WWF RAW July 12 1993 Review (Yokozuna, Crush!)

Tomás Cunha
Jul 30, 2023
6 min read

July 12, 1993 Taped show (on July 5, 1993) Location: Manhattan, New York, USA (Manhattan Center) Announced attendance: N/A TV rating: 2.7 (USA Network) [down 7.1% from the previous week’s 2.9 rating]

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Hey there everyone. Welcome to another Monday Night RAW review. This week is pretty huge, featuring the second ever WWF Championship match in RAW history, with the newly-crowned champion Yokozuna defending against Crush. Plus, we have Tatanka, Mr. Hughes, The Headshrinkers and Adam Bomb in action.

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

WWF Champion: Yokozuna [29th day of his 2nd reign] – previous champion: Hulk Hogan
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Shawn Michaels [36th day of his 2nd reign] – previous champion: Marty Jannetty
WWF World Tag Team Champions: The Steiner Brothers (Rick & Scott Steiner) [23rd day of their 2nd reign] – previous champions: Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase & Irwin R. Schyster)

Note: in title matches, the defending champions appear underlined

Enjoy the review!

Your hosts are Vince McMahon, Bobby Heenan & Randy Savage

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We go straight to Yokozuna’s entrance for the tonight’s title match, with the RAW intro only playing afterwards. When we return, the announcers plug tonight’s events, followed by Crush making his entrance.

WWF Championship – Yokozuna (w/ Mr. Fuji) vs. Crush

Yokozuna vs. Crush WWF WWE Championship RAW July 12 1993 Match Card

Crush is getting this title shot after he managed to lift Yokozuna off his feet in the bodyslam challenge. They lockup with Crush taking it to Yokozuna early on. Yoko slams a charging Crush, but misses an elbowdrop and Crush big boots Yoko to the floor. Back in, a bunch of running shoulderblocks by Crush have no effect on Yokozuna, and a running corner splash doesn’t do much better. He knocks himself out on the turnbuckle while trying a second one, however, allowing Yokozuna to take control. Yokozuna locks in the DREADED NERVE HOLD OF DEATH while we go to break.

Commercial break

We come back with Crush attempting to make a comeback, only to run into a thrust kick as Yoko goes back to the nerve hold. Yoko himself releases the hold and chooses to slug away instead, setting him up for a running buttsplash in the corner that misses, and Crush takes him down with a dropkick followed by a clothesline. Crush goes up top and lands a flying clothesline for two. Crush climbs up again, but Fuji attacks him with the Japanese flag behind the referee’s back, knocking Crush to the outside. Yokozuna meets him out there and slams him on the floor before taking him back inside the ring. The belly to belly sets up the massive legdrop, which pretty much knocks Crush into the middle of next week. The Banzai Drop is academic and Yokozuna retains in 12:00.

The beating continues with Yokozuna absolutely destroying Crush with three more Banzai Drops. Tatanka runs out to save day, but Yokozuna clears house and sends him flying off the apron with a simple shot. Some other babyfaces come out but get knocked down as well, until Randy Savage leaves the commentary table and pushes Crush out of the way of yet another Banzai Drop. Crush eventually gets taken out on a stretcher while Bobby Heenan blames Lex Luger for all of this. Heenan puts Yoko over in a massive way afterwards.

Rating: The match was nothing crazy as I expected, but the angle that followed was fantastic and made Yokozuna look like a world beater. Crush did get to look good too with some spots where he was able to knock Yokozuna, but this was all about elevating the champ heading into the showdown with Lex Luger. **

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The Headshrinkers (Fatu & Samu) (w/ Afa) vs. PJ Walker & Aaron Ferguson

Walker is PJ Polaco aka Justin Credible. The Headshrinkers jump both guys before the bell, dumping Ferguson and nearly KILLING Walker with a double backdrop. Walker landed so hard that it even hurt Vince, who keeps calling him Ferguson! Samu runs over Walker with a clothesline and proceeds to trade headbutts with Fatu as some form of Samoan motivation! The Headshrinkers drag Walker into his own corner for the tag, and then Fatu throws Ferguson to the middle of the ring so he can clothesline him. The Headshrinkers plant Ferguson and Fatu splashes him off the top for the win at 3:23.

