The UKFF Awards 1992

[PWalsh]

Great to relive these years from the past, how about starting another thread for another year?

[Carbomb]

Great to relive these years from the past, how about starting another thread for another year?

 

Next one should either be 1987, or 1996, I think.

[Mr Butternut Squash]

Do 87!

 

These threads are great.

[PunkStep]

Funniest Moment of 1992: Randy Savage forgetting the rules of the Royal Rumble.

Also 1993

Savage eliminated himself in 92 and they had to pretend that you can't so he could carry on.

I don't even remember that. He's just shit in rumbles, isn't he?

[sivy]

Best Pro-wrestler of 1992:

i'd say Ric Flair, winning the Rumble, awesome WM8 match and overall great year

 

Best Match of 1992:

Royal Rumble 92 still my fav match to this day, the one match i can never get bored off.

 

Best Event of 1992:

WM8 I Loved the Piper/hart & Flair/macho match. One of my first wrestling moments and still one i always watch is the Warrior's return and the Hogan and Warrior pose

at the end.

 

Greatest Moment of 1992:

Piper winning the IC title just an overall feel good moment which i look back and think it was a moment he deserved. Honorable mention has to be Nailz brutal beatdown of the Bossman, even by today standards it was pretty brutal.

 

Funniest Moment of 1992:

in the Rumble there was so many within the match. Piper no selling the atomic drop and poking Flair in the eye, or him trying to join Undertaker in choking Flair.

 

Best Tag Team of 1992:

Natural Disasters, i love big men tag teams and had some decent matches.

 

Breakout Star of 1992:

Bret hart

went from a midcard guy to the main man with the crowd right behind him.

 

Best Non-Wrestler of 1992:

Bobby Heenan & Gorilla Moonson

just made the matches even more enjoyable and fun, but never took it away from anyone

 

Worst Pro-wrestler of 1992:

Nailz, he knew one move a chokehold.

 

Worst Match of 1992:

Nailz vs Virgil, one move over and over again

 

Worst Event of 1992:

Survivor Series 92 - they changed the format of the PPV and had no proper Survivor Series style matches.

 

Biggest Anti-climax of 1992:

Getting no Flair/Hogan Wm main event and end up getting sid/hogan where there was no winner from that match.

[Rabadoo]

Funniest Moment of 1992: Randy Savage forgetting the rules of the Royal Rumble.

Also 1993

Savage eliminated himself in 92 and they had to pretend that you can't so he could carry on.

I don't even remember that. He's just shit in rumbles, isn't he?

 

Yeah he is just terrible at Rumbles. Keeps people on their toes though.

[fraserbee]

Ugh. WCW in 1992? Ugh. I've never understood the liking for this year in WCW.

Seriously? WCW in 1992 is one of my favourite periods ever. Superbrawl, Wrestlewar and Beach Blast were all really good shows, and the rest of the year was peppered with great stuff from Rude, Steamboat, Windham, Rhodes, Pillman, Sting, Vader, Austin, Williams and Gordy, the Steiners, Cactus Jack and more. Probably my favourite year of WCW ever in fact.

 

My picks:

 

Best Pro-wrestler of 1992: Bret Hart. A real standout year for the Hitman, both artistically and historically. His matches with Piper and Bulldog were awesome, and his ascension to the world title in the autumn was a huge surprise but signified the beginning of a huge change in the WWF.

 

Best Match of 1992: Bret Hart Vs British Bulldog at Summerslam. Possibly my favourite match ever. I liked everything about it. The wrestling was really tight and its scrappy moment only added to the realism and it had a brilliant finish too. The setting and the crowd heat just elevated it that little but further. I would like to make mention of some other big favourites from the year though - Hart vs Piper from WM8, Wargames and Pillman vs Zenk (both from Wrestlewar), Rude vs Steamboat (Beach Blast), Sting vs Vader (GAB) and Rude vs Chono (NWA championship tournament final).

 

Best Event of 1992: Superbrawl 2. I toyed with WM8, Summerslam, Beach Blast and Wrestlewar, but I felt this one had the most to offer from top to bottom. Liger vs Pillman, Rude vs Steamboat and Steiners vs Anderson&Eaton were all excellent, Windham&Rhodes vs Austin&Zbyszko was very good and Sting vs Luger was perhaps only fair but had a really big match feel and finished exactly the way it should have.

 

Greatest Moment of 1992: Ron Simmons wins the WCW World Title. I know it was a flop, but at the time I was a huge fan of Big Ron (still am actually). It's still a great moment to watch back too - they maybe shouldn't have done it, but the moment itself was excellently done. I couldn't have been more chuffed.

 

Funniest Moment of 1992: I'm struggling to remember a really funny moment in 1992 - I've never really been much into wrestling for the laughs, but as a ten year old, my dad and I always got a kick out of Larry Zbyszko's stalling and then finally getting smacked about. Such a simple thing that works to this day.

