What the World Was Watching: WWF Monday Night RAW – January 31, 1994

Vince McMahon and Irwin R. Schyster are doing commentary, live from Bushkill, Pennsylvania. According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the show drew a sellout crowd of 1,600 fans. IRS says he will give the loser of the Bret Hart-Lex Luger coin toss two Buffalo Bills t-shirts and warns the winners of the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes that he will be knocking on their door tomorrow to collect the government’s share.

Opening Contest: Marty Jannetty (w/the 1-2-3 Kid) beats Johnny Polo after the Rocker Dropper at 9:37 shown:

Polo was Scott Levy, brought into the WWF in early 1993 as a manager for Adam Bomb. Cast as a rich kid with lots of expensive tastes he was taken from Bomb and thrown in with the Quebecers in September, helping them win the Tag Team Championship against the Steiner Brothers. He only wrestled one televised match in 1993, beating Jannetty on the last RAW of the year. That was part of a small program Polo had against Jannetty and the Kid, who he claimed he could beat. Polo did well in promos and on commentary but wanted to wrestle more, something McMahon was reticent to let him do and this created tensions between them during his time with the company. Polo also got on McMahon’s bad side by taking his son, Shane, out to party with him late at night.

This was hyped as a match between the Kid and Polo even though the WWF knew that the Kid would not be able to compete after blowing out his knee in Madison Square Garden. Before the match, Polo reminds people that he has a win over Jannetty and casts doubt on the Kid’s injury. Their match is not as good as late December since the first part is full of stalling and has some awkward looking spots. IRS’ inability to call the match effectively as a color man does not help matters. Jannetty’s energetic comeback at the end revives the crowd and he pins Polo after the Rocker Dropper. IRS screams that the move should be outlawed, which is ironic because the civil trial of former WWF enhancement talent Chuck Austin, who was paralyzed by the move, was winding down. Rating: **

At ringside, the Kid calls out IRS for stealing Razor Ramon’s gold chains and IRS gets up and punches him. Jannetty attacks IRS to save his partner. In the scuffle the Kid steals IRS’ briefcase and limps with it to the locker room. The Kid making off with the briefcase was more entertaining than the opener.

After a commercial break, IRS returns to the commentary position and yells about his missing briefcase. McMahon incredulously responds that he has nothing to do with it. IRS marches to the locker room to get it, accusing Jannetty of stealing it. Before he can get there, Razor Ramon’s music hits and he and Jannetty walk out. Ramon has his gold chains back and Jannetty throws the briefcase back to IRS. All of this was a good payoff for the silly storyline, thereby wrapping up the Ramon-IRS feud.

Bam Bam Bigelow (w/Luna Vachon) (3-1) pins Miguel Rosado after a falling headbutt off the ropes at 2:16:

IRS issues a challenge to Jannetty for next week’s show. Bigelow launches Rosado across the ring when doing a slam, screaming about wanting Doink as he drops headbutts onto his opponent.

Vince McMahon hosts the WrestleMania X coin toss segment between Bret Hart and Lex Luger that has WWF President Jack Tunney and road agents Blackjack Lanza and Tony Garea in the ring along with a few others like Dave Hebner. Tunney shows off both sides of the coin but switches it off camera because the WWF was not going to do a shoot coin toss. Like The Royal Rumble, Luger comes out to a tepid reaction and the crowd cheers more for Bret. Luger calls heads, winning and getting the first title match. Bret is disappointed because that means he has to face his brother. Luger talks about how he will win the title and be a stern test for Bret later in the evening. Bret tells Luger he considers him a worthy opponent and that he will be rooting for him against Yokozuna. The two shake hands to end a solid segment that did not overstay its welcome.

Kwang (w/Harvey Wippleman) (1-0) defeats Rich Myers after a superkick at 3:12:

Owen Hart calls into the show, saying he was the big winner of the coin toss because he gets his dream match against Bret. He talks of hurting Bret’s leg so bad that he may not make it to the main event. Owen’s comments make the squash watchable because he had a way of pressing McMahon’s buttons and creating good back-and-forth between them. IRS makes the funny comment that Kwang “must be a handsome devil” underneath his mask.

Todd Pettengill does the WrestleMania X Report. He clarifies what the coin toss decided: Lex Luger faces Yokozuna in a WWF title match, with the winner facing Bret Hart later in the night. To have “suitable competition,” Bret now faces Owen.

Paul Bearer is in a cemetery talking about how he feels the spirit of the Undertaker and that it also lives on in the fans. He screams about how the Undertaker will return.

Earthquake pins Corey Student after the Earthquake Splash at 3:20:

Earthquake left the WWF shortly after the previous year’s Royal Rumble. A former Tag Team champion, he blew off his tag team with Typhoon by fighting him and eliminating him in the Rumble. He then put over Yokozuna in the match and lost to Bam Bam Bigelow via count out in a bout that aired a month later. After leaving the WWF he spent some time in Genichiro Tenryu’s Wrestle & Romance (WAR) promotion Japan and Mexico’s CMLL. Even though most fans assumed he was older, he was only 30.

Earthquake shows that he is coming back as a babyface, slapping hands with fans on the way to the ring. McMahon announces in the middle of the squash that Marty Jannetty has accepted IRS’ challenge for a match next week. Even though IRS had a long feud with Earthquake in 1992 he does not mention it. The crowd does not react to a lot of what Earthquake does, disappointing for a former main event talent.

Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon and Marty Jannetty talk to the announce team to hype next week’s match. Or at least that is the intent. Jannetty butchers his part of the promo, hilariously saying “Here I am!” after Ramon introduces him with the phrase “IRS, here he is!” The former Rocker also talks about giving IRS satisfaction and that IRS cannot beat him unless he gets help from the government.

IRS sees footage at the end of the show that proves the 1-2-3 Kid stole his briefcase.

Tune in next week to see Marty Jannetty face Irwin R. Schyster! Also, Thurman Plugg, Owen Hart, and the Smoking Gunns in action!

The Last Word: Since Vince McMahon was more toned down on commentary it made this RAW better than the previous week. The show had a good payoff for Razor Ramon getting his gold chains back from Irwin R. Schyster and set up next week’s match in the process. It also started to put the WrestleMania X card into focus. Looking back, the WWF telegraphed that Lex Luger was going to win the coin toss because if Bret Hart won it would have blocked a match with Owen and ruined having a Randy Savage-Crush match at the pay-per-view. Doing a coin toss was a good way to have the card decided instead of WWF President Jack Tunney making an arbitrary decision about who got the first title match. Today’s WWE would have made the Yokozuna-Luger-Bret situation a triple threat even though a challenger would probably prefer a one-on-one match for a title because it increases their odds of winning.

Up Next: WWF Superstars for February 5!