WWF Superstars 11/24/93 Tatanka vs. IRS

[promoterx]

WWF Superstars of Wrestling
Broadcast: 11/23/93 on Fox Affiliates
Taped Tuesday 11/12/93
Mid Hudson Civic Center, Poughkeepsie, New York
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler and Gorilla Monsoon
Ring Announcer: Howard Finkel
Referees: Earl Hebner, Tim White, Danny Davis and Joey Marella

Vince McMahon: WELCOME TO WWF SUPERSTARS!! Vince McMahon at ringside along with Gorilla Monsoon, and Gorilla today as he prepares to challenge Shawn Michaels at Survivor Series, former Intercontinental Champion Tatanka face former WWF Tag Team Champion Irwin R. Schyster!!!


Gorilla Monsoon: That’s right Vince, and I think the current Champion Shawn Michaels better keep a close eye on that one, because I have a feeling that at The Survivor Series, Tatanka will once again become the Intercontinental Champion.

Vince McMahon: That remains to be seen. Also here today, Jim Ross will speak with the WWF Champion Yokozuna and his representative, James E. Cornette about the allegations that Mr Cornette is refusing to sign WWF Title matches between his man and The Undertaker, and about the team Yokozuna will be captaining at Survivor Series against The Undertaker’s team!!

Gorilla Monsoon: Plus the one I am looking forward to is “The Rocket” Owen Hart in singles competition against Fatu, both men will be a part of opposite teams this Thursday live on Pay Per View!! And the man who will be the Captain of Fatu’s team, “The Total Package” Lex Luger will be in action later as well.

Vince McMahon: Some of you may have noticed the absence of Jerry “The King” Lawler, it’s not because we have fired him though I think some of the fans would appreciate that, it’s because he will be in action in the ring NEXT!!!

COMMERCIALS

Jerry “The King” Lawler defeats young PJ Walker with a piledriver followed by a fist drop. Lawler came to the ring with a microphone, he insulted the crowd in the building as well as at home, and hurled several insults at his opponent before Walker caught him with a surprise dropkick. The young man showed some flash and promise but couldn’t overcome the veteran Lawler. During the match, Doink the Clown appeared in the crowd, he heckled Lawler during the match, Vince says that both Doink and Lawler are captaining teams this Thursday at Survivor Series against one another.

“The Total Package” Lex Luger is in front of his logo. He poses and tells us to look at his form, check out the biceps, check out the triceps, he makes his pecs bounce, then he calls out the British Bulldog, he says that the Bulldog does have an impressive physique, but it is no where near a Total Package like Lex Luger’s. He goes on to say that Bulldog doesn’t even have a pedigree like Luger’s and is nothing but a mongrel, something Luger plans to prove on Thanksgiving Night at Survivor Series.


COMMERCIALS

Jerry “The King” Lawler has returned to the commentary table, when Lawler sits down he sits right on a whoopie cushion that Doink had placed in his seat, Lawler is not amused but Doink is standing in the crowd laughing. Lawler vows to wipe that grin off Doink’s demented face this Thursday Night on Pay Per View at The Survivor Series!

“The Total Package” Lex Luger defeats Jim Powers via submission with the Torture Rack, Powers gave Luger some fight, but as strong as the young man is he isn’t as powerful as the Total Package. During the match a small box appeared on the bottom of the screen with the British Bulldog inside, Bulldog says his team is ready to go and they are going to show Luger that their bite is definitely worse than their bark!

1993 SURVIVOR SERIES REPORT!!!

Todd Pettengill is standing in front of a large screen with the Survivor Series Logo on it. Todd says we are just days away from Survivor Series live on Pay Per View Thanksgiving Night!!! He then runs down the card, first, after weeks of hype, “Double J” Jeff Jarrett will make his WWF debut and we’ll see if Jarrett has what it takes to be a Superstar here in the WWF, or if he’ll be just a flop!!!

Jerry “The King” Lawler will team with Irwin R. Schyster, Rick “The Model” Martel and Bastion Booger to take on Doink The Clown, The Bushwhackers and Mabel!!! Everyone on the King’s team have had their issues with the joyful clown, who has found ways to play tricks on each and everyone of them, now they are all looking to put an end to Doink’s fun and games, but Doink has rounded up some of his friends to help him out.

