WWF Superstars Episode review 1992

[Guest fairtoflair7]

- Hi, this is my 1st time ever doing a WWF tape review. Try to be easy on me, but please do give me your thoughts on my stuff. I have tons of tapes. TV, PPVS, CV. Since I am a fan of anything from 85-93, I decided to do an episode of Superstars from 2/92. I have a whole bunch of these from the same time so I will go in order.

 

- I have seen different people’s reviews and have read many of them. I didn’t know which review system to pick *’s or points so I decided to do it a different way/ I will use +/- format. It will be used on everything: interviews matches, etc. At the end, we will see what the final total is.

 

- OK enough with that- let’s get to where we are in the time period. This takes place right after Royal Rumble 92, the best one ever. There are many angle progressions going on right now for Wrestlemania 8. So without further or do....

 

- WWF Superstars from 2/92

 

-We start out at the WM 8 press conference. This was the press conference where the challenger was named to face Flair at WM 8. There is a big podium in the middle with 2 tables on the outside .On one side, sits The Undertaker, who is looking down and you can’t see his eyes. Boy was Mark into his gimmick. Roddy Piper sits to his left and he’s fresh off his 1st intercontinental title win & he is looking for more. He especially hates Flair b/c if you recall their confrontation on the Funeral Parlor where a huge brawl erupted & Vince got hit with a chair for the 1st time. Next to him is reigning President Jack Tunney.

On the other side of the podium is Hulk Hogan, who sits there very quietly, wanting a shot for the belt in which he proclaimed Sid stole from him. “Macho Man” Randy Savage is besides Hogan. He is pumped up and he keeps moving for some reason. And finally on the end is Sid. He looks mighty pissed and he looks like he is talking to himself. Boy, look at these role models the WWF has  Some of them have serious problems.

Anyway, Mean Gene introduces WHOOO!!!! The reigning WWF Champion, the “Nature Boy” Ric Flair w/ fellow associates Heenen and Perfect . Flair cuts his typical Flair interview. He states that he said all along that he would win the crown. He says he can beat anyone of the challengers next to him. They were all in the ring the night he won the belt. He gets off the podium and all these photographers and reporters surround him for questions and pictures. I don’t remember seeing anything about WM 8 and Ric Flair in the New York Times or any other paper. Gene then introduces the president ”The honorable” Jack Tunney. He emphasizes that it was very difficult to choose a challenger. He carefully considered each and every challenger and he also considered what the public wanted. BWAHHH!!!  He soon came to a decision with the choice of Hulk Hogan. Sid proceeds to stand up thinking he is the unanimous choice but is in

shock. Hogan, then gives a speech on how Flair is going to find out what Hulkamania is. (+5) This was pretty big at this time. Flair’s interviews are always good plus Hogan’s interview was pretty short which always is a +. Also, the fact of the press also makes me laugh.

 

- Hosts are Mr. Perfect and Vince. They are not as bad as Mooney and Hayes but are certainly not as good as the combo’s of Vince & Ventura and Gorilla & Bobby. Perfect gloats on how great it is to have Hogan as a challenger.

 

-We then cut to the interviews from the other challengers after the conference. Savage doesn’t like it but he is happy Hogan got it and wishes him good luck. This is Hogan’s good buddy at his best, sucking up to him so Hogan can influence Vince to give Randy titles. Sid, on the other hand, is pretty pissed. Sid says he was the last man standing and if it wasn’t for Hogan, he would be champion. He is perfectly correct. Hogan, that crybaby pulled him out of the Rumble. He proclaims Hogan can’t beat Flair at all. (Even) Savage sucking up and a decent heel interview by Sid evens it out

 

