WWF Superstars – April 16th, 1994

April 16, 1994

From the Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, MA

Your hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry “The King” Lawler. Vince laughs at Lawler falling from his throne on “Monday Night RAW”

This week in action are Tatanka vs. Kwang, Lex Luger, Earthquake, and Men on a Mission. Plus, “Heartbreak Hotel” with guest Owen Hart

Lex Luger vs. George South

Luger once again gets the pyro for his entrance. The announcers hype Luger facing Mr. Perfect on the “WrestleMania Revenge” tour as South cheap shots Luger in the corner. Luger fights back and hammers away then drops Luger with a clothesline as the crowd is really into him on this show. Luger then catches South with a powerslam and follows with a vertical suplex then soon after uses the backbreaker submission for the win (1:40). After the match, Lawler uses his Royal Magistrator to draw all sorts of products that are not made in America to point out how he is a fraud as Vince corrects him to say he uses all American products.

Thoughts: Luger was really over with this crowd. And they hyped up his matches against Perfect on the WrestleMania Revenge tour but that never happened for reasons we will get into shortly within this timeline. The Royal Magistrator bit was amusing too.

More tax tips from IRS.

Kwang w/ Harvey Whippleman vs. Tatanka

Vince says the momentum of Tatanka’s headdress makes him unstoppable as Lawler uses this as an opportunity for some ethnic jokes. Kwang chops Tatanka then spits his mist into the air after dropping him to the mat. Vince once again laughs when bringing up Lawler’s tumble he took on RAW as Tatanka fights back. Tatanka heads up top after a slam and hits a flying chop for a two count. Kwang cuts off Tatanka then hammers away as Vince wants Lawler to be politically correct and not refer to Tatanka as an “Indian.” Kwang now works a nerve hold as Vince plugs Kwang vs. Bret Hart on RAW. IRS smiles as he appears in the aisle as Kwang continues to hammer away. Kwang gets a nearfall off of a scoop slam then goes back to the nerve hold as Vince flips out over the ref not tossing IRS from ringside. Tatanka fights back but Kwang blocks a sunset flip with a throat thrust then goes back to the nerve hold. IRS is now in front of the headdress as Kwang once again cuts off a Tatanka comeback. Kwang catches Tatanka with a thrust kick for two as he took forever to make the cover then he once again goes to the nerve hold. IRS now touches the headdress as Vince is beside himself. Tatanka escapes again but is whipped into the corner. Tatanka then sees IRS touch the headdress and charges towards him but Kwang spits mist in his face for the DQ (5:30) *. IRS now comes into the ring and attacks Tatanka. IRS now ties up Tatanka in the ropes as we see the green mist all over Tatanka’s face then grabs the headdress and puts it on before using it to whip Tatanka then he starts ripping the feathers as Tatanka flips out. Chief Jay Strongbow comes out now and chops down IRS and picks up the rest of the headdress but IRS attacks him from behind and is now beating down both men. The ref checks on Strongbow and waves down for help as IRS taunts the crowd with the headdress. Tatanka is finally freed from the ropes as IRS looks into the camera to say all Tatanka had to do was pay his gift tax. Tatanka grabs the rest of the feathers then checks on Strongbow before screaming and then crying why someone would do this as he acts like Strongbow is dead. The camera zooms in on feathers lying on the mat as we hear Tatanka’s screams.

Thoughts: The match itself was really dull. However, this was all about advancing the IRS/Tatanka feud and since the tax deadline had passed, IRS took it upon himself to destroy the sacred headdress of Tatanka. This appeared to have gotten some heat but this whole angle is bad and god bless Tatanka, who always tried hard, but man was the acting bad here. Strongbow’s attack on IRS got a mild pop but he’s been off TV as a character for a decade so the crowd barely reacted to his attack.

We see a replay of IRS’s attack. Lawler makes jokes about this, referring to Strongbow as “Chief Jay Slingshot,” while Vince remains disgusted. At least Lawler was entertaining.

Men on a Mission w/ Oscar vs. Black Phantom & Joey Stallings

Vince brings up how MoM came up short against The Quebecers this past Monday night on RAW. Mo runs over Phantom then hits a slam and follows that with a leg drop. Vince alerts us that Strongbow is “okay” while Tatanka remains emotionally distraught. Mabel tags in as the crowd cheers and he hits Phantom with a leg drop. Mabel then hits a delayed vertical suplex before tossing Phantom to his partner. Stallings is in and gets planted with an uranage as Lawler makes fun of MoM for being fat. Vince says that Earthquake, Bam Bam Bigelow, and Crush are in action later on in the show as MoM uses the Hip Hop Drop for the win (2:51).

