WWF SummerSlam Spectacular 8/23/1992

Written by: Bob Colling

World Wrestling Federation presents SummerSlam Spectacular
Date: 8/23/1992
From: Nashville, Tennessee

WWF World Champion Randy Savage and Ultimate Warrior share comments to open the show, separately. Warrior is quite confident that he’ll walk out of SummerSlam as the champion. They’ll be teaming up tonight against the former WWF World Tag Team Champions, the Nasty Boys.

Bobby Heenan and Vince McMahon are on commentary. Heenan is dressed like Sherlock Holmes and he’s confident that he’ll figure out whose corner Mr. Perfect will be in at SummerSlam. It’ll either be the Ultimate Warrior or WWF World Champion Randy Savage.

Opening Contest: Tito Santana vs. Ric Flair: Flair takes Santana down with a headlock early on but Santana quickly countered with a head scissors before they get back up. They trade hammerlocks and they counter each other on the canvas briefly. Flair backs Santana into the corner and shoves him. Santana shoves Flair followed by a right hand. Flair stops Tito with a kick to the gut and Santana hits a backdrops followed by a few clotheslines sending Flair over the top to the floor. Santana runs over Flair with a clothesline on the floor! Flair begs off in the ring and rolls to the outside to regroup. Flair comes back in and works over Santana in the corner dropping him with a chop a few times. Flair tosses Santana over the top to the floor and distracts the referee. Perfect proceeds to kick Santana in the ribs while the referee was distracted. Flair snap mares Santana down to the mat and delivers a knee drop. Flair chops Santana a few times and stops him with a back elbow. Santana drop toe holds Flair and goes for the figure four which he locks in right in the middle of the ring! Flair has his shoulders on the mat but pops up and tries to reach the ropes but can’t. Santana works over Flair in the corner and grabs his feet to slam Flair down to the mat. Santana goes for the figure four again and has it locked in the middle of the ring. Flair manages to reach the ropes to break the hold. Santana kicks the legs of Flair and decks Flair with a right hand out of the corner. Flair begs off before hitting Santana with a knee lift to the midsection. They collide against the ropes and Flair falls flat on his face as we go to commercial.

Flair gets up first and tries for a figure four but Santana counters with an inside cradle for a two count. Flair cops Santana with a right hand. Flair heads to the top rope but gets slammed off by Santana! Santana runs over Flair with a series of clotheslines and a backdrop. Santana signals for the flying forearm and he connect! Santana has the cover but Mr. Perfect pulls Santana off! Santana has Perfect by the hair but Flair comes from behind and rolls Santana up, but Tito reverses for a near fall. Santana gets a two count with a rollup. Santana hammers away on Flair in the corner but Flair pokes Santana in the eyes. Santana sends Flair flipping in the corner and clotheslines Flair off the apron. Santana brings Flair into the ring with a suplex from the apron for a near fall. Santana ducks a chop to hit a cross body for a near fall. Perfect trips Santana as Flair sent Tito into the ropes. Flair stomps on Santana and Perfect has grabbed a chair. Perfect rams the chair into Tito’s left knee. Flair puts the figure four on Santana and the referee calls for the bell. (***. I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected. Santana was on fire and looked great here. This might be the last good match that Santana had the opportunity to have in the WWF. Action wise, Santana brought a lot to the table here and Flair gave him a lot of offense. Nicely done match.)

Mean Gene gives us a rundown on the WWF SummerSlam pay per view taking place on August 31st. The Beverly Brothers cut a promo saying that successful people don’t lose and they will be the tag team champions when they beat the WWF Tag Team Champions the Natural Disasters. Speaking of the champions, they cut a promo about their title defense in one week. They say that this is chance for the Beverly Brothers and they better be at their best.

