Saturday Night's Main Event XXXI

Legacy Review

Saturday Night's Main Event XXXI

November 14, 1992 (taped October 27) from the Hulman Center in Terre Haute, IN

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan

For the first time in SNME's run the fall show taped before Survivor Series was actually shown before Survivor Series. Good thing too, because just like for the last SNME before Wrestlemania 8, the big PPV card was subject to change.

WWF Tag Team Championship: The Ultimate Maniacs def Money Inc (c) (w/Jimmy Hart) by countout in 9:54- The show's only an hour long so we jump right into intros for this match. Warrior and Savage were set to face Ric Flair and Razor Ramon in the co-main event at Survivor Series. Savage runs in with Warrior and they're immediately attacked by Money Inc. Everyone takes turns tossing each other out but eventually it's the faces standing tall. Reset with Savage and DiBiase. Savage atomic drops him, he ricochets into a Warrior elbow and does a delayed flop. Savage snap clothesline over the top rope with the usual great flip over DiBiase sell. It's 1988 again. Warrior suplex for 2. DiBiase dodges a Warrior flying tackle and tags out. IRS puts Warrior in a sleeper. We go picture in picture with Flair, Ramon and Perfect watching the match and they cut a promo. DiBiase hooks in the Million Dollar Dream. Savage breaks it up. Warrior hits a double clothesline and tags. Savage runs wild and hits the top rope elbow on IRS. DiBiase breaks the pin up and we're donnybrooking all over again. Both heels go over and out to the floor again. Hart grabs the belts and Money Inc takes a walk, taking the deliberate countout. The Maniacs chase them down on the aisle but are quickly attacked by Flair, Ramon and Perfect for the PPV selling beatdown. They painted themselves into a corner booking this match, not wanting the titles to change but also not wanting the Maniacs to lose right before the PPV. If it was given 5-10 more minutes to breathe more and had a definitive finish, it might have been good. And if my grandmother had wheels she'd be a wagon. *1/2

Vince cues up a "music video featuring Bret Hart" but it's been taken off the Network/Peacock version for rights reasons. Probably no huge loss.

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: Shawn Michaels def "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith (c) in 10:28- Shawn is already scheduled to challenge Bret Hart for the WWF Title at Survivor Series, while Bulldog was to defend against the Mountie. Bulldog shows off his power early. Shawn just manages to stay standing trying to shoulderblock Bulldog, then slides under his leg and lays in punches. Bulldog blocks a hiptoss. Shawn flips over, hits it, and hooks in a short arm scissors. Bulldog shows his power by lifting Shawn up with one arm (a spot they'll work in, if I remember right, every one of their future major matches). Bulldog press slams Shawn and clotheslines him 360 and out. A nice speed/counter sequence ends with a Bulldog armdrag. Shawn flips over Bulldog in the corner but turns around into a shoulderblock. Bulldog runs and Shawn uses his momentum to send him outside with a hard splat on the floor on his back. While he's out Shawn takes a top turnbuckle pad off. Back in Shawn goes to work on the back. He hooks in a couple of abdominal stretches that Bulldog flips out of. Bulldog face plants Shawn on a backdrop attempt. Shawn flip! Bulldog slingshots him into the corner. Delayed suplex for 2. Shawn reverses a corner whip and Bulldog's back runs into the exposed turnbuckle! Shawn flips up in the corner again and Bulldog kicks him to sitting on the top rope. He hooks up a superplex attempt, but midmove his back gives out on him! He falls down with Shawn on top of him, and Shawn gets the pin and his first singles title! Really good match, with Shawn bumping like a maniac like usual and solid psychology around Bulldog's hurt back. Bulldog would leave the company soon after this (allegedly for steroid/HGH use which was becoming a huge no no with the federal investigation) and head over to WCW for a bit. ***1/2

 

WWF Championship: Bret "Hitman" Hart (c) def Papa Shango in 13:26- This is Bret's first TV title defense after winning the title from Flair in a very underrated classic hardly anyone saw because it was only on a horribly titled Coliseum video (check out my Summerslam '92 review for the full skinny). Shango is the future Godfather. He immediately pounds away on Bret. Bret hits a crossbody. Shango kicks out at one and it sends Bret to the floor. Back in Bret gets an inverted atomic drop and clotheslines Shango 360 and out. Plancha! Shango reverses a corner whip and we get a Bret bump. Back and forth slugfest. Bret bites out of a bear hug. More Shango power offense and a Nerve Pinch of Voodoo +1. A Bret comeback attempt is cut off with a clothesline. Bret does a sunset flip and dodges Shango's attempt to punch out. He gets a boot up in the corner and locks Shango in a sleeper. Shango runs him into the top turnbuckle to get out. Huge Shango elbow drops. He tries for one off the second rope that Bret dodges. FMOD run. Bret dodges another corner charge, hooks in the Sharpshooter, and good night. Bret got as good a match as possible out of Shango, especially with the fact that even aliens from Andromeda that had never heard of wrestling before knew he wasn't winning. **1/2

Next up is a Funeral Parlor segment hyping up the Undertaker/Kamala casket match at Survivor Series. After commercial is a Bret promo that's crashed by Shawn as the legendary feud begins in earnest. The show closes with Heenan hinting that he's gotten big news for Survivor Series- one of the Ultimate Maniacs might have a new partner! This would turn out to be Perfect turning face and replacing Warrior in the match after Warrior left the company again, this time until his 1996 return. 

 

And with that, the original run of Saturday Night's Main Event comes to an end. What started out as a major part of the WWF schedule born in the mid-'80s Hulkamania/Rock & Wrestling Connection boom had, by the time the calendar turned to the '90s, faded into more of a contractual obligation and superfluous show with the rise of more PPVs, and was about to become more obsolete with the launch of WWF's new flagship weekly show: Monday Night Raw. SNME was revived for a handful of specials from '06-'08 but none of them were treated like major shows either.