What the World Was Watching: WWF Superstars – 12.17.94

Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler commentate once again, starting a new taping in Poughkeepsie, New York. According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the taping happened on November 29 and drew a sellout crowd of 3,000 fans. Poughkeepsie had just done a Monday Night RAW taping the day earlier, but this drew more fans than that show.

Opening First Round WWF Tag Team Championship Tournament Contest: Bam Bam Bigelow & Tatanka (w/Ted DiBiase) (0-0-1) defeat Men on a Mission (w/Oscar) (12-2) when Tatanka pins Mo after the End of the Trail at 8:36 shown:

MOM do not get their usual rap entrance. The heels ambush their opponents to start but Mabel fights okay by himself, flooring Tatanka with a few clotheslines. Lawler jokes that MOM want to win the titles for longer than earlier in the year so they can show them off in the slum they come from. Mo, who must take pointers from Bob Backlund, spends a lot of the match holding Tatanka and Bigelow in wristlocks and armbars. That takes the crowd out of the match so much that they do not react when Bigelow suplexes Mabel. A collision between Mabel and Bigelow makes Mabel looks dumb by falling to the arena floor, but he tags Mo as he falls out. Mo does a small hot tag flurry on Tatanka but ends up succumbing to the End of the Trail. Tatanka pins Mo with one finger and Mabel, who is standing on the apron, takes too long to climb into the ring and break it up. Just a bad match that made the babyfaces look bad and made the heels look weak. Rating: ½*

Stephanie Wiand takes over doing the Live Event News segments from Charlie Minn, who was fired after a two-month tenure. She is more relaxed and has a more natural presentation than Winn. The only problem is that the WWF gave her way too much makeup.

Irwin R. Schyster (w/Ted DiBiase & a Druid) (33-3) pins Phil Apollo after the Write Off at 1:58:

IRS tells the crowd before the match that the Undertaker will never rest in peace until he pays his taxes. McMahon tells fans they can see that match on the Holiday Wish Tour. IRS having druids with him is a weird touch. Where did he find them? Instead of doing another John Dough vignette, maybe the WWF should have considered one to tie up that loose end. There is some humor at the end of the squash as McMahon does not think IRS is going to pin Apollo with the Write Off, dubbing it a clothesline and thinking it is a transition move. The crowd reaction would concur. After the match, DiBiase tells Lex Luger that IRS will bankrupt him this Monday night.

Todd Pettengill does the first Royal Rumble Report. The event takes place on Sunday, January 22 in Tampa, Florida. Because of that there is a beach theme in the graphics and the old Royal Rumble song has been substituted for a weird beach tune. Pettengill says that Pamela Anderson from Baywatch will host the event. The first match announced is WWF Champion Diesel defending the title against Bret Hart. In another bad promo, Diesel questions Bret’s manhood because he wears pink and promises to make him black and blue. In terms of the Rumble match, Pettengill promises that the top 30 competitors in the WWF will enter. Ten names are announced: Bob Backlund, King Kong Bundy, Dick Murdoch, Kwang, Henry Godwinn, Lex Luger, Adam Bomb, Duke Droese, Doink the Clown, and Aldo Montoya. Murdoch’s inclusion was a head scratcher because he had not been with the WWF since 1985. According to Bruce Prichard, it was hoped that this could be a way to lure him into a front office position but Murdoch had no interes.

Adam Bomb (21-7) beats Tony DeVito after the pumphandle slam at 1:54:

A young girl by the name of Teresa Dalio is the guest fan ring announcer and does a really good job. Lawler chastises her looks. Bomb overpowers DeVito and shrugs off a DeVito knee to the face when he puts his head down too early on an Irish whip. The Neutron Bomb and pumphandle slam, a move where Bomb opts not to go to the canvas with DeVito, put Bomb back in the winner’s circle after his loss to Irwin R. Schyster on Monday Night RAW a few weeks ago. McMahon says Bomb could win the Rumble but his 1994 booking says otherwise.

Henry Godwinn beats Nick Barberri after the Slop Drop at 1:41:

Godwinn was Mark Canterbury, a five-year veteran who was trained by George South and the Italian Stallion. Initially wrestling under his own name, he formed a tag team with Dennis Knight, who was better known as Tex Slazenger. The team debuted in WCW in 1992 with Canterbury wrestling under a mask as Shanghai Pierce. The duo did not make much of an impact there and Canterbury was unmasked by Johnny B. Badd in January. Canterbury continued to make appearances through the summer but then jumped to the WWF as a singles competitor. Slazenger would spent the next year on the independents before coming to the WWF in 1996.

The theme music for Godwinn is not great, just a few banjo chords and lots of hog noises. Some of the fans do react to him, though, doing their own hog calls. Godwinn wrestles in overalls and a yellow undershirt to fit his occupational gimmick. He aims to get himself over as a brawler, hitting Barberri with a hard clothesline. He wins with an inverted DDT that Lawler dubs the Slop Drop. But before pinning Barberri, Godwinn rolls him over once to mimic a pig’s rooting behavior. All things considered, this was not a bad debut. The gimmick has a ceiling but Canterbury did the basic things well to leave an impression.

Photographs of Captain Lou Albano taking the New Headshrinkers to a barber shop are shown. This is all about trying to “civilize” them. Why he feels the need to do that when the original team did just fine without that is anyone’s guess. Segments like this are also not going to get the new version of the team over.

Jeff Jarrett is this week’s guest on the Heartbreak Hotel. Jarrett brings Michaels a CD of his called “Ain’t I Great!” Michaels asks who Jarrett’s second is and Jarrett says that he is the Roadie, who serves his needs. That makes Michaels make a parallel to how he used to treat Diesel. Jarrett accuses Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon of ducking him, promising to take the title. At the end of the segment, the Roadie checks a microphone for Jarrett to sing but time runs out. Jarrett delivered a good, short promo to advance his feud with Ramon. It was easy to tell that Michaels liked Jarrett too, doing what he could to get him over.

The British Bulldog (10-1) pins Charlie Hunter after the running powerslam at 2:28:

Hunter was trained by Boris and Dean Malenko and Hiro Matsuda, making his debut on the Florida independents in 1993. He would later find some small fame in ECW as Dudley Dudley.

What stands out about Hunter is that he is much taller and thicker than many enhancement talents. That also makes him a good opponent for the Bulldog to squash since it shows off the Bulldog’s power with a vertical suplex. Hunter fights out of a chinlock but a blind charge eats knee and the Bulldog finishes him with the running powerslam.

Lawler tells McMahon that he found him a hairpiece attached to a headset for Christmas.

Tune in next week to see the Bushwhackers face the Heavenly Bodies in a first round match in the WWF Tag Team Championship Tournament! Also, Lex Luger, King Kong Bundy, Doink the Clown, and Jeff Jarrett will be in action! Hakushi will make his debut! And there will be a special interview with WWF Champion Diesel!

The Last Word: The Tag Team Championship Tournament is not off to a good start and next week’s match will probably be no better. However, it is still good to get feature matches on the syndicated shows. Hakushi debuts next week so the WWF is starting to get a much-needed infusion of new talent as the existing crew was getting stale.

Up Next: The Action Zone for December 18!

And if you would like to read a compiled breakdown of 1990-1993 WWF, 1993-1995 ECW, or of various promotions in 1995, check out my Amazon author page to purchase e-books or paperback copies!