Last night’s viewing, hosted by Randy Savage:






Like its predecessor, this looks at the key moments and feuds of 1993, not necessarily in chronological order. Sadly, the Curse of Coliseum Video strikes again, with some match inclusions and omissions being utterly baffling.

Yokozuna vs. Bill Jordan

Squash matches do not belong on expensive videotapes. But it’s Yokozuna’s official debut, I believe. However, this tape is supposed to be reviewing 1993, and he made his debut in October 1992, which is when this match took place (obviously, Yoko wins). Why is a 1992 match on a tape reviewing 1993?

Crush vs. W.T. Jones

Crush wins via the Cranium Crunch. Doink shows up and injures him after some tomfoolery and trickery. So the match only really existed to set up a feud with Doink. What more can I say?

Randy Savage vs. Giant Gonzalez

For what seemed like an eternity, Gonzalez choked Savage, probably because neither man could do anything else (what could Savage do, really?). And then we get a DQ. So we have, ladies and gentleman, the world’s first match involving pretty much only a chokehold. The match was awful.

Brutus Beefcake vs. Ted DiBiase

This is Beefcake’s return match. It’s a glorified angle to set up Hulk Hogan’s return. IRS shows up. The heels attempt to reinjure Beefcake’s face. Jimmy Hart turns babyface out of compassion. Enough said.

Crush vs. Doink

From WM IX. Nothing special here (WM IX was a terrible card, if you ask me). A second Doink showed up. Or did he? Wasn’t it in our heads? His tomfoolery and interference leads to Crush losing. So, were there two Doinks or not? An eternal mystery…

WWF Champion Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna

From WM IX. You know the story. In a solid but short bout, Yoko pins Bret after Fuji’s shenanigans with the salt. Hogan protests out of concern for Bret - but then soon forgets about such concern as he is offered an impromptu match, in which he pins Yoko to win the WWF World Title for the fifth time. At the time, I did feel goodwill for this as the Hulkster was back, and who wants a heel to leave WM with the world title? It’s a shame the magic didn’t last as Hogan’s heart didn’t seem in it.

Tatanka vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

This is a pretty dull match which Tatanka wins via pinfall. What more can one say?

WWF Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels vs. Marty Jannetty

Possibly the match of the tape, although I never felt this quite lived up to the hype. Still, it’s a great contest, and we have the feelgood and unexpected ending of Jannetty winning the championship, which did leave me feeling happy - then and now.

Razor Ramon vs. The 1-2-3 Kid

You don’t need me to tell you what happened in this match. What an upset. What a well-told tale. What a way to build The 1-2-3 Kid. It did its job, and that’s all one can ask for.

Razor Ramon vs. The 1-2-3 Kid

Does ANY tape really need two consecutive bouts featuring the same participants? There’s so much to cover, although I don’t suppose the tape would have been complete without it. Ramon offers Kid a sack of money in order to have a rematch. The 1-2-3 Kid thinks he’s won after a pinfall attempt on Ramon, grabs the cash and leaves. This leads to the beginning of a babyface turn for Ramon.

Mr. Perfect vs. Doink

This is their third - yes, third - King of the Ring qualifying match. dbutler69 explained the qualifying thing well many posts ago, so I won’t go into it again. It’s quite fun as Perfect pins Doink - or, rather, the second Doink, which means his pinfall victory is rather hollow, isn’t it?

Bret Hart vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

This is the KOTR ‘93 final. As Bigelow had received a bye on his way to the final, Bret was at a disadvantage as he’d had to wrestle two previous bouts. That’s a well-booked route to the final, I feel. Both men work well together, moving at a good pace, and with both men throwing everything at each other. However, Bret gets the win - a most satisfying win - as he uses the Victory Roll to pin the Beast from the East.

