Dean-o
Grimlock
Haha we're having fun Maggle!
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Post by Dean-o on May 25, 2019 2:37:20 GMT -5
A lot of the blow offs to those feuds can be found on Coliseum video releases, or the MSG tapings. 1992 was such an ofd and crazy year, on and off the screen. The WrestleMania VIII card got changed a ton also compared to the buildup.
Perhaps the tag line is in reference to the top two matches being face vs. face? You didn’t see that too much back then.
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nisidhe
Hank Scorpio
O Superman....O judge....O Mom and Dad....
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Post by nisidhe on May 26, 2019 12:29:18 GMT -5
1992 was an odd year in general for wrestling. The steroid trial was a huge part of it, but so too were the departures of so many stars from the Big Two scene (AWA having folded by this time, as well.) A lot of guys who were big (some literally) during the Silver Age (1985-1988) were long gone by 1992; it was the absence of those guys and the dearth across rosters in those big hoss-like roles that allowed the smaller technicians to shine. Those who stuck around or returned, like Tito Santana and Ricky Steamboat, were locked into JTTS roles - good enough for TV, but kept far away from their old stomping grounds competing for the IC title.
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Post by jivesoulbrah on May 26, 2019 14:03:18 GMT -5
I remember being sad that they didn’t show the Tatanka vs Berzerker match on the PPV. As a kid I was really looking forward to it for some reason. I saw it like 20 years later, let’s just say it wasn’t worth a 20 year wait lol
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Post by jason1980s on May 26, 2019 14:22:57 GMT -5
As a kid it always disappointed me when matches were cut. I always liked to see every guy on the show.
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chazraps
Wade Wilson
Better have my money when I come-a collect!
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Post by chazraps on May 27, 2019 15:56:06 GMT -5
So, I'm watching the first Superstars after Summerslam and the show begins with an EIGHT MINUTE recap of Summerslam. Like, gang, it's really, really long. I remember being sad that they didn’t show the Tatanka vs Berzerker match on the PPV. As a kid I was really looking forward to it for some reason. I saw it like 20 years later, let’s just say it wasn’t worth a 20 year wait lol On the flipside, since it was cut from the Colosseum video release, I finally got to see Repo Man vs Crush this weekend and it far exceeded my expectations.
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Post by ThankGodForSidJustice on May 27, 2019 16:23:28 GMT -5
I think a lot of the weird build up with feuds not getting blown off has to do with the location being switched from Washington D.C. to London. As a result they needed to give Bulldog a bigger match on the card because him against Repo Man wasn't going to cut it and as a result it had a domino effect where everything kind of had to get reshuffled. According to Bret they were going to do him against Shawn in if it was in Washington.
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petef3
Don Corleone
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Post by petef3 on May 27, 2019 17:10:03 GMT -5
Also remember that Mania-to-SummerSlam was the longest gap between PPVs on the calendar in those days. Four to five months' time was long enough to cycle through a house show series with a need to reset again. I feel like these switches in feuds happened with SummerSlam more than any other PPV.
Let's look at 1988. Your main summer house show marriages were:
- Savage vs. DiBiase - Duggan vs. Andre - Jake vs. Rude - Beefcake vs. Honky - Bret vs. Bad News - Warrior vs. Hercules/Heenan - Strike Force and then Bulldogs vs. Demolition - Patera vs. Bravo - Muraco vs. Valentine
Only the top feud got play at SummerSlam, with Beefcake-Honky scheduled and then switched (by design). Some feuds were forgotten about by then, others like Jake-Rude would continue.
In 1989, there's a bit more:
- Hogan vs. Savage - Warrior vs. Rude - Santana vs. Martel - Rockers vs. Rougeaus - Duggan vs. Haku - Jake vs. DiBiase (on hold due to Jake's legal issues, with DiBiase facing random guys for a few months) - Rhodes vs. Boss Man - Hercules vs. Bravo - Hillbilly Jim vs. Andre - Demolition vs. Twin Towers - Snuka vs. Honky Tonk Man
Warrior/Rude, Hogan/Savage, Santana/Martel, Rockers/Rougeaus, and Demos/Towers get play at SummerSlam, but the rest get switched out for one reason or another.
I won't go over everything in 1990 because they actually do a pretty strong job of getting the summer feuds onto that show. The major feuds *not* to get play at SummerSlam were Boss Man/DiBiase and Bushwhackers/Rhythm & Blues. Volkoff and Zhukov blew off their feud on the SummerSlam Fever show. And I guess the almost-completely-forgotten Rick Martel/Ronnie Garvin program, which had barely started (and yes, there were inset promos for this and everything) when Martel went out hurt, but the match still wasn't booked for the show.
I don't see '92 sticking out too terribly much in that regard, is what I'm saying.
