WWF Superstars of Wrestling – April 17th, 1993

April 17, 1993

From the North Charleston Civic Center in North Charleston, SC

Your hosts are Vince McMahon, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, and Jerry “The King” Lawler

The show starts off with different production as we see Bam Bam Bigelow and Owen Hart shown separately in a dark background hyping up their match this week.

Also in action are Crush, Mr. Perfect, and Yokozuna. Plus, footage from this past week’s Monday Night RAW of the brawl between Luna Vachon and Sensational Sherri.

Crush vs. Glen Ruth

Crush catches Ruth with an inverted atomic drop as Lawler makes fun of Crush for being outsmarted by Doink at WrestleMania. We now see two separate inserts with Doink saying there is only one Doink and the rest is an illusion. Crush now has Ruth in a bearhug then uses a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker before the head vice gets the win (2:13).

Thoughts: They are still pushing the Crush/Doink feud as it seemed that on RAW they were going to start something between Doink and Tatanka. Crush is still not over as the Hawaiian babyface.

WWF Update with Sean Mooney. This showed us the Luna/Sherri brawl from RAW this past Monday Night. This ended up being Mooney’s final appearance as he became an anchorman for WWOR-TV in New Jersey. He did make a few other appearances, with the first being the RAW Homecoming show in 2005.

The WWF Fan Club ad with Randy Savage airs.

JD Stryker & Ron Preston vs. The Headshrinkers w/ Afa

Vince then tells us we will see footage of what happened between Mr. Perfect and Lex Luger & Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania. The Headshriners beat down Stryker as Vince alerts us that WWF President Jack Tunney is ordering x-rays of Luger’s arm as part of his investigation. Lawler hopes Tunney gets impeached then Fatu puts Preston away with a top rope splash (2:41).

Thoughts: The announcers focused on Lex Luger and selling the footage we would be seeing at WrestleMania more than the Headshrinkers. Its time for the Headshrinkers to actually get involved in a feud.

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We now see the footage of Mr. Perfect attacking Luger at WrestleMania in the backstage area after getting knocked out in his match then Michaels beat down Perfect.

Mr. Perfect vs. Barry Hardy

The announcers argue whether or not Perfect can beat Shawn for the Intercontinental Title as Perfect works over Hardy. Perfect hits some chops in the corner after we hear from Shawn in an insert promo running down Perfect Savage believes that Shawn is just keeping the belt warm for Perfect as Lawler disagrees then Perfect stays in control until the Perfect Plex gets the win (3:00).

Thoughts: As expected, Perfect vs. Shawn is the new Intercontinental Title program with the story of how Shawn will be able to keep his belt against a two-time Intercontinental champion.

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. “The Rocket” Owen Hart

Owen has new gear that reads “Rocket” on the legs. Owen dropkicks Bigelow then fires away. Bigelow comes back with an enziguiri after an Irish whip sequence then hammers away. Lawler rags on the Hart family then Owen comes back with an enziguiri of his own. Owen hits a missile dropkick then gets two with a sunset flip before going to work on the arm. Bigelow fights back and dropkicks Owen through the ropes then we go to break. The action returns as Bigelow headbutts Owen off of the apron. Owen slingshots back inside and tries for a crucifix but Bigelow counters that with a Samoan drop. Savage puts over Owen’s resiliency then Bigelow press Owen over his head and drops him on the turnbuckle. Owen clutches his knee then Bigelow pancakes Owen then hammers away in the corner. Bigelow catches Owen with a bearhug then falls on top of Owen and gets two. Bigelow whips Owen into the corner hard then uses a falling headbutt but that only gets two. Owen gets whipped into the corner again and tries to jump on the middle rope for a crossbody but in the process blows out his knee. Owen can barely move then Bigelow has to takes this home early and slam Owen before the flying headbutt gets the win (6:35) **3/4.

Thoughts: Really good match until Owen blew out his knee. With Owen’s new gear and how much they kept trying to get over the “Rocket” nickname it seemed like he was in line for a midcard push but ended up missing several weeks of action. One of the best syndicated TV matches in a while.

We see Andre the Giant on the cover of “Spotlight Magazine.”

Next, we once again see the “WrestleMania” music video. This song will be part of an upcoming album.

Yokozuna w/ Mr. Fuji vs. Chris Katowski

We hear from Hacksaw Jim Duggan saying we cannot trust Yokozuna & Fuji but this is the land of the free and home of the brave before promising to “2×4” them. Yokozuna overpowers Katowski then flattens him with a belly-to-belly suplex. Yokozuna beats on Katowski in the corner and hits an avalanche before the Bonzai drop gets the win (2:59). Vince thinks that Yokozuna wants to be champion again.

Thoughts: The Yokozuna/Duggan feud has resumed but it still seems that Yokozuna is the #1 contender for the World Heavyweight Title.

Next week in action are Shawn Michaels, Tatanka, Mr. Hughes, and the Steiner Brothers. Plus, an update on Owen Hart and the results of Lex Luger’s forearm x-ray.

Final Thoughts: The featured match was really good and they pushed what feuds we will now see that WrestleMania has ended. And next week we will find out about Luger’s x-rays and get another medical report about Owen and hopefully learn all about this King of the Ring PPV for June that we were told about at WrestleMania.