McMahon and Stan Lane are commentating, taped from Delhi, New York. According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the taping took place on November 10 and drew a sellout crowd of 2,500. Lane was most famous as a member of the Fabulous Ones in Memphis and the Midnight Express in Jim Crockett Promotions and WCW in the 1980s and early 1990s. He had just finished doing some work in Japan after a stint in Smoky Mountain Wrestling. McMahon says that Reo Rodgers will not be appearing anymore because he “fell off of his horse and the horse went into the sunset.”

Opening Contest: The Steiner Brothers (39-1) beat Steve Smith & Laverne Gill when Scott pins Gill after the Steinerizer at 2:12:

For some reason Gill is in the corner where the Steiners enter the ring and Scott awkwardly moves around him. McMahon hypes future battles between the Steiners and the Quebecers, saying that Pierre has recovered from his concussion. The Steiners win their fortieth match of the year, continuing to lay waste to the tag team division.

Gorilla Monsoon’s Update segment reveals that there is a tournament that will start in Memphis on Monday to crown a new WWF Women’s champion. The tournament will culminate the following Monday. This marked the reinstatement of the Women’s Championship after the WWF eliminated the title in February 1990. The champion at that time was Rockin’ Robin. Monsoon talks to Owen Hart on the phone, who says that he does not want to be referred to as Bret’s brother because he can speak for himself. He accuses Bret of not showing enough leadership at Survivor Series.

Non-Title Match: Razor Ramon (Intercontinental Champion) (35-3-2) pins Mike Khoury after the Razor’s Edge at 2:33:

McMahon raises the prospect of Ramon battling Shawn Michaels because Michaels argues he never lost the Intercontinental Championship. It is also revealed that Ramon will have a non-title match with Diesel on Monday Night RAW. Khoury takes lots of high impact moves, suffering through a super fallaway slam, super backdrop suplex, and Razor’s Edge before he is pinned. This is Ramon’s twentieth consecutive win in singles competition.

Lex Luger does a taped bit about how there is no room in his life for drugs. Sadly, Luger was not sticking to his own rhetoric.

Adam Bomb (w/Harvey Wippleman) (29-0) pins Mike Bucci after the Atom Smasher at 1:50:

The WWF begins a fan ring announcer gimmick so a young kid named J.B. Yetter introduces the combatants. Unfortunately, he does not understand that “lbs.” is an abbreviation for pounds, so he pronounces it as “lebs,” causing Bucci, Bill Dunn, and the crowd to laugh. Bomb has gone through the year without a program, so his win-loss total is less impressive, reminiscent of the Berzerker from 1990-1991.

Some children are sitting on the interview podium as Ray Rougeau interviews Santa Claus. He hands the children some WWF merchandise and gives Rougeau an Undertaker bear. This would have been better as a taped segment as the live crowd was dead. There were much more effective ways for the WWF to communicate its merchandise offerings, like in a commercial that follows.

Shawn Michaels (26-5-1) defeats Dan Dubiel after the piledriver at 1:52:

Before the bell, Michaels gets on the microphone and says that he is still the undisputed Intercontinental champion. What is interesting about this match is that Michaels beat Dubiel in his last televised match on Superstars before his six-week suspension. Diesel is not in his corner and Michaels has lost some of his heat as the crowd hardly reacts to him. Still, his ring work is good as always and he should get back on track in no time.

Before the next match, McMahon relays a message from WWF Mania that WWF President Jack Tunney has said there can no longer be multiple Doinks. Doink the Clown tells the crowd in the aisle that due to the ruling he is bringing in Dink, who is Tiger Jackson in a Doink costume. Doink pulls Dink to the ring on a little red wagon. Some of the kids, along with McMahon, find Dink funny but seasoned fans hated it, believing that it neutered the Doink character.

Doink the Clown (w/Dink) (31-7-3) pins Sid Garrison after the flying butt splash in 59 seconds:

This is when Ray Apollo took over the Doink gimmick. Apollo was a New Jersey-based wrestler who was a friend of Bam Bam Bigelow. He made his wrestling debut in 1985 and worked some enhancement matches for WCW in 1990. He also appeared at Starrcade 1990 as Sergeant Krueger, teaming with Colonel DeKlerk to lose to the Steiner Brothers in the first round of the Pat O’Connor International Tag Team Tournament.

Doink and Dink play a few pranks on Garrison before the match. Since that takes a lot of time, the squash is short, with Doink catching Garrison with an elbow on a blind charge and doing the flying butt splash. After the match, Doink throws Dink onto Garrison and counts to three.

Jeff Jarrett barges into Buddy Lee Attractions with Buddy Lee’s cousin. Lee is not there and they are told to leave and stick to wrestling. Security is called to keep them out of the building. In a nice touch, Jarrett keeps cutting a promo on his way out, all the way down the elevator.

Crush (w/Mr. Fuji) (26-4-2) beats Paul Jones via submission to the head vice at 1:57:

The WWF has not found theme music for heel Crush. Crush takes his time to release the head vice after the bell to keep selling his heel character’s viciousness.

A music package recaps the day’s WWF action.

Tune in next week to see Marty Jannetty, Diesel, the 1-2-3 Kid, Men on a Mission, and Ludvig Borga in action!

The Last Word: Stan Lane has a good voice for commentary but the WWF is opting to simply use him as a color man without bias, departing from convention when Vince McMahon would have a heel view to play off and vice versa. That hurts the commentating quality of the show. There are some intriguing programs to end the year as Owen Hart is headed for a confrontation with Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels is going to be going after Razor Ramon. The fact that those programs are grounded in some basis of reality helps a lot.

Up Next: Wrestling Challenge for November 28!

And if you would like to read a compiled breakdown of 1990-1992 WWF, 1993 ECW, or of various promotions in 1995, check out my Amazon author page to purchase e-books or paperback copies!