WWF RAW 5/23/1994

Written By: Bob Colling

World Wrestling Federation presents RAW
Date: 5/23/1994
From: Youngstown, OH

RAW Opening Video

Vince McMahon and Randy Savage welcome everyone to RAW. McMahon says it’s unknown where Earthquake is. Earthquake is suppose to face Owen Hart in a King of the Ring qualifying match on the show.

Opening Contest: Owen Hart defeated Doink the Clown to qualify for the 1994 King of the Ring: Doink is replacing Earthquake. Owen attacks Doink before he can take his jacket off. Owen chokes Doink across the top rope and gouges the eyes of Doink. Owen takes Doink down with a back suplex and connects with a middle rope flying elbow for a near fall. Doink battles back with a backdrop and dropkick that causes Owen to roll to the floor. Owen re-enters and gouges at Doink’s eyes but Doink takes Owen down with a hip toss that causes Owen to roll to the floor and chase after Dink. Owen runs right into a clothesline by Doink. Doink scoop slams Owen down as well on the floor. Owen drags Doink to the corner and wraps Doink’s left knee across the ring post as RAW heads to commercial. Owen with a spinning heel kick for a near fall. Belly to belly suplex by Owen for another near fall. Both men collide in the middle of the ring with a clothesline. Doink with a overhead belly to belly suplex for a near fall. Doink with a neck breaker, and Jeff Jarrett is seen carrying Dink up the aisle way which distracts Doink and allows Owen to roll Doink up for the win. *3/4
After the match, Doink chases Jarrett to the backstage area and Doink says that Jarrett will pay for what he did.

King of the Ring Report with Todd Pettengill. Random footage of Yokozuna Bonzai dropping Earthquake during the Wrestle Mania X Revenge tour. Pettengill makes zero mention of the footage as it is shown. Two spots remain to fill out the King of the Ring. The final two matches to fill out the tournament will be
1-2-3 Kid taking on Adam Bomb on Superstars
Tatanka will face Jimmy Del Ray next week on RAW for the final spot
A brief promo by Diesel is shown where he says that he knew that Bret Hart would accept his challenge. Diesel puts himself over as the guy that Bret Hart will not be able to beat. Diesel calls himself a juggernaut.
The Headshrinkers defend the WWF World Tag Team Championships against Yokozuna and Crush.
Roddy Piper versus Jerry Lawler
A video of Piper boxing in a gym is shown. Piper mentions the donations to the hospital for sick children. Piper also mentions that Lawler called him a dinosaur but he doesn’t mind considering the success of Jurassic Park.

Commercial Break

Second Contest: Duke “The Dumpster” Droese defeated Barry Horowitz: This is the debut of Duke Droese on RAW. Droese controls Horowitz early on with a scoop slam and a couple of hip tosses. Horowitz avoids a splash in the corner and works on the left shoulder of Droese. Droese battles back with a spine buster and signals for the end. Droese comes off the ropes and connects with a simple elbow drop to pick up the win.

Commercial Break

Vince McMahon and Randy Savage hype up the WWF Wrestle Mania X Revenge Tour. Footage from the Anaheim, CA house show is shown.

Commercial Break

Third Contest: Irwin R. Schyster defeated Gary Sabaugh: IRS tells the fans before the match to move to a different country. IRS with rather simple and boring offense to control Sabaugh. Very mat orientated offense by IRS. Sabaugh takes IRS down with a back elbow but that is all the offense he gets in. IRS avoids a clothesline and connects with a lariat of his own for the win.

Footage from WWF Superstars where Crush cost Lex Luger a match against Jeff Jarrett in a King of the Ring qualifying match. Crush rammed Luger head first into the ring steps. Luger recovered and would attack Crush on the aisle way and was counted out. Jeff Jarrett gets a big win.

Commercial Break

King’s Court with Jerry Lawler. Lawler rips on Randy Savage’s choice of outfit. Lawler invites Piper to be his guest, and will hurt Piper enough to visit the kids in the hospital forever. Lex Luger is Lawler’s guest this week. Luger gets a mild baby face reception from the crowd. Lawler mocks Luger that he has been crying and moaning about losing being eliminated from the King of the Ring. Luger tells Lawler to choose his words carefully. Luger says that the reason he isn’t in the King of the Ring, is because of a man named Crush. Lawler says that Crush was attacked by Luger and Crush’s arm is in a sling. Crush makes his way down to the ring with his arm in a sling. Crush says that Luger would never fight Crush face to face and that Luger would only attack him from behind because Crush is bigger and stronger. Crush says that he would take care of Luger right now if he didn’t have a injured arm. Lawler doesn’t think Luger would hit someone who is handicapped. Luger thinks about that question and clotheslines Crush to the floor. Crush is on the floor, where it is revealed that his arm isn’t injured. Lawler was trying to set Luger up!

Commercial Break

Main Event: Nikolai Volkoff defeated Matt Hardy: Ted DiBiase says that he has been trying to make contact with the Undertaker. Volkoff controls Hardy with a double under hook slam. Hardy gets a few right hands in, but nothing significant. Volkoff with a scoop slam and locks in the Boston Crab for the easy win.

Commercial Break

Vince McMahon and Randy Savage hype up the Tatanka/Jimmy Del Ray match next week. Jerry Lawler is backstage to reveal who is guest next week will be. Lawler says that WWF World Champion Bret Hart will be his guest next week on RAW.

End of show

My Take: Owen/Doink match-up was actually pretty competitive and a pretty good contest. Doink, who ever is playing him, seems to always be able to work well with other talented workers. I find that to be quite impressive. Over the past several weeks, Jeff Jarrett has been in a feud with Doink and Dink. Jarrett feuding with a lower mid-card comedy baby face and his midget friend is wasting Jarrett in my opinion. I may disagree with the feud, but I can see how it could actually benefit Jarrett as well. Doink is well liked by kids, the main demographic for the WWF. So, if you have Jarrett continually defeat Doink, he will get a good amount of heat from the fans. I just hope that Jarrett will be working with guys like Razor Ramon more often. Duke Droese has good size, but he isn’t good in the ring. Droese also has a extremely weak finishing move that needs to be changed in order to have any success in the WWF. This week’s Kings Court was entertaining and it’s good to see Crush continuing to feud with upper card talent. Jerry Lawler continues to be a entertaining heel as well.