WWF Royal Rumble 1993

WWF Royal Rumble 1993
Venue: Sacramento, California
Date: 24/1/93
Attendance: 16,000
Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon & Bobby Heenan


The fifth annual WWF Royal Rumble pay-per-view took place in Sacramento, California and was headlined by Bret Hart's WWF title defence against Razor Ramon and of course, the Royal Rumble match itself. This would also be the final PPV that Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan would call together.

Review

The Steiner Brothers made their WWF PPV debut with a victory over The Beverly Brothers in a good opening match. Rick & Scott got a great reaction from the WWF fan base proving they did watch the competition's product... Shawn Michaels pinned Marty Jannetty to retain the Intercontinental Title after Sherri accidentally hit Jannetty in the face with her shoe. Sherri's hysterics after the bout were very believable as she sold being distraught over her miscue. The match may not quite have been the high flying spectacle some expected from the former Rockers but was actually a very good contest featuring a mixture of cool manoeuvres and good wrestling. This match was about a year later than it should have been due to Jannetty being fired and their planned rematch at Wrestlemania IX had to be scrapped as well with Jannetty being dismissed once again...

Bam Bam Bigelow made his first WWF PPV appearance in over five years as he defeated The Big Boss Man. Boss Man was on his way out of the company and did the clean job here. The match wasn't much cop (no pun intended)... Unlike at Survivor Series Bret Hart's WWF Heavyweight Title felt like it might be under threat as he faced Razor Ramon who had attacked Owen Hart to help build heat for this one. Like Michaels/Jannetty this was another very good bout with good heat. Hart went over by submission with not the best applied Sharpshooter. Ramon would be permanently dropped to the upper mid-card after this.

Lex Luger debuted as "Narcissus" (later changed to "The Narcissist" Lex Luger) after the WBF went down the pan. The story was that Bobby Heenan had brought in Luger to take care of Mr Perfect who had turned on him and Ric Flair back in November.

The Royal Rumble match was easily the worst to date and was massively lacking in star power especially compared to previous years. Bob Backlund, who was completely lacking in charisma (at least until he discovered his crazed heel gimmick in late 1994) was chosen as the man to break Flair's longevity record. The trouble was Backlund had no chance in carrying the match in the way Flair had done in 1992. His style was very awkward and dated and he was not over in the slightest. Flair did a decent job early on. His showdown with Perfect, although brief, was one of the few highlights of the match. Perfect was inexplicably eliminated like a mid-carder soon after. Giant Gonzales' debut was at least intriguing as he laid waste to The Undertaker and eliminated him despite not being in the match. The match came down to Yokozuna and Randy Savage which wasn't too bad until the finish which made the "Macho Man" look like a complete moron. Savage managed to take Yoko off his feet and hit his patented top rope elbow drop before going for a pinfall. Yoko then pressed Savage from the canvas up and over the top rope which was just not believable. The backstage face-to-face between Yokozuna and Bret Hart was a nice touch though.

Overall

After a good undercard the show was let down by a humdrum Royal Rumble match which at least brought to the fore a new top heel in Yokozuna. The Ric Flair/Mr Perfect feud came to an end the next night on Raw as Perfect defeated the "Nature Boy" in a match where the loser left the WWF. Flair would return to WCW where he would remain until the bitter end. Bret Hart was set to collide with Yokozuna in the main event of Wrestlemania IX for the WWF Heavyweight Title. The downward spiral continued as Royal Rumble 1993 pulled a 1.2 buy rate which was approximately 240,000 buys.

Results
1 The Steiner Brothers def The Beverly Brothers by pinfall (9:10) **3/4
2 Shawn Michaels (c) pinned Marty Jannetty to retain the WWF Intercontinental Title (14:20) ***1/2
3 Bam Bam Bigelow pinned The Big Boss Man (10:10) *
4 Bret Hart (c) def Razor Ramon by submission to retain the WWF Heavyweight Title (17:52) ***1/2
5 Yokozuna won the Royal Rumble match (66:35) *1/2


Rating
12.25/25 = 49%

WWF Royal Rumble 1991

WWF Royal Rumble 1991
Venue: Miami, Florida
Date: 19/01/91
Attendance: 16,000
Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon & Rowdy Roddy Piper

The 1991 Royal Rumble took place just days after the start of Operation Desert Storm where coalition forces entered into battle as part of the Gulf War and with heavy U.S. involvement the show began with the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner. However the World Wrestling Federation was gaining lots of negative press for portraying Sergeant Slaughter as an Iraqi sympathiser who had turned his back on the United States. Many deemed this as extremely distasteful exploitation of a war that would claim many lives. Undeterred, the WWF installed Slaughter as the number one contender to the Ultimate Warrior's WWF Heavyweight Title in order to capitalise on the very real events in the Middle East thus making Slaughter a red hot heel (for a short time at least).

