Let's talk the weird build of Summerslam '92

[chazraps]

Been watching (and loving) the '92 Superstars on the Network, been doing them in order on the road to Summerslam '92 and I think we need to have a discussion about the odd path to get there, and then somehow in the last two weeks before the event the build all makes sense and they pull it off - but you'd never know it just watching the event itself, the VHS (which is how I'd always only seen it for year) is a vacuum with a weird seemingly nonsensical story that somehow is overcome by the show being so great in spite of it.

OK, so from May-June-July these are the feuds going on in the WWF -


Randy Savage vs Ric Flair
Papa Shango vs Ultimate Warrior
Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels
Undertaker vs The Berzerker
Tatanka vs Rick Martel
Repo Man vs British Bulldog
Legion of Doom vs Beverly Brothers
Nasty Boys vs High Energy
The Mountie vs Sgt Slaughter
Big Boss Man vs Nailz
High Energy (Owen & Koko) vs Nasty Boys

When the first Superstars of August hits, all but ONE of these feuds are suddenly dropped without mention or resolution. The one that isn't: Boss Man vs Nailz, has somehow morphed into Virgil vs. Nailz just because Virgil's friendship with Bossman and wanting to seek revenge for Nailz brutal attack, despite Bossman already having returned to television.

Summerslam is announced for Wembley, and our feuds are suddenly now the card:

Savage vs. Warrior
Undertaker vs Kamala
Berzerker vs Tatanka
Rick Martel vs. Shawn Michaels
Bret Hart vs British Bulldog
Repo Man vs. Crush
Beverly Brothers vs Natural Disasters
Money Inc vs Legion of Doom
Virgil vs Nailz

Seeing this abrupt shift is made more perplexing by having all the signs in the audience at this August Superstars taping all referencing the superstars' other feuds. The bulk of these feuds don't even have real set-ups, just (admittedly better than I expected) back-and-forth promos calling each other out.

I know this was a different time and syndicated television was primarily booked, especially in the summer, to sell the house show loop, but was this the case in other years where just about every program was thrown out the window at once with no blow-off?

Moving on, the tag line for Summerslam '92 was "the Summerslam you never thought you'd see." It's slapped all over the VHS and I guess growing up I took it as a Warrior-Savage rematch being that Warrior retired Savage the year prior - but there's no mention of that at any point whatsoever. Is it because the show is in London? Did we never think we'd see an international Summerslam - which I guess is true, but that can't be it, right?

All that said, the story into the main event is "which corner will Mr. Perfect be in: Ultimate Warrior or Randy Savage?" On paper and isolating Summerslam by itself, this seems super convoluted, right? Why would Warrior-Savage 2 need this? It probably didn't, but by the go-home show the angle really, really works.

Savage-Warrior aren't drifting from it being a face-face program BUT, despite not being in the match, Ric Flair plays a great antagonistic heel here by telling Warrior that Savage has contacted Mr Perfect and was negotiating to be in his corner.

Next week, Perfect interrupts Savage's interview and Savage mentions seeing how Warrior was off-put at the prospect of Perfect being in his corner, adding it gives Savage the psychological advantage to let Warrior keep thinking it's a possibility.

In dueling interviews, what was once a respecting competition between two batshit crazy but honorable wrestlers becomes one accusing the other of selling out and negotiating to have Mr. Perfect in their corner, planting doubt in the fans' minds that one is going or has definitely turned heel. Precisely because of how absolutely out-there Warrior and Savage are as performers, somehow this entire mess makes perfect sense and their back-and-forth promos on the go-home show wrap it all together perfectly. It's a sight to behold.

So yeah, was this an exceptionally weird summer with the sudden shift, or has that happened other years? Was there a reason for such a different card?

[chronocross]

As you mentioned that’s how it was back then before Raw and monthly PPVs.

The previous Summerslam in 91 had feuds like Bulldog/Hennig and Jake/Quake feuding post WM7 but neither of those matches were on the PPV as Jake had turned heel and Bret was challenging for the IC title.

Also they would have showcase matches to fill out the card like Repo/Crush and Virgil/Nailz which did not necessarily have a backstory.

At the first Summerslam, Jake and Rude were in a big feud but instead they had each of them facing JYD and Hercules respectively. This was because it was WWF was still geared towards the house shows at the time.

