STW - Survivor Series 1992 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Well today we’re going back 30 years to the 6th annual Survivor Series and your return to the company in 1992.

Were you keeping up regularly with everything going on in the WWF while you were away?

Since you left in the spring of 91, a bunch of new faces are in the company, who will be involved in Survivor Series 92.

We’ve got Ric Flair, Razor Ramon, Yokozuna, the Headshrinkers, the Beverly Brothers, Kamala is back and let’s not forget NAILZ.

3 days after SummerSlam, WWF tapes TV in Hershey, and Ric Flair defeats Randy Savage to become a 2-time WWF Champion. You were at this taping right?

Observer:

“The match where the title was "supposed" to change hands turned into an abortive contest as 12:00 in, because Vince McMahon was unhappy with what was going on, he sent Bobby Heenan out who signaled to ref Earl Hebner and everyone went back to the dressing room and ring announcer Howard Finkel announced "the match will resume as soon as the referee regains control."

After several squash matches had taken place, Flair and Savage were sent into the ring again and did a 25:00 match with Savage selling the "injured" knee a lot more and Mr. Perfect freely interfering. Razor Ramon came to ringside and gave Savage a hard kick to the knee before walking back to the dressing room. Flair put the figure four on and Savage held out for two minutes before the three count. After the match Ramon attacked Savage's knee once again and Ultimate Warrior had to help Savage to the back.”

Bruce - walk us through what was going on backstage…what was Vince saying…what were Randy & Ric like…I mean you’re talking about two of the greatest workers…and there’s Vince McMahon stopping the match and calling them to the back…

It’s also very out of the norm to have a title change on a TV taping and not at a PPV. The match would air a couple of weeks later on Prime Time Wrestling. Is this just to help give a bump to the TV viewership because at the time Prime Time was getting its lowest ratings ever.

This is the first WWF title change ever to air on cable only after the original USA deal was struck…this is quite the landmark moment…was this the beginning of the transition to having big moments happen on TV like this?

This type of episode of Prime Time Wrestling really paves the way for Raw starting the next year doesn’t it?

Your friend Dave Meltzer of the Observer had this to say:

“The scariest part of this weekend's ratings (which for all cable shows averaged a 1.72, down from the record low weekend of 1.74 set early in the summer), actually came from the highest rated show, WWF's Prime Time Wrestling. Even with the first run of the Flair-Savage title change, the show drew just a 2.4 rating, only a tiny increase from recent ratings. This is a somber example of just how limited the casual audience for WWF (and television wrestling in general) has become. In years past, a hot main event with name stars generally could be worth an easy half-point on a cable show. This time, a first-run "historic" world title changing hands match, heavily hyped on all shows during the previous weekend, something that has never aired on a first-run basis on cable before involving two of the five most well-known names in this business of the past ten years, barely added any new viewers. This shows that even

presenting a world title match, or pretty much any main event calibre match on cable,

even a title change, and hyping it heavily on syndication in order to spark the ratings, meant very little as far as getting non-regular weekly viewers to watch the show.”

The reaction internally to this is what exactly…

We also see the formation of the “Ultimate Maniacs”!

Macho shows off his knee pad with the Ultimate Maniacs logo on, and brings out the Warrior, where he almost passed the torch along for Warrior by saying he is coming for Ric Flair, and giving him a pair of Ultimate Maniac shades, as Vince puts over on commentary that Warrior will

“see his ultimate destiny and become the Ultimate World Wrestling Federation Champion!”

The plan at this point is for Warrior to defeat Flair for the title is that right?

This sets up the first ever Flair vs Warrior matches on the house show loop. We’ve talked to Ric about these matches recently in his podcast, and let’s just say they’re not too fondly remembered as classics by Ric. How do you remember them?

Also at the Hershey taping, “Kokina” has a tryout match, defeating a fella by the name of Ron Neal.

Were people seeing the $$$ signs straight away watching the future Yokozuna in action here?

The Headshrinkers (originally billed on TV as just “The Samoans”) had also recently debuted with Afa as their manager, and during the commentary, Gorilla Monsoon is speculating that there will be a third much larger Samoan joining them in the near future.

But it’s never followed up on, and Kokina becomes Yokozuna instead, were the original plans to have a 3-man Samoan team here?