Review

The Rockers defeated The Orient Express in a superb opening bout featuring lots of innovative sequences and manoeuvres. The Express' Sato had been replaced by Kato who was Paul Diamond under a mask. Diamond and Tanaka had teamed previously as Bad Company in the AWA and were familiar with The (Midnight) Rockers who they'd faced many times. The two teams clearly had great chemistry and the Miami crowd was hot for this exciting tag team contest...

Sensational Queen Sherri called out the Ultimate Warrior in an attempt to persuade the champion to grant Randy Savage a title shot should he defeat Sgt Slaughter later in the evening. She tried insulting, flirting and begging but to no avail as Warrior flat out refused. Savage's reaction was fantastic...

Next up the Big Boss Man continued his war against the Heenan Family as he pinned The Barbarian in a surprisingly good encounter. Boss Man was at his peak as a worker around this time and The Barbarian was also able to pull out good matches in the right circumstances. Intercontinental Champion Mr Perfect would be next in line for the Big Boss Man at WrestleMania...

Sgt Slaughter defeated the Ultimate Warrior to become the new WWF Heavyweight Champion in a super-heated title match with lots of help from Randy Savage and Sherri. There was not much in the way of wrestling but the match told a great story as a bitter and vengeful Savage ensured Warrior would not leave the Royal Rumble as champion. After interfering early in the match Warrior chased Sherri away from ringside only to be blindsided by Savage while Slaughter distracted the referee. Warrior managed to make his way back to the ring where Slaughter was able to capitalise. Just as it looked like Warrior was making a comeback Sherri and Savage returned to ringside and Savage smashed a sceptre over Warrior's head allowing Slaughter to take the championship. Gorilla Monsoon and Roddy Piper's outrage on commentary only added to the drama. While Slaughter's offense continued to look weak it must be said he was excellent at selling a beating. Warrior and Savage were on a collision course set for WrestleMania...

Jacques Rougeau had recently been repackaged as The Mountie and was a bit more serious at this point as opposed to the comedy character he would later become. Mountie beat Koko B Ware in a boring contest that went too long. The crowd were obviously deflated after Warrior's shock title loss but I can't believe this bout would've been much better received had it been placed after the Boss Man/Barbarian match. The best part was Jimmy Hart talking trash to Frankie when Mountie was on the offense. This match did not appear on the original video release of the event, which was not a bad thing...

The Ted Dibiase/Dusty Rhodes feud came to an end as Dibiase teamed with his bodyguard Virgil to face Rhodes and his son Dustin. The younger Rhodes took a beating for a big chunk of the bout until Dusty was finally able to tag in but he was easily beaten by Dibiase which was understandable as the American Dream was just about to return to WCW. The real story in this match though was a tremendous post match angle between Dibiase and Virgil. After finally having enough of being treated so appallingly by his employer, Virgil knocked out Dibiase with the Million Dollar belt and left the arena to a huge ovation...

The Royal Rumble match itself was entertaining although it lacked in big memorable moments. Rick Martel became the new record holder for endurance clocking in with over 52 minutes and there were good showings for Bret Hart, a young Shane Douglas and the returning British Bulldog. Randy Savage would not appear as scheduled as he was run out of the building by the Ultimate Warrior. Hulk Hogan won the match for the second year running by lastly eliminating Earthquake. Hogan would now become the number one contender to face Sgt Slaughter at WrestleMania VII.

Overall
A really good show that tends to be remembered for the Ultimate Warrior's dramatic title loss to Sgt Slaughter but every match on the card is worthwhile (well, except one) and set the scene nicely for WrestleMania VII. With 440,000 buys on pay-per-view, this would be the highest drawing Royal Rumble until 1999.