[chazraps]

May 24, 2019 1:18:50 GMT -5 chronocross said:

As you mentioned that’s how it was back then before Raw and monthly PPVs.

The previous Summerslam in 91 had feuds like Bulldog/Hennig and Jake/Quake feuding post WM7 but neither of those matches were on the PPV as Jake had turned heel and Bret was challenging for the IC title.

Also they would have showcase matches to fill out the card like Repo/Crush and Virgil/Nailz which did not necessarily have a backstory.

At the first Summerslam, Jake and Rude were in a big feud but instead they had each of them facing JYD and Hercules respectively. This was because it was WWF was still geared towards the house shows at the time.

Thanks for this. Curious, were Bulldog/Hennig and Jake/Quake just dropped one week with no on-air blowoff too?

[chronocross]

May 24, 2019 3:22:09 GMT -5 chazraps said:

May 24, 2019 1:18:50 GMT -5 chronocross said:

As you mentioned that’s how it was back then before Raw and monthly PPVs.

The previous Summerslam in 91 had feuds like Bulldog/Hennig and Jake/Quake feuding post WM7 but neither of those matches were on the PPV as Jake had turned heel and Bret was challenging for the IC title.

Also they would have showcase matches to fill out the card like Repo/Crush and Virgil/Nailz which did not necessarily have a backstory.

At the first Summerslam, Jake and Rude were in a big feud but instead they had each of them facing JYD and Hercules respectively. This was because it was WWF was still geared towards the house shows at the time.

Thanks for this. Curious, were Bulldog/Hennig and Jake/Quake just dropped one week with no on-air blowoff too?

Basically the same thing with those feuds, they would have matches around the house show loop and that would pretty much be it. I forgot to mention also the house shows in some markets were televised like on the MSG network.

[Jumpin' Jesse Walsh]

Wasn’t the rumored plan for Warrior to turn heel and win the belt at SummerSlam? I have no idea if there’s any truth to that.

It would’ve made the Mr. Perfect angle a lot less anticlimactic if there were.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

The original idea was Warrior would turn but he shot it down and so we gots what we got.

Bret was suppose to lose to HBK but convinced Vince dropping to Davey was better and Davey could drop to Shawn instead.

[government mule]

Did the steroid trial have anything to do with certain wrestlers being put on the back burner for a bit or being phased out completely?

[cjh]

May 24, 2019 8:05:59 GMT -5 government mule said:

Did the steroid trial have anything to do with certain wrestlers being put on the back burner for a bit or being phased out completely?

The actual trial didn't happen until 1994, but, yeah, they were definitely taking the drug issue more seriously.  Warlord was let go in the spring, and Warrior and Bulldog got fired when their HGH supplier overseas got busted.

[TGM]

There's a lot of WBF adverts and one that promotes an article on the dangers of steroids. Was McMahon trying to show how "anti-steroids" he was?

[petef3]

"Warrior was supposed to turn heel at SummerSlam" is Scott Keith BS. I've never seen any other source corroborating anything like that, nor does any of the build to the show on TV support it.

[dangerousdanpotato]

May 24, 2019 3:22:09 GMT -5 chazraps said:

May 24, 2019 1:18:50 GMT -5 chronocross said:

As you mentioned that’s how it was back then before Raw and monthly PPVs.

The previous Summerslam in 91 had feuds like Bulldog/Hennig and Jake/Quake feuding post WM7 but neither of those matches were on the PPV as Jake had turned heel and Bret was challenging for the IC title.

Also they would have showcase matches to fill out the card like Repo/Crush and Virgil/Nailz which did not necessarily have a backstory.

At the first Summerslam, Jake and Rude were in a big feud but instead they had each of them facing JYD and Hercules respectively. This was because it was WWF was still geared towards the house shows at the time.

Thanks for this. Curious, were Bulldog/Hennig and Jake/Quake just dropped one week with no on-air blowoff too?

Bulldog/Perfect for the IC title is on one of the Colisseum videos. Bret gets involved and interferes at the end, so there was at least some attempt to segue into setting him up as the next challenger.

