Monday Night Raw
July 5, 1993
New York City
Manhattan Center

The current WWF champs were as follows:
World Champion: Yokozuna (6/13/1993)
Intercontinental Champion: Shawn Michaels (6/6/1993)
World Tag Team Champions: The Steiner Brothers (6/19/1993)

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

We go to the USS Intrepid battleship where it’s YOKOZUNA vs. The USA! Various wrestlers and pro athletes of the day try and body slam Yoko to win some much-needed pride, self-confidence, and a new Chevy truck. Nobody really gets all that close until the man formerly known as “The Narcissist” Lex Luger flies in on a helicopter Ron Burgundy style, channels the spirit of George Washington and Teddy Roosevelt, and slams the 568-pound WWF champ. From here on out, it’s the Lex Express and American flag tights for the rest of Luger’s WWF run.

• The 1-2-3 Kid vs. Blake Beverly
  

Why does it look like the 1-2-3 Kid never has any eyebrows during this period? FUJIIIII? I know at one point in the match Heenan makes a joke about his brows. Kid starts off with a flurry of kicks we’ve never seen in the WWF at this point, but have certainly become accustomed to seeing nowadays. Beverly cuts him off with a powerslam and takes over. He gives the Kid such a vertical suplex into the corner, that he takes a bump out to the floor. Beverly takes the Kid around ringside yelling, “1-2-3 Kid, huh?” while slapping him around. Back inside for a moment, Beverly PRESS SLAMS Kid out to the floor! Just brutal. Oklahoma Slam connects, but Beverly lifts him up at one. Kid tries a crossbody out of the corner, but misses. To the floor again, Beverly misses a flying double sledge and then gets nailed with a flying somersault plancha! Again, most WWF fans had never seen that before. Back inside, Kid tries a leapfrog without looking and gets caught for a back suplex. Beverly then misses another dive and gets caught with the Flying Legdrop by the Kid for the 1-2-3. (8:00) Just a really good come-from-behind win there. They were booking the Kid so well at this point, but it couldn’t last forever. **½

Luna Vachon tells us that the Beast from the East is next!

• Bam Bam Bigelow (w/Luna Vachon) vs. Joey Maggs
  

She was right. Bigelow avalanches everybody’s favorite WCW jobber a bunch and pins him in :40. Joey Maggs competed in the first match I ever saw in person. It was DDP vs. Maggs in a dark match. He got banged.

• The Undertaker vs. Samu (w/Afa)
  

Paul Bearer is out recuperating from the Mr. Hughes attack, so they play up the fact that not only is the Undertaker all alone, but he doesn’t have the urn either. This is the first we’ve seen the Undertaker wrestle on Raw period since late February, and we didn’t even get to see the exciting conclusion! After a staredown and some fisticuffs, a leapfrog from Taker fails. I don’t know if that was intentional or not within the story of the match. Taker executes a drop toehold, which Savage exclaims he’s never seen the Undertaker do. Now Taker lands a dropkick. Another move Savage is surprised to see. So he’s a better wrestler without Paul Bearer? Afa slams Samu’s head off the steps to try and get him back into the match. Back in, Old School connects, but then he misses the Jumping Lariat. On the floor, Afa becomes a distraction as Samu superkicks Taker in the face. Taker sits up as we take a break. When we come back, Samu sends Taker into the steps. Back inside, Samu powerslams the Undertaker for two. Taker continues to sit-up no matter what Samu throws at him. As Taker receives a clothesline to the floor and lands on his feet, he comes back in and chokes Samu into a corner. Taker starts whipping him around and tosses him onto the top of the ringpost. Samu avoids a jumping elbow drop and hits a side slam. This time, Taker can’t sit up. One Flying Headbutt connects, but the second one misses as Taker *does* sit up. That was a really cool visual there. Chokeslam and TOMBSTONE is enough for Taker to pick up the win. (7:23 shown) I actually liked the story of Taker being off his game without the urn or Paul Bearer. *½

Vince McMahon brings out the WWF champion Yokozuna and Mr. Fuji apparently to gloat over Lex Luger’s victory. Fuji says Luger cheated using that bionic forearm of his and that people need to learn the difference between a slam and a hiptoss. The NYC crowd is all over these two with their “USA” chants. They really *love* this network. Fuji won’t allow Lex to get a WWF title shot, so Vince recommends he face somebody else like Bret Hart or Randy Savage or the HULKSTER. Fuji responds with the old, “anybody, anytime, anywhere” challenge. That’s just asking for trouble. Out comes Crush to show support for Lex Luger and to answer Yokozuna’s open challenge, bruddah. Fuji tries to backpedal saying he never made such a challenge. Vince asks Yoko instead if he will accept the WWF title match with Crush. He says, “hai”, which is Japanese for “yes”. Yoko vs. Crush for the WWF title – NEXT WEEK – in this very ring!

• Mr. Perfect vs. Brian Costello
  

This won’t take long because we don’t have much time left. PERFECTPLEX puts away Costello in 1:01.

Randy Savage – “STAY POSITIVE! THUMBS UP! YEAH!”

They leave us with some slow-motion footage of The Slam Heard ‘Round The World and some USA chanting in the background.

NEXT WEEK: Yokozuna vs. Crush for the WWF title!