Results
1 The Rockers def The Orient Express by pinfall (19:15) ****
2 The Big Boss Man pinned The Barbarian (14:15) ***
3 Sgt Slaughter pinned The Ultimate Warrior (c) to win the WWF Heavyweight Title (12:47) ***
4 The Mountie pinned Koko B Ware (9:12) *
5 Ted Dibiase & Virgil def Dusty Rhodes & Dustin Rhodes (9:57) **1/2
6 Hulk Hogan won the Royal Rumble match (65:17) ***

Rating
16.50/30 = 55%

Star Rating Guide
***** Excellent/World Class
**** Very Good
***    Good
**     OK/Acceptable
* Poor
DUD Abysmal
SQ Squash (Less than 1 min)

WWF Survivor Series 1992

WWF Survivor Series 1992
Venue: Richfield, Ohio
Date: 25/11/92
Attendance: 17,500
Commentators: Vince McMahon & Bobby Heenan




The WWF were forced into a major change to the Survivor Series line up just a couple of weeks prior to the event as the Ultimate Warrior and the British Bulldog were both fired for failing drug tests. Bulldog's match with The Mountie was scrapped but much more disruptive was Warrior's dismissal as he was part of the main event program that had been built for months. With few options left open to them Mr Perfect (who had to come out of retirement and cease claiming his Lloyds of London insurance pay) was chosen as the man to partner Randy Savage in his battle with Ric Flair and Razor Ramon in the headline bout. It didn't make a great deal of sense considering what Perfect (and Flair) had done to Savage all year but it was a case of needs must. It was however a memorable turn as Perfect accepted Savage's offer on Prime Time Wrestling by pouring water over the head of Bobby Heenan after being slapped by "The Brain". Warrior would be gone from the company for over three years while Bulldog would be back in the summer of 1994 after a stint in WCW.

The original main event line up

Review
The Headshrinkers defeated High Energy (Owen Hart & Koko B Ware) in a fairly good opener which was designed to get the new heel team over. High Energy would prove to be another dead end role for the talented Owen Hart... The Big Boss Man beat Nailz in a "Knightstick (on a pole) Match" in what was supposed to be their big showdown but turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. This match was six months in the making but was over in less than six minutes and despite all the hype being about the knightstick it was barely a factor as Boss Man won clean and suddenly with the Boss Man Slam. A passable brawl... Tatanka and Rick Martel had a pretty boring bout which was overshadowed by the appearance of Matt Borne at ringside introducing the as yet unnamed Doink the Clown gimmick. Tatanka won clean with the "Papoose To Go" (Fallaway Slam).

The original plan was for Davey Boy Smith to face The Mountie

Next up was the main event which went on at half way to allow the World Title bout to go on last. Mr Perfect and Randy Savage defeated Ric Flair and Razor Ramon in a really good tag match although it did end with a weak disqualification finish. Despite a 15 month lay-off Perfect looked good here. They teased him having second thoughts on teaming with Savage mid-way through the contest... Yokozuna made his PPV debut with a squash victory over Virgil. Yoko's offense looked devastating... The Nasty Boys and The Natural Disasters overcame tag champions Money Inc and The Beverly Brothers in a tag team elimination match. While not offensive the match was pretty lifeless and seemed to drag. The Nasty's were the surviving team here confirming them as number one contenders to Money Inc's title... The Undertaker beat Kamala in a terrible "Coffin Match". It was as bad as their Summerslam bout but at least it had a finish. Undertaker pinned Kamala after a Tombstone and then rolled him into the coffin and nailed it shut.

Randy Savage and Mr Perfect double team Ric Flair

Finally WWF Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart defeated Shawn Michaels by submission in a quality wrestling match. Hart was being put over as a fighting champion who defended the title regularly and although Michaels was his biggest challenge so far, nobody really believed "The Heartbreak Kid" had a chance of winning the big one here. Michaels was without Sensational Sherri following an angle where the returning Marty Jannetty smashed a mirror over her head after Shawn had pulled her into harm's way. Santa Claus joined Hart in the ring to end the show on a feel good note for the younger fans.