Second Contest: Kato vs. Tatanka: Kato arm drags Tatanka and follows up with a hip toss for the early advantage. Kato comes off the ropes with a shoulder block but Tatanka comes back with a hip toss and a scoop slam. Tatanka clotheslines Kato over the top to the floor to maintain control of the match. Kato works over Tatanka with strikes in the corner . Kato misses a shoulder strike in the corner and Tatanka takes Kato down with an arm drag. Tatanka avoids a leapfrog and scoop slams Kato followed by another arm drag. Kato continues to work over Tatanka in the corner with chops. Tatanka blocks a kick and atomic drops Kato. Tatanka continues with a few clotheslines but is sent over the top to the floor. Mr. Fuji nails Tatanka with his cane right across the chest and Tatanka is hurting on the outside. Kato slams Tatanka and works over his midsection with stomps. Kato connects with an elbow drop and keeps Tatanka on the mat with a sleeper hold. Tatanka attempts a sunset flip but Kato blocked it only for Tatanka to eventually get the move for a near fall. Kato cuts Tatanka off with a quick clothesline and goes back to a sleeper hold. Tatanka comes off the ropes and collides with Kato with a double clothesline. Tatanka starts to go on the War Path and hammers away on Kato. Tatanka heads to the top rope and hits an overhand chop. Tatanka quickly follows up hitting the End of Trails for the win. (*1/2. This was relatively basic but it didn’t overstay its welcome.)

Backstage, Mean Gene interviews the Nasty Boys and Jimmy Hart. Jimmy is happy that his team is fighting Savage and Warrior who clearly don’t care about each other. Jerry Sags chimes in and says they are the greatest, nastiest tag team in the WWF. Brian Knobbs says that tonight they are going to beat up the two top dogs and they’ll get it done. Mr. Perfect comes over and says that he knows Warrior and Savage better than anyone else. Perfect is going to give them secrets on the Warrior and Savage.

Third Contest: Nailz vs. Ken Wayne: Yeah, Mr. Wayne isn’t going to do very well here with the ex convict. Nailz goes nuts and traps Wayne’s head in the ropes to choke him. Nailz wins the match with a sleeper hold/choke hold. After the match, Nailz attacks Wayne with a nightstick. Nailz swings at the officials but they bail from the ring quickly.

Mean Gene is at the podium and calls out The Undertaker with Paul Bearer for an interview. At SummerSlam, Taker will be wrestling Kamala. Bearer says there are pre-arraignments for Kamala’s funeral at SummerSlam. They will dig a big hold for a mass burial. Taker says their only dilemma now is what to do with the remains of Kamala. Taker says that Kamala will be destroyed by the tombstone. Taker will also thrust Whippleman and Kimchee into internal darkness.

Fourth Contest: WWF World Champion Randy Savage & Ultimate Warrior vs. The Nasty Boys: There is some tension between Savage and Warrior since they can’t trust each other due to Mr. Perfect and Ric Flair’s mind games. Warrior and Sags kick off the tag match with Sags attacking from behind. Warrior ducks a clothesline to hit a leaping shoulder block a few clotheslines. Knobbs cheap shots Warrior from behind but Warrior plants both Nasty Boys with a double DDT. Warrior tags in Savage. Savage hops in and gets in Warrior’s face. Sags grabs Randy’s leg from the floor and Knobbs hammers away on Savage in the corner. Savage drops Knobbs with a strike and jabs Knbobs several times followed by an elbow strike. Sags comes in but is slammed as is Knobbs. Savage sends them into each other before going to the top rope and connects with a double axe handle on Sags. Savage tags in Warrior and they have a standoff briefly. Warrior decides to go to the top rope and nails Sags with a double axe handle. Knobbs shoves Warrior from behind and Warrior collides with Savage knocking him off the apron. Savage shoves Warrior and they are arguing. Knobbs comes from behind and knocks Warrior over the top to the floor. Knobbs rams Warrior face first into the ring steps. Warrior gets rolled back into the ring and gets double teamed as the Nasty Boys delivered a double back elbow. Sags drives Warrior down with a side slam for a near fall. Knobbs tags back in and keeps control of Warrior. Warrior knocks Knobbs down with a big boot but Sags comes in and delivers a leg drop to keep control for his team. Warrior ducks a double clothesline to hit a clothesline on both men, twice. Warrior drives them down face first onto the canvas and sends them over the top with a double clothesline as the show goes to commercial.

