Monday Night Raw
February 1, 1993
New York City
Manhattan Center

The current WWF champs were as follows:
World Champion: Bret Hart (10/12/1992)
Intercontinental Champion: Shawn Michaels (10/27/1992)
World Tag Team Champions: Money Inc. (10/13/1992)

Your hosts are Vince McMahon, Randy Savage, and Rob Bartlett.

• Tatanka vs. Damien Demento
  

No messing around this week. We go straight to the squash matches. Quick inside cradle by Tatanka only gets two. Chops abound from both guys. Demento grabs a semblance of a chinlock as the crowd tells us that they want Flair. Anyways, Tatanka fights out and CHANNELS THE SPIRIT OF HIMSELF to come back with chops and the PAPOOSE TO GO for the win. (4:10) Guess there’s no push in sight for Demento. ½*

In this very ring, Vince McMahon introduces the returning Brutus Beefcake who we haven’t seen since WrestleMania 8. He’s here to make an announcement, but takes the long road to get to the “important stuff”. Brutus tells us what he’s gone through over the past five years with losing his mother to cancer, losing his father to a broken heart, his wife who divorced him and took all his money to be with some barfly, and then almost lost his face in the parasailing incident. The NYC crowd is just completely unmerciful to Beefcake’s life story. At one point, a guy yells out “KILL YOURSELF” in his general direction. Anyways, the big announcement is that due to the encouragement of a man by the name of Hulk Hogan, Brutus Beefcake is making his return to wrestling! Gee, thanks Hulk. Just so everybody knows, there’s an open contract for anybody who wants a piece of the Beefcake.

• High Energy vs. Skull Von Krus & Iron Mike Sharpe
  

I really like Owen’s theme song. Just saying. What a great jobber team by the way, amirite? As usual, Sharpe is all loud as he’s being beaten down. Krus receives the Missile Dropkick by Koko as Owen rolls through with the bridge for the win at 1:22.

Let Us Take You Back: Superstars, 1/16/93. Doink beats Crush on the head and neck with a prosthetic arm that – according to Randy Savage – was filled with lead.

• Doink the Clown vs. Typhoon
  

Last year at this time, Typhoon was getting ready for a WWF tag team championship run and now he’s without a partner and a JTTS. Got to love the Matt Borne style. He’s just really rough and mean with you – like a wrestler should be. Flying clothesline from Doink sets up the pin and the handful of tights gets the three-count. (3:14) Can’t get enough of that Doink!

Andre the Giant gets the ten bell salute. The crowd is only mostly respectful here. Of course, there’s always that one guy who can’t control himself and gets shushed.

• Yokozuna (w/Mr. Fuji) vs. Bobby DeVito
  

This is here to hype the Yokozuna/Duggan match for the upcoming weekend episode of WWF Superstars. After a couple tries, Jim Duggan finally figures out how to use a telephone and talks to Vince. He gets all fired up as Yoko squashes DeVito with the BANZAI DROP at 2:03.

Now Vince McMahon brings out the WWF tag team champs Money Incorporated. Jimmy Hart is nowhere to be seen. They want to answer Brutus Beefcake’s open challenge. Who gets to face Beefcake though? They flip a coin and DiBiase wins the toss. Speak of the devil, out comes Jimmy Hart. He advises against this match since they could get injured in the match and as the champs, that would be against their best interests. DiBiase assures him that the only guy who might get injured is Beefcake. DiBiase is seasoned and fresh, Beefcake hasn’t wrestled in three years. IRS points out that Beefcake is probably not paying any taxes and that makes him a tax cheat. Uhh okay? Jimmy Hart takes his men to the back to discuss match contracts or whatever.

Check it out! It’s Steve Jordan – star tight end of the Minnesota Vikings! He claims to have found the Perfect passer in Mr. Perfect. Such a fun vignette of Perfect catching his own Hail Mary throw.

• Lex Luger vs. Jason Knight
  

After debuting at the Royal Rumble to delight of especially Bobby Heenan, Lex Luger makes his in-ring debut in the WWF. Here is Jason Knight better known as just Jason over in ECW. When Luger’s not running Jason over, he’s posing for the crowd and loving himself. A huge STEEL-PLATED BIONIC FOREARM SMASH (but we don’t know that yet) and his pinky finger gets the 1-2-3. (3:40) Oh but Luger’s not done. Afterwards, he realizes that Jason is knocked out and gives him the big swing for some reason. ½*

Next week is the dog show, but on February 15: Sixteen-man battle royal and Beefcake v. DiBiase.