-Opening match: The Beverly Brother’s w/Genius vs. Kevin Katlin/Scott Colantonio-Never seen these jobbers before. Vince and Perfect talk about the choosing of Hogan and how Sid was out of line in his interview. Perfect doesn’t blame him for being mad. Genius makes a lame poem about the New Foundation. This shouldn’t be so bad. The Beverly’s can wrestle. Blake starts out with Colontonio. Irish whip to start and Blake hits an ugly drop toehold then comes off the rope w/ a flying head BUTT. V & P still are talking about Hogan and are not paying to much attention to the match but I don’t blame them. This is a total squash. Another Irish whip and Blake delivers a nice powerslam. He then gloats about it and tags in Beau and they double-team. They use an Orient Express type move when Beau jumps over Blake on too Colantino’s back. Genius then notices Jameson in the front row. All I can say is watch the episodes of the Bobby Heenen show and you will find out about Jameson. He is eating a sandwich and offers the Genius some. Beau kicks Const. a number of times before throwing him to his own corner and he tags in Katlin. A box in the corner, shows the New Foundation and they talk about how they are Poetry in Motion and Anvil calls them the “Beverly Sisters”. Oh how insulting. Beau hits Katin w/ a flying elbow and he tags in his partner. Mike Enos(Blake‘s his real name) head butts the jobber. He then executes a beautiful Belly to Belly suplex and Perfect calls it a wrestling move. You won’t see the Barbarian or Warlord use that, I can assure you. Beau then comes back in and does a snapmare from the 2nd rope! The Beverly’s come in hit there finisher: a backdrop & in midair while Beau slams Katlin face to the mat and its over at 2:16 (-1)Total squash

 

-Big Boss Man vs. Terry Davis – BBM takes control, whips him into the ropes. Davis ducks a closeline but gets caught in a spinebuster. BBM then does his famous sequence when he drapes his opponent on the middle rope and runs under the bottom rope and punches his opponent. Bossman hits him with a big running boot, then he finishes it w/ the Bossman slam at 1:22. He then handcuffs Davis to the ropes. (-1) Another squash but what do you expect, its Superstars. Also during the match, Vince does his laugh a couple of times, which I despise

 

-Great, now we go to Sean Mooney in the Control Center. He does a bad job reading cue cards. He hypes  Saturday Night’s Main Event. The main event is Sid and Hogan vs. Undertakes and Flair. I know what happens but I won’t spoil it for anyone who has seen it yet. Also on the card is Jake Roberts vs. Randy Savage. This is the last match from their long feud where Jake crashed Randy’s wedding and when Jake snake “bit” Savage. Jake then cuts a weird interview where he talks about his past things he has done to Savage and he claims he is going to “ pull the trigger” We then go to Savage and he talks about the same thing. And he is going to destroy Roberts for Elizabeth (-1) Mooney pisses me off and it doesn’t help that both interviews weren’t too good.

 

-Tatanka vs. Pat Tanaka – This is Tatanka’s debut. Man, Pat Tanaka was in some good matches in the past years. The Rockers-Orient Express match was amazing and the New Foundation match wasn’t bad but now he is jobbing? Perfect claims he has heard a lot about Tatanka and is anticipating too watch him wrestle. Tatanka starts dancing around the ring and he controls with a hiptoss and executes some big chops. He then whips Pat into the ropes but gets caught with a crescent kick. Tanaka chops away and chokes him on the ropes. Tatanka then gets Hogan-ish and starts getting extra wind. He dances around and chops Pat in the face a number of times. Whip to the ropes and Tatanka hits Pat w/ a flying double chop to get the pin? Perfect seems impressed 2:20  (+1) Glad to see a non-squash match but that ending came out of nowhere.