 

Best Tag Team of 1992: Steiners. That match with Fujinami and Izuka from Wrestlewar was just awesome. They had great matches with various Dangerous Alliance members too, as well as Williams and Gordy and others. It looked like Scott was just about to break out on his own before they jumped to the WWF. I still wonder what would have happened if they had stayed and Scott had gotten the singles push in 92.

 

Breakout Star of 1992: Shawn Michaels. Went form just starting out as a singles guy at the beginning of the year to IC champion challenging for the world title at the end. If you watch him week by week through 1992 you can see him experimenting with stuff to see what worked and gradually evolving into the character he would become.

 

Best Non-Wrestler of 1992: Sherri Martel. Just for the outfits.

 

Worst Pro-wrestler of 1992: Eric Watts. He just shouldn't have been put in the position he ended up in. It's a shame, because he became quite acceptable later but he was never going to get past that crappy start to his career. Super Invader was really rubbish too, but he didn't last long.

 

Worst Match of 1992: Jake Roberts vs Undertaker (Wrestlemania 8). Jake did a great promo, and then went and had a rubbish match. It was a real let down to me.

 

Worst Event of 1992: Halloween Havoc. I guess nothing on the show was all that bad, but absolutely everything on the show was a let down. Pillman vs Steamboat, Williams & Austin vs Rhodes & Windham, Sting vs Roberts all should have been really hot and exciting but just weren't. Ron Simmons vs The Barbarian bucked the trend actually, by looking like it would be awful and actually being fine.

 

Biggest Anti-climax of 1992: Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal (Halloween Havoc). This was a great concept. All these cool gimmick matches on a wheel and you spin it to find out which match type it will be. Unfortunately they didn't gimmick the wheel and it came out with 'coal miner's glove' match. What a disaster.

 

Overall, one of my favourite years as a fan. What a brilliant time.

[Mr Butternut Squash]

Done it more like the original awards as more fun/sad cunt.

 

Best Wrestler:

Rick Rude

Bull Nakano

Dustin Rhodes

 

Liger should probably win this but I haven't seen enough NJ from this period to justify putting him in there. Misawa/Kobashi/Kawada are too hard to separate at this point.

 

I don't get the WCW criticism in this thread. Obviously the booking went to shit when Watt's came in and his incoherent approach made it feel like there were no Main Eventers in the company. But from an in-ring stand point it's the best year the company's had. Rude had a couple of off nights but he had more great performances than anyone both in singles and the DA tags. He fit seamlessly into the promotion, carried himself like a top player and filled the heel hole left by Flair and Luger perfectly. Nakano was more consistent then anyone and this was the year she finally passed the torch to Aja Kong after a dominant three years with the big red belt. It's crazy to see how good Rhodes was so early into his career. I honestly think he was the best tag worker in the world at this point. He shined during all his singles opportunities too, vs Vader, Cactus Jack, Rude etc.

 

Match Of The Year:

Sting, Dustin Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, Barry Windham & Nikita Koloff vs Rick Rude, Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton, Larry Zbyszko & Steve Austin (WCW War Games)

Royal Rumble match

Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs Mayumi Ozaki & Dynamite Kansai (AJW Dream Rush 11/26/92)

 

I feel terrible for leaving out Sting/Vader, Steamboat/Rude iron man and the unforgettable Bret/Piper but 1992 was a ridiculously loaded year. Wargames - the chaotic, violent, marvellous thing - is the greatest US match all decade in my eyes. I might be underrating the women's tag slightly. It has all the excitement, hate and intensity that an inter-promotional war should do. I remember thinking it was the best match I'd ever seen although it doesn't have the sentimental attachment of the Rumble.

 

It's the best Rumble match that there can ever be. Is this the most star studded match in history? The booking is brilliant, it never felt like there were any 'down' periods and there was always at least one big time star in there. So many moments, so many little stories. It's the champ from the other side coming in and conquering all. A battle through three generations of WWF star names with the odd run in with ghosts from his past (Piper, Von Erich, Valentine). There's a sadness about this match. It's the 80s territory guys last hurrah on the big stage. It' Flair's last great performance. It's the peak of WWF's Golden Era but also its swansong . Shiek, Snuka, Sarge, Piper, Savage, Hogan will soon be gone and US wrestling's Dark Ages loom. The difference between this and the Rumble a year later is still shocking to see.

 

(Only negative is the ending. Hogan was unbearable during this period and I hate the idiotic Sid feud.)

 

Best Event:

WCW Superbrawl II

AJW Dream Rush

WWF Royal Rumble

 

The rumble also had the lovely moment of Piper finally getting his mitts on a belt as well as the fun Foundation/Orient Express match.

 

Best Feud:

Sting vs Vader

Flair/Savage

Jumbo & co vs Misawa & co.