[repomark]

Would have made a lot more sense to have had Savage v Flair (with Flair regaining the belt) and just done a blow off to Papa Shango v the Warrior. That sets him up as the number 1 contender to chase Flair (if in this scenario he doesn’t get fired).

Also never understood the Martel v HBK match. A rare heel v heel bout that I don’t think anyone particularly wanted to see at the time. Felt a bit of a waste of both.

[TGM]

What would Warrior, the arguably most popular babyface in the promotion, have done as a heel?

[Pipe_Bomb2k13]

I do remember when watching this PPV when I first got it recorded for me that the buildup for Michaels/Martel was shown to have started with Michaels attacking Bret during a match with Martel while Bret is in the Boston Crab causing a DQ, I'm assuming it was IC Title Match whether they planned that for the original Bret/HBK feud or just lucked into it when they switched to Bret/Bulldog I have no idea.

[The Ichi]

May 24, 2019 7:38:06 GMT -5 Jumpin' Jesse Walsh said:

Wasn’t the rumored plan for Warrior to turn heel and win the belt at SummerSlam? I have no idea if there’s any truth to that.

It would’ve made the Mr. Perfect angle a lot less anticlimactic if there were.

I thought it was Macho that was rumoured to turn.

[chazraps]

May 24, 2019 11:41:45 GMT -5 TGM said:

There's a lot of WBF adverts and one that promotes an article on the dangers of steroids. Was McMahon trying to show how "anti-steroids" he was?

Definitely. A lot of the Superstars episodes have stray Vince comments when someone is showing off their bodies that they're "All natural" and "no phony muscles here."

The stamp at the end of each bit of WWF programming saying "100% Grade-A WWF Beef" seems to be a nod that there's no steroids in the company as well.

May 24, 2019 13:01:52 GMT -5 repomark said:

Also never understood the Martel v HBK match. A rare heel v heel bout that I don’t think anyone particularly wanted to see at the time. Felt a bit of a waste of both.

While it's a heel vs heel bout, the face in the program winds up being Sherri who sympathetically doesn't want to see either of their faces bruised. Her participation gives the crowd someone to cheer for beyond "here's two heels thrust together." I think it works.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

Even though I still love this PPV and I recall being pumped for the buildup as a kid, I found it odd how they had Flair and Perfect beat up Warrior during that tag match with Macho and the Nasty Boys. To me, it felt like it put too much suspected heat on Savage before the show. Why not have the bad guys hold back until it's time for them to come out to the ring, in order to keep the guessing game even?

[HMARK Center]

1992 did always feel weird like that, given how so much of the projected WM 8 card shifted, too, ala how we didn't get Hogan/Flair, Savage/Roberts, a LOD vs. Disasters rematch, or even something like Michaels/Jannetty due to how many pieces had to be moved around the board either due to weird contract situations, or people being fired/put off TV for awhile, or any number of other factors. Big time transition period for the company, and while '92 remains a pretty strong year overall from a creative and big card point of view, some of it is sad to look back when you can see the writing on the wall for the not so great stuff that's going to come as the New Generation style gets put into place.

[cabbageboy]

Basically it boils down to the feuds that were going on in the Spring/Summer months all sucking and failing to draw. Once the locale was finalized they needed to do something with Bulldog on the show, even though he was feuding with Repo Man for most of 1992 (another feud with no blow off). Some of these nothing feuds needed a minor TV blow off. Just have Bulldog destroy Repo on Prime Time Wrestling or whatever, then set his sights on Bret. Warrior crushes Shango to set up the Macho match. It's not like those heels have SO much heat you can't just job them.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

May 24, 2019 21:27:32 GMT -5 HMARK Center said:

1992 did always feel weird like that, given how so much of the projected WM 8 card shifted, too, ala how we didn't get Hogan/Flair, Savage/Roberts, a LOD vs. Disasters rematch, or even something like Michaels/Jannetty due to how many pieces had to be moved around the board either due to weird contract situations, or people being fired/put off TV for awhile, or any number of other factors. Big time transition period for the company, and while '92 remains a pretty strong year overall from a creative and big card point of view, some of it is sad to look back when you can see the writing on the wall for the not so great stuff that's going to come as the New Generation style gets put into place.

I was a Bret fan. So I was good with all of it. Could have done without losing the IC title twice that year, but was World Champion by the end, so it worked out.