Survivor Series '92

Legacy Review

Survivor Series '92

November 25, 1922 from the Richfield Coliseum in Richfield, OH

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan

 

After experimenting with a WWF title match in '91, WWF decided to almost completely ditch the traditional Survivor Series format and make it a regular card this year.

The Headshrinkers (w/Afa) def High Energy in 7:40- High Energy is basically New Foundation 2.0, taking out Jim Neidhart and putting in late career Koko B Ware. They still have the giant pajama pants and suspenders. The Headshrinkers are the former Samoan SWAT team. Owen and Samu start. Samu throws him around a bit. Owen turns on the jets, hits the ropes about 10 times, ducks a crossbody but keeps running, and hits a crossbody of his own. Ware gives dropkicks to everyone. He stomps on the Samoans' bare feet. Smart. Then he tries banging their heads together. Less smart. While Ware's running the ropes Afa whacks him in the back with a kendo stick. The Headshrinkers sucker Owen in and double team. Nerve Pinch of Island Headshrinking +1. Ware eats some stiff clotheslines. He gets a hope sunset flip for 2 and has a really awkward sell of a faceplant. After being bird in peril for a while Ware dodges a corner charge and gets the hot tag. Owen hits a crossbody off the top but Fatu breaks up the pin. Owen runs into a powerslam. Fatu hits a big splash of the top and gets the pin. This Owen Hart kid's got potential if they'd let him cut loose. *1/2

Sean Mooney gives a warning for the next match, saying viewer discretion is advised and it's not for the faint of heart. I mean, I know it'll be bad, but I've seen every Jimmy Valiant Starrcade match, it can't be worse than that.

 

Nightstick on a Pole Match: The Big Boss Man def Nailz in 5:44- This is the final culmination of the longrunning Boss Man vs convicted felon feud. Nailz tries to steal the stick while Boss Man's still making his entrance. Boss Man stops him before he has to add 6 more months onto his sentence and the bell rings. Boss Man pounds away. Nailz reverses and goes right to the chokes. He goes for the stick again and Boss Man stops him again. Boss Man gets his boot up on a charge and Nailz does an awful sell of it, running his head all the way up Boss Man's leg and acting like he got hit somewhere. Boss Man climbs up the pole. Nailz throws him off the top rope. Nailz hits a backbreaker! He did a wrestling move! That's worth a rating bump by itself. Boss Man misses a big splash. Nailz tries to climb again and gets crotched. They hit a really shitty double clothesline. Boss Man goes up the pole and gets the nightstick. He and Nailz trade shots and counters with it until Boss Man hits Nailz with the Boss Man Slam and pins him. So, what was the point of the nightstick again? All things considered though, this ended up about as "acceptable" as was probably possible. Soon after this Nailz would be fired after legitimately assaulting Vince over a money dispute. 1/2*

Mean Gene is with Flair and Ramon. Originally they were going to face Savage and The Ultimate Warrior to follow up on the big Summerslam angle but Warrior, again, flaked out on the company (and this time would be gone nearly 4 years) so they needed a last second substitution. As it happens, Mr. Perfect was ready to return to the ring after a year and a half in a managerial role to heal his injured back. WWF decided to give him a quickie face turn for his return. We see the relevant clip from the previous week's Prime Time Wrestling. Savage makes the offer to team. The whole panel is stunned. Heenan tries to order Perfect around, telling Perfect he works for him and Flair and does what he's told. Perfect gets mad at Heenan and accepts Savage's offer. Heenan slaps Perfect, and that really sets Perfect off. Heenan begs. Perfect dumps a pitcher of water on his head ("wet weasel"). All in all a damn good piece of business considering it was an emergency situation. Back to today, Flair seems to channel Savage's promo cadence for a bit before going back to classic Flair.

