[1993-07-05-WWF-Raw] Yokozuna bodyslam challenge

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

One of those things that had it worked the way it was designed, this would be remembered as an all-time classic angle. It's still really well done and holds up great, but obviously it didn't have the desired result in the end. But having professional athletes from other sports was a really nice touch, and the way some guys came close and couldn't quite do it also worked really well. I'm looking forward to checking out the Luger push again.

[flyonthewall2983]

Reducing it to a 5-10 minute segment, rather than putting the show itself on television was the mistake. Doing it live would have been better, but I highly doubt if they had that kind of pull with USA at the time (bear in mind, they were still pre-empting for the dog show). Funny that two years later, after Luger made his famous defection, Ahmed Johnson slammed Yoko like it was nothing.

[Ditch]

Funny that two years later, after Luger made his famous defection, Ahmed Johnson slammed Yoko like it was nothing.

I remember that being shown on sports highlight segments at the time because of how smooth and effortless it looked.

[Resident Evil]

I still remember Ahmed bodyslamming Yokozuna. Incredible.

[flyonthewall2983]

Funny that two years later, after Luger made his famous defection, Ahmed Johnson slammed Yoko like it was nothing.

I remember that being shown on sports highlight segments at the time because of how smooth and effortless it looked.

 

I watched the video and agree that it did look effortless on Ahmed's part, but I more or less meant it wasn't as big a deal in '95 primarily because of Lex leaving, and now I think about it more to do with Yoko being reduced to a mid-carder by this point.

[Matt D]

I'll say this. I wasn't really into wrestling at this point. I had fallen off in mid 92, but as a kid, this was still a big deal.

[CodySave]

I honestly don't remember most of the buildup to this (and definitely didn't remember other professional athletes being involved), but seeing Luger pulling this off was one of the more impactful wrestling angles of my youth and made me a huge Luger fan for a couple years. I even had the WWF Lex Luger "Made in the USA" t-shirt.

 

It was amazing to me at the time that someone that was doing nothing of significance in the WWF pulled a sudden, unannounced 180 switch from heel to face and slammed the massive Yoko. And he did it on a warship no less!

 

I was 9 when this happened and was just entering the "smarter" stage of my life, thank in part to reading tons of magazines like PWI, The Wrestler, Inside Wrestling and reading about indy talent and the like. I didn't have cable, but read enough magazines and had seen just enough NWA/WCW to know Luger was a big deal elsewhere that was being used very oddly in WWE. So, I was pumped to see him used in important fashion.

 

I also remember how much mileage the heel commentators (I think mostly Heenan?) got out of claiming that Luger had actually only hip tossed Yoko.

[BackToBionic]

I like the Charlotte Hornets guy that just gets in the ring and, immediately thinking better of it, just left.

 

I remember watching this at the time, which was rare because I had quit watching a few months before. The whole time I was like "Hulk Hogan will do it", not really knowing he had left. I wonder how many Hogan chants there were that day. Probably best it wasn't live in that regards.

[Kevin Ridge]

Backlund wasn't even trying on his body slam attempt. Tatanka busts out chops in a body slam challenge! What a poor sport. Yokozuna squashes him with a leg drop. Bill Fralic's attempt had Yoko actually having to defend himself. So did people there think the person arriving by helicopter was Hogan? It's not a huge response to Luger with him being a heel until this. The crowd must have been helped along to start chanting "Lex". Luger gets the body slam. Well they tried with Luger's being All American now and being the first to body slam Yoko. Something Hogan couldn't do.

[PeteF3]

Ye gods, that national anthem rendition was almost Carl Lewis-bad. Francis Scott Off-Key, indeed.

 

This might be the fullest video footage of the event that we have. I must have missed this Raw, because I don't remember seeing this--I just remember feeling ripped off that this thing wasn't televised. Bill Fralic and Crush come close and actually get Yokozuna halfway off his feet, but can't finish. Randy Savage is the last person left, and can't come close. The landing of the helicopter is quite cool, as are all the fans turning to look at it while Pettingill is doing his wrap-ups.

 

And out comes the Narcissist. To a tepid initial reaction, albeit with some "LEX" chants. Luger STANDS UP FOR AMERICA. Fuji spits on Luger in response and gets heaved from the ring--quite the spry bump from the oldster.

