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The week in WWF TV (March Week 4 1993) Sponsored by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III – Heroes in a Half-Shell in theatres now. Respect is Shown This week Monday Night Raw closed out with one of the biggest contract signings ever in the company. Bret Hart and Randy Savage signed on the dotted line for their huge WrestleMania IX main event. The signing was presided over in the centre of the ring by President Jack Tunney as Brother Love made a barb that it was one of the few times we ever saw him in person. Macho Man was in true hype mode here as on the microphone he spoke about how everyone thinks that he is washed up and doesn’t stand a chance but he needs this, he doesn’t just want the title he needs it with every fibre of his being. Savage puts over The Hitman as a fighting champion and exclaims around how impressed he has been with the Canadian’s willingness to fight any and all challengers. Savage once again goes back into a little bit more of a crazy voice and talks about how once they do get in the ring the respect means nothing and the Macho Man needs this more than he has ever needed anything to prove to himself and everyone else he is still the top of the business. Savage says he is willing to do anything to achieve this. The microphone then moves over to the WWF World Heavyweight champion as Hart talks about his respect for Savage and how he has shown time and time again since winning the belt he is not afraid of anyone. Hart says that this Sunday at Caesar’s palace he is guaranteeing everyone that he is walking in to one hell of a tough match but will be ending the night still the champion. The two men then signed the contracts on the table and shook hands as an official held up the title between them for a photo opportunity as the show came to a close. Ambush at the Weigh In In a segment on Monday Night Raw we were shown footage of the weigh in for the second of our double main events for WrestleMania IX. Out first came Yokozuna flanked by Mr. Fuji as the master of ceremonies Gene Okerlund put over how huge the Japanese superstar looked. As Yoko was taking off his robe we got “Real American” hit and out to the stage along with his best friend Brutus Beefcake came The Immortal Hulk Hogan as the small gathered crowd of press went crazy. Hogan ripped open his t-shirt to show off his impressive physique showing he is not intimidated by the big man. First up onto the scales was Yokozuna literally eating handfuls of boiled rice out of a bowl as he stepped on as we were informed that ahead of the match he is weighing in at a huge 560 pounds which brought a big grin to the face of Fuji as Yoko shouted “Banzai”. We then got the Hulkster stepping onto the scales and being announced at a lean 280 lbs as Mean Gene informed us he has done it for speed and agility against the Sumo. All of a sudden in a literal flash things changed. One of the photographer’s cameras seemed to explode in the face of Brutus Beefcake which distracted Hogan to be jumped from behind by Yokozuna. The big behemoth delivered a massive Savate Kick to the back of the head of Hogan who fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Gene was motioning to get security out there as the segment ended with Yokozuna standing over his fallen opponent as Fuji shouted “Hulkamania will die”. Over in the back of the shot we saw doctors including Dr. Diamond taking away Brutus. All set for the Ladder Match On Monday Night Raw we saw both men from the WWF Intercontinental Title ladder match at WrestleMania IX in action as Marty Jannetty defeated Skinner first up in the night with a Flying Fistdrop. It almost did not go so well as Shawn Michaels came out to alongside Tamara to try and distract Marty by getting into an argument with Sensational Sherri. Sherri herself was showing her feelings against Michaels as much as being for Jannetty as she accompanied Marty to the ring for this one. She may well have wished that she hadn’t however as she was blindsided and pushed into the post by the vicious vixen Tamara meaning that before the match was even over she was taken away by medical personnel. Later in the night as Shawn defeated veteran Bob Backlund in a non-title match with a Super Kick we were informed that Marty had followed on to a local hospital so would be watching Monday Night Raw from there with a keen eye. On Wrestling Challenge we then got a promo from Marty Jannetty stating that Sherri may well not make it to WrestleMania IX to be in his corner which some would say put him at a disadvantage but what he says is that this means he can concentrate on climbing the ladder and winning that title. There is no Escape from your Destiny On Superstars this week we heard one last time before WrestleMania IX and his huge match with Jorge Gonzalez from The Undertaker. The promo was once again from the workshop and began with Paul Bearer talking about counting down the days until the return of his Undertaker. The twisted mortician goes on to speak about how the caskets are finished and extra comfortable ready for Gonzalez and Wippleman and on Sunday they will find their forever resting place. The Undertaker then cuts into the picture and says on Sunday he will gain retribution and then send the casket of Jorge Gonzalez back to Argentine for San La Muerte to deliver to the afterlife to “Rest in Peace”. The Perfect setting to prove you are a fraud. On Wrestling Challenge we heard from Mr. Perfect as he once again spoke about injustice and corruption being rife as there is clearly something up with the arm of Lex Luger. Perfect talks further about how he will get to the bottom of this one day or another but bionic arm or no bionic arm at WrestleMania IX he will prove just how perfect he is and that Narcissus and Bobby Heenan are no more than “a wannabe and a weasel”. Later that night in the main event of the show we saw Mr. Perfect taking on I.RS and we got a promo from Lex Luger and Bobby Heenan during it as Heenan claimed Perfect was just jealous that he has came face to face with true perfection. Luger is stronger, faster and more perfect than he will ever be and after WrestleMania IX maybe Mr. Perfect will be too ashamed to show up again and do us all a favour. Perfect won the match by disqualification in the end as Irwin used the briefcase and he and DiBiase began beating down Perfect until they were run off by their WrestleMania Ix opponents The Steiner Brothers. Fighting fit after a failed bounty The previous mentioned match was the end of a big week for the Steiner Brothers. On Monday Night Raw they got their chance to get hold of the Bounty Hunters in tag team action and despite taking a beating from the two big men it looked like Rick and Scott were starting to get the better of things until Money Inc. showed up. I.R.S. and The Million Dollar Man got into the ring and started joining in a now 4 on 2 assault on the challengers for their WWF World Tag Team Titles. The referee called the match as a disqualification but after Monday the status of Rick and Scott for WrestleMania IX was very much up in the air. Later in the week by the time Superstars rolled around we got an impassioned promo from Rick and Scott talking about how nothing will stop them from being in Las Vegas and taking the titles away from those crooks. At Headlock on Hunger they took away some of their money and come Sunday they will be taking away their belts. The time for jokes is over With WrestleMania IX on the horizon we got to see Crush in action for a successful victory over Rick Martel with the Cranium Crunch on Monday Night Raw. Vince McMahon on commentary speculated what would happen in Las Vegas when Crush gets a hold of Doink The Clown and crushes his head like a Coconut. Later in the week on Wrestling Challenge we saw Doink himself in action defeating Brian Knobbs in singles action with the Stump Puller. During this match we saw a pre-taped video interview with him speaking about how he came to the World Wrestling Federation to entertain the children and make them laugh and he has only tried to do this the whole time. People may think that the fun is over as his Big Top are not able to be at ringside but really the fun never stops and at WrestleMania IX Crush will find out laughter can hurt. Prepare for a Royal beating come WrestleMania On Superstars this week we got the special “King’s Court” segment as Jerry Lawler wheeled out two Native Americans in fat suits he claimed to be Tatanka’s parents. Lawler made a number of cruel and unnecessary jokes at the expense of them before forcing them to get on their knees and kiss his Royal feet. The music of Tatanka then hit but out from the back came a midget dressed as the formerly undefeated superstar. The King then continued the mocking until out from the back came The 1-2-3 Kid himself to defend the honour of his friend and mentor only to be taken out quickly by Lawler. As the mocking continued and a huge piledriver was delivered to The Kid we eventually got the entrance of Tatanka who looked like he wanted to kill Jerry. As Tatanka shot down to the ring we saw Lawler wisely getting out of dodge but the Native American got a microphone and laid out a clear message. Tatanka spoke about how Lawler has disrespected him, ruined his undefeated streak, disrespected 1-2-3 kid, and disrespected his family and the whole Lumbee Indian tribe. At WrestleMania IX he will pay for all of these wrongs and when all is said and done and Tatanka is stood victorious Lawler can kiss his feet to see how he likes it. Rip the head from a snake it can no longer bite. On Monday Night Raw we heard from Razor Ramon ahead of his massive match with Jake Roberts. The Bad Guy spoke about how he wants to show everyone why those from the past need to stay in the past. Jake Roberts decided to get into his business and where Razor is from in Miami they know how to take care of a problem when someone gets in your business. Ramon says that to kill a snake you remove the head and it can no longer bite and on Sunday in Las Vegas he will knock the head of Jake clean off before putting that old man down for good. Over on Wrestling Challenge we then got a biographical piece on Jake speaking of his own personal struggles and how happy is to get the chance to be back on the big stage after a tumultuous year. Roberts talks about how he could not sit by idly whilst Razor Ramon tore down everything he fought for and at WrestleMania IX he will show that this snake still has some bite. Will Owen even make it to Sunday On Superstars we saw plucky underdogs High Energy facing off against a newly resurgent Natural Disasters accompanied by Paul E. Dangerously. Owen was looking to prove a point ahead of his huge match at WrestleMania IX against the other member of the Dangerous Monsters in Bam Bam Bigelow. Early on in the contest Typhoon delivered a splash right onto the knee of Koko B. Ware leaving this match to be a handicap match or just a beating. Earthquake and Typhoon decimated poor Owen Hart and despite his best efforts the match was ended with a big Earthquake Splash. It was not over there however as the two monsters delivered a number of splashes to the downed Hart brother leaving the announce team speculating as to what condition he will be in to face Bam Bam Bigelow on Sunday. Cancelled Concert On Superstars as we got set for Jeff Jarrett to finally deliver his much promised live performance the fans were duped once again. Flanked by Cass Golden and Big Johnny Black and armed with a guitar everything looked good to go until Jarrett plucked a few strings and then said something to Golden. She then announced to boos from the crowd that unfortunately there was an issue and the guitar was out of tune so we would not get a concert tonight. As much as it annoyed the crowd this seemed to annoy Virgil more as he hit the ring and was in the mood for a fight so we got an impromptu match which Jarrett controlled from start to finish and ended with the Southern Swing. Quebec Fury This week on Superstars we saw Jacques look for revenge for Pierre against the unlucky Red Tyler. A one sided contest was ended by submission with a Quebec Crab as one half of Les Gendarmes picked up an easy win. After the match was over he would not release the hold wrenching back on the single leg crab constantly until out from the back with his 2x4 came Jim Duggan to run off the man from Quebec. Later in the week on Wrestling Challenge Duggan challenged Jacques to meet him in the ring next Monday on Monday Night Raw. James Arthur Harris It was time for another vignette with Mr. Harris and this week we saw the house from last week’s vignette but this time at night with the child from last week along with a few friends remonstrating on the lawn. The child was shouting about he didn’t want this stupid book he wanted money for the jobs he’s done. We then saw the curtain twitch as a wind chime of moon and stars in the window moved gently and gave a little tinkle before we heard a thud. The thud was the book hitting the window as we cut to the inside of the house from behind a bald black man with a purple jumper and grey slacks walking back towards his chair. We did not get a clear look but the man we could hear say “Savages, I cannot abide savages” as the camera panned to the table below and a letter addressed to James Arthur Harris then faded to black. Taking Care of Business On Wrestling Challenge we got another vignette for Mr. Hughes. This time we saw a rock concert with Hughes acting as security whilst people were starting to mosh around a push each other getting into the songs. Hughes calmly put the trilby hat on the side of the stage and then laid out 10 or so men with right hands to thin out the herd. He then walked back over and picked up his hat and put it on as we got the voiceover from last week stating Mr. Hughes: Taking care of business very soon. The Doctor’s Office Once again this week on Wrestling Challenge we paid a visit to Dr. Diamond. The doctor was not in a good mood as he spoke about how for a long time now Rage has been contained but Reverend Slick had to try and stick his nose in medical business. The door will soon open and the World Wrestling Federation needs to be ready for pure Rage to be unleashed. Just then we saw a commotion around the doctor as someone asks him an inaudible question and the reply is to put the hairdresser over there as the vignette fades to black. Elsewhere Over on Wrestling Challenge 1-2-3 Kid managed to put his beating from Jerry Lawler behind him and pick up a hard fought victory with an inside cradle on Terry Taylor whilst The Beverly Brothers and Big Bossman both picked up victories. ------------------------------------------------------------------ The Wrestling Observer Notes March Week 4 1993 Written and edited by Dave Meltzer ----------------------------------------------------------------------- All the television is now in the books for WrestleMania IX with the event a mere couple of days away. The only real note coming out of TV is Sensational Sherri being seemingly written off TV. There was said to be an incident backstage at Monday Night Raw this week involving her and she was not looked upon favourably. It has been known for a while that Sherri was unhappy that the company has gone a different direction with Shawn Michaels in bringing in the younger Tamara and many wonder when we will actually see Sherri back if at all. Other that it has been noted that Scott Taylor has seemingly dropped his original name and is now going by just 1-2-3 Kid. Moving on from this it is now time for the full WrestleMania IX card.

The week in WWF TV (March Week 3 1993) Sponsored by WWF Royal Rumble: Coming Soon to Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo featuring a huge 12 wrestlers to play as. Macho has Bret’s back? A lot of interesting happenings this week as Monday Night Raw saw #1 contender Randy Savage take on Jim Neidhart as a part of a big double main event for the broadcast. The match itself was a very one sided affair with The Anvil only getting a small amount of offense in before falling victim to the Flying Elbow. During the match we had WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart on the telephone to announce desk. The Hitman spoke about his upcoming match on Superstars with Bam Bam Bigelow and also spoke about how impressed he was with what he was seeing from Savage and put him over as a good competitor. Over on Superstars when the match came it was a tough one for the champion as he had to contend with Paul E Dangerously’s toughest monster as well as the presence on the outside of the Natural Disasters. The match was a back and forth affair and just as it looked like Bret was setting up to slap on the Sharpshooter he was jumped by Earthquake and Typhoon leading to all 3 members of the Dangerous Monsters beating him down. As all hope seemed lost for the champion out from the back holding a steel chair came Randy Savage as he hit the ring and all the bad guys bailed leaving Randy to help up Bret. On Wrestling Challenge we got a special interview with Savage as he said he did it because he doesn’t want Bret to have any excuses as to why he loses come WrestleMania IX. It was also announced that this week on Monday Night Raw the last one before the huge night in Las Vegas we would see a contract signing in the middle of the ring officiated by Jack Tunney. In addition Owen Hart will return ahead of his WrestleMania IX match with Bam Bam Bigelow and team with long Koko B. Ware as High Energy to take on Natural Disasters on Superstars. Hulkamania Running Wild In the second of the Monday Night Raw double main events we saw Mr. Fuji bring in his specially selected charge from Japan The Great Kabuki to take on Hulk Hogan. The Hulkster was wrestling for the first time ever on Monday Night Raw and the fans loved it. All of his signature moves were used before he managed to deliver the Big Boot then Atomic Leg Drop. Hogan posed to end the night with the fans going home happy and Vince and Brother Love argued about whether at WrestleMania IX Yokozuna can be dominated in this fashion. It was announced later in the week during a routine Yokozuna victory over a local talent with the Banzai Drop that this coming week on Monday Night Raw we will see a weigh in ahead of WrestleMania IX with both men getting a chance to look each other in the eye live from Caesar’s Palace by video feed. A slippery customer for Razor On Monday Night Raw El Matador got the chance to face off with Razor Ramon and try to exact revenge from two weeks ago. The two men put on a solid match but there always only looked to be one winner and in the end that proved that case as a Razor’s Edge ended the contest. After the match Razor Ramon got a microphone and started kicking at the downed Santana asking him to be a man and tell Razor who was going to face him at WrestleMania IX to represent all of the old guys who don’t belong here. Just then Razor turns around and “BAM DDT!!” the man stands up and pulls down his hood to reveal Jake “The Snake” Roberts before looking down at the fallen Razor to end the segment. Later in the week on Superstars during the WrestleMania report this match was officially confirmed as the final match added to the card. An interview taped with Jake has him talking about sitting at home hearing and seeing the actions of Ramon and it making him sick. Jake says that out in the wild the old snakes are the most dangerous, the ones with the most experience, the ones that have shed the most skin and the ones with the biggest bite in them. Roberts then goes on to say that in Las Vegas you don’t need to be a gambling man to know that “The Bad Guy will be bitten…Trust Me!!” Not the Perfect Result On Monday Night Raw the night opened with Dr. Diamond already in the ring alongside Bobby Heenan as we go a typically elaborate entrance from “The Narcissus” Lex Luger. Diamond got the microphone and announced he had the results of his thorough investigation last week and was just about to announce them when he was cut off by the music of Mr. Perfect who came out to the entrance with a chair to sit and watch with a big smile on his face. The doctor looked down at his clip board and smiled before announcing it was with great pleasure that he can announce that there is nothing suspicious about the forearm of Lex Luger and the only thing he noticed during the examination was how strong and dare he say “perfect” of an arm it was. Heenan then shakes the hand of Diamond before taking the microphone himself and shouting to Perfect that in less than two weeks as WrestleMania IX he will get to see first-hand true perfection as he falls victim to the Nemesis Curse. Luger flexes in the background as the segment ends with an irate Perfect storming to the back. Later in the week on Superstars a special interview with Mr. Perfect sees him talking to Sean Mooney about something being amiss and there being something strange and untrustworthy about this doctor who has appeared out of nowhere. Perfect talks about Kamala going missing, Luger’s results and god knows what he keeps behind that door. The segment ends with Perfect alluding to needing this to be investigated more. Doink isn’t worried After the decree that The Big Top will be banned from ringside other than The Ringmaster at WrestleMania IX against Crush many would see it as a reason for Doink the Clown to worry. In a special interview on Monday Night Raw the devious clown talked about how he is the greatest clown to ever live and will stop at nothing to entertain the children and destroy Crush. Doink mentions that like any good clown he has a lot more tricks up his sleeve before pulling a never ending handkerchief from his pocket and laughing like a maniac. Later on in the broadcast Crush wanted a piece of The Big Top and teamed with “1-2-3 Kid” Scott Taylor and Tatanka to face off with Doink, Strongman Hernandez and Kamikaze in six man tag team action. The match was a solid match although to the frustration of Crush we saw Doink keep avoiding getting mixed up in the match and even after a while just left to do tricks in the crowd. This turned it into essentially a handicap match and Crush got a modicum of revenge when he pinned Strongman Hernandez following a big power slam. Crush then goes off into the crowd looking for Doink but the clown is long gone. A Royal Appointment Following the previously mentioned match we saw Jerry Lawler, Jeff Jarrett and Big Johnny Black jump Tatanka and Taylor inside of the ring and beat them down on Monday Night Raw. Later in the week on Superstars Tatanka got some payback by defeating Big Johnny Black with a big Flying Tomahawk Chop in a solid match. The on Wrestling Challenge we saw Jerry Lawler letting us all know that next week on Superstars he will be having a special segment known as The King’s Court with special guests the parents of Tatanka. He wants to know all about what makes Tatanka the man he is and he is throwing out the invite for Tatanka to join them. Also on the show as a part of this we will finally get the long awaited live performance from Jeff Jarrett to show why he is a multiple gold record winner. WrestleMania will be your resting place On Wrestling Challenge this week we got a special inside the arena interview from Sean Mooney with Harvey Wippleman and Jorge Gonzalez. Wippleman spoke about how The Undertaker ruined Kamala at Survivor Series when he stuffed him inside of the casket so it will only be fitting that at WrestleMania IX The Undertaker is ruined for good as he will never be the same again once he gets stuffed inside his own creation. As a rebuttal we went to a dingy workshop where we could see The Undertaker putting the finishing touches onto the casket in the background. Paul Bearer informed us that Gonzalez is referred to as a fixer but after WrestleMania he will be broken. His body will be broken, his mind will be broken and his soul will be broken as when he is placed inside of the casket and lid is slammed shut all he will see is darkness and the souls of those he has crossed before. The Undertaker then turns around and says Las Vegas may be known as the City of Light but at Caesar’s Palace Jorge will see only darkness as he and Harvey Wippleman “Rest in Peace” The Steiners are not down Over on Superstars we saw the proper in ring debut of The Bounty Hunters as these two impressive big men followed on from laying waste to The Steiner Brothers last week by decimating The Bushwhackers in short order. The larger of the two dropping his massive weight from the second rope onto Butch with a Splash for the win. The bigger story was during the match we got an inset interview with Rick and Scott informing us that they are battered and bruised but nothing will stop them from getting to WrestleMania IX and defeating Money Inc. for the WWF World Tag Team Titles. Before that however they are challenging The Bounty Hunters to a match next week on Monday Night Raw where they plan to show Ted and Irwin just what will happen to them in Las Vegas. A Storied Rivalry comes to a head in a ladder match Over on Monday Night Raw we got treated to a special video package that recapped the time of Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty as The Rockers all the way up to their split and Barbershop window incident which put Marty out. The video then comes to more recent times between the two with the Royal Rumble match, Sherri’s loyalties and now Tamara. The video package did a great job of putting over the rivalry between the two men and how it has to come to an end in the ladder match with one man walking away with the WWF Intercontinental Title. We were then informed that they would both be in action next week with a tune up match ahead of Las Vegas. James Arthur Harris Following on from last week we got another video on this individual over on Superstars. The video began with seemingly the same child as last week this time up a ladder cleaning the gutters on a suburban house. The same voice from last week chimed in with “Chop Chop lad this needs to be done before sundown”. The scene then moved on to the child having seemingly finished and knocking on the door for his payment. We saw the door open and the voice say “This is more valuable than money, read it” and slam the door. The child looked down at a book and read “You are a man by James Arthur Harris” as we never got to see the cover the segment faded to black. Taking Care of Business Over on Wrestling Challenge we got treated to a vignette. The segment began with two louts causing trouble in a club when a big stocky man in a trilby hat came and grabbed one each of them by their belts and threw them out. We saw the man from behind as he dodged attempted blows from both of them before sparking them out cold with a right hand each. The man then dusted off his gloved hands and walked back in as we got a voiceover stating “Mr. Hughes: Taking Care of Business Soon” Then there was one Over on Superstars this week we saw Jim Duggan in fine form as he took on Fatu of the Headshrinkers and picked up a big victory with an Old Glory Kneedrop. The real story was in an inset video during the match as we saw Jacques Rougeau all alone as he spoke about how Les Gendarmes came to show America real men but last week Pierre Wallace his esteemed friend was cruelly and unfairly put on the shelf by a stinking American scum. Jacques says that he is tired of American scum and next week that man Red Tyler who injured Pierre will get what is coming to him on Superstars as “Les Gendarmes always get their man” What is behind the door? On Wrestling Challenge we Reverend Slick still on the lookout for Kamala to find out where he has gone as he retraced the steps at the hospital. Running into Dr. Diamond we saw the doctor try to escape into the room labelled “Authorised Personnel Only, Highly Dangerous, Enter at your own risk” but he was caught by Slick. After Diamond evaded questions around Kamala we saw Slick start to ask him about what is behind the door. This made the doctor a little uncomfortable as he stumbled over his words a little before saying that when a man is so full of rage sometimes they become that rage. This type of man needs to keep away from society as the intense rage melts the brain and makes them very dangerous. Elsewhere On Wrestling Challenge Jorge Gonzalez, Rick Martel, El Matador and The Headshrinkers all picked up wins against enhancement talent. ------------------------------------------------------------------ The Wrestling Observer Notes March Week 3 1993 Written and edited by Dave Meltzer ------------------------------------------------------------------------ There is a lot of intrigue within the company around where exactly things are going with a number of stories that intertwine, especially those involved the Dr. Diamond character. The company is said to be open to a number of possible scenarios on these. With Pierre on the shelf it looks like the company is going with Jacques on his own for now. There was consideration to Rick Martel due to his French Canadian heritage coming in to keep a tag feud going but right now that is not the plan. There is a lot of consideration right now going into who or what is behind the door but assurances have been made that this is not Kamala and some are already guessing as to where Kamala is. Mr. Hughes vignettes started airing this week and this will of course be Curtis Hughes who is a good hand albeit limited so it will be interesting to see where he fits into what is becoming a quite heel dominated roster to some. The Bounty Hunters are being played by independent tag team The Harlem Knights with the large Nelson Frazier and the slightly smaller Bobby Knight both being given what looks like a silent try out before possibly taking on a different gimmick when this runs its course. Jake Roberts return has been met with trepidation and we hear it is just a short term contract likely just through to the summer as his demons can make him very difficult to work with but the company felt they needed a big name for Razor at the event. In Game Ratings Monday Night Raw #11 - 68 Superstars #340 - 71 Wrestling Challenge #344 - 46 Match of the Week: Bret Hart over Bam Bam Bigelow/Razor Ramon over El Matador (74) Worst Match of the Week: Jorge Gonzalez over Red Tyler (14)