 

Tatanka def "The Model" Rick Martel in 11:07- This is a rematch from Wrestlemania 8. This time there's a semblance of a story, as Martel stole Tatanka's sacred eagle feathers. Tatanka's still being billed as undefeated. Martel slaps on a corner break. Tatanka responds with chops and a big backdrop. Martel powders. Martel's elbow pad isn't color coordinated with the rest of his gear. Some model. Tatanka atomic drops him out again. Martel gets momentum with a hot shot. He locks in a front facelock. Tatanka tries to power out and hits a suplex, but Martel's up first and back in the hold. They go into stalling mode in the ring as Doink the Clown (or just "the clown" at the point, they don't know who he is) comes out on the entrance ramp and starts making balloon animals. Martel hits a neckbreaker for 2. Tatanka's got an impressive wedgie going on. Wish he'd put that butt flap down again. He's almost Rikishi out there. Martel posts his shoulder and Tatanka goes to work on it. Backslide for 2. Martel throws Tatanka out and starts his back work setting up for the Boston Crab. Tatanka gives Martel a shot in the gut coming off the second rope and starts dancing around the ring. Chop off the top rope. Samoan Drop. Done. Doink pops all the balloon animals he made to make the kids mad. Most of it wasn't too bad. Cut out all the stalling for the Doink crap and shave a few minutes off, and you'd have a fairly decent match. **

 

"Macho Man" Randy Savage and Mr. Perfect def Ric Flair and Razor Ramon by DQ in 16:38- They're playing the intrigue of whether Perfect will stay loyal to Savage or if it's all a big RUSE. Perfect gets the megastar stedicam zoom for his entrance. Heenan is absolutely freaking out on commentary, which is wonderful as always. Too bad he's only got super straight Vince to play off of and not Monsoon. There's some pretty big WOOOOOO signs in the crowd. Perfect and Ramon start. Perfect slaps. Ramon flips the toothpick. Perfect spits. Basic wrestling sequence and Perfect escapes. Perfect hits a drop toe hold and amateur rides Ramon. Ramon and Flair are pissed. Perfect chops Flair while he's on the apron. Flair's had enough and wants in. Perfect pounds on him and Flair begs off. Chops. Flair flip! But he's on the wrong apron and runs right into Savage! Savage double ax handle off the top rope. Savage, being Savage, sells the months old knee work from Flair on the landing, still shaking it off a bit. He fights off both heels until Flair gets a shot in his gut and pushes him into the corner, where Ramon knees him in the back, and Savage goes face in peril. Ramon tries to work the knee but Savage fights it off. They go for the back instead. Double team abdominal stretch. Savage hiptosses out, punches Flair, but misses an elbow drop on Ramon. Ramon gives him a stair shot and Flair drops the knee. Ramon puts on a (crappy) single leg crab. Perfect starts to walk away in frustration but stops, thinks, and comes back to the apron. Savage blocks a hiptoss and gets a backslide for 2. Ramon chokeslam for 2. Savage gets a desperation small package for 2. Flair gets cocky and struts around. He goes up top but Savage gives him the Flair throw. Hot tag! Perfect hair flips Ramon and hits the neck snap. Kneelifts for both heels. They pair off inside/outside and Flair gives Savage a chairshot to the head. Perfect fights off a double team but runs over Hebner, knocking him out of the ring. Joey Marella runs out. Ramon goes for the Razor's Edge, but Perfect gets down out of it and hits a backdrop. Perfectplex! But Marella's checking on Hebner and is slow to get in and count. Flair breaks it up. Perfectplex on Flair! Marella's arguing with Ramon, Hebner crawls back in and counts but Ramon breaks it up. Hebner calls for the bell. Flair hooks Perfect in the figure four. Savage comes back in with the chair and the faces fight Ramon and Flair off. Hebner gives Savage and Perfect the match by DQ, I guess for Ramon and Flair double teaming for so long. Flat ending to an otherwise good but not blowaway match. Perfect gives Savage a delayed high ten to a big pop, solidifying the face turn. This was definitely a Perfect return showcase match, and they had big plans for him. This is Flair's last WWF PPV before heading back home to WCW. They asked him to help put Perfect over on his way out and Flair gladly obliged, dropping a Loser Leaves WWF match to Perfect on one of the first episodes of Monday Night Raw in January. Flair's first WWF run was barely 18 months long, but his impact made it feel much longer than that. ***

 

Yokozuna (w/Mr. Fuji) def Virgil in 3:34- Yoko's making his PPV debut just a few weeks after his regular TV debut. He's announced from "the Polynesian Islands" so, early days. Yoko opens with a sumo charge and runs Virgil over. Virgil tries a shoulderblock and gets planted. He charges again, but slides under Yoko's legs and hits a few dropkicks. He leapfrogs over Yoko, then tries a roll up?! Yoko cuts that off and hits a superkick. Virgil hits a few punches until Yoko dodges one and absolutely plants him with a rock bottom. Some more punches wobble Yoko. Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down. Yoko catches Virgil on a run and hits a side suplex. Legdrop. Virgil dodges a charge and again tries a roll up. Yoko sits on him. Avalanche. Bonsai drop. Done. Fun squash, with great crowd reactions. You can see Yoko's potential, at least as a novelty act, long main event matches would always be a stretch for him. And again, Virgil looked right at home as the plucky babyface jobber. *

