WWF Monday Night RAW – February 22, 1993
Manhattan Center
New York, New York

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

Rob Bartlett begins the show with a Saturday Night Live riff telling us he’s learned a valuable lesson – – – as he points into the crowd to fans holding up letters for H-U-L-K – – – which is that wrestling fans can’t spell. “Live from New York, it’s Monday Night Raw!”

After the intro, Vince welcomes everyone to Monday Night Raw. Savage and Bartlett are alongside. Vince promotes tonight’s six-man tag-team match as Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels teams up with The Beverly Brothers to square off with “Native American” Tatanka and The Nasty Boys. Savage calls that match unbelievable but urges everyone to not touch that TV dial because The Hulkster is here and the crowd is all decked out in red and yellow. Vince has a stupid grin on his face as Macho sells the WWF return of Hulk Hogan. As for Bartlett, he has little to add other than The Undertaker is here. Vince makes sure to note Bartlett’s wardrobe of choice in that he’s wearing an auto body express shirt for El Paso, TX. Yeah Vince, get this goofball off your new #1 program!

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Scott Taylor

Result/Analysis: Bigelow via pinfall (3:01) following a diving headbutt. Taylor does nothing to Bam Bam, and he instead, takes a pummeling here. You would never guess a future awaited that young pup. Bigelow was on a tear through the enhancement talent thrown at him in the early months of 1993 but what he didn’t have was an adversary. The WWF fed him The Big Boss Man at January’s Royal Rumble and then Earthquake more recently. The former had an expiring contract while the latter was departing to wrestle in Japan for the WAR promotion. Bam Bam had the distinction, however, of being Bret Hart’s regular house show opposition pre-WrestleMania IX. Bigelow was a dominant force to watch. If you didn’t enjoy his work then you’re crazy.

Rating: *

Next to air is a sit down interview that Vince McMahon has with Hulk Hogan. Vince had a similar style interview with The Hulkster prior to his WrestleMania VIII “farewell” match versus Sid Justice in 1992 after which Hogan disappeared from WWF programming and its storylines all together in the initial transition by the company under McMahon’s guise to a younger group of wrestlers led by Heavyweight Champion Bret “Hitman” Hart and Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels. Hogan was real life best friends with Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake, however, and he seemingly summoned himself back to the WWF to assist Beefcake in his comeback, and, to even the odds with Money Inc. [I.R.S. & “Million-Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase]. Later on in this Monday Night Raw, Hogan is scheduled to appear “live” alongside Beefcake to address what happened last week when Money Inc. assaulted Beefcake. First things first, though, is this preliminary interview. The set/studio for the interview appears to be the exact same that was used in ‘92 and McMahon concurs that it is. Vince asks Hogan right off, given the speculation that’s circulating throughout the world, if he plans on announcing his return to the WWF this Monday night, thereby giving the millions of Hulk-A-Maniacs the news they hope for and want to hear. Hogan’s reply is that the future of Hulk-A-Mania is really bright and it’s only that way because of everyone that’s continued to live the life in which he’s always preached: train, say your prayers and eat your vitamins. He elevates his fans to being his heroes and credits his Hulk-A-Maniacs for carrying the torch for him over the past year since he’s been away. Hogan discusses the past of Hulk-A-Mania. He admits to making mistakes in his personal and professional life as certain things about him have come to light during his hiatus from the ring. Hogan was casually referring to the allegations levied against him in ‘92 that Dr. George Zahorian, a doctor for the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission, had been selling steroids illegally to wrestlers in general, and to him in particular. Hogan actually appeared on an episode of The Arsenio Hall Show to deny the allegations but the distraction caused to the WWF and the public scrutiny on him led to his lengthy leave of absence. Hogan downplays the tabloid stories as false and he criticizes media outlets that promote false news as facts. Hmm, that sounds like what almost every news outlet does today. Hogan tells Vince there are now five commandments that all Hulk-A-Maniacs must live by: (1) train, (2) say your prayers, (3) eat your vitamins, (4) believe in yourself and (5) believe in Hulk Hogan. Recognizing we’re now a few years into The Nineties, Hogan tells Vince he wants to be the face of this decade and the new commandments of Hulk-A-Mania are the credo to live by. Hogan says he can’t wait until Monday Night Raw for his fans to hear what he’s got to say. Vince is beaming with hope. He tells Hogan that he can’t wait to hear his announcement either.