Another debut at the Hershey taping is the Comet Kid - who would later be renamed Max Moon. Paul Diamond is under the costume here, but Konnan was the one in the outfit originally when they tried it out in dark matches before deciding not to sign with the WWF, and the gimmick was given to Diamond instead. How excited was Vince for this gimmick?

Some notes from the Observer:

“The first show at MSG in several months on 9/11 drew 9,000 and $160,000. While there were a lot of long faces, in this day and age, that gate figure can't be considered a negative. The card wasn't taped for MSG cable and the deal of the MSG house shows being put on local cable has been dropped.”

Was the MSG network contract and deal constantly evolving with the change in cable and television?

“Bruce Prichard was re-hired by Titan to work as J.J. Dillon's office assistant. He won't do any work on the television side, where there was enormous heat on him which resulted in his being fired last year.”

I love that line from the Observer…

At the next WWF tapings in Winnipeg on September 21, we’re really starting the build for the main Survivor Series matches. The Ultimate-Maniacs vs Ric Flair & Razor Ramon is announced and the two teams are doing interviews back and forth. As you can imagine the Ultimate Maniacs promo are a little out there. actually a LOT out there!

Ultimate Maniacs promo - YouTube

This is a big step for Razor to get this type of push. Are you excited to have a new top level character at this point?

Who were you excited to come back and do creative for?

We’re also setting up Kamala vs the Undertaker in a rematch from SummerSlam. But at the Survivor Series it’s the first ever coffin match! Do you remember who’s idea this was?

Paul Bearer keeps bringing a casket to the ring during Kamala’s matches, and Kamala flees through the crowd in fear each time.

Then we see vignettes every week of Undertaker in his workshop building the casket (or coffin) as Paul Bearer does all sorts of creepy promos - but essentially Kamala is gonna Rest in Peace.

Did you shoot these? Was it great to be back with the Undertaker? Why this instead of the bodybag matches?

At the Winnipeg taping, they’re also setting up Undertaker’s post Survivor Series feud. Yes it’s the epic Nailz / Undertaker confrontation! Nailz had just beat up some poor dude named Scott Zappa, and challenged the Big Bossman to come out and fight him now. But instead, Undertaker comes out for his scheduled match and the two come nose to nose.

Was this something Vince was excited for? Taker - Nailz?

Sgt. Slaughter then comes out and is able to get the two separated. Sarge is appearing in a “troubleshooting WWF official” role and had being phased out as a wrestler. Was it an easy transition for Sarge?

Matt Borne gets a couple of tryout matches, and by the next taping starts appearing as the unnamed clown in the crowd. Why was Borne the perfect person for that gimmick in the beginning?

Also the return of Terry Taylor. Or we should say “Terrific” Terry Taylor. Why not just call him the Red fucking Rooster again Bruce?

We start to see vignettes on TV to promote the return of Bob Backlund after 8 years away from the WWF. They show clips of his old amateur days, and previous run in the WWF, as Bob says “being himself would be enough to stand out in the current WWF”. There’s a lot of new talent - but some of it is old talent with a fresh paint of coat. Is it just trying to find pieces that fit in 1992?

From the Observer:

“The latest World Wrestling Federation tour of Europe, which ended on Saturday night 10/3, proved to be another huge success. While we don't have any confirmed figures on the two-week tour, it is estimated the shows grossed in the $2.5 million range, and that isn't including what no doubt would be near-record souvenir sales since most of the cities on the tour were seeing WWF wrestling for the first time.

The tour was mainly in Germany, with two shows in England. Based on our reports, the cards were quite a bit different than typical WWF house shows in the United States, and not only because the houses were all either sold out or very close to it with incredible crowd reactions.”

Are you on the tour? Any stories you remember from it?

“This may have been a test of trying out "old-time" wrestling on an audience used to the new product:

Virtually every match on the tour ended in a pinfall

Instead of being in the match before intermission, the main events were put on last. With Ric Flair on top, they worked old style matches lasting from 23:00 to 36:00 (Flair's U.S. house show matches have been in the 8:00 range) with Flair scoring clean victories over either Bret Hart or Randy Savage almost every night. The match quality of these bouts were said to have been excellent.”

Was this a test of a market not run a lot to see what works and if it could work in the US or is it just because it’s Europe and not the US?