The week in WWF TV (March Week 2 1993) Sponsored by WWF WrestleMania – Listen now on cassette Focus on the Main Event This week there was a heavy focus over television on promoting the main event of WrestleMania IX which began with a huge sit down interview with Vince McMahon, Randy Savage and Bret Hart on Monday Night Raw. The two men spoke about their respect for one another and how they had only ever faced each other once before back in November 1987 on a Saturday Night’s Main Event broadcast. The nature of this match seemed to make Randy a bit prickly as back then Bret was aligned with Jim Neidhart and Jimmy Hart and tried every bad guy trick under the sun. The champion reiterated to Macho Man that was a long time ago and neither of them are the same person. Hart added that he had only gotten stronger before alluding to Savage getting older and losing a step. That night back in 1987 Savage picked up the win with a small package out of nowhere on The Hitman but Hart cast doubt over whether Savage was agile enough now to pull of such a feat. This riled up the Macho Man and he stood up from the chair and got in Hart’s face like a madman before the two needed to be separated. Later in the week on Superstars we heard from Hart as he looked to calm things down in a pre-taped interview where he told Savage that he respected him but needed to call it like it is to make sure Savage knows he is dealing with someone very different to 5 plus years ago. Wrestling Challenge this week was dedicated to showing a re-run of the match which all in clocked in at just under 20 minutes. There was also brief talking heads from both competitors about it too with Bret once again putting over that he may have been young and naïve then but now he is stronger, better and quicker. Savage on the other hand tried to put across he was just as good if not better than this. On the broadcast it was also announced that this week on Monday Night Raw we will see Savage look to get some retribution for back then as he takes on long-time friend and former tag partner of Hart in Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart. The Hulkster will be live in person next week On Monday Night Raw as Yokozuna laid waste to poor Virgil with the Banzai Drop we got Hulk Hogan on the phone to Vince and Brother Love. The Hulkster talked about how Mr. Fuji told us last week that WrestleMania IX would be the death of America but America much like Hulkamania will never die. Hogan went on to say that for as long as there is a breath in his body and he has the support of all his Hulkamaniacs worldwide he will fight to take down Yokozuna, Mr. Fuji and whoever else gets in his way. Hogan signs off by informing us he will be live on Monday Night Raw next week and will face whoever Mr. Fuji chooses and defeat them by slamming them to the ground just like what he will do to Yokozuna in Las Vegas. Over on Superstars we were informed that Mr. Fuji has used his contacts in Japan to arrange for the dangerous Great Kabuki to take on Hogan this Monday. The Doctor is in Session Over on Monday Night Raw we got to see Dr. Diamond for the first time outside of his hospital setting as he was set up in a backstage area. President Jack Tunney was for once in attendance as he spoke with the doctor about the examination on his arm he was about to perform. There was a knock on the door and in walked Lex Luger. The segment then resumed later on with Diamond thanking Lex for his time and the commentary team telling us that next week would be the results of the examination live in the ring. In the ring on the same show our main event saw Mr. Perfect defeat Ted DiBiase in a big match with Luger watching from the entrance. The match ended when the Perfect-Plex was delivered. Over on Superstars poor Mike Bell was the victim of Nemesis Curse which left him out cold as he was defeated by Lex Luger. During the match a video was played with Mr. Perfect as the fan favourite outlined how sure he was that the doctor would have the right findings on Monday. Circus Hijinks On Monday Night Raw we had the prospect of a great big man match as we saw Crush take on Strongman Hernandez. As expected however Doink the Clown and The Big Top were not far behind. The match only really got going before the ring was invaded and Doink and his bunch of goons came in and set about the big Hawaiian and beat him to the ground with the evil clown standing over the fallen star laughing for the DQ finish. Over on Superstars it was Doink himself in action as he finally put to bed the mini feud with Big Bossman in a surprisingly clean win with the Stump Puller submission. The big story during the match was President Jack Tunney had a video announcing that after what has gone on in recent weeks and of The Big Top without a manager’s license will be banned from ringside at WrestleMania IX. This means that Doink the Clown and Crush will be able to settle their differences one on one. The Undertaker Speaks Over on Superstars as a part of Gene Okerlund’s WrestleMania Report we heard for the first time since the Royal Rumble from The Undertaker. In segment inside of a graveyard Paul Bearer talked about how never before someone has perpetrated an act on the Undertaker like Jorge Gonzalez did at the Royal Rumble but at WrestleMania IX for this he will pay the ultimate price. The Undertaker then steps in and tell Gonzalez that he tried to make the hunter the hunted and the few that have tried this in the past all lay to rest right here as he points to around the graveyard. The Deadman then says that at WrestleMania IX after he puts Gonzalez inside of the casket and slams shut the lid this is where he will come as “Rests in Peace” Sherri Stands by Marty On Monday Night Raw this week as Marty Jannetty defeated Papa Shango with a Rocker Dropper we heard from Sensational Sherri for the first time in weeks. Sherri spoke about how she was naïve in her love for Shawn Michaels but now is fully on the side of Marty and will be in his corner at WrestleMania IX to make sure that Shawn’s new lady stays well away. Over on Superstars we saw the WWF Intercontinental Champion in action as Shawn Michaels accompanied by the mysterious girl defeated Barry Horowitz with a Teardrop Suplex. During the match we saw a video with Shawn where his new floozy was hanging from him as he spoke of how Jannetty and Sherri are both the same. Michaels told us that both of them have hung onto his coat tails for too long and at WrestleMania IX they will both be sent back to the shadows as the Heartbreak Kid stands on top of the ladder holding his title. Next Week Me/WrestleMania Him El Matador was out in the ring on Monday Night Raw to speak to Razor Ramon who had been given the week off by Jack Tunney this week. Santana spoke about the crusade that Razor has against those from the older generation and announces that two things will happen next week. The first is that Razor and Tito will meet in the ring so that retribution can be dealt for the vicious attack last week. Then if there is anything left of Ramon we will hear from Santana the person who will be stepping up to represent that generation and showing Razor that he is wrong to doubt them at WrestleMania IX. Tito then says “You can trust me on that” Bounty Collected? Last week we saw the failed collection of the bounty on the head of The Steiner Brothers by Beau and Blake. This week on Superstars we saw Barry Hardy and Duane Gill despatched with a Frankensteiner from Scott on Barry with ease. It was events after the match that caught more attention though as fresh from I.R.S. turning up at a bounty hunter building we saw two masked men all in black jump Rick and Scott. The two bounty hunters decimated them with one of them much larger than the other delivering a huge Big Splash not once but twice on Rick. Superstars ended with the announce team speculating whether this could be it for the chances of Rick and Scott to fight at WrestleMania IX. A Royal Beat down Monday Night Raw saw “1-2-3 Kid” Scott Taylor accompanied by Tatanka taking on Jeff Jarrett accompanied by Jerry Lawler and as always Big Johnny Black and Cass Golden. With such a crowded outside of the ring you knew things were going to be heating up at some point. The match itself saw Jarrett dominate for large periods before Taylor managed to rally and put up some offense of his own. The numbers game did catch up and Lawler went to distract the kid but Tatanka stepped in, however as the referee was looking at this Cass Golden slid in a gold record to Jarrett as he delivered the Southern Swing right on top of it for the win. This was not the end of it and all the men brawled with Tatanka not wanting to wait until WrestleMania IX to get his hands on Lawler. The heel team however used the numbers advantage and ended up standing tall at the end of it all over the fallen Native American. It was announced on Superstars that next week on the programme we will see Tatanka taking on Big Johnny Black. Dangerous Times for Owen Over on Superstars Owen Hart was not in attendance as he was recovering from the beat down last week by The Natural Disasters. Instead Paul E. Dangerously came down flanked by those he is calling his “Dangerous Monsters” and spoke about how he has the 3 most dangerous and violent people on the roster today and he is only getting started. To the surprise of everyone they were interrupted by the WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart as The Hitman informed us via video link that Owen may be bruised but he is not beaten and next week Bret himself will be on Superstars and wants to take on Bigelow one on one. The challenge is accepted as the announce team discuss how exactly they believe Bret can possibly deal with the 3 monsters. Les Gendarmes are here Over on Superstars after weeks of vignettes we finally got the debut of Les Gendarmes as they defeated Jim Powers and Red Tyler in a one sided showcase match when Jacques had Tyler in a Boston Crab and Pierre came off the top with a big leg drop to the back of his head. During the match we got an interview inset with Jim Duggan as he said now that he has a face to the name of those disrespecting the flag then he is putting these tough guys on notice before ending with a “HOOOO!!!” James Arthur Harris? Also on Superstars we had a vignette. The segment began with a video of a child mowing a lawn with a worn out looking lawn mower and really struggling. A posh voice in the background started saying “Faster boy you need to work harder, no money until it is satisfactory”. We never saw the man who was saying it but as the segment ended we saw the boy still working away on the lawn and panned to a mailbox with the words “James Arthur Harris” on them. A voiceover then said “James Arthur Harris: The Man” ------------------------------------------------------------------ The Wrestling Observer Notes March Week 2 1993 Written and edited by Dave Meltzer ------------------------------------------------------------------------- With only two weeks of television to go until WrestleMania IX we saw the development of a number of stories and are almost at a completed card for the showcase event now. Internal sources in the company are very happy with what is happening so far. There are a couple of things that the company are not so pleased about. The first is that Razor Ramon was meant to face El Matador this week rather than next week but turned up to Monday Night Raw in no fit state to work and had to be sent home. With the company so high on him only a warning was given at this time but he has been warned that any future push could be derailed with more of this sort of activity. The other person the company are unhappy with is Red Tyler. After weeks of building up Les Gendarmes to be a big thing in the company their debut match was ruined by a botch from Tyler that resulted in a shattered ankle for Pierre. The word is the company now plans to transition into a singles feud with Duggan for Jacques whereas initially the thought was to pair Duggan up with Big Bossman for a tag feud. This now leaves Bossman with no feud following the ending of his short feud with Doink the Clown so it will be interesting to see where that goes. The word is that Pierre will now miss a number of months. As we heard on the TV this weekend the opponent for Hulk Hogan will be The Great Kabuki. The company tapped into their connection with WAR in Japan to secure this match for Monday Night Raw and the word is that in return Hulk Hogan himself will work a future date for WAR in a huge match against Genichiro Tenryu. Internally the girl with Shawn Michaels is being listed as Tamara. She is played by hot young starlet from Smoky Mountain Wrestling Tammy Sytch. The company are high on her and the role she will play alongside Shawn Michaels and feels that the dynamic they have shown through the vignettes and then onto TV works much better than the one with Sherri. Away from the WWF we saw a ground-breaking show in Mexico with the AAA promotion holding the first of what they want to be multiple Triplemania shows. It was headlined by a match of the year candidate with Blue Panther defeating El Hijo Del Santo. WCW had a huge double main even on Saturday Night this week as Big Van Vader and Rick Rude defeated Arn Anderson and Cactus Jack and also Davey Boy Smith defeated Dustin Rhodes in a fantastic match. In Game Ratings Monday Night Raw #10 - 69 Superstars #339 - 57 Wrestling Challenge #343 - 63 Match of the Week: Mr. Perfect over Ted DiBiase (70) Worst Match of the Week: Les Gendarmes over Jim Powers and Red Tyler (28)

The week in WWF TV (March Week 1 1993) Sponsored by Hasbro –Official producer of authentic WWF Figures A Stellar Main Event Two stories intertwined into one to produce a classic main event which many would say is the best since Monday Night Raw began. Early in the night we were treated to a ring entrance from Shawn Michaels coming out alone without Sensational Sherri with much speculation where she was right now after recent events as he spoke to Vince McMahon. Shawn was disgusted that he was forced to end his vacation and put the WWF Intercontinental Title on the line only weeks away from WrestleMania IX. The ire of the cocky star did not improve when he was informed that Jack Tunney had decided that Michaels needed to make a defence and there was one man on the roster that wanted to up his game ahead of WrestleMania IX. With a beaming smile on his face Vince announced to Shawn that in tonight’s main event he would defend the WWF Intercontinental Title against Randy Savage to a huge pop from the crowd. When it came to the end of the evening with still 15 minutes of the broadcast to run the fans knew they were in for a classic. Shawn may be cocky but he has the skills to back it up and to his credit Macho Man was hanging toe to toe in a fast paced encounter. As the end of the broadcast was nearing it looked like we may be headed for a double championship match at WrestleMania IX when Savage landed a big Flying Axehandle before heading up for the Flying Elbow. As Savage climbed up top the mystery girl from the holiday pulled Shawn out of the ring and the two grabbed his title and headed for the tall grass. The champion retained his belt despite losing by count out with the broadcast ending with Savage bemused in the centre of the ring whilst being announced as the winner. It was announced later in the week on Superstars that this coming week on Monday Night Raw there would be special sit down interviews aired with both Bret Hart and Randy Savage. Not Quite the Perfect Night Mr. Perfect was a man on a mission on Monday Night Raw as he came to petition President Jack Tunney to do something about the forearm of Lex Luger which he believes conceals an illegal object. Perfect stood in the ring and called out Tunney but instead got Gene Okerlund. Perfect was informed that whilst Jack Tunney was not here that he had a message to pass on that next week Dr. Diamond will be here and he will be doing a full thorough examination right here on Monday Night Raw of Narcissus. Perfect smiled at the news of this until he was blindsided from behind by Lex Luger with the Nemesis Curse as the segment ended with Perfect laid out cold in the ring. Death Returns at WrestleMania IX This week on Superstars as a part of the event centre with Sean Mooney we were informed that after assurances from Paul Bearer to Jack Tunney that The Undertaker will be there it has been made official that the casket match will take place with Jorge Gonzalez. A video with Paul Bearer then informs us that next week we will hear from The Undertaker himself for the first time since the Royal Rumble. We then hear the banging of a hammer in the background without seeing a visual of The Undertaker as Paul tells us he is getting things ready. A second video this time with Jorge Gonzalez and Harvey Wippleman was then played as Harvey spoke about how at the Royal Rumble there was nothing that could hurt Gonzalez and nothing has hurt him sense. Wippleman informs us that the fixer will give his biggest fix yet as he puts down The Undertaker for good before giving an evil laugh. The Death of America is coming Over on Monday Night Raw we saw Yokozuna in action as he dismantled El Matador in quick fashion ending it with the Banzai Drop. The big news however was in a promo after the match Mr. Fuji accepted the challenge laid down for Wrestlemania IX last week by Hulk Hogan. Fuji puts over the fact that Yokozuna has not been slammed or even knocked off his feet and a yellow belly American like Hulk Hogan will not change that. He goes on to say that at Wrestlemania IX when Yokozuna crushes The Hulkster like a big it will be the death of America. Due to filming commitments we did not get Hulk Hogan live this week but we did get a video package detailing his many title wins as well as showcasing how he slammed Andre the Giant. Vince McMahon then informs us that next week on Monday Night Raw we will get Hulk Hogan live on the phone. Big Top Toppled On Monday Night Raw we got the in ring return of Crush following his injury lay off at the hands of Doink the Clown. The big man from Kona, Hawaii made short work of Big Top member Kamikaze despite the best effort of Lady Vachon and The Ringmaster at ringside. Crush ended the contest crushing the youngsters skull with the Cranium Crunch. After the contest was over with the clown himself conspicuous by his absence out came Strongman Hernandez as he went straight for Crush and two behemoths started trading blows and to the delight of the crowd Crush sent him packing. For this week at least the Big Top had been foiled. There was more good news as President Jack Tunney in a pre-recorded video announced that at WrestleMania IX we would see Crush get to go one on one with Doink the Clown. Vince McMahon also announced that next week on Monday Night Raw we would have a special match as Crush and Strongman Hernandez will go one on one. Razor is still angry After El Matador was defeated by Yokozuna on Monday Night Raw and the latter had left an angry Razor Ramon came down and delivered insult to injury for Santana with the Razor’s Edge. Ramon got on the microphone and once again derided those from the previous generation and called out anybody to face him at Wrestlemania IX as he is the future of this business and it is time for them to step aside. Ramon was in action himself later in the week on Wrestling Challenge. Despite his attitude in recent times he has been getting a mixed reaction from the crowd with some seemingly in support of his wish for more opportunities. This led to him facing off against a heel in Terry Taylor in what could have been a trial to see if he could truly get the face reaction. Razor won a hard fought match with the Razor’s Edge and received a smattering of cheers with his cool act clearly starting to win over some of the fans. Razor himself did not endear himself to the fans as he threw his toothpick before the match into the face of someone in the front row. Bounty Attempt Failed Last week we saw Money Inc. placing a bounty of $100,000 on the heads of The Steiner Brothers and on Monday Night Raw as the two brothers were preparing for an in ring promo they were jumped by the first people looking to cash that. This team was no strangers to The Steiner Brother after a losing effort to them at the Royal Rumble. The Beverly Brothers cheered on by their manager The Genius were this team. Following a failed attack where they were overpowered by Rick and Scott we then had an official match between the two with Rick ending the contest in quick fashion with a Steiner Line on Blake. Later in the week on Wrestling Challenge we got a vignette of I.R.S. as he drove to and then entered a building with the camera pulling away to end the segment with the sign above the building saying “Bounty Hunters”. One mad Native American After losing his unbeaten streak last week in such a difficult fashion to digest we saw that Tatanka was in no mood for any silly games as he came to the ring and laid out the challenge for Jerry Lawler to face him one on one at WrestleMania IX. The Native American said he really has nothing to lose now and whether it be at WrestleMania if he accepts or in the street he is going to grab the crown from the head of the King and scalp him. Tatanka was once again appearing later in the week on Superstars as he was in the corner of his protégé “1-2-3 Kid” Scott Taylor. It was another huge victory for the plucky youngster as despite being on the brunt of most of the offense in the match he defeated Repo Man was a Roll Up out of nowhere before celebrating with his friend Tatanka. On the same broadcast it was announced that Tatanka and Lawler was official for WrestleMania IX and also that this week on Monday Night Raw they will both be in the corners as 1-2-3 Kid and Jeff Jarrett will go one on one. Disaster for Owen Hart As if fighting Bam Bam Bigelow at WrestleMania IX is not enough of a challenge for Owen Hart we saw this week that there is more he needs to contend with. Early in the show Bigelow brutalised Mike Bell in singles action ending it off with a Diving Headbutt before later on we got Owen in one on one action with Skinner. To his credit the younger Hart brother won the contest with a huge Missile Dropkick but it was more after the event that caused Hart problems. Flanked by Paul E. Dangerously we saw the Natural Disasters with a new menacing look on their face head to the ring. Typhoon delivered a huge slam and then splash before Quake delivered the big Earthquake Splash. Bigelow and Dangerously stood smiling admiring the handiwork of the newly aggressive tag team as commentary speculated whether Owen would even make it to WrestleMania IX. Where is Kamala? Our weekly trip to the hospital was a little different this week as Reverend Slick had gone to visit Kamala and found only an empty bed with orderlies changing the sheets. Slick asks to speak to Dr. Diamond but is informed he is not available right now so the reverend asks when Kamala checked out. The orderly goes away and comes back and tells a bemused Slick that there was no Kamala here on the records. Slick then goes over to the room with “Authorised Personnel Only, Highly Dangerous, Enter at your own risk” on the door that he previously saw the doctor leave from. As he banged on the door something banged back so loud and hard that it took him off his feet and the segment ended with a confused and despondent Slick getting up off the floor as it faded to black. Les Gendarmes – Next Week Over on Superstars this week as Jim Duggan won a hard fought match over Rick Martel with the Three Point Stance we saw an inset video showing us once again some pictures of Quebec and videos of military before in something a bit different to last time the camera focused in on two men. The first man announced them as the finest that Quebec has to offer and said they are coming to the World Wrestling Federation to teach the stinking Americans what true men are like. People like Jim Duggan are a disgrace to the company and to their country. They sign off with the man informing us that he is Jacques and the fine specimen of a man beside him is Pierre and they are Les Gendarmes. The video ends with “Next Week on Superstars” Elsewhere On Superstars we saw The Headshrinkers defeat the Bushwhackers and Big Bossman earn a hard fought victory over Greg Valentine as we were informed that next week on Superstars he will get one last chance against Doink the Clown. Over on Wrestling Challenge we saw the in ring debut of Big Johnny Black as he defeated Bob Backlund and The Nasty Boys also picked up a victory. ------------------------------------------------------------------ The Wrestling Observer Notes March Week 1 1993 Written and edited by Dave Meltzer ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Not much news coming out of TV other than the company was very high on the match between Randy Savage and Shawn Michaels and would seriously consider putting the two in a programme down the line if the stars align. Razor Ramon is polarising within the company as some want him to end up face whereas some people feel he could be the top heel in the business with his gimmick. Ultimately it feels this will be decided by the reactions of the fans. During their match on Wrestling Challenge Jerry Sags sustained a broken jaw. The injury is not expected to side-line him for any substantial period of time and was nobody’s fault. Currently locked in for WrestleMania IX in Las Vegas are: Main Event #1: WWF World Heavyweight Championship: Bret Hart© defends against Randy Savage Main Event #2: Hulk Hogan vs. Yokozuna WWF Intercontinental Ladder Match: Shawn Michaels© defends against Marty Jannetty WWF Tag Team Titles: Money Inc.© defends against The Steiner Brothers The Perfect Challenge: Mr. Perfect vs. Lex Luger Casket Match: The Undertaker vs. Jorge Gonzalez Grudge Match: Doink the Clown vs. Crush Grudge Match: Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Owen Hart Tatanka vs. Jerry Lawler The big news away from the WWF was that Vader fought his last fight for UWFi as he is going exclusive to WCW, choosing to lie down clean for Naoki Sano is a huge main event. In Game Ratings Monday Night Raw #9 - 75 Superstars #338 - 49 Wrestling Challenge #342 - 65 Match of the Week: Randy Savage over Shawn Michaels (78) Worst Match of the Week: The Nasty Boys over Barry Hardy and Duane Gill (31)

