I had a chance to start digging into an AMAZING collection of ridiculous matches from my favorite WWF era. Some awesome person put together a mostly complete collection of feature matches from WWF Mania and All American Wrestling in 1993. This is an absolute treasure trove of mid-card matches featuring so many wacky characters! It’s like a long lost Coliseum Video or something. These goofball matches have brought me so much happiness, and I would have killed to have seen this nonsense back in 93, when I was just so nuts for this stuff! I just loved watching this insane and ridiculous collection, and there’s a whole second half I’ve started on.
The majority of the matches have Jim Ross and Gorilla Monsoon on commentary; a wonderful pair to listen to. I loved hearing them talk about all the happenings in the WWF, as these matches flowed from the end of February through to the middle of June. Gorilla had a little extra spice in his commentary, calling out guys for failing to do the basics like hooking the leg and such. That was always a part of Gorilla’s character, but paired with Ross, maybe it just stood out more. One anomaly on the commentary team, was the short-lived run of a character known as The Wizard. This was a new, short-lived guise of Bruce Prichard, who disappeared quickly and was never seen on camera. This mysterious Wizard character was part of early internet lore, as fans debated as to whether or not he was ever actually shown. The Wizard’s commentary is awful though, second rate heel fare, and his gimmick seemed like something that was just made up at the last second. Still, it was interesting to finally hear him on the call for a few AAW exclusive matches.
1) WWF Mania – 2/13/93: Koko B. Ware defeated Repo Man via disqualification at 5:07 when Repo began choking Koko across the bottom rope with his leg
LOL!! What a funny way to kick off this crazy collection of matches! This is one of the last televised appearances of the Birdman, and he’s rocking the red version of his wacky pants. This is basically a future AWF Warriors of Wrestling main event. Total nothing match, but who cares, it was hilarious seeing these characters in the ring together. Most shockingly – Koko B Ware actually WINS!! WOAH! That I was not expecting. Birdman picks up the cheapest DQ imaginable with Repo Man choking him with the bottom ring rope. Doesn’t matter though – Koko won a match!
2) WWF Mania – 2/20/93: El Matador & Virgil defeated the Beverly Brothers at 8:42 when Santana pinned Beau with a small package after the Beverlys switched places in the ring
HAHAHA – El Matador and Virgil!! This is something Matt and I would have laughed our asses off at back in 93. In yet another surprise finish – Matador and Virg win this match! Yes! I’m always amazed to see how over these guys still were, despite jobbing hard for the past year. This was a pretty good match too, with more action than usual for the Beverly’s. Virgil and El Matador might have made for a pretty good permanent mid-card team in 93. There are rumors of a bizarre Virgil and Raymond Rougeau tag team, that actually wrestled a dark match or two. Forget that nonsense, this could have been a fun new team.
3) WWF Mania – 3/6/93: Typhoon defeated Papa Shango via disqualification at 4:59 when Shango used his voodoo stick to spray sparks into Typhoon’s face
LOL – that ridiculous Papa Shango fireworks stick was overused in far too many fuck finishes. He uses that stick in so many Prime Time and Coliseum Video exclusives. Definitely a cool visual, but way overdone. Shango was nothing more than a jobber to the non-stars at this point, why even bother to protect him with a DQ? This match was laughably bad and boring, exactly what I wanted and expected from it.
4) WWF Mania – 3/13/93: Crush defeated Damien Demento via submission with the head vice at 7:40
Speaking of jabronis, I was excited to find out that there were a whole bunch of Damien Demento matches in this collection. When he debuted, I was expecting big things from Demento – another dark and mysterious character. It sucked that he had no music, but I thought that would come in time. After his Royal Rumble appearance, he dropped so fast down the card and soon disappeared from any relevancy. In hindsight, the character and his ringwork really sucked. He was boring and one-dimensional. This match against Crush was a total slog, but man, it was totally something right out of my grade 6 imagination, when I used to write up lists of “dream matches” to send in to Coliseum Video. Eventually Crush wins clean with the head vice. I wonder if Demento ever got a TV win against a Virgil or someone? I’m now kind of interested in his crappy career.
