WWF booking from 1992-1996

[Loss]

In terms of fan interest, this is the low point in the history of the company, but I find it interesting how willing they were to try new things during this time. It struck me watching the 1993 yearbook how much they were embracing Memphis-style booking, and it's already standing out to me going through 1995 how much of a 70s-style presentation they were going for with Diesel on top. Sit down interviews going out of their way to portray the wrestlers as athletes, an understated Vince McMahon selling 70s-style football vs pro wrestler angles, focusing on "real" themes like Diesel's history of knee surgeries (even shockingly mentioning that his real name is Kevin Nash and that he's married in one segment), comparing the athleticism of Bret and Owen Hart, talking strategy in the build to PPV main events, etc.

 

Anyway, I don't think there's a direct correlation between this being the style they were promoting and the company being in a down period but it is interesting what they were willing to try to right the ship that definitely didn't mesh with Vince's normal instincts. The goofy characters with alliterate names were still there, but they had toned things down greatly from the boom years and were trying to be more understated and serious. I enjoyed it, of course, and I bring it up not to debate the merits as much as to point out that it seems to be a forgotten point when people recap the history of the WWF.

 

Blaming Diesel and Shawn for drawing poorly on top is really oversimplifying what the WWF needed to do to rebound. It wasn't as simple as finding the right top guy, they had to reimagine the entire vision of the company.

 

Maybe this thread could be used to talk about the impact that bringing in people who weren't fans of the WWF philosophy -- Jim Ross, Jim Cornette, Jerry Lawler, etc -- had on the company as well.

[Strummer]

Strange year for the WWF. Obviously it was a bad year for the company but 1995 had (by pro wrestling standards) logical straight forward booking that built from month to month and show to show. It was somewhat uninspired but at least the company was willing to adapt and try to simplify things. Jim Ross briefly getting the book early in year obviously had something to do with all the strategy and athlete talk. And Bill Watts (!) getting the book for a few weeks in the fall can't be ignored. But it was still probably an identity crisis lying underneath as they still tried to book like the 80s boom sometimes while flirting with a traditional style.

 

with all the other names you mentioned coming into the company and gaining power I wonder how much influence the Clique had on the changes?

[Mad Dog]

I still think Diesel gets a bad rep for his run on top as champ. He really had some of the worst challengers of any long term champion that I can think of. Sure, he had Hart at the Rumble and Michaels at a pretty awful Mania but then you get Mabel at Summerslam and his reign really lost any steam at that point.

[Gregor]

Sure, he had Hart at the Rumble and Michaels at a pretty awful Mania

Even then, I'm not sure that either of these matches (especially the one with Michaels) did much to help Diesel get over.

 

Was the Shawn Michaels fainting thing the first time that the WWF tried to make something look like a shoot? I mean in the 2000 WCW sense, in which one element of the show is presented as the more real than the rest of it.

[Loss]

There was a similar angle with the 1-2-3 Kid in a match in January, but that was more the result of a bump.

[Ricky Jackson]

92-96 really does look like a golden age of booking for WWF/E when comparing it to almost everything that has followed. Although there were exceptions, for the most part wins and losses mattered, titles were protected, feuds were built up and followed through---in short, they still booked PRO WRESTLING during this time. I've never really thought about it before, but the influence of "southern wrestling" guys like Cornette, Ross, Lawler, Watts, even Jerry Jarrett (my God, what would have happened, as was supposedly the plan, if Vince went to prison in 94 and Jarrett took over the day to day operations?) is obvious in retrospect. Too bad business tanked and, well, we all know what came next. (I LOVED WWF in 97 and 98, but looking back, Montreal was "the day the music died" for me as a fan, and it was all downhill from there)

 

I haven't had the same emotional connection to wrestling since the late-90s, and probably never will again.

[artDDP]

This thread reminded me, and I think Loss alluded to it in the opening post, of a pretty cool program the WWF produced around the time of the 1996 Royal Rumble. It was a TV special hosted by Vince McMahon and Curt Hennig that aired on USA about the various feuds centering around the World championship. They spoke of the title and the wrestlers as if it was a legitimate contest. At the time I was a little disappointed because I thought it was going to trace the entire history of the championship, not just the beginning of Diesel's reign. I figure it was a way to get people who may have started checking out "Monday Nitro" back into WWF storylines in time for the Rumble.

[NintendoLogic]

(my God, what would have happened, as was supposedly the plan, if Vince went to prison in 94 and Jarrett took over the day to day operations?)