The week in WWF TV (February Week 4 1993) Sponsored by Silver Vision Cassettes – “If it's bodyslams, side suplexes, clotheslines, dropkicks and powerslams that you're after, increase your library of WWF videos with some of these spectacular annual WWF events” An Immortal Return Monday Night Raw opened up with Gene Okerlund in the ring as we got the long awaited return of The Immortal Hulk Hogan to a raucous crowd in the Manhattan Centre. The world superstar came out adorned in his usual Red and Yellow attire doing all of the posing for the crowd as Okerlund looked on impressed with the physique of the man. After the initial buzz dies down Mean Gene asks The Hulkster what brings him to Monday Night Raw for the first time. Hulk wastes no time in getting down to brass tacks and talking about what happened to his good friend and brother Brutus Beefcake at Headlock on Hunger. Hogan talks about people who are not American coming over getting in his business but that will all stop at WrestleMania IX in Caesar’s Palace as The Hulkster will be attending “The World’s Biggest Toga Party” and is challenging Yokozuna to meet him one on one. Hogan signs off by saying “What you gonna do Yokozuna, when in front of all the Hulkamaniacs worldwide the Hulkster runs wild on YOU!!” The familiar music then hit for the second time tonight and Vince and Brother Love speculated on just what Mr Fuji and his charge would think of this. Later in the week as a part of the event centre on Superstars we were informed by Sean Mooney that Yokozuna will be in action this coming week on Monday Night Raw and will also have an answer for Hulk Hogan’s challenge. Here’s What I can Do The two main feature bouts on Monday Night Raw were chances to showcase their skills up close and personal for both Bret Hart and his challenger for WrestleMania IX Randy Savage. Bret took a seat on commentary early in the night as Macho Man faced off against Rick Martel. The match was a close back and forth affair with Martel getting a decent amount of offense in against a clearly frustrated Savage. In the end Randy delivered his patented Flying Elbow for a hard fought three count looking out of breath from a tough contest. As Randy soaked in the applause from the fans The Hitman offered a standing clap of his own as he exited. When it came time for the main event of the evening Bret was putting his WWF World Heavyweight Title on the line against the devious Papa Shango. In a mirror image to earlier we saw Randy Savage come and take a place at the commentary table for this one. Unlike with Randy earlier in the night The Hitman was on fire and showed why he is regarded as the best in the business by many. Shango got very little by way of moves in throughout the whole match before succumbing to the Sharpshooter. As the match ended the show closed out with Savage giving a nod and an applause of his own. Later in the week on Superstars we got a special look at Macho Man putting in some extra training clearly unhappy with his performance. An insert interview to it saw Savage once again stressing how much he needs this win and how after Monday he knows that he needs to get fitter, faster, stronger and tougher. Come home or be stripped On Monday Night Raw we got treated to another video of Shawn Michaels on vacation as he was recovering from the assault last week by Marty Jannetty and being tended to by the same girl we have seen in recent weeks. The staff then come over and tell the WWF Intercontinental Champion that he has a phone call. Michaels tells the girl he will be right back and goes and takes the call. A moment later after slamming the phone down Shawn angrily goes and grabs the girl and says “I guess we are off to New York then”. We are informed later in the week as Marty Jannetty defeats Terry Taylor on Wrestling Challenge with the Flying Fistdrop that the call was from President Jack Tunney. We are informed by Gorilla Monsoon on commentary that he has told Shawn that enough is enough and if he is not back this Monday Night on Raw to defend his title then he will not be going to defend it at WrestleMania IX as he will be stripped. The Clowning around must stop Doink the Clown has been a thorn in multiple people’s sides since joining the World Wrestling Federation but his latest target the Big Bossman had a chance for retribution on Monday Night Raw as he faced off with Strongman Hernandez from Doink’s band of misfits known as The Big Top. After a hard hitting match it looked like Bossman had the match won before Doink and Kamikaze were instructed by The Ringmaster to jump in causing the disqualification. This gave the former law enforcer the win but the beatdown continued after the match. As this was going on out from the back to a huge pop from the crowd came a returning Crush. The Big Top headed for the tall grass, all except Kamikaze who got a big clothesline and powerslam before bailing out of the ring. The commentary team spoke about how we hadn’t seen Crush since Doink put him on the shelf and surely he was back to deal out some retribution like only the big Hawaiian can. We were informed later in the week that next week on Monday Night Raw we will hear from Jack Tunney on this situation going forward and also Crush has challenged Kamikaze to a one on one match. A Bounty has been placed After the recent actions of The Steiner Brothers got under their skins we saw Money Inc this week on Monday Night Raw lay down a marker before WrestleMania IX. DiBiase and I.R.S. clearly do not want Rick and Scott to make it there as they announced a bounty to be placed on the heads of the number one contenders. The duo informed us that whoever can take out The Steiner Brothers will get $100,000 in cash which is held right here in the briefcase. Irwin showed the money to the camera as Vince and Brother Love speculated on commentary who could possibly take out the Steiners. A little later in the week on Superstars we saw a promo from the brothers about how growing up wrestling your brother you learn to be tough and whoever gets in their way will be of no consequence as come WrestleMania night there will be new champions. Far from Perfect As Lex Luger destroyed Bob Backlund on Superstars knocking him out cold with the Nemesis Curse Forearm it was once again brought into question the legality of the move. In an insert video Mr. Perfect spoke about how he is trying the petition President Jack Tunney to get a doctor to look into this situation as people are being knocked out cold there has to be something not right about the forearm. Later in the week on Wrestling Challenge as Mr. Perfect was defeating Greg Valentine in a hard fought contest with the Perfect-Plex we had Bobby Heenan on commentary remonstrating about how it was not fair to Luger to face scrutiny just because he is more than Perfect. We were informed by Gorilla Monsoon that Perfect will be appearing next week on Monday Night Raw to personally appeal to Jack Tunney that something be done. A message for The Undertaker Over on Superstars this week as Jorge Gonzalez once again showed his ruthlessness dismantling Jim Brunzell before winning with a Claw Hold practically smothering him with the size of his hand we heard on commentary that the casket match is not yet official as nobody knows the true status of The Undertaker. This did not stop Harvey Wippleman after the match was over as he got a coffin wheeled down to the ring for Gonzalez to dump Brunzell into and deliver a clear message to his enemy from the dark side. The end of the Streak Over on Monday Night Raw it was a night to forget for Tatanka as his long unbeaten streak came crashing down at the hands of Jeff Jarrett with more than an assist to Jerry Lawler. As the country music star faced his biggest challenge yet in the company it looked like he may have bitten off more than he could chew despite his posse of Cass Golden and Big Johnny Black trying to get involved. The Native American was all set to finish him off when Jerry Lawler’s voice was heard from the entranceway as he had a hold of an almost unconscious Scott Taylor. The 1-2-3 Kid was put into a position for a massive Piledriver on the concrete which lead to Tatanka focusing his attention there for a minute allowing Jarrett to deliver the Southern swing for a somewhat tainted victory. Luckily agents got there before Taylor suffered the Piledriver but the damage was done to the legacy and the streak of Tatanka. This lead to a notable change in attitude when he dispatched Duane Gill with the Papoose to Go on Wrestling Challenge with an insert video announcing he will be at Monday Night Raw this week. It’s time for the old guys to step aside Over on Monday Night Raw we saw Razor Ramon continue his crusade against the older workers as he confronted Randy Savage backstage in what was a busy night for the Macho Man. Razor told Savage he watched his match with Martel and both of them are what is wrong with the business, two has been wrestlers past their prime out of breath and not deserving of the matches they get. Razor told Savage that he is laying out the challenge for anyone to step up from the older Generation for WrestleMania IX to try and put him in his place and he will slap them back where they came from. Razor then says “Trust Me Chico” before throwing his toothpick into the face of Savage as the segment ended. People might not give me a chance but I’m tougher than you think In a passionate interview on Superstars we heard from Owen Hart as he reflected on the challenge he has laid down to Bam Bam Bigelow for WrestleMania IX. The Rocket calls Bam Bam nothing more than a bully and says after what he saw happen to Koko B. Ware last week he need to stand up and be that person who doesn’t back away from the bully. Owen says he knows that nobody gives him a chance but whilst he has any fight left in his body he will work as hard as he can to come out on top. The commentary team talk about the bravery Owen must have whilst reflecting that his chances are very slim but anything can happen in the World Wrestling Federation. Kamala in Hospital Part 2 Following on from last week we once again had a vignette in the hospital on Superstars which began by us seeing Dr. Diamond leaving the door stating “Authorised Personnel Only, Highly Dangerous, Enter at your own risk” as someone locked multiple bolts behind him. The Doc then walked into the room where Slick had roped legend Sgt. Slaughter in and he was trying to give a military pep talk to wake Kamala up. Essentially just shouting directly in his ear but it was to no avail as the Ugandan Giant didn’t move. We then saw Diamond tell everyone to leave the room and go get a coffee as he had to perform an examination but unknown to Slick and Slaughter as viewers we saw Ted DiBiase slip in the other door at the other side of the room as we heard the doctor say “Hello James” and the vignette faded to black. Disaster Averted On Monday Night Raw we saw Typhoon get his requested time to speak to Earthquake. Instead of being angry for last week he said that what Quake did lit a fire in him that he hasn’t had for a long time. The pair decided they were sick of being happy and smiling and wanted to show everyone once again that they were to be the most feared tag team in all of wrestling. Just then there was a knock on the door as the segment then faded away. Les Gendarmes coming soon On Superstars we saw Jim Duggan defeat Ed Moretti with the Three Point Stance. Duggan did not try to bring his own flag down to the ring but instead took a flag from someone in the front row waving old glory both before and after the match. During the match we got a vignette similar to last week of Les Gendarmes. This time it was a Quebec flag being raised on a flag pole before a marching group of Military as the voiceover from last time once again spoke about America being everything that is wrong with the world and full of ignorant slobs and work shy layabouts. The video ended with the voice once again imploring people everyone to move to Quebec where the air is clean and pure as are the people. We then got a graphic reading that we would be seeing Les Gendarmes in two weeks as a silhouette of a tag team quickly showed. Elsewhere On Superstars Doink the Clown defeated Virgil whilst the Headshrinkers picked up a victory. Over on Wrestling Challenge we saw El Matador and the Nasty Boys both pick up comfortable wins. ------------------------------------------------------------------ The Wrestling Observer Notes February Week 4 1993 Written and edited by Dave Meltzer -------------------------------------------------------------------------- With 4 weeks of TV to go until WrestleMania IX there were a lot of things going on this week on TV with all of the major angles being progressed. The company is really leaning into Randy Savage being too old and past it and needing to work extra hard to get into good enough shape to face Bret Hart as it gets more and more interesting in terms of just how it is going to turn out on the day. Looking beyond that huge event the company will be presenting UK Rampage from the Royal Albert Hall only one month after. Whilst this will be seen as more of a B style event we hear that the company still wants to put on a compelling card. The company is also said to be planning something big for around the 4th July. The cards are very much close to the chest on that one. Dr. Diamond is portrayed by independent standout Lance Diamond. The company felt given his physical stature he would not be a great fit in the ring at the moment but were impressed with a tape he sent to talent relations. For this reason he is being installed as a personality and possible manager down the line. The word is that there is a lot to come in terms of being involved in angles for Diamond. Les Gendarmes will be debuting soon and if people could not already guess by the voice on the videos one half of them will be the former Mountie Jacques Rougeau. The other will be independent star Carl Oulette who is better known as Bash the Terminator or Wild Carl Wallace. The working name on the internal lists for him will be Pierre Wallace. The duo are said to playing a gimmick of Military Police from Quebec disgusted with American in general. Over on WCW Saturday Night the pick of the week saw a strange bedfellows tag team match as Ric Flair was forced to team with BigVan Vader against Ricky Steamboat and friend Arn Anderson. Whether they were trying to sow the seeds of a fallout only bill Watts knows but the two barely interacted in the match if they were trying to give that idea. Currently locked in for WrestleMania IX in Las Vegas are: WWF World Heavyweight Championship: Bret Hart© defends against Randy Savage WWF Intercontinental Ladder Match: Shawn Michaels© defends against Marty Jannetty WWF Tag Team Titles: Money Inc.© defends against The Steiner Brothers The Perfect Challenge: Mr. Perfect vs. Lex Luger Casket Match: The Undertaker vs. Jorge Gonzalez Grudge Match: Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Owen Hart Plus much much more including Hulk Hogan… In Game Ratings Monday Night Raw #8 - 71 Superstars #337 - 50 Wrestling Challenge #341 - 64 Match of the Week: Randy Savage over Rick Martel (80) Worst Match of the Week: Jorge Gonzalez over Jim Brunzell (15)

