Monday Night Raw
May 31, 1993
New York City
Manhattan Center

The current WWF champs were as follows:
World Champion: Hulk Hogan (4/4/1993)
Intercontinental Champion: Marty Jannetty (5/17/1993)
World Tag Team Champions: Money Inc. (10/13/1992)

Hacksaw Jim Duggan stands outside the Manhattan Center and dedicates this episode of Monday Night Raw to the U.S. Armed Forces. It’s Memorial day! What other choice does Jim have? HOOOOOOOOO!!!

Your hosts are Vince McMahon, Randy Savage, and Bobby Heenan.

• WWF Intercontinental Champion Marty Jannetty (w/Sensational Sherri) vs. Bam Bam Bigelow (w/Luna Vachon)
  

Marty is such a short-term IC champion, his graphic doesn’t even list him as the WWF Intercontinental champion. Sherri and Luna get into a brief cat fight before the match. While Jannetty backs Sherri away, Bigelow BUM RUSHES THE SHOW on him. Jannetty sells huge for the shoulderblocks and clotheslines Bam Bam throws his way. Not in Shawn Michaels overselling fashion either. Jannetty begins to stick and move as he lands a big flying double ax handle for two. Bigelow headbutts Jannetty back though and tries a backdrop, but Jannetty COMPLETELY flips out and lands on his feet. Unfortunately, he charges right into a bearhug. Once Bigelow has enough of that, he places Jannetty up on the top turnbuckle. When he goes to slug him, Jannetty kicks him back and tries the Super Calo floatover headscissors. It doesn’t go well. Old school flying headscissors happens, but it looks incredibly phony. Not sure why they are working this way. Looks like Jannetty wanted a victory roll, but Bigelow falls back for the electric chair drop. Commercials! When we come back, Bigelow has a chinlock clamped on the IC champ. To prevent a comeback, Bigelow hammers Jannetty back down. Jannetty starts up with the wild swings, but then Bigelow nails him with a standing dropkick. Avalanche by Bigelow gets two. Jannetty catches Bigelow charging at him with a boot and then a flying desperation clothesline. Cover, 1-2-NO! Superkick stuns Bigelow, a jumping clothesline sends him reeling, but a dropkick puts him down on the mat for 1-2-NO! Bigelow goes to the eyes and slams Jannetty. He picks him back up and delivers a nasty double underhook backbreaker. Jericho doing that move is one thing, but freaking BAM BAM BIGELOW is another. He goes for the falling headbutt off the ropes, but Sherri grabs his foot. As Bigelow grabs Sherri, Jannetty knees him out to the floor. Bobby – “Cheap shot!” A baseball slide from Jannetty sends Bigelow into the guardrail. Now Jannetty keeps things hot as he flies off the top onto Bigelow! Jannetty tries to return inside the ring, but Bigelow pulls him back out and throws him into the ringpost. He tosses Jannetty inside the ring, but takes a moment to look over at Sherri, which causes him to be counted out. (9:03 shown) This got a little messy when Jannetty started busting out the cruiserweight moves, but overall this was super fun. Jannetty is a VERY underrated guy, in my opinion. Afterwards, Bigelow attacks him and delivers a senton splash. That’ll rearrange your insides. ***

Hey, the late Dwayne Schintzius of the New Jersey Nets is in the crowd! Seems like an odd time to go to a “celebrity”.

Back in the ring, Sensational Sherri says she wants Luna Vachon right now! Once she gets a piece of Luna, Bigelow returns to grab Sherri while Luna beats on her. Tatanka runs out and makes the save. Vince – “He’s not even supposed to be here!”

• The Steiner Brothers vs. The Executioner & Rich Myers
  

Certainly not very difficult to tell the difference between these two jobbers. The eight-man from the KOTR gets a mention by Vince. The Executioner takes a pair of Steinerlines from Rick. Myers gets ran upside down into the corner. In comes Scott to throw Myers around. Rick applies a camel clutch and a reverse chinlock to kill time. Back to Scott, he hits Myers with a pumphandle slam. STEINER SCREWDRIVER SUPLEX is enough to end Myers, but they decide to put him away with the STEINER BULLDOG instead at 4:16.

