[1994-01-10-WWF-Raw] 1-2-3 Kid & Marty Jannetty vs The Quebecers

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[KB8]

This was really fucking good, maybe a top 5 TV match of the year. Gets plenty of time (about 20 minutes) and everybody brings it. Marty and Kid have a bunch of neat double teams and the Quebecers keep having to stall and regroup. They tease Marty going FIP when Jacques (I think) pulls the rope down from the apron as Marty's running in, and Marty takes a really cool bump over the top. When he lands it looks like he splats his nose on the floor. When Kid comes in after this he strings off a couple great highspots. Vince's call of the somersault plancha off the top is amazing. It sounds like he swallows his tongue because his brain is overloading trying to think of a way to describe it. "GBLUGH. DID YOU SEE THAT?!" Quebecers eventually take over when Kid is up top ready to go for the kill and Pierre shoves him off. I don't recall seeing more than 5 Quebecers matches in my life, but I was shocked at how good their heat segment was here. They don't really work it in a way that allows for good hope spots, which admittedly sounds pretty counter-productive, but instead they just murder Kid with a bunch of great looking shit. Pierre's assisted top rope somersault senton looked brutal (that's one thing about them I do recall) and they absolutely kill Waltman with this Total Elimination variant where Pierre hits a running lariat as Jacques casually sweeps his legs away. I would've liked them to build to the finish a wee bit better, but that's neither here nor there. Pop for the title change is a POP and Savage hitting the ring and celebrating is why I love that crazy bastard.

[Loss]

Really fun match and an even better feel good moment. Kid ate some moves that looked pretty sick from the Quebecers, including top rope splashes where it looked like he was taking far more impact than he should have. Not sure the point of the commercial break false finish, unless they were outsmarting themselves over making a title change a surprise. That nitpicking aside, this had lots of heat and was very enjoyable.

[shoe]

This was a real fun match. The Kid/Jannetty pairing make a dynamite face team. Airing a false change during a break is gutsy. It easily could have killed the crowd for the rest of the match. Still this was a blast.

[Kevin Ridge]

Fun match. Would have liked to have seen longer runs for both teams during this period. False finish during commercial break was weird. Can't imagine we would get those these days. Jannetty was throwing some bad looking drop toe kicks here. Nice title change if only briefly.

[Exposer]

The commercial break nullified finish is my only problem with this. I always have this thing where if the faces get a nullified finish that means they won't get the victory in the end. Anyways, this was a lot of fun with the Quebecers getting outsmarted and not being able to keep up with the speed of Jannetty and Kid. Kid's top rope somersault to the floor was awesome. Kid's FIP segment was great with Pierre destroying him with various splashes and one monster top rope assisted somersault. They tried the latter move again but Jannetty broke it up and stirred Kid so he could make the tag. Jannetty got in and cleaned house and they get a quick win and celebrate with Savage and in the crowd. This was pretty great and had the plus of a feel good moment.

[soup23]

Really fun match with a great moment at the end. Savage jumping in is one of those little things that goes a long way in putting over people in the company. The false finish would actually work if every other time I saw it, the babyfaces didn't even lose.

[PeteF3]

The commercial break cues seemed really off to me. I think there was supposed to be a break when the Quebecers had their "time out" (the standard WWF spot, then as now) and not during the false finish--and there was another random break in the middle of things later on. Fun match, lots of stalling from the Quebecers early on but when they finally isolate the Kid they absolutely pulverize him. Jannetty and Kid come back for the win to a huge reaction, and I loved Randy Savage leaping into the ring to celebrate with them. He's not always the best commentator, but I would like to have seen him be around to do the same for the Usos on Monday.

[garretta]

This was two matches in one: first, the Quebecers couldn't do beans as a ream that for all we know was a first-time team makes them look like amateurs. Then, Waltman took the pounding of his life, including ​le bomb de Rougeau​, and managed to survive and tag in Jannetty, who cleaned house leading to the Rockerplex and pin.

 

I thought they went too far in making Jacques and Pierre look like schmucks in the first part of the match. They weren't in there with an established team; it was just a random pair of guys whom Levy pissed off last week. It should have been their match to control, with Sean and Marty hitting some occasional spots to keep the crowd involved. At the very least, the timeout should have led to a momentum change. They made up for it once they finally got control; I think it was Jacques who went so high with a clothesline off the top rope that poor Sean was almost decapitated on the way down. Seriously, I've never seen a guy taking a Stun Gun go that high to do it.