Editor Note: So, it may have been much longer than two weeks due to various reasons within my personal life but I am finally looking to resume this on the road to hopefully a much brighter Mania 9 and beyond than real life. First time using the new board so formatting might take a couple shows to get right. The week in WWF TV (February Week 3 1993) Sponsored by Slim Jim “Proudly supporting Randy Savage as next champion” Thanks Monday Night Raw began with a recap of stills from Headlock on Hunger narrated by Vince McMahon with Randy Savage and Bret Hart standing victorious together. This was followed by Bret Hart making his way down for an interview with Vince McMahon where he thanks Randy Savage for his help last night. Hart speaks about the post-match where Savage seemed to stall before handing over the belt. The Hitman says it is natural that Macho Man would be like this as once you have a hold of a title so special you don’t want to let it go. Hart reiterates that he will walk out of WrestleMania IX still the champion and whilst he has all the respect in the world for Randy Savage he is the Excellence of Execution and will show everyone just that on the biggest stage of them all. As Hart goes to leave we hear Pomp and Circumstance as the challenger makes his way down to the ring. Randy gets into the ring and shakes the hand of the champion before Bret then leaves to the back. Macho Man talks to Vince about how just like Bret said he totally agrees there is a lot of respect between them and he knows Bret will be a tough test but Randy “needs” this. Savage says that Hart may want this but Macho has “never needed anything more in his life” with the new generation stepping in and everyone looking past those who came before Randy “needs to prove them wrong”. Macho is about to continue talking when he is cut off by the music of one Razor Ramon. The charismatic star walked to the ring with more of a purpose before getting right in the face of Savage. The Bad Guy spoke about how he was sick of being overlooked and even putting that punk Owen Hart in his place has not got him any closer to the top of the company. Razor speaks about how the older generation need to just step down before they get put down and throws his toothpick right at Randy before walking off. It is then later announced on Superstars that next week on Monday Night Raw Razor would like to speak about this issue much more and also Bret Hart will show he is a fighting champion by taking on Papa Shango, whilst not one to be outdone Randy Savage will warm up for WrestleMania against Rick Martel. Holiday Blues We caught up with Shawn Michaels on vacation as he got more than he bargained for. Following on from last week where Shawn and Sherri were not seeing eye to eye following his persistent flirting we got a scene with the pair of them seemingly settled their differences laid side by side on sun loungers. The same girl from last week was a few beds over and caught the eye of Shawn before coming over and the two striking up another flirty conversation as Shawn offered to rub some sun lotion on her back. Sherri was seemingly upset but kept her cool and said she was going to find a waiter for a drink. We then picked back up at the scene later as Sherri was nowhere in sight and Shawn was indeed rubbing lotion onto the back of the mysterious girl. We saw from behind a waiter holding a drink with an umbrella in approach as Michaels dismissed him telling him to put the drink down but the waiter did not move. As Shawn turned around the glass was smashed on his head as the waiter was revealed to be Marty Jannetty. It seems after mentioning he would give Sherri a call Marty went one further and went to the source. As Jannetty rained all over with right hands he got the champion reeling before hurling Shawn into the pool as the segment ended with Sherri watching in a crowd not too far away smirking. An Immortal Return In the midst of a match between Bam Bam Bigelow and Koko B. Ware we got a phone call to the announce desk with Vince McMahon astounded to hear the voice at the other end as Hulk Hogan. The multiple time WWF World Heavyweight Champion spoke about how he has been on the sidelines watching what has gone on including to his brother Brutus Beefcake and it is time he came back to settle the score. Hogan announces he has been taking his vitamins and saying his prayers and will be back to see all his Hulkamaniacs live next week on Monday Night Raw. A WrestleMania challenge Speaking of the match between Bam Bam Bigelow and Koko B. Ware this looked like a chance for the angry beast under the guidance of Paul E. Dangerously to show just how vicious he could be. Dominating from the start Bigelow made short work of Koko ending it with a Diving Headbutt to clearly send another message to Owen Hart following the embarrassment of being eliminated by the youngster at Royal Rumble. After the match Owen Hart came running down after Bigelow and Dangerously stepped out of the ring to tend to his fallen tag team partner. Later in the week on Superstars Owen delivered a huge challenge for Bam Bam to meet him one on one at Wrestlemania IX. The announce team speculated that whilst Owen showed a lot of heart and fortitude could he ever really topple the Beast from the East. No Concert This Week The stage was all set on Monday Night Raw as we got the first look at Jeff Jarrett who was flanked by Big Johnny Black and Cass Golden as the trio set up ready for the eagerly anticipated live concert. After deliberating for a little Jarrett got on the microphone and ran down New York to nuclear heat from the crowd in the Manhattan Centre. As he continued his diatribe he then introduced his good friend and wrestling royalty Jerry Lawler. Lawler came down and spoke about the challenge he has laid down to “1-2-3 Kid” Scott Taylor to take the $10,000 and give him a rematch. The king accuses the youngster of being scared to step in the ring as he knows the first time was a fluke. The plucky youngster then enters from the crowd and steps into the ring seemingly to accept the challenge only to be blindsided by Jarrett as he and Lawler beat down Taylor. Tatanka was not in attendance at Monday Night Raw due to the travel issues but on Superstars as he defeated The Repo Man with the Papoose to Go it was announced that he has asked for and been granted a match with Jeff Jarrett by Jack Tunney and it will take place this coming week on Monday Night Raw. Jarrett himself on Wrestling Challenge picked up his first win defeating El Matador with Front Russian LegSweep he called the Southern Swing following timely intereference from Big Johnny Black. A Perfect Setting As Mr. Perfect defeated Skinner on Monday Night Raw with the Perfect Plex we got an insert video during which he spoke about what happened at Headlock on Hunger. Perfect cast doubt on the legality of the move and questioned just what was in the forearm of the Narcissus Lex Luger. In the same breath Perfect said he has had enough of Heenan and enough of Luger, he ran Ric Flair out of the company and back to the minor leagues and he will do the same to Lex. Perfect lays out the challenge for the two to face off at WrestleMania IX which we find out later in the week on Wrestling Challenge has been made official by Jack Tunney. Mad Money Following on from The Steiner Brothers emptying their briefcase full of money into the Headlock on Hunger Totalizer we saw Money Inc. in action on Monday Night Raw as they defeated the Bushwhackers with the Million Dollar Dream on Luke. The real story was how in the insert video DiBiase insisted that Rick and Scott would pay for what they did, whether that was at WrestleMania or before that if they even make it there. On Wrestling Challenge Rick and Scott defeated The Headshrinkers with the Steinerizer and in an insert video sent a message to Money Inc. that they were coming for the titles and are the best tag team in the world so they will get what they want. Undertaker will rise again at WrestleMania. As Jorge Gonzalez defeated Jim Powers with a Chokeslam on Superstars we got to hear in an insert promo from Paul Bearer as he announced that The Undertaker was still making some final preperations but would be back very soon and at WrestleMania he will defeat Gonzalez and send the big man back to Argentina with Harvey Wippleman also being reserved a special spot in hell when he “rests in peace”. Later on in the show on The event centre we got an interview with Harvey Wippleman as he said he never forgave The Undertaker for the way he changed Kamala stuffing him in that coffin so how about at Wrestlemania he tries to stuff Gonzalez into one and make this a casket match. Kamala in Hospital Following the events of Headlock on Hunger we saw a vignette this week of Kamala in hospital with Reverend Slick by his side. There was no funniness this week as a deeply concerned Slick lamented what had gone on when recalling it to the doctor who announced himself as Dr. Diamond. With Kamala still in bed we panned to once the Doctor left the room and stepped towards a room with a huge sign stating “Authorised Personnel Only, Highly Dangerous, Enter at your own risk” on the door he was stopped in the corridor by Ted DiBiase who took him aside to have a word Quebec>USA On Monday Night Raw we finally got an answer to the person or people that have been stealing the flags of Jim Duggan in recent weeks. A vignette was aired with the flags in a pile and a match thrown onto them as they set up in a blaze. A French accent then spoke over it saying America is everything that is wrong with the world and full of ignorant slobs and work shy layabouts. The voice went on to say that Jim Duggan was the worst of them all as he chooses to proudly stand up for this stinking country, everyone should move to Quebec where the air is clean and pure as are the people. The video ends with the word “Les Gendarmes – Coming Soon” This isn’t funny anymore After the events of Headlock on Hunger we heard that Big Bossman wanted to get his hands on someone from The Big Top and on Monday Night Raw he got his wish as he met the unpredictable Kamikaze one on one. The match was very much Bossman taking out his frustrations on the youngster until the rest of the ensemble were called to the ring by The ringmaster resulting in a DQ finish and Doink once again standing tall over the downed law enforcer. Also during this match we got an insert video of Crush as he readies himself for a return to the ring very soon we are told. At home in Hawaii he is seen crushing coconuts with his bare hands to impressed onlookers. A Natural Disaster After recent dissention between the two we saw The Natural Disasters were looking to get on the same page as they took on the Headshrinkers on Superstars. All seemed to be going well until Typhoon accidentally clotheslined Earthquake and he saw red. Quake laid out his partner before landing the Earthquake Splash leaving him to be pinned by Samu and walking out. We then heard later in the week on Wrestling Challenge that Typhoon had asked for a meeting with Earthquake next week to try and get this sorted. Elsewhere On Superstars Razor Ramon bested Red Tyler in a one sided affair clearly still showing the frustrations he mentioned on Monday Night Raw as he decimated the jobber. Jim Duggan defeated Beau Beverly also on the broadcast. Over on Wrestling Challenge “1-2-3 Kid” Scott Taylor defeated Iron Mike Sharpe, Mr. Perfect defeated Dale Wolfe and Yokozuna defeated El Matador. ------------------------------------------------------------------ The Wrestling Observer Notes February Week 3 1993 Written and edited by Dave Meltzer -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The big news coming this week was of course the announcement for Hulk Hogan to be appearing this coming week on Monday Night Raw. Hogan will be coming to address Wrestlemania IX and the word is he will be a part of a double main event. Whether that means he has pulled his stroke to get to end the show remains to be seen but regardless the match he will be a part of is going to be billed as one of two main events. It looks like with Randy Savage being a part of the older generation and the current focus on new generation from the company they are leaning heavily into him needing to prove he still has it. Plans for who will win that match are being closely guarded as arguably a loss could really hurt either man. Razor Ramon is scheduled to also have a high profile match on the card and his appearance alongside Hart and Savage is a sign that the company definitely views him as a big part of things going forward. Interestingly he has begun to obtain more cheers than boos at some house shows as fans like his cocky demeanour. The word is that one of the new tag team from Quebec is Jacques Rougeau formerly known as The Mountie but nothing yet on who the other person is. Incidentally the name of the team in English translates loosely as “The Mounties”. Currently looked in for WrestleMania IX in Las Vegas are: WWF World Heavyweight Championship: Bret Hart© defends against Randy Savage WWF Intercontinental Ladder Match: Shawn Michaels© defends against Marty Jannetty WWF Tag Team Titles: Money Inc.© defends against The Steiner Brothers The Perfect Challenge: Mr. Perfect vs. Lex Luger Casket Match: The Undertaker vs. Jorge Gonzalez Grudge Match: Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Owen Hart Plus much much more including Hulk Hogan… Over in WCW Bill Watts continued his bizarre booking of a returning Ric Flair at SuperBrawl III as he teamed with Bill Irwin to defeat Cactus Jack and Sting. In the double main event Barry Windham defeated Davey Boy Smith to retain his United States title and Big Van Vader retained the big gold belt over Ultimate Warrior. In Game Ratings Monday Night Raw #7 - 68 Superstars #336 - 61 Wrestling Challenge #340 - 58 Match of the Week: Mr Perfect over Skinner (70) Worst Match of the Week: Scott Taylor over Iron Mike Sharpe (14)

Headlock on Hunger World Wrestling Federation Presents: Headlock on Hunger Live From Madison Square Garden in New York City Saturday Week 2 February All proceeds go to the Somalia Relief Fund We open up to see Vince McMahon, Gorilla Monsoon, and Bobby Heenan standing in a specially cordoned-off area of the arena with a big totalizer to count up as we raise funds throughout the night for the Somalia Relief Fund. They run down the card for tonight as well as mentioning that there will be some appearances from other workers throughout the programme promoting people to get on the phone and pledge money to such a fantastic cause. Without further ado, Monsoon sends us down to Howard Finkel to kick start the night. (65) Opening Contest Handler vs. Man: Kim Chee w/Harvey Wippleman vs. Kamala w/Reverend Slick We began the night with Kim Chee already in the ring alongside Harvey as we got the music of the Ugandan Giant. Kamala came out looking considerably more civilised in this one walking calmly to the ring beside Slick. As you would expect this match was not a long match and was essentially used as a way to put to bed the issues between the men once and for all. Kamala controlled the contest throughout and ended it when he landed the Air Africa Splash for the three count. Winner: Kamala (Air Africa) 34 After the contest was over Harvey Wippleman motioned to the back and out came “The Giant” Jorge Gonzalez in a pinstripe suit with his hair slicked back. Kamala and Slick wore worried expressions on their face as Wippleman beamed with glee. Gonzalez took off the suit jacket and placed it on the ring post before entering and staring down the Ugandan Giant. Before a second had passed though Gonzalez leveled the fan-favorite with a clothesline before picking him up in a double-handed choke and throwing him hard to the ground. To add insult to injury Gonzalez then chased Slick out of the ring and stood tall with Wippleman over the prone body of his former client whilst Bobby Heenan informed us that Gonzalez used to be a fixer for the Ndrangheta Cartel back in Argentina. (38) We then went back to the totalizer as a video was played of WWF champion Bret Hart speaking about Headlock on Hunger and it’s importance. Back live we were informed that Kamala was stretchered out as Money Inc. showed up beside the commentary team. IRS was informing everyone that before they donate they should pay their taxes as so many people in the United States fail to pay their taxes. IRS informs us that the tax deadline is only two months away. At the same time, DiBiase is watching the totalizer go up as it has now reached $25,000 during the opening match. Monsoon tries to get DiBiase to put his hand in his pocket but DiBiase tells him charity begins at home and that is why he is the Million Dollar Man and Gorilla is walking around in a two-dollar suit. (71) Match 2 Tag Team Tournament Final (winner will face Money Inc. at WrestleMania IX): The Steiner Brothers vs. Virgil and El Matador It was then time for an interesting contest with the two fan-favorite teams facing off to see who will go to WrestleMania IX and challenge for the titles. The Steiner Brothers came out first in their Michigan jackets slapping hands with the fans as we were informed by McMahon that these two were surely the favorites in this one. Next up we saw Virgil and Santana coming out to the ring wearing Headlock on Hunger T-Shirts and motioning for people to pick up the phone and call in to pledge. The match itself began with the two teams shaking hands and a collar and elbow tie-up between Virgil and Scott. Both sides got a decent amount of time on the offensive which was letting the fans feel like this could go either way but in the end, the outcome that everyone expected happened as Virgil was hoisted up by Scott and fell victim to the Steinerizer with Rick flying off the top of Scott’s shoulders with a Bulldog. After the match, both teams embraced in a show of sportsmanship and implored people to pick up the phone. Winner: The Steiner Brothers (Steinerizer) 65 We then cut back to the totalizer which is standing at $42,000 dollars as the team is joined to a crazy-looking Brutus Beefcake. The Barber talks about how he has waited since July 1990, almost three years to get back into the ring. He says he is never going to be 100 percent and his face is 75% metal now but he will ultimately show Yokozuna what he is made of and knock the big behemoth off his feet. Brutus then heads straight to the ring as that match is right now. (68) Match 3 Beefcake Return Match: Brutus Beefcake vs. Yokozuna w/Mr. Fuji Once Beefcake is already in the ring we got the musical tones of Sumo as Mr. Fuji waving the Japanese flag leads Yokozuna slowly down to the ring for the match. Gorilla Monsoon puts over on commentary that as we all know Yoko has not yet been taken off his feet but Monsoon believes tonight could be the night. Heenan scoffs at this as the big behemoth goes through his regular pre-match ritual. Beefcake wastes no time as the bell rings and charges directly at Yokozuna looking to rock him with a series of right and lefts but ends up just getting pushed back. From there it was just Yoko toying with The Barber delivering his full array of moves including the savate kick and a huge belly to belly suplex. With Beefcake prone on the floor it was time for Mr. Fuji to order his charge to deliver a drop of his huge leg right onto the surgically repaired face and from then you knew it was over. Another legdrop before a running reverse splash in the corner led us onto the patented Banzai Drop and it was academic. Yokozuna had won this one without being knocked off his feet once again. Bobby Heenan on commentary claimed he wasn’t sure if anyone could ever do the feat. Winner: Yokozuna (Banzai Drop) 66 After the match was over Yoko Climbed to the second rope and delivered two more huge Banzai Drops. At the same time Mr. Fuji got on the microphone and spouted off in barely legible English that this was what they thought of America and it was not just Beefcake under there it was the whole country being squashed like a bug. Referees and agents came down to eventually get Brutus out of there but the damage was done and once again it was asked on commentary who could stop this man. (64) We then headed over to the totalizer as Mr. Perfect had joined with the commentary team to promote people getting involved as Vince informed us that we had reached $80,000 now. An argument then began arguing after Perfect ruffled the tie of Bobby following some provocation as Heenan was asked where Narcissus was and could not reply only just saying he would be here at the perfect time. As it turned out this was all a rouse as once Mr. Perfect’s back was turned out of nowhere ran Lex Luger levelling him in the back of the head with the Nemesis Curse Forearm. The perfect one was left in a crumpled heap as Heenan and Luger were laughing and Monsoon once again speculated just how Lex gets so much power into that blow. (71) Match 4 Grudge Match: Big Bossman vs. Doink the Clown w/ Big Top We were then treated to the eerie clown music as Doink made his way out led to the ring by The Ringmaster and followed closely by Strongman Hernandez, Kamikaze and Lady Vachon. This dark carnival of superstars entered the ring laughing before Doink changed his smile into a frown and the rest followed painting a macabre picture for Big Bossman. The former prison guard from Cobb County then hurtled down the aisle at a breakneck speed before sliding in the ring showing his agility for a big man. Right away the circus troupe surrounded him but we were then interrupted before anything could happen by Howard Finkel. “The Fink” informed us that per decree of President Jack Tunney all members of Big Top that do not have a manager’s license to be at ringside must leave to the back. As the crowd popped you could see it was evident Doink and co were not happy but eventually they left with only The Ringmaster cheering on the clown at ringside. The match itself was a brawl with Doink showing a lot of versatility and trying to turn it into a more technical match by working on the leg of Bossman. This was to no avail as the former prison guard was delivering some great shots with lefts and right and using some power moves to really dominate the match. Just as it looked like all was lost for Doink we got a distraction from The Ringmaster as out of nowhere Strongman Hernandez and Kamikaze reappeared with the former leveling Bossman with a big powerslam before lifting Kamikaze onto his shoulders for the agile youngster to leap off with an assisted diving leg drop. From there the two scarpered and the referee turned around to Doink applying the Stump Puller to a seemingly passed out Bossman and called for the bell. Winner: Doink the Clown (Stump Puller) 68 As Doink was joined by all his dark family to celebrate in the ring we got a rundown video of the feud between Razor Ramon and Owen Hart before cutting to Vince and Monsoon at the Totalizer to announce we were now at a massive $150,000. Conspicuous by his absence was Bobby Heenan as we were informed he had gone off to celebrate with Lex Luger. Vince then announces that they had a special guest joining them in his place, a man no stranger to wrestling but a newcomer to the World Wrestling Federation. “The self-proclaimed greatest sports agent in the world today and a man not without his controversy (Vince pauses for effect) Paul E. Dangerously”. Paul comes out and announces to the world that he has played with the rest and now he is here with the best and very soon you will see just why he is here. Vince then said “oh my” and sent us down to Howard Finkel. (59) Semi Main Event Grudge Match: Razor Ramon vs. Owen Hart We then got the introduction of Owen Hart as commentary put over how brave it was of Owen Hart to want this match as Razor is a very dangerous man. It was then time for the Bad Guy himself to make his way down dripping in gold chains and chewing on a toothpick he oozed an air of confidence as Monsoon once again re-iterated that Razor was a very dangerous man although Dangerously quipped that he may be a dangerous man but he is not the most dangerous man. The match itself saw Owen starting like a house of fire and rocking Ramon a few times before a missed dropkick turned the tide for Razor to meticulously take him apart with his arsenal of moves including hitting both the fall away slam and back suplex from the top turnbuckle. At this point, everyone felt that it was over for Owen but as Razor went for the Razor’s Edge we saw Hart turn it into a small package to almost steal the win. This turned out to be bad for The Rocket however as immediately he was nailed with a stiff clothesline and planted with the Razor’s Edge for the three count. As the match ended it almost looked like Razor was looking down at Owen admiring the heart that he had shown as the crowd seemed receptive to the effort both men put in. Winner: Razor Ramon (Razor’s Edge) 75 Immediately following this Paul E. Dangerously quickly made his excuses and said there was something he needed to do. As Owen was getting up in the ring out of nowhere came BAM BAM BIGELOW as commentary informed us this was the first time he has been seen since Hart eliminated him from the Royal Rumble. Bam Bam set to work beating down the younger Hart sibling viciously before delivering his diving headbutt to the motionless superstar. Just then we saw Paul E. Dangerously come into shot and enter the ring to shake hands with Bigelow as Monsoon and McMahon speculated just what the relationship was between the newest manager in the WWF and the Beast from the East. (70) We then go to a pre-recorded video of none other than The Immortal Hulk Hogan. Hulk talks about the Somalia Relief Fund and how every cent counts so people should just donate what they can. After the short promo ends and we go back to Vince he speculates as to just when The Hulkster will be seen live in the promotion again as he has a busy filming schedule but McMahon hopes it is not too far away. (80) Main Event Non-title: Money Inc. w/Jimmy Hart vs. Bret Hart and Randy Savage As we are informed on commentary we have just reached $250,000 mark with the totalizer we get the entrance of Money Inc with Jimmy Hart as DiBiase makes sure to tell the camera charity begins at home again to antagonize. It is then time for the entrance of Randy Savage as Pomp and Circumstances plays and he comes out in a pink and black-themed version of his attire to show he is on the same page as Bret Hart. It is then time for The Hitman to make his way down as he slaps hands with the fans and then delivers a pair of shades to a youngster in the front row to the delight of the youngster and his mother who is clearly swooning over Bret. As the match begins we get to see both teams have a spell in control of the match before the superior tag team experience of Money Inc seems to show as thanks to some distractions from Jimmy Hart they manage to cut the ring in half and really work over Bret Hart with Macho Man unable to get into the ring. After Bret plays the face in peril for a long period he managed to get the hot tag to Randy Savage and Macho cleans house on both until the referee is inadvertently taken out and all hell breaks loose with all four men fighting. DiBiase calls for Jimmy Hart to hand him the briefcase to level someone with but at that point, THE STEINER BROTHERS appear and Scott wrestles the briefcase away as the two stand with it distracting Ted long enough for him to fall victim to a Savage clothesline that takes them both to the outside. Inside of the ring, Bret Hart applies The Sharpshooter to IRS after a Russian leg sweep as the referee comes around in time to see Irwin submit. Winners: Bret Hart and Randy Savage (Sharpshooter) 78 As the match ends we hear a commotion where the commentary team are as Vince says to get a camera back there. As the camera does return we see an excited Rick Steiner flanked by his brother Scott jimmying open the briefcase of money and pouring it into the totalizer. The total shoots up to $1,000,000 as the crowd and McMahon and Gorilla go wild as we see a distraught DiBiase being dragged away from the scene by IRS and Jimmy Hart. (68) Cut back to the ring where we see Randy Savage has gone and collected the WWF World Heavyweight Title from the timekeeper's table and rolled into the ring to where the champion is standing. After what seems like an age of Savage staring at the belt and then at Bret he hands the title over to The Hitman and raises his hand as we go off the air with Monsoon ecstatic that we have raised $1,000,000 for the Somalia Relief Fund and thanking everyone for being with us tonight live on the USA Network. (80) Overall Show Rating:75 ------------------------------------------------------------------ The Wrestling Observer Notes February Week 2 1993 (Post Headlock on Hunger) Written and edited by Dave Meltzer -------------------------------------------------------------------------- What a night we got at Headlock on Hunger as the WWF put on a great card that was halfway between a house show and a live special. The actual figure raised for the relief fund was £325,000 but for storyline purposes, it will be put across as $1,000,000 thanks to the money in Ted DiBiase’s briefcase. Internally the company was very pleased with the actual amount and feel the Headlock on Hunger campaign has been a huge success. Paul E. Dangerously actually signed with the company as soon as he left WCW but they have been waiting for the right moment to debut him and felt, in the end, he would be a great mouthpiece for Bigelow who they have a lot of plans for in the future. Hulk Hogan appearing via video caught a lot of people off guard with many now speculating that a return to the ring may be in the offing soon possibly before WrestleMania. Speaking of which we now have three confirmed matches for Las Vegas which are: WWF World Heavyweight Championship: Bret Hart© defends against Randy Savage WWF Intercontinental Ladder Match: Shawn Michaels© defends against Marty Jannetty WWF Tag Team Titles: Money Inc.© defends against The Steiner Brothers Plus much much more… Predictions Contest (Just to clarify each quarter from the 3 PPV/Live Events there will be a predictions winner. That person will then get to pick something in the diary at the time such as a next challenger for a belt etc) Standing Post Headlock on Hunger (Note Both who predicted received the point for the amount as Falling_Star was closest to the real figure but LordofGustav got the kayfabe figure dead on) Falling_Star – 14 LordofGustav - 10 Ippon – 5 SHaynes23 – 4 Editor Note: I am going to be unable to go on my computer for two weeks or so from this weekend so there will be no further posts in the diary until I return but rest assured it is not dead and we will be on the road to a massive WrestleMania IX.

