UKFF Questions Thread V2

[Vice]

I know this is recycling from a few weeks back but I hadnt read this thread for a while...

 

It wasn't really a high-profile feud by that point, though, was it? The only match I can recall between them pre-Survivor Series 92 is the ladder match, which was from a house show and then released on Coliseum Home Video if I recall correctly.

 

Bret v Shawn for the Intercontinetal belt was THE mid card feud of the post-WM months in the WWF. They were wrestling each other all over the house shows. If you know what tapes to look on, you can find at least three of these matches on Coliseum :

(1) The famous ladder match (Smack Em Whack Em, Bret's first profile tape)

(2) One that Michaels wins by count-out when Sherri yanks Bret off the apron into the railing (UK Fan Favourites I *think*)

(3) One that Hitman won, reversing the Teardrop suplex into a sunset flip (US Rampage *I think*)

 

As already documented, Bret v Shawn was meant to be blown off at SummerSlam but for aforementioned business reasons it was Davey that relieved Bret of that particular strap. But hell, as anyone with the SS'92 tape knows, they even used Bret to create the reason Shawn wrestled Rick Martel instead - Michaels, consumed by his own desire to take the belt from Bret, got involved in Martel's crack at the belt. It made sense they would have at each other again after SummerSlam.

 

I was always gutted Bret didnt wrestle Michaels on TV more in 93-95 especially during his 2nd WWF title reign.

Thanks for all that. It still seems a bit odd to me, though, that they'd have a big match at Summerslam 92 when their previous encounters weren't on TV. Either way, I'll seek out some of those other Hart-Michaels matches.

[The Mighty LC]

When was Summerslam 92 switched from Washington DC to Wembley?

 

I recall during the ads of Survivor Series 91 there was a competition to win an all expenses paid trip to Washington for the show.

 

Just wondering when it was switched.

 

I don't know for certain when it was switched, but it was originally set for the Cap Centre in Landover, Maryland, which isn't too far from Washington. I seem to remember they ran a show there in the Spring of 92 which didn't draw well, which may have influenced their thinking in looking elsewhere, but it's more likely that they saw how much money they made every time they came over here in that time, and came up with a can't miss main event (I do believe that the show in its original location would have had Hart v Michaels in a ladder match)...

 

Interesting little aside to this - I've been catching up on recent Observer content today (my god, between the last few weeks of Observers and F4Ws, plus where the 1991 back issues are at, am I SICK of reading about f**king drugs in wrestling?), and Meltz mentions in a November 91 issue that WWF are considering holding one of their PPVs in Britain in 92. He mentions that time difference problems could be a stumbling block, but that doing it on a time delay wouldn't likely be a problem (unlike now, you would have thought). No mention in the article of it being Summerslam, though you probably could have quite easily deduced it at the time that it couldn't really have been anything other than that...

[JNLister]

I know this is recycling from a few weeks back but I hadnt read this thread for a while...

 

It wasn't really a high-profile feud by that point, though, was it? The only match I can recall between them pre-Survivor Series 92 is the ladder match, which was from a house show and then released on Coliseum Home Video if I recall correctly.

 

Bret v Shawn for the Intercontinetal belt was THE mid card feud of the post-WM months in the WWF. They were wrestling each other all over the house shows. If you know what tapes to look on, you can find at least three of these matches on Coliseum :

(1) The famous ladder match (Smack Em Whack Em, Bret's first profile tape)

(2) One that Michaels wins by count-out when Sherri yanks Bret off the apron into the railing (UK Fan Favourites I *think*)

(3) One that Hitman won, reversing the Teardrop suplex into a sunset flip (US Rampage *I think*)

 

As already documented, Bret v Shawn was meant to be blown off at SummerSlam but for aforementioned business reasons it was Davey that relieved Bret of that particular strap. But hell, as anyone with the SS'92 tape knows, they even used Bret to create the reason Shawn wrestled Rick Martel instead - Michaels, consumed by his own desire to take the belt from Bret, got involved in Martel's crack at the belt. It made sense they would have at each other again after SummerSlam.

