Monday Night Raw
March 8, 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.

The Mega Maniacs and Jimmy Hart appear to accept the challenge of Money Inc. for the WWF tag team titles match at WrestleMania IX. They make a big deal out of Jimmy getting the contract signed over the last seven days. How hard could that have POSSIBLY been when you were the one that was CHALLENGED? Anyways, Jimmy Hart reminds us all that he knows both the strengths and weaknesses of Money Inc. while Hulk and Beefcake think about how cool the tag belts will look on the front of their motorcycles as they leave WrestleMania, brother.

• WWF Tag Team Champions Money Inc. vs. El Matador & Virgil
  

Tito stays adamant with the headlock on DiBiase to start. Tag to Virgil, he sticks with the headlock on IRS. Eventually, Schyster bails only to be punched back inside. Double back elbow gets two. Now the babyfaces concentrate on working one Schyster’s arm and drawing DiBiase into the ring to set up the commercial break. When we return, Matador is *your* face in peril. Double-KO leads to a HOT TAG TO VIRGIL! After he whips IRS around and punishes him with clotheslines, DiBiase trips up Virgil and that allows IRS to level him with a back suplex for the win. (7:21 shown) Another win for the bad guys. Matador looks peeved. Sure didn’t take much to stop Virgil. *½

We take a look at Tatanka’s two recent non-title wins over the IC champ Shawn Michaels.

Rick Martel comes out looking like Mr. Howell from Gilligan’s Island. Just not at all intimidating. He comes out and replaces the Raw girl, since he’s prettier than she is, I guess.

• Tatanka vs. Phil Apollo
  

Tatanka leapfrogs a bunch and they do the hiptoss spot across the ring where the loser goes flying over the top rope. He chops Apollo back inside while Shawn Michaels is on the phone with Vince. HBK says he’s walking into WrestleMania the IC champ, and he’s leaving Caesar’s Palace the IC champ as well. Tatanka starts up the War Dance and hits the PAPOOSE TO GO for the win at 2:42.

It’s time for the WrestleMania IX Report with Mean Gene! Part of the Double Main Event includes WWF champ Bret Hart taking on Yokozuna. We hear from Bret who says Yokozuna and Mr. Fuji will leave WrestleMania respecting him and all he stands for and Bret will leave WrestleMania still the WWF champion. Yokozuna says BANZAI! In other matches, the Undertaker meets Giant Gonzales.

Back in the Manhattan Center, Rick Martel once again replaces the ring girl and does her job since he feels he’s better suited.

• Papa Shango vs. Mike Edwards
  

Papa Shango just destroys this guy. He is quite the Supreme Fighting Machine if I do say so myself. SHOULDERBREAKER gets the win at 2:32.

• Bob Backlund vs. Tony Demoro
  

Demoro is actually bigger than Backlund, so there’s your dynamic here to see what the old man can do. He gets a couple hiptosses on Demoro and once he bails, the crowd gives Backlund his due praise. Back inside, Backlund delivers a butterfly suplex and applies a half nelson cradle for the win at 3:51.

Bartlett finds Rick Martel and asks why he keeps excusing the Raw girls. They are just so “blah” and have no class, just like the people here in the Manhattan Center.

• Mr. Perfect vs. Rick Martel
  

Vince hypes Luger-Perfect at WM 9 as a possible best match ever. Savage has his money on his former ally: Mr. Perfect. Standard Perfect start leads to a stalemate. Perfect lowers his head off a whip, but Martel cartwheels away to avoid any sort of backdrop. Perfect returns the favor to stick it to Martel. Cheapshot by Martel helps him to take over as he clamps on an overhead wristlock. Perfect counters to a hammerlock and when Martel flips out of that and tries an O’Connor roll, Perfect hits the mat to cause Martel to use his own momentum to fall out to the floor. Commercials! When we return, Martel starts working over the back. He gets fancy with a slingshot splash from the apron, which hits knees. Perfect mounts a comeback with both atomic drop variations. Just as he hits the big knee lift, we take another commercial break. AHH! And now we find that the match ended during the break, so we see the PERFECTPLEX score the pinfall on Martel. It’s of course very rare that they let that type of thing happen. (8:00 shown) Pretty energetic match. Martel’s run in 1993 definitely had some good moments. Afterwards, Perfect celebrates with the Raw girls Martel thought had no class. **½

Next week: Bam Bam Bigelow meets Typhoon! Plus, Kamala will be in action. Razor Ramon will be as well!