Wcw World Title Match: Lex Luger © Vs. sting Wcw Tv Title Match: steve Austin © Vs. Brad Armstrong Wcw United States Tag Team Title Match: the Steiner Brothers vs. Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes rick Rude & Paul Orndorff Vs. Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas cactus Jack vs. Abdullah The Butcher Marcus Alexander Bagwell Vs. bobby Eaton

The week in WWF TV (February Week 2 1993) Sponsored by Silver Vision Cassettes – “If it's bodyslams, side suplexes, clotheslines, dropkicks and powerslams that you're after, increase your library of WWF videos with some of these spectacular annual WWF events” The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend In the main event of Monday Night Raw this week we saw Bret Hart defending the WWF World Heavyweight championship against Irwin R. Schyster. This was an opportunity for The Hitman to show that he is a fighting champion and his opponent for WrestleMania IX Randy Savage was a guest commentator alongside Vince and Brother Love. The match was a showcase to put over Bret getting all of his signature offensive moves in before he looked to line up the Sharpshooter. It was at that moment IRS tag team partner Ted DiBiase got involved nailing the champion with the briefcase as referee Joey Marella called for the bell. As Bret was suffering a beat down in the ring Macho Man who had been putting over Hart on commentary all the match had seen enough and came and cleared the ring to save Hart from a much bigger beating. The show closed with the two looking at one another in the ring still very wary due to the high stakes between them coming up. Later in the week on Wrestling Challenge we got a special announcement from President Jack Tunney that just added to Headlock on Hunger this Saturday in Madison Square Garden was the main event of Bret Hart and Randy Savage teaming up to face off with Money Inc. in what would be non-title action. Dissention in the Disasters In our tag team tournament semi-final, the crowd saw what would surely be deemed an upset as The Natural Disasters lost to Virgil and El Matador. The ending of the match came when Typhoon accidentally leveled Quake with a big clothesline before being rolled up in his surprise by Virgil for the three count. This certainly did not sit right with Earthquake as after the match he got right up in the face of Typhoon and things looked like they were about to get heated but it diffused although you could hear and audibly upset Quake saying that things need to change soon. The Heart Break Kid is on holiday As promised last week we got some special footage on Monday Night Raw of Shawn Michaels on his sanctioned vacation. We were informed that this footage was taken the previous day which would have been valentine’s day. We saw Shawn sitting at a meal with Sherri talking about how he was going to defeat Marty Jannetty at WrestleMania in the ladder match. A pretty young lady walked by which took his gaze much to the chagrin of Sherri as HBK just got up from his chair grabbed a rose from a table and handed it to the young lady. Sherri got up from the table visibly upset at the situation as Shawn was chatting the young lady up. Once Shawn noticed that Sherri was leaving he quickly ran after her and tried to explain that there was plenty of the Heart Break Kid to go around and she knew the ladies could not resist him. Sherri stormed off as Michaels just smiled and went back to chatting up the previous lady. Later in the week on Superstars, we got an insert interview with Marty Jannetty where he said he understood why Sherri did what she did at the Royal Rumble as she loves Shawn and he does not excuse that but also what happened on vacation is no way to treat a lady. Jannetty signed off by saying he is concentrating on getting the win at WrestleMania IX but would be giving Sherri a quick call to see if she’s ok. A King’s Ransom On Monday Night Raw we got the advertised appearance from Jerry Lawler who was still clearly irate about the goings-on last week where Tatanka helped rookie Scott Taylor get the three count on him. As Lawler spoke we got the crowd vehemently chanting “1,2,3” at him much to his displeasure. Lawler said that he wanted a rematch and he was about to make it easy for Taylor to accept. The King pulled out a sack full of money announcing that this was $10,000 and he would give it to Taylor if he steps into the ring with him next week for retribution. Later in the week on Superstars we got Tatanka speaking in an insert promo to a victory over local talent John Kronus which he won comfortably with the Papoose to Go. Tatanka said he has spoken to Taylor and he will be at Monday Night Raw and he will not only take the money but he will also pin Lawler in the middle of the ring once again because Scott Taylor is the "1-2-3 kid”. You cannot destroy that which is already dead As promised we got an appearance on Monday Night Raw from Paul Bearer. The mortician informed everyone that despite what happened at the Royal Rumble The Undertaker only grows stronger as you cannot destroy what is already dead. Bearer tells everyone at home and in the arena that The Undertaker knows this is the best The Giant has to offer and now he will only grow weaker whilst Taker will grow stronger and he is building a coffin that is extra-long and buying two body bags, one extra-long and one extra-short. When The Undertaker believes it is the right time both Jorge Gonzalez and Harvey Wippleman will “Rest in Peace..Ooooohhhh Yeeessss”. Upcoming Event Centre This week the event center was hosted by Sean Mooney on Superstars as he recapped the tag team match added to Headlock on Hunger due to the events of the main event of Monday Night Raw. This took us to a video where Money Inc spoke and mentioned that they would win at Headlock on Hunger and then whoever they face at WrestleMania they would win then as the whole WWF is just a bunch of no good tax cheats. There were no new matches added to that card as it was announced it was complete but we did get impassioned vignettes from Virgil, Bob Backlund, El Matador, Mr. Perfect and Bret Hart about how this was all to help the Somalian Relief Fund and people should donate if they can, there will be a live donation ticker on the night.. Mooney announced that as of now it was only the two previously announced matches for WrestleMania IX but more would be announced as we head towards the “World’s Biggest Toga Party” as he announced he has his toga ready. Two new Kamala vignettes With love in the air this week we saw Kamala going out on a date on Monday Night Raw. Slick was hoping that his charge could put into practice some of the things he learned as he was set up on a blind date. Kamala managed to speak in pidgin English and tell the lady she looked nice in his own way. The first course was soup and Kamala got frustrated in using the spoon but as we cut away and then resumed later it must have gone well as the lady ended the night giving him a kiss on the cheek before leaving. This led to Kamala when she had gone ripping off his shirt to reveal his moon and stars on his belly running around the post restaurant patting it and shouting as Slick tried to calm him down. Later in the week on Superstars we got the second one as Kamala clearly needed to brush up on his etiquette as he was seen having afternoon tea with Lord Alfred Hayes. Kamala struggled with the little sandwiches and was holding his tea cup with both hands but certainly seemed improved from when he started by savagely eating the bowl of soup. Much like earlier in the week this seemed to go a lot better than recent weeks and Kamala was even learning some English phrases from Hayes and when it was done he looked about to rip off his shirt but instead just looked at Slick and then Hayes and smiled and had another drink of tea holding it properly with his pinky finger outstretched. Live Concert Next Week We did not get any kind of vignette with Jeff Jarrett this week but after being told he was coming in two weeks last week we were informed this week by Vince McMahon that next week on Monday Night Raw we will see Jeff Jarrett live in concert. The Circus going Strong but for how long Doink the Clown and his Big Top were successful this week as the evil clown bested Bob Backlund with the Whoopie Cushion on Monday Night Raw and Kamikaze defeated Russ Greenberg with the Spinning Wheel Kick on Superstars. During the match with Doink, however, we did get a phone call into the announce desk from Hawaii as none other than Crush announced he is on the mend and getting back to 100% and when he does he will be coming for Doink. Crush announces that he will be appearing next week via live video feed to show us some of his training. Big Bossman did an insert video on the Kamikaze match where he talked about the retribution he will get on Doink and any member of the Big Top that gets involved at Headlock on Hunger. Bossman says hes been waiting a long time for revenge and he will definitely be serving “Hard Times”. Where is Old Glory again? On Superstars, we got Jim Duggan speaking in the back about how he has had to bring out another flag this week due to his being stolen. Duggan says this is a special flag as he bought it the day he heard that his wife Debra was pregnant with their unborn child and this flag will hang proudly in the child’s bedroom when they are born. Duggan then goes away to get changed but when he comes out to face Greg Valentine he has no flag as we are informed once again that this flag had been stolen which is two weeks in a row. The match sees Duggan all business defeating Valentine with the Three-Point Stance before motioning to the camera that whoever this tough guy thinks they are he will find them and they will taste the 2x4 Hoooooooo!!. Elsewhere On Monday Night Raw Mr. Perfect defeated Papa Shango whilst on Superstars his rival Lex Luger defeated Jim Brunzell with the devastating Nemesis Curse forearm. Also on Superstars Owen Hart prepared for facing Razor Ramon with a hard-fought match against Barry Horowitz, The Nasty Boys defeated The Bushwhackers and Virgil defeated Skinner. On Wrestling Challenge there were wins for Repo Man and The Beverly Brothers against local talent whilst Kamala defeated Louie Spicolli which saw him much more noticeably engaged and acting much more like a man including wearing a bowler hat to the ring we were told he got from Lord Alfred Hayes. ------------------------------------------------------------------ The Wrestling Observer Notes February Week 2 1993 (Pre Headlock on Hunger) Written and edited by Dave Meltzer -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The final match being added to Headlock on Hunger special on the USA Network from Madison Square Garden is designed to show that there is a deep respect between Randy Savage and Bret Hart and this will be a match that is called straight down the middle when they meet at Wrestlemania. Whether it remains face vs. face we will need to see further down the line but it certainly adds an interesting dynamic to the match. There is still some doubt in the company regardless of what happened at Royal Rumble as to where Sherri’s loyalties are to lie as we saw this week everything is still not rosy in the garden as it were with her and Shawn. Expect to see the coming weeks really ramp up to what we hear is going to be a stellar card for Wrestlemania with rumblings of a double main event to be promoted and possibly one or more returning stars in the short term to help push sales of the PPV. It is unknown with a lot of people outside of a select few right now as to whether or not Jeff Jarrett can sing and what exactly the live concert on Monday Night Raw will look like. There will be a full preview of Headlock on Hunger further down but just to confirm the two matches currently locked in for WrestleMania IX in Las Vegas are: WWF World Heavyweight Championship: Bret Hart© defends against Randy Savage WWF Intercontinental Ladder Match: Shawn Michaels© defends against Marty Jannetty Plus much much more… In huge news we can officially announce that WCW has signed back Ric Flair to a multi-year contract and he is expected to re-debut in the company with a massive push. In Game Ratings Monday Night Raw #6 - 77 Superstars #335 - 50 Wrestling Challenge #339 - 57 Match of the Week: Bret Hart over IRS (80) Worst Match of the Week: Kamikaze over Russ Greenberg (15)

Really enjoying the diary so far mate and love the Harley Race stable on their day they would be unstoppable and nice to see someone like Hughes in the mix there as I do not often see him used much to his strengths. WCW US TITLE MATCH: RICK RUDE © VS. RICKY STEAMBOAT WCW TV TITLE MATCH: STEVE AUSTIN © VS. STING - although it might be a win where he doesn't get the belt like count out or DQ or something PAUL ORNDORFF VS. VAN HAMMER SHANE DOUGLAS VS. BOBBY EATON

The week in WWF TV (February Week 1 1993) Sponsored by SlimJim Savage and The Hitman As promised this week on Monday Night Raw we saw Randy Savage in singles action as he gets tuned up ahead of Wrestlemania IX. Savage enjoyed a hard-fought back and forth contest with Greg Valentine which was won in the end via the Diving Elbow Drop. We were promised that Bret Hart would be in attendance but due to blizzards in the area The Hitman was unable to make it so instead we got a telephone interview between himself and the new announce team of Vince McMahon and Brother Love. Hart spoke about how last week Randy Savage tried to bring up a point of The Hitman not being a fighting champion but Bret is happy to give anyone a shot at any time and he will prove that when he takes on IRS for the title next week on this show. Bret goes on to say that Savage may well have been here every week but there is a difference in sitting behind the desk and stepping in the ring itself and Randy better work on that ring rust as he will be getting in there with the best at WrestleMania IX. Hart claims that in the WWF he has the most tenacity, the most dedication, and most of all he is “Excellence of Execution”. The champion continues by saying that everyone he has ever got in the ring with since he became the champion has come out respecting him and whilst he holds a lot of respect he feels maybe that Savage does not respect him in the same way. Intercontinental Title Match Set Monday Night Raw began with a special update from the WWF Intercontinental champion Shawn Michaels as he was laid on a sun lounger by the pool with Sherri rubbing lotion on his back. The champion spoke about how he had a grueling couple of days and as he is the champion then he can do what he wants so will be on vacation for the next two weeks. Whilst Shawn may have been enjoying his vacation Marty Jannetty was eagerly awaiting a reply from Jack Tunney about whether he could have one last match with his former tag team partner. Jannetty did not have to wait too long as in a special update the President announced that at WrestleMania IX we will see Shawn Michaels defending the title against Marty Jannetty in the first ever on pay per view ladder match. The Intercontinental championship will be raised high above the ring and the only way to win the match is to climb up and retrieve it before your opponent does. Vince McMahon put over the fact that never before on TV or PPV have we seen such a match and implored people to check with their local cable provider and order the biggest event ever from Caesars Palace. On Wrestling Challenge, Marty Jannetty began warming up for this with a big victory over a local worker with the Rocker Dropper. First name set for tag team final In a solid opening match to Monday Night Raw we saw The Headshrinkers and The Steiner Brothers do battle in what was a hard hitting match between two brutal teams. Throughout the match we got opportunities to see both teams take control but in the end it was a Frankensteiner from Scott on Samu that got the three count and sent the brothers heading towards Headlock on Hunger. The other semi-final will be next week on Monday Night Raw and will pit the Natural Disasters against Virgil and El Matador with both teams looking impressive in a victory against local workers on Superstars and Wrestling Challenge respectively this week. More Humiliation for The King After his humiliation at the hands of Tatanka in the Royal Rumble and then the two having words last week we saw Jerry Lawler in singles action on Monday Night Raw. The King challenged anybody in the New York crowd to come and face him and we saw a fresh faced youngster going by the name of Scott Taylor taking to the ring. The match was a very one-sided affair until Lawler was showboating and Tatanka had seen enough and came to ringside which distracted Lawler just long enough for the kid to roll him up and to the shock of everyone pick up a massive three count. As Taylor rolled out of the ring and embraced Tatanka to a roar from the crowd we saw Lawler kicking the ropes and cursing at them in the entranceway. A clearly disgruntled Lawler was on commentary duty on Superstars and talked about how once again he was cheated by Tatanka and quite frankly he is getting sick of it and soon The “indian” will get his comeuppance in a big big way. As for Taylor he says that the youngster better be ready as one day soon he will be on the end of a Royal Piledriver. Return of the Barbershop This week on Monday Night Raw we got a brand new edition of The Barbershop as Brutus Beefcake made his long awaited return. The show was designed to just be Brutus talking about how great it is to be back but soon descended into more than that as the show was crashed by Yokozuna and Mr. Fuji. Fuji spoke about how Yokozuna still has not been taken off his feet and no filthy American will ever be able to do it. Fuji laid out the challenge for any American to take on his “Yokozuma” at Headlock on Hunger. It was at this point Brutus announced he had been looking to make a return to the ring and he would happily not just knock down the big man but cut his greasy hair once he is done. Fuji accepted the challenge and as a measure of what to expect Yoko landed a huge Savate kick before throwing Brutus right through the glass window of the barbershop as Vince McMahon spoke on commentary about how Beefcake already had a surgically repaired face. Upcoming Event Centre We got our usual updates on upcoming events, this time from Sean Mooney as the two upcoming events were focused on as he confirmed that for Headlock on Hunger Brutus Beefcake vs. Yokozuna had been sanctioned and also Razor Ramon had something to say about the challenge from Owen Hart. We then cut to Ramon as he spoke about how he slapped the taste out of Hart’s mouth once before and he would happy to do it again at this show. Ramon warned however that this time Owen may not be able to leave the ring on his own power. We were then reminded of the two matches pencilled in for WrestleMania IX so far with Bret Hart defending again Randy Savage and Shawn Michaels facing Marty Jannetty in a huge ladder match. Mooney then mentions that after nobody has seen or heard from The Undertaker we have just found out Paul Bearer will have an exclusive message on Monday Night Raw next week. More Clowning Around Following their recent altercation, we heard from Big Bossman during Doink the Clown’s victory over Red Tyler on Wrestling Challenge with the Whoopie Cushion. In an insert video, Bossman said he had spoken to Jack Tunney and at Headlock on Hunger Doink will be in for some hard times as he is going one on one with Bossman himself. The former law enforcer also goes on to say that his good friend Crush is on the mend and will be back soon for his own revenge on Doink. This did not seem to wipe the smile off the evil clown’s face and he was laughing the whole time as Big Top member Kamikaze thanks to a small assist from The Ringmaster defeated Koko B. Ware on Superstars with a Spinning Wheel Kick. After the match we had Strongman Hernandez show his strength by hurling out Koko as the Circus posed in the ring and Lady Vachon ran around them all like crazy. Language Lessons for Kamala After the lack of success at learning to drive last week, Reverend Slick felt that the Ugandan Giant needed to get a better handle of the language, and this week we saw he was attending English lessons with The Bushwhackers. As expected this did not go great as the heavy New Zealand accent on Luke and Butch was even hard for Slick to understand so poor Kamala had no chance. At the end with each man getting worked up, we got Kamala running around patting the stars and moon on his belly whilst Luke and Butch were licking each other’s heads. Slick just stood amongst the whole thing dumbfounded as the vignette faded to black with another lack of success. Perfection As Mr. Perfect defeated Repo Man on Monday Night Raw with the Perfect Plex we were also treated to a video of Perfect with NHL All-Star Mike Modano. The vignette showed Perfect in goal as Modano and his team mates all tried to score past him to no avail before proclaiming he was truly perfect. On Superstars we then got Bobby Heenan waxing lyrical on commentary as Lex Luger put Mike Bell out cold with his lethal forearm smash which is now being referred to as the Nemesis Curse. Heenan told us this was in reference to Nemesis punishing Narcissus in Greek mythology. Heenan spent the whole match talking about how he doesn’t need to play Ice Hockey or in any other sport but if he did then he would be perfect in every way and soon Mr. Perfect will find out who the real perfect one is. Where is Old Glory? On Superstars we saw Jim Duggan coming to the ring to face Rick Martel minus the American Flag. Despite the absence of this Duggan still picked up the win over The Model with the Three Point Stance. In an insert video Duggan spoke about the disrespect of stealing another man’s flag and how whoever did it is a disgrace to this beautiful country. Elsewhere On Monday Night Raw Jorge Gonzalez manhandled 3 men in short order destroying each of them with the Claw Hold leaving a crumpled mess. On Superstars Kamala defeated Tony DeVito and we saw the same vignette as last week for Jeff Jarrett only this time at the end it stated we would be seeing him live in 2 weeks. Over on Wrestling Challenge The Beverly Brothers bested The Nasty Boys thanks to interference from The Genius and Bob Backlund and Razor Ramon both picked up victories. ------------------------------------------------------------------ The Wrestling Observer Notes February Week 1 1993 Written and edited by Dave Meltzer -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another solid week of television although Bret Hart only being able to make a phone call as rebuttal to Randy Savage fell a bit flat. The promo itself showed a lot of passion and put him over as a fighting champion willing to take on any and all comers but with Savage there still despite the blizzard it kind of made some people feel Randy was justified in his comments last week. Shawn Michaels is going to be off TV for a couple of weeks due to a minor knee injury he sustained at the Royal Rumble. At this stage it is purely a precaution and he is said to be confident of being available long before his historic ladder match with Marty Jannetty. The current card for Headlock on Hunger next week is as follows with possibly one more match yet to be added we hear. Grudge Match: Razor Ramon vs. Owen Hart Grudge Match: Big Bossman vs. Doink the Clown Brutus Beefcake vs. Yokozuna Handler vs. Man: Kim Chee vs. Kamala Tag Team Tournament Final (winner will face Money Inc. at Wrestlemania IX): The Steiner Brothers vs. ? The current card for WrestleMania IX in Las Vegas is: WWF World Heavyweight Championship: Bret Hart© defends against Randy Savage WWF Intercontinental Ladder Match: Shawn Michaels© defends against Marty Jannetty Plus much much more… In Game Ratings Monday Night Raw #5 - 66 Superstars #334 - 56 Wrestling Challenge #338 - 59 Match of the Week: Mr Perfect over Repo Man (70) Worst Match of the Week: Jorge Gonzalez over Jim Brunzell, Russ Greenberg and Reno Riggins (21)

