WWE SummerSlam '92

WWE SummerSlam ‘92
August 29, 1992
Wembley Stadium
London, England

SummerSlam 1992 was billed as the “SummerSlam you thought you would never see.” It was indeed as it had an atmosphere that is normally associated with WrestleMania. Over 80,000 Brits filled Wembley Stadium and it made for my favorite atmosphere ever. It was also surreal because for the first time in almost a decade, Vince McMahon would be promoting a major show without one key figure… that being Hulk Hogan. Instead Randy Savage was carrying the torch and had been continuing his feud with Ric Flair. Elizabeth and Randy Savage actually divorced in real life after this, so that aspect of the hot feud was now gone. Ultimate Warrior was set to feud with Sid Justice after WrestleMania but apparently Sid failed a drug test and quit. This left Warrior to feud with Papa Shango in one of the silliest feuds of all time. Shango played voodoo tricks on Warrior and made him vomit. It was so stupid. Ironically enough the first show I ever saw live was headlined by Shango and Warrior. Thankfully the show also featured a classic between two of my all time favorites Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. At the time I was fully expecting to see Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels at SummerSlam, and the rematch between Savage and Flair. Instead I got Savage vs. Warrior, and Bret Hart defended his IC Title against Great Britain’s own Davey Boy Smith. It truly was the SummerSlam I thought I would never see.

Commentators: Vince McMahon and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

Money Inc. (“Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase and IRS) w/ “Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart vs. Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal) w/ Paul Ellering

Here is a classic example of not being “smart” and what it was like before internet. I had no idea that the Legion of Doom (Hawk basically) were extraordinarily unhappy and were set to quit right after this show (well Hawk). I was a huge Road Warriors mark, so it drove me nuts that the commentators were never talking about LOD regaining the tag titles that they lost earlier in the year, despite them winning every match. The truth is, Vince wanted them nowhere near the titles, and after everything I’ve read about Hawk, I can’t blame him. As for this match, LOD comes out on motorcycles to a HUGE pop; probably only second to the one Davey Boy Smith would receive later in the night. Money Inc. had lost the tag titles to Natural Disasters not long before this show, so this was safely a non-title match, which only served to put LOD over. LOD as workers were pretty much past their prime in 1992 so this match was pretty much nothing. LOD continued to pile up wins as they did pretty much their entire tenure in WWE, but the tag titles would remain safely out of their hands. Crowd was very enthusiastic throughout the show, but definitely for this match. *

Nailz vs. Virgil
You know, a lot of people today like to compare Michael Cole to Vince McMahon as far as commentating. He’s nothing like McMahon. Yes, McMahon wasn’t the greatest in terms of telling folks at home what moves are, but what Vince was REALLY good at, was making every baby-face on his roster seem like Hulk Hogan. I say that because this match is a good example. Nailz was brought in with an ex-con gimmick, and a mean looking heel brought in basically to feud with Big Bossman. So the outcome here wasn’t in doubt and Virgil was fed to him as your classic JTTS. Virgil comes out, and you would think he was the Ultimate Warrior the way Vince was so enthusiastic about him. Does Vince know the difference between a wristlock and a wristwatch? You wouldn’t think so listening to his commentary. Does Vince do as good of job as any as promoting his own talent no matter where they were located on the card? Absolutely yes. I just thought it was worth mentioning, because for some reason, there is a lot of Vince hate on his commentating days. I enjoyed his enthusiasm, and paired with the brilliant Heenan, they were quite the duo. As for this match… it’s terrible. Nailz is one of the worst workers ever. All he does is choke guys. DUD

Shawn Michaels w/ Sensational Sherri vs. “The Model” Rick Martel
The interesting gimmick here was that hitting in the face was not allowed here. The story is that Sherri had created a quasi love triangle between the two guys. It was kind of hokey but Shawn is so awesome that he can make almost anything entertaining, and Martel is no slouch himself. This would be a fun little match that ended predictably in a double count out. The moment of the match was when Sherri “fainted” as Martel and Michaels were about to hit each other. The aftermath was kind of long and drawn out, but the payoff was kind of funny as Martel came out with a bucket of water and dumped it on Sherri. Mean Gene did an interview with the Nasty Boys after this match and they called her the wicked witch of the west. Harmless fun. Match was solid, as Michaels was trying to find himself as a singles star. ***

WWE Tag Team Championship
Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon) (champions) vs. Beverly Brothers (Beau and Blake) w/ Genius
The Beverlies spent most of the summer jobbing to LOD in regular tag matches and 6 man tags involving Genius and Paul Ellering. With LOD facing Money Inc. the Beverlies got a title shot here as a way to put the new champions over here. Match was ok, certainly nothing great as the Disasters pretty much beat them in a glorified squash match. Money Inc. would regain the titles from Natural Disasters not long after this show. *

