Monday, January 10th, 1994
Richmond Coliseum
Richmond, Virginia
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It's too bad they couldn't have done the Manhattan Center for the anniversary show. We get a recap of the Quebecers/1-2-3 Kid and Marty Jannetty. Macho Man is the guest commentator here tonight, who comes out to a big pop and a Monday Night Raw themed jacket.
WWF Tag Team Championship Match
Quebecers vs. Marty Jannetty & 1-2-3 Kid
Marty and Jacques start the match off, with Marty getting the better of the exchange. Both men tag in their partners and Kid hits a spinning heel kick for a 2 count. It's pretty clear that these two teams are going to get some time, which is well deserved. We get some illegal double teaming by the Quebecers, but it of course backfires and the challengers clear the ring. So apparently they did a false finish during the commercial break, but Jacques' foot was on the bottom rope, so the match has restarted. Why would you want to show that during the actual TV show? Polo distracts the referee, allowing Pierre to pull down the top rope. Marty gets thrown back in and ducks the punch from Jacques and hits Pierre instead. Kid hits another kick and then hits a somersault dive to the outside. He goes up to the top rope again and hits a clothesline on Jacques. Pierre pushes Kid off the top rope and then chokes him with the tag rope. They then drop Kid on the top rope and get a 2 count. This is a really good match. We get another commercial break as Jacques body slams Pierre onto Kid. Back from the break and Jacques this time hits a back body drop on Pierre onto the Kid for a 2 count. They announce that next week IRS will take on Randy Savage with Crush as a guest announcer for the match. Jacques hits a piledriver on the Kid and they then hit their double team somersault dive off the top rope, but don't go for the pin. Instead, they go for it again, but Jannetty illegally interferes to break it up. The crowd is 100% into this match and Kid makes the hot tag. He takes care of both opponents and then knocks Polo off the apron. They hit a suplex splash combo and we have new champions to a big pop. Savage is in there to help them celebrate. They go out into the crowd to party with their fans. This was a really good TV match and a fun little storyline.
Match Rating: ***3/4
They then show a clip of Kid beating Razor Ramon on Raw last year. It's now time for the Royal Rumble Report with Jim Ross filling in for Todd Pettengill. All 30 participants are now announced and Lex Luger is officially in the match. They also add in Tenryu and Great Kabuki. They keep continuing to claim that every title will be on the line, already forgetting about the new WWF Women's Championship.
They show a clip of Tiny Tim and Jerry Lawler. I always felt like this was never as big of a moment as WWF thought it was.
Ludvig Borga vs. Brad Anderson
There aren't many worse ways to celebrate an anniversary than with a Borga squash. Lex Luger joins us on the phone and he'd love to get his hands on Borga at the Rumble. In the ring, Borga is getting next to no heat from a live crowd, which is never a good sign. Ironically, he puts on the Torture Rack and gets the victory. Borga was garbage.
Match Rating: 1/4*
They show Yokozuna beating two jobbers on Superstars with a double Banzai Drop. After the match, the video of Undertaker and Paul Bearer comes up on the video screen. Even 1994 me would have wanted to see this match. I remember taking a long time to rent Royal Rumble '94 and Survivor Series '94 because that was the main event.
Undertaker vs. Ray Hudson
Hudson takes one of the uglier chokeslams that I can remember here. That leads to the Tombstone and that is all. There was more, but I just didn't care enough to type it.
Match Rating: 1/4*
We get a recap of the Bastion Booger/Bam Bam Bigelow debacle.
Bastion Booger vs. Bam Bam Bigelow
Bam Bam comes right in and attacks Booger. Bigelow misses in the corner and somersaults over the top rope and hits himself on the apron on the way down. This gives Booger time to go after Luna, but Bigelow rams Booger into the steps. Bigelow goes for a body slam, but Booger kind of counters it, but I guess he wasn't supposed to? Bigelow does another one and then hits a top rope headbutt for the victory. Thankfully that was short. After the match Booger goes up to Luna and she slaps him. Bigelow then attacks him and dropkicks him out of the ring.
Match Rating: 1/4*
They go to the Quebecers backstage. Jacques says they have a genius of a manager, who signed a rematch clause and will face Jannetty and Kid at a house show in Madison Square Garden.
IRS then comes out and confronts Savage. Savage takes the Monday Night Raw cake and shoves it in his face to end the show.
We got one of the best matches in Raw history up to this point, so that pretty much warrants a watch in the one hour era. They got plenty of time and told a fun story, even if having the nearfall during the commercial break was a poor choice. The rest of the show stunk unfortunately, but you get what you get in 1994.
Overall Rating: 59%
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