The week in WWF TV (January Week 4 1993) Sponsored by ICOPRO Respect Monday Night Raw saw a special interview with Randy Savage as the winner of the 1993 Royal Rumble set out his intentions heading to WrestleMania. The Macho Man began the night announcing that tonight would be his last night on commentary duties for a while as he needed to be in the best possible physical shape for the challenge that lay ahead. Savage talked about how tough Bret Hart is and that when he does defend the title he puts on the match of the night more often than not. The problem Savage has is that people like himself are there week in week out but Hart only seems to appear in person on TV once in a while. Savage goes on to accuse Bret of staying at home and picking up each paycheque instead of being a champion that will defend whenever and wherever. Vince McMahon played off this perfectly on commentary musing whether Savage who was speaking in the ring at this point actually believed this or whether he was looking to get under the skin of the Hitman. Savage said that next week he will be in action and show just how he has not missed a step. Some people were surprised that he won the Royal Rumble because he is seemingly not a part of the “New Generation” but this old dog still has plenty of tricks and come Caesars Palace the Macho Man does not just want to win the title he needs to win it to justify his comments. Later in the night, we are informed that next week Bret Hart will indeed be at Monday Night Raw to speak back to what Savage said. Michaels’ Marathon Continues After spending a record amount of time in the Royal Rumble match last night as well as successfully defending his WWF Intercontinental Title against Marty Jannetty we saw yet another title defence today the day after for Shawn Michaels. As promised by Jack Tunney we had Hacksaw Jim Duggan getting a shot at the gold around the waist of the cocky heartbreaker. The match itself was a more slow and methodical match than maybe we are used to from Shawn as he was showing the impact of last night but in the end this did not matter as HBK moved out of the way of the Three Point Stance and Duggan crashed into the turnbuckle before being lifted and planted with the Teardrop Suplex for Michaels to retain. His beaten opponent Marty Jannetty returned to winning ways on Wrestling Challenge with a hard-fought match won over Papa Shango with the Rocker Dropper. The big news from the match however is that Marty in the insert video during the match mentioned he has asked for one last chance at Shawn from President Jack Tunney at WrestleMania IX. Goodbye Rob This week saw the high stakes match between Big Bossman and Repo Man with the respective fates of Bobby Heenan and Rob Bartlett hanging in the balance. The two men were on the outside of the ring and went through a gamut of emotions as the match was looking like it could go either way. In the end however we saw an appearance from Doink the Clown harassing children in the front row which Bossman took umbrage to and tried to get involved. At the same time Heenan distracted the referee which allowed Repo to blindside Bossman with the tow rope and haul him back into the ring for the three count. This meant the end in the company for Rob Bartlett and from the fans you could get the sense that despite him being painted as the good guy they were happy to see the back of him. Heenan’s gloating was short-lived as he was informed by Vince McMahon this did not get him a seat at the Monday Night Raw commentary table and next week we would get the debut of our new commentary team with Savage and Bartlett gone. The Circus is coming to Town In a veiled interview backstage at Monday Night Raw we saw Doink the Clown alluding to liking the WWF that much since he got here inviting some friends along. This was at the time seen as very cryptic until there were some vignettes on the B shows which shed a little more light on the situation. The vignette panned the camera over to a circus tent with a big sign saying “The Big Top” before a man dressed as a ringmaster welcomed us and told us he would show us around the attractions. We saw a man being shot out of a cannon which the Ringmaster referred to as “Kamikaze: The Human Cannonball” before we saw a man from behind showing huge feats of strength and we were told this was Strongman Hernandez a man who could lift more weights than anyone else that the World Wrestling Federation has ever seen. During the video we also saw a seemingly deranged woman roaming around as a part of this set of characters. Two events on the Horizon We then got a special edition of the event centre with Gene Okerlund. We were informed that in 3 weeks time on Saturday Week 2 February there will be a special event on the USA Network to raise money for the Somalia Relief Fund known as “Headlock on Hunger”. Whilst very little is known of the card so far he could officially announce one match that has been signed on which will pit Kamala against his old handler Kim Chee. Slick wanted this match signed on to allow the Ugandan Giant to put his old life behind him once and for all. Then of course on Sunday Week 4 March the World Wrestling Federation will descend onto Las Vegas at Caesars Palace for WrestleMania IX. As we all know there is one match signed on for that also as Bret Hart will defend the WWF World Heavyweight title against Randy Savage the winner of the 1993 Royal Rumble match. More will be coming very soon on both of these events on the event centre. Tag Team Turmoil Following a number of teams petitioning to face Money Inc. for the WWF Tag Team belts we got a message that President Jack Tunney has arranged a four-team tournament starting next week with the finals at Headlock on Hunger. The team that comes out victorious will face Money Inc. for the gold at WrestleMania IX The matches announced were the Steiner Brothers taking on The Headshrinkers and The Natural Disasters taking on the underdog team of Virgil and El Matador. In warmup contests for this The Headshrinkers defeated The Nasty Boys on Monday Night Raw when Knobbs fell to the Samoan Splash and the other 3 teams all defeated local workers on the B shows. Goodnight Deadman We saw a segment on Monday Night Raw where Harvey Wippleman was stood with “The Giant” Jorge Gonzalez. Harvey talked about how Gonzalez manhandled The Undertaker at the Royal Rumble and he believes this is the last we will see of The Undertaker. We then get Vince McMahon on commentary saying he hopes it is not the last of The Undertaker but one thing he does know for sure is Gonzalez will be in action next week right here on Monday Night Raw. An Unhappy King As Tatanka best Terry Taylor in a one-sided contest with the Papoose to Go to remain undefeated the real story was on commentary as Jerry Lawler was not happy. Following the Native American ruining his Royal Rumble debut eliminating him in 7 seconds the King referred to him as a “Sly Indian” and spoke about how he is only undefeated because he cheats his matches with “Lumbee Hoodoo”. Tatanka had seen enough and faced off with Lawler nose to nose before walking away saying this was not over. We got it announced later in the show by Jerry that he will be in singles action next week on Monday Night Raw to showcase his true talent. The Rocket is Ready Following an impressive singles outing in the Royal Rumble we got some comments on Superstars from Owen Hart. The Rocket talked about how he impressed himself with how well he did in the contest especially eliminating someone the caliber of Bam Bam Bigelow but he always wants to prove himself more and has some unfinished business with Razor Ramon. Owen proceeds to challenge Razor to a match at Headlock on Hunger with Razor set to provide a reply next week the commentary teams tells us. Kamala learns to Drive In the latest of a series of vignettes on Superstars of Slick trying to humanize Kamala we followed up on the etiquette lesson last week with something much more practical as the big Ugandan Giant was looking to learn how to drive. We opened with Slick in the back seat as the camera panned forward to a nervous Kamala in the driving seat as in the passenger seat was a smiling Mr. Fuji. Fuji thanks Kamala in broken English for using the Mr. Fuji driving school to which Kamala just tilts his head in confusion. The two barely get anywhere as Slick rolls his eyes in the back and they back and forth argue in Japanese/Ugandan until Kamala gets out of the car, rips off the shirt he is wearing to reveal his moon and stars before running around the outside of the vehicle patting his belly and bellowing. The camera cuts to Slick as he says “maybe we need to go back to basics Daddy” Return of the Barber On Wrestling Challenge we got a video which showed a montage of clips from the past featuring Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake as we were informed that this Monday on Raw will see the return of “The Barber Shop”. Double J is coming Over the three shows this week we saw the same vignette of Cass Golden announcing that Double J will be coming soon to the World Wrestling Federation. Jarrett then comes into the picture walking through a corridor with all of his gold records on the walls before meeting up with a man he refers to as Big Johnny Black. The menacing man looks to be a bodyguard for the country music star and cracks his knuckles whilst Jeff Jarrett laughs. A Perfect Collision This week on Superstars we saw The Narcissus himself Lex Luger accompanied by Bobby Heenan destroy Max Moon with a forearm much like he did Virgil whilst later in the broadcast Mr. Perfect bested Rick Martel in a hard-fought matchup. The true tale however was the insert comments from both men with Luger claiming to be the most perfect specimen on this Earth and this Galaxy. Luger claimed he could beat anyone at anything and nothing would stop his rise to the WWF title. Mr. Perfect had clearly taken this as personal and spoke about how he got rid of one of Heenan’s lackeys and he would get rid of another, just name the time and place as it will be perfect either way. Elsewhere On Superstars Bob Backlund won a hard-fought contest over Skinner whilst over on Wrestling Challenge Yokozuna recovered from his Royal Rumble setback by defeating Koko B. Ware, The Beverly Brothers, Razor Ramon, and Kamala all made short work of opponents and IRS best Brian Knobbs in the main event. ------------------------------------------------------------------ The Wrestling Observer Notes January Week 4 1993 Written and edited by Dave Meltzer -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Following on from the Royal Rumble we had another great week of television with some interesting stories beginning to develop for upcoming events. Speaking of which we now know there will be one more stop on the road to WrestleMania IX as WWF will present Headlock on Hunger. This will be a smaller card akin to Saturday Nights Main Event style and will be used to raised money for the Somalia relief fund. It is official and not a storyline that Rob Bartlett is gone after the short-lived “comedian experiment” on Monday Night Raw. With Randy Savage also stepping away from commentary and back into the ring we will see a new commentary team beginning this week on Monday Night Raw and word is at least one of them could be a big surprise. People will certainly of noticed that despite choosing Shawn Michaels at the Royal Rumble there was no sign of Sensational Sherri on Monday Night Raw. We hear that she had travel problems and should be back on the road this week. Big news this week is that of a stable of characters known as “The Big Top” to add to the ethos of the Doink character. The Ringmaster is played by Canadian wrestling Don Callis. The long-haired star has been on the radar for a while for his charisma and whilst there are absolutely no plans for him to step into the ring for the company at this time he is seen a great heat vehicle for the stable. The other members can be identified as Strongman Hernandez is Hercules Hernandez although it seems the company does not want to allude to this fact too strongly which is why he wears a leather mask, the crazy lady is Luna Vachon whom we hear will go by the name Lady Vachon and Kamikaze is portrayed by Sean Waltman (The Lightning Kid). Waltman has been working as a jobber on the B shows and live events for a couple of weeks under various (Local Town/State)Kid monikers but now he seems to be settling into a more prominent role going forward. With Brutus Beefcake returning this week we have heard that this will begin the seed for one of the biggest matches at this year’s Wrestlemania. We saw more vignettes for Jeff Jarrett and can reveal the new character in there is played by John Nord formerly of Berzerker fame. He had cut his hair and trimmed his beard into a more stylish goatee and will be a bodyguard for Jarrett when he makes his debut which we hear is very soon. The current card for the upcoming Headlock on Hunger event in two weeks is as follows: Handler vs. Man: Kim Chee vs. Kamala Finals of the Tag Team Tournament plus more TBA The current card for WrestleMania IX in Las Vegas is: WWF World Heavyweight Championship: Bret Hart© defends against Randy Savage Plus much much more… In addition to Rob Bartlett we can also learn this week that Max Moon (Paul Diamond) has been let go after his contract was not renewed. Iron Mike Sharpe the perennial jobber in the company has announced he will retire as a wrestler in 3 months time. In Game Ratings Monday Night Raw #4 - 68 Superstars #333 - 71 Wrestling Challenge #337 - 51 Match of the Week: Mr. Perfect over Rick Martel (76) Worst Match of the Week: Kamala over Al Burke (31)

sting Vs. Bam Bam Bigelow the Steiner Brothers Vs. The Fabulous Freebirds Wcw Tv Title Match: steve Austin Vs. Johnny B. Badd Terrence Taylor Vs. brad Armstrong Tom Zenk Vs scotty Flamingo paul Orndorff Vs. Shane Douglas

This is my own personal 1993 mod which is only about 80 percent finished

STING & ??? VS. DANGEROUS ALLIANCE (RUDE & EATON) BONUS QUESTION: WHO IS STING’S PARTNER? Great Muta WCW TV TITLE MATCH: STEVE AUSTIN © VS. BARRY WINDHAM WCW TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: RHODES & STEAMBOAT © VS. THE ENFORCERS (ANDERSON & ZBYSZKO) WCW US TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: YOUNG PISTOLS (ARMSTRONG & SMOTHERS) © VS. WCW PATRIOTS (CHIP & CHAMPION) WCW LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: JUSHIN THUNDER LIGER © VS. BRIAN PILLMAN FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE: CACTUS JACK VS. VAN HAMMER THE FABULOUS FREEBIRDS (HAYES & GARVIN) VS. THE DIAMOND EXCHANGE (STUDD & VEGAS) THE YORK FOUNDATION (RICH & MORTON) VS. THE ARMSTRONG BOYS (BRAD & BRIAN) VADER & MR. HUGHES VS. THE STEINER BROTHERS (RICK & SCOTT)