Raw enters its first commercial break for the evening as Vince says a six-man tag-team match will be on the other side.

Six-Man Tag-Team Match:
The Beverly Brothers [Beau & Blake] & Shawn Michaels [WWF Intercontinental Champion]
vs.
The Nasty Boys [Brian Knobbs & Jerry Sags] & “Native American” Tatanka

Result/Analysis: The Nasty Boys & Tatanka via pinfall (12:40 shown) when Tatanka pins Michaels off a sunset flip. That’s now two pinfall wins for Tatanka over Michaels, the Intercontinental Champion, if you’re keeping score at home. The title match is officially signed on for WrestleMania IX in April. Michaels chooses not to mix things up much with Tatanka until the close to the match once both men are the legal participants. Shawn, instead, trades off fighting The Nasty Boys while Tatanka does the same when he’s in the ring going up against The Beverly Brothers. The NYC crowd is really behind The Nasty Boys as a babyface tag-team. They were still the named number one contenders for the Tag-Team Championship belts held by Money Inc. only a title shot never would come to them on television or pay-per-view. I always enjoyed The Beverly Brothers in ring work but once they were absent The Genius as their manager, the matches they won became far fewer, as did their place in the tag-team hierarchy. For a TV match in this era, this six-man tag runs longer than I anticipated, but it’s fairly decent. In nearly one year in the WWF Tatanka is still undefeated on television. It seems that maybe Michaels’ reign as IC Champion could be in peril come WrestleMania.

Rating: **

A WrestleMania IX promo airs. Afterward, Vince hypes the WWF Championship Match with titleholder Bret “Hitman” defending against the 505-pound Yokozuna, to which he calls Yokozuna Rob Bartlett’s favorite wrestler. Savage touts WrestleMania IX as being the best WrestleMania ever as he does the sales pitch.

Sean Mooney is outside the Manhattan Center with a throng of fans just wanting to get inside to witness the return of Hulk Hogan tonight. We hear from two Hulk-A-Maniacs on the matter with one foreshadowing another WWF Championship reign for The Hulkster. Mooney affirms that Hogan is back in the WWF.

Crush vs. “Terrific” Terry Taylor

Result/Analysis: Crush via submission (3:40) with the cranium crunch. The announcers used the match to further discuss Hogan. Rob Bartlett pretended to be Arnold Schwarzenegger on commentary as a call in to Raw to discuss Hulk-A-Mania with Macho and Vince. As for the match, Crush dominates despite some boring offense from Taylor, featuring a rear headlock. There is the mention that Crush is squaring off with Doink at WrestleMania at least. I’m not sure why Taylor was on the active roster at this point. He was useless. Savage, ever the Crush fan, until one year later when he wasn’t, ends the segment with “Shaka Brah.” Vince echoes it.

Rating: 3/4*

We see the attack on Beefcake by Money Inc. from Raw last week despite the attempt of Jimmy Hart to prevent it. The WWF return of Hulk Hogan is up next with a special interview.

