Razor Ramon

Mabel vs. Savio Vega ending a PPV. This was so bad it feels like a hard-boiled noir detective should be doing narration over it.

KING OF THE RING QUALIFYING MATCHES (1995):
* Back for more King of the Ring Qualifiers- technically still part of my “Dream Matches” column, haha. And with a special edition of everyone’s favorite wrestling standby: FANTASY REBOOKING!!

This year’s King of the Ring was very well-represented on YouTube. This is the most infamously bad tournament in history, which is hilarious, as “on paper” it looks to be the biggest one ever- while most tourneys are foregone conclusions or are full of mid-level guys, this one had Lex, Owen, Razor, Shawn and even the UNDERTAKER wrestling, with a ton of matches having equal stars. So the disaster that was the ’95 KOTR is a true epic. Come watch as the long national nightmare of Savio Vega in a prominent role begins, plus how NOT to create a new Monster Heel.

Previous tournaments re-legitimized ex-champion Bret Hart and gave credibility to Owen for his feud with Bret. A third tournament could either legitimize another would-be champion (Shawn Michaels, in this case), or set up a challenger for Diesel, who’s coming out of a feud with Psycho Sid. It looks like Bob Holly beating Mantaur is not on YouTube, but I found the rest.

MABEL (w/ Mo) vs. ADAM BOMB:
(WWF In Your House, May 14th)
* This was a strange decision- putting the first KOTR Qualifier on the first-ever In Your House PPV as a throwaway bout. Mabel had just recently turned heel, while Bomb was spinning his wheels as a directionless babyface after splitting with Harvey Whippleman last year. Bomb’s in the red & yellow gear as usual (he only briefly wore other colors), while Mabel’s in black & purple.

WWF KING OF THE RING QUALIFYING MATCHES (1993):
* So for this week’s “Dream Matches” column, I decided randomly to take a look at the build up to 1993’s inaugural King of the Ring. As a 12-year old fan, I was way into the idea of this big tournament, and even now the set-up seems great- you have an 8-man tournament in one night on PPV, and in the weeks leading up to the show, you stick your stars up against JTTS guys in “Qualifying Matches” that are mostly foregone conclusions, except a couple of them have a legit question mark. It lets your “Featured Matches” actually count for something, and gives your name guys a big win on TV- and if you were watching back then, you know you only saw “Star vs. Star” matches once per week if you were lucky. I’ll see what I can find on YouTube for these (turns out it’s everything but Shawn/Crush, which ended in a Double Count-Out, which disqualified BOTH for some reason, so we had a different Qualifying Match instead).

The issue with KOTRs, of course, is that with 16 guys, 15 have to do the job. And when times are tough, Vince is squirrelly about letting guys drop legit falls. The real purpose of the first King of the Ring, of course, was to return some credibility to former champion Bret Hart, and set off his new feud with Jerry Lawler.

RAZOR RAMON vs. “EL MATADOR” TITO SANTANA:
* So Razor had debuted the previous year and been given arguably his biggest solo push ever, teaming with Ric Flair in the main program at Survivor Series and then facing Bret Hart for the WWF Title at the Royal Rumble. After his loss there, he was cycled into the upper-midcard, beating Bob Backlund at WMIX. Here, we’re a little bit away from the face turn that would forever change his career. Santana, meanwhile, has fallen all the way down the card and is only rarely featured on TV anymore- he’s been a JTTS for years by this point, and was looking pretty flabby compared to the ’80s. Both guys are in black, here- I don’t recall Tito in that look.

Lance Russell and Dave Brown are reunited in the booth for today’s show from the WMC-TV5 studio in Memphis, Tennessee.

Russell interviews Downtown Bruno, who complains about what Doug Gilbert and Miss Texas have done to Brandon Baxter over the last few weeks.  Bruno says that he will be taking Baxter’s place as an ally of Smoky Mountain Wrestling.  He also complains about the recent treatment of Bob Armstrong.  This brings Armstrong out and he shakes Bruno’s hand before running down the USWA.  Armstrong hypes his son Jesse James and Tracy Smothers as his biggest weapon.

Lance Russell and Dave Brown are in the booth and they are broadcasting from WMC-TV5 studio in Memphis, Tennessee.

Brown interviews Scott Studd, who argues that USWA Southern Heavyweight Champion Brian Lee will not give him a title shot.  Lee walks out and says Studd does not deserve one.

Lance Russell and Dave Brown are doing commentary and are in the usual WMC-TV 5 studio in Memphis, Tennessee.

