WWF Superstars of Wrestling – November 20, 1993

November 20, 1993

From the Burlington Civic Center in Burlington, VT

Your hosts are Vince McMahon and the debut of “Reo Rodgers”, who is Bruce Prichard speaking like Dusty Rhodes while wearing ridiculous oversized cowboy clothes and a fu manchu mustache.

We start off with a recap of the Lex Luger vs. Pierre match from RAW as we find out that Luger eliminated Pierre from the Survivor Series after removing his protective padding and hitting a forearm smash. Vince says the Foreign Fanatics will name a replacement this week.

Vince also talks about Jerry Lawler being placed on hiatus due to pending legal action and replaced by Shawn Michaels at the Survivor Series. We were first told of this on RAW.

In action this week are Owen Hart, Bam Bam Bigelow, Smoking Gunns, and Bret Hart vs. IRS.

Smoking Gunns vs. Phil Apollo & Mike Bell

The Rodgers character is already grating. Vince puts over the Gunns for attending Sam Houston State on rodeo scholarships as Billy works over Apollo. Bell tags into the match and the Gunns work him over as Rodgers claims to know about the new member of the Foreign Fanatics. The Gunns stay in control then use the back drop/piledriver combo for the win (2:57).

Thoughts: Most of the focus was on the reveal of the new member of the Foreign Fanatics. And boy was Rodgers horrendous. The “joke” already ran its course before this match ended.

WWF Update with Gorilla Monsoon. We see the replay of the Crush/Savage brawl from RAW. We then cut to the Foreign Fanatics as they introduce their newest member, Crush. Cornette hypes up Crush as he enters. Crush says they will stand up and honor each other while the All-Americans stab each other in the back. Gorilla then puts over Crush’s addition then cut to the All-Americans who are not phased by Crush being added to the Foreign Fanatics. With Crush now being managed by Fuji it seemed like a given he would be named as Pierre’s replacement. And you could say that it would have made sense for Randy Savage to been Tatanka’s replacement instead of Undertaker but they needed to hype the World Heavyweight Title feud more than Crush/Savage. And, the heels one-up the faces by adding someone bigger and more powerful for the faces to overcome.

Bam Bam Bigelow w/ Luna Vachon vs. Scott Taylor

Bigelow taunts the crowd after beating down Taylor but ends up getting dropkicked outside. Taylor bounces off of Bigelow then gets caught in what appears to be a flying headscissors attempt. Bigelow heads up top and whiffs on a flying headbutt then Taylor uses a small package for two but Bigelow catches him with a dropkick and gets the win (1:29). We then cut to the video wall where we see Doink, who introduces us to the three other Doinks.

Thoughts: More hype for the Doink/Bigelow feud, which has really cooled off. And with Matt Borne gone from the company the Doink character will become less of a priority going forward.

Face to Face with new host Jim Ross to hype the 11/27 MSG show.

Jim Cornette is shown playing the WWF Royal Rumble game for Sega Genesis. Watching him try to pretend that he is playing was something else.

“The Rocket” Owen Hart vs. Iron Mike Sharpe

Sharpe taunts the crowd but gets dropkicked through the ropes. Owen then uses a baseball slide as Vince says the entire Hart Family will be present at the Survivor Series. Owen then hits a spinning wheel kick but Sharpe fights back. Owen then catches Sharpe with a back drop then puts him away with a missile dropkick as Vince hypes up Shawn Michaels leading the Knights against the Hart Family at the PPV.

Thoughts: Without Lawler the heat for this match is all but gone. And it sucks because this was the most heated feud in the company.

The Jeff Jarrett vignette from “Monday Night RAW” airs.

Todd Pettengill is in the studio telling us how easy it is to order the Survivor Series on PPV. Or making fun of fans that are too dumb to order the show. You make the call.

Well Dunn w/ Harvey Whippleman vs. Dennis Diamond & PJ Walker

Diamond works the arm until Well kicks him low. Diamond now works the arm of Dunn then tags out as Walker lands a dropkick. Walker works the arm but Dunn makes a blind tag and Well clotheslines Walker then soon after that Well Dunn put Walker away with an Irish whip/flying forearm combo as Vince hypes the “Wrestler of the Year” contest.

Thoughts: Just a backdrop to hype this “Wrestler of the Year” award that is being pushed so heavily you expect it to jumpstart a major angle after the PPV.

Survivor Series Report with Todd Pettengill.

IRS is in the ring calling the fans tax cheats as his match against Bret Hart is next.

IRS vs. Bret “The Hitman” Hart

IRS attacks Bret before the bell then puts on his glasses as Vince talks about Bret’s World Title match against Yokozuna at the “Survivor Series Showdown.” Bret low-bridges IRS as Vince talks about Shawn and The Knights trying to embarrass the Hart Family. Rodgers talks about the debut of “Reo’s Roundup” at the Showdown while Bret and IRS trade simple holds. Bret works a side headlock on the mat as IRS keeps trying to roll him up and does so several times but still cannot escape. Vince now talks about how Bret finally gets a title rematch as IRS breaks the head lock with a back suplex but misses an elbow drop as Bret re-applies the hold. Vince now talks about Reo being up in the Hart’s home for his segment and we get some truly wretched dialogue. IRS hits a shinbreaker then we see Mr. Fuji head down to ringside, Bret fires away then nearly puts IRS away with a side headlock just before the break. We return with IRS in control as he has Bret in an abdominal stretch. IRS then hits a leg drop for two then kicks out of a sunset flip before applying a chin lock. Vince now talks about the All-Americans vs. Foreign Fanatics Survivor Series match as Bret fights back. Fuji then trips Bret and that allows IRS to attack from behind. This time Bret is whipped against the ropes but slides outside and punches Fuji down. We now see Cornette & Yokozuna head down to the ring as Bret gets a few nearfalls but bounces off of the ropes with Fuji hitting him with the flagpole for the DQ (9:29 shown) *1/2. IRS goes over to Bret but Owen runs down to the ring and takes him out. Yokozuna gets up onto the apron as Bret takes him off with a dropkick where Yoko takes a pretty great bump. The goof squad runs out to prevent Yokozuna from getting into the ring as Vince hypes up the Survivor Series Showdown.

Thoughts: Really boring match that was just to kill time to set up a Bret/Yokozuna confrontation to hype up the title match at the Survivor Series Showdown. That worked well and seeing Owen come out to defend his brother was needed I thought as they have yet to show any of the Hart’s together with Bret leading up to the PPV.

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The hosts now hype up the Survivor Series Showdown and the Survivor Series to end the show. And this was the end of Reo as a commentator on Superstars, thank Christ, with another new commentator making their debut next week. Just an embarrassment of a character. According to Prichard, Jerry Jarrett was enamored with Prichard’s Dusty Rhodes impression and wanted him to do a character based on that voice then went ahead and pitched it to Vince. Prichard said he told Vince about not wanting to do this at all because nothing he did with the character could prevent it from being a Dusty ripoff. However, Vince said to do it and they’d play off each other like usual. Prichard then said he called up Dusty about the character and Dusty said to do what he needs to do as Prichard said Rodgers ended up being terrible.

Final Thoughts: A new, shitty character aside, we found out that Crush will be replacing Pierre at the Survivor Series and hyped up the title match on the Showdown to make it a newsworthy edition of Superstars, which was a rarity to happen just before a PPV, but with everything going on in the company at the time with people coming and going it was understandable.