You mean besides Jeff Jarrett having more title reigns than HHH?

[Bob Morris]

I thought WWF had solid booking in 1992 for the most part, but the switching of the title from Ric Flair to Bret Hart came out of nowhere. I'm guessing that was the point that Vince was convinced that it was time to try somebody new at the top of the card.

 

1993 strikes me as the year of missed opportunities. They were clearly building to Bret Hart vs. Lex Luger feuding over the top title until they made the switch to Hogan, and we know how that turned out. And while I liked Luger better as a face than a heel during his WWF run, I just don't think fans were enthused enough to buy into Luger as the top guy, despite him picking up his pace in the ring.

 

With 1994, they really had some interesting angles going, particularly the Bob Backlund heel turn. It's amazing to watch how much heat Backlund was drawing after he was just kind of there as a face. I know the Undertaker vs. Underfaker angle tends to get shit upon but I think that goes back to the fact that they didn't do as good of a job of casting doubt over whether DiBiase had really brought back the Undertaker. (To put this into perspective, it needed to be more along the lines of "it can't be the Undertaker... right?" instead of playing it like it really was Taker until Paul Bearer said otherwise.)

 

In 1995, I agree that the problem was a lack of opponents for Diesel. I do think there is some truth to the WM XI match with Michaels hurting Diesel, as it was pretty clear at that point they were going to turn Shawn face and he needed to be a strong heel going into the match, then build to his face turn a couple of months after the fact. Sid wasn't the best option to challenge Diesel, but imagine how much better it would have worked had they kept Shawn heel for a couple months after WM and had a rematch or two, building to Sid turning on Shawn.

 

With that being said, 1995 KOTR stands as one of the worst PPVs in WWF/E history. Mabel was not the guy to put over.

 

1996 booking just didn't have anything going for it that could overcome the nWo. Had Shawn been willing to work with Vader more, they could have gotten a lot more mileage out of that feud.

[JerryvonKramer]

Lots to say here, which I'll do when I get in later.

 

This post is me mildly building hype for a later post.

[Jingus]

I thought WWF had solid booking in 1992 for the most part, but the switching of the title from Ric Flair to Bret Hart came out of nowhere. I'm guessing that was the point that Vince was convinced that it was time to try somebody new at the top of the card.

Yeah, why was that one done so hastily? IIRC, Bret didn't even know he was winning the belt until he got to the arena that day. Why not do the switch at a PPV instead? Okay, it was in Canada so the crowd popped even louder for Hart winning, but still. Look at the two PPVs surrounding it: Summerslam didn't have a world title match at all, with the champ relegated to doing a run-in during the semi-main. And Survivor Series had Bret vs Shawn, which must've looked awfully weird to everyone who was used to the giants and household names fighting for the belt and then suddenly there's these two middleweight midcarders contesting the heavyweight strap.

[Loss]

I actually meant for the intention of this thread to be more about the booking philosophy and overall presentation of the WWF as more serious (or at times booked more like a territory) than specific booking decisions that were made. I hope that makes sense. Would it be possible to steer this thread back in that direction?

[Jingus]

I'd argue my question fits into a larger discussion in that vein. From the Hulkamania era onwards, Vince always made sure to do title changes at the biggest shows possible. Usually at Wrestlemania, once on a super-hyped Main Event, and then one time at the Rumble (but even then, that one seemed like a last-minute decision to transition from Warrior to Slaughter). The title usually changed no more than once per year, or twice at the very most. Switches were BIG deals.

 

We hit late 1991, and then suddenly most of that goes out the window. The belt changed hands at both Survivor Series and Tuesday in Texas, and then was vacated for some damn reason. (Why? Did Hogan refuse to drop it to Flair under any circumstances?) I understand that they decided to push Undertaker as a new serious top guy, but it's a strange decision which is out of character for the company. Then Flair gets it at the Rumble, okay, I guess that made sense for the buildup to him losing it at Mania.

 

But then, Flair wins it back from Savage... at a house show. Huh? And then Flair doesn't wrestle at all at Summerslam, eventually dropping the belt to Bret (whom I don't think he was really feuding with) at another house show. Double huh?

 

None of that makes any sense to me, even today. It's so dissimilar to their entire philosophy and style of storytelling which Vince Jr had employed ever since he took over the company. Why such a drastic paradigm shift? EDIT: especially since they immediately stopped doing it that way once Bret had the belt, once again saving all the title changes for great big shows until Diesel pinned Backlund for it.