 

-Vince hypes WM8 and we see some memorable moments from past WM’s. We see highlights of Ali, Ray Charles, the boxing match between piper & Mr. T, Regis Philburn w/ The Undertaker (Even) Decent but nothing special to get a point

 

-IRS vs. Bob Leddley – Ah, Mike Rotunda otherwise known as IRS get on the mike and hopes everyone is paying there taxes this years unlike the year before. Perfect question’s if Vince has paid all his taxes but he won’t comment on that. Vince doesn’t want to get into that or OTHER things going on right now.  IRS starts quick and takes control of the arm. He rams Leddley into the buckle then he follows with a beautiful back suplex. Snapmare by Irwin as the crowd starts chanting his name. A couple of elbows later, Rotunda applies an abdominal stretch. He tries getting heat but holding the ropes for leverage. I never understood how holding the ropes would help you. Perfect hypes an IRS-Bossman match. Good thing there wasn’t. Perfect then says that “the match of all matches” is Flair vs. Hogan. WCW tried doing this 2 years later and I wouldn’t call it the matches of all matches even though it was good.  Back to the match, Irwin hits his patent “Write off” to get the pin 1:41  (-1) Not too good of a squash and P & V aren’t too entertaining today

 

-We cut to Mooney once again. Ugh. He hypes SNME one again Hogan- Sid vs. Flair-Taker. This time he tells us about the tag title match LOD vs. The Beverly Brothers. We see an interview where the Beverly’s blabber about how LOD is running away from them and other pointless shit. LOD then cuts a promo hyping how they are going to beat the holy hell out of the Brothers. (-3) 2 terrible interviews about how they are going to put on a shitty match. Mooney just adds to the torture.

 

-Papa Shango hype- Shango is casting spells and laughing to himself. (-1) Weird Shit

 

-“El Matador” Tito Santana vs. Bob Morgan – I’m surprised we wouldn’t see Tito and Virgil job to a tag-team this week. O wait, that was on Primetime. Morgan is wearing these ugly looking trunks. Morgan backs Chico into the corner but Tito reverses and whips him to the other corner. Santana hits big Morgan with a clothesline. He puts Morgan in a headlock on the mat. Vince hypes the WBF magazine and you see photos of it in the corner. While I laugh, Morgan puts his head down and gets dropkicked by Tito. Chico then, once again, applies the headlock of death. Vince makes fun of Mogan’s physique. Where is Jesse when you need him? Santana then resorts to the other move of death, the chinlock. Morgan gets to the ropes and rakes Tito’s eyes. Morgan hits Chico with some of the worst punches I have ever seen. Tito takes control and whips Morgan into the ropes and hits a terribly looking backdrop in which Morgan fell to the side and it didn’t even look like a backdrop. Vince calls Morgan a “heavy load”. Santana with a kneelift and hits the flying forearm/jalepino for 3. 2:06  (-2) This is a terrible match, not even considering that it’s a squash. Bob Morgan is probably one of the worst wrestlers I have ever seen. Tito’s matches are usually good.

 

-We then go to the Funeral Parlor w/ Paul Bearer- Now this was when Paul was good. His guest this weak is Sensational Sherri. Vince tries to be funny claiming that Paul looks alive when he looks at Sherri. The Sensational one says she is on cloud 9 and that she is in love w/ a WWF superstar. She starts to describe him. Perfect claims its him. Paul’s face is pretty funny to look at while he is conducting an interview. Sherri finally says that she is in love w/ Shawn Michaels. P & V are confused. That came out of nowhere. Sherri says there is no more Rockers. I frown. She says Shawn never needed Marty Jannety.  We see the historical footage of Shawn throwing Marty through the barber shop window.  Paul asks what about the Million $ Man. Sherri claims he left the door wide open for her and he only wants what makes her happy.  I don’t blame Dibiase for letting her go. He can just buy a hoar. That at least has to be better then Sherri. (+3) Funeral Parlor’s are usually good and this was pretty big at the time.