Taped from Bushkill, PA

Airdate: November 15, 1993

Attendance: unknown

Hosted by Vince McMahon & Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

Can Pierre Ouellet survive against Lex Luger? Also, Ramon and Diesel show off their talents. Included is al a developing story. Let’s rock!

 Taped from Poughkeepsie, NY

Airdate: November 1, 1993 (taped 10/18)

Attendance: unknown

Hosted by Vince McMahon & Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

Can Ramon conquer the behemoth Booger? Will the Gunns spoil the RAW debut of Well Dunn? Does Virgil stand a chance against Adam Bomb? What other surprise do I have inside? Let’s find out!

Taped from New Haven, CT

Airdate: October 11, 1993 (taped 9/27)

Attendance: 5,500 (3,200 paid)

Hosted by Vince McMahon, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, & Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

Will Martel or Ramon become the new IC champion? What’s up with Borga? All this plus an SMW surprise in included. Doesn’t this sound like fun?

Six of the Best for Starrcade in the 90’s will be coming next week when I have some time off work. Until then though, I thought I’d review this show as its only 47 minutes long and features a storyline where poor Balls Mahoney had to play Santa Claus’ evil brother (Which someone actually asked about on the Blog today), so there’s a festive tie in at least.

Taped from New Haven, CT

Airdate: October 4, 1993 (taped 9/27)

Attendance: 5,500 (3,200 paid)

Hosted by Vince McMahon & Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

Who will become the top two contenders for the IC title? What’s up with Bigelow and Doink? Let’s find out!

Live from New Haven, CT

Airdate: September 27, 1993

Attendance: 5,500 (3,200 paid)

Hosted by Vince McMahon, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, & Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

Who will challenge the Quebecers for the WWF tag team titles? Will Tatanka remain undefeated against Martel? How will the WWF handle the IC title situation with Michaels AWOL? Let’s find out!

Live from New York, NY

Airdate: July 19, 1993

Attendance: 1,200 (sold out)

Hosted by Vince McMahon, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

Will Jannetty make it 2 for 2 against Michaels on RAW? Can Tiny Tim make the “King” tip-toe through the tulips? Let’s find out!

Live from Poughkeepsie, NY

Airdate: June 21, 1993

Attendance: unknown

Hosted by Vince McMahon, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

Who will win the rematch between Doink and Jannetty? Can the Kid survive against Ramon for the sake of $10,000? Let’s find out!

Taped from New York, NY

Airdate: June 14, 1993

Attendance: unknown

Hosted by Vince McMahon, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

What can happen during the fallout from King of the Ring ‘93? Can Jannetty overcome the nefariousness of Doink and defeat him? How will Lawler behave following his destruction of Bret last night? Let’s find out!

Live from Dayton, OH

Airdate: June 13, 1993

Attendance: 8,000 (7,000 paid)

Hosted by Jim Ross, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, & Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

Who will become the 1993 King of the Ring? Will Yokozuna regain the WWF title or will Hogan keep his “toy”? Let’s find out!

Live from New York, NY

Airdate: May 10, 1993

Attendance: 750

Hosted by Vince McMahon, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

Can Bigelow become IC champion AND King of the Ring? The first part of the question’s answered TONIGHT. Let’s rock!

Taped from New York, NY

Airdate: May 24, 1993 (taped 5/17)

Attendance: 1,000

Hosted by Vince McMahon, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

Will either Doink or Perfect qualify for the tournament? What does Ramon have up his sleeve? Could he be calling for a strike? Let’s find out!

Live from New York, NY

Airdate: May 17, 1993

Attendance: 1,000

Hosted by Vince McMahon, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

Who will be the mystery man on tonight’s show? What does Ramon have in store for the Kid? Since this reflection’s pretty loud, you might want to clean out your ears. Let’s rock!

Taped from Poughkeepsie, NY

Airdate: April 19, 1993 (taped 4/12)

Attendance: 3.500

Hosted by Vince McMahon, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, and Rob Bartlett

Can the Beverlies upset the champs? Will Ramon get by Virgil? Does Bartlett survive the episode? Let’s find out!

–A replay of Xanta Claus attacking Savio Vega at In Your House 5 is shown.

–Vince McMahon, Mr. Perfect, and Jim Ross are doing commentary and they are kicking off some new tapings in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.  According to thehistoryofwwe.com, only 1,500 fans attended because there was a blizzard during the show.  This was also the taping where Bradshaw made his debut in a dark match, losing to Savio Vega.  Also, this is the last Superstars of 1995 because next week’s episode is a “year in review” show.