1993 Discussion

Discuss Raw in 1993.

Marty Jannetty v Doink The Clown (RAW, 6/21/93)
- "I didn't check under there a million per cent, but I didn't see any Doink The Clowns when I looked" -- Savage on the topic of doppleganger Doinks hiding under the ring. I found that pretty amusing. It's like the underside of the ring is quadruple the size of the canvas, like some alternate universe with booby traps and landmines that only evil clowns, Bobby Heenan and Indiana Jones can navigate. Match is good, although I'm not quite as enamoured with it as sterling and Cal. First fall has some neat "mind games" shtick from Doink, and Jannetty seems to be playing along despite not quite knowing what to make of it all. Jannetty's as babyface as a babyface can get, refusing to punch Doink in the face even after Doink taunts him and tries to goad him into it. Makes me wonder if the stories about Jannetty being blind drunk all the time were true. I mean, I drink liquor sometimes, and if a clown tells me to punch him in the face when I'm blind drunk, I'm gonna punch him in the face. They do some criss-cross stuff and Jannetty finally plants one on Doink's chin once he goes to ground to attempt a monkey flip. All is right with the world. I really like Doink in this, laughing like a maniac while slapping Jannetty around, fake crying and apologising while Jannetty's half dead, etc. No clue why Vince thought it'd be a good idea to turn him babyface. Then again, I have no clue why Dixie Carter thought it'd be a good idea to beg people to DVR Impact and watch it within three days to boost TNA's Nielson ratings. Logical explanation is that people in the wrestling business are stoopid. Jannetty's definitely not drunk here because he goes up top and Hebnar starts his mandatory five count, so Jannetty plays by the rules and jumps down. Again, I drink liquor sometimes, and if some guy with a bow tie tells me to get down off that roof before I hurt myself... no wait, terrible example. Never mind. Finish is all about Doink playing tricks as the underside of the ring shits out another clown. Crowd is outraged, as is Savage who takes it upon himself to drag the original Doink out from Narnia and blow the lid off this whole twin clown gig. Decisions' reversed, crowd is overjoyed, Savage is obviously off his face on cocaine. I like Savage as the "voice of the good guys". He's that over the top and legitimately nuts that you can buy him having the back of everybody that's there to do good when the bad guys bend the rules. He's like a beady eyed Avenger with a bitchin' beard. Not gonna vote for this, but it's fun nonetheless. ***1/2

Doink vs. Mr. Perfect - Raw 5/24/1993
They had two matches on Superstars; both were solid 6-8 minute deals that ended in non-finishes. Wouldn't say either match was essential, but they added a little fire to this match. Doink jumps Perfect to start the match and they go back and forth-- these two work really stiff together. Not Benoit/Finlay levels of stiffness, but realistic early-90s stiffness, which is nice to see, especially considering one of the guys is a clown. On Doink: I haven't seen enough of his heel run, but he seems to have had a really awesome heel character. Worked a really great evil-clown-intro shtick, plus he did some cool switch-arooski stuff. Perfect takes control and does some awesome leg work. Nothing fancy, but it looks brutal, and Doink sells well throughout the match. Perfect also busts out a ringpost leg spot, which would seem a bit heel-ish, but the two Superstars matches added enough heat to justify that.

Whenever Perfect gets in trouble, he goes back to the knee, which I liked. But then Doink kinda goes psycho and just lunges at Perfect, hobbling on his injured leg, taking him to the outside. It's really awesome. He starts to work over Perfect's arm and does a couple ringpost spots, which I guess would be revenge spots, but it's interesting to see the HEEL getting revenge on the babyface. Finish gets kinda crazy with Doink switching out with another Doink only to fall to the PERFECTPLEX.

Match is an easy recommendation, with stiff work and smart psychology and good selling, plus some awesome mat exchanges. Doink gives Perfect a fireman's carry but ends up trapped in a headscissor.

***1/2-***3/4

Marty Jannetty vs. Shawn Michaels - Raw 5/17/1993
Really liked this one, too. Wouldn't really call it the MOTY like PWI did or anything, but I thought it was slightly better than the Rumble match. Marty's early offense is better this time, and Shawn bumps/flops around, which I always really like. Marty busts out the headscissor-takeover spot that I really like. He tries a second time, but Shawn throws him off and hot shots him on the top rope. Awesome transition spot. Shawn's control segment is brief; he chokes Marty a lot. We don't get the good Marty-in-peril segment like at the Rumble, but we also don't have to deal with poor long-term selling or anything like that. Marty catches a dropkick attempt and catapults Shawn into the turnbuckle, which is another good transition spot, and I always like the way Shawn flops around (like a fish). Hot finishing stretch, too, with the crowd totally getting into it. Finish also feels better here, as I actually believed Perfect would throw a towel in Shawn's face, which set up the small package win. Crowd goes nuts. Really well-worked and well-structured TV match, I thought. Hot action throughout, and it moved quicker than the Rumble match.

