El Matador vs Razor Ramon (WWF, 11-1-1992)

WWF Wrestling Challenge, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

This is right about three months after Razor Ramon made his in-ring debut for the WWF, and it’s his first real opponent in a televised match and not just him battering some dickweed. Tito Santana is, of course, a former Intercontinental champion, former WWF tag team champion, and while winding down his terrific, consistently strong WWF run, he can still go, he’s a formidable veteran to have on your roster for exactly this sort of match, to legitimize a newcomer.

Razor gets in Tito’s face right away, but also gets hit with Santana’s flying forearm moments into the match, and only Ramon falling out of the ring — a savvy move, to be fair — prevents the match from very possibly ending there.

Bobby Heenan lets you know about it, too: “You better be in the best mental frame of your life, because you can’t go in there and play with El Matador. You can’t kick him around, slap him in the face like Razor Ramon has done with the other ham and eggers. This man can beat ya, any night, any time, any place.”

Santana has clearly gotten into Ramon’s head early, because yeah, this is the first guy to really do anything in return, to stand his ground with Razor. Tito works the arm some, to make sure the people in Regina don’t get too excited.

Gorilla: “Look at how well-proportioned Ramon is. Not too many guys have that kind of a body.” There has not been one PBP guy out of Rod Trongard, Lance Russell, Jim Ross, or Gorilla Monsoon that hasn’t managed to work in how sexy Scott Hall is in this little watch project.

Ramon turns the tide with an abdominal stretch, again, you don’t want to get the people too riled up. It is just Wrestling Challenge. Tito turns it around and Ramon powers his way out. Bearhug from Razor, Santana slides down the back for two. He used Ramon’s tights to get the leverage to get over, Heenan points it out, anyone can see it, but Monsoon doesn’t and refuses to believe it happened, which drives Bobby, who is fully telling the truth for once, insane.

The pace picks up a bit which tells you there’s no more than 90 seconds of this left and they’re going to start doing a bit to make people think they saw something with more action. Ramon sets for the Razor’s Edge, gets Tito up, and hits it for the clean win. He passes his first big test. You’ll also note if you watch the match the relative gentleness with with Razor drops Tito in the Razor’s Edge; this isn’t some job dude he’ll wreck, and Hall was a great wrecker of job dudes.

It’s fine, it’s a Wrestling Challenge main event from ’92, you get what you get. They work it pretty light, do a bit more in the last 60-90 seconds or so, and what they do is fine. It’s a key early Razor Ramon match, his first real credible win on TV.

Rating: 2.5/5