WWF Superstars (Of Wrestling) on the Network

[flyonthewall2983]

 

34 episodes from 1992 went up today, starting from April which happened to be the very month I got into wrestling. Watching this stuff will be quite the nostalgia trip.

[Coffey]

Yesterday, I watched twelve straight hours of Superstars with a friend. Starting with the first episode they uploaded (which is right after Wrestlemania 8) until right before SummerSlam '92.

Tag Team Champions: Money Inc.

InterContinental Champion: Bret "Hitman" Hart

WWF World Heavyweight Champion: "Macho Man" Randy Savage

It's a lot of fun promos/vignettes & pretty much every single match is a jobber squash. The one standout match not being a squash was Flair Vs. Slaughter which was used to get The Mountie's new cattle prod over. They also run the famous Razor Ramon "Scarface" vignettes with him in Miami.

My biggest complaints: There's a lot of Repo Man, Virgil, I.R.S. & Kamala matches & those guys are fucking terrible. Painfully bad & uncharismatic. Virgil comes off as downright dangerous. I.R.S. is always in Money Inc. tags with DiBiase & his Write-Off flying Clothesline finish are at least enjoyable, so he's not so bad. But I can't say anything positive about Repo Man, Virgil or Kamala.

Also, annoyingly, watching months of the programming from right after one PPV building up to the next PPV and the next PPV DOESN'T HAVE A SINGLE MATCH THAT PERTAINS TO THE BUILD-UP FROM THE DAMN SHOWS!

They spent weeks building up feuds: The Undertaker Vs. The Berserker, Intercontinental Champion Bret Hart Vs. Shawn Michaels, Rick Martel Vs. Tatanka, The Legion of Doom Vs. The Beverly Brothers, The Ultimate Warrior Vs. Papa Shango, The British Bulldog Vs. The Repo Man, Macho Man Randy Savage Vs. Ric Flair in a WWF Title Wrestlemania rematch, The Nasty Boys Vs. High Energy, The Mountie Vs. Sgt. Slaughter & The Natural Disasters Vs. Money Inc. for the Tag Team Titles. 

What do we get at SummerSlam? The Bushwhackers & Jim Duggan Vs. The Mountie & The Nasty Boys, Papa Shango Vs. El Matador, The Legion of Doom Vs. Money Inc., Nailz Vs. Virgil, Rick Martel Vs. Shawn Michaels (both heel!), The Natural Disasters Vs. The Beverly Brothers, Crush Vs. Repo Man, The Ultimate Warrior Vs. Randy Savage, The Undertaker Vs. Kamala, Tatanka Vs. The Berserker & The British Bulldog Vs. Bret Hart.

I know that they changed venues at the last moment but... what the hell happened? They didn't do a single match from any of the feuds they have been building up for weeks on television. Holding off on Nailz Vs. Big Bossman makes sense because they were doing the injury angle with Boss Man (and that match happens at Survivor Series) but man, it's like they just scrapped all of their build once they were going to Wembley. There is no way the card was changed around & fucked with that much just because they wanted to put Bulldog in the main. That would have just switched Bret & Shawn's opponents, right? That doesn't explain everything else.

The Undertaker's feud with Berserker just seems to not have a payoff? SummerSlam is Kamala. Survivor Series is Kamala again. I know about Nailz choking out Vince McMahon backstage over money & 'Zerker being the door guard & both seemingly getting fired over it(?) but that wasn't until after Survivor Series, right? In December. I guess Nord was there to the beginning of '93 at least.

Rick Martel Vs. Tatanka at least happens at Survivor Series because I've been enjoying that program & look forward to the match. It also looks like Razor Ramon debuts soon & WWF bring in both The Headshrinkers & Yokozuna soon. I know Yoko wins the '93 Rumble & becomes WWF Champion.

So... what happened to all the other feuds? 

 

Edited January 23, 2019 by Coffey
Was wrong about Nord getting fired too

[Al]

I think in large part because they were still selling house shows. Syndicated shows worked as an infomercial for a live event. 

[sek69]

2 hours ago, Coffey said:

They also run the famous Razor Ramon "Scarface" vignettes with him in Miami.

It's still amazing we got to see Scott Hall cosplay as a coke dealer on early 90s WWF TV all because Vince apparently never saw the movie. 

[Coffey]

41 minutes ago, sek69 said:

It's still amazing we got to see Scott Hall cosplay as a coke dealer on early 90s WWF TV all because Vince apparently never saw the movie. 

He also doesn't even try to hide the fact that he's quoting the movie verbatim. 

[JRH]

Speaking of Virgil, I seem to remember him having a decent match against Bret for the world title (Yes, VIRGIL got a title shot), is it included in this run?

