WWF Prime Time Wrestling, Madison, WI
A request! The request was for six matches from the WWF UK Fan Favo(u)rites Coliseum tape from ’93, and this is one of them! The only specific request was the Bret Hart vs Fatu Raw match from ’93. I think all but two of the matches on that tape were just lifted from U.S. TV, mostly Raw, so I’m using the actual shows as the source material, as I do not have that tape. (Or, you know, a digital copy of it, and the matches I chose are very easy to find.)
This is the penultimate episode of Prime Time Wrestling, just before it’s replaced by Monday Night Raw in January ’93. Raw obviously changed the game in a big way, and it was, clearly, time for a new format on Monday nights, but I do fondly remember Prime Time from my truly youthful days on this planet.
(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)
We’ve got Gorilla and the Brain here in beautiful Madison, Wisconsin, and we’re introduced first to The Horned One, the Berzerker himself. 6’7″! 325 lbs! And then a big ovation for Ol’ Virg himself.
Virgil had an underrated great theme. Had a tremendous energy to it. Great beat. I could dance to it.
Virgil, as I’ve said before, had a particular way of bumping and doing a lot of things that makes me question how much real training he ever actually had before he got started in Memphis. I mean not long after he began wrestling, he wound up in the WWF in the DiBiase’s bodyguard role, so he never got to get super seasoned learning his craft either way, but he’s just so oddly stiff-bodied for a guy who was in his 20s.
But sometimes it worked and was very fun to watch, and the early parts of this match show that, because Berzerker’s the exact sort of guy Virgil’s rough-edged style can look cool against, because Nord had the purposely unorthodox style, too.
Virgil gets dumped out to the floor but lands the next bit of offense, shouldering Berzerker in the gut and sunset flipping trying to come back in. It gets a two count. Then Berzerker just headbutts him in the gut.
Bobby knows what “huss” means but he’s not going to tell Gorilla. More effectively awkward battling from these two, Berzerker goes to the eyes and hits a scoop slam, followed by a knee drop for two.
The Zerk gets a half-assed camel clutch on and the crowd chants for Virgil. Even the way Virgil is lying on his stomach here is just sort of weird, he’s doing nothing with his body language and is just sort of a dead fish there. It’s a very minor thing and I want to be super clear I’m not hating on him, it’s just so weird at this level, even before everyone was Polished and worked exactly the same.
Virgil gets free and hits a flying clothesline from the second rope, covering for two. Virg just wants the win here, he’s not worried about anything else. Shoulderblock from Virgil sends Berzerker tumbling over the top to the floor, where he recovers and husses to his heart’s content.
Virgil lays in with rights and lefts because he’s a real boxing expert; takes a while, but he knocks the Berzerker down to the floor again, and while the big man doesn’t exactly take a Cactus Jack bump to the floor, the amount of effort here is sincere.
Berzerker comes back, fetches his sword, starts swinging it around, and that’s a DQ even though he connects with nothing. Big win for Virgil, a month after he got run over by Jockazuma at Survivor Series. He wasn’t done just yet!
A fun, quick TV match where mostly the commentary is talking about the upcoming ’93 Royal Rumble and Bret Hart’s title reign and what have you, this is just filler TV on a show that is basically dead at this point, but I kinda love the physical chemistry of these two, and they didn’t fuddy-duddy around any with the time they had.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 