WWF Survivor Series 92 Review

WWF survivor series 92 was a strange show which failed to deliver that big card fill WWF were able to do so well thoughout the late 80's but due to a number of scandals that hit the fed in the early 90's. Shows had become stale and in 1991 ppv buys fell and live attendence also fell. At wrestlemania 8 hulk hogan made his final fed appearance until 1993 and business continued to decline. WWF did become better within the ring in 1992 due to vince McMahon pushing younger more athletic wrestlers like Bret hart, Shawn Michaels and the undertaker. So WWF was in a transisition for this show. New acts debuted who would go onto be major players during the WWF new generation era, the focus was on in ring action (espiecally for the main event) and not a hogan or warrior in sight and some guys who were stars years previously made there final WWF ppv appearance as well. As for the main event of the show it was originally susposed to be the team of the ultimate maniacs (randy savage and the ultimate warrior) vs ric flair and razor roman but that changed after warrior quit WWF for a second time over a pay dispute. So in a rather rushed fashion mr perfect then ric flairs on screen consultant was turned baby face and teamed with savage instead after savage offered warriors spot to perfect on prime time wrestling and perfect accepted. Perfect accpted in front of hennan who blow a gasket over this and lost his temper slapping perfect in a rage. Hennan know almost immediately he had made a mistake and backed up apologising to perfect but perfect made

Bobby get down on his knees and say sorry and of course hennan did and perfect dumped water on top of hennan telling him he accepted savages offer. Meanwhile the title picture suddenly changed in the summer of 92 after savage lost his second and last WWF title to ric flair following summer slam 92. Flair then lost to Bret hart out of nowhere on an coliseum home video exclusive match shot in front of brets fellow Canadians in Saskatoon Canada. Bret hart upset ric flair to become WWF champion for a first time, Bret was fed all comers thoughout the weeks in the build up to this show beating the likes of the Berzerker, papa shango, the Mountie, Virgil and others to showcase Bret would take on all challengers and was a fighting champion. Unlike hogan who rarely defended his title on tv and during his era. In WWF in 1992 a Bret hart was a breath of fresh air to WWF main event scene which had become stale main under hogan and Bret currently didn't look like a steroid user due to WWF at the time being involved in it's first major steroid scandal. Lower down the mid card a young talent was also catching vince McMahon's eye he like Bret was also a former tag team wrestler going solo. The man was HBK Shawn Michaels and HBK was booked on November 14th addition of Saturday nights main event to win the WWF intercontinental title from the British bulldog who had only won it 3 months prior in wembley stadium in England beating Bret hart on that night as well. Shawn beat Davey due to vince wanting a known steroid users off his tv shows due to the ongoing scandals at the time but also it was a step in the right direction for the WWF at the time. Shawn now believed in the storylines as he beat smith and smith had beaten hart that he was next in line for the title shot. A shot Hitman had no problem accepting and the two would now headline survivor series rather than the tag team match. Meanwhile A former heel and now baby face undertaker had a summer to remember or forget depending on how you look at it and had gained incredible support from the WWF fans in 92. Taker was one of a few of Vince's success story in 92, after taker had beaten Jake the snake Roberts at wrestle mania 8 he was placed into a feud with kamala that summer it didn't exactly set the world on fire but it was doing it's job of establishing taker a strong face the company would need going forward. So to this show after a lot of talk on how the WWF was clearly in a transisition and going in a new direction for this show and the foreseeable future. The 92 addition of survivor Series was held in Richfield Ohio at the Richfield coliseum drawing an impressive live gate of 17,500 and over 400,000 ppv buys (this was considered bad business in 92). To open the show on the live ppv itself was freshly turned baby face reverend slick who welcomed us to the show basically his promo was nothing of importance (this wasn't the start of the show I watched on coliseum home video it just immediately cut to vince and bobby hennan who were tonight's announce team). Then vince McMahon and bobby hennan welcomed us to the show, vince reviewed the main event between hart and HBK and the tag team Match as hennan called perfect an ingrate who would stab savage in the back tonight. Then we went to the fink who announced coming down the aisle was high energy the team of Owen hart and koko b ware. Already in the ring was