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auph10imitated
Dennis Stamp
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Post by auph10imitated on May 28, 2019 6:15:39 GMT -5
I guess when you think about it, the gap between Mania & Summerslam was always the longest between PPV's (5 months) so things can change more in that time. But yeah alot of the early Summerslam's had different builds. Then King of The Ring arrived in 1993 and it kind of broke things up a bit.
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Post by chronocross on May 28, 2019 6:45:25 GMT -5
So, I'm watching the first Superstars after Summerslam and the show begins with an EIGHT MINUTE recap of Summerslam. Like, gang, it's really, really long. I remember being sad that they didn’t show the Tatanka vs Berzerker match on the PPV. As a kid I was really looking forward to it for some reason. I saw it like 20 years later, let’s just say it wasn’t worth a 20 year wait lol On the flipside, since it was cut from the Colosseum video release, I finally got to see Repo Man vs Crush this weekend and it far exceeded my expectations. That episode of Superstars is one of my favorites as I didn’t have cable back then and it was great seeing clips from the PPV and it would be a month or so before the event came out on Coliseum Video.
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auph10imitated
Dennis Stamp
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Post by auph10imitated on May 28, 2019 8:28:20 GMT -5
I am just reading the early June Observer that announced the change and one match struck me as an interesting mention
The following issue has this
Then finally this was mentioned in the following issue
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2019 8:34:37 GMT -5
I think a lot of the weird build up with feuds not getting blown off has to do with the location being switched from Washington D.C. to London. As a result they needed to give Bulldog a bigger match on the card because him against Repo Man wasn't going to cut it and as a result it had a domino effect where everything kind of had to get reshuffled. According to Bret they were going to do him against Shawn in if it was in Washington. Very interesting, I'd never heard this was intended to be a US PPV. In DC, no less (which I'm pretty sure had never hosted a WWF PPV before). Curious to know how this series of events went down... Prichard's podcast would be a great kind of place to find out, but sadly he was gone from 91-92 - so his answers about that timeframe tend to be "no idea, wasn't around" - and as a kick in the head to this thread he came back a couple weeks after this event. 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. Which happened for Bulldog right around the time he did drop the IC title to Shawn, so when he loses....he's gone. I remember being sad that they didn’t show the Tatanka vs Berzerker match on the PPV. As a kid I was really looking forward to it for some reason. I saw it like 20 years later, let’s just say it wasn’t worth a 20 year wait lol There were.......3 "dark matches" for SummerSlam '92, IIRC. And by that I mean they were taped at various points during the event but cut from the eventual PPV broadcast. Tatanka/Berserker was at night time, Shango/Tito and Mountie-Nastys/Duggan-Bushwackers during the day.
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auph10imitated
Dennis Stamp
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Post by auph10imitated on May 28, 2019 9:39:57 GMT -5
I think a lot of the weird build up with feuds not getting blown off has to do with the location being switched from Washington D.C. to London. As a result they needed to give Bulldog a bigger match on the card because him against Repo Man wasn't going to cut it and as a result it had a domino effect where everything kind of had to get reshuffled. According to Bret they were going to do him against Shawn in if it was in Washington. Very interesting, I'd never heard this was intended to be a US PPV. In DC, no less (which I'm pretty sure had never hosted a WWF PPV before). Curious to know how this series of events went down... Prichard's podcast would be a great kind of place to find out, but sadly he was gone from 91-92 - so his answers about that timeframe tend to be "no idea, wasn't around" - and as a kick in the head to this thread he came back a couple weeks after this event. 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. Which happened for Bulldog right around the time he did drop the IC title to Shawn, so when he loses....he's gone. I remember being sad that they didn’t show the Tatanka vs Berzerker match on the PPV. As a kid I was really looking forward to it for some reason. I saw it like 20 years later, let’s just say it wasn’t worth a 20 year wait lol There were.......3 "dark matches" for SummerSlam '92, IIRC. And by that I mean they were taped at various points during the event but cut from the eventual PPV broadcast. Tatanka/Berserker was at night time, Shango/Tito and Mountie-Nastys/Duggan-Bushwackers during the day. The reason behind the change was the fact it was the first ever PPV that was not being headlined/featured Hulk Hogan, that coupled with the fact the business had really started to fade and they were struggling with popularity and attendance in the US, but it in Europe wrestling was at its most popular, and that WWF sold out the UK tour in the spring in record time, I believe selling out the smaller Wembley Area, Vince took a chance on swapping it. Being from the UK I can attest that this was when WWF was at its highest peak in popularity, not alot of people had SKY TV in the 80's, it was the early 90's that it became popular, We got it in the summer of 1991 and it was only just previous to this that kids in my class got it, so by 1992 WWF was the big fad for kids in the UK. Ironically, I feel like its popularity wained following SS 1992, Gladiators started on ITV in October 1992 and that became the next big fad and people lost interest soon after.