The British Bulldog and Lex Luger take their war of words to the next level when they captain teams against one another. Luger has been after the Bulldog ever since the fans voted Bulldog as the winner of the Slammy for Best Body in the WWF, going as far as taking the Slammy when Bulldog was in the middle of a match and destroying it. Luger has enlisted the aid of Harvey Wippleman and his stable of The Headshrinkers and Adam Bomb, while the British Bulldog has recruited his brothers in law, Bret and Owen Hart as well as a man who has had his own issues with Adam Bomb as of late, the man they call Crush!!! It wasn’t too long ago that Crush and Adam Bomb were in a Battle Royal where the winner would get a shot at the Intercontinental Championship, Crush eliminated Adam Bomb, but instead of leaving ringside Bomb jumped back up on the apron and pulled Crush out of the ring, over the top rope, eliminating Crush as well!!! It took every referee and official in the WWF to pull the two men apart, but there won’t be anything standing in their way when they are on opposite teams at Survivor Series!!!

Speaking of the Intercontinental Title, it will be on the line when the former Champion Tatanka faces the current Champion and the man who beat him for the belt, “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels. Now there was some controversy over how Shawn won the title. The referee was knocked out during the match when Tatanka came off the top rope with a crossbody and the referee somehow ended up between Shawn and Tatanka. It looked like to many that Shawn pull the referee in the way, Tatanka had Shawn pinned, but no referee was there to make the count, as Tatanka tried to revive the ref, Shawn got to his feet and surprised Tatanka with Sweet Chin Music as Tatanka turned around. Shawn covered and got the slow three from the groggy ref. Now for this rematch, the WWF has decided that not one but TWO referees will be there. One inside the ring, and a second outside the ring, just in case the first one goes down!!

Then finally, the WWF Champion Yokozuna, is he ducking the Undertaker? Only he and James E Cornette know that for sure, but one thing WE know is that these two will get in the ring with each other at the Survivor Series, as Captains of opposing teams!!! Yokozuna will team with the current WWF Tag Team Champions The Quebecers and the Hellraiser from Helsinki himself, Ludvig Borga to battle The Undertaker’s team of the Smoking Gunns, and a mystery partner!!! Todd says he has been trying and trying to find out who the mystery partner is, and he can’t find out anything. He says the only way to find out is to order the 1993 Survivor Series today!!!



COMMERCIALS

JEFF JARRETT DEBUTS AT SURVIVOR SERIES

(Just pretend that Jarrett is talking about The Undertaker, The British Bulldog, The Hart Brothers instead of The Undertaker, Mr. Perfect, The Steiner Brothers, and that he says he will be arriving at The Survivor Series)

Jim Ross interviews WWF Champion Yokozuna and his representative James E. Cornette. Ross plays the same clips he showed last week of a recent house show in Albany, New York where Lex Luger and Yokozuna teamed up to face The British Bulldog and The Undertaker and Undertaker pinned Yokozuna in the middle of the ring with a flying clothesline. Ross says promoters are lining up to sign matches between Yokozuna and Undertaker but thus far, Cornette has refused to do so, Ross asks Cornette is Yokozuna is ducking Undertaker? Cornette threatens to sue Ross for spreading that rumor, he says the WWF Champion has several demands on his time and doesn’t have the opening in his schedule right now to teach that Undead Freak a lesson. Ross wants to know when Yokozuna will face Undertaker then, Cornette says that it will happen when he says it will happen and not a moment sooner. Cornette once again says that Taker should count his blessings that Yokozuna is in such high demand he doesn’t have time to face Taker at this moment. Talk turns to the Survivor Series match that will pit Yokozuna, the WWF Tag Team Champions The Quebecers and Ludvig Borga against The Undertaker, The Smoking Gunns and a mystery partner, Ross asks Cornette if he has any idea who the mystery partner might be and Cornette says his source have told him THERE IS NO PARTNER!!! Cornette says it’s all a con thought up by Paul Bearer because no one in their right mind would want to get into the ring with Yokozuna and his team. Cornette then ends the interview saying that no one will be trying to sign match between Undertaker and Yokozuna after Survivor Series, because Yokozuna is going to squash Undertaker like a bug!!!


