GENERAL INFO: In this edition, I'll review a famous WWF Monday Night RAW match, which occurred on one of RAW's earliest episodes, this being in 1993. It was Razor Ramon, who was already at the time an accomplished singles performer, against a teenager who was at the time, basically unknown, that being The Kid, better known to current fans as X-Pac. Kid seemed to change his name every week from "The Cannonball," to "The Lightning," to "The 1-2-3," in front of the word, Kid, but this week, he went simply by the name of "The Kid." I taped this match off of the "From The Vault" segment of the March 23, 2002 edition of WWF Excess on TNN. So let's go back in time to...

EVENT INFO:

"WWF Monday Night RAW"
May 17, 1993
The Manhattan Center, Manhattan, New York
Commentators (from left to right): "The Macho Man" Randy Savage, Vince McMahon, Jr., Bobby "The Brain" Heenan
The Kid vs. Razor Ramon

PREMATCH: Kid's shown getting ready for the match in the ring. A fat woman is also in the ring and holding up a sign that says "WE BE RAW" on both sides. We see the announcers (Savage, McMahon, and Heenan), and they hype the Marty Jannetty vs. Shawn Michaels match that would see Shawn defending his Intercontinental Title against Jannety. The Rockers had recently broke up in the "barbershop incident," and they had put on a **** (star) match at the Rumble. Their match later that night would be even better than that match, making it an instant classic. Jannetty would win the match and the title later that night.

Anyway... A car swerves and Razor Ramon's music hits and "The Bad Guy" himself comes walking out, dressed in a purple and yellow vest. He turns to his side to try to avoid the front row fans who are grabbing at him because the aisleway is so much thinner than it is now. Therefore, most can easily touch him. He also did this to play up his heel persona. Anyway...He walks up the steel steps to the apron, where the fat woman is. He signals for her to plant a kiss on him, which she gladly does (on his cheek), but he just shrugs her off and she walks to the back. He climbs through the rope, takes off his vest and big necklace. Kid, dressed in blue with "L. KID" (ala another alias of his, "The Lighting Kid"), is on he other side of the ring. Razor (a.k.a. Scot Hall) takes his trademark toothpick out of his mouth and tosses it in Kid's face. Kid's a jobber in this match, and although he's been on RAW a few times, he's a nobody, while Razor's an established superstar.

Yeah, like Kid won't get his ass kicked..A lockup leads to Razor tossing Kid backwards toward the ringpost. He gloats, and they lockup, with Kid eventually in the corner. Razor gives him a hard chest slap and chop, and then just tosses him several feet in the air to the other side of the ring (you know, one of those big hiptoss-like moves several feet in the air). Kid, who's on the other side of the ring, is recovering. Razor comes over and locks him in his trademark abdominal stretch. He even picks up Kid's leg, making the hold even more painful. He releases it after a few seconds and Kid tumbles to the mat. Razor gives him a stomp and then whips him off the ropes. Kid comes off by ducking a clothesline and coming off with a crossbody attempt. Razor catches him, though, holds him for a few seconds, and tosses him back with his signature fallaway slam.

Kid recovers near the turnbuckle, and Razor shows his cockiness by playfully slapping him a few times, before whipping him to the opposite corner. He charges, but Kid moves away and Razor springs a few steps back. This gives Kid room to climb up top and come off with a partially twisting moonsault, which takes him down. Kid lands in a double-leg cradle-like position and holds it. 1...2...3 (2:11). The Kid has just upset Razor Ramon!!! Kid has his hand raised by the referee and quickly climbs out of the ring, runs to the ringside fans, starts going nuts, and runs backstage through the entranceway. He's just upset one of the premier WWF superstars!

Razor, meanwhile is having a fit in the ring, shaking the ropes and all. Howard Finkel announces Kid as the winner. Shots of the crowd are shown, and they too are going nuts for this amazing upset! All the while, the fans erupt in a "Loser!" chant to rub it in. Razor climbs out of the ring and starts yelling at McMahon and the other commentators, but he finds nothing soothing as they too achknowledge that he was beat. Razor walks off angrily, while McMahon again hypes the Michaels/Jannetty match later that night.

POST-MATCH THOUGHTS: This match sucked, like most of the early RAW matches. They usually had jobbers against low-midcarders, and this was the same. The main reason for this match obviously was to have Kid score a shocking victory, which it was at the time. There was very little psychology and all that. The only highlights were the fallaway slam, moonsault, and pinfall, which made for a pretty poor match. Then again, the match is relatively historically significant, as it was the bout that established Sean Waltman (Kid/X-Pac) as a suitable grappler. This match is always referred to as the one that made Waltman's career, and it was, as it helped people to take him seriously. Keep in mind that the Kliq (Hall, Waltman, Michaels, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, and Kevin Nash) was just starting to gain political power backstage, and that these two opponents were good friends in reality, so it was little problem for Hall to do the job. I'll give it 3/8* due to the small bit of athletecism (the crossbody press and moonsault) and historical value.

RATING: 1/4*