Overall
Survivor Series 1992, much like Summerslam was a two match show and thankfully the two feature bouts delivered in the ring because the rest of the show was quite forgettable. Considering the disruption caused by Warrior's exit the main event was a success thanks to the intrigue of Mr Perfect turning on Ric Flair and Bobby Heenan to join forces with Randy Savage, regardless of whether it made sense or not. Bret Hart's first PPV title defence against Shawn Michaels was a great technical exhibition with the only possible negative being it was a touch hold heavy in places. The only other notable happening was the emergence of new super heel Yokozuna. Survivor Series 1992 pulled in approximately 250,000 buys on pay-per-view with a 1.4 buy rate.

Bret Hart applies the match winning Sharpshooter

Results
1 The Headshrinkers def High Energy by pinfall (7:38) **1/2
2 The Big Boss Man pinned Nailz in a "Knightstick Match" (5:43) *1/2
3 Tatanka pinned Rick Martel (11:04) *3/4
4 Randy Savage & Mr Perfect def Ric Flair & Razor Ramon by disqualification (16:29) ***1/2
5 Yokozuna pinned Virgil (3:34) *
6 The Nasty Boys & The Natural Disasters def Money Inc & The Beverly Brothers in an Elimination Match (15:50) *3/4
7 The Undertaker def Kamala in a "Coffin Match" (5:27) DUD
8 Bret Hart (c) def Shawn Michaels by submission to retain the WWF Heavyweight Title (26:40) ***3/4




Rating
15.75/40 = 39.38%

WWE Extreme Rules 2015

To kick off the show Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson beat The Usos in an okay match that the fans did not appear overly bothered about. There were plenty of boos for The Usos which is partly due to their connection with Roman Reigns but also because they are just a really uninteresting tag team. The heels went over fairly decisively here.

Speaking of decisive victories, Rusev hammered Kalisto to win the United States title by submission. Kalisto is a talented performer but he has little connection with the fans and his title reign has been highly forgettable. After more than a year of being completely wasted Rusev seems to be set for a renewed push. Hopefully this is not just so he can be sacrificed to the returning John Cena.

The New Day (Big E & Xavier Woods) defeated The Vaudevillians to retain the tag team title with an assist from Kofi Kingston. The finish made the super-over champions look like the heels but I don't think the fans really care about that. The match was a very standard affair.

Intercontinental Champion Miz managed to survive a fatal four-way against Cesaro, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens in a superb match-up. There were some hot near falls in this one and quality performances all round before Miz stole a pinfall to retain the gold. As I said last month I feel the title really should be the focal point of the Owens/Zayn feud and not wasted on The Miz.

Dean Ambrose's "Asylum" cage match with Chris Jericho was designed to be an epic but it just did not happen. The heat wasn't there and the fans got bored and started chanting for Seth Rollins. Even Ambrose's elbow from the top of the cage didn't elicit the booming response it should have. What did pop the crowd in the end was the introduction of thumb tacks. I was surprised it was Jericho that took the big bump onto them before Ambrose DDT'd him (and himself) into them again for the win. I thought it was important that Ambrose won this as opposed to them evening things up with a Jericho victory but Ambrose has definitely lost a lot of momentum this year.

Charlotte retained the women's title over Natalya in a disappointing match with another cheap finish. Towards the end of the bout Ric Flair's music played and Dana Brooke came out to distract Nattie allowing Charlotte to pick up the win by Figure 8 submission.

Finally Roman Reigns defeated AJ Styles in an excellent brawl fought under "Extreme Rules". Reigns was booed heavily once again but is reacting much better to it these days. Styles put in another top class performance to carry the action but Reigns looked good here too. The interference of "The Club" and The Usos made storyline sense as it did last month and there were some really good near falls late on. Reigns' match winning spear to Styles mid-air was executed perfectly. The biggest pop of the night came after the bell as Seth Rollins made his return and took down Reigns with a Pedigree. I was hoping this would lead to a great build up to a big title match at Summerslam but it looks like they're going the hot shot route and doing the match at Money In The Bank instead.

On the whole it was a decent enough show for a 'B' pay-per-view. The only matches that really need to be sought out are the Intercontinental and World Heavyweight title bouts. The rest you could really take or leave.

WWE Payback 2016

Just a few thoughts about Payback from this past Sunday night...