 

Traditional Survivor Series Match: The Nasty Boys and The Natural Disasters def WWF Tag Team Champions Money Inc and The Beverly Brothers (w/Jimmy Hart and The Genius) in 15:50- Compare this to the big 10v10 tag team Survivor Series matches in '87 or '88 and see how far the tag division has fallen. It's a sad state of affairs when the Nasty Boys are your top *face* team (I know this era of WWF like the back of my hand and I didn't even remember the Nastys turning face. Tells you something.). Funnily enough, both face teams used to be managed by Jimmy Hart. Even though it's only 4v4 it's still team elimination rules, which given the circumstances is probably for the best. Blake starts by faking out Typhoon on lockup attempts and strutting. Typhoon throws him around and does some mock strutting of his own. Blake tries a sleeper. Typhoon backs him into the corner, gets him up in a Canadian backbreaker and drops him into a Quake bear hug. Beau tries to double team. The Disasters squash both Beverlys. Quake hits his powerslam, but tags out instead of following up. Knobbs wants DiBiase, allowing Blake to recover and ambush him. Blake super sells for Knobbs. Saggs hits a pumphandle slam on Beau. Beau gets a double underhook suplex (both called "nice wrestling maneuvers" by Vince "Who needs to call moves?" McMahon). Saggs reverses a DiBiase suplex. Money Inc hits some double teams. IRS hiptosses himself while Saggs stands there. Hart distracts and the heels get Saggs in peril. Saggs ducks a clothesline and tries to put on a sleeper. Midring collision. Warm tag to Quake. DONNYBROOK! Beau tries a crucifix on Typhoon but Typhoon drops on him. Quake hits the Earthquake splash and the Beverlys are gone. The faces quick tag pummel DiBiase. DiBiase dodges a Quake avalanche and tags. Quake goes disaster in peril. It's weird to see in the era when super heavyweights were always invincible monsters, but Quake sells halfway decently. He gets a boot up as DiBiase's coming off the second rope and tags. Typhoon big splash on IRS. DiBiase breaks up the pin. The Nastys double clothesline DiBiase out, but from the floor he trips up Typhoon. IRS hits him with an elbow in the back of the head and pins him. The Disasters are gone. While IRS is celebrating Saggs rolls him up and gets the 3 to win. SURVIVORS: The Nasty Boys. Bleh. Help would be arriving for the tag division in a few weeks in the form of the Steiner Brothers. On the good side, they got the run they deserved with a couple of tag title wins. On the bad side, they didn't adapt well to the WWF style and didn't have anything close to the multitude of classic matches they had in WCW. 3/4*

Recap of the Undertaker/Kamala feud that started back at Summerslam. Kamala running away from coffins is legit pretty funny, he plays it well. He even shows more agility than he usually does during matches. Taker handmade a custom XXXXL wooden coffin for Kamala in his Parts Unknown Workshop.

 

Coffin Match: The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) def Kamala (w/Harvey Wippleman and Kim Chee) in 5:27- No mention of what the rules are so I suspect we're going to end up WCWing it a bit. Kamala naturally freaks out at the the coffin. When Taker gets his gear off he starts slow zombie walking toward Kamala. Kamala threatens chops but backs up all the way out and around the ring. He ambushes Taker as Taker's getting back in. Taker responds with thrusts to the throat and the rope walk drop. He even whips out a short clothesline (shout out to Jake Roberts, who's in WCW at this time, maybe?). Kamala counters a backdrop. They do the same spot as the Summerslam match where Taker is clotheslined over the top, lands on his feet between the managers, and goozles both of them. He repositions himself so Kamala can hit him in the back. Kamala gives him a stair shot and a chair shot. Back in the ring he slams Taker 3 times. Taker sits up on the first two but can't after the third. Kamala squashes him with 3 big splashes. Bearer gets on the apron. Kim Chee trips him and the urn falls in the ring. Kim Chee takes it and tries to give it to Kamala, but the urn also freaks Kamala out and he drops it like Jackie Smith in Super Bowl XIII (Good thing that was before my lifetime or I'd still be mad about it. Like when Dez caught it and the refs said he didn't). Taker picks up the urn, whacks Kamala with it, and gets a 3 count. Yup, WCWing it. Now Taker rolls Kamala in the coffin, and actually nails it shut before rolling it to the back. The wrestling was just as dreadful as the Summerslam match, but I'll give it a small bump for the good character work in the build and for having a definitive finish. 1/4*

