WWF Monday Night RAW – February 1, 1993
Manhattan Center
New York, New York

Announcers: Vince McMahon, “Macho Man” Randy Savage and Rob Bartlett

“Native American” Tatanka vs. Damian Demento

Result/Analysis: Tatanka via pinfall (4:10) following The End of the Trail (Samoan Drop). This match had also taken place during the WWF’s Headlock on Hunger MSG live event three nights earlier. Neither one put a headlock on anything in either match-up. Tatanka remains undefeated on television. Demento is now 0-2 on Raw having previously lost to The Undertaker in the Main Event of Raw’s debut on January 11. Bartlett makes a really lame joke here about having Tonka trucks as a kid to play on Tatanka’s name being “Tonka.” Vince, meanwhile, makes somecnews on commentary, besides telling us of tonight’s feature match between Typhoon and Doink – – – yes, I’m serious – – – that Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake will be on Raw. Hmm. That does raise an eyebrow. When was the last time Beefcake was around? In looking that up, Beefcake was last seen one year prior in February 1992 during the height of the Sid Justice and Hulk Hogan feud when Justice “rearranged” Beefcake’s face as well face “The Barber Shop” set during an appearance.

Rating: 1/2*

We see video from the Madison Square Garden/NYC Headlock on Hunger live event from the previous Friday night. WWF Champion Bret “Hitman” Hart presents American Red Cross representatives with a check for $100,000.00 for Somalia relief. All of the WWF SuperStars surrounded the ring during this ceremony. Pretty cool.

Following a commercial break, Vince McMahon is standing in the ring with a microphone in hand. Vince asks the live audience to welcome one of the all-time greats in the WWF, Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake! Savage, on commentary, says “Unbelievable! This guy is back.” The crowd is rather lukewarm for “The Barber” despite Vince telling him how exuberant the ovation is. And, we’re in trouble already here. Vince follows up with a blatant lie when he says we haven’t seen Beefcake in the WWF since that devastating and near-fatal parasailing accident. Um, that happened in July 1990 and Beefcake was active in the WWF the following summer in 1991 thru February 1992 as host of “The Barber Shop.” But, we shall continue on. Beefcake thanks Vince and says he’s here to make a very important announcement. Brutus says he intends to return to the ring, to the “struttin and cuttin’” and to take on all comers, whomever they may be. Vince exults to the crowd that Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake is back! Vince questions Beefcake on his comeback, however, given the extent of his injuries, most notably the total facial reconstruction that he had to have, and calls Brutus’ decision a very, very risky maneuveur. Beefcake agrees with Vince yet proceeds to go into lengthy detail about the demise of his parents, first his cancer-stricken mother, then his father, who fell victim to a fatal heart attack, and finally to his wife, who slapped him with divorce papers and took off with some barfly taking with her everything he had. Jesus. Beefcake claims all of that happened prior to his July 1990 parasailing accident. Brutus then describes the accident and the injuries he sustained which nearly took his life. Beefcake said he was in limbo as the doctors in the trauma center decided what to do with him but he decided to leave his fate in God’s hand. Brutus says he was reaching out for any hand, though, and who reached back? Hulk Hogan. The mention of Hogan’s name generates a pop. Vince tells Beefcake that Hogan has always been his friend till the end. Brutus goes on-and-on-and-on about Hogan aiding his long recovery every step of the way. He almost doesn’t stop. Vince again questions Brutus on the risk he poses to himself by stepping back inside the ring. Beefcake calls himself a desperate man who’s lost everything so why not come back? Again, Brutus tells us The Hulkster has encouraged him to make this comeback. Vince calls them quite the tag-team. Ah, here we go … Beefcake says that no amount of pain or suffering he’ll get being back in the ring will make him give up after what he’s been through. Brutus admits he’s signed an open contract and he’ll take on anyone that’s big or small, he doesn’t care. With Beefcake back, and the Hogan name dropping on repeat here, it’s clear that The Hulkster will be returning to the WWF, too. This interview dragged on as we heard Brutus’ sob story but he’s back in the WWF. Now we await Hogan’s return.