[Boondocks Kernoodle]

This thread reminded me, and I think Loss alluded to it in the opening post, of a pretty cool program the WWF produced around the time of the 1996 Royal Rumble. It was a TV special hosted by Vince McMahon and Curt Hennig that aired on USA about the various feuds centering around the World championship. They spoke of the title and the wrestlers as if it was a legitimate contest. At the time I was a little disappointed because I thought it was going to trace the entire history of the championship, not just the beginning of Diesel's reign. I figure it was a way to get people who may have started checking out "Monday Nitro" back into WWF storylines in time for the Rumble.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w_8hAnGvWE

[Loss]

I see your point. It does tie in in some ways because I think it was beginning of a period where the WWF primarily booked for its hardcore audience for the most part.

 

My point is tied more to having announcers discuss the impact of holds, wrestlers talking strategy in their interviews, and the angles being a lot more toned down and even subtle at times. Diesel was humanized, and Vince was never really a fan of humanizing his top guys. Unless being a family man was part of the gimmick, how often do you hear it mentioned that someone has a wife and kids at home, or that their gimmick name is not actually their real name (Not in a RUSSO SHOOT way, in a "let's help the audience get to know this guy" way).

 

There are also things like the RAW that was an episode of upsets (1-2-3 Kid and Jannetty beating Razor and Michaels), and the Crush turn on Savage, which were pretty Memphis-influenced, and then you have the Steiners/Money Inc feud with all the back-to-back title changes on house shows, which is something that usually doesn't appeal to casual fans because it's too hard to follow, even if hardcores love it.

 

The Crush angle in particular has quite a few Memphis staples, and it's not usually how Vince books heel turns. Crush comes out to announce his turn and Savage comes out to try to reason with him. They have a long conversation. Other heels are in the background. Savage suggests going to the back to talk things out (which happens ALL THE TIME in Memphis angles), then gets jumped.

 

The Bam Bam/LT feud didn't feel like territory booking to me as much as it felt like WWWF booking -- not because Vince Sr. was known for football vs wrestler angles, but more because Vince's announcing style was more the late 70s/early 80s Vince announcing style and not the bombastic "I'm-in-a-rhythm-with-Jesse-Ventura" stuff that we had grown to expect.

[Boondocks Kernoodle]

Summerslam didn't have a world title match at all, with the champ relegated to doing a run-in during the semi-main.

Savage was the champ defending against Warrior. Flair won the belt at the TV taping held three days after Summerslam, or the day after it aired. As for the quick title changes in '91 and '92, they wanted to see how much business a PPV held six days after the last could do, and they thought that the best drawing card for such a scenario was Hogan losing the title and trying to get it back on the next show. Why they vacated it? I assume they wanted to get the belt on Flair without having him beat Hogan so as to save the first PPV match between the two for Mania. As for why they did Bret's title win at a TV taping, probably because they already had a PPV card in place and advertised.

[Jingus]

Diesel was humanized, and Vince was never really a fan of humanizing his top guys. Unless being a family man was part of the gimmick, how often do you hear it mentioned that someone has a wife and kids at home, or that their gimmick name is not actually their real name (Not in a RUSSO SHOOT way, in a "let's help the audience get to know this guy" way).

That seemed like it started with Bret. He was the first champion since Backlund who used his real full name as his ring name, and they frequently did storylines which involved his real family. His entire gimmick seemed like it was "here's a serious dude without a gimmick".

 

Savage was the champ defending against Warrior. Flair won the belt at the TV taping held three days after Summerslam, or the day after it aired.

D'oh, that's right. Sorry, for some reason I thought Flair had already won it back.

 

As for why they did Bret's title win at a TV taping, probably because they already had a PPV card in place and advertised.

Perhaps, but that would've been one strange card, with champ Flair in a meaningless tag match. What else would Bret have been doing on the show, if he hadn't become champion? They certainly altered the card to put Flair/Razor vs Savage/Perfect way down in the midcard and put Bret/Shawn on top anyway. And just looking at that card, ew, practically none of the other matches look good on paper nor likely to draw a dime.

[Loss]

Bret was already a wrestler without a gimmick years before he was champion, though. Diesel was a new star created during the era that was humanized. Bret being pushed on top was a departure from the norm in itself, but they went farther from their usual style than people typically remember. That's my point.

