WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event #31 Review – 11.14.1992 (Goodbyes Abound)

November 14^th, 1992 (taped Oct. 27^th 1992)
Taped from Terre Haute, IN (Hulman Center)
Announced attendance: 4 300 (capacity: ca 10 200)
TV rating: 6.1 (FOX) (down 2.1 from the prior SNME’s 8.2)

Hey everyone. Welcome to my review of the very final edition of WWF SNME (excluding the brief run of 3 or 4 episodes in the mid 2000s), featuring British Bulldog vs. Shawn Michaels for the IC Title, The Ultimate Maniacs challenging Money Inc for the Tag Team Titles, and Bret Hart vs. Papa Shango for the WWF Title. Aside from being the end of the SNME series, this show also marks the end for British Bulldog and Ultimate Warrior in the WWF, who were fired due to the ongoing steroid scandal.

The list of champions in WWF heading into this SNME: (considering taping dates)

• WWF Champion: Bret Hart [15^th day of his reign] – previous champion: Ric Flair
• WWF Intercontinental Champion: The British Bulldog [59^th day of his reign] – previous champion: Bret Hart
• WWF World Tag Team Champions: Money Inc (Ted DiBiase & Irwin R. Schyster) [14^th day of their reign] – previous champions: The Natural Disasters

Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Bobby Heenan

WWF World Tag Team Championship – Money Inc (Ted DiBiase & Irwin R. Schyster) vs. The Ultimate Maniacs (Randy Savage & The Ultimate Warrior)

Big melee to start. The Maniacs start with double clotheslines on both tag champs, before dumping them to complete the early house cleaning process. Back in, DiBiase gets caught in the babyfaces’ corner and gets abused out there for a while. Savage with a necksnap and he brings in the Warrior. Ted chops away and he’s thinking backdrop, but Warrior blocks it and suplexes him. However, Warrior misses the running shoulderblock and Money Inc takes control. IRS works a sleeper while we cut to a picture-in-picture promo from Flair, Razor & Perfect addressing Survivor Series and the Maniacs. We come back with Savage coming in to break up the Million Dollar Dream on Warrior. They collide for the double KO spot, eventually tagging in their respective partners. Savage runs wild off the hot tag as he makes the comeback. The powerslam sets up the Macho Elbow on IRS and it connects, but DiBiase breaks up the pin. Warrior comes in and the Maniacs clean house, prompting Jimmy Hart to grab the belts and the champs take a walk to retain at 9:54. The Maniacs follow the heels on the way up the ramp, only to get jumped by Flair, Razor and Perfect. As mentioned earlier though, Warrior would be gone before Survivor Series and that match never happened.

• Rating: A fun and chaotic brawl. The finish was what it was, but the Maniacs were never going to leave with the tag straps anyway. **

WWF Intercontinental Championship – The British Bulldog vs. Shawn Michaels

Shawn is Sherri-less here, having recently been hit with the mirror by the returning Marty Jannetty on an episode of Superstars after HBK used her as a shield. What a gentleman. Bulldog shoves HBK off an early lockup. Michaels can’t shoulderblock Davey Boy, so he slides between his legs and cheapshots him to take over instead. He can’t hiptoss him either, but he does so on a second try after raking the eyes. That’ll work. HBK follows it up by going to work on the arm, but Davey literally powers him all the way up into a backdrop suplex. Bulldog with a gorilla press slam before dumping HBK to the floor with a clothesline over the top. Shawn cheapshots him back inside, though, and they get into a fast reversal sequence as Davey goes to work on Shawn’s arm now. HBK moves out of the way of a blind charge as Davey dumps himself, though, and Shawn undoes the turnbuckle as we take a break.

Commercial

We come back with Michaels going to work on Davey’s back. Abdominal stretch but Davey Boy powers his way out of there with a hiptoss, only to miss an elbowdrop as Shawn goes back to working on the back. Shawn goes back to the abdominal stretch, while Vince on commentary talks about Davey’s scheduled IC Title defense against The Mountie at Survivor Series. Yeah, about that. Meanwhile, Bulldog once again escapes the hold with a hiptoss and this time the follow-up elbowdrop connects. Bulldog with a faceplant and he makes the comeback. Catapult into the buckle followed by a clothesline for two. Delayed vertical suplex gets two. However, Shawn desperately rams Bulldog’s bad back onto the exposed buckle to cut off the comeback. Bulldog refuses to quit and tries a superplex, but the bad back gives out and Shawn lands on top for his first WWF title at 10:28. Much like Warrior, Bulldog was pretty much gonzo after this show.

• Rating: Very good wrestling match. The psychology over Bulldog’s back was nice and it factored into the finish, which is always a good thing. Shawn was obviously determined to make this memorable, but props to Davey too for putting on a good performance despite being essentially fired already. ***1/2

Main Event – WWF Championship – Bret Hart vs. Papa Shango

Papa Shango was originally credited as costing Bret the IC Title at SummerSlam due to voodoo magic crap, but the story was quietly dropped as Bret moved on to the World Title scene. They’re blowing it off here anyway. Shango slugs away to start but Bret monkey flips him. Bret with a crossbody and Shango’s KICKOUT WITH AUTHORITY BY GAWD dumps him. Bret slides back in and gets an atomic drop, though, before dumping Shango himself with a clothesline. Bret dives at him and he unloads on Shango, as we go to break.

Commercial

We come back with Shango turning things around with a whip into the buckle, classic Bret Hart bump included. Shango takes over with the VOODOO CLUBBING BLOWS and puts him in the VOODOO BEARHUG OF DEATH, and Bret bites his way out of there. Papa Shango hits a back elbow to remain in control, however. Take a drink for every single time McMahon says science or scientific during this match alone. Good luck. Shango chokes away before working a SCIENTIFIC NERVE HOLD. Bret escapes with some elbows, only to charge into a clothesline. And Papa Shango goes back to the nerve hold. Bret again escapes but he still can’t follow up on it, as Shango hits snake eyes. He gets a couple of elbowdrops but a flying one misses, allowing Bret to finally go to work on him. Russian legsweep gets two. Baaaaaaaack bodydrop gets two. Flying clothesline gets two. Papa Shango attempts to run wild one last time but eats buckle on a blind charge, and the Sharpshooter ends things at 13:26.

• Rating: Serviceable title match to kickstart Bret’s reign and put him over as a workhorse champion. Most likely the best Papa Shango match you can find out there. **1/4

The Undertaker promises to put Kamala inside the coffin at Survivor Series in the Funeral Parlor with Paul Bearer.

Shawn Michaels interrupts Bret Hart’s interview with Mean Gene. He reminds Bret that he beat British Bulldog tonight, the man who humiliated Bret in front of over 80k people at SummerSlam.

Bobby Heenan learns via a phone call in the closing segment that the Ultimate Maniacs won’t wrestle as a team at Survivor Series. And that’s how we end the run for Saturday Night’s Main Event. Excluding the 2000s.

END OF THE SHOW

Final thoughts: There was always something happening on this final edition of SNME. It looked engaging on paper to begin with, with the triple crown WWF belts all being defended, and I would say the show ultimately delivered. The IC Title change makes it memorable, with it being Shawn’s first title win and the match being really good et al. Plus, it also added a bit more flavor to Survivor Series with the WWF Title match now being a champion v champion affair, as well as the final cliffhanger from Heenan. At less than an hour, this is a really fun watch. 7/10

POINT SYSTEM

Find out more about the point system here.

Thank you very much for reading. Make sure you don’t miss the upcoming review of Survivor Series, as well as everything coming up from the WCW side of things – an edition of Clash and Starrcade to close out the year. See you soon!

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