[paul sosnowski]

Yes, it is on the 11/21/92 episode

[Afro Steel]

I'm about three episodes deep. My biggest takeaway so far is remembering how much I dislike Curt Hennig on commentary. Unfunny, pretty weak chemistry with Vince, and his tendency to bury the faces in a way that makes him sound more threatened by them than anything else.

[Coffey]

12 minutes ago, Afro Steel said:

I'm about three episodes deep. My biggest takeaway so far is remembering how much I dislike Curt Hennig on commentary. Unfunny, pretty weak chemistry with Vince, and his tendency to bury the faces in a way that makes him sound more threatened by them than anything else.

The beginning of each show, they try so damn hard to get as many puns in for whatever the subject is, that it's downright mind-blowing.

[flyonthewall2983]

I feel like Hennig did better when he was doing commentary for the company in 96 but I could be wrong on that. I generally agree that he wasn't good during this time, but I remember thinking he was okay at the '96 Rumble.

[Strummer]

I think it was Prichard who said that the WWF actually hired comedy writers to come up with those puns at the beginning of Superstars.  Pretty sure they started in 1988-ish and lasted until like 92/93

[JNLister]

So... what happened to all the other feuds? 



House show business absolutely collapsed. As in down a third just between March and April and then continually ugly. Vince likely decided if this stuff wasn't drawing on the road, it might not bomb on PPV so let's roll the dice on something else.

[flyonthewall2983]

On 1/23/2019 at 9:04 PM, Coffey said:

He also doesn't even try to hide the fact that he's quoting the movie verbatim. 

 

[JRH]

Looking at some of these shows, you can definitely see the WWF was going for a much lighter direction after the darker 1991. I mean, outside of the Nailz/Bossman beatdown and Berzerker trying to stab Taker, the angles seem lighter. I'm not saying they went full New Generation, but there's a big difference between Taker locking Warrior in a coffin and Shango making Warrior puke.

[Coffey]

Man, there is a night & day difference between wrestlers when it comes to squash matches.

Razor Ramon & Bret Hart are great at it. Kamala & Repo Man are not. 

Tatanka & Berserker have also been quite entertaining. I'm waiting on Yoko to show up now.

[Lee]

I've watched a ton of squash matches over the years for various different projects, and I totally agree about certain guys having significantly more entertaining squashes than others.

I.R.S. was one of the notable offenders, who would chinlock his way through 4-minute snoozers that felt like they were at least twice as long, and that went for a lot of the usual plodders like Tugboat and The Warlord. Magnum TA was a different cat, in that he would hit the belly-to-belly as quickly as possible it seemed, not necessarily "bad", but never anything to it. And Randy Savage could arguably be in this class, because even though his squash match wasn't bad, it was literally exactly the same every single time, so if you've seen one, you've seen 'em all. Seriously, watch a few Savage squashes back-to-back and you'll quickly be able to call them in your sleep. 

On the other hand, guys like The Steiner Brothers and The Midnight Express were always doing cool moves, crazy suplexes (Steiners) and inventive things you hadn't seen before (Midnights), or basically just throwing out stuff you'd never expect anyone to bother with in a squash. Going from a string of Bastion Booger and Giant Gonzalez squashes on a weekend syndie to a Steiners' squash is a real "Wake up! Something exciting's finally going to happen!" moment. And then you have the likes of Owen Hart, Jeff Jarrett and 123 Kid, who always seem to give their opponent a little bit of back-and-forth before they outsmart and beat them. I suppose the idea is they can't be that good if they're going toe-to-toe with the likes of John Paul, Ron Cumberledge and Barry Horowitz, but by the same token, their matches usually tend to get a reaction out of the frequently dead WWF TV taping crowds, and they tend to make you wish they'd lasted twice as long as they did, like the antithesis of I.R.S. 

[DMJ]

I watched two episodes today. I think the nostalgia factor helps, but these are really watchable shows. 

I know the average WWE fan is aged like 50 or whatever, but it does kind of confuse me as to why, with the PG rating and all, they haven't actively tried to produce a syndicated kid-friendly show to air on Saturday/Sunday mornings. These shows were probably pretty cheap to produce in the early 90s and in 2019 I'd assume they'd be even cheaper. Like, they invest money and time to producing Network-only shows like 205 Live but that isn't bringing in a single new viewer. Why not produce a syndicated show for kids with the chief goal of bringing in viewers aged 7-10? The "next generation" of fans, if you will? 

[C.S.]

WWE has tried some children's programming recently (past 2-3 years, I want to say), but neither really went anywhere and weren't broadcast on traditional TV.