 

-LOD vs. Long time jobber’s Pete Sanchez and Jim Cooper- Perfect says what we just saw w/ Sherri was the greatest thing he has ever seen. Many wouldn’t agree. Well at least we are going to se the Doomsday Device, one of the best finishers of all time. LOD goes right at it, attacking both guys. Hawk throws Cooper outside the ring and Animal whips Sanchez into the ropes and hits a dropkick, which is pretty good for a 300 pounder. Animal then hits a huge clothesline on Sanchez. Animal works on the arm and tags in Hawk, who goes to the top & hits the arm. A flair-like chop from Hawk and a running boot knocks helpless Pete to the ground. Scoopslam and he just chucks Sanchez to his corner to tag Cooper. Hawk takes control right away and snapmares him. Animal tags back in and hits a running shoulder block. We then see the 2nd belly to belly suplex of the show by Animal. Hawk tags back in and snapmares his opponent once again. He then applies a chinlock. Hawk whips Cooper into the corner. Animal comes in and Hawk whips him right into Cooper. Then, Animal puts Cooper on his shoulders and the Doomsday Device comes straight after that. This looked better then usual LOD Devices because Cooper did a complete flip thanks to Animal. 2:35(Even) Total squash but to watch LOD’s finisher is always fun.

 

-Undertaker vs. Mickey J- This is proof to see how Paul and Mark were so into there gimmicks. The Undertaker was so much better here then today. He actually could do some wrestling moves at this point. Undertaker takes controls with some hard chops to Mickey. Undertaker would move so slowly in his matches. Irish whip and the next thing you see is a huge boot, which goes right into the helpless jobber’s face. Perfect talks about how the Undertaker uses so much psychology in the ring. Perfect says he is the master at psychology though. Under picks up J and chokes him. Taker whips him in the ropes and he gets air and clotheslines Mickey to the mat. Taker then hits the tombstone 1:47 Taker then puts the jobber in a bodybag  (+1) Another squash but this was the Undertaker when he was at his best with psychology and wrestling.

 

-We see Mooney and again he hypes SNME. This time he tells us about the IC match between champ Roddy Piper & The Mountie. We go to an interview w/ Mountie and he’s going to conduct some law and order on the champ on SNME. After, we go to Piper. He says the Mountie wears lipstick because on the belt there are lipstick stains where the Mountie kissed it. Piper conducts a really weird interview saying stuff I can’t understand but he probably said he going to win. (-1) Piper interviews are usually good but this wasn’t his best. I can’t stand Mooney

 

-The closing promos are shown hyping the WWF ring. Hulk Hogan’s vitamins are shown. Yea, those vitamins are probably not legal in this country.

 

-Next week’s superstars are shown and they consist of Papa Shango (his debut), the other half of the jobbing wrecking crew Virgil , Jake “the snake” Roberts, “, Marty Jannety, Funeral Parlor w/Ric Flair, which should be interesting and more matches will be announced for WM8

                               

-Final Overview- The total amount of points was surprisingly even. I thought this show was decent with angle developments w/ the championship match being name, Shawn & Sherri, and the debut of Tatanka. On the bad side, we had Mooney and some pretty bad interviews + some uneventful squashes. All in All, this was a decent episode of Superstars. Hopefully, I will be back soon to do the next episode. If you would like the shows, email me at [email protected]. All feedback is welcome. Thanks

[Guest areacode212]

Wow, this is the most detailed recap of a Superstars episode I've ever read. Since for a long time, Superstars was the only WWF show I could watch, this brought back some good memories. Hope to see more of them!

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

I would love to see more Superstar & Challenge rants.  How many of these do you have on tape?

 

My only suggestion would be to have a total score at the end.  Something like:

 

"Blah blah blah

 

Total Score: -5"

 

Or something along those lines.

 

Overall, great stuff.  Keep 'em coming.

[Guest fairtoflair7]

Thanks fo the input. usually when someone reviews a show like this, they don't include any detail at all about the match and just say something about the finish etc.I really didn't do that. If its punches/kicks etc, i won't go into it but if its a valid move or hold, its worth being said.  I also like to see how much offense the jobber will get in b/c that shows the domination of who is wrestling and how he should be percieved. You also can't really base these shows on stars. You have to use the +/- system or points. There are many little things that you can point out during a match too. Anyway,  I have another review which I did. I will post it tomorrow.