What the World Was Watching: WWF Monday Night RAW – November 29, 1993

Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan are commentating, live from White Plains, New York. According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the show drew a crowd of 3,000 fans.

Opening Contest: The Steiner Brothers (40-1) beat Mike Khoury & Reno Riggins when Scott pins Khoury after the Frankensteiner at 3:45:

Riggins keeps doing small things to get noticed like posing on the ring apron to the crowd and shouting at them as Khoury is annihilated with suplexes and Steinerlines. Rick was selling a knee injury in the Survivor Series main event but looks fine here. McMahon corrects Gorilla Monsoon from the weekend Update segments, saying that the Women’s Championship Tournament will take place over three weeks instead of one. Scott keeps amazing people by giving Riggins the Steiner Screwdriver and Khoury the Frankensteiner.

Non-Title Match: Razor Ramon (Intercontinental Champion) (36-3-2) defeats Diesel (5-1) via disqualification when Shawn Michaels interferes at 5:17:

It makes sense that this is a non-title affair because Diesel does not have a decent win on his record. Diesel, who is without Michaels, imposes his will with power moves until Ramon mounts a comeback after a Diesel blind charge. Ramon goes for the Razor’s Edge but Michaels runs in and attacks him, causing a disqualification. These two had good chemistry. Rating: **

After interfering, Michaels superkicks Ramon and tries to piledrive him on the Intercontinental title belt. Ramon will not go up for the move, though, and the battle over it buys some time for the 1-2-3 Kid to race into the ring and make the save.

Bam Bam Bigelow (w/Luna Vachon) (40-3-1) pins John Crystal after an enzuigiri at 3:13:

Crystal was a Leo Burke trainee who was in his first year in the business. He wrestled independently in the Northeast and New Jersey.

Bigelow has struggled in some of his recent squash matches but this is not one of them. Crystal takes a nasty spill out of the ring when Bigelow whips him into the corner, causing Vachon to hop on the apron so she and Bigelow can do an impromptu conference and give Crystal some time to recover. Bigelow screams to the crowd that Doink the Clown fears him before blasting Crystal with an enzuigiri to win.

McMahon stands in the ring beside a huge trophy that looks like the one given out to the battle royal winner at WrestleMania IV. The segment is for crowning the winner of the fan vote for the 1993 Superstar of the Year. McMahon says that since the vote was close he is going to acknowledge the winner and runner-up. Lex Luger is announced as the runner-up and he comes to the ring and thanks fans that voted for him. Heenan stands up thinking he has won but Luger recognizes Bret Hart as the winner instead. Bret comes out and shakes Luger’s hand before Luger exits the ring. Bret seems touched in saying that he appreciates fans not giving up on him, which has a ring of truth considering all the tumultuous events that have happened backstage with regards to his run in 1993. He promises to do everything he can to regain the WWF Championship.

Owen Hart (13-6) defeats Chris Duffy via submission to the Sharpshooter at 2:47:

Owen has overhauled his look, coming to the ring in a black and pink singles and wearing Hitman shades. Like Bret, he gives the shades to a fan in the audience, who is pleased to receive them despite Owen’s recent behavior at Survivor Series. So Owen has not embraced the dark side yet but he is clearly trying to chart a new path for himself. McMahon announces during the match that Shawn Michaels has issued a challenge to the 1-2-3 Kid. The crowd chants “We want Bret!” as Owen works Duffy over and he is smart to go to a chinlock to let that play out for a bit. Owen borrows another thing from Bret – his finisher – as he attempts to demonstrate that whatever Bret can do he can do as well.

Heenan talks to Owen after the match, who refuses to talk about Bret winning the Superstar of the Year award. He also refuses to talk about what happened at Survivor Series.

Ludvig Borga (19-0-1) beats Scott Taylor via submission to the torture rack at 2:26:

Borga methodically takes care of Taylor as McMahon still talks about the Lex Luger-Borga program in hopes that fans will suddenly start caring about it.

The 1-2-3 Kid and Razor Ramon address the announce team from the backstage area. Ramon tells Shawn Michaels that the Kid beat him so that means he can beat Michaels. The Kid accepts Michaels’ challenge for a match next week.

Heenan claims that he almost slapped the taste out of Gorilla Monsoon’s mouth at Survivor Series.

Tune in next week to see the 1-2-3 Kid wrestle Shawn Michaels! Also, Doink the Clown and Crush will be in action!

The Last Word: This was a good episode that continued the Bret Hart-Owen Hart and Razor Ramon-Diesel storylines. The WWF is going back to what Shawn Michaels was doing with the 1-2-3 Kid before his suspension and using that for next week’s program. Based on how hard the WWF pushed Lex Luger throughout 1993 it is surprising that they did not rig the fan poll in his favor. Bret Hart winning showed that he still had the loyalty of the company’s fan base. And as that base dwindled the WWF had to take notice of it. Still, Vince McMahon’s insistence on having Lex Luger be part of that segment seemed like a message to fans of “You have made your voice heard and we hear you BUT what about this instead?” That backfired, though, when all Luger could muster was a forced message of appreciation and what Bret did was genuine.

Up Next: WWF Superstars for December 4!

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