Repo Man vs. Crush
Repo Man was formerly Demolition Smash for any of you that don’t know. For anyone interested, here is a nice little video of Repo Man. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArFAswWa-1Q More harmless fun. Crush is of course, Demolition Crush, now hailing from Hawaii, but there is no mention of their previous partnership as Demolition. Crush wins pretty easily here in a pretty bad match. This was just filler, but the fans seemed to be enthused for Crush. ½*

WWE Championship
“Macho Man” Randy Savage (champion) vs. Ultimate Warrior
I still to this day think that Vince was worried about this show and putting on a show in the middle of the summer in London and drawing 80,000 to Wembley. Bret Hart may not agree with that, and maybe I’m completely wrong, but Savage v Warrior came literally out of nowhere and certainly the mark in me was pumped about it because I loved their feud in 1990-1991. This time both men were baby-faces. Since Ric Flair and Mr. Perfect had nothing to do, they implemented them into this match to simply cause havoc on both guys. The story was that Mr. Perfect got Warrior and Savage to believe that he was working for the other guy and would be their corner-man in the big match at SummerSlam. It made for a nice little storyline and added a fun dynamic. The match itself is a worthy successor to their previous classic at WrestleMania VII. It didn’t have the drama, but it was in other ways a better pure wrestling match. After 15 minutes or so, Flair and Perfect came out and basically caused a bunch of mischief up to the point where Flair nailed Warrior with a steel chair. Macho didn’t see it but he knew that he didn’t do it and appeared to have figured out the plot. Instead of dropping the big elbow on Warrior, he tried to jump on Flair but Flair hit Macho’s knee with the chair (which set up Savage losing the title to Flair in Hershey, PA not long after this). Warrior wins by count out. Apparently Warrior was supposed to win the title and turn heel here, but I haven’t heard that from truly reliable sources. This was a solid match overall though. ****1/2

Kamala w/ Kim Chee and Harvey Wippleman vs. Undertaker w/ Paul Bearer
And so begins a long line of big, slow heels that the Undertaker would be faced with for the next 3-4 years. Looking back and considering what sensational matches the Undertaker has had in the past few years, maybe this period of time extended his career. Who knows? Anyway, this match was pretty bad as you would imagine, and Undertaker wins by count out because he scared Kamala away. I will say Kamala’s acting of being scared was beautiful. It was also notable for a very cool Undertaker entrance coming out in a hearse down the very long Wembley Stadium aisle. ¼*

Main Event
WWE IC Championship
Bret “The Hitman” Hart (champion) vs. “British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith
For my money, this is the best match in WWE history. I’ve stated before that Bret Hart is my favorite pro wrestler ever and this match was certainly his defining moment. Many have called this match overrated, but it’s my damn opinion. Davey of course is the fan favorite here as he’s wrestling in front of 80,000 of his countryman. The story is of course that Davey married Bret’s sister Diana and this match was tearing the family apart. The beauty of the match is the fact that within minutes of the bell, Davey blows up, which means he forgets everything. Bret literally (on camera several times) has to call out almost every major spot. My words don’t do it justice and Bret eloquently describes the match in his book. People knock it for some of the rest holds, but they are a very small gripe and at least they fit within the context of the story (and for Bret to bring Davey up to speed) and not like a Randy Orton headlock nowadays which serve no purpose. The match is back and forth and the crowd is hanging on every move. It just builds and builds until the big payoff of Davey winning in the end to an explosion from the crowd. Not sure that on this night anyone in the world could’ve done what Bret did in this match. After the match, Bret’s sister, and Davey’s wife, Diana comes into the ring and they all do the baby-face embrace and celebrate to fireworks and pageantry. *****

Final Analysis: I may have overrated Warrior-Savage a little bit, but I loved the match, and of course the main event is still my favorite to this day and nothing has topped it as far as I’m concerned in the WWE. To this day I really don’t know why the WWE hasn’t gone back to London. Maybe Vince fears he couldn’t pull something like this off again, or maybe it just cost too much money, I don’t really know, but SummerSlam ’92 had an electric atmosphere that hadn’t ever really been seen before and hasn’t been seen since. WrestleMania is a stadium show every year now, but it still doesn’t quite measure up as far as the atmosphere, as it mostly contains a lot more glitz and glamour. This match brings me back to a special time in my life as I was pretty much into wrestling more than ever in 1992. This show the very definition of my markdom from then. The aftermath was very weird as a lot of things happened in a very short period of time. All three titles would change at least once between now and the Survivor Series 3 months later. Davey would drop the IC title to Shawn Michaels. Money Inc. would regain the tag titles from Natural Disasters, and as I mentioned Flair would regain the title from Randy Savage shortly as well. Then in October the biggest change happened, as Bret Hart would win the WWE title from Ric Flair in Canada in a move that was very shocking at the time. It just goes to show you that even in defeat, you could come out way better. Bret may have lost against Davey Boy Smith, but Bret’s stock had risen because of it.