WWF Championship: Bret "Hitman" Hart (c) def WWF Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels in 26:40- Exactly five years before their infamous final match in Montreal, Bret and Shawn main event their first PPV. This is also new territory for Vince, letting the small guys that can wrestle main event instead of the "prototypical" pro wrestler. Bret's being put over as both the best scientific wrestler of all time, and as the fightingest champion in WWF history, defending all the time against anyone. It's not title for title, Shawn's IC title is not on the line. Hebner has to force a break in the corner off the initial lockup. Shawn gets an amateur takedown. Bret counters and rides Shawn into the ropes. He won't break and Shawn gets frustrated. Shawn does a heel 101 hair pull on an arm wringer. Bret kips up and reverses it. Bret works the arm while Shawn does some hair pull gamesmanship with Hebner. Long hammerlock sequence. Shawn reverses it and Bret runs and rides him out of the ring. Bret slips out of a slam and tries a roll up that Shawn blocks. Bret crossbody for 2. Sunset flip for 2. Armdrag and back to the arm. Vince plugs ICOPRO. Shawn flips out of a Bret hiptoss, tries a clothesline, Bret ducks, and hits a clothesline of his own. Another speed sequence ends with Shawn catching Bret's leapfrog and turning it into a hot shot. Bret reverses a corner whip and charges, but Shawn dodges and Bret posts his shoulder. Bret bump! That gets a 2 count. Bret tries to power out of a chinlock but Shawn hair pulls him back in. Shawn goes for a backdrop. Bret counters it with a neckbreaker. Shawn punches him in the throat. Front facelock. Bret backs Shawn into the corner and hits a bulldog. Shawn dodges an elbow off the second rope. A diving back elbow gets 2. Back to the facelock. They do the arm drop spot. Bret fights up and rolls up a small package for 2. Bret feigns another Bret bump, leaps, Shawn goes face first in the buckles, and Bret back suplexes him with an awesome Shawn Michaels headstand sell. Bret catches Shawn on a leapfrog and slinghshots him into the post. Shawn does the leap up onto the buckles on a corner whip, Bret kicks him, and Shawn's crotched. Finally Shawn is starting to sell like Shawn. FMOD. Superplex! Bret crawls over for a long 2 count. He ducks a punch and locks in a sleeper. Shawn backs him into the corner, but Hebner was there and he gets squashed. While Bret checks on him Shawn tries a sneaky kick, but Bret catches it. Shawn flips out of a suplex. He tries a roll up, Bret tries to counter it, and Shawn runs him outside like Bret did to him earlier in the match. Bret's back gets posted. Slam on the floor. Another hard Bret shot in the buckles that Shawn gets 2 off of. While Shawn's arguing with Hebner Bret sneaks a roll up for 2. Superkick! But that wasn't Shawn's finisher yet. After a couple of tries he hits the modified back suplex that was his finisher at the time. Bret kicks out! On a rope run Bret pops Shawn with a forearm (huge, arena echoing pop on that one) and Shawn gets tied up in the ropes. Bret tries to dive on him, but Shawn gets out and Bret dives straight into the ropes! Shawn tries a missile dropkick off the second rope but Bret backs up and catches his legs, and locks in the Sharpshooter! Shawn submits. The first half was pretty pedestrian by their standards with rest holds for the sake of rest holds and Shawn working more Generic Heel than Shawn Michaels, but when they finally got going the last 7-8 minutes was absolutely tremendous, bordering classic Bret/Shawn. Hey Vince, maybe you should let guys like this main event more often? Seems to work pretty good. ****

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The slide into the mid-'90s doldrums continues, but it's also an interesting time as WWF was taking its first tentative steps into life without Hulk Hogan, and they were also about to lose Flair back to WCW, and Savage as a full time wrestler because Vince wanted him commentating. Of course in '93 Vince panics and falls back on habits: the large monster (Yokozuna) and bringing Hogan back in. The main event is recommended viewing, and the tag match is worth a watch. Other than that, not much happening here. The "crappy show with a good to great Bret and/or Shawn match" will be standard fare the next few years.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C+