On the whole I liked the show. It was much more entertaining than Wrestlemania, the event had a better build up and the crowd was really lively as is usually the case in Rosemont. I don't think there was a bad match on the show but at the same time I expected more from a couple of them. My main gripe coming out of the show was despite it being the beginning of a so-called "New Era" in WWE, two championship matches were complete rehashes of pay-per-view main events from the 1990s. The worst offender was Charlotte versus Natalya which was a good match until they did the ridiculous "Montreal Screwjob" finish for the 258th time. Is that the only reason they brought Bret Hart in? It's like WWE want Hart to only be remembered for that one night in the Molson Centre. Just let it go. Hart was clearly still in some discomfort following his recent battle with prostate cancer which was no more evident than when he carefully put Ric Flair in the sharpshooter after the bout. The main event between Roman Reigns and AJ Styles was another good scrap but the story of the match bared a striking resemblance to the Shawn Michaels/Vader main event at Summerslam 1996. Styles, like Vader won the match by count out and then by disqualification only for the match to be restarted twice so the champion could go over by pinfall in the end. Once Shane McMahon had restarted the match declaring there could be no count outs it was just a matter of time before a disqualification was called so his sister could have her share of the spotlight. I did like that we were kept guessing on the relationship between Styles and his former Bullet Club buddies but it was obvious Reigns was always going to win this one.

Elsewhere on the show... Enzo Amore was very unfortunate to suffer the injury he did and hopefully he recovers quickly... The New Day were fantastic once again in their role. The have great chemistry together but I just worry that people now care more about their comedy routines than their actual matches... Kevin Owens versus Sami Zayn was a tremendous match with a really good build. I don't understand why their feud is not over the Intercontinental Title though... Speaking of which The Miz's title defence over Cesaro was decent enough but was overshadowed by Owens' brilliant performance on commentary. It looks like we're heading for a four way match at Extreme Rules so there's hope yet that the IC title will end up back in the Owens/Zayn feud... Dean Ambrose scored a much needed win over Chris Jericho but the match, while not bad at all, was still quite sloppy in places and I felt it should've been better... Finally Vince McMahon decided that both Shane and Stephanie will run Raw (or is it WWE as a whole?) together. Nobody was particularly happy with that outcome which is something else that has been done before by Steve Austin and Eric Bischoff back in 2003. I seriously doubt it will be anywhere near as entertaining featuring the McMahon siblings in 2016. That said I thought the segment itself on this show was good fun.

WWF Summerslam 1992

WWF Summerslam 1992
Venue: London, England
Date: 29/8/92 (Aired 31/8/92)
Attendance: 80,355
Commentators: Vince McMahon & Bobby Heenan


Originally set for Washington DC, Summerslam 1992 was moved to London, England to capitalise on the pro wrestling boom in the UK. The show attracted over 80,000 fans to Wembley Stadium on a warm summer night where the star attraction would be Davey Boy Smith who was incredibly over in the UK (and Europe). So much so that Smith's Intercontinental Title match with brother-in-law Bret Hart was positioned in the headline slot ahead of Randy Savage's WWF Heavyweight Title defence against the Ultimate Warrior which was the show's actual main event and promoted on TV as such. Sadly despite it's success Summerslam 1992 remains the only major pay-per-view to have taken place in the UK, or outside of North America for that matter. This was also the first WWF pay-per-view without Hulk Hogan.


Review
In the two dark matches before the PPV, Hacksaw Jim Duggan and the Bushwackers beat the Mountie and the Nasty Boys in an okay six-man tag and Papa Shango defeated El Matador in another passable affair. These matches (along with Tatanka versus The Berzerker from later in the evening) were recorded to be aired on Prime Time Wrestling in the coming weeks and but would also appear on the video release of the event. As you might be able to tell by the adjusted sound levels the commentary for the dark matches was inserted afterwards.

In the opening match of the pay-per-view the Legion of Doom finally got their revenge on Money Inc and Jimmy Hart for cheating them out of the World Tag Team Title earlier in the year. LOD were on their way out of the WWF but still went over clean here. Animal power slammed and pinned Ted Dibiase for the win in a decent match. The match is remembered more for LOD riding motorcycles to the ring and for Paul Ellering's ventriloquist act with LOD dummy mascot Rocco. Minus 100 cool points for that idea... Nailz squashed Virgil as he continued his preparation for a showdown with the Big Boss Man.

