Monday Night Raw – October 31, 1994: Boo, In Both Senses
IMG Credit: WWE
Monday Night Raw
Date: October 31, 1994
Location: Memorial Auditorium, Burlington, Vermont
Attendance: 1,800
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Randy Savage
I’m almost scared to see how this era of the company does Halloween. It’s already been a terrible enough time around here and that means it could only get worse given what we’re building towards. The big match for this week is Lex Luger vs. Bob Backlund, which could work under optimal circumstances. However, there is nothing optimal about this time. Let’s get to it.
Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.
We open with some shots of a graveyard, which Vince manages to transition into Backlund’s nightmares haunting him. Now he’s changed from Dr. Jekyll (he doesn’t say into what exactly) and Luger needs to slay the monster.
Opening sequence.
Lex Luger vs. Bob Backlund
A quick armdrag puts Backlund down and Luger does Backlund’s lunging steps thing. Some leg sweeps have Backlund in more trouble and Bob can’t believe it. The standoff lets Backlund take him down but Luger slips out in something I wouldn’t have bet on. Backlund goes to a wristlock and Luger can’t power out this time. Luger gets taken down by the arm for two as Savage thinks Backlund is scared that the chickenwing won’t work here. Savage: “What if Lex Luger doesn’t exist and we’re watching Lex Luger by himself???” Vince: “Uh….how much of that candy have you eaten?”
Luger powers up but here’s Tatanka as we take a break. Back with Backlund….holding a bearhug? The heck? Luger bails to the ropes from the threat of the chickenwing so it’s off to a hammerlock bearhug (that’s a new one). Some right hands get Luger out of trouble and a running knee lift drops Backlund. Cue Tatanka again and this time the distraction lets Backlund get the chickenwing. Backlund takes him down….and Tatanka comes in for the DQ. What sense does that make?
Rating: D+. I’m still trying to get my mind around Backlund using a bearhug. Anyway, this was a mostly dull match but there was no way they were going to have a clean finish. I’ll give them points for making the chickenwing feel like the scariest move in the company, which is hard to pull off. I remember being scared of it because it was beating EVERYONE and that’s exactly the point.
Post match referees break it up but Backlund goes back in to put the hold on again. Savage finally gets off commentary and breaks it up. Instead of beating on Backlund, he pulls on him instead, which would likely crank on Luger’s arm even more. Then again, Savage was never one to think before he acted. Pretty awesome segment though, with Savage going into the crazy eyes look after the break when he rants about Backlund.
The main event of the third Action Zone: Mabel vs. Yokozuna. So much for that show.
1-2-3 Kid vs. Tony DeVito
The Kid’s hair is rather huge for some reason. Must be a Halloween thing. Savage keeps ranting about Backlund and I kind of want to see that match. DeVito shrugs off a dropkick and sends the Kid into the buckle a few times, only to miss the big elbow. The rapid fire kicks in the corner rock DeVito and it’s the running legdrop to make it even worse. A slam sets up the guillotine legdrop to finish DeVito.
Rating: D. DeVito was one of the regular jobbers around this time and while he didn’t have a good look, he was more than fine enough for a watchable match. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case here, which is hard to do against the Kid. At the same time, it’s hard to see the Kid win a squash as he’s at his best when he’s selling and you didn’t get much of that here.
Survivor Series Report, featuring the announcement that Bob Backlund wants the title match to be a submission match. Moving on though, Undertaker vs. Yokozuna is going to be a casket match and Chuck Norris (seriously) is going to be the guest enforcer. There will also be the Bad Guys (Razor Ramon/1-2-3 Kid/British Bulldog/Headshrinkers) vs. the Teamsters (Diesel/Shawn Michaels/Jim Neidhart/Owen Hart/Jeff Jarrett) and Clowns R Us (Doink/Dink/Wink/Pink) vs. the Royal Family (Jerry Lawler/Cheesy/Sleazy/Queasy) in a show that is making me cringe just thinking about it.
There was a charity softball game with the WWF Superstars beating a women’s union team.
King Kong Bundy vs. Bert Centeno
Bundy chokes him in the corner to start and goes with the general beatdown as this isn’t the most interesting thing in the world. Savage keeps going on about Backlund as the Avalanche finishes Centeno for five. Bad squash.
IRS goes to a cemetery and yells at the grave of a man named John Dough for not paying his taxes. His daughter’s birthday dinner was NOT deductible so he’ll be taking the flowers from the grave.
It’s time for the King’s Court with the Undertaker and Paul Bearer as the guests. The lights come back up and Bearer asks if Lawler is comfortable now. I’m more confused by the image of Bearer and Lawler in the same ring (you just don’t see them together that often). Lawler brings up the previous Undertaker vs. Yokozuna casket match and Undertaker doesn’t like it.
Bearer breaks out a WWF Magazine to recap the other match and promises there will be no deja vu this time around. See, Chuck Norris will be at ringside to deal with things between the undead mortician and the Samoan/Japanese sumo wrestler. Undertaker makes his usual threats and says the Creatures of the Night will help Yokozuna rest in peace. This story is so over the top that it’s kind of incredible, though not incredible enough to make up for everything else.
Next week: Bret Hart/British Bulldog vs. Owen Hart/Jim Neidhart. Well ok then.
Jim Neidhart vs. Tony Roy
Neidhart starts fast and throws Roy around as we hear about Neidhart hanging around the White House. Roy gets tied in the Tree of Woe so Owen can choke from the floor and talk trash, which is more interesting than the squash. A slam sets up the chinlock into a gutwrench suplex as this needs to end already. Neidhart finally finishes with a camel clutch.
Rating: D. All this made me want to do was skip over the rest of the show and get to the tag match next week. Neidhart doesn’t get to do squashes that often but that’s because he’s a lot better as the muscle of a team or the insane promo. This was rather dull but what else were you expecting?
Post match the hold goes on again with Owen putting the sunglasses on Roy.
Vince is in the back with Luger but we can’t hear anything being said. Savage talks over it instead….and Tatanka runs in to brawl with Luger to end the show.
Overall Rating: D-. Sweet goodness this was a bad time for the show. There were a few bright spots here and there but the biggest problem was how they tried to mix the comedy with the serious to no avail. The Survivor Series matches are looking awful with Backlund doing everything he can to carry the show. Really uninteresting show and it’s leading up to an awful pay per view.
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This episode, i still can’t believe that this episode was the last time Randy Savage would ever appear on WWF/WWE programming. It stings a lot knowing Savage never got to have his Hall Of Frame moment, of having a raw crowd chant his name and him getting to stand in the ring one last time like warrior did.
You can see Randy’s frustration throughout this episode boiling over after months of it building up each week of Raw. The way he snipes at Vince after the Backlund bit and Vince’s face darkening says it all in hindsight.
Randy really did want to continue wrestling and Vince, in his own strange way of caring, didn’t want to risk him but ended up as he often does making Randy feel that he was being pushed to the sidelines when Randy wanted to have story lines with Bret, Shawn to put them over.
You can clearly see on the next week episode where Vince announces Randy’s departure. He’s devastated to have seen Randy depart and i imagine seeing Randy over at WCW and Randy later taking the Sim Jim sponsorship made Vince bitter and resent the man and it’s part of why he refused to have anyone mention him for years.
Good God, can you imagine 3 hours a week of this era of Raw??
It sounds rather nice by comparison.
I meant 3 hra of 94 era Raw?
I watched three of these in a row and it was easier than today’s Raw. If nothing else, far fewer stupid segments and they had least had an idea of where things were going.