Well I just wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it with my own eyes. The (former second-string) New York Giants running back Lee Rouson is found in the crowd here at the Manhattan Center.

WWF Mania commercial. That Todd guy is wacky!

• Mr. Hughes vs. Bert Centeno
  

Heenan brings up President Clinton who he refers to as Billy the Brain and feels that he is a “heck of a guy”. Hughes throws this ham-and-egger around for a while. There’s a powerbomb, but Hughes lifts him up at two. Our esteemed commentators mention that Harvey Wippleman is not with us tonight. Bobby says he’s out with the flu with a 118-degree temperature. Vince – “That’s too bad.” Mr. Perfect – who will be the opponent of Mr. Hughes in the opening round of the KOTR – will be playing in a celebrity golf tournament with Burt Reynolds, and Chicago Bears legends Walter Payton and William Perry. Okay, finally. The ANGRY BLACKMAN SLAM gets the win at 3:01.

Mean Gene brings us the King of the Ring Report. The KOTR is brought to you by ICOPRO: You’ve gotta want it. WWF Champion Hulk Hogan vs. Yokozuna, the King of the Ring tournament, and Shawn Michaels vs. Crush. Still no mention of the eight-man tag. Come on Gene, you’ve gotta want it!

This week on All-American Wrestling: Crush takes on Razor Ramon!

Promotional consideration brought to you by: ICOPRO, G.I. Joe toys, and Series 5 WWF figures.

• Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs. Bill Thomas
  

Since Duggan fake shoots Thomas with his 2×4 gun, Thomas pearl harbors Duggan hoping for a 1-2-3 Kid upset, I can only assume. That goes nowhere though as Duggan catches him trying a crossbody block and delivers a lame-o Oklahoma Stampede. Duggan follows that up with the Old Glory knee drop. Ten-count corner punch leads to a backdrop. He hammers down Thomas and pulls him up for a suplex. Big slam sets up the THREE-POINT STANCE for the win at 2:24. To suck the fun out of the room, Duggan leads everybody through the Pledge of Allegiance to the US flag. What a jerk. Even though it’s Memorial day, doesn’t anybody have the balls to boo this crap? Fine, I will. BOOOOO.

As we proceed, Vince tells us that Razor has now upped the ante over the weekend to $5000 for a rematch with who they are now calling the “1-2-3” Kid. We get some pre-recorded comments where the Kid politely holds out for more money.

• Razor Ramon vs. Tony Roy
  

Thanks to Randy Savage, the crowd is all over Razor chanting “1-2-3”, which gets him all distracted. That allows Tony Roy to schoolboy him up for 1-2-NO! That just serves to further piss off Razor as he drills Roy with a Fallaway Slam. While mentioning that Razor Ramon faces Bret Hart in the first round of the KOTR, Vince calls the match they had back at the Royal Rumble one of the “all-time greats”. They are laying it on thick. The crowd starts that chant up again, as Roy sneaks in another rollup for two. Razor gets back on top of Roy with an abdominal stretch. Crowd wants the Kid now. Nasty Back Superplex sets up a just-as-nasty RAZOR’S EDGE for the win and quiet the crowd at 3:30.

Before we go, Yokozuna and Mr. Fuji head down to meet with Vince McMahon. How dare these Japanese people show up to RAW and wave their own country’s flag on Memorial Day?! Vince gets around to mentioning Hulk Hogan… and the crowd boos! On June 13, Yokozuna declares that Hulkamania will DIE. I believe history tells us that Yoko proves to be a man of his word. BANZAI!!!!!!

Apparently all this talk from Fuji and Yokozuna is bumming out Duggan, as he appears up in the crowd waving the American flag and getting the crowd to chant “U-S-A!”. And that’s how Monday Night Raw comes to a close on *this* Memorial day.

Next week: Adam Bomb meets his biggest challenge to date: El Matador! Plus, Yokozuna with Mr. Fuji will join us in Jerry Lawler’s King’s Court. In other action, an unnamed tag team combination of the eight-man tag that will go down at the KOTR will square off as well.