WWF Wrestling Challenge – April 4th, 1993

April 4, 1993

Your hosts Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan are hosting from Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, NV while the matches on the show took place at the 3/7 Fayetteville, NC tapings.

Gorilla’s shirt is extremely tight fitting as he appears a lot heavier than usual. We see the clip of Doink the Clown attacking Crush with the prosthetic arm.

Crush vs. Barry Horowitz

Vince McMahon, Randy Savage, and Jerry Lawler are the announcers for the show, similar to Superstars were Gorilla & Bobby covered for the hosts of that show. Crush grounds Horowitz to start. Horowitz rakes the eyes but gets caught in a drop toehold. Crush then press slams Horowitz as the announcers talk about Doink vs. Crush at WrestleMania. Crush stays in control then uses the head vice for the win (3:15).

Thoughts: More talk of the Crush/Doink feud which given how much time has been spent on it should be over more with the fans.

An ad for WrestleMania airs.

Bob Backlund vs. Jeff Palls

Palls looks like a murderer from a film based off of a John Grisham novel. Backlund takes Palls over after a struggle as the announcers talk about Backlund vs. Razor Ramon at WrestleMania. Backlund now uses an abdominal stretch as Vince points out that Backlund has been undefeated since returning to the WWF. Backlund stays in control then uses a bridging cradle for the win (3:12).

Thoughts: The Backlund babyface push remains a lost cause and we will see that be the case at the PPV as well.

Back to Vegas with Heenan trying to con the saleslady out of a WrestleMania t-shirt. We then see Yokozuna & Mr. Fuji as they tell Bret Hart will taste the “kamikaze bomb” We then see a clip of last week when Yokozuna attacked Bret Hart after their contract signing.

The hosts now introduce us to the Bret Hart “Respect” video. After that airs, Bret is with the hosts and talks about being an underdog against Yokozuna and will show him why he is the champion. Heenan does not believe Bret will be able to put Yokozuna in the sharpshooter but Bret said that he is the “excellence of execution” and after the ten-minute mark Yokozuna will be all his as the segment ends.

The Headshrinkers w/ Afa vs. Les Parker & Jim Powers

Samu tosses Powers around as Lawler believes the Headshrinkers will defeat the Steiner Brothers in 30 seconds at WrestleMania. Powers avoids a monkey flip and works the arm before tagging out. Samu immediately gets Parker up for a gutwrench suplex then tosses him around again. Fatu tags in as the Headshrinkers stay in control until Fatu hits a top rope splash for the win (2:34). After the match, Lawler draws Rick Steiner’s head getting kicked through a goal post to give us his WrestleMania prediction.

Thoughts: I do like the hype for Headshrinkers/Steiners as two teams that are gonna beat the crap out of each other. They have both impressed in their TV squash match wins.

“The Narcissist” Lex Luger vs. Tom Italy

Italy is also the Italian Stallion of NWA/WCW fame, who has switched from green to black tights at the same taping in some sort of attempt to make him seem like a different opponent. Vince talks about Luger knocking out all of his opponents with a forearm smash as Luger beats on Italy. Luger stays in control then hits the running forearm smash for the win (2:56). After the match, Luger poses in front of his mirror.

Thoughts: Luger knocks out another opponent as the announcers keep getting suspicious as to what is causing this to happen. We also got some Luger/Perfect hype here too.

Back to Vegas as Mr. Perfect says he is what he says he is and that’s perfect as Heenan hides behind Gorilla.

Now, Harvey Whippleman & Giant Gonzalez are with the hosts as we see clips of Gonzalez attacking Undertaker at the Royal Rumble then the end of Gonzalez beating Virgil from this week’s “Superstars.” Gonzalez then says he’ll turn Caesar’s Palace into a “Roman cemetery.”

The Undertaker now tells Giant Gonzalez that he will possess his soul.

We see the hosts walk into Shawn Michael’s suite. Shawn says that Tatanka is like everyone down in the casino and promises to walk in and out with the belt around his waist as he see the camera show the belt around Shawn’s waist as he is in his underwear. They’ve really gone out of their way with these Vegas segments to put Shawn over as a sex symbol for the ladies by having him in his open robe and briefs.

Kamala w/ Slick vs. Chris Katowski

Kamala beats on Katowski as Lawler makes fun of Kamala for being a moron. Kamala stays in control and hits a splash then finally turns Katowski over on his back and covers for the win (1:47).

Thoughts: The Kamala/Slick pairing is another babyface act that has flopped. His match against Bam Bam Bigelow at WrestleMania has little momentum but it never mattered as we will see later.

The Mega Maniacs interview from “Superstars” airs.

Final Thoughts: Well, this was the last show before WrestleMania so it was just basic hype. However, this was also the last show Gorilla & Bobby hosted together as Gorilla was replaced by someone making their debut at the PPV. Gorilla & Bobby were a popular duo for several years but their act was better in the studio on “Prime Time Wrestling” than calling matches, IMO. And for the past year, you could have replaced Gorilla with a pull doll of his catchphrases and no one would have noticed. Every act does run its course and fans might not want to admit it but Gorilla & Bobby were stale at this point. However, they were a voice to a generation of fans and that does not discredit the rest of their time together as they were part some of the most memorable bits in wrestling history. With the company struggling at the gate and losing syndication in some markets, changes were being made.