What the World Was Watching: WWF Superstars – January 29, 1994

After Vince McMahon recaps the events of The Royal Rumble, WWF President Jack Tunney does an announcement from his office that Bret Hart and Lex Luger will receive title shots at WrestleMania X. There will be a coin toss on Monday Night RAW to determine whether Bret or Luger will face Yokozuna, or whomever is the WWF champion by WrestleMania, first. If Luger wins the coin toss, he will face Yokozuna and Bret Hart will face Owen Hart as suitable competition. Then, the winner of the Luger-Yokozuna match will face Bret later in the evening. If Bret wins, he will face Yokozuna while Luger wrestles Crush and then the winner of Bret-Yokozuna will face Luger later in the night. Tunney announces that there will also be guest referees for the WWF title matches that are acceptable to all three parties. Yokozuna seems let down by his management team again here as it would seem fairer to him to have Bret and Luger face off earlier in the night and the winner of that battle him in the main event. After all, Bret and Luger tied at the Royal Rumble in a match that was meant to crown a number one contender. A match between them should serve as the tiebreaker.

McMahon announces the show with Stan Lane, starting a new taping in Fayetteville, North Carolina as the WWF finally escapes the Northeast for a syndicated show. According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the show was taped on January 12.

Opening Contest: Men on a Mission (w/Oscar) (1-1) beat Terry Austin & Joey Stallings when Mabel pins Stallings after the assisted splash at 3:01:

Men on a Mission are given a squash win to recover from their relatively clean loss to the Headshrinkers on Monday Night RAW. As usual, Mabel gets the big spots in clotheslining Austin over the top rope and destroying Stallings.

A backstage promo from The Royal Rumble from WWF Champion Yokozuna, Jim Cornette, and Mr. Fuji airs. Cornette brags about Yokozuna’s victory, denying knowledge that others were going to interfere. Some of the promo contradicts President Tunney’s announcement earlier as Cornette talks about getting his legal team involved to avoid Yokozuna from facing Bret Hart and Lex Luger at WrestleMania.

Thurman Plugg pins the Brooklyn Brawler after a splash off the top rope at 2:28:

Plugg, who has been handed a terrible name by the WWF’s creative team, was a trainee of Canadian wrestler Bob Sweetan and Rip Tyler, debuting in Alabama in 1987. He did some enhancement matches for WCW in 1990-1991 where he was given the name Bob Holly and wrestled under that name in a squash match appearance for the WWF against the Bushwhackers in March 1991. From 1991-1992 he wrestled for Smoky Mountain Wrestling and other Southern independent promotions before taking a year off.

The Brawler was starting his eleventh year on the WWF roster and he continued to get worse each year he was there. He had a winless campaign on television in 1993 but the WWF found other roles for him, like putting him under a mask as Kamala’s handler Kim Chee for a feud in the first quarter of the year and making him a masked knight to lose on house teams to tag teams with Barry Horowitz.

After getting a longevity push in the Royal Rumble, where he lasted more than 20 minutes, Plugg looks smooth in the ring. He does nothing flashy but does throw a good dropkick. The Brawler, as is typical, gets in a few shots but Plugg puts him down with a clothesline, snap suplex, and splash off the top rope. The splash may have been intended as a knee drop but the landing changed it.

A new video package for WWF Women’s Champion Alundra Blayze shows her loving animals, trying on different outfits, and riding a motorcycle. The music used for it is bad but it is meant to show her with “Power and grace.”

Diesel (w/Shawn Michaels) (1-0) pins Tommy Angel after Snake Eyes at 1:30:

A woman named Latoya Johnson is the guest fan ring announcer and she butchers it. This prompts a tasteless “hooked on phonics” joke from McMahon and Lane, which counters all the promo work in recent months about how the WWF cares about its fans. Diesel shows off a new move to win, dropping Angel across the top turnbuckle. It is tough to do a move like that while protecting an opponent, though, so it does not look good on television, almost as if Diesel sets Angel’s head on top of the turnbuckle. When the match is over, Michaels walks on Angel to put over how he has a powerful friend.

An ad for WrestleMania X on March 20 likens it to a Broadway musical.

