[1993-01-04 WWF TV Taping] Razor Ramon vs The Undertaker

[Superstar Sleeze]

This match is a Coliseum Video Exclusive, Available on the VHS WWF Smack Em Whack Em (WF114, 1993)

After watching 4.5 hours of Scott Hall shoot interviews to commemorate his death, I am ready to start watching his matches. Rest In Peace, Bad Guy. Pre-1-2-3 Kid angle for Razor is a complete mystery to me. I saw these two had a house show loop and threw it in Google and here we are! An interesting pairing both really pushed guys with strong gimmicks so I was interested to see where this went. One random comment, did Undertaker start wearing lifts in his boots later on, he looked a lot shorter here.

I pretty much only watch contemporary wrestling not out of choice but rather necessity. I don't have time to watch and review as much as I used to. Contemporary wrestling is good background noise while work and I can pick my head up when an angle or match sounds hot. The reason I bring this up is I love how this was wrestled. This was so gimmick-based I loved it. Character-based wrestling is a dying art people like Orange Cassidy are few and far between and I love that style (I didn't love OC first but once I realized it is no different than the Undead Undertaker, I dig it). Razor fires off these rounds. They look great. Taker's hair and neck motion make them look pulverizing. Taker never sells. Just absorbs, absorbs, absorbs until he throws him in the corner. If he fired off soupbones like it was 2003 he would have gotten a pop, but he did the choke. That comes with evolution. I like how they established the Undertaker character. The beginning of matches are just as important as the end, HELL, I would say they are more important. You need to establish the hook, story or gimmick. Taker gets his shine. Razor takes a tasteful amount of bumps, not too much, just stand & bang wrestling. I liked Razor dumping him over the top onto the floor and Taker landing on his feet not selling shit! Perfect. Great spot I know I have seen it before. It establishes that hook. How the hell do you wrestle a zombie. Apparently it is a Rick Steiner bulldog, a Japanese style chair shot to the back and a wicked whip to the steps where Taker goes ass over tea kettle. Amazing heat segment. That's Hall's IQ there. How do you get heat on a Giant Zombie? You go balls out. At first I thought Taker was Sitting Up too fast, but that because he was gradually slowing down until Razor beat him down. So when he did the final Zombie Sit-Up it got a pop. Razor's urn shot was a great nearfall. He didn't kill of any of his shit, but it was a credible near fall. Taker does one final Zombie Situp to a pop. Chokeslam. Razor heads for the hills. There needs to be more NO Selling in wrestling. This was very fun Saturday morning wrestling. ***1/4