Once again, Macho Man is missing in action from the announce team. I really hope that means he’s coming back as a wrestler because it doesn’t feel like he tends to add too much to the commentary anyway. Most of the time it’s Vince giving a mediocre play by play (“What a maneuver!”) and Bobby Heenan trying to throw Vince off. To take our minds off of it, we start out with a classic opening match of the Steiner Brothers VS random jobber sacrifice team. This time though, their opponents, Mike Curry & Reno Riggins, don’t give off the impression that they’re jobbers. They have flashy matching outfits and actually put up a good fight before inevitably losing. I wonder if this means that the WWF is experimenting to see if the crowd likes these guys enough to start booking them more?
See, they even gave one guy a jacket!
Next up we get the requisite Jeff Jarrett promo out of the way early. In this one he gets kicked out of the building he’s in. I wish I could do the same thing, but instead of a building, it’s off my tv screen.
After that, we get a match between Diesel and Razor Ramon. This is an interesting one because these two will eventually go on to be founding members of the nWo. Also of note is the fact that Razor Ramon has the Intercontinental Championship belt around his waist, but when Shawn Michaels was reinstated, he also had an IC title belt. I’m kind of curious why that isn’t the main storyline of Raw right now. Anyway, Razor Ramon manages to wear down Diesel and is just about to deliver the Razor’s Edge when Shawn Michaels runs in and superkicks Razor. HBK then grabs Razor’s IC belt from the sidelines and sets it down in the center of the ring so he can piledrive Razor onto it. Just before he can execute the move though, the 1-2-3 Kid shows up to save him. The Kid and Razor team up against HBK and his bodyguard Diesel and chase them off. This is absolutely the best development of a storyline to date in Raw. Seeing Razor Ramon turn face and team up with the 1-2-3 Kid isn’t something I ever expected to see. It’s also funny that all four men will eventually be members of the nWo.
It's nice to see dads hanging out with their kids.
We then take a break from the action to see video from a different WWF program from earlier in the week in which Santa Claus presents Doink the Clown with a present. When Doink opens the bag, he discovers a midget dressed up just like him! Doink is ecstatic, so I guess we’re just going to gloss over the fact that Santa is trafficking humans. Doink names his buddy “Dink” because I guess he’s just like, a pet or something even though he’s an adult man. Dink doesn’t seem to mind though and happily embraces Doink. Now I can’t wait to see a match between Dink and the Macho Midget.
The match will determine which is more frightening.
Now it’s time for the 1993 WWF Superstar of the Year. Vince informs us that voting was very close, so he will introduce both the winner and the runner-up, who happens to be Lex Luger. This is a very interesting development. If I had to guess, this is because they realized that Lex Luger sucks as the face of the company and they’re going to be passing the torch along to the winner of the award, who turns out to be Bret “The Hitman” Hart. Bret promises us that he’s going to win back the World Heavyweight Championship. I hope that he does so that I will actually know who the champion is.
Lex delivers one last boring speech.
Following Bret’s acceptance speech, his brother Owen Hart comes out for a match against Chris Duffy. Apparently he’s now known as “The Rocket” which I’m pretty sure is a recent development. He’s also wearing the same style of sunglasses as Bret as he makes his way to the ring. And just like Bret, he gives them to a fan in the crowd. However, unlike Bret, he gets booed all the while.
Owen definitely has at least one fan who's excited to see him.
Owen ends up winning the match via Sharpshooter, Bret’s signature move. I’m not sure what the motive is for Owen to steal all of his brother’s gimmicks, but hopefully it leads to more Owen matches and a showdown between the brothers. As 1993 starts winding down, I’m cautiously optimistic that Vince and the WWF are learning from their mistakes. Fingers crossed!