LEt us take you back to last week, when Earthquake won the sumo match with Yokozuna. It seems that Yokozuna vowed revenge and took it out on Earthquake at the Anaheim and San Jose house shows. Thus, the Quake won't be battling Owen Hart. Who will be? WWF Monday Night RAW, coming to you "live" from Struthers Fieldhouse in Youngstown, Ohio 23.5.94 and broadcast on the USA Network. Your hosts are Vince McMahon and Randy Savage. Savage makes a big deal out of Earthquake's absence. Owen Hart v. Doink (The Clown) in a King of the Ring Qualifier - Oh, gee, much better. Hart wisely attacks the clown as he enters the ring. Doink comes back with a right, but Owen wins the pounding contest. Owen rakes the clown's face along the top rope, but amazingly, no grease paint is left behind. Hart with kicks and punches, forearms and eye rakes. Doink blocks a head to the buckle and puts Hart's hair instead. Hart with a suplex. Hart steals Randy Savage's elbow for 2. Hart poses to the crowd, then runs into several hip tosses and a body slam. Whip into the ropes by Doink, back body drop, and drop kick, and Owen decides it's time to step outside for a minute. Dink does the Tiger Jackson dance. Owen is unhappy about fighting a clown, and half a clown, too. Finally he comes back in, and goes back to work on Doink. After getting in several dirty tricks, Doink comes back with a hip toss, causing Owen to step outside again. Dink gets Owen to chase him, and Doink clotheslines him outside. Doink with bodyslam on the mat. Referee "Blind" Joey Morella isn't the fast counter that Hebner is, though (see Luger/Jarrett) and Owen makes it back in by 8. Unfortunately, Doink cheats and Owen finds himself hitting the mats again. This time, Owen grabs Doink's legs as he goes back in. As Owen repeatedly wraps Doink's leg around the STEEL post, let's take an ad break. When we come back, Owen is getting a 2 count on Doink. Submission hold. Doink pretends that it's painful when Owen pulls his green hair. Cool looking suplex by Owen for 2. Camel clutch (called a Boston crab by Vince). Hart pulls a little too hard on Doink's hair, and you can see his real hair underneath. Doink powers out, ducks under a clothesline, and then there's a double clothesline. They both get up. Doink blocks a punch, and delivers one. Repeat. Repeat. Owen goes down. Doink with elbow off the ropes. Doink with the same belly-to-belly Owen used earlier for 2. Doink with the ten punches. Doink hits a neckbreaker, but who should show up but Jeff Jarrett, who walks off with Dink. As Doink turns to face Double J, Owen rolls him up from behind. 1, 2, 3. Jarrett gives Dink back, but Doink is knocked OUT of the KotR tourney. Todd Pettengill with *your* KotR report. Todd thinks Yokozuna is the one who helped Owen Hart into the tourney, completely neglecting Jarrett. Whatever. Anyway, here's the tourney lowdown: I.R.S. (def. Scott Steiner) \ Superstars bracket 1 |---------- Mabel (def. Quebecer Pierre) / | |---------- Razor Ramon (def. Kwang) \ | | RAW bracket 1 |---------- | Bam Bam Bigelow (def. Plugg) / | |--------- Jeff Jarrett (def. Luger by CO)\ | King Superstars bracket 2 |---------- | 1-2-3 Kid/Adam Bomb this Sat. / | | |---------- Owen Hart (def. Doink) \ | RAW bracket 2 |---------- Tatanka/Jimmy del Ray next Mon./ New match! Tag Team Title Match - The Head Shrinkers vs. Yokozuna & Crush...also, that ol' Piper/Lawler match, yep, yep. And of course, Diesel v. Bret Hart for Hart's WWF Title. The WWF: Unbelievable! "Was it something I said?" Duke Droese v. the World's Greatest Wrestler, Barry Horowitz - Horowitz destroys the Dumpster, but still manages to get pinned. Duke's big finisher is...oh boy, a dropped elbow off the ropes. Promos: ICOPRO (Ramon), GI Joe, SF2: SCE Sega carts More clips from the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim. Look at all them Hollywood types that go to see the WWF's WrestleMania Revenge Tour. Quote from fan: "THE best wrestling in the WHOLE WORLD!" (included just for Herb) Let me jump in here and give you the cards announced for Stockton (Spanos Center at UOP, 24 June) and Sacramento (Arco Arena, 25 June). I never would have thought they'd book BOTH arenas, so I guess the crowds really ARE up... Intercontinental Title Match: Diesel vs. Ramon (cage match in Arco) I.R.S. vs. Tatanka Mabel vs. Bam Bam Bigelow Smoking Scotsmen vs. Heavenly Bodies Duke Droese vs. Adam Bomb Bonus Match: Virgil vs. Virgil II Thurman Plugg vs. unnamed opponent Irwin R. Schyster vs. Gary Sabaugh - Joe tells me that Sabaugh is the Italion Stallion. I can believe it, Rocky didn't win in the first movie either. Writeoff, no penalty. Let us take you back to "Superstars" and show you how Luger took himself out of the King of the Ring. Pretend you're Lex Luger. You have the choice of A) following after Crush, or B) beating the 10 count and continuing in the match. Luger chose A. Lawler's commentary is great, by the way ("Hey! There's Crush! What's he doing here?"), as well as the camera shot of Luger and Crush fighting while Jarrett's arm is raised in victory on the video wall behind them. The King's Court with Lex Loser - After the prerequisite Piper bashing, Luger comes out with a spiffy new jacket. Lawler: "Remember what happened to you at your first WrestleMania?" Me: "Yeah, he pinned Perfect." Lawler mentions that Luger nearly broke Crush's arm. For a while, I was thinking "Geez, another opponent down the drain--NOW who are they gonna get to face this guy?" until Crush comes out in a sling. Aha, he's actually LEARNED something from Doink! Crush rants and raves, including a Stuart Smalley impersonation ("I'm bigger, I'm tougher, and doggone it people like me!") and pokes Luger's chest a lot. Luger threatens to haul off and hit Crush ("an invalid," according to Lawler). Luger ponders, and then hits him anyway. It turns out that Crush's injury was all made up. Cue the truckload of WWF officials. Cue the Luger music. Virgil II v. Matt Hardy - Ted DiBiase joins the commentators at ringside. He reminds us that he brought in the Undertaker in the first place, and he's got the funds to find him again. Volkoff is looking a bit more aggressive, thanks to DiBiase, they would have us believe. How do you get "Matt Hardy" from a guy wearing trunks with "HV" on them? Whatever. Volkoff wins with a *real* Boston Crab. Promos: NBA Jam game carts, Slim Jim (Savage), Mortal Kombat game carts Next week: Tatanka vs. Jimmy del Ray in the last KotR Qualifier, Jerry Lawler's guest is Bret Hart (the man with the Jurassic Park parents) That's it! Christopher Robin Zimmerman / kzim@koko.csustan.edu / zimmerma@ucrengr.ucr.edu