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Post by James Fabiano on May 28, 2019 14:59:37 GMT -5
What would Warrior, the arguably most popular babyface in the promotion, have done as a heel? He could do something totally out of character like go on rants about certain lifestyle choices, or maybe who he believed deserved to get sick or die at the time, but that's crazy talk.
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Post by James Fabiano on May 28, 2019 15:06:25 GMT -5
I think WWF was still weaning itself off of "the real money is with house shows" theory. Weekly TV and PPVs alike were made for continuing to push house show matches. In some cases, they were saving blowoffs for later, like Bossman vs. Nailz.
Yes, these Superstars episodes are being recapped on another board (where Dino Bravo is hailed as the worst, the absolute worst. Among other things.) And another oddity of the SS92 build was an almost total lack of promos/appearances by Davey Boy.
As for the questions about the 1991 installment...yes, Bulldog vs. Perfect seemed to just vanish when they decided Bret was getting the title match. And not only was Jake vs. Quake NOT resolved, but when Jake turned, who was on his Survivor Series team? The Natural Disasters...EARTHQUAKE and Typhoon!
On the other hand, what Quake did could be said to have sped up Jake falling deeper into the dark side, making him (on the surface) fascinated by preparing Warrior to face Undertaker, but (kayfabe reality) really taking his own trip alongside Taker and his darkness.
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auph10imitated
Dennis Stamp
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Post by auph10imitated on May 29, 2019 4:50:30 GMT -5
If Ultimate Warrior had of stayed they could very well have gone with Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior & The Legion of Doom vs The Undertaker, Jake The Snake Roberts and The Natural Disasters as the Main Event at Survivor Series.
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Sephiroth
Wade Wilson
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Post by Sephiroth on May 29, 2019 4:59:24 GMT -5
Honestly, the HBK vs Rick Martel match is a personal fave of mine. One of the best played heel vs heel feuds of all time where neither of them turned face as a result. And all three involved played it up to perfection.
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auph10imitated
Dennis Stamp
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Post by auph10imitated on May 29, 2019 5:01:23 GMT -5
It was ironic of them to put the heel vs heel Martel/Michaels match on there when both the WWF and IC Title Matches were face vs face. I wonder if it was purposely done to balance it out, because they could have put Michaels with a babyface
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Post by ThankGodForSidJustice on May 29, 2019 5:51:40 GMT -5
If Ultimate Warrior had of stayed they could very well have gone with Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior & The Legion of Doom vs The Undertaker, Jake The Snake Roberts and The Natural Disasters as the Main Event at Survivor Series. Or even without Warrior you could have had Sid on the face team. Only problem is that it would've been a booking nightmare putting that match together as all of those guys were super protected. Whole match would just be count out and disqualification eliminations. Typhoon is the only guy I could see taking a pin. Quake and Jake were the next least protected and even they hardly ever did television jobs. I don't think either of LOD was pinned on TV during their entire first run.
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Post by dirtyoldman on May 29, 2019 10:00:53 GMT -5
How did the PPV do buys wise? Was it the disaster they predicted without Hogan?
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auph10imitated
Dennis Stamp
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Post by auph10imitated on May 29, 2019 10:14:40 GMT -5
Here are the buys for 1991 and 1992 if you want to compare
1991 - RR 440,000; WM 400,000; SS 405,000; SUS 300,000
1992 - RR 260,000; WM 390,000; SS 280,000; SUS 250,000
Here is the WO report on it
The real big question of the night, however, which wasn't which corner Mr. Perfect would be in, was how would the WWF do on PPV without Hulk Hogan. To the WWF's credit, the build-up for Warrior vs. Savage was a tremendous storyline with the Perfect stuff thrown in as a monkey wrench. They are the two most well-known remaining wrestlers in the group, although traditionally face vs. face matches haven't garnered the record business. Early estimates are the show did approximately a 1.8 percent buy rate--roughly a 33 percent drop from last year. At a $27.50 list, would be roughly $9.2 million in total gross revenue and Titan's share at $4.1 million from the show. In comparison, the previous three Summer Slams have drawn a 4.8 (Hogan & Beefcake vs. Zeus & Savage), 3.8 (Hogan vs. Earthquake) and 2.7 (Elizabeth's wedding). With the big live gate, even allowing for taxes in England and the immense costs of flying everyone to England as opposed to New York, they still should come out ahead of last year financially. It's evident that wrestling on PPV was something of a fad, and while Titan should have no worries for years about being able to put on four profitable PPV shows a year, the days of Titan PPV shows being almost a license to print money are just remembrances of the glory days.
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