5) WWF Mania – 3/20/93: Lex Luger pinned Tito Santana at 8:39 with the running forearm
This was included on the Grudge Matches Coliseum Video I recently watched, so I passed over watching it again.
6) All American Wrestling – 3/21/93: Tatanka pinned Blake Beverly with the Samoan drop at around the 7-minute mark
Sometime in spring 93 Beau got hurt, which effectively spelled the end of the Beverly Brothers. Blake continued on in singles action and actually had some pretty fantastic matches. It’s actually quite surprising that they didn’t find a way to repackage him and keep him on the roster, especially as it thinned out by late summer. It was interesting to see the waning days of so many of these characters. Tatanka was definitely getting a big push leading into Wrestlemania, which lead so many fans, myself included, to believe he’d be walking out with the IC title. Too bad he didn’t.
7) WWF Mania – 3/27/93: Mr. Perfect pinned Papa Shango with the Perfect Plex at 7:54
I’ve seen this match countless times on WWF’s Grudges Gripes and Grunts tape, but what the hell, I watched it again. Perfect was just fucking tremendous during the first half of 93. He could take a solid beating, like in this match, then come back and crush his opponent with the perfect plex to a huge pop. Damn Perfect was amazing. What a waste to put the title on Hogan, when Perfect could have been having stellar matches with Yokozuna or Bret Hart.
8) WWF Mania – 4/10/93: Yokozuna (w/ Mr. Fuji) pinned Typhoon at 1:50 with the Bonzai Drop
I love big man battles, but this was over in two minutes. I can’t figure out why they squashed Typhoon so bad. He’s still with the company a couple more months and was a solid fixture of the lower mid-card. Regardless, it was a statement victory by Yoko.
9) All American Wrestling – 4/11/93: Jim Duggan pinned Damien Demento with the running clothesline at 3:45
Hahaha! More Damian Demento! I wonder when he vanished from Superstars and Challenge? It’s weird to see him in actual feature matches. Duggan fought back against his crappy offense and steamrolled him for a fun win. Honestly, I can’t get enough of these ridiculous matches!
10) All American Wrestling – 4/25/93: Kamala (w/ Slick) fought Papa Shango to a double count-out at 3:32 when Kamala stalked Shango backstage
Speaking of ridiculous matches, it doesn’t get much goofier than this nonsense. Nice added touch of Kamala being afraid of Shango to start. There was next to no actual wrestling in this match, but who cares, this was fucking awesome. A real wacky battle of two cartoon characters. The match ends in a beyond cheap finish, with Shango simply walking to the back and Kamala following him. One memory I had while watching this, is that some of these matches ended up being shown on TSN. They had the weekly WWF on TSN show which included some of these All American and Mania matches, and even a few odd exclusives. I was never a consistent viewer of that show, as it seemed to be on at random times, but I definitely remember watching it whenever I could.
11) WWF Mania – 5/8/93: Bam Bam Bigelow pinned Kamala at 3:50 with a roll up after Kamala attempted making the pin with Bigelow face-down on the mat
After all these years I finally got to see the match that was SUPPOSED to be at Wrestlemania IX! Could they not have found 5 minutes to fit this in? Kamala was being phased out of the company at this point, and his good guy run was dead in the water. Still, this was a really fun battle of the beasts. Both Bigelow and Kamala were fast and agile for monsters their size. Just seeing them in the ring together is impressive. Kamala is still stupidly not understanding how to pin anyone, leading Bigelow to get the win with the cheap rollup. Bah, crap finish aside, this was great.
12) All American Wrestling – 5/16/93: Crush defeated Blake Beverly via submission with the head vice at 2:17
It’s interesting – some of these feature matches are competitive battles, but others like this are a total squash. Crush looks much better here destroying Blake than he did engaging with Damian Demento for nearly 10 minutes. Just a commanding victory for Crush as they seemed to be trying to heat him up after making him look like a total loser in his feud with Doink.