the team energy would be facing this evening the team of the headshrinkers who were accompied by Afa. There wasn't much to like about this match it was on the ppv to simply showcase the headshrinkers team of Samu and fatu. The bell rang and Samu was all over koko and the team of the samon savages beat down koko convincingly. Koko eventually tagged in Owen who didn't fair to much better against the headshrinkers. It was over within in minutes as Samu hit Owen with a karate kick to the throat and pinned Owen for the 1,2 and 3 in a rather average outing. This match marked the end of high energy who broke up come 93 as koko was sent packing to WWF then unofficial developmental USWA and koko only made a few brief appearances in the fed basically putting superstars over in tv matches. As for Owen going into 93 he suffered a serious knee injury and wasn't seen again in the fed until summer slam 93. Up next was nails vs the big bossman in a night stick on a pole match. A very odd individual indeed was Kevin Wacholz who portrayed the nails character who was a man who claimed the big bossman had abused him while he was inside and bossman was a prison guard. A number of wired vignettes aired over May and June as nails vowed revenge on bossman for the abuse he had suffered under bossmans hands. Sean mooney is in the back with nails who grabs mooney and screams he will get his revenge this evening against bossman. Basically if you know how it all ends for wacholz in WWF then this was  fore shadowing how he choked a reportable scared shitless vince over his summer slam 92 payoff which he felt was a little less than he thought he would receive and basically disappeared from the business in the process. The two didn't really do to much but what they did elected a response from the live crowd at least. Nails had a fondness for choking people and he did it a lot here but if you've seen one pole match then you've seen them all I suspose. Basically the match goes a little something like this both wrestlers tease retrieving the wepeon which is attracted on top of the pole, then the wrestler retrieves the wepeon and uses to win the match normally unless your judy bagwell of course. This match was pretty much following that formula as bossman teases retrieving the night stick and nails follows suit. After serval pain stacking minutes bossman retrieved the night stick hit nails but only gets a two count. Nails recovers far to easily and nails bossman with a big boot. Nails has the stick now and wallops bossman with the stick. Nails then let's bossman recover and goes to hit bossman with the night stick again but bossman ducks and then catches nails and gives him a side walk slam to pick up the win over the convict. Afterwards nails storms off as bossman celebrates, in the back nails grabs mooney by his collar and screams at him next time bossman I will have my revenge and nails is gone forever but he did show up in a cup of coffee with wcw feuding with sting a feud that sting obviously won. Nails would stick around wcw but was almost never used and got paid to sit around at home for a few years before he disappeared from wrestling for good and retired by 2000. Ric flair and razor roman cut a promo on mr perfect as flair called perfect ungrateful and once him and razor were done with perfect that perfect would come crawling back to there side. A video was then shown on mr perfect accepting randy savages invertation to join him to face flair and razor at WWF survivor series which perfect accepted of course and turned full blown face by dumping a jug full of water on top of bobby Hennans head. Rick the model Martel took on the still undefeated tatanka next in what was another dire match on this ppv. Basically the model put over tatanka clean to carry on the native Americans undefeated streak. During this drab affair doink come out to make his ppv debut which took all of the crowds focus away from the match and onto wrestlings first ever clown character. Matt Boone portrayed doink early on and his portrayal was spot on as a child I believed he was one scary clown and I believe wwfs audience then also believed this. Doink smoked a cigar and blow up some kids balloons he then proceeded to pop them and run off into the back. Doink was back as the crowd was falling asleep during another chinlock by Martel to tatanka. This time doink teased throwing water on the audience and the brain couldn't have found it funnier. Doink leaves for the finish as tatanka gives Martel a back slide for another two count, tatanka follows it up with a Samoan drop and gets another two count. Tatanka dances around and lays in a war chop to martels head not once but twice and gives the model another Samoan drop for the 1,2 and 3. Mr perfect and macho man randy savage are in the back with Sean mooney they proclaim themsevles the perfect tag team and perfect vows to pin flair tonight. So up next is macho man randy savage and mr perfect the perfect tag team vs