WWF Champion Hulk Hogan vs. Yokozuna

Hogan made his first defence of the title since winning the belt in April. What happened to the 30-day title defence rule? Oh well. I do like the story told here, with Hogan doing his absolute best to try and knock the big guy off his feet - and bodyslam him. For the first time ever (at least in his WWF career), it looks like Hogan may have met a monster he couldn’t slay. Yoko is presented as an unbeatable force of nature. Both men paint a good picture for the audience, and I consider this to be an underrated bout. We then get Yokozuna kicking out of the Legdrop of Doom, which defied belief at the time for myself and many others. Anyway, we’re left feeling deflated as a cameraman’s camera shoots a fireball into Hogan’s eyes, leading to Yoko pinning the Hulkster and regaining the belt. It’s a real shame there was no payoff to this feud, Yokozuna was one monster Hogan never stayed.

Bret Hart vs. Doink

From SummerSlam 1993, Bret faces Doink as his original opponent - Jerry Lawler - is on a crutch and cannot compete. Like so many bouts on this tape, we’re shown it in clipped form. Bret has the evil clown in the sharpshooter, but Lawler jumps in the ring and whacks Bret with his crutch. The faker! Lawler is then ordered to face Bret.

Bret Hart vs. Jerry Lawler

This is a fine bout to determine who the true King of the WWF is. Bret locks on the sharpshooter - and Lawler quits. But Bret refuses to break the hold. So the decision is reversed, meaning Lawler is deemed the true King of the WWF. Oh boy. That said, in fairness, if Lawler had done something similar - continually piledriving Bret despite referees’ pleas - we would have wanted the decision reversed, right?

WWF Champion Yokozuna vs. Lex Luger

Lex should have won here. Instead, we got the deflating count-out win for Luger after a rather tedious bout which had me checking my watch. Despite that, other babyfaces and lots of balloons appear. Like Hogan celebrating wildly after being kicked out of the WM IV world title tournament, it makes no sense to celebrate - especially as it was presented as Luger’s only shot contractually.

WWF Tag Team Champions The Steiners vs. The Quebecers

We have Province of Quebec rules, meaning titles can change hands on a DQ our count-out - and throwing your opponent over the top role is illegal. As is jumping off the top rope. When are we gonna get a Province of Quebec rules DVD? Anyway, this is a fun bout which has you rooting for the faces, but those dastardly heels win via DQ after an angry Scott clocks Jacques with Johnny Polo’s hockey stick. Damn. I often wondered, was this just a fun way to do a title change, or did the Steiners not want a pinfall loss? If anyone knows, please tell me.

Summary

There are some matches which shouldn’t be on here (in my humble opinion, of course). Gonzalez/Savage was an abomination. We also get very few complete matches. All that said, the video does highlight the key moments of 1993, and doesn’t forget that TV bouts exist, something which later “Year In Review” tapes should have remembered. So, it’s a pretty solid tape from a year which wasn’t the WWF’s finest.

I believe this opinion is objectively wrong:

I wonder how 'massive' that really was.. the video game industry wasn't nearly as lucrative as it is now... I suspect they let him keep it because it wasn't that much (comparatively)


I'm sure we taking thousands not millions, but still... just another example of WCW messing things up when they could have been competing with WWE.

I don’t remember the giant rubber ones being sold over here, just the smaller LJN ones.

We didn’t get the WWF ice cream bars, either. It sucks to be British at times.

Ha. I can imagine.

The AWA ones were Remco, right? I don’t recall seeing those over here, either.

We had pretty much - certainly in my town - LJN’s WWF line, Hasbro’s WWF line, and Galoob’s WCW line. There were also some cheap British knock-off figures that I guess we were expected to believe were top stars. This seemed to be a thing here: I saw one figure who looked like He-Man (body and hair), but was painted purple/silver and was called G-Man. Wow.

I have seen some photos, and I think I would have enjoyed some of them.

RIP to Japanese Jr Heavyweight legend Kuniaki Kobayashi. He was noted for his rivalries with Tiger Mask (Sayama) and Tiger Mask II (Misawa) and was a mainstay of New Japan, until retiring while battling cancer.