 

This was quite the slick production, but part of it still comes off as overwrought and phony. Luger going from the Narcissist to an American Hero in the span of two seconds just reeked of desperation, and Vince comes off as a gullible sucker. Furthermore--and I get that Vince had the Feds breathing down his neck and felt it necessary to maintain a clean image--the Reagan Administration and the era of super-patriotism was (temporarily) over. Grunge was a bigger deal than Cyndi Lauper or Stars & Stripes Forever. The WWF immediately comes off as being behind the times with this New Hogan attempt--not something that applied the Old Hogan in 1984.

 

I may have more to say about this as the Luger push continues, but watching at the time this was came off as one of the most intolerable periods in WWF history. And I had sat through the WM6 build.

[soup23]

What a dick Tatanka was reeling Yoko while he just stood there. THis was really well done and Luger gets a huge pop when he pulls off the feat. Him shoving Bobby was always a nice touch with attention to detail. This could have been a career making angle for him but it starts a lot of memories that people hate hence its looked back with a hokey nature now.

[garretta]

There was some good and some bad to this.

 

First, the good. It says something about how popular the WWF still was even during a business downturn that they could procure an actual warship for something like this. It added to the atrmosphere in a way that not even a jam-packed Madison Square Garden could have.

 

Also, none of the non-wrestlers (with the exception of Burrell, and I think he was the "designated coward", if you will) treated this like a joke. They all tried the best they could to actually slam Yoko instead of just playing around. It made sense that none of them could come close, although Fralic at least got him up a little. By the way, what I mean by "designated coward" is that at least one person had to make out like they were afraid in order to put over what an impossible task slamming Yoko was supposed to be. Burrell, who had just been drafted by the NBA and presumably needed to protect his future, was the perfect candidate.

 

Third, I liked Yoko taking timeout to eat some rice, as if he thought it would put enough weight on him quickly enough to make him harder to slam.

 

Luger gets the biggest thumbs-up here, naturally. In this setting, his promo on Yoko and Fuji worked perfectly, and may be his best ever. It might have seemed strange for the Narcissist to all of a sudden turn up as a flag-waving patriot, but God bless the man, he made it work. The slam looked a bit off, but it served its purpose, and it made sense that Luger wouldn't be able to get Yoko completely over his head. The loaded forearm shot before the slam was a nice touch, and now I know why Fuji insisted in Luger wearing a pad for it at SummerSlam. As for the bump he took, it may have been the one that convinced him and/or Vince that he was getting too old to be a full-service manager and led to Corny coming in. I didn't watch regularly by now, but I'd be surprised if he bumped anymore after this.

 

Okay, now for the bad. First, I had absolutely no problem with Tatanka trying to soften up Yoko before trying to slam him. What I had a problem with was guys like Backlund, who knew that Yoko needed to be softened up, yet just stuck their hands under his crotch, tried one half-hearted lift, then gave up. The rules for this seemed to vary by competitor: Tatanka and Yoko had a decent little mini-match, while Savage and Backlund were pushed away by Earl Hebner after one attempt apiece. There should have been a time limit, say three minutes, during which the competitors could work on Yoko a bit and Yoko would be free to stop them if he could. If they couldn't slam him in the three minutes, their time would be over. Of course, that could have led to the wrong guy (say, Savage) slamming Yoko by accident and killing SummerSlam dead in the water.

 

I give Rousson a pass on the anthem, since he was also competing in the event. That said, couldn't they have gotten a bigger name somewhere in New York to sing it if they truly wanted this event to be a big deal?

 

The biggest minus for the event was Vince's "commentary". He was in full-on "barf all over yourself" mode, and it really took a lot away from the proceedings, mostly because he was doing it before anyone did anything worth hyping. By the time Luger came out of the copter, he was already unbearable, and of course afterward he was worse. Where the hell was JR to do live commentary, even if there wasn't going to be an actual broadcast? His call would have been so much more informative and exciting it wouldn't have been funny. Hell, I'd have taken Gino in a pinch, even as far as he's gone downhill lately. Anything but Vince giving himself internal surgery on national television, The sad thing is, if he ever got a clue as to how bad he was becoming, the odds are that he didn't care one bit.