the nature boy ric flair and razor roman. This was pushed as the main event of the show and I must applaud vince for risking it and putting it on early so he could let the two new generation stars main event the show instead but if warrior had been savages partner then I'm guessing vince would have put that on last instead. Savage makes his way to the ring first and is clearly the most over guy on this show and at this time vince is seriously considering benching savage and making him an announcer what was he thinking savage was clearly still over and hot property in WWF in 1992/1993 savage turning heel and headlining mania 9 against hart could have been big business for the WWF but alas vince decided against it. Perfect starts the match with razor and shows early on he has lost none of what made him so perfect in the first place with a pair of arm drags to razor. In comes flair and perfect takes flair down with a side headlock, perfect follows it up with a perfect drop kick to flairs mouth. Perfect tags in savage and he goes to work on Naitch having flair back up and beg off from the savages dangerous right hand. Flair tags in razor and the newcomer never looked out of place after debuting months earlier he was thrown into this big money match and took it all in his stride as he more than held his own in there against these 3 experienced veterans. Savage is all over razor who backs up and tags in flair who drops to the outside and randy follows him out like a crazed man. Back in the ring savage drops flair with another right hand and goes up top and drops a big double axe handle down onto flair. Flair makes his comeback when he gets savage tied up with the referee and chop blocks savages bad knee (a knee savage had injured during summer slam 93 and then again against flair where savage dropped the WWF title to flair). Razor went to work on savages leg by stomping it and applying a leg lock. Flair was in as hennan claimed flair was better than perfect. Flair did a lot of woooo's as he wore down savages knee, quick tags between the two as McMahon cries a foul. Razor has savage in trouble with a single leg crab but savage gets to the ropes and razor is forced to break the hold. Eventually flair went up top and savage went up to join him and on one bad leg gave flair a second rope suplex. Suddenly perfect jumps down from the ring apron and teases walking out on savage but returns in time for the hot tag. Perfect is in and is a house on fire he nails razor with a big right hand and Irish whips razor into the corner. Razor steps out of the corners and he gets a knee lift to the face and in comes flair who receives the same treatment from perfect. Perfect is then cut off by razor who gets the upper hand with a fall away slam. Razor then gets perfect up into the razors edge but perfect wiggles out and when razor turns around he gets given a perfect plex but there is no referee as flair has him distracted on the outside. Savage goes loco and attacks flair but flair this time drives savages knee into the ring post. Back in the ring razor tags flair and flair gives perfect a back drop and teases the figure four but perfect powers out. Perfect is back up by now and boots flair in the gut and gives flair the perfect plex for a 1,2 no as razor breaks up the pin fall and the referee calls for the bell. Savage pulls himself back up onto the ring apron and into the ring with a chair and whilst hobbling swings the chair at razor and flair who are by now double teaming perfect. The heels retreat the ring and up the aisle way as the fink announces that savage and perfect have won by DQ, afterwards perfect and savage shake hands. In the back flair is irrate and says perfect this is just the beginning of the end for you as razor adds savage and perfect got lucky Chico. Up next was another big debut as the Japanese/Somoan Yokozuna made his ppv debut against Virgil. Lord Alfred is in the back and he meets with mr Fuji who asks Alfred to please sit and removes his jacket so the lovely geisha girls can rub him down it's over almost as quickly as it started and Fuji says Yokozuna number 1 as Alfred is thrown out of yoko's dressing claiming well I was enjoying that and how rude says Alfred who is comedy in my opinion. What can I say about Virgil vs Yokozuna it was just another match but it currently left an impression as yoko looked very impressive in victory indeed and Virgil all but disappeared from WWF after this. Early on Virgil tried but could not get yoko off his feet after hitting yoko with two drop kicks and fore arm smash. Virgil followed it up by going for a waist lock from behind and yoko just pushed Virgil off with his ass. When Virgil got up he walked into a thrust kick to the throat, yoko stalked the former million dollar assistant and dropped Virgil with a belly to belly and then a massive leg drop which the crowd ate up. Virgil then made a comeback rocking yoko with a drop kick he then went for a roll up but yoko