 

Sting/Vader might be my favourite pairing in all wrestling. Their size and style complimented each other beautifully. Vader was a different kind of opponent for Sting that challenged him to approach things in a different way and Sting always stepped up. Jumbo (with partners Taue and Masa Fuchi) had a new lease of life in this period as the grouchy vet playing heel to get the young guns over with tremendous displays of dickery.

 

Breakout Star:

Akira Hokuto

Shawn Micheals

Steve Austin

 

Austin spent spent 91 feuding with shit like PN News before becoming a key part of WCW as a member of the Dangerous Alliance faction, rubbing shoulders with all the big guns. He also became a great wrestler around the time he cut his hair short and was arguably the best guy in the Wargames match. His push did stagnate towards the end of the year though. Shawn deserves credit for escaping WWF's dwindling tag scene intact and keeping himself relevant with a fresh new character. It would be a while though until he pieced things together as a singles act. Hokuto started the year as another midcard/tag worker with a dodgy Wham! hairdo and ended it as the focal point of the promotion as the inter-promotional era began. Reinvented her look and had a personality transplant somewhere in between.

 

Best Babyface:

Sting

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi

Randy Savage

 

I really enjoyed Sting in 92. He was finally out from under the shadows of Flair and Luger and despite his typically shit booking he felt like the last hero in town in what was a very heel driven promotion at the time. You had to route for him. He was getting bigger pops than anyone in the world at this point for whatever that's worth. Poor Kikuchi being the weak link in the All Japan tags was the most sympathetic Face In Peril in wrestling.

 

Best Heel:

Vader

Rick Rude

Akira Hokuto

 

Best Tag Team:

Steiner Brothers

Jumbo Tsuruta/Akira Taue

Barry Windham/Dustin Rhodes

 

Love 'em or hate em there will never be another Steiner Brothers. Their Wrestlewar match vs Fujinami & Iizuka is an example of their mongheaded ballbag twattery at its very worst. It's one of my favourite matches all year. Them and Windham/Rhodes were the only teams that managed to get non-sleep inducing matches out of the overrated Doc & Gordy pairing.

 

Best Non-Wrestler:

Bobby Heenan

Jim Cornette

Ron Wright

 

I miss WWE having someone who is actually funny. Heenan was on fire at the Rumble and the match just wouldn't be the same without his performance. Wright is the best of all the wheelchair heels. I loved how SMW were playing is straight as poor Ron was trying to scout new talent as a way to "hopefully get on a contract so I can make some money" for a 'hip and knee replacement'. The facade slowly starts to unravel.

 

Best Moment:

Shawn punts Marty through the window

Jake Roberts show up in WCW and kills Sting

Ron Simmons wins world title

 

Best Talker:

Jim Cornette

Jake Roberts

Tracy Smothers

 

Cornette was the most effective promo going, covering every corner one could with rapid fire brilliance. Smother's babyface run didn't start till near the years end but I adore him and had to include.

 

Funniest Moment:

Anything to do with Kevin Sullivan

Rick Rude's sell of the atomic drop, especially the one at Clash XVIII

Mean Gene at the Rumble. "Put that cigarette out" and also his little "ooop!" reaction to Piper's wet dream line.

 

Worst Wrestler:

Jimmy Garvin

Van Hammer

Shane Douglas

 

Nailz scared the shit out of me as a kid and he's too goofy for me to hate on. Garvin is completely charmless and is in the Mike Rotunda league of boring shit. Eric Watt's was bad but bad to an amusing degree. The sight of the old carny's son tapping out Eaton and Arn was more hilarious to me than annoying. The Shane Douglas push was far more offensive.

 

Worst Match:

Rude vs Chono at Havoc

Bushwackers vs Beverly Brothers at Rumble

 

Their excellent New Japan match together makes the Havoc match even more baffling. Jamison was a sign that the WWF's cartoonishness was getting old.

 

Worst Event:

Halloween Havoc

Summerslam

Survivor Series

 

Biggest Anti-Climax:

Hogan/Flair

Undertaker killing Jake dead at Mania

Lazy shitty Muta's second WCW run.

 

I understand why it happened in retrospect but I hated Takers easy disposal of Jake. Watching a guy who felt so evil and dangerous the previous year look so ineffective against this silly gimmick (I never liked Undertaker as a face) was jarring.

 

GTFO:

Fabulous Freebirds

Paul Heyman

Missy Hyatt

 

Controversial choices probably. Thankfully the Birds did finally fuck off in 92. From 89 onwards they already started to look old and past it, shitting up the undercard. They looked as pathetic as Jagger trying to pull his old moves today. And, again, Garvin is one of my least favourite wrestlers of all time. I've really soured on Heyman recently. He's the opposite of Cornette in that his whiny promos take so long to say so little. To his credit he was over, but it's just fast- forward and fuck off heat from me.