The Fan-Cam Files: WWF @ Dortmund, Germany 02.06.1994

Welcome back to another edition of the Fan-Cam Files. Last time, we took a trip to Dortmund, Germany to get a look at the unofficial Hulkamania Farewell Tour, as Hogan and other names associated with the Golden Era worked some of their last matches for the company as we transitioned to the New Generation. I swear, it’s not intentional, but we’re returning to Dortmund just 6-months later as we are officially on the road to WrestleMania X. The WWF ran a 2-week tour overseas, hitting Austria, Israel, Germany and Switzerland, while still running tours in North America (mostly Canadian stops) with lineups typically featuring Razor Ramon vs. Shawn Michaels for the Intercontinental Title, Randy Savage vs. Crush, Alundra Blayze vs. Heidi Lee Morgan for the Women’s Title, Tatanka vs. I.R.S., Sparky Plugg vs. Rick Martel, Bart Gunn vs. Owen Hart, and Mo and Doink (Lombardi Version) vs. The Headshrinkers. Huh. Can someone dig into the archives and find that one?

It looks like we have the complete card here with one exception, Doink the Clown (Ray Apollo version) vs. Bam Bam Bigelow. We don’t have the greatest quality video, but I’ll push through and hope for the best… and oh boy, is the volume on this pretty rough, too.

Billy Gunn vs. Adam Bomb:
I can’t imagine why they would feel the need to split the Smoking Gunns for these tours. They’re just roster-filler guys right now, clearly behind the Steiner Brothers and Men on a Mission on the babyface side of the depth chart. It’s not until the Fall when they begin a rivalry with the Heavenly Bodies where they feel like anything more than cannon fodder. As for Adam Bomb, you can pick any random month during his run with the company between May 1993 and August 1995 and you’ll get the same song and dance; he’s a guy with a great look that for one reason or another was never given a substantial push, and just kinda floats around as an over-sized, muscular JTTS.

Standard prelim opener, feeling out process and Gunn working the basic chain sequence. Gunn caps off the international with a drop toe hold and a really crummy dropkick that knocks Bomb through the ropes. Back inside, Bomb asks for a test-of-strength and Billy obliges, with Bomb taking the usual shortcuts to control the hold. Gunn escapes with a monkey flip and goes back to the arm, but Bomb quickly sends him to the floor. Back inside, Bomb with the slingshot clothesline for two. Why he decided to bust out a float-over suplex I’ll never know. Billy fights out of the chin-lock, but Bomb quickly cuts him off. Gunn brings up the boot on an avalanche and comes off the ropes with a flying bulldog. He runs wild a bit with awkward right-handed punches and plants Bomb with a DDT. A flying body press misses the target, and Bomb finishes with Dino Bravo’s Greatest Finishing Move at 10:05. I wasn’t expecting much, but this was a perfectly fine match. Nothing fancy, just a basic opener for the era, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Adam Bomb. Billy’s got some stuff to work on, however. **½

Jim Powers vs. Kwang:
What do we have here… YOUNG JIMMY POWERS working WWF shows in 1994?! This man hasn’t changed his look since 1986! When he shows up on TV later in the year, he at least updates his gear, and seems to be on an incredible chicken and broccoli diet. Kwang is a fresh face (well, masked face) in the WWF, having debuted at TV tapings in early January, and thrown on the road as a replacement for the injured Ludvig Borga. I know with hindsight Borga wasn’t much of a draw, but imagine buying tickets expecting Yokozuna and Borga and you get THIS random masked guy with no TV cred. I wouldn’t be surprised if Powers was called in to fill in for someone, maybe the 1-2-3 Kid, who went down with an injury at MSG on January 17th, but that’s pure speculation from me.

Harvey Wippleman has two men in action and isn’t at ringside. As the bottom-tier heel manager, I’m not at all surprised they wouldn’t fly him out unless absolutely necessary. I’m just going to get right to the point of this one… How the hell has Jim Powers worked for nearly a DECADE and shown ZERO improvement? It could be 1984, 1988, 1994… doesn’t matter, same basic prelim babyface work, same basic play the crowd pose, like a robot programmed with 3-4 commands and set loose on the world. It’s your Jim Powers special, ladies and gentlemen. Flappy arm happy to be here attitude, the simple chain wrestling, holding a chin-lock for 3-minutes. The fucker takes most of the match! Kwang wipes him out with a standing heel kick and kills more time with the nerve hold. Powers with the comeback, nailing Kwang with a running knee lift and dropkick for two. Whip to the ropes, Kwang leapfrogs a back body-drop attempt and pops Powers with a Super-Kick for three at 12:30. Thanks for nothing, Jimmy. ½*

