What the World Was Watching: WWF Action Zone – 12.04.94

Vince McMahon and Todd Pettengill call another episode, taped from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Opening Contest: The 1-2-3 Kid & Aldo Montoya beat the Heavenly Bodies (w/Jim Cornette) (19-1) when the Kid pins Tom Prichard with a schoolboy roll up at 7:11: shown:

The babyface team gets a long shine although they do more work on the mat rather than the air. Montoya is placed in peril when he tries to fight both Bodies and gets bulldogged by Tom Prichard. While in control the Bodies work in some cheating behind the referee’s back and a false tag spot. Montoya survives a gutwrench sit-out powerbomb and a Bodies atomic leg drop to give the Kid the hot tag. As Montoya and Jimmy Del Ray fight on the floor, the Kid slams Prichard and goes for a top rope move. Cornette hits the top rope with his tennis racquet, causing the Kid to fall off and Prichard gets the pin. Or at least that is the decision before referee Mike Chioda runs out and gets the match restarted. On the restart, Montoya dropkicks Prichard and the Kid schoolboys him right after so that the babyfaces win. Credit to the bookers for avoiding the stupid reverse decision finish. Rating: **½

Footage of WWF Champion Diesel making an appearance at the American Sportscasters Association tenth annual dinner is shown. To say he looks out of place among other athletes like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is an understatement. It did not help that the sleeves were cut off of his suit so he looked ridiculous.

Doink the Clown (w/Dink) (32-3) pins Mike Khoury after the Whoopie Cushion at 3:03:

Dink is the only little person still around from Doink’s crew after Survivor Series. It begs the question of where they went. Referees ignoring Dink’s interference continues as Dink sprays powder on Khoury when he walks near him. Pettengill feigns laughter and puts over how funny the clowns are. Khoury does mount some offense despite the interference, clotheslining Doink to block a hiptoss and getting a two-count from a dropkick and a stomp. Doink goes back on offense with a fireman’s carry and armbar, using a side suplex to lay Khoury out for the Whoopie Cushion.

Jim Neidhart (18-2) beats Curtis Hairston via submission to the Camel Clutch at 2:32:

Neidhart goes through another dull squash but there is a spot that almost turns bad when the referee is nearly wiped out on Hariston’s backdrop bump.

The Smoking Gunns (22-2-1) defeat Dave DiMegglio & Chris Hamrick when Billy pins DiMegglio after the Sidewinder at 3:54:

DiMegglio made his debut in 1987 in the Mid-Atlantic region, working for promotions such as the Virginia Wrestling Association, the Atlantic Wrestling Federation, the Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation, and ECW, often as part of a tag team with Rip Sawyer called the Cream Team. He would start teaming with Romeo Valentino as the Goodfellas in 1994. In that role he took on the name of Dino Casanova. The Goodfellas would get several matches in WCW the following year.

The Gunns use frequent tags to wear out the enhancement team. Hamrick does not do his spot of flying through the ring ropes, surprisingly. After hitting the side suplex-leg drop combination, referee Mike Chioda starts counting a pinfall even though Billy is not covering DiMegglio. Billy looks puzzled and the referee stops. After that, the Sidewinder finishes as the Gunns build momentum for the Tag Team Championship Tournament.

Bam Bam Bigelow (28-6) pins Ben Jordan after two falling headbutts at 2:58:

Bigelow prefers to come out alone since Ted DiBiase messed up his last match with the British Bulldog. He tries to be generous with Jordan for the squash but Jordan is not able to look good, falling down after giving Bigelow a clothesline and later having trouble going up for a vertical suplex. Bigelow polishes Jordan off for the second time this year with some falling headbutts.

Lex Luger (32-3-1) defeats Barry Hardy via submission to the Rebel Rack at 2:34:

Once again, Luger has a customary flag bearer since that is now a staple of his squashes. Like Bigelow he circles back to an enhancement opponent he faced earlier in the year. Hardy gets a cheap shot over the referee but Luger reverses a take to the buckle and finishes Hardy with a clothesline, powerslam, and the Rebel Rack.

Charlie Minn keeps looking like a geek, flexing at the announce table.

The Last Word: The feature match was good. It would make sense that the 1-2-3 Kid & Aldo Montoya might become a pairing, if only to pad the Tag Team Championship Tournament. The rest of the show was bad, with the crowd reacting to very little. There was also no announcement of a feature match next week, sending The Action Zone even further into C-show territory.

Wrestling Challenge had one original match, with Gorilla Monsoon and Ted DiBiase on commentary:

Aldo Montoya (2-0) pins Duane Gill after a reverse flying bulldog at 3:34:

DiBiase is still sore that Montoya rejected an offer to join his crew. Montoya continues to be fed serviceable enhancement workers to try to make him look good. In the split screen, Montoya shows off his bilingual skills to talk himself up. Montoya uses more aerial moves than he did in The Action Zone tag team match, blasting Gill with a missile dropkick and flying clothesline. Gill fights back with a jawbreaker and slam but Montoya comes back with a butterfly suplex and reverse flying bulldog to remain unbeaten.

The WWF ended up cancelling all its planned shows in Eastern Canada, focusing solely on a few overseas shows. Some of the cancellations were due to poor advance sales, but it was also believed that an injury Bob Backlund suffered torpedoed the planned main events in those cities against Diesel. Here was the result of one of them, courtesy of thehistoryofwwe.com:

Nuremberg, Germany – December 2, 1994 (6,000): Aldo Montoya beat Pierre…The Bushwhackers defeated Timothy Well & Barry Horowitz (substituting for Steven Dunn)…Duke Droese defeated Kwang…The British Bulldog beat King Kong Bundy…Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon defeated Jeff Jarrett…The Smoking Gunns defeated the Heavenly Bodies…Lex Luger beat Tatanka.

Backstage News*: The WWF tried to block Randy Savage’s debut on WCW Saturday Night on December 3, arguing that it would breach his “implied agreement” with them. However, WCW and Savage’s attorney believed the WWF’s claim had no legal basis and his debut went ahead. It is believed Savage will be making $425,000 per year with WCW.

-Monday Night RAW’s ratings remain in the 2’s, notching a 2.8 for its recent episode. Ratings for syndicated shows were disappointing on the heels of Diesel winning the WWF Championship.

-The WWF is thinking of doing King of the Ring or Survivor Series at the Anaheim Pond in Anaheim, California next year.

-In talent relations news, Chris Candido is expected to arrive in early 1995. Tammy Fytch will come with him but the plan is to use her as an announcer instead of a manager.

*Backstage news is provided courtesy of Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer for December 12.

Up Next: Monday Night RAW for December 5!

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