Thoughts: They are still showcasing Mabel as the star of the team but it was clear based off of commentary that MoM is no longer considered Tag Team Title contenders.

WWF Live Event News plugs the WrestleMania Revenge tour.

Vince plugs “WWF Magazine” and how inside there is a photo of Undertaker sightings in Alabama and even at the Taj Mahal. Vince says we will follow these sightings.

Bam Bam Bigelow w/ Luna Vachon vs. Mike Freeman

Bigelow tosses Freeman into the corner and follows with an Avalanche. Vince brings up the staredown Bigelow and Earthquake had recently while saying Luna is going to have a match against Alundra Blayze. Bigelow beats Freeman down as Vince plugs Blayze appearing this Monday on the “King’s Court” as Lawler jokes about her being ugly. Bigelow stays in control then uses the Lunasault for the win (1:50). After the match, Bigelow points at Luna on the video wall and calls out Blayze, saying that Luna is better looking and will be the next champion.

Thoughts: They touched upon the Bigelow/Earthquake staredown but most of the focus was on a Blayze/Luna program for the WWF Women’s Title. Seeing the champion was crowned in December its nice to see five months later they finally have come up with a title program.

We now get the debut vignette of Duke “The Dumpster” Droese. He is standing in front of a trash heap and said no obstacle is high, wide, or deep enough to prevent him from climbing to the top of the WWF. We now have a garbage man gimmick as a wrestler. This promo was short and not very memorable to say the least.

Heartbreak Hotel with guest Owen Hart. Shawn calls out Razor Ramon for not giving Diesel a title shot before Owen comes out on the set. Owen says unlike his brother he will say its an honor to be on the Heartbreak Hotel. Owen proudly says he stepped out of Bret’s shadow but no wants to take the title away from him. Owen also mentions how he Bret and despite that Bret went on to get a title match and won and now he deserves the title. Shawn brings up Bret’s comments about how Owen beat him once and it was just one night while Owen says he knows Bret is scared and he will beat him again. They are setting up for Bret to accept Owen’s challenge for a title shot as Bret’s next official title program.

Guest ring announcer is Joe Matterazzo. He is wearing a Tatanka t-shirt. Dude tries to sound like a pro ring announcer but tripped over some of his lines. Certainly not the worst at this and even Vince appeared to be a fan.

Eric Cody vs. Earthquake

Earthquake beats on Cody as Lawler says Earthquake pales in comparison to Yokozuna. Earthquake hits a belly-to-belly suplex then a powerslam as the announcers talk about a potential Earthquake/Yokozuna match. Earthquake then signals for the sit-down splash and hits that for the win (1:48).

Thoughts: Earthquake is now the company’s top super-heavyweight singles babyface with programs against Bigelow and Yokozuna in line.

We now get a hype video for next week’s Razor Ramon vs. Adam Bomb match. No mention of this being a title match.

Crush w/ Mr. Fuji vs. Tony Roy

Crush yells at Nikolai Volkoff, who is still in the front row with his red suit, and then wants him to leave because he has no money. Vince even adds that Nikolai has fallen on hard times as of late and wants to know why Crush brought that to everyone’s attention. Lawler is back and talks about how he sent a Greetings on Call to Tatanka as Roy hits Crush with a pair of dropkicks. Crush catches Roy with a thrust kick as Vince says that word from the locker room is that Tatanka and Strongbow are now enraged. The crowd chants “Macho Man” as Crush hits a press slam then uses the heart punch for the win (2:32). Vince says we haven’t seen the heart punch used since Stan Stasiak.

Thoughts: The new gimmick to try and get over Crush is by giving him a dated finisher like a heart punch. However, and more importantly, we finally learn something about Volkoff’s return in that he is in financial ruins. And that itself makes it odd as to why he is constantly sitting in the front row each week but we will be finding out why he is here soon enough.

Another WWF Live Event News segment to hype the WrestleMania Revenge tour.

Next week in action are Owen Hart, The Quebecers, and Razor vs. Bomb. Plus, Mr. Perefct as the guest on the “Heartbreak Hotel.”

Johnny Polo is backstage with IRS. We hear IRS say that no one cares about Tatanka’s condition and all that “idiot” had to do was pay a gift tax. IRS then says we now know what he does to tax evaders before leaving. Polo then cuts back to “Vic” to say all those “Indians” had to do was pay their taxes. Polo was so much better as a host/interviewer than a manager.

Final Thoughts: The show primarily revolved around the IRS/Tatanka angle, which received far too much time for a cold midcard program. Tatanka lost his luster and IRS was the drizzling shits at this point. We also saw Owen challenge his brother Bret to put the Heavyweight on the line plus found out that Volkoff is poor. They trying to run some angles and make TV more interesting but the lack of depth is a major issue.