Royal Rumble 1993 World Wrestling Federation Presents: Royal Rumble 1993 Live from Sacramento, California Sunday Week 3 January Brought to you by Loaded Weapon 1 – Coming Soon to a theatre near you. We open up the pay per view with the traditional Royal Rumble music and a load of talking heads of wrestlers within the 30 man over the top Royal Rumble match. We get the familiar line of no friends only foes in the Royal Rumble as we are welcomed by the commentary team of Vince McMahon, Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan. The three men run down the card for tonight and speak about all the matches as Bobby takes the opportunity to interject promoting his unveiling of Narcissus tonight the likes of which the world have never seen. Bobby also mentions that Ric Flair is at home now working with his lawyers to try and get the WWF and Jack Tunney sued for the injustice that happened when he was cheated out of the company by Mr. Perfect and a crooked referee this past Monday night. As Gorilla and Bobby begin bickering about this Vince sends us over to “The Fink” to tell us our opening bout. (82) Opening Contest Brothers vs. Brothers: The Beverly Brothers (Beau and Blake) w/ The Genius vs. The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) The first notable event of the evening saw the return of The Genius as he accompanied his charges to the ring with Beau and Blake showing an intensity and focus we have possibly never seen before from them. As The Genius was all set to read out one of his trademark poems he was cut off by the now familiar music of Rick and Scott Steiner as they jogged to the ring slapping hands with the fans. The match began lively as the Beverlys clearly took umbrage at the interruption and jumped Rick and Scott before they could even take off their jackets beating them down to the delight of The Genius on the outside. As the match settled down there was a long time of Scott showing to be the “face in peril” before getting the hot tag to Rick as the older brother cleaned house on the men from Shaker Heights. In the end though despite the best efforts of Beau and Blake we saw The Steiner Brothers pick up the win when Rick lifted Blake onto his shoulders and Scott climbed up and delivered a DDT from the top spiking him on his head for the 3. Winner: The Steiner Brothers (Steiner Bulldog) 67 Next up we went to the back where Sean Mooney was attempting to get a word outside of Sensational Sherri’s dressing room but she was nowhere to be seen. We then cut to a video of Ted DiBiase and IRS picking out their numbers for the Royal Rumble as the Million Dollar man in particular does not look happy. (40) Match 2 WWF Intercontinental Title: Shawn Michaels© vs. Marty Jannetty (Sensational Sherri in a neutral corner) It was now time for one of the most eagerly anticipated matches ever since Shawn Michaels dissolved his friendship with Marty Jannetty by throwing him through a Barbershop window over one year ago. The Heartbreak Kid was out first as he danced and pranced his way to the ring preening himself along the way into a mirror he was holding in his right hand. The commentary team reminded us that part of the reason we are where we are today is that it was a mirror just like that we saw Marty Jannetty accidentally smash over the face of Sensational Sherri. It was then time for Jannetty to come to the ring as he ran in like a house of fire and waited in the opposite corner to his onetime friend and tag team partner. The crowd then went crazy as Sensational Sherri looking glammed up as usual made her way down to the ring to no music whatsoever giving no clues to where her allegiance lies. Bobby Heenan tried to say that he saw Sherri winking at Michaels much to the chagrin of Monsoon who proclaimed “will you stop”. Sherri positioned herself in a third neutral corner as the referee called for the bell to get us underway. The opening stages of the match saw both men canceling each other out until Marty took a spill to the outside from a missed shoulder charge in the corner, seemingly injuring his shoulder in the process. Sherri looked on stoic as Heenan proclaimed this showed she didn’t care about Jannetty. Not long later Jannetty sent Michaels into the turnbuckle with the latter flying upside down and over onto the apron where he was promptly dropkicked off. Again Sherri seemed to be showing a moral dilemma and did not approach Michaels in much the same way she backed off from Jannetty earlier. The turning point of the match came when HBK went for a big Super Kick only for Marty to duck and referee Joey Marella to be nailed and out cold. From there the two were brawling and Marty was setting up Shawn for the Rocker Dropper as Sherri came into the ring holding the mirror and SHATTERED IT OVER THE HEAD OF JANNETTY!! As Bobby Heenan proclaimed that he told everyone so Michaels picked up Marty and dropped him with the Teardrop Suplex before the referee came round and counted the 3 for him to retain. Sherri entered the ring and planted a huge kiss on Michaels as he did his trademark pose with the title. Winner and still WWF Intercontinental Champion: Shawn Michaels (Teardrop Suplex) 73 We were then treated to an interview with Razor Ramon where he spoke about how it took Bret Hart eight and a half years to get to where he is and Razor has caught him in just eight and a half months. Ramon talks about how come the end of the night he will have “Gold on my fingers, gold around my neck and Hitman. I am going to have you gold around my waist” We then move to Ted DiBiase offering a large sum of money to Rick Martel looking to buy his number. It looks like Martel is going to take the cash but he then decides the number is something money cannot buy. (83) The Unveiling of Narcissus As Bobby Heenan stands and waxes lyrical about Narcissus he tells everyone it is now time for the unveiling of the man who is better than perfection, the man who his no equal and that man is “Narcissus” Lex Luger. Luger is surrounded by mirrors and doing a number of poses admiring himself in the mirror as Heenan is giddy with excitement telling him to give everyone what they want and telling people to eat their heart out. Heenan makes some pointed statements at Mr. Perfect and tells him that he will soon find out what Narcissus is all about. Just then we get Bobby challenging anyone to come down and try to best Narcissus in the ring to which we get the music of Virgil and it looks like we have an unscheduled match. (55) Match 3 “Narcissus” Lex Luger vs. Virgil This was short and sweet and clearly, a showcase for the new man as Luger toyed with Virgil before lining him up and running him down like a freight train with a forearm smash. Virgil was totally out cold as Luger pinned him with his pinky finger whilst flexing his other arm. Heenan put over on commentary how that shows just what immense power Narcissus has and once again tells Mr. Perfect to watch his back. Winner: “Narcissus” Lex Luger (Forearm Smash) 58 Once this was over we cut to Gene Okerlund in the back with WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart. Bret talked about how this was a personal thing and about more than just a title between the two of them after Razor beat down Owen weeks ago. He tells Razor he will need his A game as Bret is sure as heck bringing his. We then cut to Kamala in the back with Reverend Slick as the big Ugandan was attempting to play the arcade game WWF WrestleFest only to start eating the joystick as the commentary team proclaim that it looks like Slick still has a long way to go in making Kamala truly a man. (74) Semi Main Event WWF World Heavyweight Title: Bret Hart© vs. Razor Ramon It was then time for our huge title match as Razor made his way out to the ring first dripping with both gold and confidence as he strutted past the Hart Family in attendance front row. The Bad Guy threw his toothpick in the direction of the legendary Stu Hart as a couple of members of the family had to be held back by security. Next up we got the familiar screech of the music of the WWF Champion as a focused looking Hitman came out from the back in his trademark shades slapping hands with the fans on his way. Once he reached his family Bret took off his shades and placed them onto the head of a younger member of the family as Heenan on commentary said it made him sick. With both men in the ring, Bret went for the traditional lockup to start but was blindsided by a kick to the breadbasket as Monsoon said. This gave the early advantage to Razor as he worked over the back and ribs of the champion in the early going weakening him with backbreakers and a fall-away slam from the second rope. As Bret began getting more fired up and more into the contest each time he was coming into it Ramon was cutting off Hart and working him over with rest holds wearing him down as the commentary team began wondering whether Razor was too much for Bret to handle. Like the old Timex watch though Bret took a lickin’ but he kept on tickin’ and eventually worked his way back into the contest but struggled with the big legs of Razor to place the big man into the Sharpshooter. In the end, though it was the wrestling nous of the champion that won the day as Razor was looking to finish off Bret with the Razor’s Edge only for the Hitman to slip off the back and spin Razor round into an inverted atomic drop followed by a double leg takedown and finally slapping on the Sharpshooter with Razor trying to fight to the rope but eventually giving up to the delight of the packed house. After the match was over and Razor sloped away Bret brought his family into the ring to celebrate the huge victory. Winner and still WWF World Heavyweight Champion: Bret Hart (Sharpshooter) 86 We then cut to a backstage segment with Ted DiBiase trying to buy Skinner’s number but much like Rick Martel the Alligator Man did not want the money. The commentary team then mentioned that DiBiase must be coming in pretty early if he has gotten this desperate. We then go to the ring where we are introduced to Caesar and Cleopatra as Caesar reads a proclamation that they personally invite everyone to WrestleMania IX at Casers Palace in Las Vegas. Where the winner of the upcoming Royal Rumble will face off with the WWF Champion whomever this may be. As they leave we get Gorilla Monsoon outlining the rules of the Royal Rumble and telling us that every two minutes a new wrestler will enter the ring until we reach the quota of 30. A wrestler is eliminated when they go over the top rope and both feet touch the floor. The one man remaining with be declared the winner and go on to meet the WWF champion at WrestleMania IX. Monsoon then hands us down to “The Fink” to get the ball rolling. (65) Main Event 30 Man Over the Top Royal Rumble (Winner to face the WWF World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania IX) Without further ado, it was time for us to find out the first two entrants into the match. Howard Finkel announced that we would now find out the person who drew number one. “Money Money Money Money Moneeeeeey” hits and out from the back steps a clearly disgruntled Million Dollar Man as he has a whole lot of work ahead of him if he is looking to win this one. As DiBiase stands in the ring we are all set to find out who indeed drew number two. The lights go out and the familiar eerie music plays of The Undertaker as the former WWF Champion makes his way out to the ring and Ted turns white as a ghost. As the bell rings to get us underway we see DiBiase pull a wad of cash out of his tights trying to pay off Undertaker but the big man is having none of it and lays a few right hands in on Ted with one sending him reeling into the corner. We then hear Harvey Wippleman speaking about how the day of reckoning has come for The Undertaker as McMahon asks what’s going on sitting on commentary as it has not been two minutes yet. Behind Harvey walks out a man with slicked back hair and facial hair wearing a white suit as the two begin marching their way to the ring. Whilst this is going on Taker has never taken his eyes off the two men as the man according to Bobby Heenan on commentary is nine feet tall if he is an inch. DiBiase remains cowering in the corner as the big man steps over the ropes. As Undertaker and this giant man in a suit stand staring at one another in the ring we get the next number come up as Koko B. Ware gingerly just lurks in the entrance area clearly not wanting to get in there. As the two stare down Undertaker goes to take a swing which has no impact before the man retorts back with a big overhand chop that send the Phenom reeling before landing another two as the commentary team talk about how they have never seen The Undertaker manhandled this way. The giant man then puts a claw hold on as his adversary is fading fast until it gets to the point where he just collapses in a heap in the middle of the ring. In the interim we see our fourth entrant making their way down and it is big Typhoon but even he just stands aside like Koko B. Ware did. Harvey Wippleman and the giant man then leave to boos from the crowd as Harvey pushes past a worried Paul Bearer who is frantically raising the urn to try and get The Undertaker to respond but the deadman is not sitting up. Seizing the moment Ted Dibiase runs and lifts him up from the ground dumping him over the top for the elimination whilst laughing. We now have our first elimination of the night as The Undertaker is now laid on the outside of the ring still not moving a muscle and Bobby Heenan muses on commentary whether this is the permanent end for him. The action then carries on though as we get entrant number five which is a surprise appearance from Greg “The Hammer” Valentine as we hear that he has taken Virgil’s spot after what happened to him at the hand of Lex Luger earlier tonight. We get back to an order of what a Royal Rumble is normally like as Koko and Valentine are fighting in one corner and Million Dollar Man and Typhoon in the other. All the while there is the spectre of a totally paralysed Undertaker on the outside as Paul Bearer is now in tears begging him to sit up raising the urn high. We then get the countdown for number six as we see the WWF Intercontinental champion for the second time tonight coming down and immediately helping Valentine double team Koko. The ring is starting to fill up now with only the Undertaker eliminated so far and that was far from a fair fight. As time ticked away it was then time for our seventh entrant of the night which was none other than Bam Bam Bigelow as the Beast from the East made his way out like a man meaning business. Bigelow wasted no time as he landed a big clothesline to eliminate Koko before working over Typhoon in the corner. As the remaining men brawled in the ring a couple of minutes went by without incident as we saw Jim Duggan enter the fray and become embroiled in a brawl with Valentine and Kamala be led down to the ring by Reverend Slick. Kamala and Typhoon two of the biggest men in the contest began fighting one another quite near to the ropes and as Typhoon was looking to get the Ugandan Giant over the top rope it was Bam Bam Bigelow that snuck up behind and dumped both men out considering his hot streak in this contest. Speaking of big men it was then time for the introduction of the Big Bossman as the former prison guard came hurtling down to the ring taking out everyone in his path before settling into fighting in the corner with Bigelow. It was then time for the introduction of number 11 which was Owen Hart as the rocket came down and started throwing dropkicks around like there was no tomorrow. He was closely followed at 12 by the veteran Bob Backlund who made his way down to the ring and started trying to Greco Roman wrestle with Bam Bam Bigelow which was a huge mistake as the beast was having none of it and following a short beat down dumped him out on his ear. Number 13 followed shortly after and was a patched-up Marty Jannetty. After taking the mirror shot earlier in the night there was a large bandage on his head and he certainly did not look 100% but made an immediate beeline for Shawn Michaels laying in the right hands and sending the Intercontinental champion reeling. As Marty ran out of steam however it was clear the earlier in the night had taken its toll and he ended up being beaten down into a corner as we saw the introduction of the next participant. Out from the back charged the undefeated Native American Tatanka as he immediately came in clotheslined Greg Valentine over the top before being blindsided by Bam Bam. Business was about to pick up as number 15 came out and was Ted DiBiase’s tag team partner Irwin R. Schyster. The two men then began working over Marty Jannetty together before feeding him to Shawn Michaels as he got on over on his former friend for the second time tonight and dumped him out of the Rumble. The union of Money Inc. was short-lived however as Tatanka ran towards IRS and he ducked leaving DiBiase to be clotheslined over the top and eliminated from the contest. Over in the other corner as time ticked away for entrant 16 we saw Jim Duggan struggling with Bam Bam trying to get him out only to end up dumped out and over the top himself by Shawn Michaels from behind as number 16 as announced as hot favorite the massive YOKOZUNA. The huge behemoth of a man came out and immediately savate kicked Big Bossman over the top to the outside before he was jumped on by pretty much every other wrestler in the ring. Five people were trying to beat down the big man who has never even been taken off his feet. As everyone continued to try and push him out over the top we got three more entrants joining the fray as Fatu, Skinner and Earthquake all came into the match. We then had eight men all trying to get Yokozuna over the top with 4 of them having a leg each before the buzzer sounded for number 20 and out came Randy Savage to a huge pop as he ran and delivered a big knee which combined with the lifting sent Yokozuna over the top rope to the floor he may have landed on his feet and not yet been knocked down but he was indeed knocked out of the Royal Rumble. You would be remiss at this point to forget that The Undertaker is still laid all of this time outside of the ring not moving a muscle. That is until now as the big man slowly starts to get up but not with his usual trademark sit up. Taker staggers up as Bearer starts shouting “Oh Yeeees My Undertakerrrr” and looking worse for wear the two manage to stagger off to the back. Just as this is happening we see entrant 21 as Brian Knobbs makes his way to the ring and immediately starts pummelling on IRS. Both Bam Bam Bigelow and Shawn Michaels are over half an hour in this contest now and the big behemoth shows no sign of stopping as he showed his immense power by throwing out the massive Earthquake over the top rope. Brains then triumphed over brawn though it seems as Bam Bam charged at Owen Hart and the youngster moved out the way at the right time allowing Bigelow to career into the ropes at speed. As he was teetering Owen hooked a leg over the top and that was goodnight for Bigelow as next up we saw both Repo Man and then Jerry Sags enter without incident as the Nasty Boys looked to work together on their opponents and the ring was once again filling up. El Matador, Samu, and the devious Doink the Clown then entered one after another as we were now up to 13 wrestlers inside of the ring and only four left to come out. Before we could see who number 27 was we had to lose 3 of those in a short space of time as Owen Hart just went past 30 minutes in the contest before being eliminated by the aforementioned clown, HBK who was still hanging in there then got rid of the Repo Man and Tatanka and Skinner formed an unlikely duo to eliminate Samu. Next up at number 27 it was a huge plum draw for a man who could be considered one of the favourites and that is Mr. Perfect. Perfect came in like a house of fire throwing around chops and dropkicks to everyone and eliminating Brian Knobbs and Skinner in quick succession. Knobbs’ partner did not last long after that either as IRS sent him packing over the top as things are starting to get serious. It was then time for number 28 and out came for his in ring debut Jerry Lawler. It was announced on commentary that the King got this chance due to Crush sadly being unable to compete due to the attack from Doink which has left the big man in the hospital. No sooner has Vince wished Crush well than Lawler is actually in one end out the other as he runs at Tatanka and the Native American sidesteps and pushes Lawler right back out the other side clocking in at 7 seconds. An irate Lawler was still jaw jacking towards Tatanka in the ring when we got number 29 enter which was Papa Shango. Shortly after we got number 30 in the Royal Rumble as Rick Martel strutted down to the ring and Monsoon said it was no wonder he did not want to sell the number to DiBiase as he has the best number in the house. With ten men left in the ring the action was really hotting up and as Randy Savage and El Matador eliminated IRS and Fatu respectively we were informed that Shawn Michaels has been in the contest for over 50 minutes now. Considering he had a hard fought match with Marty Jannetty earlier the commentary team questioned both how he was still in this match and also how he will ever be able to defend his title tomorrow night against Jim Duggan on Monday Night Raw. With the workers pairing off we saw Tatanka and Doink going at it in one corner, Shawn and Perfect in one, Martel and Savage in one and El Matador and Papa Shango in another. Before we knew it the field was whittled down to a final 4 as almost simultaneously Martel eliminated Doink, Savage eliminated Martel and Shango and Tito somehow managed to both be teetering allowing Perfect to tip them over. So as we were down to our final four we knew that one of these men will be heading to WrestleMania IX in Las Vegas. All four men stood in a corner each getting a breather before Shawn tried to make an alliance with pretty much every one of the other three to an ultimate failure. Savage and Perfect began fighting as Michaels and Tatanka were fighting and the former was nailed with the Papoose to Go. This was not enough to get Michaels out and indeed much to the pleasure of Bobby Heenan on commentary it was Mr. Perfect that was next to go as he looked in control on the veteran Savage until Michaels snuck up behind him and tipped him out. MR. PERFECT IS OUT! It was at this point that the luck of the WWF Intercontinental Champion finally ran out as Tatanka and Savage worked together with the aim of eliminating him. In the end Michaels fought back and went for a crossbody on Savage and ended up hurling himself over the top rope eliminating himself. The commentary team marvelled at Shawn lasting a massive 69 minutes in the contest before going. WE ARE DOWN TO THE FINAL TWO! This was the shout of McMahon as Tatanka and Savage shook hands in a sign of mutual respect and then began fighting back and forth for five minutes more until Tatanka got Savage up on his shoulder and Randy slipped off the back and delivered a running knee into the back the Native American sending him out over the top rope and we had our 1993 Royal Rumble winner and Macho Man had done it. Savage dropped to the ground almost in tears as pyrotechnics went off and Vince informed us that Randy was off to Caesers Palace to face the champion whomever it may be at WrestleMania IX. Winner of the 1993 Royal Rumble: Randy Savage (last eliminated Tatanka) 70 As Savage was in the ring we got the music of the champion as Bret Hart came out to the ring and stood for a moment opposite Randy and pointed at the WWF World Heavyweight Championship on his shoulder. The Hitman extended his hand and shook the hand of Savage as the two embraced and Bret raised Macho Man’s hand and then left to allow Savage to soak in the adulation as the show ended. Overall Show Rating: 72 ------------------------------------------------------------------ The Wrestling Observer Notes January Week 3 1993 (post-Rumble) Written and edited by Dave Meltzer -------------------------------------------------------------------------- So there we have it the Royal Rumble is in the books and barring a couple of minor things the show went off mainly as we hear it was intended. The huge news coming out is that despite popular belief that Yokozuna would win the Royal Rumble from many “in the know” we saw Randy Savage get what could possibly be one last chance at the big one. With the whole pushing of the New Generation, it is somewhat of a surprise that Savage, whom many felt was winding down to commentary has been put into this role. We have heard through sources that this was not always the case and only in the last week or 2 have a couple of plans pivoted due to the availability of certain people and also Randy expressing a desire to have one more run as he has done a U-turn and is not looking to end his in-ring career just yet. Whilst Bobby Heenan mentioned a number of times on the broadcast that Ric Flair was looking to sue Jack Tunney we understand this was mainly just used to show how upset Heenan is at what happened. Ric Flair has already been speaking to Bill Watts about returning to WCW although the word is he may go to Japan first. Many people believe this was a night that could have huge implications on the future direction of Shawn Michaels. Being the ironman in the Royal Rumble and also getting the victory in a 15-minute match earlier in the show meant a three-hour PPV had almost an hour and a half of him on it. This is an indication that going forward big things are planned for Shawn and he is seen as one of the cornerstones of the company for a long time to come. Another man who was highly regarded last night was Razor Ramon. Only given the opportunity initially since Ultimate Warrior left the company many people have been impressed at both his promos and also his performance in the match last night. Bret Hart can get the best out of people so it can often be misleading but there was enough there from Razor to make people very high on him going forward. On the other side of the coin, the Lex Luger debut seemed to fall flat with the live crowd but Vince McMahon believes that this is due in part to the multitude of mirrors obstructing people’s views. The character is someone that will definitely continue going forward. There is plenty to digest from the Royal Rumble with the two surprise entrants. It was always the plan that for storyline reasons Crush and then Virgil could not make it into the match. Jerry Lawler was always intended to be the replacement for Crush as this is leading up to the storyline allowing him to enter the ring. The other surprise however was meant to be someone a hell of a lot bigger. This wrestler was intended to enter and start a program that would lead to one of the bigger matches of this year’s WrestleMania. The word is that this is still the plan but as the worker had issues filming a movie and was unable to travel this will be set up in a different way. Greg Valentine was already on standby as an alternate and it seems he has signed a short-term contract with the company although this most likely will not be leading to any kind of sustained push. Very early on in the contest, we saw Harvey Wippleman delivering his latest charge to face The Undertaker. The original plan was for this new worker to wear a Skinsuit but thankfully someone saw sense at the last minute and went for the slicked-back killer look. Without an official name on the broadcast yet we do understand that he will be known as “The Giant” Jorge Gonzalez and will be the major WrestleMania feud for The Undertaker this year. We hear that there were a number of incidents within the Royal Rumble itself that will lead to programs going forward. Elsewhere it is understood that the recent actions of The Berzerker could be leading to a repackage although as of yet no word on what that will be or when. John Nord is seen as a good hand to have around. Post Royal Rumble there were a number of releases from the company as cost-cutting measures are being enforced due to the overall instability of the business at this time and steroid trial. The list is Billy Silverman Damien Demento Lance Cassidy Mike McGuirk Ray Stevens Raymond Rougeau The Predator Elsewhere in the wrestling world this week WCW headlined Saturday Night with a pay per view quality match as Barry Windham bested Sting in a United States title match. On the same night the punishment of Ron Simmons since he announced he would not renew continues as he lost to Denny Kass in a humiliating match. In All Japan Pro Wrestling there was MOTY candidate as Mitsuharu Misawa defended the Triple Crown against Yoshinari Ogawa (94) ------------------------------ Predictions Contest (Just to clarify each quarter from the 3 PPV/Live Events there will be a predictions winner. That person will then get to pick something in the diary at the time such as a next challenger for a belt etc) Standing Post Royal Rumble Falling_Star – 6 SHaynes23 – 4 Ippon - 5

Us Title: rick Rude © Vs. Ricky Steamboat Tv Title: steve Austin © Vs. Ron Simmons The Enforcers Vs. the Steiner Brothers Marcus Alexander Bagwell Vs. bobby Eaton

The week in WWF TV (January Week 3 1993) Sponsored by WWF WrestleMania: Steel Cage Challenge for the Nintendo Entertainment System A Perfect End to the Night As was to be expected tonight the main focus of the show was on the main event. The huge match that would see either Ric Flair or Mr. Perfect banished from the World Wrestling Federation. Early in the night, we saw a vignette of Mr. Perfect bowling a perfect game and scoring the Perfect touchdown as his voice over the top reminded us that he was Perfect in every way. This the segued to Gene Okerlund alongside Perfect as he spoke about the long road to get there and how once he sends Flair packing tonight he will be looking forward to winning the Royal Rumble this Sunday Night. In contrast with Ric Flair, we got an “earlier today” vignette showing Flair with a couple of beautiful ladies and a grinning Bobby Heenan riding in the back of a Limousine drinking Champagne and schmoozing. Flair lets Bobby do most of the talking as he tells The Nature Boy that he’s got this and once the night is over they can party all night long. Flair cuts him off and grabs the leg of the women on either side of him and says “Why not get this party started early Woooo” as the window of the blacked-out limousine rolls up. It was soon time for the main event of the evening as the commentary team (minus Rob Bartlett: more on that later) spoke about the chances of both men with McMahon and Savage in agreement that maybe what Ric was doing earlier was not the best preparation for what he had in store as he would need to be at his best. The match itself took just under 15 minutes meaning it was a quarter of the whole show and the fans in attendance loved it. The whole match was back and forth until around the ten-minute mark when referee Earl Hebner accidentally was nailed by a flailing arm from Perfect before Flair fell victim to the Perfect Plex. This meant there was nobody to make the count as Bobby Heenan grabbed the timekeeper's bell and ran in towards Perfect but was cut off. Perfect held the weasel by the scruff of the neck only to suffer a low blow kick from behind by Flair. The Nature Boy then put on the Figure Four Leglock as Heenan splashed water on the referee to wake him up. As the crowd booed this seemed like a foregone conclusion until Perfect found some energy reserve to reverse the move leaving the former WWF champion writhing in agony. As Heenan screamed for Flair not to give up he screamed in agony until passing out as the referee awarded the victory to Mr. Perfect. Both men were exhausted as were the crowd after this epic match, although they still had the energy to end the night singing goodbye to Flair as he and Heenan both looked dejected in the ring. Razor has a message for the Champion After Bret Hart called Razor Ramon a bully last week this was a final chance for retort before the Royal Rumble from the Bad Guy. In an in-ring interview with Vince McMahon Ramon speaks about how to call him a bully gives an indication that someone has a fighting chance against him, growing up where he did there were no bullies. Razor speaks about how there are only good guys and bad guys and he is the baddest guy of all as people in Miami cower when they hear his name, he has the gold around his neck and on Sunday he will have the gold around his waist. Ramon also says he hopes Bret has invited all of his family to California on Sunday as he wants to see the look on all of their faces when he knocks the champion’s teeth down his throat and as he is bending down to pick them up he breaks his fingers. And that will just be the start. Razor then throws his toothpick in the face of Mcmahon. Hard Times Coming for the Repo Man? Monday Night Raw got off to a crazy start as Vince McMahon, Randy Savage and Rob Bartlett welcomed us to the show but the latter was not around for long. As we were sent to the ring for the first match we saw a producer come and whisper something into the ear of Bartlett as he shot off to the back. During the opening match between Crush and Damien Demento we cut to the back as Repo Man was towing away Bartlett’s car. As the bemused comedian tried to reason with Repo the superstar said he was just doing his job and he had orders this needed to be repossessed. As Bartlett was shown the paper order he could see it was signed off by one R. Heenan. This made perfect sense as Heenan finally got to slope in on commentary as he said that Jack Tunney had advised him to fill in whilst Bartlett took care of things. With McMahon unable to reach the President by phone Bobby stayed. Later in the night, we saw Bartlett make an appearance with Big Bossman in tow heading right for Heenan. Bobby saw this and headed to the back the other way claiming he was going to prepare Flair. Rob announced that he had spoken to Jack Tunney and there was no knowledge of this so next week he has booked Repo Man to get his comeuppance as he faces off with this man the Big Bossman. Furthermore if Bossman wins Heenan will never be allowed to set foot on Monday Night Raw but if Repo Man wins Rob Bartlett will give up his commentary position and leave. Final Step on the Road to the Royal Rumble. The main thing on the mind of everyone this week was the 30 man match this Sunday in Sacramento. As the show opened Randy Savage on commentary talked about how he has everything to prove at the Royal Rumble as people think it is all about the New Generation and he can no longer hang with them. Savage reminds us that last year he headlined WrestleMania and this year will be the same as anyone who gets in his way on Sunday will be thrown over the top rope to the outside as Macho is headed to the largest Toga party ever seen in Las Vegas as Caesars Palace. In the Royal Rumble Report with Sean Mooney we heard that Bob Backlund, Owen Hart, Papa Shango, and Repo Man have all been added to the match. We also got to hear from Owen Hart as he spoke about many people believing he was the underdog in the match but that will work in his favor. In a wholesome interview, he talks about what a dream it would be for him and his brother to headline WrestleMania together. The other interview this week is with Bobby Heenan as he hypes the debut of Narcissus. In a pointed interview directed at long-time rival Mr. Perfect he says that comparing Perfect to Narcissus would be like comparing ice cream to horse manure. Heenan says there is a place for horse manure in this world, even perfect horse manure but there is only room for one anatomically perfect individual that is physically and mentally superior beyond everyone’s imagination. Come the Royal Rumble everyone will see what Heenan means as he debuts Narcissus as he is so perfect it is like he is from another galaxy. Marty is ready for the Royal Rumble Marty Jannetty faced off with Samu of the Headshrinkers and won a competitive match with the Rocker Dropper. During the contest, we saw an insert interview as Marty talked about how this Sunday he will finally get his hands on Shawn Michaels and win the WWF Intercontinental Title. This has been a long time coming and Marty is ready to put this thing to bed once and for all. Marty also assures us that Sherri will be in his corner. Shortly after Michaels himself telephones in from home and talks about how whilst he has not had a chance to talk to her he is sure that Sherri will be in his corner at the Royal Rumble but just like any woman she is going to be in the corner of the Heartbreak Kid. Clowns are not so funny On Monday Night Raw Crush defeated Damien Demento comprehensively with his patented Cranium Crunch turning out the lights on the demented on. The real story however was that following the events last week Doink appeared with his arm in a case pulling sad faces in the crowd and looking far from the jolly clown we have seen in the past. The same situation was the case on Superstars as Crush made short work of Al Burke. This time, however Doink the Clown confronted Crush after the match in the entranceway with his arm in a cast. The clown apologized profusely for what he has done, from putting a mop in Tatanka’s eye to tripping over Big Bossman to terrorizing kids. With his one good arm Doink extends a hand of friendship to Crush which the big man accepts before doing what nobody should do and that is turning your back on an evil clown. Doink whips a fake arm out of the cash showing it is all a rouse and leathers Crush in the back of the neck with it. As referees and agents come down to try and stop him Doink continues just wailing away on a lifeless Crush with the prosthetic before letting out an evil laugh and skipping to the back. Crush is then stretchered out by the medical team as the McMahon and Lawler ask just whether Crush will even be able to take part on Sunday in the Royal Rumble. The Undertaker will never be the same On Monday Night Raw we saw The Undertaker defeat the Brooklyn Brawler comprehensively putting away the local thug with a Chokeslam. The real story however was the insert interview of Harvey Wippleman as he once again put over the giant that is coming. Wippleman says this man will show that the Undertaker himself is nothing more than a man. The Deadman will be dominated and beaten until the giant sees fit to stop. Wippleman adds in that he has not forgotten about Kamala and he will get what is coming to him as he is no more than a savage and Slick will realise that himself soon enough. Making a Man Speaking of Kamala we got a vignette that aired on all TV this week of the first steps from Slick of making Kamala into the man that everyone knows he can be. The setting saw Slick and Kamala sitting at a table with a bowl of soup for a meal. Kamala goes to pick up the bowl to drink from it but Slick lifts up a spoon to remind him how to eat properly prompting the big Ugandan Giant to lift up the spoon and place it into the bowl before gently lifting it to his mouth whilst looking on to Slick for some approval. The Reverend smiles and says he will fetch the next course, as Slick leaves the room Kamala picks up the bowl and savagely drinks it before we see Slick return to the room to Kamala sat with a big grin on his face which is covered in Tomato soup which is dripping down his chin as the vignette fades in on that huge smile. A Star is Born “Record Producer” Cass Golden spoke about how a multiple gold record winning country singer is coming to the WWF. She announced that she is “C A Double S” and he is “J E Double F” and together they are “Golden”. We then panned up to a man with a guitar that had been sitting in the background to see the face of Memphis rising star Jeff Jarrett and he uttered the words “Ain’t I Great” Elsewhere On Monday Night Raw we saw Typhoon defeat Terry Taylor in a very one sided match. Over on Superstars we saw victories for Max Moon, Money Inc., El Matador and Yokozuna. Over on Wrestling Challenge Rick Martel beat a competitor referred to as the Ohio Kid, Bob Backlund triumphed over Virgil in a competitive bout and there were victories for The Nasty Boys, Papa Shango and Tatanka. ------------------------------------------------------------------ The Wrestling Observer Notes January Week 3 1993 (pre-Rumble) Written and edited by Dave Meltzer -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Word around is that Ric Flair is done with the company for real. It is no secret that he has not been happy with the way he lost the title to Bret Hart and how he has been booked in general. With the company looking to move focus in a different direction Flair asked for and was granted his release putting Perfect over on the way out. He is expected to take some time away but ultimately to end up back in WCW right at the top of the card soon. The loser leaves WWF match itself was extremely well received and the reaction of disbelief at the end from Bobby Heenan as he had tried everything but still could not save Flair was comedy gold. Speaking of WCW Paul Heyman (Paul E. Dangerously) is done with the company after his contract was allowed to run down. What is next for Paul, well he has irons in a few fires and has been heavily linked with starting a new promotion with an unknown benefactor so watch this space there. Going back to Heenan it is believed that post-Royal Rumble at some point soon we will see Rob Bartlett removed from his position. The experiment does not seem to of worked and many fans are actively chanting out against him. Expect to see a shake-up in the commentary team for Monday Night Raw. Interesting to note on Wrestling Challenge the Headlock on Hunger campaign was referenced heavily and a show to raise funds was mentioned during the match between two of the larger ambassadors of the campaign Virgil and Bob Backlund. More news and what and when as we get it. In Game Ratings Monday Night Raw #3 - 75 Superstars #332 - 50 Wrestling Challenge #336 - 52 Match of the Week: Mr. Perfect over Ric Flair (80) Worst Match of the Week: Max Moon over The Predator (11)