“These shows saw Animal & Crush debut as Legion of Doom, and reports were that they were over big and the fans accepted Crush as the new member with no problem.”

Did you see the potential in Animal & Crush as the new Legion of Doom? What do you remember of the issues with Hawk that led to him leaving the company?

We’re going to be getting into more LOD next week when we finally cover the Road Warriors in depth!

“Jeff Jarrett debuted and worked all the house shows. Most fans had no idea who he was and he didn't get over well. Since fans didn't know him and he doesn't have the size fans are accustomed to seeing or the spectacular moves to impress them upon initial viewing, lots of boring chants in many of the cities during his bouts with Mike Sharpe and Barry Horowitz.”

Jeff Jarrett randomly debuting for companies just continues to happen - even 30 years later…

The next TV tapings are in Saskatoon and Regina, in Saskatchewan on 10/12 and 10/13.

The Saskatoon taping is a big one as Bret Hart defeated Ric Flair to become the new WWF Champion! What are the discussions like for this? Was there anyone else besides Bret considered for this?

Observer:

“Bret Hart captured the WWF title in a last minute decision from Ric Flair in approximately 25:00 on 10/12 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan at the television tapings amidst much WCW-like booking-on-the-fly chaos. Hart won the title by submission using the sharpshooter after a superplex in what was said to have been an excellent match.

The title change was a decision made within the last week because the WWF needed to get a babyface, and Hart in particular, over big time in a hurry because of uncertainty as to the long-term future of Ultimate Warrior and short term because Undertaker isn't expected back after undergoing shoulder surgery this past week until mid-December. Hart and a few others apparently knew about it by mid-week although I'm not sure Flair was one of the few others. As it turned out, Hart both sprained his ankle and broke one finger during the match and spent most of the night in the hospital, but was expected to wrestle 10/13 in Regina for the second night of television anyway.”

Did everyone know at this point in time that Warrior was on his way out or did only Vince know? Were you surprised it wasn’t Warrior or was everyone kept up to date on the situation?

Was Bret ready?

The match is never aired on television (not even the finish), instead they just show a brief clip of Bret celebrating with the belt and his post match interview with Mean Gene. It was taped for home video release, but the tape it was shown on - Smack Em Whack Em - wasn’t released until April 1993. It’s quite interesting how the WWF title always changed hands on pay-per-view since Andre’s win over Hulk in 1988…and then in back to back title changes it’s on a TV taping and then a straight to home video release…

I understand it’s partially because Flair got hurt by Warrior but what a shift in company policy.

There’s a lot of controversy and speculation about the Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan possibly coming back:

Observer:

“Warrior made all of his regularly-scheduled weekend dates and was in Saskatoon Monday night for the first of two nights of television tapings. Ironically, there were an awful lot of people who didn't expect him there since word was out that the Flair-Warrior house show program was going to be canceled in favor of a Flair-Hart program, which is definitely the case.

As of Tuesday, Warrior had not been officially pulled from any house show cards although the previous afternoon there had been talk of several Flair-Warrior dates in November becoming Flair-Hart. At the same time, WWF officials scheduled a meeting with Hulk Hogan to attempt to arrange his return. The meeting was scheduled for later in the week after company president Vince McMahon gets back from Canada from the tapings. Whether Hogan being asked to return as soon as possible, which just two weeks ago appeared to have no chance of happening until the spring, is due to a possible problem with Warrior or simply because of the business being in the condition it's in can only be speculated on. While there may have been demands made by Warrior, whether they be for more money or to work fewer dates, the only thing we have been able to confirm is that Warrior was upset about the finish given to him at one of the weekend house shows for a match with Flair.”

Were the issues with Warrior what instigated the opening of talks with Hulk to bring him back into the fold? Or was it always scheduled to be about this time?

“There is little doubt that at one point the plan was for Flair to put Warrior over for the WWF title and Warrior would then be attempted to be pushed as the superstar of the group. However, WWF attendance and television ratings have plummeted to their lowest level ever, which resulted in many cancellations, pre-emptions and shifts to weaker time slots which has put the organization in its weakest position since it broke through nationally. In addition, the Flair-Warrior title matches have consistently drawn surprisingly weak houses, even trailing the generally weak houses of the Savage-Ramon program.”