 

​Le bomb de Rougeau ​looked a hell of a lot more devastating with 280-pound Pierre being thrown by Jacques than it did with 240-pound Ray. Of course, the fact that they were landing on a guy who didn't even break two hundred pounds made it look even more impactful.

 

Vince and Randy brought up the Quebec rules match against the Steiners where the Quebecers won the belts in the first place, and I'm at a loss as to why we didn't see more matches like that, especially in circumstances like these where Jacques and Pierre were putting the belts up against their will. It would be hard to have a match where going over the top rope isn't allowed when you have guys like Marty and Sean as your challengers, but wouldn't that be the point of signing the match that way, to ground two high-flyers and make them stay on the mat?

 

I liked Levy no-selling the yelling coming from the broadcast table after his guys took their timeout. It's possible that Scott legitimately may not have heard them, so I guess it works either way.

 

The false finish was probably put in to show that matches can indeed finish during commercial breaks. I could have done without the "second referee reverses first referee's decision" gambit, which we've seen too often from Vince lately, but I didn't have a problem with the spot itself.

 

The Rumble hype got a bit too much for its own good, and am I the only one who thinks that Owen's heel turn might have come off as even nastier if he'd been able to smack around Jannetty and/or Waltman while he was at it?

 

I didn't really care for Savage jumping in the ring to celebrate the win. Let the new champions come to the table and they can shake hands, dance together, or do whatever else they want. Jumping in the ring smacked of Randy trying to be more involved in the company's angles whether they featured him or not (which I guess he was, come to think of it).

 

At least this win didn't come off as a fluke for Marty and Sean like the one against the Shrinkers did. I can't wait to see the MSG rematch!

 

I almost forgot about the clip of Waltman beating Hall that came after this. Heenan must have left on relatively good terms, because his voice is on the clip clear as a bell. If he'd left badly, Vince would probably have voiced over the clip himself live so Bobby wouldn't have been heard.

[Superstar Sleeze]

WWF World Tag Team Champions Quebecers vs Marty Jannetty & 1-2-3 Kid - WWF RAW 1/10/94

 

Fun fact: This takes place in Richmond, VA and I am currently in Richmond, VA!

 

RAW's 1 year anniversary and Vince decides to commemorate it with a tag title switch. Crowd pops huge and it is a great feel good moment. The whole 1-2-3 Kid storyline was really building to him winning a championship and a great time to pull the trigger. It is too bad the Kid would have a serious neck injury not too long after this. In an alternate universe, Kid & Jannetty are the ace babyface tag team of the mid-90s, they had some much potential. I thought this as a ton of fun. Great shine. Loved Jannetty getting the Victory Roll right off the bat. It showed the babfyaces were here to win. Lots of fun, quick moves. Dropkicks abound everything to keep the Champs off their feet, who may have been looking ahead to the Rumble against Bret & Owen Hart. There is a false finish during the break where Jannetty hits a superkick, but the Quebcer's foot was on the ropes. Ref still counted 3, huge pop, but they called it off and restarted the match. The Quebecers pulled down the top rope down during a Jannetty criss cross which led to a nasty spill to the floor, but it was not the heat segment as Jannetty crawled through the legs to tag Kid. KID WAS A AN AWESOME HOUSE OF FIRE! Loved the somersault from the top rope to the floor. He was nailing everything. The ref got distracted and they shoved him off the top rope. The Quebecers were great at treating Kid like a ragdoll. Tossing him around and kicking his ass. There could have been more hope spots. I felt Kid was dying and Quebecers were choking not getting the job done. Loved the Canonball move even if wasn't the finish. Finally Marty has had enough and interferes feel like there should have been more of that. Marty tags in short house afire and Suplex/Crossbody gets the win for Marty & The Kid! Huge pop! Macho Man rushes the ring to celebrate in a great feel good moment. Great way to commemorate the one year anniversary of RAW and only a taste of what should have been with the tag team of Marty & 1-2-3 Kid. ***1/2