[1993-09-25-WWF-Superstars] Jim Cornette, Yokozuna and The Undertaker

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Cornette is running his mouth about how now that Lex Luger is out of the way, no one can challenge Yokozuna. Suddenly, the lights go out in the arena, and BONG, and the crowd erupts. Awesome moment setting up Yoko's holdover program until Mania.

[Chess Knight]

Has anyone noticed Yokozuna NEVER blinks?

[Kevin Ridge]

Bonnie Blackstone doing the interview. Joe Fowler and Rob Bartlett. Some random announcers during the year. No rematch for Lex Luger. There's no competition left for Yokozuna. Lights go out and Undertaker appears right behind Cornette. Jim does a huge sell of this. Big face to face with Yoko and Undertaker. Yoko wasn't showing fear in Undertaker yet. t thought the stuff with them at Survivor Series was more random but they were hyping this up early.

[PeteF3]

Boni Blackstone makes a Yearbook appearance. Cornette gloats about how there's no competition left for Yokozuna with Lex Luger out of the picture. Then the lights go out and the Undertaker is standing behind Cornette, who pratfalls out of view. Bearer and the Undertaker issue a challenge. I hated this program but this was a very well-done segment. Even babyface Paul Bearer was good here. Good touch not to have Yokozuna back down and show fear, the way he typically would in this feud.

[soup23]

This really showed that the money stuff was still mostly on Superstars as this was great and dramatic. I loved how it was played up and the face to face really felt like a battle of the titans. I think it helped Yoko's cred tremendously here that he didn't back down.

[garretta]

They're bound and determined to bury Luger six feet deep, to coin a phrase. When even the wishes of Jack Tunney can be ignored, you know Luger's a midcarder for life. He probably should have headed back to Atlanta once the WBF folded.

 

When was the last time we saw Taker on the Yearbooks? It has to be at least six months, and what a way to make a return. Unfortunately, he really doesn't feel like a credible challenger for Yoko yet, and though the fans certainly popped for him, do they really ​want him as champ instead of Luger or Bret?

 

The more I hear Taker talk, the less convinced I am that he ever needed Percy. He doesn't cut promos or give long speeches, but he says what he needs to say as effectively as any wrestler out there. Percy's falsetto was tough enough to deal with on an occasional basis in Texas, but here in the WWF when that's the only voice he ever uses, it's intolerable. I'd rather have seen Brother Love stay with Taker, even if it meant doing the damn near impossible and turning him (Brother Love) babyface.

 

I love Corny to death, but he doesn't fit with Yoko nearly as well as I thought. I know Fuji was winding down, but there had to be another solution somewhere. Corny's just too identified with Smoky Mountain right now for me to think of him as someone who'd be a manager for Yoko. I can't really explain it any better, but I'd like him more in this role if he wasn't wearing a goofy commissioner's cap and getting his butt kicked by ninety-eight and a half year old Bob Armstrong on the other channel. He got off a nice line about Boni Blackstone being in love with Fuji, though.

 

What the hell was Lawler going on about Boni and haunted houses for? He sounds like just as much of an imbecile doing that as he did shouting "Puppies!" every time a woman under the age of seventy came on screen five years later.

 

Line of the Segment goes to Savage, after the lights go out but before Taker appears: "Where's my wallet?" This was back when the lights-out entrance was new and hadn't really acquired its aura yet, I guess.