How much of a disappointment is this?

“Going into the fall, the Savage-Ramon program looked to be a major question mark at the gate, which it has been, but it appeared Flair-Warrior for the title would at least do average business. It is in no way definite right now that Hogan will return, and if Warrior leaves, and Hogan doesn't return, with the state the business is in right now, this could be a short-term damaging blow because there is no track record that Hart by himself on top can draw. While most believe Hogan would return, it would have to be on his own terms, which presumably would be less than a full-time schedule.”

Did you need Hogan more than Hogan needed you?

Also Money Inc appear and wrestle at the tapings as the new tag team champions. But, they haven’t even won the belts yet. They did win them the following night in Regina from the Natural Disasters, and through the magic of television, the general public wouldn’t have a clue. But I’m wondering was the tag title change supposed to happen in Saskatoon? This is out of the norm for the WWF to do this - and it’s a very WCW type thing. Meltzer reported that Typhoon had missed a few shows, so were we just waiting until he could get back to work to have the Disasters drop the titles?

The Nasty Boys end up getting involved in the match, and turn babyface and split with Jimmy Hart, after teasing for a few weeks dissection with Jimmy managing two different teams who wanted a shot at the title. Is this also groundwork for when Hogan comes back to have Jimmy be a babyface or was it just time?

Marty Jannetty also returns at the Saskatoon tapings and they do the angle where Sensational Sherri gets knocked out with the mirror after Shawn pulled her in front of him.

Of course while you were gone from the company, they had split the Rockers up, and Shawn threw Marty through the Barber Shop window back in January (or he dived through the window to escape Michaels as Bobby Heenan would say).

Marty was then fired shortly after, and they used the Barber Shop window angle to explain his absence, and Sherri and Shawn were put together. Who was pushing to bring Marty back and how excited were you to put this together?

Did you expect Marty to last long?

Yokozuna also debuts, and has already bulked up considerably since his Kokina tryout 6 weeks earlier. Was that an edict from Vince?

Lastly, we must mention - from the outer reaches of your mind, the debut of DAMIEN DEMENTO at the Saskatoon tapings.

A whole lot of new people are debuting here Bruce in such a short space of time, and I’m sure Demento is gonna have a successful WWF career.

They start setting up a “feud” with Howard Finkel and Harvey Wippleman, none of which aired on WWF TV (they would later rehash it in 1994 and 1995 for their tuxedo match on Raw):

“They did an angle with Howard Finkel and Harvey Wippleman on 10/13 in Regina. Finkel was being interviewed saying he's been able to announce all the top WWF stars except for Kamala because Wippleman always grabs the mic. Then Wippleman came out and the two started arguing. Wippleman slapped Howard and Howard responded by shoving Wippleman off the platform and as he took off his jacket, they played Hulk Hogan's music and it was actually the biggest pop of the taping”

Howard Finkel & Harvey Wipplemen segment (unaired) - 10/13/92

Then at the next set of tapings on 10/28:

“The latest in the Howard Finkel angle took place in Louisville. Finkel was all set to announce Kamala when Harvey Wippleman started yelling at him. Finkel loses his cool and Kamala gives him the big chop and two big splashes and Finkel does a stretcher job. All the agents came out (including you Bruce) and put Finkel on the stretcher, but he fell off. Later as they were wheeling him from the ring, the stretcher collapsed so he fell off a second time. We'll know in a week or two what the story on this angle is. A lot of people seem to think they are just gathering footage for the Christmas party and that none of this will ever air on television. But if stage one airs, then you can figure they're going all the way with this.”

Kamala splashes Howard Finkel - YouTube

Were there any plans to air this on TV Bruce? Or is this just something for an audience of one - Vince? Or was it for the Christmas party?

Jimmy Garvin gets a tryout as a heel doing a promo with Mean Gene, and is where the line “Are you ready for the Survivor Series?” comes from that was used on “WrestleMania the Album” in 93.

He also predicts all the heels will win at the Survivor Series.

Jimmy Garvin WWF Debut in 1992 (rare) - YouTube

Was Garvin being considered for a heel manager role perhaps - how did this all come to be?

The Mountie quit the WWF after the 10/26 taping in Springfield, IL, after losing a 1-minute WWF title match to Bret Hart, with the match ending up not even airing on TV. What were the issues with Jacques and were you surprised to see him leave?

