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WWF Monday Night Raw July 26, 1993
by SamoaRowe

-Doink the Clown has harsh words for Macho Man Randy Savage. He has a surprise for him tonight. I’m guessing duplicates.

-From New York City. Our hosts are Vince McMahon, Bobby Heenan, and Randy Savage. Stu and Helen Hart are in attendance to watch Bret Hart wrestle tonight.

Bam Bam Bigelow (with Luna Vachon) vs. Bret Hart
Bigelow dominates in the early going. Hart ducks a clothesline and dumps Bigelow to ringside. Luna distracts, but Bret plays possum and directs Bigelow to the ring. Seated senton off the ropes by Bret, but he appears to have injured his own knee. After a commercial, we see Hart heavily selling his knee injury. Bigelow proceeds to attack everything but the knee. Bigelow counters a cross body with a slam for 2. Bigelow misses a third falling head butt and Hart nails a suplex. Hart’s knee is visibly bothering him again, it would be wise for Bigelow to capitalize. Instead, Bigelow fights down Hart and applies a chinlock that lasts through a second commercial break. Hart escapes and dodges a drop-kick. Hart finds second wind, hitting a flurry of offense. Bret becomes aggressive at times with some head butts and nails a side Russian legsweep for 2. Flying clothesline by Bret gets another near fall. Sleeper by Hart but Bigelow counters with the turnbuckles. Bulldog by Hart sets up the sharpshooter, but Jerry Lawler distracts by confronting Stu Hart in the audience. Lawler antagonizes the Stu and Helen while Bigelow takes control of Bret. Bigelow eventually misses a top rope move and Hart makes a comeback. Hart plants Bigelow and takes off the chase Lawler away from his parents. Bigelow wins by count-out at 15:58 (shown). The match itself was uninteresting but the Lawler angle was good stuff, *½.
Winner by count-out: Bam Bam Bigelow

-Hart storms out back in search of Lawler. He can’t catch him, so he comes out to check on his folks.

Mr. Hughes (with Harvey Wippleman) vs. Ross Greenberg
Hughes is still sporting The Undertaker’s urn. Another black wreath is delivered to ringside. Hughes projects his anger towards poor Greenberg, beating him down sluggishly. Hughes completely no-sells some body shots and nails a big boot. A horrid powerbomb by Hughes and some slaps. Greenberg runs into a sloppy sidewalk slam and Hughes picks up the win at 3:05. A true DUD.
Winner: Mr. Hughes

-Hughes destroys the black wreath.

-Wrestlemania: The Album is available tomorrow. Vince predicts a stampede at all K-Mart stores! (Editor's note: Classy!!) We are treated to a video recap of some superstars promoting the album. Good luck with that.

The Smokin’ Gunns vs. Duane Gill and Glen Ruth
Gill and Billy Gunn kick things off, with Billy unsurprisingly picking up the advantage. Bart tags and crashes down on Gill’s wrist. Ruth tags and Bart takes him and Gill down with a cross body. Bart plants Ruth and tags Billy for a big leg drop. The Gunns keep the tags coming quickly and get away with some double team moves. This goes on much longer than it needed to, but Bart finally puts Ruth away with a piledriver at 4:22. Another uninteresting squash, ¼*.
Winners: The Smokin’ Gunns

-Hype video for Ludvig Borga. And I thought Vladimir Kozlov was boring.

-We are treated to a very special interview with Lex Luger in an empty Manhattan Center. Vince asks him about his upcoming WWF Championship match with Yokozuna at Summerslam, and Luger is just happy to be getting his opportunity. Lex is open to answering tough questions from the fans. The Lex Express will continue, whether he wins the World title or not.

Doink the Clown vs. Phil Apollo
Fireman’s carry by Doink sets up an armbar. Belly to belly suplex by Doink, who takes a minute to stare a hole into Randy Savage. Apollo is hapless as Doink attacks his back. Back suplex by Doink and an elbow drop. Scoop slam by Doink sets up the seated senton to the chest. Doink picks up the win at 2:31. Short and inoffensive, ¼*.
Winner: Doink the Clown

-It’s time for Doink’s surprise for Macho Man! Doink asks for the "Macho Boy" to come to the ring, but Savage is reluctant. Doink comes to ringside and gets into Savage’s face. Doink challenges Savage to a match. Doink says they will probably wrestle next week, and Macho Man will be seeing triple vision! Suddenly a second Doink pops up in the ring and a third Doink appears on the balcony. Savage accepts a match, but he has a little surprise of his own.

Final Thoughts: This was a fairly dull episode. The wrestling wasn’t particularly good and the storylines aren’t really that interesting. The highlight was Lawler antagonizing the Hart parents and listening to their feeble attempts to defend themselves verbally against him. It would have been nice to see Stu wreck Lawler, but I can understand why they wouldn’t have wanted that to happen.

Mild thumbs down.

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