What the World Was Watching: WWF Monday Night RAW – 02.21.94

Vince McMahon and Randy Savage call tonight’s action, live from Poughkeepsie, New York.

Opening Contest for the WWF Tag Team Championship: Razor Ramon & the 1-2-3 Kid beat the Quebecers (Champions w/Johnny Polo) (2-1-1) via disqualification when Shawn Michaels interferes at 16:08 shown:

Since Jannetty was fired he is replaced by the injured Kid, who wears a knee brace under his gear. The Kid is not 100%, evidenced by the deliberate way he comes to the ring. He also has new ring gear, which is an upgrade over the blue and yellow tights he was wearing in 1993. Polo trips Ramon when he runs the ropes so the Intercontinental Champion grabs him and gives him a Razor’s Edge on the arena floor, eliminating him from the match. Polo does not get good medical care, picked up by several officials and dragged to the locker room instead of being placed on a stretcher. The Kid’s injury slows down the pace of the match, one where the babyfaces dominate for the first 11 minutes. Diesel comes out to get a closer look from the aisle before a second commercial break. Ramon and the Kid each spend time in peril until a Quebecers double team of Jacques backdropping Pierre onto the Kid backfires, producing a hot tag to Ramon. Ramon gives Pierre the super backdrop suplex and hits the Razor’s Edge but Shawn Michaels run in from the crowd as Diesel distracts the Kid and breaks up the pinfall, thereby preventing a title change. Referee Bill Alfonso had to hold up the three count for a bit because Michaels was a bit late on the run-in. This continues a string of good matches by the Quebecers. Rating: ***

Michaels quickly leaves the ring when the Kid interjects himself. He and Diesel tease a confrontation with Ramon and the Kid before leaving.

After it is announced that Randy Savage will face Yokozuna for the WWF Championship on next week’s show, Jim Cornette gets in the ring and tells Savage that Yokozuna is going to “Snap him like a Slim Jim.”

Bret Hart (1-0) beats Tom Prichard (w/Jim Cornette) via submission to the Sharpshooter at 12:19 shown:

Prichard was part of a tag team called the Heavenly Bodies with Jimmy Del Ray. It formed in Cornette’s Smoky Mountain Wrestling in May 1993 and they had a notable feud there with the Rock N’ Roll Express. The Bodies came to the WWF in the summer and challenged the Steiner Brothers for the WWF Tag Team Championship at SummerSlam and lost. They piled up some squash wins and then had their Smoky Mountain feud with the Express spill over onto WWF programming, winning the SMW Tag Team titles from the Express at Survivor Series.

Savage hypes his match with Yokozuna, saying that McMahon should expect him to win and go to WrestleMania to face Lex Luger and Bret. Nikolai Volkoff is seated facing the hard camera as he seems set to play a role in WWF programming at some point in the future. McMahon announces that Donnie Wahlberg will be at WrestleMania as a guest ring announcer. Wahlberg, once part of New Kids on the Block, calls in and discusses how excited he is to be part of the show. He also talks about how he can relate to the Bret-Owen feud due to his relationship with his brother, Mark. With all these extracurriculars going on it is clear that Bret and Prichard were told to work a slower, house show-like style. When Cornette tries to interfere with his tennis racquet, Savage grabs it from him and it appears that Cornette accidentally stumbles backward too far and into the steps. The match kicks into gear after a second commercial break with Bret doing the moves of doom for near-falls. Cornette hits Bret when he runs the ropes, causing Bret to fall to the floor, and Owen runs out to toss Bret back into the ring. However, Prichard can do nothing to capitalize on the interference and wins with a Sharpshooter shortly thereafter, shocking Owen who thought Bret was on the verge of losing. Rating: **¼

After the bell, Bret dares Owen to get into the ring but they are kept apart.

Little Richard puts himself over as the “wild man of rock n’ roll” who is coming to WrestleMania X.

WWF Champion Yokozuna, Jim Cornette, and Mr. Fuji come to ringside because Savage has Cornette’s racquet from the previous match. Savage gets in the ring and throws the racquet at Cornette and dares Yokozuna to fight him.

Tune in next week to see WWF Champion Yokozuna defend his title against Randy Savage!

The Last Word: There were only two matches but they were both technically solid and they were used to build matches for WrestlMania or next week. The Intercontinental title match and the Bret-Owen feud have a lot of heat going into the pay-per-view. The slow burn for Bret-Owen has worked well too as one can see Bret starting to get angrier with Owen and have fewer reservations about wrestling him. Yokozuna-Randy Savage is a big main event that should also be a good match because they had a fun one the previous year before WrestleMania IX.

Up Next: WWF Superstars for February 26!

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!