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WWE RAW ROUNDTABLE REVIEWS of MARCH 3, 1993 EPISODE OF RAW...

Wade Keller, editor (4.0)

I think Vince McMahon employed the old strategy of dumbing down the undercard so that the crowd was ready to explode when it came time for Steve Austin's return. I think they dumbed down the undercard so much that the crowd was lulled to a state of listlessness. Austin's brief speech didn't last long enough to jolt them completely awake, either, since before Austin could say much other than "thanks," The Rock and Eric Bischoff came out and took over. Seeing the crowd just stand there, many with their arms at their side, as Austin gave Stunners to Three Minute Warning and Rico should be all it takes to send those three to OVW for a while while a new gimmick for Rico is developed and Rico and Jamal lose 100 pounds each and learn to wrestle. Even the most popular babyface ever isn't going to get a monster pop if he's beating up people whom fans are indifferent to.

It almost seemed as if Austin showed disappointment in his face at the reaction the Long Island fans gave him. Jim Ross mentioned on Byte This last week that the Long Island crowds sometimes are the best and other times act like they're watching a golf tournament. Tonight they got the golf tournament fans.

Rock's interplay with Hurricane this week was entertaining, but seemed to be weaker sequel compared to last week's original. Rock is doing a good job stopping anytime the fans begin to cheer him.

Booker T is getting one of those "sneaky main event pushes" that makes sure he doesn't really get over. Booker might get over despite that. The sneaky way he won the battle royal last week on just a fluke wasn't a big deal since all battle royals are basically won by flukes. This week, though, his win over Steiner was so harmless that he gained nothing from it. I hope they put that match on TV as a ratings draw, because if it was even the slightest bit intent on getting Booker over as a stronger challenger, it didn't work.

Heels can be racist, and Hunter's insults to Booker were racist, and now we're supposed to dislike Hunter for it. I'm okay with that card being played. I'm not cool with a babyface using a racist or homophobic or xenophobic approach to get over with fans (as WWE babyfaces do at house shows often over the years, including recently) if for no other reason than impressionable young people watching feed off of the idiot adults who cheer such drivel and think it must be "cool to be racist." In this case, Hunter didn't do anything to try to babyface his heel comments, so it wasn't a backhanded attempt to get over as a babyface with racist white fans, either. However, I also don't think that approach will work because, unfortunately, being racist isn't enough to earn the wrath of fans.

I was more shocked that Hunter would mention Vince Russo on Raw. You can't pay for that kind of advertising. Hunter mentioning Russo on Raw gives Russo another year or two of credibility as being relevant to center storylines around. In that case, it probably was done on purpose by Hunter et al so that Russo will continue to book around himself and thus drive away potential TNA fans.

I was nonplussed by the rest of the show. The whole storyline of Bischoff setting up an attack when Austin arrived made no sense (especially when they were going to surprise attack him at one point, but then just stood there in the open when he finally arrived).

(Note: My Raw Report sent out earlier was mislabelled near the top with the wrong date and city. It should have said March 3 from Uniondale, N.Y. at Nassau Coliseum.)

Pat McNeill, columnist (4.5)

In between the flat matches, the pointless segments to set up Austin's late entrance, and the ridiculousness of the suspended Dudleys having their theme music after beating up Chris Nowinski, this was not a good show. The program never really got cooking until the final three minutes. Booker's win over Scott Steiner was designed to let Steiner save a little face as he put Booker over. It was a surprisingly okay match. The only other in-ring action of note saw Jericho beat Test in order to set up the match for Shawn Michaels. HBK actually acted a little bit intimidated from Jericho which set Michaels apart from every other wrestler in WWE. All this time I thought we were heading toward Austin vs. Rock, but most of the show seemed to set up Rock vs. Hurricane. Hearing Rock and Hurricane argue over The People's Penis probably won't sell many PPV buys.

Jason Powell, assistant editor (6.5)

An hour and 50 minutes of waiting around for Steve Austin to show up. That's the best way to describe everything that happened before Austin arrived. What's important is that Austin's return came off well, and Jim Ross did a nice job of driving home the point that Austin is going to be around for a while. The final segment also produced the news that Rock is going to put over Booker T next week. Okay, so they're just going to wrestle, but I think we all know where that one is headed, and rightfully so. Booker needs more than a racial slur from Triple H to gain momentum heading into WrestleMania, and the Rock is the perfect person to give him that momentum. However, WWE needs to do something to make viewers think Rock is around for more than just a series of jobs before he heads back to Hollywood. Essentially, that's what Rock is back for, but the last thing WWE wants to do is let casual fans know it before WrestleMania. I guess we'll have to wait until next week for the latest wave of RNN Updates.

Bruce Mitchell, columnist (6.0)

This show was actually one segment long and that segment was just fine.The Rock holds the sheep, uh, the fans, in the palms of his hands even as he shears them of their bitterness. The treatment in Booker T is execrable in more than one way. The build up of Test and Chris Jericho surprised me because it led very effectively to Shawn Michaels.

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