WWF RAW April 12 1993 Review (Awful Creative Ruins A Fun Show)

Tomás Cunha
Nov 24, 2022
7 min read

Updated: 7 days ago

April 12, 1993 Location: Poughkeepsie, New York, USA (Mid-Hudson Civic Center) Announced attendance: ca 3 500 TV rating: 3.4 (USA Network)[up 70.59% from the previous week’s 2.4]

Welcome everyone to yet another RAW review on the blog. With WrestleMania IX firmly in the rearview mirror, tonight sees Scott Steiner take on IRS, one half of the tag team champions. Also, Tatanka and Papa Shango are in action, and there’s the unforgettable debut of the great, legendary, mythical, iconic… Friar Ferguson!

Here is the list of champions in WWF heading into this RAW:

WWF Champion: Hulk Hogan [8th day of his reign] – previous champion: Yokozuna
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Shawn Michaels [167th day of his reign] – previous champion: The British Bulldog
WWF World Tag Team Champions: Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase & Irwin R. Schyster) [181st day of their reign] – previous champions: The Natural Disasters (Earthquake & Typhoon)

Note: in title matches, the defending champions’ names appear underlined

Enjoy the review!

Your hosts are Vince McMahon, Randy Savage & Rob Bartlett

This week starts with Money Inc. paying the Beverlys off for information on the Steiners, whom the Beverlys faced last week and are the new no. 1 contenders for the tag titles.

Show’s intro plays and the announcers welcome us to RAW.

Irwin R. Schyster (w/ Ted DiBiase) vs. Scott Steiner (w/ Rick Steiner)

IRS keeps holding on to the ropes to avoid Steiner to start. Steiner finally has enough of it and tries to power IRS into the middle of the ring by his leg, but IRS catches him with an enziguiri. Steiner explodes with a powerslam and IRS immediately bails for some words from DiBiase. That advice? “If you ever jump ship again and they ask you to join the nWo, for the love of god say no”. If only he paid attention. Back in, Steiner takes him down with a number of running shoulderblocks and he goes after the arm. Steinerline gets two. IRS takes over with the help of a cheapshot, but a suplex is reversed by Steiner into one of his own, and IRS bails once again. IRS with another cheapshot, dumps Steiner and DiBiase adds some shots on the floor while the ref is distracted by IRS, and we go to break.

Commercial break

We’re back with IRS working a chinlock while the crowd gives him the “Irwin” chants. Steiner escapes the hold and begins to fight back, but IRS cuts him off with another cheap attack leading to a backbreaker. IRS goes up, which sounds wrong in and of itself, and the landing only finds Scott’s boot. Steiner unloads in the corner and uses IRS’ tie to hit a modified version of Macho Man’s necksnap. Steiner with a baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack bodydrop, and the butterfly powerbomb draws DiBiase in to break up the pin and cause the DQ at 12:30.

The Steiners continue the beating on both members of Money Inc and set them up for their Doomsday Bulldog, but the Beverlys come in to save the champions. However, they end up hitting DiBiase by mistake and the Steiners walk away celebrating. A fight nearly breaks out between Money Inc and the Beverlys, but Money Inc retreat.

Rating: Fine singles preview of an inevitable tag team title showdown coming up between both pairs. Money Inc were on an amazing one-year run as champions already, save from that random reign from the Natural Disasters. The match was solid, with IRS trying to avoid Scott Steiner’s strength and quickness as much as possible. This put the Steiners over as credible threats to the heels’ straps, so thumbs up all around. I always enjoyed how Money Inc tried everything to avoid getting their hands dirty, which works especially against a team as explosive as the Steiners. **1/2

Tonight after RAW: WrestleMania IX replay only on PPV. I doubt anyone bought it.

Tatanka vs. Von Krus

Tatanka fires away with a series of armdrags to start, as Doink makes his presence felt at ringside early on. Von Krus, who is the future Big Vito by the way, chops away in the corner, but Tatanka turns that around in short order. Tatanka with a powerslam into an elbowdrop, as well as a vertical suplex. Von Krus catches a charging Tatanka with a spinning back elbow, but Tatanka backdrops him and goes on the WARPATH. He unloads with the chops as usual and ends it with the Not Samoan Drop at 4:00 to remain undefeated.