Shawn Michaels was initially set to take the Intercontinental Title from Bret Hart on this show until the change in location. As a result Michaels had to be satisfied working a program with Rick Martel where they battled for the affections of Michaels' manager Sensational Sherri. In this match neither man was permitted to strike the other in the face as per Sherri's instructions. That obviously didn't last and when the two combatants threatened to throw punches Sherri 'fainted' and both men were counted out as they fought over who would tend to her. It all ended when Martel threw a pail of water in Sherri's face. Oh the hilarity! The match itself was just alright and Michaels was elected the babyface in this one by the live crowd... Tag Team Champions The Natural Disasters retained the gold in a so-so bout with The Beverly Brothers. Earthquake and Typhoon were really over with the Wembley crowd and received a big pop when Quake scored the victory for his team... In another squash the repackaged Crush eased past his former tag team partner Repo Man. The two teamed previously as Demolition mk2 (Smash & Crush).

Randy Savage retained the WWF Heavyweight Title despite a count out loss to the Ultimate Warrior in a tremendous match carried superbly by the Macho Man. Warrior was the clear crowd favourite here although Savage did have some support in the stadium. The build and the angle surrounding the match really helped the bout's success as Mr Perfect declared he would be in the corner of one of the combatants. This caused a lot of friction between Savage and Warrior who both believed the other had 'sold out' to Perfect and Ric Flair. After about 15 minutes of action Perfect (along with Flair) walked out and first gave the impression he was backing Warrior but after a ref bump the heels attacked Warrior unbeknownst to the champion. Warrior survived this but was later nailed with a steel chair by Flair once again out of the view of Savage. As Savage was ready to hit his big elbow drop on Warrior he instead decided to leap down on Flair who cracked Savage's knee with a steel chair. This caused Savage to be counted out. Flair and Perfect attacked Savage's knee until Warrior made the save. The match ended with Warrior helping the injured Savage to the back making it clear that neither man had sold out to the dark side. This was an excellent piece of work. It led to Ric Flair regaining the title from Savage at the TV tapings in Pennsylvania capitalising on the damage done to Savage's knee.

Tatanka beat the Berzerker in the aforementioned dark match. It was straightforward and pretty forgettable... The Undertaker made a memorable entrance on the back of a hearse before defeating Kamala in a terrible match. Kamala's 'keeper' Kim Chee interfered causing a really lame disqualification.

In the night's main event The British Bulldog pinned Bret Hart to capture the Intercontinental Title in a fantastic match which was at least on par with Randy Savage versus Ricky Steamboat from Wrestlemania III as the greatest WWF match ever at that point in time. Davey Boy Smith received a booming response as he made his entrance accompanied by Lennox Lewis, the reaction was only topped by the one he received at the end of the bout. Smith was so over that Hart was effectively heel for the night and was booed at various points during the contest. It was however a tremendous performance by "The Hitman" who carried the bout and ensured that both he and his opponent's status was significantly raised by the time the final bell rang. Hart survived a top rope superplex and Smith's running powerslam while the Bulldog wouldn't be beaten by Hart's Sharpshooter or a German suplex. There was one scary moment where Bret performed a plancha over the top rope onto an unsuspecting Smith and somehow improvised the move into a reverse bulldog. According to Hart, Davey had forgotten this manoeuvre was coming. In the end Hart went for a sunset flip but Davey Boy dropped to his knees and cradled Bret for the 1-2-3 and an incredible pop from the Wembley crowd. After the match with fireworks exploding in the stadium, Davey and Bret embraced along with Diana (Davey's wife and Bret's sister) whose concerned reactions had been shown multiple times throughout the match. It was a great ending to a wonderful match.