A WrestleMania IX promo airs. The event takes place on Sunday, April 4 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. In some way shape or form, Beefcake and Hogan will be on that card. Guaranteed.

High Energy [“The Birdman” Koko B. Ware & “The Rocket” Owen Hart
vs.
Von Krus & “Iron” Mike Sharpe

Result/Analysis: High Energy via pinfall (1:33) when Owen pins Krus following a missile dropkick by Koko. “Iron” Mike Sharpe gets as much reaction from the live crowd as High Energy do. Ouch. Vince keeps the conversation going on Beefcake’s return as this bathroom break of a match goes 90 seconds. Savage calls this a big win for High Energy. How laughable.

Rating: 1/2*

After a commercial break, we take a look back at WWF SuperStars on January 16 to Doink The Clown putting Crush on the shelf with his attack of the big Hawaiian with a fake prosthetic arm purported to be loaded with led. Crush was sidelined for the Royal Rumble last month as a result of the injuries he sustained. Vince tells us that Crush continues to recuperate back in Kona, Hawai’i to update his condition and claims that Crush will be back in a few weeks time.

Doink The Clown vs. Typhoon

Result/Analysis: Doink via pinfall (3:13) following a shoulder tackle (with a handful of tights on the cover). This was really bad! Typhoon represented every fat kid that ever got picked on in school by the class clown. He was made to look stupid and pathetic here. Knowing who Doink was (“Maniac” Matt Borne), I was aware he could wrestle and techinically so. For those who didn’t know who was portraying Doink, maybe they first saw a wrestler within the gimmick. This match, though, isn’t a prime example of seeing anything. As I said, really due to Typhoon as Doink’s opponent, the match is really bad. Doink was just getting started as Crush’s return to the ring was still on hold. Typhoon, meanwhile, became a solo act post Royal Rumble sans Earthquake and them being The Natural Disasters tag-team. Quake had departed the WWF following the Rumble for a year long stint in Japan working for their WAR promotion over there. Typhoon’s days of any remaining usefulness were numbered. He’d mostly put other wrestlers over in the remainder of his contract.

Rating: 1/4*

We get a WWF Mania promotional advertisement as the attempt remains for kids and families to tune into goofy Todd Pettengill at 10 am on Saturday mornings for mostly bad jokes and replayed matches from the previous week. You missed nothing by waiting until SuperStars aired at Noon.

Vince is now with Pettengill live to ask him what fans can expect coming up on WWF Mania the coming Saturday. Great. Pettengill promises more information on Giant Gonzalez, then cracks a stupid joke that Vince is forced to laugh at.

Ring Announcer Howard Finkel says some words in tribute of Andre The Giant who passed away during the previous week. The fans rise at Finkel’s request as the timekeeper give a 10 bell salute to Andre. As that happens, still photos from Andre’s career are shown. The WrestleMania III stare down with Hogan prior to their match is an iconic moment that will always stand the test of time in pro wrestling. Andre was only 46 years old when he died. Had he lived, he’d be 77 today. No one was more larger than life than “The Eighth Wonder of the World.”

Yokozuna (w/ Mr. Fuji) vs. Bobby DeVito

Result/Analysis: Yokozuna via pinfall (2:04) following the banzai drop. This was your standard Yokozuna versus Jobber match or frankly, against anyone up until this point. “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan “calls in” to discuss his challenge to “Yokozuma” and the match that’s upcoming on SuperStars. Duggan believes Yoko is distracted and thinking about winning the WWF Championship so he plans to take advantage of that. He uses some anti-Japan rhetoric to make his challenge a USA against Japan thing and Duggan says he will not his country down. Hacksaw believes he can and he will take “Yokozuma” off his feet. Vince cheerleads Duggan but corrects him on Yokozuna. LOL. As for DeVito, he’d actually go on to be in both ECW and RoH later on. You wouldn’t think so here as enhancement talent. Yokozuna will assuredly take Duggan out when they have their match.

