WWF RAW September 20 1993 Review (Another Upset)

September 20, 1993 Taped show (on September 13, 1993) Location: Manhattan, New York, USA (Manhattan Center) Announced attendance: ca 1,200 TV rating: 2.1 (USA Network) [up 16.7% from the previous week’s 1.8 rating]

After the shocking tag team title change last week, Scott Steiner meets Quebecer Pierre on RAWwith a title rematch hanging in the balance. Plus, Bam Bam Bigelow, Mr. Perfect and IRS are in action this week.

Here’s the list of WWF champions heading into this episode: (considering the air date)

• WWF Champion: Yokozuna [99th day of his 2nd reign] – previous champion: Hulk Hogan

• WWF Intercontinental Champion: Shawn Michaels [106th day of his 2nd reign] – previous champion: Marty Jannetty

• WWF Tag Team Champions: The Quebecers (Jacques & Pierre) [7th day of their 1st reign] – previous champions: The Steiners (Rick & Scott Steiner)

Note: in title matches, the defending champions appear underlined

Enjoy the review!

Your hosts are Vince McMahon, Bobby Heenan & Randy Savage

The episode begins with a recap of last week’s tag team title change. Check out my review here.

RAW’s intro plays.

Pierre (w/ Johnny Polo) vs. Scott Steiner

The Steiners Get A Title Rematch If Scott Wins

Steiner and Pierre slug it out to kick us off. Steiner takes Pierre down with an atomic drop before coming off the top rope with a double axehandle. Steiner throws Pierre over the top to the floor, which was illegal last week. Back in, Steiner hits a piledriver (also would’ve been a DQ last week) but Johnny Polo breaks up the pin. Steiner with an inverted Indian deathlock followed by a leg crab as he continues to bring the pain to Pierre, but he makes it to the ropes. Steiner takes Pierre up top and brings him down with a release overhead suplex. Pierre leaves the ring looking for some advice from Johnny Polo, but Steiner steals the hockey stick and the heels run all the way to the backstage area.

Commercial break

We come back with Pierre returning to the ring, and Jacques comes in with him. However, Rick Steiner also comes in to even the odds. Meanwhile, Pierre cheapshots Scott and that allows him to finally get the upper hand. DDT puts Steiner down. Pierre chokes Steiner on the ropes while Rick (with a chair in hand) and Jacques (with the hockey stick in hand) get in each other’s faces outside. Pierre hits a clothesline for two. Sunset flip by Steiner only gets one, as Polo was distracting the ref. Chinlock by Pierre, Scott fights out of it only to charge into a knee to the gut for two. Vader Bomb by Pierre gets two. And back to the chinlock goes Pierre as he remains in control. We get a “Johnny Polo” chant from the crowd. Pierre with a flying legdrop off the top rope gets two. Steiner fights back with a backslide for two, and an inside cradle gets two more. Pierre misses another Vader Bomb and Steiner capitalizes with a backdrop. Steiner makes the comeback by hitting a Steinerline, butterfly powerbomb and the Frankensteiner puts Pierre away at 12:43.

Winner: Scott Steiner

• Rating: Good TV match to get the show going. I like how they started off by having Steiner do everything that wasn’t legal in last week’s title match. The heat spot came right after the break and it was fine, but then Steiner won quite easily after making his comeback, which I wasn’t expecting. This was good although I think the heels should’ve put up more of a fight in this feud, even if it had to involve shenanigans. **3/4

Note: the title rematch didn’t happen.

Bam Bam Bigelow (w/ Luna Vachon) vs. Laverne McGill

Bigelow strikes with a dropkick as soon as the bell rings. McGill surprises Bigelow with a leapfrog and he actually blocks another dropkick attempt by Bigelow. Dropkick by McGill and he actually pounds away on Bigelow in the corner. The announcers mention “anything can happen” due to The 1-2-3 Kid’s recent win against Razor Ramon. McGill fails to dropkick Bam Bam off the apron and the big man takes over. Meanwhile, Crush joins us via phone call. Suplex by Bigelow and a sloppy dropkick. Crush ignores Savage’s comments and tells him he doesn’t wanna speak to Savage ever again. Meanwhile, the action continues with Luna getting involved while Bigelow distracts the referee. Back in, McGill tries to take Bam Bam down with a sunset flip, but Bigelow counters by sitting down on his chest. Bigelow catches McGill in midair and finishes him off with a senton bomb in 5:19.

Winner: Bam Bam Bigelow

• Rating: A really long squash that didn’t do Bigelow much favors. This was just there for the whole Savage/Crush drama on commentary. 1/4*

We see a recap of Doink the Clown’s face turn last week. Bobby Heenan has a cold because of that!

Interview with Bret Hart

Vince McMahon is in the ring with Hart. McMahon recaps the events from SummerSlam and reminds Bret that technically Lawler did win. Bret disputes the fact Lawler is the “undisputed king of the WWF” since he hasn’t beat anyone in the company still, and he didn’t win the King of the Ring. McMahon asks Bret how he’s going to rectify this. Bret says his family honor is more important than wearing a crown on his head, and his only regret is that he didn’t hold on to the Sharpshooter a bit longer. Bret finishes by saying after he’s done with Lawler, the ‘King’ won’t have a head to hold that crown on. That was a good promo as this feud continues to deliver the goods.

Mr. Perfect vs. Mike Bell

Perfect takes it to Mike Bell with a chop in the corner. Bell connects with an armdrag out of the corner. He gets all cocky about it, and Perfect quickly shuts him up with a dropkick. Perfect takes the fight outside and chops him around ringside. Back in, more chops from Perfect and he takes Bell down with the Perfect necksnap out of the corner. Kneelift and the Perfectplex end Mr. Bell’s night at 3:55.

Winner: Mr. Perfect

• Rating: Solid win by Perfect. 1/4*

Ludvig Borga cuts a promo on Lex Luger.

Meanwhile, Bobby Heenan hosts a proposal at ringside.

Main Event

Irwin R. Schyster vs. PJ Walker

IRS claims Razor Ramon doesn’t have the guts to face him before the match. IRS puts the boots to Walker to start, Razor Ramon comes down to ringside. IRS gets distracted and Walker rolls him up for another shocking upset at 1:22.

Winner: PJ Walker

• Rating: I get what they were going for, but it didn’t quite work out this time around. The match was literally just some shots by IRS and the roll-up. DUD

Meanwhile, Bobby Heenan is backstage with The Quebecers & Johnny Polo. Even though they’re not afraid of The Steiners, they think another tag teams deserve a title shot. Polo announces The Quebecers will defend the titles next week against a team that truly deserves it.

Next week: Tatanka in action, Ludvig Borga in action, the surprise tag team title match, and a one-night-only cameo from the returning Jimmy Snuka.

END OF THE SHOW

Final thoughts: A solid RAW that progressed a few stories – Savage/Crush, Razor/IRS and Bret/Lawler. The highlights were the good opener between Scott Steiner and Quebecer Pierre (even though that will ultimately go nowhere) and Bret Hart’s promo, which was really interesting. This RAW didn’t set the world on fire but I had fun watching it, outside of the really long Bam Bam Bigelow squash. 6/10

POINT SYSTEM

Find out more about the point system here.

That’s gonna be all from me. Before finishing this post, I would like to apologize for not doing this series for the last few months. I don’t plan on stopping these reviews, I’ve just been very busy with work recently. Make sure you don’t miss any of the upcoming reviews. Thank you all for reading.

Written by:

Tomás Cunha