5 Worst Wrestling Matches Of 1993

1993 was a historic year for WWE, both in a good way and in a bad way. It was the year that Monday Night RAW debuted, it marked the beginning of the major push for the so-called ‘New Generation’…and it was the year the steroid trial began to really take its toll.

Vince McMahon was indicted for steroid distribution during this year, so some might argue that his attention was elsewhere. But that still doesn’t justify such an abysmal creative direction on Vince and company’s part. Four of the five matches on this list are from WWE, three of them are from the same show (which is also the biggest WWE show of the year), and two of them involve the exact same superstars, one of them being Vince’s greatest gimmick ever.

Luckily for WWE, this wasn’t a clean sweep for WWE, as their biggest rival WCW also produced something truly terrible. So what was so mind-numbingly awful? Read on to find out…

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#5 Lex Luger vs. Mr. Perfect – WrestleMania IX

WWE thought that pairing Lex Luger with a proven workhorse like Mr. Perfect would lead to a good match. This did not happen, as Luger didn’t mesh well with Mr. Perfect. The chemistry between them appeared to be off on this night, which is why Perfect’s offense didn’t feel as exciting as it normally did.

Worse, this match suffered from a completely nonsensical booking that became a big reason for this match being included on this list. Up to this point, Luger had been winning with his running forearm, which was said to include a steel plate inside it. Yet instead of using that move to win, Luger hit a pinning move while Perfect’s feet were in the ropes, yet the referee didn’t see it.

So a wrestler as skilled as Mr. Perfect lost a match not due to the established finisher of his opponent, but due to referee stupidity. From a booking standpoint, that is utter nonsense that makes any match worse.

#4 Dustin Rhodes & King Kong vs. The Equalizer & Awesome Kong – WCW Battlebowl 1993

First off, no, this isn’t that Awesome Kong. This is a big wrestler from early WCW who happened to tag with King Kong. The reason for them being opponents here is because the Battlebowl was a concept in which wrestlers would be placed in random tag team pairings and fight to win a prize.

Unfortunately, these are four wrestlers, with the best worker among them being a pre-Goldust Dustin Rhodes. The others are two four-hundred-pound men and Dave Sullivan, none of whom were known for their in-ring skill.

However, this was bad but not awful. They did put on a decent match, but there were some parts that were so bad they were impossible to ignore. The worst of them being when King Kong almost broke up a pin attempt from Rhodes onto Awesome Kong, despite Rhodes being his partner for this match.

The other one being that Awesome Kong hits an elbow drop on Rhodes, despite that being one that was obviously meant to miss. But the execution was completely off and Rhodes got hit anyway.

Though this isn’t offensive by any means, it’s still a slow and uninspiring match that showed that WCW wasn’t very good at booking matches in the early 1990s either.

#3 The Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez – WrestleMania IX

Gonzalez was such a cartoon he couldn't possibly be taken seriously as a wrestler

This is the Undertaker’s worst-ever WrestleMania match. ‘Taker was stuck trying to make the best of a terrible situation, but it was hopeless from the get-go. Gonzalez was abysmal as a wrestler as he could barely do anything athletic in the ring beyond flailing his arms around whenever he got hit.

Worse, he wore that awful airbrushed bodysuit with fake musculature on it, because his natural body definition made him look like a giant pencil. To call Gonzalez a cartoon character would be an insult to cartoons. Worse, this is the only Undertaker match at WrestleMania to end via disqualification, as Gonzalez had to use a ‘chloroform rag’ to ‘knock the Undertaker unconscious’.

This didn’t scare the audience like it was supposed to; everything about this seemed unimaginative and boring. The Undertaker was up moments later anyway, which made the entire into a colossal disappointment (pun definitely intended).

But if you want to watch this match for historical reasons, you might need something only slightly less potent than chloroform to get through it.

#2 Hogan vs. Yokozuna – WrestleMania IX

This ‘match’ lasted all of 21 seconds, but it had such a negative impact that it still bears mentioning. After Yokozuna beat Bret Hart for the WWE Championship, Hogan came out and somehow obtained the right to challenge Yokozuna for his newly-won title. Nonsense and shenanigans then occurred, Hogan hit his leg drop and won the WWE Championship just like that, because, Hogan.

While some might dismiss as more of an angle, it had serious implications. Hogan was allegedly meant to drop the title to Bret sometime in the future but said title match never happened.

For the more critical fans, this decision tarnished their view of Hogan because he was said to have politicked his way into this segment, proving that having backstage clout was more important than what you could do in the ring.

Ultimately, this will go down in history as one of the worst matches in WrestleMania history and one of the worst creative decisions of Vince McMahon’s life.

#1 The Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez – Rest In Peace Match – SummerSlam 1993

WWE’s bookers didn’t learn their lesson from WrestleMania IX when they booked this match. The match on that card was one of the worst WrestleMania matches in history and Undertaker’s worst WrestleMania match ever.

Yet WWE extended that feud all the way to SummerSlam with this No Holds Barred match that was given a Deadman-themed name. But not even the Undertaker’s magic could save this match from being a dumpster fire.

Gonzalez hadn’t improved one bit since WrestleMania and it showed in this match. He couldn’t hit even the most basic of moves like a scoop slam or a wrestling punch. His selling was virtually non-existent and he moved around the ring with little coordination. Compared to Gonzalez, the Undertaker was Rey Mysterio in his prime.

In fact, Gonzalez was so bad that Undertaker couldn’t even hit any of his signature moves to win; he had to resort to a generic flying clothesline to win, which made the ending feel completely flat.

There’s no denying it; Gonzalez was the worst wrestler to ever face the Undertaker in a wrestling ring.