13) WWF Mania – 5/22/93: Tatanka pinned Terry Taylor with the Samoan Drop
Woah awesome – this was taken from a Manhattan Centre Raw taping. Love seeing them use some of the dark matches taped during these Raws. Always incredible to see matches in this setting in front of a proto-ECW crowd. Hard to believe that Taylor was still competing in matches at this point. By KOTR he was in an announcer role. It’s weird too how they never tried to give him any kind of nickname or gimmick at any point in 93. He works hard as usual and sells great for Tatanka, really antagonizing the fans. Another win for Tatanka, who’s career just wasn’t the same after failing to capture the IC title.
14) All American Wrestling – 5/23/93: Doink the Clown pinned Virgil at 5:17 with an elbow drop after squirting something into Virgil’s eyes
Hahaha! Always awesome to see heel Doink, and even better to see him cheat to win against Virgil. This was a good five minutes of fun, with the crowd solidly behind Virgil of course. I loved hearing all the build towards King of the Ring 93 over these matches. I truly would have gone crazy over seeing these matches during this era.
15) WWF Mania – 5/29/93: Mr. Hughes (w/ Harvey Wippleman) pinned Owen Hart with the sidewalk slam at 4:46
Man, it’s great seeing so many of these lower mid-carders in these matches. Guys like Blake Beverly, Demento, Taylor, Owen, etc. were rarely featured on Superstars or Challenge by this point. Owen had been out since March with a knee injury but returned at the beginning of May and was shunted to the bottom of the card until Survivor Series. This was a super basic match. Hughes’ run was so short, so it’s cool seeing some of these rarities from his time in the Fed. He objectively sucks, but has a great look and gimmick. He puts away Owen quite easily and decisively here.
16) All American Wrestling – 5/30/93: Bam Bam Bigelow fought Bob Backlund to a time-limit draw at around the 9-minute mark
Another match taped from the Manhattan Center! Yes! The crowd is just bonkers, cheering for Bam Bam and yelling all kinds of stuff at Backlund. The match starts slow, but really picks up and becomes tremendous. Backlund sticks out like a sore thumb more than ever in the Manhattan Center. Who the fuck knows what the point of even having him on the roster even was. He does fuck all until his amazing heel run a year later. Anyway, this match is great and inexplicably ends in a time limit draw! No drama or anything, the bell just suddenly rings. The crowd is all over this nonsense and Backlund challenges Bigelow to 5 more minutes, but after getting dropped to the floor, Bigelow walks away. So random!
17) WWF Mania – 6/5/93: Tito Santana defeated Fatu (w/ Afa) via disqualification at 5:17 when Samu interfered after Santana hit the flying forearm
Wow! A match from very late in El Matador’s run, and he actually gets a WIN!! Surprises around every corner in this collection of matches. This is a really fun WTF battle, and I highly enjoyed this match. It actually seems like Tito is on his way to a pinfall victory when Samu runs down to interfere and cause the DQ. I also laughed at how Jim Ross would rarely say El Matador, and would always put over Tito Santana the athlete. Gotta love how WCW his commentary still was at this point.
13) All American Wrestling – 6/6/93: Crush fought Razor Ramon to a double count-out at around the 11-minute mark after both men began fighting on the floor
This was taped in the awesome looking Centre 200 in Sydney, Nova Scotia. I don’t know why, but this arena sticks out so much in my mind. I remember the matches taped in this building really well too. The crowd is all over Razor with the 1-2-3 chants, and we get lots of stalling to start. Things start picking up and this ends up being a pretty good competitive battle. That arena looks so fucking good though. The WWF really should have considered taping more TV in these kinds of buildings compared to the dumpy basements they’d be using in a couple months. This match ends in a lame double countout and Crush wants more of Ramon, but of course the still here Razor walks out.
14) WWF Mania – 6/12/93: Tatanka fought Mr. Hughes to a double disqualification at 6:12 after both men struck the referee
The first set of these matches concludes with another match taped in the Manhattan Centre. Tatanka is quickly becoming the king of Mania and All American. He was all over TV in 93. I remember getting pretty sick of him by summer 93. His feud with Bigelow had potential, but fizzled out by fall. This was one of the better Mr. Hughes matches, but of course ends in a lame double DQ because Tatanka MUST remain undefeated.
the RepoDan Wrestling Institution 