WWF: Monday Night Raw
December 27, 1993
Poughkeepsie, NY
Mid-Hudson Civic Center

The current WWF champs are as follows:
World Champion: Yokozuna (6/11/1993)
Intercontinental Champion: Razor Ramon (9/27/1993)
World Tag Team Champions: The Quebecers (9/13/1993)

Your hosts are Vince McMahon and the Quebecers. Yes, both of them. Pierre only speaks French here. Jacques’ English – how you say – not so good either.

• Lex Luger vs. Barry Horowitz
  

The match here has a two-fold purpose: to hype the Luger/Jacques match scheduled for Superstars on New Year’s Day and to get you to call the WWF Hotline and vote YES to allow Lex Luger to be in the Rumble match. Horowitz gets in a fair amount of heel offense to set up Luger’s HULKING UP. Powerslam and a superplex sets up the win for Lex at 4:26.

• Marty Jannetty vs. Johnny Polo
  

Back on October 25, Polo interfered during a Jannetty/Kid match by shoving Jannetty into the guardrail to get out of the way of a tope con hilo from the Kid. Polo outclasses Jannetty with some basic moves to start. Dennis Rodman giving Luger a hiptoss at Bash at the Beach 1997 comes to mind. Jannetty sends Polo off into the corner and flips Polo back into the ring when he lands on the apron. Atomic drop sets up a back suplex to Polo for two. Jannetty manages a crucifix rollup for another nearfall. Polo blocks an O’Connor roll, but baits Jannetty into taking a dive out to the floor. He meets Jannetty on the floor with a running plancha. It wasn’t the prettiest thing in the world, but it was effective. Polo tries to slow things down with a chinlock, but Jannetty fights out and they end up colliding. Back up, Jannetty mounts his comeback starting with the jumping back elbow. He heads up top and Polo tries to stop him with a superplex. Jannetty blocks and sends Polo down for a Flying Body Press for 1-2-NO! Polo eats a dropkick and falls out to the floor. Pierre goes over to check on his manager. It’s not like he was really contributing on commentary anyhow. As he picks Polo up off the ground, Jannetty baseball slides into both of them. Back inside, Pierre trips up Jannetty as he tries to come off the ropes. Polo’s attack from behind fails as Jannetty superkicks him away. Back up top for Jannetty. Pierre pulls Polo out to the floor to safety, so Jannetty leaps down onto Pierre. Sunset flip back in for Jannetty, but Polo drops to his knees and grabs the middle rope (with some help from Pierre) for the added leverage to get the pinfall. (8:23) I really liked this match. They didn’t slow down for a second here, told a good story, and had a finish that will have consequences in the coming weeks. This match may get overlooked because of the Bobby Heenan argument that I do agree with most of the time that managers should wrestle like a manager and manage like a wrestler, but I still dug this all the same. ***¼

Afterwards, ref Joey Marella sends Pierre back to the locker room. Marty grabs a chair and threatens both the Quebecers. Vince stands up and uses his angry voice. WHOA.

WWF: Unbelievable! We get Yoko Claus again.

• Doink the Clown (w/Dink) vs. Spike Gray
  

Spike Gray falls for the gum trick and SELLS IT HUGE. You would think there was a freaking bear trap in that pack of gum. When Gray tries to sneak a right hand on Dink (who is perched on the top buckle), he gets punched back into a bridging German suplex for the three-count in 1:04.

The Royal Rumble Report with Todd Pettengill. The show premieres January 22 LIVE on PPV.

– 30-Man Royal Rumble Match: The winner faces the WWF champion at WrestleMania 10. Participants include: Bret Hart, Crush, Kamala, Owen Hart, Doink, Mabel, Scott Steiner, Shawn Michaels, Diesel, Adam Bomb, Bam Bam Bigelow, Randy Savage, The 1-2-3 Kid, Fatu, Samu, Rick Steiner, Bob Backlund, and the returning Greg Valentine. Should Jack Tunney allow Lex Luger to compete in the match? Give us some money and tell us to demand it be so.
– Casket match for the WWF Championship: Yokozuna (c) vs. The Undertaker
– WWF Intercontinental Championship: Razor Ramon (c) vs. Irwin. R Schyster
– WWF Tag Team Championship: The Quebecers (c) vs. Bret & Owen Hart (THEY MADE UP!)

• Crush (w/Mr. Fuji) vs. Mike Moraldo
  

For those interested, Macho Man has been reinstated as the color commentator on WWF Mania. XENU BE PRAISED. This doesn’t last long. The KONA CRUSH takes care of Moraldo in 2:14.

Over at the Undertaker’s workshop, he continues to prepare the casket big enough for Yokozuna. For some reason, he wishes Yoko a Merry Christmas. Ho. Ho. Ho.

Bret tells me not to drink and drive, so I’m not going to do it now. Thanks, Bret!

We get a fancy montage highlighting the Alundra Blayze and Heidi Lee Morgan match to find out who the WWF Women’s champion is. The full match aired yesterday on All-American Wrestling. We see some pre-match interviews, which is pretty cool. Heidi Lee should have stuck around more. I love when southern women use French. Always hilarious.

KWANG: he does karate-ish moves.

• WWF Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon vs. Derek Domino
  

Standard Ramon squash. Super Fallaway Slam, abdominal stretch, Back Superplex, and the RAZOR’S EDGE takes care of Domino at 3:53.

NEXT WEEK: The Smoking Gunns battle Bam Bam Bigelow & Bastion Booger! Also, we’ll see Jeff Jarrett and the WWF Champion Yokozuna in action.

And now for the TOP FIVE RAW MATCHES of 1993!

5. The Steiner Brothers vs. The Quebecers (9/13) ***1/2
4. Ric Flair vs. Mr. Perfect (1/25) ***1/2
3. Doink the Clown vs. Marty Jannetty (6/21) ***1/2
2. Mr. Perfect vs. Doink the Clown (5/24) ***3/4
1. Shawn Michaels vs. Marty Jannetty (7/19) ****