Summerslam

Right from the beginning a fun a night. As a kid I tried to get tickets to see this without any luck. I was disappointed at the time. My disappointment has only grown with watching this one back nearly 30 years later. The legends who graced summerslam was amazing and put on a great show.

The 1992 Summer slam was an international PPV event held across the pond in London, England was one pretty good and well done memorable event that wrestling fans enjoyed. Starting out with a rush tag team match in which "The Legion of Doom" defeated the "Million Dollar Man" and "IRS". The action would build up and get better despite some lackluster matches with " Crush" and "Repo Man" and "Virgil". It was a big joy seeing " Earthquake" and "Typhoon" hold on to the tag team title with a victory over The Beverly Brothers". Interesting was seeing how Flair and Henning played in the WWF title match with Randy Savage and the Ultimate Warrior. In a scary match was seeing Kampala face off against the Undertaker as the dead man had this giant frightened! For the intercontinental title was the British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith getting a thrilling victory over Bret Hart. Overall pretty well done card for the WWF not the greatest still it was one that was entertaining for the fans.

More than 60,000 fans packed Wembley Stadium in London, England, as SummerSlam went international! For the first time in the history of the event, Hulk Hogan did not headline or co-headline a SummerSlam. But that meant little to nearly 60,000 fans that packed Wembley Stadium to cheer their countryman, the British Bulldog, in his attempt to defeat his brother-in-law, Bret `Hitman' Hart, for the Intercontinental Championship. The match was emotional - Hart's sister and the Bulldog's wife, Diana, sat ringside - but one of the greatest in SummerSlam history. And Wembley Stadium erupted when the Bulldog countered Hart's victory roll to pin the Hitman and capture the Intercontinental Title. SummerSlam 1992 also featured a WWE Championship match between champion Randy `Macho Man' Savage and the Ultimate Warrior. The Warrior defeated Savage by countout, but it was simply Plan A of a plot by Ric Flair and Mr. Perfect to eventually wrest the championship away from Savage and back around the waist of Flair.

The Legion of Doom defeated Money Inc. Nailz defeated Virgil Shawn Michaels and Rick Martel battled to a double countout Tag Team Champions The Natural Disasters defeated the Beverly Brothers Crush defeated Repo-Man WWE Champion The Ultimate Warrior defeated Randy Savage by countout The Undertaker defeated Kamala by DQ The British Bulldog pinned Bret Hart to win the Intercontinental Championship

Overall Mark: C+

This Summerslam wasn't just your ordinary Summerslam. Firstly it was held in London, England - Wembley Stadium to be exact, and rather then have the main event as a World Heavyweight Championship match, McMahon changed this to the Intercontinental Championship. Some matches on the card were just thrown together to kill time, but it was a very good PPV anyway.

Results from the show which was seen in front of an incredible 80,000 fans:

• 'Hacksaw' Jim Duggan and The Bushwackers defeated The Mountie and The Nasty Boys in a fair match.

• Papa Shango defeated Tito Santana in a boring match.

• The Legion of Doom defeated Money Inc.

• Nailz (Kevin Wacholz) defeated Virgil in a useless match.

• Rick Martel and Shawn Michaels ended in a double count out. This was a very entertaining match.

• The Natural Disasters defeated The Beverly Brothers in a passable match.

• Crush defeated Repo Man (Barry Darsow) in a good match.

• The Ultimate Warrior defeated 'Macho Man' Randy Savage via count out in a fair but too long match.

• Tatanka defeated The Bezerker in a useless match.

• The Undertaker defeated Kamala via DQ when Kim Chee (Steve Lombardi) hit Taker with a foreign object. After the match Kamala was looking at the Undertaker down the ramp when he fell over! Silly twit!

• The British Bulldog defeated Bret 'hitman' Hart to win the IC title to a thunderous pop.

A very good PPV indeed! Overall Grade - A

For the past year or so before this, the WWF had been mired in a dearth of talent, or maybe more specifically the inability to figure out where to take talent going forward. With SummerSlam '92, the overall event results may still be so-so, but at least the vision for the future is (finally) beginning to take shape.

Here are some of the things the WWF is getting right here...

-Shawn Michaels promoted to a singles wrestler. Pure charisma. -Bret Hart (overall the best talent in the business at the time) being promoted to the biggest match of cards. -The Undertaker getting the huge push he deserved.

Of course, their are still missteps along the way, such as...

-Characters like Kamala, Repo Man, Nailz, and Virgil (separated from Million Dollar Man) for example. I guess during this period of experimentation there were bound to be some failures. -The Warrior/Savage match. Nothing will ever beat their match at Wrestlemania 7, so why in the world is this headlining a card again? Once again, the WWF is pushing names of the past here instead of fully embracing the future.

So, while the sum total of SummerSlam '92 isn't much above average, there are clear indications of future success. Having the event in Wembley Stadium (setting up a big British Bulldog push, always a fun character) was also a big plus, adding some international flavor to the industry.