 

I was always gutted Bret didnt wrestle Michaels on TV more in 93-95 especially during his 2nd WWF title reign.

Thanks for all that. It still seems a bit odd to me, though, that they'd have a big match at Summerslam 92 when their previous encounters weren't on TV. Either way, I'll seek out some of those other Hart-Michaels matches.

 

The likely card in the US would have had plenty of matches which hadn't been on TV, but had been built-up with TV angles: Flair/Savage (which had been on TV), Hart/Michaels, Shango/Warrior, Undertaker/Berserker, Repo/Smith etc.

[Herne's Son]

Is it true or not that Sid was not supposed to kick out of the leg drop at Wrestlemania 8 but that Shango was meant to break up the count but was too late in coming down?

 

Was Shango then programmed with the Warrior and did they ever have a one on one match and why was the whole thing dropped so quick.

 

Didn't have Sky at the time so didn't see wwf tv.

[Kenny McBride]

Is it true or not that Sid was not supposed to kick out of the leg drop at Wrestlemania 8 but that Shango was meant to break up the count but was too late in coming down?

 

Was Shango then programmed with the Warrior and did they ever have a one on one match and why was the whole thing dropped so quick.

 

Didn't have Sky at the time so didn't see wwf tv.

 

Yes, that's the story with Sid. Who knows if it's true? I'd have fired the fuck out of whoever was running Gorilla if that's the case, though.

 

Yes, Shango and Warrior had a series of goofy angles right after Wrestlemania. Shango "cursed" Warrior, making his puke and making black goo ooze out of him. Some of it was pretty cool in a Wrestlecrap way. I don't remember a match off the top of my head, but they probably had one somewhere along the line.

 

I don't remember the angle being dropped especially quickly. As I recall, it was basically just Warrior's warm-up to get him back into the swing of things before moving into the main event angle with Savage and Flair.

[Au]

I don't remember a match off the top of my head, but they probably had one somewhere along the line.

I don't remember a one on one match, although you have to imagine there was a blow off at some point due to the amount of time they invested in that feud. However, there was a pretty cool tag match released on video that had Warrior and Taker vs Shango and Berzerker.

[bAzTNM#1]

I don't remember a match off the top of my head, but they probably had one somewhere along the line.

I don't remember a one on one match, although you have to imagine there was a blow off at some point due to the amount of time they invested in that feud. However, there was a pretty cool tag match released on video that had Warrior and Taker vs Shango and Berzerker.

Yeah, that one was on the second Ultimate Warrior video.

[MungoChutney]

Didn't they have a match where Warrior was DQ'd for hitting Papa Shango with his voodoo skull thingy?

[thicko]

I don't remember a match off the top of my head, but they probably had one somewhere along the line.

I don't remember a one on one match, although you have to imagine there was a blow off at some point due to the amount of time they invested in that feud. However, there was a pretty cool tag match released on video that had Warrior and Taker vs Shango and Berzerker.

Yeah, that one was on the second Ultimate Warrior video.

 

The one on one match referred to above took place on an episode of Saturday Night's Main Event.

[JNLister]

Warrior-Shango never wrestled on SNME. The only episode after Shango's debut had him against Bret Hart.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

How big of a draw was Hulk Hogan pre-WWF/1984 in the AWA and New Japan (post Rocky III). I'm just reading a old article in Power Slam from 2002 where it says "contrary to popular belief, Hulk Hogan was the biggest attraction in wrestling long before he hooked up with the World Wrestling Federation." Is this true? And where does Hulk Hogan come on a scale of popularity between him and other notable foreigners who compete in Japan (like The Steiner Brothers, The Road Warriors, Stan Hansen, Andre etc.)

Edited January 14, 2009 by Ian_hitmanhart

[Au]

Warrior-Shango never wrestled on SNME. The only episode after Shango's debut had him against Bret Hart.