Rating: Very enjoyable squash match to me. Decisive win by Tatanka, who wasn’t wasting any time here after failing to win the Intercontinental Title at WM 9 (despite winning by DQ). *1/4

WrestleMania IX Report w/ Sean Mooney

Jack Tunney received Yokozuna and Fuji’s complaints and he made an official decision: Hulk Hogan is indeed the new WWF World Heavyweight Champion.
Doink the Clown claims what happened in the match with Crush was nothing but an illusion.
Giant Gonzalez realized at WrestleMania that you can’t kill a man that’s already dead… whatever that means. Only one man will be able to survive this “bitter rivalry”, Mooney adds. It wouldn’t be me, personally.

Rob Bartlett interviews Luna Vachon

Luna comes out and immediately declares herself the woman of the 90s, which draws Sensational Sherri to ringside. Luna gets in Sherri’s face saying she would easily beat her up, Sherri responds she’s been in the ring with bigger men and then they go at it. Sherri beats up Bartlett and then suplexes Luna out on the floor, thus turning into the biggest babyface in the world in a minute. Luna attacks Sherri with her belt and tries to rip Sherri’s clothes off, but Sherri fights back and their brawl goes into the crowd, until Sgt. Slaughter comes out to break it up. This was a wild chaotic brawl and it was great! A giant breath of fresh air compared to what they were doing in the weeks leading up to WrestleMania on RAW, aka nothing.

We come back from a commercial break with Randy Savage interviewing Sherri. Luna comes back to start yet another fight, but Sherri fights her off and Luna gets taken to the back rather quickly. Sherri completes the interview with Savage, who raises her hand and puts her over in the end. That was a fun little reunion between them.

Papa Shango vs. Scott Taylor

Just as the show was picking up, a Papa Shango squash. Why do they keep putting him here if there are no plans and the gimmick has been dead for nearly a year now? Was everyone else busy in the back shooting IcoPro commercials at this time of the show and Vince just yelled “ah whatever throw Shango in there for 3 minutes pal”!? The future Scotty 2 Hotty avoids a clothesline and hits a dropkick to start, but Shango whiffs him away to escape and hiptosses Taylor out of the corner. Papa Shango drops a few headbutts, while Rob Bartlett makes his way back to ringside with his clothes totally destroyed from the girls’ fight earlier. Meanwhile, Papa Shango drops Taylor with the shoulderbreaker for the win at 2:24.

Rating: No one cares. 1/4*

Main Event

Friar Ferguson vs. Chris Duffy

This is so dumb I don’t even have the words for it. Friar is the former Norman the Lunatic in WCW, and would be repackaged in WWF as soon as after this match since this gimmick is that stupid. He changed to Bastion Booger, so good for him? Ferguson starts with a legdrop, showing he studied WWF main event style. Man, this had everything to work after all. I wonder who stooged him off and ended the World Title aspirations of Friar Ferguson. While this nonsense is going on, Vince announces Money Inc vs The Beverlys in a non-title match for next week. After about a minute of walking around, Friar slams him and splashes him, but stops the pin at two. Oh joy. Ferguson with a nerve hold and a backdrop, and the crowd couldn’t care less. Duffy tries a sunset flip, but Ferguson blocks it by dropping his giant ass on him and that does it at 4:22.

Rating: Terrible idea that no one cared about or remembers. DUD

Next week: an interview with Bret Hart plus Razor Ramon vs Virgil.

Money Inc are standing by in the back to accept the Beverlys’ challenge. The Beverlys jump them from behind and that’s how we go off the air this week.

END OF THE SHOW

Final thoughts: It’s been said multiple times how the “how you leave ’em” affect can change any show’s perspective, as the show can be highly enjoyable, but if the last moment or two are infamous, then it becomes a terrible show. This is one of those shows. I absolutely loved the beginning of this week’s episode, with Steiner/IRS doing some nice business after having a solid singles match, and Sherri and Luna having a very chaotic brawl all over ringside that just wasn’t being done during this time. I even enjoyed Tatanka’s squash match a lot, with Tatanka looking serious and determined to get back in the title hunt. And then a Papa Shango squash in 1993 happened, which will always be filler, and Friar Ferguson was the cherry on top of the crappy cake. Watch this episode, but close it as soon as Sherri and Luna are done. 6/10

POINT SYSTEM

How does our point system work?

That’s gonna be all from today’s post. Don’t miss any of the other RAW reviews on the blog. Download the web-app which you can find in your link bar. See you next time!

Do you enjoy the content we put out here on SmarKDown? If so and you would like to support us, please consider donating as it would help us improve. You can donate yearly, monthly or just once, choosing one of the amounts below or a custom one as you wish. All donations are appreciated!