Rating: Honestly this was a pretty fun squash with The Headshrinkers bulldozing their opponents and looking great in the process. Props to PJ, who sold like a champ. 3/4*

Next week: Marty Jannetty’s IC title rematch against Shawn Michaels. Nice video package.

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Tatanka vs. The Brooklyn Brawler

Tatanka avoids Brawler’s shots to start and runs wild, leading to Brawler bailing. Brawler gets back in, gets in a shoving battle with Tatanka and slaps him, running away from Tatanka only to get caught with a scoop slam back in the ring. Tatanka goes after the arm, hitting a hammerlock slam. However, Brawler fights back with a clothesline and connects with a neckbreaker. Tatanka comes back with some fists, but Brawler ducks a charge and clotheslines him back down. Brawler takes off his shirt and uses it to choke Tatanka, then applies a chinlock. Some smack talk is going on between Savage and Heenan on commentary, with Savage challenging Heenan for a match next week, but Heenan refuses because it just so happens to be his farther’s birthday! Tatanka finally makes the comeback as HE’S ON THE WARPATH BY GAWD. He comes back with the usual and finishes with the Not Samoan Drop at a whoopin’ 7:13. Yikes.

Rating: This was brutal. I dig the Brawler as one of the best jobbers of all time, but there’s no reason he should be going 7 minutes with someone who’s supposed to be unstoppable for more than a year. It didn’t work. DUD

A video is shown with some kids asking for Lex Luger to be the next challenger for Yokozuna’s WWF Championship.

Mr. Hughes (w/ Harvey Wippleman) vs. Tony DeVito

The match begins with Hughes in control, as a staff member brings a wreath to ringside, with “rest in peace” written on it. Vince says The Undertaker isn’t present, but his presence is clearly felt. You don’t say! Hughes takes Tony down with an Irish whip into the buckle, and follows it up with the nicest falling headbutt ever. He covers DeVito, only to release the pin. Hughes hits a dropkick, trash talks Undertaker and puts DeVito away with the Bossman Slam at 2:13, which Vince says it’s reminiscent of The Undertaker. I’m assuming he’s comparing it to the Chokeslam, which is a bit of a stretch to say the least. Hughes destroys the wreath afterwards, having seen it was sent by The Undertaker. I’m so glad this feud went nowhere.

Rating: Not awful. 1/4*

SummerSlam Report w/ Mean Gene

Loyalty will be on the line when Bret Hart faces Jerry Lawler at SummerSlam
Lex Luger has a major announcement to make on WWF Superstars regarding a campaign (it would be the Lex Express).

Men on a Mission are coming to the WWF next week.

Main Event

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Adam Bomb (w/ Johnny Polo) vs. Scott Amati

Randy Savage gives us an update with Crush, who is breathing much better although he might have permanent damage. Savage yells at Heenan when he tries to make jokes to put the angle over as a serious deal. Meanwhile, Bomb takes it to Scott in the ring. He takes Scott outside and slams him on the floor, then brings him back in for a flying clothesline and beats him with the Atom Smasher powerbomb in 2:39.

Rating: The squash wasn’t bad, but it was really just background for the commentators to talk about Crush’s attack. 1/4*

Next week: Men on a Mission debut, Jerry Lawler hosts The King’s Court with Tiny Tim as his guest, and Michaels-Jannetty for the Intercontinental Title.

END OF THE SHOW

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Final thoughts: Well, this week’s episode was definitely a couple of notches below the recent ones, but I wouldn’t call it a total bust. Yokozuna destroying Crush was the obvious highlight this week, with the squashes being nothing special. Catch the beatdown if you’ve never seen it, but feel free to ignore the rest of the episode. 3/10