SUMMARY: RUNNING TIME: 11:42 Min.
On January 19, 1992, the WWF’s Royal Rumble Pay-Per-View would crown former NWA/WCW World Champion “Nature Boy” Ric Flair with his first-ever WWF World Championship. Among the Rumble’s other finalists to determine the company’s new World Champion are former WWF Champions Hulk Hogan, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, and the Undertaker, along with new WWF Intercontinental Champion “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. The last-eliminated, however, is Sid Justice (aka the NWA/WCW’s Sid Vicious), who subseqently gloats about his mentor Hogan’s fair loss.
Six days later, on-screen WWF President Jack Tunney’s faux TV press conference would confirm that four-time ex-champion Hogan as the challenger selected to face Flair at the upcoming WrestleMania VII for the WWF World Title. Of the disappointed other contenders (Savage, Piper, Justice, and the Undertaker), Justice is shown openly seething afterwards – especially, as he himself had eliminated Hogan at the Rumble.
For this tag team bout recorded on January 27th, at the Municipal Coliseum in Lubbock, Texas, and then aired on NBC’s Saturday Night’s Main Event on February 8th, Justice willingly teams with Hogan against their two mutual main event foes. At ringside are Flair and the Undertaker’s entourage of “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig and Paul Bearer. With his real-life parasailing accident acknowledged, a recuperating Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake accompanies Hogan to provide moral support in Justice and Hogan’s corner.
The match commentators are Vince McMahon and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, who readily predicts a rift brewing between Hogan and Justice.
Notes: Later at this same Lubbock show, the Undertaker began his first face turn in a backstage ‘confrontation’ with cohort Jake “The Snake” Roberts to set up their encounter at WrestleMania VIII.
As for Sid, it is known that WCW had programmed him to score his first career World Title at Big Van Vader’s expense headlining Starrcade ’93. Yet, after WCW fired Sid, a reliable Flair substituted and consequently won Vader’s title. Sid, nonetheless, would win the WWF World Title twice in 1996-97, and then multiple WCW World Championships shortly before that company’s demise.
REVIEW:
Let’s examine, okay, let’s dismiss the trivial opposition first. The lethargic ‘just doing what we’re told’ mentality demonstrated by Ric Flair and the Undertaker disappointingly falls far short of even the Twin Towers’ (Big Boss Man and One Man Gang/Akeem) monster clown show almost exactly three years before. It’s a pitiful display, as far as far as provoking one of many ‘shocking’ betrayals of Hulk Hogan during the WWF’s “Hulk-a-Mania” era.
The buffoonish Twin Towers, at least, appeared enthused about igniting a final spark towards Hogan vs. Savage’s World Title showdown for 1989’s WrestleMania V. By comparison, the Flair-Undertaker entourage evidently couldn’t have cared less, as showing up and taking a few rudimentary double-team moves is about as much as they accomplish.
Then again, one will likely deem Randy Savage’s acting talents viciously turning on the Hulkster (both mid-match and backstage afterwards) makes him a veritable Oscar winner – whereas Sid’s amateurish theatrics don’t even merit a wet paper bag. As for Hogan’s own contribution telegraphing this blatantly obvious rehash, he musters the kind of superficial energy one might expect for the script’s table read.
Considering the WWF’s déjà vu scripting, if one wants a high-profile yet paint-by the-numbers heel turn, then Savage and Hogan’s 1989 Mega-Powers meltdown remains a textbook example. Case in point: no doubt aware of WrestleMania V’s outcome, Hogan obvously has ample incentive to help push Savage’s scripted resentment and jealousy into a masterpiece of exploding rage over Elizabeth and the WWF World Championship.
Devoid of on-screen chemistry, the Hogan/Justice & Beefcake vs. the Flair/Undertaker squad’s sense of a live-action cartoon is more like thumbing through a cheap coloring book. Given such an enormous waste of star power, this pathetic tag bout belongs among the laziest high-profile angles in WWF/WWE history.
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 2 Stars