COMMERCIALS

W/

“The Rocket” Owen Hart defeated Fatu with Harvey Wippleman by disqualification. The match itself saw Owen try to stay one step ahead of his much larger opponent, Fatu got to throw Owen around a little, and had him down on the mat after a big belly to belly suplex, but Owen got his knees up when Fatu attempted a top rope superfly style splash, before Owen could capitalize, Fatu’s partner Samu jumped in the ring and attacked Owen from behind drawing the DQ. Owen’s brother Bret was soon in the ring backing up his brother, but manager Harvey Wippleman called out to Adam Bomb to come help his stablemates from the back, Bomb rushed from the back, as did their partner for this Thursday at the Survivor Series, Lex Luger!!! Luger and Bomb hit the ring and attacked the Hart Brothers, but before the 4 on 2 donnybrook could become a massacre for the Harts, their partners for this Thursday, Crush and The British Bulldog, rushed out of the back to even the odds!!! It’s a total pier six brawl that referees and officials are trying to break up when we go to the back for some comments from Tatanka!!!

Tatanka is standing in front of his logo. He lets out a battle cry then points at the camera and calls out Irwin R. Schyster, he says today IRS will be the next man to fall on Tatanka’s war path toward regaining the Intercontinental Championship. Tatanka calls out current Champion Shawn Michaels and says at Survivor Series Michaels will have to face him in the ring once again and when that happens, Tatanka will regain the Intercontinental Championship!


COMMERCIALS

Tatanka defeats Irwin R. Schyster with the End of the Trail Slam, but it wasn’t an easy victory for him. A back and forth struggle between the two men saw IRS get several nearfalls and almost got a submission with an abdominal stretch, until the referee caught him using the top rope for leverage and kicked his arm off. That was enough to allow Tatanka to break into a babyface comeback and get the win. During the match, Shawn Michaels was interviewed on a split screen from backstage, he said he is glad that there will be two referees at ringside this Thursday at the Survivor Series, he says he is sick and tired of hearing how Tatanka had him beat if not for the referee getting injured. Michaels promises that the only one getting injured at Survivor Series is Tatanka when Shawn puts him down for the count once again with Sweet Chin Music. After the match was over a visibly upset IRS walked around ringside with his hands on his hips, talking to himself about the loss. Doink was still at ringside in the crowd and laughed at IRS, IRS didn’t like that and started pointing and yelling at Doink, in response Doink fired some water out of his flower at IRS!!!! IRS then shoved the playful clown to the ground and then headed back to the locker room.


Vince, Gorilla and Lawler then closed the show with Lawler glad that IRS shoved Doink down and just wished he had broken his jaw instead, because that would have made it a lot harder for Doink to laugh. Gorilla says that Lawler can give it a shot himself this Thursday Night at The Survivor Series, but Gorilla doubts that he’d be successful. Vince invites us to tune in on Thanksgiving Night on Pay Per View for the Survivor Series, then come back here next week when we will deal with all the fallout and the Smoking Gunns will face The Quebecers again, only this time the Tag Titles will be on the line!!!!

Tried to fix the video offering from Daily Motion but had no luck.

[Deleted]

Really was surprised to see the Survivor Series pop up. As I said last time, pretty understandable you would skip it since it is hard to make some of this stuff matter in only 2 shows, but should be a fun read, if not in terms of feeling important top to bottom. Specifically eying that Doink match on the face side lol, but at least it is Bourne and not Apollo under the clown getup.

On that note of Bourne and not Apollo, surprised to see you go the face route with Doink under that circumstance. He was a pretty effective heel and horribly underutilized in real life before the turn, barely used at all here in this league, except for a forgettable run as "Extreme Doink" for a few weeks. I feel like he could be better used as a heel, and ...

