WWF Mania – February 20th, 1993

Once again, a diversion from All American, as one of the uploaders on YouTube has begun to put up episodes of WWF Mania. Mania fell into a similar boat as All American, mostly comprised of replays of matches from the other shows, sometimes including a bonus match (but not for long). It was especially important to people in the UK because it showed us footage from the nascent Monday Night Raw, which we didn’t get until the new fall season in September, 1995, at which point I’m sure the viewership went off a cliff.

So, this week it’s Mania, with an interesting episode that included a very important announcement later in the show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jAxGuv6XYU

Hosted by Todd Pettengill, joined at first by Randy Savage in a cameo, who drops a nugget about attending a party for “the president”.

Beverly Brothers vs. El Matador & Virgil

Mania exclusive, with Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan on commentary in one of their latter appearances. Tito and Virgil teamed up in 1991 at This Tuesday in Texas and were booked together fairly frequently after that. Virgil tries for a nice crucifix early in the match on Blake for two. Blake back suplexes him out of a headlock and brings in Beau. Tito comes in after that and monkey flips Beau into an armbar. That continues pretty nicely for a few minutes until Beau slams out and tags in Blake, who misses an elbow and ends up in the same place. Virgil no sells a kick to the back from outside by Beau, but gets caught with a double axehandle behind the ref’s back. The heels work him over as Gorilla is so bored that he resets and starts talking about how happy he is to be working on Mania while Bobby works a bit about two twins he has organised for a double date (“One has one tooth, good for opening cans.”). Backbreaker, powerslam and forearm stifles Virgil, but he gets the foot up when Beau drops off the top with some indeterminate move that never would’ve hit. Tito and Blake tag in, with Tito clotheslining and dropkicking both brothers over the top rope. Flying forearm on Blake back inside, but Beau sneaks in to stop the pin, then gets small packaged himself in short order for the win for Tito and Virgil. Nobody was doing anything wrong in this match, but it was absolute filler.

Back to Todd, now joined by Gorilla on the way to the presidential party. Todd can’t come because he’s not dressed properly for it, even though Macho was in his full pink and yellow gear earlier.

Shawn Michaels vs. Tatanka

From WWF Superstars, and this is the debut of Shawn singing his own entrance music once it was confirmed at the Royal Rumble that Sherri wasn’t coming back to him. He’s also in the sweet golden gear from the same show too, which at the time looked like spraypainted tinfoil, but looks awesome in retrospect. Non-title and Tatanka is pushed with an undefeated streak, so you can guess where this is heading. Macho on commentary remarks that Tatanka’s been focusing on the ring, not the recording studio like Michaels, but…

Tatanka! Buffalo! Shawn slaps Tatanka to trick him into chasing him out and back in so he can puts the boots to him, but gets stuck on a hip toss attempt, flips out, gets slapped in return and then clotheslined out. Tatanka was perfectly cromulent until his heel turn, at which point everything he had left him and he became a fat, lazy mess. Shawn gets caught on a leapfrog that’s turned into a reverse atomic drop, which of course he’s all for flipping around off, but he regains the advantage and dumps Tatanka. Slap on the outside, punches and elbows back on the inside as Superstars goes to a break. Back, and it’s the later stages of a side headlock, but Shawn cuts off a comeback and gets a nice standing dropkick. Tatanka gets a sunset flip on the comeback trail, then no-sells an attempt to slam his head into the top turnbuckle and commences with the war dance. Chops, which of course Shawn bumps like a madman for, including a spinning one. Attempt at the Samoan drop to finish, but Shawn rakes the eyes. Attempt at a little chin music misses and Tatanka steps out of Shawn’s side suplex finisher of the time, then gets the Samoan drop for the win. A rare occasion of Shawn doing a clean as a sheet job, designed to set up their decent but inconclusive match at WrestleMania.

Back to Todd, who has it in mind that the presidential party is for George Bush, just to date this. Jerry Lawler walks through and has a rare whiff on a joke at the expense of Todd’s waistcoat.

WrestleMania Report with Mean Gene, who announces Tatanka and Shawn will wrestle for the title at the show, underneath the world championship match of Bret Hart against Yokozuna. Bret looks so awkward in his stock photo with a cheesy grin. Plus the Undertaker versus Giant Gonzales and Crush versus Doink the Clown. Another two matches at least to be announced later in the weekend.