In the run-up to the show - Meltzer had this to say regarding running Richfield Coliseum in Cleveland. “I'm kind of surprised with them using Richfield as a live site since the house show there on 9/12 drew just 4,700 paid. WCW ran head-to-head in Cleveland drawing about 2,000 paid, although the difference in gate was four-to-one ($72,000 to $18,000). Richfield has already hosted two Survivor Series and the second one saw them heavily pad the place and they still had 5,000 empty seats. That was also when business was a whole lot stronger.”

Was that a worry or concern for you going into the show?

Mountie vs Bulldog has being announced on TV for the Survivor Series in an IC title match, but then at the next night’s TV taping for SNME:

“Shawn Michaels captured the Intercontinental title from British Bulldog on 10/27 in Terre Haute, IN in one of the three matches that will air on the Fox

Network's Saturday Night Main Event on 11/14. The storyline of the match, which went approximately 9:00, was that Michaels removed the padding on the top turnbuckle. Later in the match, Michaels reversed a whip and Bulldog's back went into the unexposed metal. After Bulldog made his comeback, he had Michaels on the top rope for a superplex but "his back gave out" and Michaels fell on him for the pin.”

It’s amazing how quickly Bulldog - coming off Summerslam with that big victory over Bret Hart - and here he is just dropping the title on prime time on network TV…how quickly did you see the relationship sour?

“The other two matches that will air on the special saw The Ultimate Maniacs beat Money Inc. in a tag team title match via count out when the latter team walked out of the ring. After the match, the Maniacs were attacked in a five-on-two by Money Inc., Flair, Mr. Perfect and Razor Ramon. Bret Hart also retained the WWF title pinning Papa Shango. While the wins make Hart vs. Michaels at Survivor Series as a battle of the WWF champ vs. IC champ, it probably won't be a double title match.”

The post production of this when it finally airs is great…but we’ll get to that in a minute…first…

The Ultimate Maniacs match is moved to first on the show and the story builds throughout the show until the end when Bobby Heenan gets a call saying there’s going to be something that changes about Survivor Series 92 and the main event and that the Ultimate Maniacs may be no more…was it Vince who put this all together?

Observer:

“Probably the single worst thing that could happen to a promotion short of a scandal would be a PPV main eventer walking out at the last minute. As everyone knows, that basically happened twice last week to Titan Sports as both Ultimate Warrior and British Bulldog quit the promotion in moves that appear to be unrelated, except that they both happened within a day of each other. This forced Titan to come up with the emergency angle that aired Monday night on Prime Time Wrestling, turning Curt Hennig babyface and teaming him with Randy Savage in the Survivor Series main event against Ric Flair & Razor Ramon.”

This three-day story and pivot is really some great stuff - did Vince do his best work under pressure? Is that why it’s always funny when people say plans change and sometimes it’s better that they do?

“Although both men were said to have been fired by the company, other sources are claiming that each actually quit. Probably a little of both, although at least in the case of Warrior it was more quit than fired. The Warrior situation wasn't unexpected but the Smith situation came with little warning. Some within the organization expected Warrior to be history before the television tapings in Canada which saw Bret Hart win the WWF title, and have Hart & Savage as the new tag team in Survivors. When that didn't transpire, it was pretty much considered a given that it was because so much had already gone into the advertising for the PPV. It would be much easier to bite the bullet and wait until after the show to make any changes, but that Warrior would more likely than not be history shortly after the PPV. That wasn't a definite, even though we were given the indication it was, since Warrior was still being planned to headline house shows in December and they started an angle at the last television to start a new program with Nailz, which would have died at the gate.”

Was it a wait and see approach with Warrior and knowing it was going to be inevitable?

“Smith attempted to leave the promotion on good terms, although it doesn't appear that many consider the situation all that good. Aside from the Survivor Series problem, the promotion had given both Randy Savage and Big Bossman time off after Survivor Series. Warrior and Bulldog were the top two headline babyfaces on one of the two touring shows, causing the company to be forced to basically revamp much of the plans for the winter quarter. In addition, Warrior was going to most likely be the focal point of Wrestlemania's main event, so plan A is totally out the window.”

Was losing both at the same time that big a blow to the company?