[Gregor]

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9xs60_ww...rt-bret-h_sport

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xb3voi_ww...t-face-to_sport

 

Before each of their PPV matches in 1995, Diesel and Bret Hart were simultaneously interviewed about their upcoming match. Both interviews have a very "legitimate athletic contest" feel to them, although the fact that it's face vs. face probably helps.

 

I mentioned Michaels' collapse earlier because it feels like one of the WWF's first forays into Attitude Era-type stuff and the beginning of the end of the WWF's in-between period.

[JerryvonKramer]

I have to say I agree and disagree with Loss's central thesis here.

 

A brief timeline of booking in the WWF

 

1991 to early 1992 - This was a very very interesting time and one, if you think about it, in which the WWF was trying a lot of "edgier" things. I remember discussing this a few years back on Wrestlecrap

 

Just to summarise some of the "edgy" things:

 

Jake vs. Macho feud (Tuesday in Texas and all the events leading upto it, including Taker's involvement)

Shawn kicking Jannety through the barber shop window

The DiBiase-Virgil angle (the pre-build was especially dark)

Earthquake killing Damien

The entire Flair vs. Savage angle in 1992, including the Liz centrefold and Perfect and Flair breaking Savage's leg at SS92

Doink in his early "evil clown" incarnation

Berzerker trying to "kill" Undertaker on Superstars

The Mountie's cattle prod and night in jail

The Hogan vs. Slaughter street fight

 

Then in mid-1992 the steroid scandal hit. And then the thinking of the Office was ...

 

BACK TO BASICS, BACK TO THE OLD FORMULAS

 

For Vince and Pat Patterson that meant two things:

 

1. To rewind the clock back to the "wholesome" days of Backlund.

 

2. To repeat the formulas of the rock n' roll era, even making the cartoony aspects of that era MORE CARTOONY.

 

For the top of the card, first they went with Hogan '85-6 again. Initially with Hogan himself at Wrestlemania 9, then with Luger, the Lex Express in 93 more or less openly being an attempt to make Hogan II.

 

In 93, they stripped out the "edgier" aspects of the product: Flair went back to Atlanta, Savage was sidelined to the commentary booth, Jake was sent packing in '92, Undertaker turned face, Doink turned face, Razor Ramon turned face, etc.

 

In 91-3, they also got rid of, or at least phased out, A LOT of guys who had been hanging around the roster for years, a lot of them I'd describe as "non-cartoony" wrestlers, by which I mean that their gimmicks were not cartoon gimmicks. What's a cartoon gimmick? Hillybilly Jim. The Godwinns. IRS. Isaac Yankem. You get the picture. Off the top of my head: Dino Bravo, Hercules, Haku, Greg Valentine, Col. Mustafa (Iron Sheik), Tito Santana, British Bulldog, The Beverley Brothers, The Natural Disasters, Koko Ware, The Warlord, The Barbarian, Paul Roma, Rick Martel, Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka, Big Boss Man, Ted DiBiase

 

WHY THIS MASSIVE CLEAR OUT AND WHO REPLACED ALL OF THESE GUYS?

 

Adam Bomb

The Headshrinkers

Men on a Mission

The Four Doinks

Ludvig Borga

Tatanka

The Smoking Gunns

Sparky Plugg

Bastion Booger

The Fake Undertaker

Savio Vega

The Godwinns

 

What's my point? My point is that it is not entirely accurate to say that this was a turn towards wholesome 70s style "family realism". Look at the names and think of the gimmicks there. What's the obvious difference between someone like Adam Bomb and, say, Dino Bravo? One is a cartoon, the other is just a guy. In one sense the WWF was NEVER as cartoony as it was during this era. Four Doinks vs. Four midget wrestlers anyone? Godwinns "slopping" people anyone? Undertaker vs. Undertaker? etc. etc.

 

The undercard was almost purely comedy gimmick stuff. Men on a Mission are a good symbol of that.

 

Now I think Loss is right to point out that AFTER Lex Express, they booked Bret and Diesel in the 70s style. Hell, they even brought back the actual Bob Backlund for good measure.

 

I think this was Vince and Pat Patterson thinking conservatively. Cartoony product in the main but with a slightly more serious family-orientated, legit-sport 70s-style main event.

 

The radical yeast in this loaf, however, is the Smokey Mountain stuff. Heavenly Bodies, Cornette, Rock 'n' Roll Express, etc.