... feel Luger could be better used as a face in the environment set up. This 1 I could be completely wrong on depending what your plans are, he just does not feel like a main event heel here at all to me and something is missing. With full disclosure, I will add that I am not a big fan of his period which is why he was dropped by me in September 1992 when I had the chance even as co-holder of the Tag Team titles and not picked up again in the 14 months since. I just feel like his heel personality really lacked anything of substance unless he had the right manager to talk for him. The dancing pecks / subdued promo and squash match that would have a silent arena watching, just brought all the Narcissist stuff back. J.J. Dillon, Harley Race, Bobby Heenan, even Jimmy Hart in that weird role he had in late 95 / early 96, they really completed the package as a heel that was not there otherwise.

Nice work in giving Tatanka a win before the event. He needs it most of all since anybody else in need of 1 can pick up a fall in the elimination match itself to build towards the finale.

Only a week in and we are getting a mystery partner angle. I have a guess on who it is based on it being the main event position and who it could be, hopefully am right. A bit surprised though you wouldn't advertise him ahead of time to get the buys his name would bring, but that could be a sign too that it is not who I think it is. Nice tease with Cornette too that there in fact is no partner at all.

Also just a note about the Jarrett video. Not sure if there is a daily motion option, but with youtube, you just take the URL and encase that tag and it shows up as playable on the page. Just so next time you can do it as a video instead of a link, assuming the video is even on youtube that you are thinking about using.

It might be less quantity wise than the previous WWFs, but less is more in the squash format I find, so a great, quick read these shows are proving to be.

[somethingsavage]

I actually prefer the brief, more condensed versions for these shows. If ya bust out a bigger format for the occasional mega event or PPV, then that's fine & completely understandable. But for a weekly episode? This fits me just fine. It's actually appreciated on my end, as it allows me to keep up at a regular pace - rather than trying to sit down & read an entire month of cards every 3 or 4 weeks. So there's that. Haha.

Part of me wants to criticize ya on running TOO MANY of the actual angles we saw in real life, but at the end of the day? This is your project, man. And you're only just getting it off the ground. So, in all fairness, I'm gonna kick back & let you do your thing for awhile. As long as ya keep the stories separate and unique enough in their own right from what we actually got served to us in reality - then it'll all iron out just fine, I think. I *will* say that you're capturing the feel of the 'F environment on television from this period incredibly well though. Accurate & right on target in that regard, man.

Totally agree on the issue of Doink being a babyface though. ESPECIALLY if it's the ultra-skilled veteran Borne playing the part. Absolutely loved the Borne Again shtick he did with it in ECW later, and even THAT was marred with limitations and restrictions thrust upon the gimmick and - let's face it - the Philly crowd itself at times.

There's just SOOOO much potential packed into the heel act with him here. Hopefully you'll get around to exploring that option before it's all said & done. I certainly don't care to see it go full-throttle into Dink territory and all that again. It's a trip best left off our map, if yew wheel...

Besides, as noted, the treacherous trickster version just opens up a wide world of possibilities for the character. The lovable clown though? Ehh. Not so much.

Love that you're still using Lawler as an active competitor, by the way. The in-ring insults are a nice touch and a trademark trait that I'm glad you're harnessing here.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I dig the villainous Lex Luger. Always have. He can be a good babyface, but you have to feed him a factory of heels to make it work. That's why his rebellion against the Horsemen clicked. That's why his "Rack the World" campaign versus the nWo was his most popular peak. Every other face run in between? Bland. Dull. Stale. Lex Express? Need I really say much more? So yeah. Heel Luger is A-okay in my book.

Stoked to see you pick up on feedback almost instantly & run with it. It's cool that we're getting our annual dose of Survivor Series anyhow. I'm eager to find out the identity of Taker's mystery partner, among other things. Fun bunch of stuff you're doing here for the most part, man. Keep it coming.

[Deleted]

Well I mean going from this to Lex Express would be a pretty big negative, I will not disagree there lol. At the same time that was a lot better in real life than the 6 months previous as The Narcissist where he was pretty much solo and despite feuding with Bret Hart, the thing flat out sucked and had no heat at all to it. It was more just in regard to that specific type of personality displayed here as a heel not working for him. Just works better with a mouthpiece to speak for him as a heel. He was only as strong as the heels he was working as a face, and as a heel was only ever as good as his manager's ability to talk for him. Very unique case for fantasy wrestling booking as a face Bulldog vs heel Luger match in 1993 WWF could be absolutely horrible as it is likely to be good. But given it is Survivor Series and then Rumble at least, it is not like you need to present a 10 minute match between them except on house shows anyway, and the sheer muscle vs muscle sell always works in shorter 2 minute bursts.