Giant Gonzales vs. Louis Spicolli and friends.

I’m sure Jorge Gonzales was a nice man, but the Undertaker’s action figure looks scarier than he could ever pretend to be. All three guys he’s matched against won’t get in, so the Giant pulls Louis in by the head and chokeslams him. The other two run off and Spicolli escapes while the going is good. If it was anybody other than Gonzales it would be impressive, but he looked cartoonish.

Back to Todd, this time with Vince McMahon, acting all weird and sleazy, if you can call it acting. The invitation’s in the mail.

Promo with Crush in Hawaii, ready to come back after Doink put him out of action. He uses a pineapple as a prop to represent Doink’s head and promptly crushes it. To the point.

Back to Todd, hustling for donations for the Headlock on Hunger campaign. I’d want someone other than Irwin R Schyster to investigate where the money went there.

Ted Dibiase vs. Brutus Beefcake

From Raw, with Brutus making a comeback from his facial injury in 1990 to work towards something else, looking terrible with his gut hanging over his tights and pecs looking saggy. For comparison, the physically nondescript and broken down Million Dollar Man looks bigger and better than him. Ted bumps for him off punches while Vince and Randy remind us that someone with a tan is watching at home. Vince reminds us of Brutus’ hard luck story from the week before, where someone in the crowd heckled him with “Kill yourself!” to totally undermine it. IRS joins Jimmy Hart at ringside while Brutus works a headlock. He promptly puts this dog out of its misery with a shot to the back with the briefcase, disqualifying Dibiase. At this point, Money Incorporated put the boots to Brutus while the newly sympathetic Jimmy Hart protests and tries to call them off. They set Brutus up for a headshot with the briefcase, but Jimmy blocks them until Irwin dumps him to the outside to turn him face, then smashes him in the top of the head. Vince does the melodramatic “There’s blood on the mat, and I didn’t see any cuts on Dibiase or Schyster…” sell as they cart Brutus off. Actually not a bad angle, but just five years too late to mean as much.

Back to Todd, who downplays what happened (“It wasn’t as bad as it looked, luckily it was just a broken nose.”) to remove any worry (or heat) and reveals that HULK HOGAN will return to the WWF live on Raw this coming Monday. Or that coming Monday.

Typhoon vs. Moondog Moretti

Joined in progress and totally superfluous, seeing as they’re running out of time. Moretti had obviously tried to slam Typhoon, which was reversed on him, so Gorilla on commentary chastises the “youngster” (“Well, he’s really not that much of a youngster now I look at him!” – ouch!). Moretti thumbs the eye while Gorilla dumps on the sound engineer with Lord Alfred Hayes. Typhoon reverses an Irish whip and gets an avalanche, then finishes with the big splash for the win.

Back to Todd, with Bobby Heenan meeting “Tom” for the first time. Whoever recorded this chopped off a G.I. Joe commercial, so we’ll redress the balance later. The obvious punchline is revealed when we come back by the Mexican janitor that the party is for Jack Tunney, so Todd calls it a day.

The red, the white and the blue: For this week only, it’s the black, green and orange, seeing as neon is the colour scheme of this era. Got to pour scorn on the intro – one of those pieces of music that’s so discordant that nobody could hum along to it. Best thing about the show was that it was early days and Todd wasn’t as obnoxious as he could get, plus they generally focused on the highlights of the week, first and last match aside. Weird thing, given almost twenty-five years of the champ being on every show, was just one passing mention of Bret Hart. I know that the Hulkster was the big new/old thing, but it’s not a shocker that the company was heading for dire straits with that lack of focus where it should be.

And here are some G.I. Joe commercials, starting off with Duke played by a Heidenreich lookalike and Cobra Commander wearing Demolition’s gear…

The Ghoststriker, with electronics and handle, plus Ace to remind you it’s nowhere near as good as the old Skystriker…

The Mega Marines, here to save us from a monstrous gut bomb, which sounds pretty nasty, to be fair!

And finally, the Detonator, with air-powered foam missiles that are probably looking like white dog shit now…