Overall
Summerslam was a historic and memorable event even though it was effectively a two match show. With the exception of LOD/Money Inc which was decent, all of the supporting matches on the card weren't very good but the fact that the crowd was so into everything made them seem better than they actually were. The crowd heat went up to another level though for Savage/Warrior and again for Hart/Bulldog and both matches were more than worthy of the reactions they got. The Intercontinental title match was Davey Boy Smith's greatest moment of his career while Bret Hart would be rewarded by being stepped up to world title status very soon. Smith's title reign wouldn't be a long one though as he would relinquish it to Shawn Michaels in late October and would be on his way out of the company in November for an alleged drugs violation. He would spend 1993 in WCW before returning to the WWF in the summer of 1994. Summerslam 1992 pulled a 1.6, approximately 280,000 buys on pay-per-view which was down from Wrestlemania but similar to Royal Rumble of that year.


Results
(Dark) The Bushwackers & Jim Duggan def The Nasty Boys & The Mountie by pinfall (12:33) **
(Dark) Papa Shango pinned El Matador (6:00) *1/2
1 The Legion of Doom def Money Inc by pinfall (11:58) **1/2
2 Nailz def Virgil by submission (3:15) 1/2
3 Shawn Michaels fought Rick Martel to a double count out (8:06) **
4 The Natural Disasters (c) def The Beverly Brothers to retain the WWF Tag Team Title (10:21) *1/2
5 Crush def Repo Man by submission (4:03) 1/2
6 The Ultimate Warrior def Randy Savage (c) by count out. Savage retained the WWF Heavyweight Title (26:17) ****
(Dark) Tatanka pinned The Berzerker (5:46) *3/4
7 The Undertaker def Kamala by disqualification (3:42) DUD
8 The British Bulldog pinned Bret Hart (c) to win the WWF Intercontinental Title (25:13) ****3/4


Rating
15.75/40 = 39.38%

Wrestlemania 32 Thoughts

WWE finally broke their own all time attendance record packing nearly 100,000 fans into the impressive AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas but sadly Wrestlemania was a really underwhelming ho-hum show. That's not to say there were no big moments or good matches but this show fell far short of what a Wrestlemania should be. Fortunately for WWE the name "Wrestlemania" is almost enough for a sell out these days but how long that will continue to be the case is questionable after what the company have produced recently. Here are my positives and negatives from the big event...


+ Positives
Lita's announcement on the pre-show that the "Divas" name and championship were being scrapped was very welcome. The ladies will once again compete for the Women's Championship and like their male counterparts will be referred to as "Superstars". The awful Divas title belt was replaced by one that looks similar to the WWE World Heavyweight Title... Brie Bella was allowed to leave WWE on her own terms and even got her hand raised in the process. A pleasant surprise... The Intercontinental Title ladder match was the best match of the night. Lots of cool and crazy spots and plenty of excitement... AJ Styles versus Chris Jericho was a really good bout that was built well and the crowd appreciated it more as it went on... I liked the New Day's entrance. It was certainly unique... Steve Austin's appearance along with Shawn Michaels and Mick Foley was a great moment of nostalgia that the crowd ate up. Austin's entrance brought the biggest pop of the night. Michaels looked in a great shape... Brock Lesnar had a solid street fight match with Dean Ambrose... The Women's Title match was very good and although it seemed the right time to give Sasha Banks the belt I'm not too disappointed as I think it would benefit her more to have a longer feud with Charlotte and defeat her in a one-on-one situation... Shane McMahon's leap of the top of a very tall Hell In A Cell cage was insane. Yes there was something underneath the announce desk to help cushion his fall but it was still an incredible risk. His Coast To Coast (Van Terminator) manoeuvre was also well executed... The Rock's appearance was another cool moment and I don't think his surprise six second victory over Erick Rowan did any harm. John Cena's return was nicely timed and by and large got the desired reaction from the crowd. Rock looked and sounded as great as ever... Speaking of looking great Triple H's physique was ripped and he had obviously gotten himself into tremendous shape for the big show (either naturally or otherwise). He didn't look anything like as good as this at Royal Rumble.