WWF Tag Team Champions the Quebecers and Johnny Polo talk with the announce team. Next week they will face the Steiners in a non-title, 10-minute match and if the Steiners win they will get a title shot. The Quebecers gloat about how they are going to win. Fans might wonder why the Steiners can trust this stipulation as they were supposed to get a title shot last September when Scott Steiner beat Pierre but the Quebecers blew them off.

Tatanka (5-0) pins Austin Steele after the Papoose to Go at 2:32:

Tatanka has had a strong run since his return to the ring, getting matches on house shows against Yokozuna for the WWF title. That is not acknowledged much on television, though. Steele gets chopped down when Tatanka goes on the warpath and is sent to the showers after the Papoose to Go.

Buy your copy of The History of WrestleMania, a new Coliseum Video release that is available on Wednesday!

Todd Pettengill does the first WrestleMania X Report, which has nice graphics. Pettengill lets people know that on Wednesday Coliseum Video is releasing tapes of all nine previous WrestleManias, which will be available for a limited time. He hypes the Monday Night RAW coin toss that will determine the sequencing of matches on the show. There is also an announcement for WWF Fan Fest in Madison Square Garden on March 18-20.

A vignette hypes the return of Earthquake, who has been gone since February.

Jeff Jarrett (4-0) defeats Tyrone Knox after blocking a sunset flip and using the ropes for leverage at 2:23:

McMahon clarifies that Earthquake will return on Monday’s RAW. Like Monday night, Jarrett struggles with the enhancement talent by the end of the bout, getting caught off guard by a small package and body slam. When Knox goes for a sunset flip, Jarrett sits down to block and grabs the ropes for the victory. Jarrett has had a bad week in the eyes of the fans. Randy Savage tossed him out quickly from the Royal Rumble and he is struggling to put away inferior competition. That is not going to get him over. When Knox complains to the referee about the decision, Jarrett gives him a DDT.

Paul Bearer wheels the casket used at The Royal Rumble to ringside. A piece of the Undertaker’s speech at The Royal Rumble comes on over the public address system. It is a reminder that the Undertaker will not rest in peace.

The Headshrinkers (w/Afa) (5-0) beat Sid Garrison & Larry McGill when Fatu pins McGill after the splash off the top rope at 2:41:

Garrison was also known as Rip Sawyer. He started his career on the Philadelphia independent circuit in 1988, winning tag belts in various promotions. He and David Casanova wrestled as the Cream Team and feuded in the Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation against fellow WWF enhancement talents Duane Gill and Barry Hardy. He also worked briefly for ECW in 1992 before the promotion got television exposure. In 1993 he appeared four times on WWF television, losing to Diesel, Doink the Clown, Irwin R. Schyster, and the Quebecers.

McGill, who was also known as Sledgehammer McGill, had been making enhancement appearances in the WWF since 1992. He was only used one time in 1993, losing to Bam Bam Bigelow on an episode of Monday Night RAW.

The Headshrinkers continue to get a lot of television exposure this month. Garrison takes a nasty looking double flapjack, leading to a tag to McGill. McGill tries to go on offense but when he throws Fatu’s head into the canvas Fatu pops up and blasts hm with a clothesline. Everything is downhill from there for the enhancement team.

The Steiner Brothers do a quick promo about how they are tired of the Quebecers’ stipulations but they will face them next week because they want the Tag Team titles back.

Tune in next week to see WWF Tag Team Champions the Quebecers face the Steiner Brothers in a ten-minute challenge! Also, Kwang and Marty Jannetty & the 1-2-3 Kid will be in action!

The Last Word: The WrestleMania X card now has a hook, creating a mini-tournament for the WWF Championship. At the time a lot of people expected Bret Hart to step aside to fight Owen Hart, much like Hulk Hogan did at WrestleMania VIII to face Sid Justice, but that would be out of step with why Bret fought on one leg to win the Royal Rumble. This show gave fans a reason to tune into Monday Night RAW, which continues to become the “A” show relative to Superstars as in years past the coin toss would have taken place on syndicated programming.

Up Next: Wrestling Challenge for January 30!

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