“With Warrior leaving with no notice, Titan was forced to bring Undertaker back too soon to headline the California shows against Nailz (who himself was subbing for the previously announced Ric Flair). The other main event, Hart vs. Mountie, wasn't changed on television until Saturday to Rick Martel so the mid-week towns had that as a changed main event as well. Needless to say, some of the shows didn't go very well. Undertaker

was in great pain so they did 30 second matches each night with Nailz consisting of a choke slam (which Nailz had to jump for) and pin. In Chico, they had a near riot because of the Warrior no-show and ensuing 30 second main event. In Sacramento the scene was really unruly initially after the 30 second match ended, but did calm down. In Los Angeles, there were heavy chants of "refund, refund," while in Oakland, which drew the smallest crowd since WWF has gone national in the Bay Area at 2,400, there was no bad fan reaction at all. They did get promos for Undertaker vs. Nailz out on Saturday's television so the Los Angeles and Oakland fans knew about the change, although Warrior's name was never acknowledged nor any reason given for the change. In some cities Warrior was announced as injured.”

How much of a disaster is this? Did the guys complain about having to do all this and the conditions in which they had to? We know Taker is a team player…but this couldn’t have been fun for him could it?

“The television ratings from the big shows this past week in the U.S. indicate more of the pattern of wrestling viewing down about 25% across the board. The Saturday Night Main Event on Fox on 11/14 drew a 6.1 rating and a 10 share, which placed it in 86th place for that week among 92 prime time shows. The rating and total viewing audience was the lowest ever for a WWF network show.”

Listen…a 6.1 rating today would make everyone ecstatic - but at the time - it was not considered to be that way. Is it an internal disappointment with the rating?

“From a short-term standpoint, the show reached 5.27 million homes and about eight million total viewers, which is the best exposure any pro wrestling event in this country has had since the February Fox special. It's nearly triple the weekly audience that tunes into WWF Superstars in syndication nowadays. It should be noted that the audience for the Fox special with them plugging Warrior in the Survivor Series match was nearly quadruple the audience watching two nights later (2.0 rating in 1.44 million homes) for the two-hour angle where Mr. Perfect turned babyface to replace Warrior.”

Do you wish you could’ve done that angle on FOX compared to USA?

Well we’re finally at the show Bruce and it is down from SummerSlam 92. That show drew 280,000 buys while this show drew 250,000 buys. Last year’s Survivor Series had Taker vs. Hogan on top for the WWF title and Ric Flair’s first pay-per-view for the company and that drew 300,000 buys…but all things considered with Hart defending against Michaels in what is really the semi main behind the tag team match and losing Warrior last minute…it’s still a pretty damn good number is it not?

The reaction to the show by the Observer readers are split. 37.9% thumbs up, 39.3% thumbs down and 22.8% in the middle.

Was it great to be back for a pay-per-view?

Why was the traditional Survivor Series format dropped for this show, and so it just comes across as a normal PPV?

The show does draw 17,500 and Meltzer would say the show wasn’t as papered as last year’s was. Do you think it was drawn based off Savage & Warrior?

Vince and Bobby handle the announcing on the show, was there a particular reason Vince wanted himself handling the play-by-play on this show instead of Gorilla? (Gorilla would be back for the next PPV - Rumble 93)

1. Head Shrinkers beat High Energy in 7:38 when Fatu pinned Hart with a splash off the top rope. Good action packed opener. **¼

High Energy - Owen Hart & Koko B. Ware - take the loss to Head Shrinkers as they’re about to begin a push. This is sort of a squash as the Headshrinkers take a lot of the offense. Owen gets the hot tag before getting pinned. Why Owen taking the loss over Koko do you think?

2. Big Bossman pinned Nailz with the Bubba-slam in 5:43 in a night stick on a pole match. Bossman came down with the stick and hit Nailz a few times, Nailz got it away, then Bossman made a comeback and scored a clean pin. Considering the respective positions of each on upcoming shows, this result was something of a surprise. *

Was the Nailz experiment at this point a failure and it was time to move on at this point? This was a highly touted story going in as Meltzer says - feels like it should’ve been higher - or is this just the reaction to their matches on the road?