- Negatives
The United States Title match taking place in front of a virtually empty stadium. Apparently fans had trouble getting into the arena due to an electronic error with tickets... Lita proclaiming that the winner of the Charlotte/Sasha Banks/Becky Lynch match would be the "first ever WWE Women's Champion" conveniently forgetting the title previously existed for over 50 years... Bizarre choice of winner in the Intercontinental Title match. Zack Ryder's victory was a huge moment for him personally but came out of nowhere and made little sense. Coupled with what happened the next night on Raw, what was the point? Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn surely should have been the focus here rather than an afterthought... Another strange choice of winner in the Styles/Jericho match. It's bad enough that they'd already wrestled three times this year but newcomer Styles should never have lost the big match at Wrestlemania as it's the one people will remember. Jericho did not need the win here and considering Styles was to be the next contender for the World Title made this booking decision even more stupid. Not to mention the fact that he went down fairly clean also... The New Day are one of WWE's most over acts and they were placed in a nothing match and lost all so the League of Nations could get beaten up by Steve Austin, Mick Foley and Shawn Michaels. This made the League look like complete jobbers and the New Day worse for being beaten by them... Dean Ambrose's role of nearly man was cemented in his loss to Brock Lesnar. Even with weapons at his disposal Ambrose could not slay "The Beast" and spent most of the match on the defensive before being beaten... Shane McMahon taking Undertaker to a 30 minute Hell In A Cell match was simply not believable. A 46 year old non-wrestler who only took part in matches on special occasions in his prime years should not be allowed to be Undertaker's equal. And what of the "huge" stipulations in this match? They were barely even mentioned during or after the match so what was the point? Regardless of believability the match was poor and only became intriguing when they left the cage. This match appeared to be designed just to show how tough Shane is. Well he is a McMahon after all... The Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal was rubbish. Just a bunch of nobodies in a filler match that meant nothing. Shaquille O'Neal's appearance was a surprise but amounted to nothing. Shaq has gotten so big he looks bigger than Big Show these days... I don't think The Rock and John Cena beating up the Wyatt's was as bad as what the League suffered (Cena is a current top star and Rock has been active in recent years) but it was another case of sacrificing talent at the hands of the real stars... The main event was a big letdown. Too long, boring, predictable and the fans just weren't into it. Reigns got the expected boos but not as bad as it could have been. Triple H dominated with methodical offense which wouldn't have been as bad if the crowd were rallying behind the babyface, but of course they weren't. At the end of the match Reigns' music was turned up extra loud to cover any boos... Stephanie McMahon was sure enough given a big role in the main event from her well delivered but cringe worthy declaration to being very prominent at ringside and involved in a big spot in the match. The McMahon family are the stars you know... At nearly five hours (seven including the pre-show) the show was far too long. Perhaps the main event might've got a better reaction at the end of a four hour show with ten minutes cut from it? ... This came across as a show to put the hardcore fans in their place. Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, AJ Styles, New Day, Sasha Banks, Dean Ambrose all lost despite being big favourites with the fans. Shane McMahon's loss means the never ending heel authority angle will continue and we have a number one babyface/world champion who is less popular with the masses than the polarising John Cena... Crowd cues; WWE decided to use the giant screens to try and control what the crowd chanted including "New Day Rocks", the suplex count in the Lesnar/Ambrose match and strangely "Woooo!" for Charlotte who was the heel. I've also heard many reports of WWE tampering with crowd noise levels such as turning down the mics in areas of the stadium where fans were booing Roman Reigns...  That attendance record; As is common knowledge the 93,173 indoor attendance record at Wrestlemania III was make-belief. The real number in the Silver Dome was a still very impressive 78,000. That number was beaten at Wembley Stadium for Summerslam in 1992 with 80,355 but they couldn't announce it as a new record because it didn't beat the fictitious one from 1987! So this year it would all be put to rest anyway and a new attendance record would be set at Wrestlemania 32 so they wouldn't have to lie anymore, right? Well, sort of. WWE did legitimately break their real and pretend all time attendance record on 3rd April 2016 with 93,730 fans packed into the AT&T Stadium but the number of 101,763 was not true (there were actually 97,769 in the building but that includes all staff and personnel). After proclaiming all year that they would break 100,000 for the show WWE were never going to admit to 'failing' by announcing a number under 100k. All that has happened is a new lie has replaced an old one.


Overall
A very long show that will be remembered for the attendance, Shane McMahon's crazy stunt and cameos from the big stars of the past. Bizarre and perhaps spiteful booking made an underwhelming card going in turn out to be as disappointing as expected. The matches on this show would've been fine for a Network Special but for a Wrestlemania in front of their largest crowd ever this was not good enough.