Monday Night Raw, Episode 2 Summary (1/18/93)

We're a week away from the Royal Rumble, and live from New York City. Vince McMahon, Rob Bartlett, and Randy Savage have microphones. Things open up hot, with the Repo Man attacking the Macho Man from behind and stealing his hat. Going from a popular tag team to, sigh, the Repo Man must have been a kick in the pants. Anyway, he made his escape through the crowd, hat in tow.


"Terrific" Terry Taylor vs Mr Perfect

Mr Perfect got some nice pop as he entered the ring. Taylor started out on the run, ducking Perfect as much as possible. A chase outside the ring resulted in another round of applause for Mr Hennig. Some fast-paces back and forth action went on while Vince spoke to Bobby "The Brain" Heenan on the phone. He was upset with Rob Bartlett for tearing up a picture of him, Sinead O'Connor style, in the opening. After a commercial break, Taylor took control of the match by bashing Perfect's face on the rail outside the ring. A couple of big slams resulted in near-falls, but Perfect kicked out, then began to channel his inner-Hulk, fighting off Taylor and going on the offensive. Suddenly, Ric Flair came to ringside. He distracted Perfect, leading to his being knocked out of the ring. Once out, Flair pummeled his then-rival. Taylor sought to finish things with a weakened opponent, but his suplex was reversed into a Perfect-Plex for the win.

It was a decent enough match, with Flair adding some drama. Perfect got the win, despite the interference, furthering their feud. Taylor was pretty meh, but got in some nice offense.


Bret Hart made his way to the ring for an interview to a huge pop from the crowd. He addresses Razor Ramon's attack on his brother and his father, though he stumbled on the mic a bit. The crowd ate it up, of course.


Marty Jannetty vs Glen Ruth (apparently)

The jobber pulls the old "handshake then attack from behind" maneuver to open up. Jannetty quickly gains control. Shawn Michaels called in during this one, and was way more entertaining than what was happening in the ring. After a too-long match, Jannetty wins with a finisher. who cares?

The match was as forgettable as they come. Jannetty gets the win going into his Royal Rumble match with Michaels, but against a jobber who managed to last several minutes.


We're shown footage of Crush getting a beatdown from Doink the Clown the previous weekend. He used a fake arm to beat Crush mercilessly, kind of (the blows were pretty weak).

This is followed by Shawn Mooney speaking with the Repo Man. Randy Savage gets angry and challenges Repo Man to a fight, and asks him where he wants to land (Nice). Savage winds up outside in the street looking for his prey, but isn't able to locate him.


Tito Santana vs Ric Flair

Flair opens with a "Whoooo" which the crowd returned. Chants of "Tito" break out as Santana starts on offense. "El Matador" stays in control with a combination of drop kicks and headlocks. After a commercial break, things have changed, with Flair using an eye poke, a knee drop, his classic chops to get ahead. The Nature Boy is in classic form, one minute thumbing eyeballs, and the next begging for a break. He takes a whip into the turnbuckle and flips up and over, and then onto the floor as only Flair can. Out of nowhere, to the crowd's delight, Mr Perfect sprints to the ring and attacks Flair. Security gets involved and the combatants go to the back, outside the camera's range. I assume Flair wins via disqualification, but nobody says anything, and Santana is helped to the back.

It was a quality match, as expected, between two terrific wrestlers. The crowd was into it, and the Perfect run-in got a huge pop. Santana looked strong, and Flair got in all of his classic moves, except the Figure Four, before the interference.


After a commercial break, McMahon says they're going to try and get a word with Flair and Mr Perfect, but they are still brawling. Security finally hauls Perfect off, leaving Flair at ringside, where he says he want Perfect in a "Loser Leaves the WWF" match next week. He also randomly gives a fan at ringside a memory. After he leaves, Mr Perfect comes down and accepts the match. The show closes with Repo Man towing Rob Bartlett's car.

Summary

This second episode flowed a little better than the first. Royal Rumble was promoted, but storylines that would carry on into next week's Raw and beyond, were set up nicely as well. As for the action, we got just three matches. Jannetty/jobber was boring, but Shawn Michaels added a nice touch with his comments. Mr Perfect and Terry Taylor wasn't bad, especially with Flair making an appearance. The final match was solid and entertaining. The best part of this one, though, was the outside-the-ring stuff.