We are going to look back at professional wrestling for the month of October in the year 1993. Some of it was good (Vince McMahons ‘heel’ character in Memphis) and some of it was bad (WCW). We’ll also look at the early days of ECW and SMW and a wild brawl that resulted in the stabbing of two tops stars.
Alot of us were tape trading, meaning we would trade VHS tapes of one or more shows in exchange for copies of someone elses tapes. In any given week, I would have tapes waiting to be watched from Mexico, Japan, Memphis, ECW & SMW…and it was GREAT!!!
We’ll start with October 1st and 2nd at two shows that I attended live. ECW Bloodfest Day 1 & 2. These were the first ECW shows book by Paul E Dangerously (Paul Heyman) after he took over the previous month. He started getting over his new acts, Public Enemy and Sabu while featuring legendary names like Magnificent Muraco, Superfly Snuka, Abdullah the Butcher and Terry Funk. Some of the key matches of the weekend included (DAY 1): Public Enemy defeated Gino Caruso & Todd Shaw, The Sandman defeated The Metal Maniac; Abdullah the Butcher, JT Smith & Terry Funk defeated Don Muraco, Jimmy Snuka & Kevin Sullivan, Sabu defeated the Tazmaniac, Abdullah the Butcher went to a double disqualification vs Kevin Sullivan and Terry Funk defeated Jimmy Snuka in a Steel Cage Match. (DAY 2) The Tazmaniac defeated Tommy Dreamer, ECW Heavyweight Champion Shane Douglas defeated JT Smith, Don Muraco & Jimmy Snuka went to a No Contest vs Public Enemy, Sabu defeated Shane Douglas, Kevin Sullivan defeated Abdullah the Butcher in a Steel Cage Match.
Before the Nintendo DS there was the GAMEBOY and in October 1993 WWF King of the Ring video game was released on GAMEBOY
One of the highlights for tape traders in 1993 was seeing USWA from Memphis, TN. WWF had a working agreement with USWA, so you could see WWF names like Macho Man Randy Savage and Shawn Michaels on non WWF TV and at the same time see some wild brawls featuring the Moondogs. The hidden gem in all of this was Vince McMahon appearing as a ‘heel’ for the first time ANYWHERE. He had a feud with Jerry Lawler that culminated with McMahon in the corner of Randy Savage on October 11th, 1993 at the Mid South Colisseum in Memphis, TN for a match against Heavyweight Champion Jerry Lawler.
WWF also had a working agreement with Smokey Mountain Wrestling and on October 7th, 1993 Rick & Scott Steiner defeated Tom Prichard & Jimmy Del Ray on an SMW card in Hazzard, KY
Mr. Nanny, starring Hulk Hogan, opened in US theaters on October 8, 1993.
One of the down parts of the year had to be WCW. They had been on a downward spiral since Ric Flair left the company in 1991. However, Flair had returned at this point and at a WCW show on October 3rd 1993 at their longtime home, The Omni in Atlanta, they only drew 800 fans, with scalpers outside the building selling front row seats for only ONE DOLLAR! The main bouts that night saw Sting pin Sid Vicious and World Champion Rick Rude defeating Ric Flair via Disqualification
Sticking with WCW, on October 24, 1993 they held Halloween Havoc 93 in New Orleans, LA. This show featured 2 future legendary names as Mick Foley and Steve Austin competed that night. Austin lost to US Champion Dustin Rhodes while Foley, as Cactus Jack, lost to WCW World Champion Vader in a Texas Death Match.
The worst part of the month, and possibly the year, happened in Blackburn England on October 27th when Arn Anderson and Sid Vicious had a fight at the hotel and both received numerous stab wounds. The brawl stemmed from an argument earlier in the night at the hotel bar when Vicious was reportedly bragging about a pay raise and the company promised him the heavyweight title at Starrcade. Both Vicious and Anderson were hospitalized with Anderson suffering roughly 20 stab wounds. Vicious was in fact scheduled to face Vader for the heavyweight title at Starrcade, but he was pulled from that spot and was replaced by Andersons long time best friend, Ric Flair, who won the title.