And yeah, I was not saying anything to the negative of the show length, just differentiating it from the other WWF stuff. Just wanted to clarify since you do seem to take the feedback comments quite quickly into action and did not come back with a Bret Hart vs Brooklyn Brawler match like me or New Japan give lol. Believe me, for reading matches like Luger vs Jim Powers or Jawler vs PJ Walker, the result and some context is all I need. If it were Raw or further into your product with the feature matches, I may think differently on that, but for what this is and what it is presenting, this works fine for me.

[promoterx]

I have no shame in totally coping to the fact I put Yoko, Borga and the Quebecers on the same team just so I could use that poster of Yoko going after a turkey with some friggin chopsticks.

I ran with Taker and Yoko because neither have been used by anyone since the last WWF, figuring that if I am pretending the WWF has just been rolling along all this time, they would be feuding, Lawler-Doink getting plugged together, well it was originally Team Crush vs. Team Adam Bomb, but I didn't like how the teams looked, so I thought it would be fun to say Doink was messing with all these dudes so they came together to fight him, and he got some of his friends to help out.


Doink ain't ever going to have Dink, and I ain't planning on just making him happy go lucky Doink, I actually really like the heel Doink, and I will go there at some point I promise, just at this time I thought I could make better use of Doink where I currently am as a face as opposed to a heel.

As far as Luger goes, I always liked him better as a heel, just never got the babyface Luger, only time I liked the dude as a face was when he first turned on the Horsemen, that was a good angle that I could get with, every other face run I wasn't down with, even against the nWo something felt off to me.

I will be straight up with you guys, I can't write matches worth a witches tit, I'll add more to Pay Per Views, and when I get to Raw I will probably write out more Promos and add some more details to the matches, but the chances of me writing a whole bunch of move for move stuff, I just can't do it. Plus I won't insult the people that have the skill to do it by putting up a piss poor version of my own. I seen people write shows that feel like you are watching the damn tv show, I can't figure out how in the hell they do it, and they get mad props from me because they can.

What I can do is write what I think are some pretty fun angles and some interesting twists and turns, and I can get shows up and try and give you a fun little ride. I love the goofy WWF era, and I'll probably be running a roster that is pretty damn close to what the real roster in the time period is, and yes I will probably be putting my own twists on angles that really happened, but I can also say, I am going to do some stuff where you might think I am going to go the same way they did in real life and then pull the rug out from under you. Hopefully it will be as fun for you peeps to read as it is for me to write.

And I will always take feedback to heart and try to use it when I can, I mean shit, you guys are taking the time to leave me a few words, it would be pretty crappy of me not to take some of it and try and use it.

[Grape Ape]

A few days in and I think you are right on track with what you put forth as to where you were going, coming in with the WWF.

Starting small, you have a good WWF-recognizable roster and what appears to be a definite plan and direction. On top of that, you've listened to some of the feedback and are going to give us a Survivor Series. Hell, we even got a poster ... good work in putting together the team, to fit the poster.

There is a refreshing enthusiasm to this version of the WWF that we haven't seen. Looking forward to what is to come.

As for the match writing, you're fine. No worries on how you do it ... do what you feel comfortable with and don't beat yourself up over it.

[somethingsavage]

Exactly, man. Play to your strengths. No need to go all-out with every match. Plug in the details when ya need 'em. Everything else can be left to the imagination, if need be. A match is a beginning, middle, and a finish. We've all seen wrestling, haha. We know how this thing goes. ;D

This board is strong on the work-rate already anyway. We get loads of detailed action with Drew's New Japan and JP's own WCW. There's no pressure whatsoever for ya to go that same route. If anything, it stands a chance of separating your project from the rest of the bunch - while actually playing UP the idea that, yes. This is a lighter, goofier time for the WWF. Helps ya stand out a bit.