WWF Tag Team Championship Match:
The Quebecers (c) vs. The Steiner Brothers:
No Johnny Polo. OK, that is a REALLY tight budget on air fare. The Steiners were rapidly falling out of favor with the WWF, getting pulled from the original plans of challenging for the Tag Titles at WrestleMania X and taken off the road for the second time following this European tour, with the April 11th through 13th TV tapings as their last appearances for the company. I guess that means more bookings for the Bushwhackers. The Quebecers, with the exception of a one-week swap to the makeshift team of Marty Jannetty and the 1-2-3 Kid, have held the titles since early September of 1993, defeating the Steiner Brothers under questionable circumstances.

Scott and Pierre start. Pierre complains about Scott grabbing his gear for leverage, with Scott going to the crowd to inform the referee that Pierre is full of trash. Pierre with some clubbing blows, quickly cut off with a double under-hook slam. Jacques tags in to show off his amazing skill of hiding in the ropes to avoid contact. He finally accepts his fate with Rick and we get Rick’s signature “catch the leapfrog with a powerslam” spot. Rick ends up on defense for about 8-seconds before the Quebecers powder, snatching an American flag from ringside to get under the skin of the challengers. Scott takes the beating, with the Quebecers hitting their signature combo spots before settling down, taking turns with a seated chin-lock (complete with illegal switches). Scott’s first attempt to tag fails, as he’s hit with the combo back-body drop senton for two. Scott gets dropped on his head with a piledriver, but he’s got enough left in the tank to avoid the Tower of Quebec. He runs through the Quebecers with a double clothesline and hot tag to Rick. Jacques gets dumped into the arms of Pierre and we get the DOUBLE NOGGIN KNOCKER. Rick catches Pierre off the top with a belly-to-belly suplex. Scott with the Frankensteiner, but we get the ULTRA LAME finish of Jacques pulling Pierre to the floor so they can take a walk at 12:25. A mostly by-the-numbers effort with a weak finish. **¼

Lex Luger vs. “Double J” Jeff Jarrett:
Double J is another fresh face on WWF television, filling in for Ludvig Borga, who allegedly injured his ankle at MSG and never returned to action for the WWF (and if you’re fans of him, he was ready to go and show up for Herb Abrams’ Blackjack Brawl later that year). I say allegedly because the combination of his plummeting down the card, uneasy presence, and unhappiness from the office made it pretty clear that his days were already numbered, so again, pure speculation from me, based on those pieces of the puzzle laid out on the table. Luger’s got the big date at WrestleMania X as the first challenger to the WWF Championship, but based on the reaction of the Royal Rumble crowd in Providence, I don’t think fans latched onto him as much as the office had hoped.

Luger plays to the crowd to chant U-S-A, and if Duggan can do it, why the hell not try it out for yourself. Double J is doing what he does best… avoiding physicality and playing to the crowd, maybe a little too much. One complaint I never understood is matches featuring guys playing to the audience and not doing enough moves. I absolutely LOVE getting the crowd involved and letting things breathe, but spending significant chunks of time and doing nothing else is where I draw the line. We keep up with the “chew the clock” formula for about 4-minutes… and then we’re done with this match, as Luger gets Jarrett to submit to the (yet-to-be-named) Rebel Rack. We’re obviously not going to rate this, but based on the quality of work of both men at the time, I wouldn’t set my expectations too high when coming across other matches of theirs. At least one match featured for Coliseum Video, and the other taped for Superstars as part of the King of the Ring Tournament, if you’re seeking them out. N/R

Marty Jannetty vs. Diesel:
We’re going to throw a disclaimer along with this match… the match is listed as taking place from Dortmund, but the view of the ring changes, and could possibly be from the Vienna show on February 4th (another location where fan-cam recordings have surfaced). The only issue with that theory is that this is the only match to surface from that show if the Vienna theory is true, but considering how the match plays out, I wouldn’t doubt if they ran the same formula each night. Diesel got the big showing out at the Royal Rumble, but they’re still taking their time bringing him along on TV, and Jannetty’s constant fluctuation of “decent mid-card role” and “JTTS” makes it hard to figure out when he’s on good terms with the office.