The only one on one match I can find is from a 1992 episode of Superstars. It's on YouTube (several times) if anyone wants to have a gander.

 

<-- click on 'spoiler' to show/hide the spoiler

Warrior wins clean with the flying shoulder and splash combo.

 

[close spoiler]

");document.close();

[Kenny McBride]

How big of a draw was Hulk Hogan pre-WWF/1984 in the AWA and New Japan (post Rocky III). I'm just reading a old article in Power Slam from 2002 where it says "contrary to popular belief, Hulk Hogan was the biggest attraction in wrestling long before he hooked up with the World Wrestling Federation." Is this true? And where does Hulk Hogan come on a scale of popularity between him and other notable foreigners who compete in Japan (like The Steiner Brothers, The Road Warriors, Stan Hansen, Andre etc.)

 

I'm not sure about the AWA - though I know that losing Hogan was generally considered one of the major blows that helped put the company down for the count - but in New Japan, yes, he was right up there with the likes of Hansen and Brody. I'd think he's probably a bit ahead of the Steiners and the Road Warriors, if only because they're tag teams and so don't have the individual star power of a Hogan. Andre's a slightly harder one to judge, as Andre was never a guy who hung around very long, having competitive matches with everyone. He was a main event guy his whole time there though and faced Inoki in the finals of the first IWGP title tournament. Unless I'm very much mistaken, he won that (although he wasn't really meant to), so he was a major player.

 

Certainly, even in the States, he was marked out for stardom from very early on. He was pushed in Florida when he started, went straight into main events in Memphis (but then who didn't?) and was one of the first guys in New York to really get a lot of heat on Andre in the build-up to the Shea Stadium show. However, contrary to Hogan's book, he wasn't a main eventer at that point, being I think third or fourth from top underneath Bruno/Zybszko and Samoans/Backlund/Pedro.

[Joe_the_Lion]

How big of a draw was Hulk Hogan pre-WWF/1984 in the AWA and New Japan (post Rocky III). I'm just reading a old article in Power Slam from 2002 where it says "contrary to popular belief, Hulk Hogan was the biggest attraction in wrestling long before he hooked up with the World Wrestling Federation." Is this true? And where does Hulk Hogan come on a scale of popularity between him and other notable foreigners who compete in Japan (like The Steiner Brothers, The Road Warriors, Stan Hansen, Andre etc.)

 

I'm not sure about the AWA - though I know that losing Hogan was generally considered one of the major blows that helped put the company down for the count - but in New Japan, yes, he was right up there with the likes of Hansen and Brody. I'd think he's probably a bit ahead of the Steiners and the Road Warriors, if only because they're tag teams and so don't have the individual star power of a Hogan. Andre's a slightly harder one to judge, as Andre was never a guy who hung around very long, having competitive matches with everyone. He was a main event guy his whole time there though and faced Inoki in the finals of the first IWGP title tournament. Unless I'm very much mistaken, he won that (although he wasn't really meant to), so he was a major player.

 

Certainly, even in the States, he was marked out for stardom from very early on. He was pushed in Florida when he started, went straight into main events in Memphis (but then who didn't?) and was one of the first guys in New York to really get a lot of heat on Andre in the build-up to the Shea Stadium show. However, contrary to Hogan's book, he wasn't a main eventer at that point, being I think third or fourth from top underneath Bruno/Zybszko and Samoans/Backlund/Pedro.

 

An answer creates a question - what do you mean by 'wasn't really meant to'?

[Kenny McBride]

If I remember rightly, the idea was that he'd clothesline Inoki on the outside and start celebrating as if he'd killed him, then Inoki would make the big gutsy comeback, hit the enzuigiri from behind and score the pin. As it turned out, Hogan caught him hard on the chin, knocking him cold. They tried to buy him some time, but he was out of it. Hogan became the first IWGP champion due to incompetence (and Inoki having a chin that's ricockulously hard to miss).