just fell on top of him crushing virgils ribs in the process. Yokozuna then pulled Virgil over into the corner and hit the banzai for the 1,2 and 3. As for yoko he would go on to become a star of the new generation and Virgil disappeared from WWF tv until 2010 when Virgil got a short term comeback as ted dibease jnrs assistant. Backstage Virgil said he had never been hit like that before adding it felt like the titanic had fallen on him and warned the superstars of WWF about yoko and said even Bret hart should be on the look out of this guy, more foreshadowing of the mania 9 card here. Mr perfect and Macho man are in the back and as it's thanksgiving says perfect he's in a giving mood so he presents razor and flair with two turkeys and bobby hennan a tiny chicken. Next is the only traditional survivor series tag elimination match as the natural disaters team with the nasty boys to take on the new WWF tag team champions money inc and the Beverley brothers. Vince talks about how the disaters and the nasty boys have been teams that little runt jimmy hart used to manage and had stabbed in the back to align with money inc. early on quake and typhoon put a beating on Bo and Blake respectively with bear hugs and splashes and other variety of moves to down the Beverley's. Typhoon and quake do the double splash in the corner and it all but looks over for the Beverley's until irs breaks up the count (no DQ here though). The Beverley's and money inc gain the upper hand when they quadruple team typhoon and get the big man down. Bo and Blake go to work on uncle Fred's leg while hart mocks the Nastys and quake who are all chomping at the bit to get to either teams on the opposing side. Dibease drops a standing elbow onto typhoon for only a two and it's a big kick out which sends ted to the outside. Typhoon finally tag jerry sags and sags unloads on all four men as the crowd comes back to life. Sags then drills Bo with a pump handle slam for the 1,2 no as dibease had distracted the referee. Sags eventually loses his fire as the Beverley's and inc tag in and out whilst working over sags. Sags like typhoon before him finally makes it to his corner and tags in quake who goes right after the Beverley's he splashes both men in the corner and then hits the avalanche on Bo for the 1,2 and 3 and the Beverley's have been eliminated. Earthquake then targets irs and goes for the big splash in the corner but the taxman evades it and money inc give quake a big back body drop. IRS covers quake but only gets a two, dibease and irs double team quake for a bit. Then quake makes a comeback clothe lining both dibease and IRS, quake tags in typhoon. Typhoon goes for another splash as irwin is down and irwin moves again. Irwin gets up and then chop blocks typhoon and rolls up the big man for the 1,2 and 3. As soon as the fink announces The natural diasters have been eliminated knobbs sneaks up behind irwin rolls him up and gets the 1,2 and 3. The nasty boys win, beating the tag team champions in the process but like so many others the Nastys won't be around much longer as they also depart following mania 9 and this angle with money inc goes no where. Up next is the casket Match between the undertaker and kamala and we get a video review of kamala being scared of caskets. Kamala in my mind was facial expression during this feud were priceless and made me laugh he played it so over the top that I really enjoyed that video review but then remember what kamala in ring stuff was like. Moving on Kim Chee is telling a reluctant kamala backstage he must wrestle this match again the Memphis wrestling legend looked horrified. On the way to the ring kamala looks even more scared and when taker makes his entrance looks like he just crapped his pants. Taker gets ready as kamala retreats to the outside and into the aisle way. Taker goes after Kim Chee and Harvey whippleman and chokes both men as kamala attacks taker from behind. Back in the ring Kamala doesn't do to much all and then gives taker 3 slams and pins taker for the two. Kamala looks out at Kim Chee as taker recovers and goes to choke kamala. By this point I had lost interest they were not having a very good match in fact it was plain awful and was hoping it end as soon as possible. Kamala goes for the second rope and splashes taker as Paul bearer gets onto the ring apron and raises the urn up in the air and the taker man rose up from the dead. Meanwhile Kim Chee tripped Paul and the urn fell into the ring and rolled in front of prettified kamala how is so scared backs up and refuses to pick up the urn. Taker has no problems doing so and nails kamala with the urn. Taker covers kamala and gets the 1,2 and 3 then taker rolls kamala into the casket and proceed to nail the lid shut. Shawn Michaels is in the back with mean gene and he says I beat the man who beat Bret hart for the IC title and tonight he would defeat Bret to become both the IC champion and WWF champion. Kim Chee is shown