Rating: 1/4*

Following a commercial break, Vince welcomes the reigning WWF Tag-Team Champions Money Inc. to come out. I.R.S. and “The Million-Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase walk out sans Jimmy Hart for this impromptu interview segment. That’s seemingly odd. Vince asks DiBiase if coming out to a capacity crowd and hearing the people boo them bothers him? In a classic retort, DiBiase says the only thing that bothers him is an empty bank account, but he’ll never have that. DiBiase laughs. Vince asks why Money Inc. wanted to come out and talk? DiBiase recites “Humpty Dumpty” which is him riffing on Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake and the sob story that was told earlier in the night. Ted says the sob story is actually really bad, but for Beefcake, after three years of being out of the ring, to have the gall to issue an open challenge to any wrestler, well, that’s even worse. DiBiase says both he and Irwin accept the challenge and figure Brutus should face a champion first in his return to the ring. Ted says that since he and Irwin both want to face Beefcake, they’ll decide on who the old democratic way … by flipping a coin. DiBiase calls heads and the coin comes up heads so he’ll be facing Beefcake. Jimmy Hart walks out and Vince asks him what he thinks of all this? Jimmy thinks it’s ridiculous and says Money Inc. need to focus on being the tag-team champions and cautions his men that their tag-team will cease to exist if either gets in the ring with Beefcake and winds up hurt. DiBiase tells Hart to calm down as accepting Beefcake’s challenge is strictly recreational (Irwin chimes in that it’s a workout). Ted says if anyone is going to get hurt it’s going to be Beefcake and they know where and how to hurt him. Irwin finally has a chance to talk. He says Brutus’ sad, sad story is breaking their hearts but even still, as Beefcake was laying flat on his back, the doctor bills collected really high and that means he’s not paying his fair share of tax which makes him no better than all of the tax cheats in attendance! DiBiase concludes the segment by saying Beefcake has only one thing left, his million-dollar face, and they wouldn’t do anything to that. Hahahaha. Hart tells Money Inc. to stop clowning around as they’ve got contracts to sign and matches to talk about. Well, Beefcake is seemingly in for it. Obviously, this storyline is only beginning here. Plus, Beefcake already name dropped Hogan earlier and it’s not a foursome without The Hulkster coming back, too. You can tell that Hart is frustrated with Money Inc. so that’s another piece to all of this.

“The Narcissist” Lex Luger is introduced for his Monday Night Raw debut. Luger goes thru his posing routine in front of a mirror set-up in the ring for him but he’s caught off guard when an obese Raw card girl enters the ring and he catches her in the mirror as she’s walking behind him and flat out loses his cool. This was funny. Vince reminds that Monday Night is as advertised: uncensored and uncooked.

We see a Mr. Perfect vignette ala the ones he did back in 1989, this one pre-taped with Minnesota Vikings All-Pro tight end Steve Jordan. The theme is for us to see Perfect as “the perfect passer.” Dumb. Perfect throws a 100-yard pass to himself as he runs down the field to catch the ball. Jordan is amazed at the perfection he’s in the company with.

“The Narcissist” Lex Luger vs. Jason Knight

Result/Analysis: Luger via pinfall (2:41) following a running forearm. Lex pins poor Jason Knight with his pinkie finger. Such arrogance. So pompous. Luger furthers himself as a dick in this gimmick as he gives an airplane spin to Knight who’s still unconscious after the forearm (that steel plate Lex has we don’t know about yet). Luger went through the motions here but he’s soaking up being “The Narcissist.” On paper, at least, Luger vs. Perfect got you excited in 1993.

Rating: 1/2*

Vince tells the TV audience that Raw is pre-empted next week as the USA Network presents The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. In two weeks, however, when Raw returns, we’ll see Beefcake versus DiBiase and a 16-man battle royal. Rob Bartlett, meanwhile, wants his own action figure.

The Verdict: The wrestling on this 4th episode of Raw was sub-par and irrelevant. The focus was on Beefcake’s return interview segment, the rambling mess that it was, and the response to it by Money Inc. which has set in motion a larger storyline still to unfold. Attention was still given to the feuds of Luger/Perfect and Crush/Doink, plus the Yokozuna/Duggan mini feud so there was an attempt to highlight more. Rob Bartlett is a major tool, this we confirmed even more.