We cut ahead in the match, with Diesel missing a boot in the corner and Jannetty chopping away at the leg to take the big man off his feet. Marty works the leg but Diesel manages to escape by slapping his leg across the face. Cut ahead to Marty wrapping the leg around the post, continuing to keep Diesel grounded. Diesel takes over with his signature brute style, hitting a side slam and choking Jannetty across the middle rope before hitting the seated splash. Jannetty fights out of a chin-lock, but unwisely attempts a sunset flip. Diesel turns the Rocker inside-out with a clothesline and works another chin-lock. Whip to the ropes and Jannetty busts out a spinning head-scissors, followed by a Super-Kick and flying clothesline for a pair of two-counts. Whip and a back body-drop set up is poorly thought out, and Diesel easily finishes with the Jackknife Powerbomb at 4:45 (shown). Too much editing to give a fair rating, but this seemed like an OK David vs. Goliath formula. Jannetty’s time with the WWF would be over yet again, as he was pulled from the tour following the Dortmund show, and wouldn’t return to the company until September the following year. N/R

WWF Championship Match:
Yokozuna (c) (w/ Mr. Fuji) vs. Bret “Hitman” Hart:
Main Event and final match of the card. Yokozuna was often paired with Tatanka around this time, but for this tour, I’m not surprised by the adjustment to add a little more star power to the Championship Match, and with the Undertaker written off for the Spring and Summer (well, the REAL Undertaker), that leaves us with our in-case of emergency guy in Bret Hart to satisfy those needs.

Yoko with the sale ceremony and Bret rushes in with right hands. Yoko catches the body press and plants Hart with a slam, but misses the follow-up elbow. Bret continues bringing the pressure, hitting a headbutt (and selling it himself) and a shoulder block, but that doesn’t work out well for him. Yokozuna misses a splash and Bret drops the leg for a two-count. He teases the Sharpshooter, but Yoko kicks him off with enough force to send him to the floor, where Fuji is ready to whack him with the flag pole.

We slow things down with the nerve hold. Bret with elbows to the body followed by more rights, but Yoko cuts him off with a short clothesline. Yoko’s MASSIVE leg drop sends Bret rolling out of the ring, trying to keep his skull together from such impact. Yoko tries keeping Bret from re-entry, content with a count-out victory, but Bret’s fighting spirit is too much. Bret rolls away from the tease of a Bonzai Drop and it’s a slugfest. Bret staggers the monster with a dropkick, but the second attempt is side-stepped.

Bret fights to his feet while trapped in another nerve hold and is quickly brought back down with a back suplex. Whip to the corner, Yoko misses the avalanche and Bret with the bulldog from the second turnbuckle for two. Bret with three clotheslines, followed by the second-rope elbow for another two-count. Yoko catches another dive, this time Bret escapes by gnawing at his face. He hops on Yoko’s back with a sleeper and the poor referee gets crushed in the corner. Fuji passes the bucket in, but Bret intercepts and whacks Yoko with it, covering for a long, delayed two-count. Sharpshooter applied (in theory), but Fuji hops in (in theory) and smacks Bret with the pole for the cheap disqualification at 15:25. Well, that was a much better match that I would have guessed from Yokozuna (with some slow down, of course), but Bret’s beloved by the German audience, so he probably felt extra-motivated. ***¼

Strength of Card: It’s pretty good for the split-crew tours, though you could argue the North American crew had the heated rivalries represented in Razor/Shawn and Savage/Crush. We have the top two babyfaces on the roster on the card, including one challenging for the WWF Championship, as well as the Tag Team Championship and what would have been a preview for WrestleMania X had plans gone differently. Even though it wasn’t filmed, we can’t exclude Doink/Bigelow, which got its fair share of TV, as well. Grade: B+

Highs: I was fully expecting a lazy effort from Yokozuna, but hey, they’re in Germany, and Bret Hart had to put on a classic for his people, and carried Yoko to a darn good match that was only ruined by the cheap (but necessary) finish. I guess a little bit of respect for Adam Bomb and Billy Gunn, who I also figured wouldn’t be much, but ended up being the most cromulent match on the under-card.

Lows: Incomplete card, some poor quality video, the dirt-worst audio I’ve come across for any fan-cam (so far. I’ve watched my fair share and nothing has ever been this bad). Jim Powers going out there and taking most of a 10-minute match, still working like it’s a 1985 opening match was laughable. Weak finishes for the top matches, but that’s going to happen with house show title matches.

Final Thoughts: The quality of the wrestling is what you would expect, with fluctuating level of efforts and a couple of decent matches to go with some poor, but the biggest takeaway for me is this is one of the worst fan-cams I’ve watched, with questionable quality video on top of horrendous audio. What there is to enjoy is almost not worth the time, because of these issues, and while I would give the wrestling a very average “C” scorecard, the overall grade would be based on the ability to have fun watching it, and there’s no fun to be found there. Shameful, because Bret/Yoko is definitely a match worth watching, but those factors take away the overall experience that makes professional wrestling so much fun. Final Grade: F