WWF Review: June 1993

Excellence of Execution

June was another great month in the WWF, which is looking to shine throughout the summer of 1993. With the inaugural King of the Ring and an excellent line-up of RAWs, this month was filled with action and excitement. The WWF also plants the seeds to a number of feuds this month, most of which will culminate at Summerslam in August.

June saw a couple of debuts in the WWF (a ton of people have debuted already this year, it seems like), the most important being Diesel (Kevin Nash) Nash was a huge player in the Monday Night Wars as a successful champion in both WWF and WCW. He was brought in originally as Shawn Michaels’ “insurance policy” and was eventually given the name Diesel. It won’t be long until Nash is making his mark, and I cannot wait until he does. We also got Bastion Booger this month who was Friar Ferguson a few months back. He’s a pretty nasty dude whose name and gimmick just fit for some reason. I think Vinnie Mac really gets off on saying his name.

A really random note about this month – title changes are happening everywhere but television. Shawn Michaels shows up on RAW at the beginning of the month and is holding the IC title belt out of nowhere after losing it to Marty Jannetty a few weeks earlier. Then the Steiner Brothers show up as the tag team champs, apparently defeating Money, Inc. at some point. I don’t when these title changes are occurring, and I’m sure they were explained, but it still seems weird to have this happening outside of RAW or PPV. At the same time, there’s no way I’m going through the hell of finding and watching every episode of WWF Mania and other random shows.

Here's some awesome hype vid shown for King of the Ring in June:



Awards:

Superstar of the Month: Bret Hart. While I was tempted to award Doink for his series of matches with Marty Jannetty, Hart had three matches in one night that were just as good, if not better, at the King of the Ring tournament. Hart didn’t really do much the rest of the month, but it doesn’t matter – that was a hell of a performance and he sold Lawler’s beating very well. Bret Hart is the man.

Match of the Month (PPV not included): Marty Jannetty v. Doink. Doink once again blows my mind with his amazing wrestling ability while Marty Jannetty has one of his strongest performances of the year. I’m not a huge Jannetty fan, but I really must admit that he is capable of putting on great matches any time he walks out to that ring. This particular match was a best two-out-of-three falls match which it seemed like Doink had won after interference from Doink #2. Unfortunately the refs would reverse the decision and Doink came out on the losing end with only one fall to his credit. This match was long, exciting, and filled with great spots – check it out if you have the chance.

Promo of the Month: Razor Ramon. This guy is always great on the stick, but after losing to the 1-2-3 Kid a few weeks back, Ramon has been cutting promos like crazy offering the kid first $2,500, then $5,000, then $7,500 and finally $10,000 to get back in the ring with him. Ultimately the Kid would swindle Razor out of his cash. Waltman was seriously over at this point.

Random Sighting: Tito Santana. Now going by the name “El Matador” and wearing entirely too much pink, Tito Santana is a glorified jobber. It’s been a while since we’ve seen the flying jalapeno; hopefully this time he won’t stay off my primetime television for so long.

Jobber of the Month: Barry Horowitz. Congratulations, Barry – you earned this for putting over the Smoking Gunns. Give yourself a pat on the back, buddy.

Million Dollar Moment of the Month: While cutting a random promo on Razor Ramon, IRS takes over from DiBiase and calls Hall “Razor Jabrone.” I laughed.

Botch of the Month: In the 1-2-3 Kid’s match with “The Bad Guy,” Waltman took a nasty spill from the top rope and landed face first on the concrete. I thought it was hilarious.

Ugliest Wrestler: Kamala. This guy looks like my boy Eli Porter from Iron Mic (pics for reference). Honorable mention to Bastion Booger. Congratulations, Kamala - you did it, man.






Quote of the Month: “That just shows me why they sold Manhattan for $24.” – Bobby Heenan on Native Americans

Reflections: With a kickass PPV and some solid television, June kept the momentum from May rolling and picked up some steam for the summer. I’m excited for July and the body slam challenge on the USS Intrepid and I can’t wait to see the complete change in Lex Luger’s character.