[1993-01-11-WWF-Raw] RAW commercial & Bobby Heenan skits

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

First we get an "Unbelievable" commercial with soft saxophone music and a woman trying to get her husband to fool around, but he'd rather watch Raw. The woman resembles Chyna.

 

Then, we have Bobby Heenan trying to get in the building and Sean Mooney tells him he isn't hosting the show, and he can't buy a ticket because the show is sold out.

 

Then, we get a Heenan promo about Narcissus once again in a great promo.

 

Back outside, Heenan dresses like a rabbi trying to get inside and can't. This time he's dressed as a rabbi calling himself Uncle Morty. No dice.

[benj]

I totally remember that commercial awesome. It's so funny seeing Sean Mooney and that Raw intro, reminds me of watching early Raw's when I was a freshman in High school. My wrestling viewing dropped off considerably from 94-97 so I can't wait to buy those sets.

[shoe]

I thought the skits were horrid, plus I wasn't feeling the Heenan promo.

[Kevin Ridge]

That’s a very believable couple in bed. That gal is much better looking than Chyna. I liked the olds school Raw opening.

 

Even though Perfect and Flair are feuding they are really pushing the involvement and arrival of Narcissist.

 

Poor Bobby can’t even get in the building for Raw. No token match for the first ever Raw? At least Undertaker versus Demento? Was only like four minutes long.

[PeteF3]

I used to think George Costanza was punching above his weight with the girls he'd land, but then I saw this guy.

 

Heenan is on his way into the Manhattan Center, but he's been replaced by Rob Bartlett. Whoever made that call deserves a Cactus Jack shovel to the head.

 

Bobby is back to pre-tape, with another Narcissus promo. His go-to ice cream-horse manure comparison is brought out.

 

We miss Heenan in drag, but we get Heenan dressed as Rob Bartlett's Hasidic uncle Morty. I seem to recall Heenan finally getting granted access at the very tail end of the show.

 

Not the most auspicious debut for RAW, but it's a new live (mostly) show with a brand new setting. Between the intimate arena set-up, studio-style layout (with guys going outside the arena and coming back, and being able to go to and from the broadcast table), and brand new booking tropes for the WWF like multiple angles on one show or matches being set up to take place in the same hour, this is about the most Southern wrasslin' that the WWF has ever been to this point.

[WingedEagle]

Definitely More raunchy than typical WWF skit to this point. Then we get Heenan trying to get into Raw. We see the classic opening video package. Heenan promo setting up Perfect for Narcissus, who's on the way in and debuting at the Rumble. Heenan then in a Lincoln beard trying to get into Raw. Talking about his nephew with discounts and good bagels. This made me laugh but my mother would not have been happy had she heard him. I'm kind of surprised this humor didn't get a little more heat at the time, but I guess politically correct wasn't yet the trendy thing.

[soup23]

Decent Hennan bit but still pretty cartoony and kind of Prime Time wrestling - ish for something they wanted to push as Raw. However, as meekly as it started, this was the beginning of the longest run episodic television program in history so we have that.

[garretta]

Bobby's promo on Luger really sticks out sandwiched in between his stuff with Mooney. It's amazing that he can still be taken seriously as a manager/advisor in one setting and look so pathetic in his rabbi outfit later on in the same show. It would have been more believable if someone who at least looked like a security guard could have kept him out instead of Mooney, though.

 

Doesn't Heenan know any other comparisons besides horse manure and ice cream? That line's getting a tad tedious.

 

Interesting that Flair is brought up in connection with Luger, given their past. This brings up a question: If Flair had stuck around, given that they'd acknowledged his time in JCP at least offhandedly, would they then have alluded to the past association between Flair and Luger in some way, even as Heenan was pushing Luger as something literally not of this world?

 

The commercial really didn't do much for me. Seeing men depicted as brainless brutes motivated by food, sex. beer, and sports on TV is just as bad as seeing women depicted as brainless airheads who live to be ogled by brainless brutes motivated by food, sex, beer, and sports on TV.

[Beast]

The Luger/Flair connection stood out to me as well this watch.

I assume they knew Flair was gone by this point, but Heenan bringing in Luger to ally with Flair (and maybe Razor) is a very interesting scenario. One of those thought provoking near-misses of wrestling. 

One may have turned face quickly as WWE was getting very heel heavy, leading to Razor & Luger both turning in the latter half of the year.