Vince is in the ring now following a commercial break. Without further ado he calls out The Hulkster! Hogan walks out to a decent pop but it’s not even 1/2 of what he’d have received in his hey dey. Ouch. Hulk is noticeably trimmer, too, though he’d been trending that way for at least the past year. Vince begins the interview with an exasperated plea to Hogan asking him to tell us what we all want to hear (that he’s returning to the WWF). Hogan first pays homage to his Hulk-A-Maniacs in attendance at Monday Night Raw as he says Hulk-A-Mania is still running wild. Vince adds, “Louder than ever!” Hogan first discusses Money Inc’s attack on brother Brutus last week on Monday Night Raw claiming he watched it all go down from his beach house in Venice Beach, CA in front of his television. Hulk calls Beefcake’s comeback the greatest of all-time and says he was grinning from ear-to-ear. Hogan saw Brutus outstrut and outwrestle “The Million-Dollar Man” and says he was so proud. His smile then turned to fear, however, when that no good I.R.S. came out from the back with that briefcase. Hulk says the briefcase came at Brutus’ face a million miles per hour and when he saw and heard the crash into Brutus’ face he had to turn away because he knew at that time Beefcake’s face was crushed into a million pieces. Hogan says the good news though is that Brutus is OK despite a crinkled up nose. Hulk adds that it’s not what Money Inc. did to Brutus that scared him rather it’s what they tried to do. Hogan thanks “The Big Man upstairs” and Jimmy Hart, personally, for coming to the rescue of Beefcake last week. Hulk says he’s here at Raw, however, to tell everyone that he’s back in the WWF! The Hulk-A-Maniacs in attendance pop for that announcement. Hogan says he’s on a mission in his return and the first order of business is to write the wrong to Money Incorporated for what they tried to do to Brutus Beefcake. Hulk asks Beefcake to come out to the ring to join him. Brutus struts out wearing red and yellow. He’s got his barber shears in hand and he’s wearing sunglasses. Brutus reveals his nose bandaged up and he’s black and blue around his eyes. Beefcake says his ears are still ringing from getting struck by the briefcase. It rang his bell. He realized then that returning to the ring was his ultimate wake up call. Brutus also thanks “The Big Man” and Jimmy Hart. He says he can’t wait to get him some of Money Incorporated again. Hogan adds that he and Brutus will begin by seizing the assets of Money Inc. one by one. They’re going to start with someone who was thought to be nothing but yellow from head-to-toe. Jimmy Hart is brought out as the new manager for Beefcake and Hogan. The fans clap but the ovation is tempered probably because Hart’s entire babyface turn was so abrupt? Hart calls this day the greatest of his life. He says he dreamed of wearing the red and yellow of The Hulkster for a long, long time. Hart adds that he’s always idolized Hogan and claims there’s a lot of wrestlers in the back that idolize Hulk, too. Hart says he’s managed a lot of great tag teams but he belives that Beefcake and Hogan will be the greatest tag-team of all-time! The crowd seems to approve of that. Hart promises to take his vitamins every day of his life when he wakes up. He then tells Money Incorporated to start saying their prayers!!! Hogan names the tag-team / trio “The Mega Maniacs” and asks Hart to get DiBiase and I.R.S. booked against them in singles or tag-team matches. Hulk closes with “Whatcha gonna do Money Incorporated when the trio of ‘The Mega Maniacs’ runs wild on you”? Vince exults Hulk Hogan!!! The crowd stands and applauds as Hogan poses, waves his ear to the crowd and rips his shirt off. I’ll say just to hear “Real American” play again was worth the long-winded diatribe just seen in the ring. I do think the WWF still needed Hulk Hogan. It’s just how they’d go about using him that concerned me.

A WrestleMania IX promo airs.

The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer) vs. Skinner

Result/Analysis: ? The match begins during a commercial break then is hardly shown and it’s still ongoing when Raw goes off the air. We’re promised the conclusion next week. I wouldn’t hold my breath. Skinner, “The Aligator Man” fell victim to a tombstone piledriver I’m sure. No one needed to see the match anyway.

The Verdict: The WWF return of Hulk Hogan was 1/2 of this Monday Night Raw. We saw the formation of The Mega Maniacs with Jimmy Hart the new babyface manager to Hogan and Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake. It’s clear that a tag-team match versus Money Inc. awaits. As a Hulk-A-Maniac myself I was pumped to see Hogan back. My concern was how Vince was going to leverage him. Elsewhere, Tatanka has now pinned Shawn Michaels in two separate matches. That’s all good but no one should expect that outcome at WrestleMania. The road to Caesars Palace continues on SuperStars, Wrestling Challenge and Monday Night Raw next week.