Great start and a time period that is close to my heart. I was more of a WWF guy so I am going in with almost a clean slate in terms of what WCW was like at the time. All of this and more, this Saturday on World Championship Wrestling! SIX-MAN TAG IN THE MAIN EVENT STING, "THE NATURAL" DUSTIN RHODES, AND RICKY "THE DRAGON" STEAMBOAT VERSUS THE DANGEROUS ALLIANCE ("RAVISHING" RICK RUDE, ARN ANDERSON, AND LARRY ZBYSZKO) w/ PAUL E. DANGEROUSLY I think the heels have to pick up the win here by some kind of nefarious means WCW TELEVISION TITLE MATCH "STUNNING" STEVE AUSTIN © w/ PAUL E. DANGEROUSLY & MADUSA VERSUS RON SIMMONS I absolutely am a huge fan of Simmons but I think this is another one in the W column for Paul's men. WCW UNITED STATES TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH THE YOUNG PISTOLS © (STEVE ARMSTRONG & TRACY SMOTHERS) VERSUS THE STEINER BROTHERS (RICK & SCOTT STEINER) This could go either way but I think it would be a statement to start the year off with the title change. CACTUS JACK VERSUS VAN HAMMER VADER & MR. HUGHES VERSUS THE WCW PATRIOTS (FIREBREAKER CHIP & TODD CHAMPION) Looking forward to reading the show buddy

------------------------------------------------------------------ The Wrestling Observer Notes January Week 2 1993 Written and edited by Dave Meltzer -------------------------------------------------------------------------- There were better reviews around this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw with the increased star power on display having played a huge factor in that. It is felt that this could be expanded on as the network are very happy with the ratings for the first couple of episodes. There is a feeling within the company that they are treading water a little with much of the Royal rumble set in stone. The thought process is once that is out of the way and the build to WrestleMania IX begins there will be much more going on for fans to get their teeth into. Cass Golden can now be identified as Terri Boatright who is currently dating WCW star Dustin Rhodes. She is best known for her role in WCW as Alexandra York and it seems she has gotten her teeth into a new role here. With 25 of the 30 participants announced here is a rundown of the current card for Royal Rumble in two weeks • 30 Man Over the Top Royal Rumble Main Event (Winner to face the WWF World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania IX) • WWF World Heavyweight Championship: Bret Hart© defends against Razor Ramon • WWF Intercontinental Championship: Shawn Michaels© defends against Marty Jannetty (Sensational Sherri will be at ringside) • Battle of the Teams of Brothers: The Steiner Brothers vs. The Beverly Brothers • Plus…The debut of The Narcissus In WCW news, they held Clash of the Champions XXII which was ultimately well-received by their fan base (75). Here are the results World Heavyweight Title: Big Van Vader© over Ricky Steamboat United States Title Cage Match: Barry Windham© over Michael Hayes Davey Boy Smith and Sting over Paul Orndorff and Bill Irwin Television Title: Arn Anderson© over Dustin Rhodes Cactus Jack over Johnny B. Badd DeWayne Bruce over Ron Simmons (This was seemingly a punishment as due to ongoing tension with Bill Watts it looks like Simmons is leaving soon when his contract ends) Shane Douglas, Brad Armstrong, and Marcus Bagwell over Chris Benoit, The Barbarian, and Tony Atlas Steven Regal over Scotty Flamingo Robbie V over Bobby Eaton In Game Ratings Monday Night Raw #2 - 70 Superstars #331 - 65 Wrestling Challenge #335 - 51 Match of the Week: Jim Duggan over Shawn Michaels (72) Worst Match of the Week: Doink the Clown over Ross Greenberg (43)

------------------------------------------------------------------ The Wrestling Observer Notes January Week 1 1993 Written and edited by Dave Meltzer -------------------------------------------------------------------------- There were mixed reviews around the inaugural episode of Monday Night Raw with the brunt of criticism being brought about by the lack of star power on the show itself. With Superstars and Wrestling Challenge showing less competitive bouts, it has been touted that this show should feature a higher class of competitors. Vince McMahon was said to be annoyed with enhancement talent Jason Knight. Who was scheduled to face The Repo Man but failed to show up in enough time to the arena. No word on if Knight will be booked again in the future going forward. With 15 of the 30 participants announced here is a rundown of the current card for Royal Rumble in two weeks • 30 Man Over the Top Royal Rumble Main Event (Winner to face the WWF World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania IX) • WWF World Heavyweight Championship: Bret Hart© defends against Razor Ramon • WWF Intercontinental Championship: Shawn Michaels© defends against Marty Jannetty (Sensational Sherri will be at ringside) • Battle of the Teams of Brothers: The Steiner Brothers vs. The Beverly Brothers • Plus…The debut of The Narcissus In other news in a dark match this weekend highly rated independent high flyer The Lightning Kid (Sean Waltman) took on local New England standout Scott Taylor. Word is both are signing on with Taylor set to be an enhancement talent but Waltman’s creative status is up in the air. In contract news, Ric Flair looks set to turn his back on the WWF as expected as rumors surfaced of a lucrative offer from World Championship Wrestling. Flair has not been happy with his role and never felt settled in the company. Expect things to tie up soon in his feud with Mr. Perfect and Ric to quietly leave the company. In WCW news, this week's Saturday Night was headlined by a fantastic match between Davey Boy Smith and Sting against Arn Anderson and Cactus Jack with Sting going over. In Game Ratings Monday Night Raw #1 - 65 Superstars #330 - 59 Wrestling Challenge #334 - 57 Match of the Week: Razor Ramon over Koko. B Ware (65) Worst Match of the Week: Repo Man over Red Tyler (32)

So that brings us slap bang to now with the WWF heading into 1993 there are some interesting storylines developing which will now be detailed. In the WWF World Heavyweight title scene the biggest threat at present to Bret Hart’s title is the impressive Razor Ramon. Razor is set to challenge Hart for the title at Royal Rumble and has already begun the mind games by sneak attacking his brother Owen during an interview recently. This has the makings of a solid feud which could produce some entertaining matches. In the WWF Intercontinental title scene Shawn Michaels is set to defend at the Royal Rumble against former tag team partner the returning Marty Jannetty. Michaels turned on his partner and threw him through a plate glass window on the set of Brutus Beefcake’s Barber Shop. Jannetty returned in October attempting to nail Michaels with a mirror as revenge but Michaels pulled his valet Sherri in the way and escaped unharmed. With the two facing off for the title at the rumble it is unsure which corner Sherri will be in although it has been revealed that she will be there. In the WWF Tag Team title scene Ted DiBiase and Irwin R. Schyster collectively known as Money Inc. are the current champions although there is very little life in the division at present. With no clear challengers The Steiner Brothers are looking to earn a shot facing The Beverly Brothers at the Royal Rumble to decide who the better team of brothers is after very little in way of a feud. Elsewhere teams in contention include The Headshrinkers, The Nasty Boys and The Natural Disasters although Earthquake and Typhoon have not been teaming much lately. Elsewhere the impressive Yokozuna is one of the hot favourites for the Royal Rumble. The over 500lb mammoth of a man has been lead by manager Mr. Fuji to some impressive squash victories in recent times and has yet to be taken off his feet by anyone. Another wrestler on a hot streak is Tatanka. The Native American is still undefeated heading into 1993 after debuting with the company in late 1991. He has scored big victories including over Rick Martel and also managed to win a 40 man Battle Royal in 1992 so could be a dark horse for the Royal Rumble himself. Elsewhere Mr. Perfect and Ric Flair are still at odds after Perfect’s turn at the Survivor Series although as previously mentioned Flair wants to go back to WCW and is clearly unhappy in his role at the WWF. Also set to debut for the company at the Royal Rumble is The Narcissus with Bobby Heenan hyping up his appearance for the past number of weeks. Another worker soon to debut will be Jorge Gonzalez, early indications show he will work a gimmick of Giant Gonzalez with some kind of padded muscle suit due to his poor physique. He could possibly work a programme with The Undertaker although early details on the matter are very sketchy. Doink the Clown has not yet had an official match in the company but is already causing havoc. He has thrown water over Marty Jannetty, tripped over the Big Bossman and caught Tatanka in the eye with a wet mop. Who will step up to put this unfunny clown in his place? Finally Kamala is currently in a tug of war between long term manager Harvey Wippleman and the recently returned Reverend Slick with Slick wanting Kamala to be treated like a man. This leaves the current Royal Rumble 1993 card as follows: • 30 Man Over the Top Royal Rumble Main Event (Winner to face the WWF World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania IX) • WWF World Heavyweight Championship: Bret Hart© defends against Razor Ramon • WWF Intercontinental Championship: Shawn Michaels© defends against Marty Jannetty (Sensational Sherri will be at ringside) • Battle of the Teams of Brothers: The Steiner Brothers vs. The Beverly Brothers • Plus…The debut of The Narcissus So that’s the WWF, what about the rest of the world…well here is a rundown of the Wrestling Observer top Awards for 1992. Wrestler of the Year – “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair Most Outstanding Wrestler – Jushin “Thunder” Lyger Best Babyface – Sting Best Heel – Rick Rude Manager of the Year – Jim Cornette Feud of the Year - Jeff Jarrett & Jerry Lawler vs. The Moondogs (USWA) Tag Team of the Year - Miracle Violence Connection (Terry Gordy and Steve Williams) Most Improved – El Samurai Best on Interviews – “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair Most Charismatic – Sting Best Technical Wrestler – Jushin “Thunder” Lyger Best Brawler – Cactus Jack Best Flying Wrestler – Jushin “Thunder” Lyger Most Overrated – Erik Watts Most Underrated – Terry Taylor Promotion of the Year – New Japan Pro Wrestling Best Weekly Television Show – All Japan Pro Wrestling Match of the Year - Kenta Kobashi and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Doug Furnas and Dan Kroffat (AJPW) Rookie of the Year – Rey Misterio Jr. Best Television Announcer – Jim Ross Worst Television Announcer – Gorilla Monsoon Best Major Show - Wrestlemarinpiad IV (AJW) Worst Major Show – Halloween havoc (WCW) Best Wrestling Move – 450 Splash (2 Cold Scorpio) Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic - Pushing Erik Watts (WCW) Worst Television Show - Global Wrestling Federation on ESPN Worst Match of the Year - Rick Rude vs. Masahiro Chono (WCW) Worst Feud of the Year – The Ultimate Warrior vs. Papa Shango (WWF) Worst Promotion of the Year - Global Championship Wrestling Best Booker- Riki Choshu (NJPW) Promoter of the Year – Shohei Baba (AJPW) Best Gimmick – The Undertaker (WWF) Worst Gimmick – Papa Shango (WWF) Reader’s Favourite Wrestler – Ric Flair Reader’s Least Favourite Wrestler – Erik Watts Worst Wrestler – Andre the Giant Worst Tag Team - The Bushwhackers (Luke Williams and Butch Miller) Worst Manager – Mr. Fuji Most Embarrassing Wrestler – Papa Shango -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Also worth noting is a recently done independent article on the top 30 wrestlers at the moment based around a combination of in ring talent, popularity and other factors. 1. Sting 2. Randy Savage 3. Ric Flair 4. Rick Rude 5. Bret Hart 6. Ricky Steamboat 7. Jerry Lawler 8. Scott Steiner 9. Ultimate Warrior 10. Steve Austin 11. Rick Steiner 12. Hulk Hogan 13. Barry Windham 14. Steve Williams 15. Vader 16. Shawn Michaels 17. Arn Anderson 18. Jushin Thunder Liger 19. Ron Simmons 20. The Undertaker 21. Ted DiBiase 22. Big Bossman 23. Keiji Mutoh 24. Jeff Jarrett 25. Bobby Eaton 26. Curt Hennig 27. Cactus Jack 28. Davey Boy Smith 29. Terry Gordy 30. Brian Pillman -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WWF Roster 1993 Face Heel Main Event “The Hitman” Bret Hart “The Immortal” Hulk Hogan – On Hiatus “Macho Man” Randy Savage - Reportedly Planning to cut down schedule “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair – Currently unhappy and unlikely to be around for much longer The Undertaker Upper Midcard “The Beast From the East” Bam Bam Bigelow “The Taxman” Irwin R. Schyster The Narcissus – Yet to Debut Mr. Perfect “The Bad Guy” Razor Ramon “The Dog Faced Gremlin” Rick Steiner Scott Steiner “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels “Native American” Tatanka “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase Yokozuna Midcard Beau Beverly Big Bossman Blake Beverly “Nasty Boy” Brian Knobbs Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake – Returning Soon Crush Doink the Clown Earthquake Fatu Giant Gonzalez – Yet to Debut “The King” Jerry Lawler “Nasty Boy” Jerry Sags “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan “The Ugandan Giant” Kamala “The Bird Man” Koko B. Ware “The Rocket” Owen Hart Marty Jannetty “The Voodoo King” Papa Shango “The Model” Rick Martel Repo Man Samu “El Matador” Tito Santana Typhoon Lower Midcard Bob Backlund Bushwhacker Butch Bushwhacker Luke Max Moon “The Alligator Man” Skinner The Berzerker Opener Damien Demento The Brooklyn Brawler “Jumpin’” Jim Brunzell Jim Powers Lance Cassidy “Terrific” Terry Taylor The Predator Virgil Enhancement Talent - No Real Alignment Al Burke Barry Hardy Barry Horowitz Dale Wolfe Duane Gill Ed Moretti Gary Key Glen Ruth Jason Knight Louie Spicolli Mike Bell “Iron” Mike Sharpe Red Tyler Reno Riggins Russ Greenberg Tony DeVito Managers Afa – Manages The Headshrinkers Harvey Wippleman – Manages Kamala “The Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart – Manages Money Inc. Mr Fuji – Manages Yokozuna Paul Bearer – Manages The Undertaker Reverend Slick Sensational Sherri Announcing Team “Lord” Alfred Hayes – Commentator and Occasional Backstage Interviewer Bobby “The Brain” Heenan – Colour Commentator “Mean” Gene Okerlund – Backstage Interviewer and Occasional Announcer Gorilla Monsoon – Commentator Howard Finkel – Ring Announcer Mike McGuirk – Ring Announcer and Occasional Announcer Raymond Rougeau – Backstage Interviewer Rob Bartlett - Commentator Sean Mooney – Commentator Vince McMahon – Commentator Referees Bill Alfonso Billy Silverman Danny Davis Earl Hebner Jack Doan – Trainee Referee/Truck Driver/Ring Crew Jim Korderas Joey Marella Mike Chioda Shane Stevens Tim White Road Agents Arnold Skaaland Bruce Prichard Chief Jay Strongbow Dave Hebner George “The Animal” Steele Gerald Briscoe Jack Lanza James J. Dillon Pat Patterson Ray Stevens Rene Goulet Sgt. Slaughter Tony Garea Misc Jack Tunney – On Air Authority Figure Linda McMahon – Vince McMahons wife Champions WWF World Heavyweight – Bret Hart (defeated Ric Flair October 1992) WWF World Tag Team – Money Inc. (defeated The Natural Disasters October 1992) WWF Intercontinental – Shawn Michaels (defeated British Bulldog October 1992) Tag Teams Beverly Brothers (Beau Beverly and Blake Beverly) High Energy (Owen Hart and Koko B. Ware) Money Inc. (IRS and Ted DiBiase) Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags) Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon) Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner) The Bushwhackers (Luke and Butch) The Headshrinkers (Fatu and Samu) Virgil and El Matador -------------------------------------------------------------------------- TV Shows Monday Night RAW - 1 Hour A Show (yet to debut) Announcers – Vince McMahon, Randy Savage and Rob Bartlett Wrestling Challenge – 1 Hour B Show Announcers – Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan Superstars – 1 Hour B Show Announcers – Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler and Bobby Heenan

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="YoungNoble" data-cite="YoungNoble" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="52901" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Looks great. I am just starting a 1993 ECW binge. Any chance you could screenshot their roster, too?</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Sure, no worries, I do not have a logo sorted for them yet so that is why at the moment no in-game screens of them. Here is their roster as it stands though (Some are short term like Bulldog is one appearance left events only as he was only there for a cup of coffee and had agreed with WCW):</p><p> </p><p> <img alt="Ju2jif3.png" data-src="https://i.imgur.com/Ju2jif3.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p>

Another quick update to say rosters for the initial 46 companies are complete barring a couple of people I need to find extra info on. I will now be moving onto filling out some free agents. The worker count stands at just under 1,000 at the moment. There are a couple of additional promotions I have information on that I am considering adding but not sure on: World Wrestling Association (Mexico) Oriental Pro-Wrestling (Japan) Universal Wrestling Superstars (New York) Power Zone Wrestling Alliance (Oklahoma) Big D Pro Wrestling *(Texas) Nu-Age Wrestling (Wisconsin) Pro Wrestling Crusaders (Japan) River City Wrestling (Winnipeg) Will see what workers I would need to fill them etc once I sort my planned list of free agents.

Quick update on the mod in the main post with UWFi, USWA, UWA, UWF and WCCW all completed now. Two more preview pictures in the main post. 3 additional storylines taking it to 26 added which can be seen listed in the main post for USWA. Progress coming along nicely with workers now over 900. EDIT; Considering adding WWA Mexico and Oriental Pro Wrestling (Short lived Japanese promotion) if I can find info on them in addition to those already mentioned