3. Tatanka pinned Rick Martel with a Samoan drop type move in 11:04. The Clown showed up playing heel which pretty much distracted the audience away from this match as they were reacting to the clown and had their heads turned away from the ring. Match had a lot of restholds. *¼

Did anyone appreciate Doink coming out during their matches? I mean this storyline is based out of feathers being stolen so really this is going to be the best it could be. Tatanka goes ye-ye-ye-ye and it’s over…

The promos building up the next match - one from Flair & Razor and then Savage & Perfect…you should go out of your way to watch…as it’s just great prematch hype stuff.

4. Randy Savage & Mr. Perfect beat Ric Flair & Razor Ramon in 16:29 via DQ. Good match, but not nearly what you'd expect from the talent involved on such a big show. Perfect showed lots of rust and wasn't in his best shape since this whole thing came down in the last two weeks. As a babyface, he doesn't need to take those wild bumps so it should be easier on his back. Savage worked most of the match taking punishment. Perfect was put over really strong as the super wrestling technician by both men. Ramon wrestled like Scott Hall once again. Flair was really up but he wasn't good enough to carry the other three while doing the one man show. The finish was one tired cliche after another. A ref bump, a second ref came in. Perfect gets the Perfect plex on both men but the other made the save. A weak DQ for double-teaming for a main event match. Earlier Ramon had hit Savage with a chair and Flair got Perfect in the figure four. But the faces made their own save when Savage came in with a chair to both men. This makes three consecutive PPV shows where the announced main event ended without a clean finish, which sounds more like the old WCW. ***¼

Obviously you’re in a tough spot in trying to do a match like this and book your way out of the finish. You don’t want Randy to lose because you need a 2nd tier babyface on the road, Perfect just turned and it’s his return to the ring and he can’t lose, Flair has to work with Bret on top and Razor’s getting the big push. Was this the best of a bad situation? But the heat is insane. Go out of your way to watch this…

5. Yokozuna pinned Virgil in 3:34 after sitting on him. Yokozuna is going to be a money maker. This was exactly what it should have been. *

Shit look at Meltzer’s eye for talent.

6. Natural Disasters & Nasty Boys beat Money Inc. & Beverly Brothers in an elimination tag match. The work itself was solid from start to finish except in spots where the Nasty Boys didn't seem used to doing babyface moves and Money Inc. had to walk themselves through the move. Earthquake pinned Beau Beverly with the Earthquake in 9:25 which

gave the faces a 4-on-2 advantage. Psychologically that is pretty hard to get a lot of crowd

reaction when the heels are being pounded while being outmanned. IRS pinned Typhoon for the second fall in 6:20 after DiBiase tripped him. Third fall lasted :05 with Saggs pinning IRS with a schoolboy. *¼

This is not a straight elimination match. If one member of the team gets eliminated the whole team is eliminated. This…this just isn’t good is it Bruce?

7. Undertaker pinned Kamala in 5:27 after hitting him with the urn and then put him in a coffin. Kim Chee had gotten the urn away from Paul Bearer and Kamala got it first but was too scared to use it. Terrible wrestling. Some funny facial expressions by Kamala. DUD

Kim Chee is Steve Lombardi. This…isn’t good either. Did you guys always have to apologize to Taker?

-They then spend a long time having Taker nail the lid shut on the coffin after being declared the winner. Kamala could not have enjoyed that right?

8. Bret Hart made Shawn Michaels submit in 26:40 with the sharpshooter to retain the WWF title. Started slow but the crowd was into it from start to finish. Technically excellent with several hot moves from both sides and no flaws at all. Finish saw Michaels come off the top rope with a dropkick but Hart caught his legs and turned it into the scorpion. After the match, Santa Claus came to ringside and held Hart's hand up. Would have been the perfect spot for an angle but instead they gimmicked snow to fall instead of the fireworks for the triumphant babyface clean win ending. ****½

How good is this match Bruce? I mean you could tell those two would be on top for at least the next 5 years…

I love that Meltzer puts in that he thinks it’d be the perfect spot for an angle don’t you?

Bret killed it in two straight pay-per-view main events from Summerslam to this - is that what you took away from this?

Did you think Shawn did a good job hanging at Bret’s level?

1992 was the transition year from Hulkamania to whatever was going to be next - and you can see why Bret thought he was going to be given a chance…but then you know…that damn European tour…

What did you think of the show Bruce? Thumbs up?