NoDQ.com > Columns > The Chronicles of Ruttle: Survivor Series '92 Posted by Derek Ruttle on 10/29/2009 at 06:26 PM
Welcome to the Chronicles of Ruttle, a new addition to the endless list of commentaries spewing opinions, comments, rants and diatribes on the world of wrestling. As a lifelong Canadian fan, I've managed to become one of the lucky few in a minority that hasn't let himself become cynical and jaded on the industry in my 18 years of watching. Do I have my own political theories? Yes. Am I highly critical of today's product? Absolutely. Will I have spaghetti and meat sauce for supper tonight? Maybe, but at the moment I'm thinking chicken. Getting back on track, I hope you'll enjoy reading my thoughts and observations on this turbulent, whirlwind, anything-can-and-will-happen world of professional wrestling.
My debut column took a look back on this year's WrestleMania and how I would've done things differently; adding more time to certain matches, tweaking some of the storylines in certain feuds and switching up the match order. Right now, as the 23rd annual Survivor Series approaches next month, I wanna backtrack a number of years, 17 to be exact to the 1992 edition of the PPV.
I personally hold this show in high regard because it was the first WWF PPV I ever watched from start to finish. My oldest brother, who was 22 at the time used to order and record the PPVs for me, and Survivor Series '92 was the first official PPV copy I ever owned. I must've watched that tape 100,000 times. While other seven-year olds were watching Disney movies and playing with Tonka trucks, I was cheering on guys like the Big Boss Man, Mr. Perfect, the Undertaker and Bret Hart while cursing the likes of "The Model" Rick Martel, Nailz, Ric Flair and Razor Ramon.
But enough trips down memory lane - let's get to the show. The year was 1992; mullet-haired Billy Ray Cyrus made line dancing popular again with Achy Breaky Heart, political badass Bill Clinton became President of the United States, the movie Wayne's World was adopted by the youth of North America as being the antithesis of cool and parents everywhere were up in arms over a violent, uber-bloody game called Mortal Kombat. In the world of the WWF, the sixth annual edition of their fall classic, Survivor Series revamped its format by replacing its usual card of strictly elimination tag matches with mostly singles matches that fueled current feuds at the time.
I'd like to run down the card and offer my insights on basically everything that surrounded it.
1. The Headshrinkers vs High Energy: For those who didn't know, High Energy was Owen Hart and Koko B. Ware. The team didn't last long, and in fact this was the only PPV match they had. The Headshrinkers, Fatu and Samu made easy work of the high flyers, with Samu pinning Owen after a splash from up top. Wasn't anything special and was merely a squash match to solidify the Headshrinkers as a viable threat in the tag team division.
2. Nightstick On A Pole match, The Big Boss Man vs Nailz: So here's where the WWF started to get kinda hokey with their cheesy stipulations, as the Nightstick on a Pole match was the prelude to such "five-star classics" as the Paddle, Brass Knuckles and Pink Slip on a Pole contests. The gimmick is pretty self-explanatory - whoever grabs the nightstick first could legally use it on their opponent. As it turns out, Boss Man got the weapon first and went to town on the hard-edged criminal Nailz. The antagonist came back with a few shots of his own, but the man with a badge managed to put Big Orange away with the Boss Man Slam. Shortly after, Nailz would go down in history as having one of the most talked-about exits from the WWF, as he snapped during a meeting with Vince McMahon over his pay from that year's SummerSlam and began choking the life out of him. Nailz would then claim that Vince sexually harassed him (!) during his WWF tenure and testified against McMahon in the infamous steroid trial later on.
3. Tatanka vs Rick "The Model" Martel: The story behind this was that Martel had stolen Tatanka's Native American feathers. Very basic heel tactics used to garner heat from the crowd. This was the point of the PPV where the matches started getting better with each bout. This was a rematch from Mania 8 that year and again, these two had a solid, 11-minute match that ended with Tatanka getting the win with his signature Samoan drop and regaining his feathers. Doink made an appearance during the action, making and then popping balloon animals in the aisles to antagonize kids.
4. Randy Savage & Mr. Perfect vs Razor Ramon & Ric Flair: One of the main events for this show and featured the in-ring return of Curt Hennig. Originally, the Ultimate Warrior was supposed to be the Macho Man's partner, but he was fired from the WWF only a few weeks prior. So they decided to go with a face turn for Perfect and paired him with Savage, which resulted in a much better match. The good guys ended up winning by DQ and I always thought that was a bullshit finish, but the story continued as Flair and Perfect squared off later in the Loser Leaves WWF match on Monday Night Raw. If you ignore the messy ending, the previous 15 minutes is a really good tag match.
5. The Natural Disasters & The Nasty Boys vs Money Inc. & The Beverly Brothers: The one and only elimination tag match of this PPV. It doesn't compare with past Survivor Series matches since there isn't a ton of star power on either side, but it was enjoyable when I was a kid. Jerry Sags pinned IRS to grab the win for the good guys.
6. Virgil vs Yokozuna: You can already guess who won this. Yep, total squash job by Virgil. He then went on to pin Bret Hart in under a minute for the WWF Title, then ate up guys like HBK, Ramon and the Undertaker on his skyrocket push to superstardom. I know, sounds stupid. Yoko went over lightning quick as he was being mega-pushed by the office.
7. Coffin Match, The Undertaker vs Kamala: A continuation of their feud from SummerSlam, this one upped the ante with the debut of the Coffin Match. Not a casket, a coffin. Doesn't coffin sound much more diabolical and macabre? The Ugandan Giant was beating the Dead Man down with three body slams and three splashes as Paul Bearer lifted the urn to try and revive Taker. Kamala's handler Kim Chee attacked Bearer and the urn went rolling into the ring. Taker got up, grabbed it and brained Kamala with it to pick up the win before dropping him in the coffin and nailing it shut. Classic early Undertaker material.
8. WWF Championship match, Bret Hart (C) vs Shawn Michaels: This was branded as a Champion vs Champion match, but only Bret's belt was on the line. For my money, this has got to be one of the most underrated WWF Title matches in company history, not to mention sorely overlooked when discussing the history between Bret and Shawn. We all know the Iron Man match was great and the Montreal Screwjob will go down in controversial history, but this match is a well-worked, 25+ minute story that obviously shows the greatness that both men would achieve. HBK was really in his element as the brash, cocky Boy Toy character and Bret had just won the big one after beating Ric Flair for the WWF Title (in my home city of Saskatoon, no less). There are slow parts in this bout but everything else makes up for it. You should definitely hit up YouTube and find this one.
And such is the 1992 Survivor Series. Was it perfect? Far from it, but it's always had sentimental value to me and always will. If you have your own favorite SS matches or moments, feel free to drop me a line.
See you at ringside,
Derek
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