What the World Was Watching: WWF Superstars – 05.14.94

Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler are in the booth, concluding the taping in Rochester, New York.

McMahon interviews WWF Champion Bret Hart on the interview platform. Bret says that his mother believes Owen was born bad with a desire to be good while Bret was born good with a desire to be bad. This means that he looks forward to defending the WWF title against Owen and proving he is the better wrestler. In terms of Intercontinental Champion Diesel’s challenge for The King of the Ring, Bret smiles and accepts. Bret talks about chopping Diesel down to size to prove why people call him “The Excellence of Execution.” The crowd reacted strongly to Bret throughout this promo, showing that he was over more than when he won the title in 1992.

Opening Contest: Kwang (w/Harvey Wippleman) (9-3-1) pins Tony Outter after a spinning heel kick at 1:33:

Kwang has piled up some feature matches loses recently but he looked good in defeat in most of them. The ending of the squash has a nice spot where Outter tries to jump and Kwang hits him with the spinning heel kick in mid-air.

King of the Ring Qualifying Match: Mabel (2-0) defeats Pierre after a sidewalk slam at 2:58:

McMahon notes that the winner will face Irwin R. Schyster in the first round of the King of the Ring Tournament. Lawler explains that each man’s manager is not at ringside because they have each agreed to sit it out. The match is another short one for Mabel but features good action as Pierre knocks him down with a missile dropkick. However, he cannot handle Mabel’s size, failing to slam him and then running into a sidewalk slam.

After the bell, Oscar comes down to the ring rapping and celebrates with Mabel.

Todd Pettengill does The King of the Ring Report. He clarifies that the winner of the Thurman Plugg-Bam Bam Bigelow match on Monday Night RAW will face Razor Ramon in the first round. It is also announced that next week’s Superstars will have a qualifying match between Lex Luger and Jeff Jarrett. After showing some footage from the set of Tough & Deadly, Roddy Piper denies that he is a dinosaur but says that if he is, he is going to squash Lawler at the pay-per-view.

Doink the Clown (w/Dink) (16-0) pins Major Yates after the Whoopie Cushion at 1:53:

Mike Fox is the guest ring announcer. He waits until Doink gets three-quarters of the way to the ring to announce the participants. Yates has a smart strategy of ignoring Dink at the beginning and nails Doink before the opening bell. He is unable to do much beyond that, though, as Doink tires him through various near-falls and finishes with a slam and the Whoopie Cushion.

Ted DiBiase angrily yells at Nikolai Volkoff to open his limousine door and orders him to walk three feet behind him.

Earthquake (16-0) pins A.C. Conner after the Earthquake Splash at 2:10:

As Earthquake squashes Conner, Yokozuna and Jim Cornette appear in the split screen and tell Earthquake that he is going down in the sumo match this Monday on RAW.

Some pool cleaners talk about the Undertaker walking through the woods and through the pool water.

Nikolai Volkoff (w/Ted DiBiase) defeats Duane Gill after a clothesline to the back of the head at 2:45:

Volkoff, a Stu Hart and Newton Tattrie trainee, got his start in Stampede Wrestling in 1967. He had his first run in New York in 1970, wrestling as Bepo Mongol, and then returned under the ring name he was most known for in 1974, staying until 1980. After stops in the AWA, Mid-South, and Japan, Volkoff returned to the WWF in 1984 in time for its national expansion, winning the Tag Team titles with the Iron Sheik at the first WrestleMania. He headlined the second-ever Saturday Night’s Main Event a year later against then-WWF Champion Hulk Hogan. Volkoff wrestled primarily in tag teams in the 1980s, forming a team called the Bolsheviks with Boris Zhukov in 1987. The team split in 1990 when Volkoff turned babyface and Volkoff won a feud with Zhukov. His new tag team with Hacksaw Jim Duggan got a push for a few months before Volkoff was used to put over Sergeant Slaughter at the end of 1990. After that, Volkoff was released but he did make a guest appearance in the 1992 Royal Rumble. Until this recent appearance he was wrestling for Northeast independent promotions and Puerto Rico.

DiBiase, who wears the Million Dollar Belt, is billed as Volkoff’s “owner” during ring introductions. Volkoff is wearing his old red ring gear from his late 1990 run. McMahon announces that there will be a Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Thursday, June 9 in Baltimore, Maryland that fans can buy tickets to attend. The inductees are Chief Jay Strongbow, Freddie Blassie, Gorilla Monsoon, Arnold Skaaland, Bobo Brazil, Buddy Rogers, and James Dudley. DiBiase gets mad when Volkoff does not show any heelish tendencies, demanding Volkoff wrestle aggressively. Volkoff does find another gear at the end, winning after whipping Gill chest-first into the turnbuckles and blasting him in the back of the head with a clothesline. After the match, DiBiase has Volkoff put the boots to Gill.

Duke Droese gets yet another vignette where he throws a trash can off a building so it can end up in a dumpster. The WWF is putting a lot of effort into this character as Droese has received more vignettes since any new act since Razor Ramon.

Tatanka (13-1-1) pins Gus Kantarakis after the Papoose to Go at 2:31:

There is more talk about Lawler’s match with Roddy Piper at The King of the Ring than Tatanka’s ongoing feud with Irwin R. Schyster. Tatanka starts the match by throwing Kantarakis around but ends up eating a DDT and nearly losing the match. Once again, though, Tatanka goes on the warpath after being taken to the buckle and wins.

Jarrett comes out to hype his match with Lex Luger next week, saying that he will win because he is the world’s greatest wrestler.

Tune in next week to see Lex Luger battle Jeff Jarrett in a King of the Ring qualifier!

The Last Word: This was another good episode that continued to put together The King of the Ring card. There was also a big announcement about the continuation of the Hall of Fame, which started a year earlier and only had Andre the Giant as an inductee. The premise of the Nikolai Volkoff-Ted DiBiase story was a good one but Volkoff was not a beloved enough figure to make it work. Also, he was nearly 50 so his ring work is going to be limited.

Up Next: Wrestling Challenge for May 15!

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!