At SummerSlam 1992 (my review here), the world finally got it's first look at Bret Hart, main event superstar. Bret put on a classic with the British Bulldog, and a few months later, he was rewarded for his past six years of hard work, taking the WWF title away from Ric Flair at a TV taping in Saskatoon, Canada. Survivor Series 1992 marks, in my eyes, the first steps into the "New Generation" era of WWE's history. Vince McMahon was in hot water over the usage of steroids in his locker room, and needed to shift away from the muscle-bound behemoths of the past, quickly. Ultimately, that meant laying the groundwork for the departures of Vince's two golden geese: Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior. Hogan went on a leave of absence following WrestleMania 8, while Warrior, despite being in a heavily-promoted program with Randy Savage, was released a few weeks prior to this show. Just to complete the erasure, the British Bulldog was also let go, just months after the biggest win of his career at SummerSlam. The reset button had well and truly been hit, and Vince now needed to come up with a new identity for his product. For the first time in his tenure, Vince chose to focus the promotion around wrestling, rather than mass-appeal entertainment, which is where crowning Bret as champion came in. To prove that this signaled a true shift in philosophy for the WWF's future, the call was made to have Bret's first pay-per-view defense as champion come against Shawn Michaels, in the main event. Michaels hadn't quite been built up enough for this decision to feel justified, but I can at least admire how upfront Vince was about this changing of the guard. Of course, history has shown that McMahon was correct in his choice to get behind these two, as their incredible talent, and controversial rivalry with each other, would guide the WWE through it's darkest days.
- Survivor Series 1992 comes to you from the Richfield Coliseum in Richfield, Ohio, which is located about 20 miles outside of Cleveland. Despite my intro, as you can see from the promotional poster up above, the Michaels/Hart match wasn't exactly thought of as the biggest attraction heading in. I assume if Warrior hadn't been released that tag match would've gone on last, but the more confusing part of the poster is the fact that the WWF thought anyone would be interested in seeing Nailz wrestle. I know Big Boss Man was one of the defining stars of the past few years, but Nailz was just so unremarkable, I just can't understand why anyone would be more inclined to order this show because they knew he was on it.
- Our opening contest once again features Owen Hart in a tag team match, this time teaming with Koko B. Ware to take on the Headshrinkers (Fatu and Samu). This is a solid opener, as while Owen's work with Koko is nowhere near as impressive as what he was doing with Jim Neidhart, Fatu and Samu are a capable heel team and look impressive while working over Koko. Owen gets a hot tag and adds some excitement with a few top rope rope dropkicks, before falling to a vicious powerslam and flying splash from Fatu, the future Rikishi.
- The big money match between Big Boss Man and Nailz is up next, and while the crowd is still fully into Boss Man, I can't say I enjoyed this "Nightstick on a Pole" match. Nailz is just so boring in the ring, with weak strikes and so much choking. The Undertaker does a lot of choke spots in his matches too, but at least 'Taker looks cool doing it, Nailz just doesn't have the presence to pull this off. Boss Man retrieves the nightstick, and both men get a few shots in before Nailz goes down to the Boss Man Slam.
- Tatanka has been on a roll since his debut in the WWF earlier this year, still undefeated as he barrels into a grudge match with Rick Martel, who stole Tatanka's sacred eagle to incite a feud. Neither man has much interesting to offer in this match, and the main intrigue ends up with Doink the Clown, who shows up to offer a balloon dog to a child in the audience, then pop it, because he's an a**. After some fairly basic wrestling, Tatanka sends Martel packing with a few chops and a Samoan Drop, continuing to build momentum.
- With the release of The Ultimate Warrior, Randy Savage was now in need of a new partner for his match against Ric Flair and Razor Ramon, which led to a surprise face turn for Mr. Perfect. Hennig had been aligned with Flair for much of the past year, as Curt had been dealing with a serious back injury and wasn't cleared to wrestle. But now, Perfect was ready for a return, and Savage declared that they would team up. Heenan tried to put a stop to it, insulting Perfect in the process, and Perfect responded by embarrassing "The Brain" by dumping water all over the humiliated Heenan. This leads to a similar set-up to the Rumble, with Heenan completely invested in seeing Flair win, this time for even more personal reasons.
- We now move to that match, as Ric Flair and Razor Ramon square off with Randy Savage and Mr. Perfect. Even though this match didn't have the history and starpower that Warrior being involved would've added, the crowd is still pumped regardless, and treat this match like the biggest showdown in all of wrestling. Much of this match follows the age-old formula of a heel beatdown leading to a hot tag, and while that portion of proceedings wasn't terribly interesting, Savage getting worked over allows for an interesting piece of character work for Perfect, who briefly considers abandoning his partner. That moment makes Perfect getting the hot tag and going wild feel even more earned, as he's now been firmly solidified as a true babyface. The final few minutes of the match are pure chaos, with Ramon and Flair each taking a Perfect-Plex, and the heels only surviving because of a ref bump. Ramon and Flair just start blatantly cheating by utilizing a chair, which comes back to bite them, as Savage gives the chair to Perfect, who uses it to escape the Figure Four. For their riotous actions, Ramon and Flair are disqualified, a bit of a lame finish, but it doesn't take away from just how entertaining this one was. I thought this match made Perfect look like a real star, the type of guy that can fight through anything, and Ramon and Flair were a good fit together, a pair of ruthless but charismatic scumbags.