 

 

 

 

 

[JRH]

I find that WWF and NWA/WCW had a different "formula" to their squash matches. The WWF squashes were performed as exhibitions that were just showing off all the moves that they could do (and the times they let the jobbers get offense was showing how they could make comebacks or counters). NWA/WCW on the other hand had the matches go under the pretense that it's a "normal" match, which means oftentimes they would work it like a normal match, including lockups and restholds. While that isnt neccesarily a "bad" thing, it leads to some very slow squash matches. By the 90s, they switched up the formula a bit and did have some more traditional squash matches.

[flyonthewall2983]

I find it hilarious that they managed to put up a few seconds of Warrior puking up in the promotional clip

[NotJayTabb]

On 2/9/2019 at 5:03 AM, Lee said:

I've watched a ton of squash matches over the years for various different projects, and I totally agree about certain guys having significantly more entertaining squashes than others.

I.R.S. was one of the notable offenders, who would chinlock his way through 4-minute snoozers that felt like they were at least twice as long, and that went for a lot of the usual plodders like Tugboat and The Warlord. 

 And then you have the likes of Owen Hart, Jeff Jarrett and 123 Kid, who always seem to give their opponent a little bit of back-and-forth before they outsmart and beat them. I suppose the idea is they can't be that good if they're going toe-to-toe with the likes of John Paul, Ron Cumberledge and Barry Horowitz, but by the same token, their matches usually tend to get a reaction out of the frequently dead WWF TV taping crowds, and they tend to make you wish they'd lasted twice as long as they did, like the antithesis of I.R.S. 

I've been rewatching 94 Raw, and I agree with almost all this. IRS is very much a guy you'll give 3.5 minutes to, and one minute will be chinlock and two will be abdominal stretch. Meanwhile, Jarrett is great at fitting a story into his four minutes - he'll control the match, start getting cocky, his opponent will get a few openings, then an embarrassed Jarrett will swiftly beat him and pin him. Makes it far more interesting.

The only reason I said "almost all" is because I quite like Typhoon as a squash worker. Mainly because he has this awesome suplex where he grabs a front facelock, and just powers them over, not even bothering to hook the arm. Really neat to watch.

[artDDP]

On 2/11/2019 at 1:12 PM, JRH said:

I find that WWF and NWA/WCW had a different "formula" to their squash matches. The WWF squashes were performed as exhibitions that were just showing off all the moves that they could do (and the times they let the jobbers get offense was showing how they could make comebacks or counters). NWA/WCW on the other hand had the matches go under the pretense that it's a "normal" match, which means oftentimes they would work it like a normal match, including lockups and restholds. While that isnt neccesarily a "bad" thing, it leads to some very slow squash matches. By the 90s, they switched up the formula a bit and did have some more traditional squash matches.

This reminds me of my dad, after years of watching WWF squashes, seeing the more competitive WCW matches and remarking, "Wow, that guy actually put up a fight."

A big part of the fun of watching the Superstars uploads is seeing who you recognize as the jobbers. So far I've seen Big Vito, Scott Taylor, Duane Gill, Glen Ruth, and freakin' Jim Brunzell.

[Hawkeye12]

On 2/28/2019 at 11:05 PM, artDDP said:

This reminds me of my dad, after years of watching WWF squashes, seeing the more competitive WCW matches and remarking, "Wow, that guy actually put up a fight."

A big part of the fun of watching the Superstars uploads is seeing who you recognize as the jobbers. So far I've seen Big Vito, Scott Taylor, Duane Gill, Glen Ruth, and freakin' Jim Brunzell.

Perry Saturn and Balls Mahoney are both there as well.

[Coffey]

I finished the year & boy, when Yoko shows up, business picks up. That dude was a squash match master. Everything he did looks like death. What a beast!

Bam Bam Bigelow & Doink the Clown show up too. And if you check out the other shows during the timeline from the year, like Saturday Night's Main Event & the Pay-Per-Views, Lex Luger as The Narcissist shows up at Rumble '93. I think the last '92 SuperStars had The Steiners on it as well. Plus you start getting Headshrinker squashes at the end. It's pretty fun! I want them to upload more though. 

[KB8]

Echoing the sentiments that IRS is a pretty yucky squash match wrestler. The chin lock where he’d sort of half-arsedly put his foot on the rope for leverage, rarely doing anything interesting at all, still coming out the back end of a three minute snooze sweating profusely. You’d think a guy who wore a tie and suspenders in the ring and worked as a heel would find a couple interesting ways of parlaying it into getting some heat (like, choke a guy with your suspenders there, Irwin!), but nah, just pedestrian stuff that felt like eight minutes instead of three. 

By ‘94 Michaels had become a fun squash wrestler and had an awesome piledriver that he’d roll out every now and then. He’d act real cocky, his opponent would get a couple shots in, Michaels would ramp up the nastiness a bit, then he’d get even more cocky when he inevitably won. Agree on Bam Bam being really fun too and of course Yoko would absolutely crush a poor guy on the regular.