What the World Was Watching: WWF Monday Night RAW – 05.24.94

McMahon narrates house show footage of Yokozuna giving Earthquake a Banzai Drop in San Jose, California. He notes that Yokozuna got revenge on Earthquake for last week’s sumo match and pinned him on multiple shows. McMahon says that due to that, Earthquake will not be appearing in tonight’s King of the Ring qualifying match against Owen Hart.

Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler call tonight’s action, live from Youngstown, Ohio. According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the event drew a sellout crowd of 1,500. This is also an event in a high school gym, taking place in Struthers Fieldhouse, which is attached to Struthers High School.

The show goes on the air a bit too fast, starting with ring announcer Howard Finkel encouraging fans to cheer. McMahon and Savage talk about Earthquake meeting his demise in California. Savage says he fell to the bottom of the San Andreas Fault. Obviously, this lets the audience know Earthquake will not be back.

Opening King of the Ring Qualifying Contest: Owen Hart (20-0) defeats Doink the Clown (w/Dink) (17-0) after a schoolboy roll up at 8:29 shown:

Owen had to be relieved to face Doink instead of Earthquake to get into the King of the Ring Tournament. The crowd is hot for the match, which benefits from a lack of Dink silliness. Owen bails several times, complaining to the camera that he has to beat “two and a half guys.” Intentional or not, Owen nearly yanks the wig off Doink during a Camel Clutch. Whatever these guys were doing during the commercial break kills the crowd, which does not react much afterward. During Doink’s late rally, Jeff Jarrett comes to ringside and grabs Dink, providing a distraction that lets Owen schoolboy the clown and punch his ticket for the pay-per-view. Doink tells the camera that Jarrett is going to pay but he was nowhere to be seen in Jarrett’s King of the Ring qualifier against Lex Luger a few days ago. This was Doink’s first singles defeat since his babyface turn last year, ending a 29-match winning streak. Rating: **½

Todd Pettengill does The King of the Ring Report. He announces that the final qualifying match next week on RAW will feature Tatanka against Jimmy Del Ray.

Duke Droese (1-0) pins Barry Horowitz after a corkscrew elbow drop at 2:57:

Droese has downsized what he brings to the ring, opting for a metal garbage can. Crowd response to Droese is muted. Horowitz has a good offensive run, working over his taller opponent’s arm. Droese avoids a dropkick and hits a spinebuster. He gestures to the crowd as if he is going to do a big move and then does a corkscrew elbow drop. Droese has more charisma than Damien Demento but this squash did not impress.

A video package shows footage from the WrestleMania Revenge Tour. Jonathan Taylor Thomas of Home Improvement says that the WWF is unbelievable.

Irwin R. Schyster (12-2) defeats Gary Sabaugh after the Write Off at 4:14:

IRS tells Tatanka to move to another country if he does not want to pay his taxes. The WWF’s production team does a good job disguising that they are in a gym until the camera pans away from the hard side and a scoreboard can be seen. The company should have covered that up. Even though Sabaugh is in his natural environment, he gets twisted up like a pretzel by IRS and beaten with the Write Off after a bad stun gun spot.

Jerry Lawler takes a shot at Randy Savage’s wardrobe. Lawler invites Roddy Piper to be a guest on the King’s Court before he permanently sends him to a hospital. His guest on the King’s Court is Lex Luger. Luger’s nickname is changing from “Made in the USA” to “The Self-Made Man” but again, he is still wearing American flag tights. Even his ring jacket still says “Made in the USA.” Luger is mad that Crush kept him from qualifying for the King of the Ring Tournament. Lawler says that Luger rammed Crush’s shoulder into a ring post and hurt it last night, but Luger says something worse awaits him. Crush comes out in a sling, promising to make Luger’s life a living hell. When Crush dares Luger to hit him, Luger shows some rare babyface intelligence and clotheslines him. That knocks Crush out of the ring and exposes that the injury was fake. Crush must have gotten the arm in a sling idea from Doink the Clown last year, so that is nice continuity.

Nikolai Volkoff (w/Ted DiBiase) (2-0) beats Matt Hardy via submission to the Boston Crab at 2:31:

Hardy was a North Carolina talent who got his start wrestling in his backyard with his brother, Jeff. They reportedly sent a tape of their work on a trampoline to WCW. WCW did not sign them but the tape was reportedly watched a lot at the Power Plant and WCW stole Hardy’s ring name High Voltage for a tag team later in the 1990s. Hardy was self-trained and started working on the North Carolina independents. He was one of the talents that Sabaugh brought to this taping. According to Hardy, Sabaugh took $100 of the $150 they earned as a bookie fee. Hardy and his brother would eventually team in the WWF, becoming big stars in the Attitude Era.

DiBiase joins McMahon and Savage for commentary. That leads to a funny bit where Savage means to bash DiBiase’s attempted acquisition of the Undertaker by saying that “The Undertaker would rather be dead and rich than poor and alive,” causing DiBiase to thank Savage for making his point for him. That must have hurt Savage’s feelings as he does not say anything for a few minutes. Volkoff beats down Hardy with lots of strikes, pleasing DiBiase for showing more of a killer instinct. He seems to be less willing to challenge DiBiase than he was a few weeks ago.

Lawler announces that WWF Champion Bret Hart will be his guest on the King’s Court next week. Lawler hypes Bret as “The man with Jurassic Park parents.”

Tune in next week to see Tatanka face Jimmy Del Ray in a King of the Ring qualifying match!

The Last Word: The WWF had a hot crowd at the beginning of this show and killed it off halfway through the opener. The squashes were terrible but the Lex Luger-Crush segment was fun. That feud really is “The Irresistible Force vs. The Immovable Object” because Luger and Crush have both suffered terribly under WWF booking, losing nearly every big match they have been a part of. Something has to give for one of them, right?

Up Next: WWF Superstars for May 28!

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