backstage breaking into the casket he plies the lid open and kamala is shown scared stiff laying inside casket. Mean gene is now with Bret hart, mean gene really puts over Bret here saying over the two short months Hitman you've been champion you've defended more an anyone. Bret thanks gene and says he will take on all comers and he will never back down from a challenge and the more successful defences he had under his belt the better champion he would become, because he was the best there was and the best there ever will be. Bret gets a randy savage like pop from the crowd while Shawn gets all heat in the world for his cocky strut to the ring. The crowd is clearly behind Bret here (are you listening vince), early on Bret and Shawn go into some nice chain wrestling spots as Bret softens up Shawn's arm for the hammer lock. The two exchange the hammerlock and then Shawn has the hammer lock on Bret but Bret drops down and HBK falls through the ropes onto the outside. Back in the ring Bret locks on a arm ringer to Shawn and whips Shawn into the ropes Bret bounces back and launches at Shawn with a cross body press for a two count. Bret goes back to HBK arm and the hammer lock but Shawn takes a short cut and gauges brets eye to force Bret to release the hold. The crowd boos Shawn who does a cocky dance for the crowd who clearly don't like him. Shawn goes for a suplex but Bret counters it and goes right back to that hammerlock and Shawn is grounded again. Shawn gets up and drops down which sends Bret to the outside. Back in the ring Shawn cuts off Bret with a left hand and whips Bret hard into the corner then Shawn takes Bret down and slingshots Bret into the top turnbuckle chest first. Bret sells the vicious looking move perfectly and the crowd sense maybe just maybe the champ is in big trouble here. Shawn then goes to Irish whip Bret but Bret counters and Shawn ends up in the corner, Bret then goes to do the same to HBK but HBK counters it this time and Bret is launched shoulder first into ring post. Shawn stomps on brets hurt shoulder and chest and this time Irish whips Bret chest first into the corner. Shawn gloats over Bret and does some poses before he pins Bret for a two. Shawn goes and puts on a chin lock to Bret who battles out of it and bounces back into the ropes and runs directly into a drop kick by Shawn. HBK covers Bret again only a two count, HBK is smart and goes back to the chinlock to wear the Hitman down some more. Again Bret battles back with elbow shots to Shawn's gut, Shawn relinquishes the hold and Bret gives hbk a bulldog. Bret climbs to the second rope and goes to drop and elbow onto Shawn but Shawn moves and Bret hits the mat hard. Quickly Shawn jumps onto the Hitman and again applies the chin lock, again Bret battles back by rolling Shawn up for a 2 count. Bret then clothes lines HBK and gives Shawn a big back body drop for a near fall. Bret then slingshots Shawn into the top turnbuckle/post which knocks Shawn down and out. Bret goes to the second rope and this time drops his elbow into the bridge of Shawn's nose, Bret covers Shawn for another near fall on the boy toy. Bret puts Shawn onto the top turnbuckle and goes up to the top and gives Shawn a big (90's highspot) suplex from the top and both men hit the mat hard very hard indeed. Bret drops his arm across Shawn for the 1,2 no Shawn just kicks out. Bret goes for a waist lock but Shawn counters it and Bret goes crashing to the outside. The referee begins to count out Bret as Shawn begs the ref to count faster (why). Shawn then seems to realize this goes for the outside and throws Bret into the ring and Shawn covers Bret for the another near fall. Shawn shows his frustration and gets caught with a small package for Bret but again Bret only gets a two. Shawn is up faster than Bret and puts the boots to Bret then backs up as Bret gets up Shawn nails Bret with the sweet chin music (at this point it's still not referred to as that and isn't no finisher). Shawn covers Bret and gets another two count on the WWF champion, Shawn looks annoyed and grabs the referee as Bret recovers and bounces back off the ropes and try's a cross body but this time Shawn ducks and Bret ends up crashing into the ring ropes. Shawn then readys himself to give Bret another sweet chin music as the champ recovers but this time Bret ducks the super kick takes Shawn down and slaps on the shape shooter and Shawn screams I quit. Winner and still WWF champion Bret the Hitman hart in his first successful ppv title defence. To end the show Santa comes out and celebrates with Bret who puts on a santas hat as snow falls in the Richfield coulsiuem. Overall I felt this show felt like WWF were still in there transisition since hogan had 'retired' and warrior quit but with a main event as good as that I'm saying the future is bright for WWF and it's main event scene with Bret in it but as we all know vince goes and ruins it by turning back to the retired one himself hulk hogan.