***1/2

Shawn Michaels vs. Marty Jannetty - Raw 7/19/1993
Their other matches were all fast & fun with hot crowds and everything. Here, they probably have their hottest crowd yet, and they add a good story to the match. They play off their familiarity throughout the match, which means we get tons of counters. Marty always seems to be one step ahead of Shawn in each exchange, though. Shawn goes for a back drop; Marty lands on his feet. Shawn dodges Marty coming into the corner and then goes up top and hit a cross-body, only to have Marty roll through and get a near fall. Shawn rolls out of the way when Marty comes off the top, only to have Marty land on his feet and hit a DDT (false finish; ref counted 3 but Shawn had his foot on the rope, so they restarted it.) Crowd totally gets into the match, fully supporting Marty, and Diesel looks like a total meanie at ringside, and Savage puts the match over as one of the best he's ever seen (probably hyperbole, but it's still awesome).

Story follows that basic pattern throughout. Shawn finds windows to gain the upperhand by making Marty pay for rushing in/taking chances. He elbows Marty when Marty charges him in the corner and then knees him in the back to knock him out of the ring. For the finish, Marty charges him and tries to hit a cross-body to take Shawn over the ropes, but Shawn ducks and Marty flies to the outside. Diesel throws him back in and Shawn gets the pin.

Actually, now that I think about it, the match kinda reminds me of the Steamboat/Savage MLG match, where Steamboat came out hot and fiery, wanting to punish Savage, but Savage found ways to make Steamboat pay for his excessive aggression. That's more or less what Shawn does here, with some help from Diesel.

****+

Doink v Mr. Perfect - RAW, 5/24/93
- Hooo, this was great. I think having watched the first two matches made this even better, because you've got the best elements of the first two - the leg work of the first and the manly as FUCK stiff-fest that got the second thrown out - combined with more time to work and the added element of both guys simply being even better in the third than they were in the first two, where they were also really good. Perfect is by all means great in his role, but watching Doink here really makes it obvious that they dropped the ball huge by having him turn face and subsequently forcing Borne out of the role (or was he fired for drug abuse? which is another story I've heard). He's awesome in this, throwing really nasty looking strikes, from stiff slaps to stomping right on Perfect's face, selling the leg pretty much perfectly, and working over Perfect with a real snap and vigour that you just have to love given the fact he's a fucking CLOWN. Such a great character. This is also the best I recall seeing Hennig as an uber-babyface in the WWF. The match with Bret from the King of the Ring is a terrific match, but he's far from "uber-babyface" in that. His other face performances of the year have generally either been disappointing to me - opposite Michaels especially - or a step below this - opposite Flair and Luger. Honestly, I'm not a terribly big fan of Hennig in general, but he does have some great, great matches, and this is definitely one of my favourites. Not sure if I'll vote for it yet, but it deserves to be seen and I'm glad it's not only been nominated, but receiving a good amount of praise by all that have watched it. Time to step up, Mike.

Shawn Michaels v 123 Kid - RAW, 12/6/93
- Love this bad boy. These two are really good at busting out plenty of nifty shit together, and you don't get to see it all that often unless they're wrestling one another. Shawn's got it out for Waltman because he's Razor's buddy and tries to kill him by planting him with a couple Razors Edges. I really liked that aspect to the Shawn/Razor feud; making the Razors Edge a focal point of it. Non-finish hurts it a little, but it progresses the Shawn/Razor feud nicely i nthe post-match angle. Not necessarily one of the "best" WWF matches of 1993, but it's one of my favourites. Also, I just realised that the Shawn/Diesel v Razor feud went on for almost a whole year. It was really well done, too, shifting from Shawn/Razor to Diesel/Razor culminating in Diesel turning. This is good. ***1/2

Doink vs. Randy Savage (WWF Raw 8/2/93)
-Nice little match. Doink put on a good heel performance. Poking eyes, holding the ropes for leverage, mocking Savage's hurt leg, etc. Savage's selling was as good as always, and he even hid a midget dressed in Macho Man gear under the ring to combat Doink's twin. Good stuff. **3/4

Doink vs. Mr. Perfect (WWF Raw 5/24/93)
-This is a great, surly, "manly" match, as Andy would put it. Felt like something you'd see in Mid-South in 1985. Possibly my favorite Doink performance, as he brings the hate and violence in abundance. His selling was just fantastic too. There's so many great moments here - the struggle on the mat for the fujiwara arm bar, the slap battles, the choice limbwork by both men, etc. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone, and it will make my list, most likely. ***1/2

Doink vs. Marty Jannetty (WWF Raw 6/14/93)
-Doink casually walks out drinking a can of soda, and I already know this is gonna be good. Match is around 10 minutes long, and is basically the lead in for their 2/3 falls match next week. There was some good hate by the end, and they did a good job of making me wanna see it. ***

Doink vs. Marty Jannetty (2/3 Falls, WWF Raw 6/21/93)
-Doink strolls out on a unicycle, and I already know this is gonna be good. I like Matt Borne in Mid-South and as Big Josh in WCW, but I probably enjoy him the most as Doink. He really made the gimmick work, and I loved how he was billed as the evil clown that can actually wrestle. They both play some mind games early and Doink has to resort to the Greco Roman hair pull. Jannetty looked really good in the first fall, despite his ring gear and entrance music making him seem like a relic of the past. Doink started the second fall off working snug and generally being a dick - it was great. I should also note that Doink's selling of the Superkick is a thing of beauty. Doink picks apart Marty's leg in the third fall, which gets sold very well. There's some tomfoolery at the end, but it doesn't hurt the match very much. Cool to see a 20+ minute 2/3 Falls match like this on WWF TV. It'll probably make it on my list. ***1/2