 

To ME though, it seems that those guys were used as filler. Think about it. Almost the entire roster of talent had gone. They were down to barest, barest bones in 94-5.

 

I mean look at the Survivor Series teams and the Royal Rumbles. The masked wrestlers in "the King's court", the likes of Keith and Bruce Hart getting on PPV cards. Comebacks from Nikolai Volkoff and King Kong Bundy. The Bushwackers actually being on PPV cards where just a couple of years back they'd be doing dark matches. It's ALL filler. The 1995 Rumble entrants list makes for very sorry reading next to the one from 93, let alone 92.

 

So it was back to basics + stripping down to bare bones.

[artDDP]

Didn't Flair drop the title to Bret due to an equilibrium problem that was thought at the time to be more serious than it was? I recall reading this after Flair collapsed on a 2000 "Thunder" telecast.

[Ricky Jackson]

The story behind Bret's first world title win has always intrigued me. At the time, for a teenager with no real knowledge of any insider stuff, the title change came totally out of nowhere. Bret had not been portrayed as a title contender on TV prior to the switch and no angles had been shot between the two. A non-televised world title change, in Saskatoon of all places, was so unusual in 1992 WWF, and really is an anomaly in WWF/E history in general. It was probably the most low-key world title switch since Graham-Sammartino in 77, and I can't think of anything comparable since (Diesel-Backlund was at least at MSG).

 

Off the top of my head, the usual reasons for the sudden switch are:

1) Flair was leaving soon

2) With the feds breathing down his neck, Vince wanted a non-juiced (or at least less obviously so) main event babyface immediately/Some time between Summerslam and the day of the switch Vince decided upon a radical change in what type of wrestlers would be pushed to the top

3) Bret had "proven himself" as a main eventer with the big Summerslam show in London and the switch was set in motion after that

4) Flair was injured

 

The Flair injury/equilibrium problem likely had something to do with it. After dropping the title on October 12, Flair wrestled Warrior four days later, but was then subbed out by Dibiase, Kamala, and Nailz on subsequent shows and did not wrestle again until November 19. According to Cawthon's site Flair hurt himself during a match with Warrior on October 8.

 

The reason for the switch was likely a combination of all the options plus other stuff I'm forgetting or do not know about. The Flair injury may have speeded up the process, though.

 

It was still a weird switch.

[El-P]

The story behind Bret's first world title win has always intrigued me. At the time, for a teenager with no real knowledge of any insider stuff, the title change came totally out of nowhere. Bret had not been portrayed as a title contender on TV prior to the switch and no angles had been shot between the two. A non-televised world title change, in Saskatoon of all places, was so unusual in 1992 WWF, and really is an anomaly in WWF/E history in general.

It felt the same way to me. Back then we only got Superstars and the PPV in France. So, one week Flair the world champ is feuding with Savage, and next week the show opens with an interview on the platform, Bret Hart, new WWF champ. Wait, wasn't he the guy who lost the IC belt to the British Bulldog a few months ago ? He was never a contender, and he's the champ out of the blue. Then Michaels wins the IC title over the Bulldog from pretty much nowhere too after he got confronted with Jannetty, and gets a WWF title match at Survivor Series ? Hum, what ? It's like the booking erased the whole SummerSlam deal to go to another phase completely. Flair was gonna leave, Warrior already left, Bulldog was leaving too (steroid trial ?), Savage got dropped to the announcers desk because he was "too old".

Really brutal way to cut from another era to the next. The only transitionnal link was Razor Ramon, who was introduced as a foil for former WWF champ Savage, and who got the title shot against Bret at Rumble.

[Mad Dog]

Take it with a grain of salt but Tito Santana claims they were also considering him for that Hart/Flair title change. I tend to think he's full of shit as he wasn't getting any real kind of push other than making it to the final match in the 91 Survivor Series. Just an interesting little sidenote to that.

[Jingus]

Take it with a grain of salt but Tito Santana claims they were also considering him for that Hart/Flair title change. I tend to think he's full of shit as he wasn't getting any real kind of push other than making it to the final match in the 91 Survivor Series. Just an interesting little sidenote to that.

Wasn't he still doing the El Matador gimmick at the time? He was in the dark match at Summerslam, jobbing to Papa Shango. No fuckin' way he was getting anywhere near the title around that time.

 

Something weird I was reminded of: Tito was also Eastern Championship Wrestling heavyweight champion at this time, while still working for the WWF. Was it common for them to let their guys work a whole bunch of indy shows like that?