- One of the primary heels of the "New Generation" was Yokozuna, the evil ex-sumo wrestler, who makes his pay-per-view debut in a squash match with Virgil. Virgil is best in short sprints, and I thought he did a great job putting Yoko over here. The two men work fluidly together, and Yoko uses his gargantuan frame to overwhelm Virgil, eventually getting the win with the Banzai Splash. This was one of Yokozuna's best matches, at least that I've ever seen, so huge props to Virgil for setting up the big man well for the future.
- Last year, the WWF broke from tradition by booking a singles match on the card, as the multi-man tag format was starting to get a little stale, and now, it's been a complete flip, with only one elimination match on the card. That match sees two tag teams pair up, as heels Money Inc. and the Beverly Brothers take on the Natural Disasters and the Nasty Boys. I really don't have much to say about this one; it wasn't the kind of disaster that I've seen quite a bit over the previous few years of Survivor Series elimination matches, but it wasn't particularly good either. I think booking this match to be as even as it was proved to be a mistake, as the crowd was really into the face quartet and would've a more emphatic, quick win. Instead, the match just drags and drags, until a couple quick eliminations at the end secure victory for Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags. It's worth noting that the WWF experimented with a new stipulation for this match, since everyone competing was in an established team, whereupon if one man was eliminated, his partner would be as well. That at least avoided the more damaging booking of old, where guys would look weak going down to simple moves, because each match had to fit in tons of eliminations.
- The casket match has been a signature stipulation match for The Undertaker throughout the years, and the legacy of that association begins on this night, as Undertaker faces Kamala in what's referred to as a "coffin match", but it's ostensibly the same thing. The two big men spend most of the match brawling, with Kamala taking the upper hand. Paul Bearer tries to inspire The Undertaker to make a comeback by getting onto the apron and lifting up his urn, but Kamala's handler, Kim Chee, trips Bearer and the urn flies into the ring. While Bearer's intervention didn't working, Kamala accidentally unleashes the full power of The Undertaker by kicking the urn, which revives The Undertaker. The win quickly follows after Undertaker leaves Kamala laying by blasting him with the urn, and I thought this was an effective way to continue to build the aura surrounding Undertaker. This match reinforces the importance of the urn, as well as proving just how dangerous Undertaker can be if you anger him, with Kamala ending up in a literally closed coffin.
- Main event time, as Shawn Michaels challenges Bret Hart for the WWF Championship. Shawn is now the Intercontinental Champion, relieving Bulldog of that prize on Bulldog's way out the door, and Shawn brings up the fact that he beat Bulldog and Bret couldn't to try and get under the champion's skin. In terms of pure wrestling, this is as good as you might ever get, these two men are just so smooth exchanging holds and trading offense, you can tell watching this match that you're seeing two masters at work. Despite how great of a pure wrestling match this was, it didn't really feel like a true main event to me, and I think that's because it was missing a key ingredient: drama. Say whatever you will about Hulk Hogan, but that was what he truly excelled at, drawing the crowd in and taking them on a rollercoaster of emotion. Bret and Shawn just didn't manage to do that for most of this match, and it felt more like an exhibition match or a sparring session as a result. Don't get me wrong, it was a very high-quality sparring session, but for a majority of the 26 minutes it lasted, this match just never got to the point where it felt like you truly needed to care. I will add, just so I don't sound too negative, that the finishing stretch did get close to that threshold, with an electric trade of offense as both men hit top gear. Shawn scores with the superkick and his Teardrop suplex, but Bret kicks, then rockets himself into the rope looking for a flying crossbody. Shawn goes for a middle rope dropkick, but Bret plants Michaels onto the canvas, then quickly applies the Sharpshooter for the win. The result was never really in doubt, no one genuinely believed Shawn was going to claim the top prize this soon into his singles run, but both men did what they could to convince me otherwise. This did feel a little out of place as a show closer, though the match was still really well executed, and is probably the best these two have put on together. For some reason, Santa Claus comes out to celebrate with Bret, despite Survivor Series supposedly being centered around Thanksgiving, but I'll take that holiday character over the Gobbeldy Gooker any day.
5/10
There was potential for this card to be something greater than what it was, but at no point did this year's Survivor Series get too far above the level of "fairly good". I really didn't have a ton of negatives to offer about this show, as even the worst matches were passable, but nothing really stuck with me, and it all just felt unimportant. That being said, "competent but forgettable" is a huge step up from the past few years of Survivor Series being a complete and utter embarrassment, and I can actually recommend you watch this show, so some progress is being made.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: Royal Rumble 1993, where Bret Hart defends the WWF title against Razor Ramon. See you soon.
- Henry
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