What the World Was Watching: WWF Wrestling Challenge – 03.13.94

All American Wrestling had an exclusive squash match, taped in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Here was the result of that match courtesy of thehistoryofwwe.com:

-The Heavenly Bodies defeated John Paul & Mike Khoury when Jimmy Del Ray pinned Khoury after the moonsault

The WWF decides to keep the graphical intro for Wrestling Challenge but it purges Jim Ross’ voiceover.

Gorilla Monsoon and Stan Lane commentate, starting a new taping from Liberty, New York at Liberty High School. According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the taping happened on February 23 and drew a sellout crowd of 1,600. The WWF was on better behavior than they were at Carbondale High School last year as no bad reports of locker room behavior were reported.

Opening Contest: Owen Hart (8-0) beats Jason Headings via submission to the Sharpshooter at 1:33:

Headings, a tall enhancement talent with long blonde hair, made three appearances for the WWF in 1993. He put over Ludvig Borga, Mr. Hughes, and the Heavenly Bodies.

Due to the small venue the entrance setup is like a house show, a curtain with some colored lights over it. When the crowd chants “We want Bret!” Owen has a nice rebuttal in saying that he wants him too. Monsoon has a nice way of hyping the Bret-Owen clash at WrestleMania, saying that it is a battle of Sharpshooters and he would favor the man who invented it rather than the one who copied it.

Non-Title Match: Razor Ramon (Intercontinental Champion) (5-0) pins Reno Riggins after th Razor’s Edge at 2:18:

Shawn Michaels and Diesel are in the split screen with a ladder. Michaels tells Ramon he is going to be put on his back at WrestleMania. The crowd is hot for Ramon, who pulverizes Riggins with a super fallaway slam and Razor’s Edge.

Non-Title Match: The Quebecers (WWF Tag Team Champions w/Johnny Polo) (3-2-1) beat Steve Smith & Rich Myers when Pierre pins Myers after the Boston Crab-flying leg drop off the second rope combination at 2:52:

Pierre puts a “Kick me!” sign on Smith’s back and the champions unload accordingly in the corner. Lane leans into some heelish behavior by laughing at it. He was probably not alone for anyone catching this show on the weekend. In the split screen, Men on a Mission appear in the split screen and talk about being excited to wrestle for the Tag Team titles at WrestleMania. Nikolai Volkoff has secured another front row ticket to a WWF event so Polo argues with him. Volkoff gets a “USA!” chant started in response but that is of no help to the jobber team. After the match, the Quebecers put the “Kick me!” sign on Myers and beat him up.

Randy Savage shows up to “the arena,” which gives away that the show is at a high school because he has to walk through a school lobby to get to a gym. He talks about being ready to wrestle today.

Todd Pettengill does the WrestleMania X Report. Adam Bomb and Harvey Wippleman talk about destroying a natural disaster. Unfortunately, Earthquake does not fire back that doing that is not scientifically possible. He just warns Bomb to get ready to feel the Quake.

Bam Bam Bigelow (w/Luna Vachon) (7-2) pins Tom Alton after a falling headbutt off the ropes at 1:28:

Alton looks like he would rather be somewhere else during ring introductions. Bigelow works slow and does not do a lot. The crowd heat that he and Vachon generate makes up for it.

Irwin R. Schyster does a taped promo that repeats how he is going after Tatanka for not paying a gift tax on his headdress.

Little Richard talks about how he is going to have fun at WrestleMania X.

Randy Savage (3-0) defeats Unnamed Opponent after the flying elbow drop at 1:44:

Savage was the big attraction on the card and people are excited to see him. He has not wrestled an enhancement match since 1990. Savage goes out of his way to slap the hands of all the kids down the aisle and around half the ringside area. It is not clear who his opponent is as the crowd reaction for Savage muffles his introduction. Records say it was Ben Jordan but that is not accurate. Crush and Mr. Fuji do a quick split screen promo about how Savage will have nowhere to hide at WrestleMania. Savage decides that he is not going to win after a stun gun, preferring to give the crowd what they paid for with the flying elbow drop. This would end up being his last match on a WWF syndicated program. Obviously the venue was not fitting for it but Savage showed from his entrance to the winning pin why he was so beloved by the fan base.

Tune in next week for a WrestleMania X preview show in New York City!

The Last Word: One of the benefits of the WWF running a television taping at place that never got one is that the crowd was hot for everything. For a Wrestling Challenge show this featured a lot of top-tier talent so it was worth the hour to watch it.

Up Next: The March to WrestleMania X!

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!