Warrior is inviting Savage to enter the ring and Savage enters to sling Knobbs into the ring before ramming him into the corner head first. Savage jabs Knobbs several times and sends Knobbs into the referee in the corner. Savage goes for the piledriver but Sags viciously whacks Savage with a helmet. You could hear the thud. Warrior has Jimmy Hart on the floor but he’s attacked by Perfect and Flair! Perfect has a steel chair and rams it into Warrior’s midsection! Sags whacks Savage over the head with a steel chair! Warrior is being beaten down by Perfect and Flair while Savage is getting destroyed by the Nasty Boys with a chair. Flair and Perfect casually walk backstage but Warrior is going after them leaving Savage by himself. Knobbs wakes up the referee and Savage is counted out to give the match to the Nasty Boys. (**. This was a solid tag match and the angle development was executed, well, perfectly.) After the match, Savage gets up and grabs the helmet to clean house.

Backstage, Mean Gene believes what we just saw was a travesty. Ultimate Warrior appears and he’s grunting and pissed. Warrior believes that Savage told him the story by having Perfect and Flair come down to ringside. Warrior thinks that Savage paid them off for SummerSlam. Warrior says that Savage hasn’t bought anything and has lost all his fans. At Wembley Stadium he has bought the rage and fury of the Ultimate Warrior.

Fifth Contest: Rick Martel vs. Joey Maggs: Sensational Sherri Martel comes down to ringside to watch Martel’s match and she’s smiling. Martel shows off his body and was nearly pinned. Sherri heads backstage to allow Rick to win the match with a Boston Crab.

Backstage, Mean Gene is with WWF World Champion Randy Savage. Savage heard what Warrior said and he denies that Perfect will be at his ringside. Savage thinks that Warrior has Perfect locked in for SummerSlam. Savage realizes what Warrior is doing. Everything that happened in the tag match was a setup to fool to the fans. Savage believes that Warrior has made a deal with Perfect. Savage doesn’t think Warrior is a man for what he’s doing. He says that Warrior can’t hang with him and he’s taking shortcuts. He’s going to be the WWF World Champion coming out of SummerSlam.

Seventh Contest: Kamala vs. Burt Stiles: Kamala doesn’t know how to pin his opponent but eventually figures it out to win the match after a big splash.

Eighth Contest: Money Inc. vs. The Bushwhackers: DiBiase and IRS attack before the bell and get the cheap advantage. Bushwhackers send them into each other and bite their butts. Butch and Luke hit running forearms and knock Money Inc. to the floor. IRS and Butch start the match legally with IRS missing a shoulder ram in the corner allowing Butch to hit a bulldog. DiBiase enters and is rammed head first into IRS. Bushwhackers hit running clotheslines on both men and play to the crowd. DiBiase attacks Luke from behind and stomps him to the floor. IRS chokes Luke with the tag rope and rams him into the ring post face first. DiBiase rolls Luke into the ring and tags in IRS. IRS comes off the top to deliver a forearm shot to the midsection. IRS goes for the cover but Luke kicks out at two. DiBiase tags back in and drops Luke with a back elbow for a near fall. DiBiase keeps Luke on the mat with a sleeper hold and gets some illegal leverage from IRS on the apron. IRS tags in and leg drops Luke on the lower midsection. DiBiase delivers an elbow drop on Luke but misses a clothesline and they collide with a double clothesline. Butch gets tagged in and cleans house clotheslines. Luke and Butch hit a battering ram on IRS for a two count. DiBiase gets sent to the floor but here comes Jimmy Hart to prevent a tag. Butch has Hart on the apron and IRS delivers a knee lift from behind for the win. (*. As many people probably know, I dislike the Bushwhackers and only reviewed this because of Money Inc. They probably got the best they could get out of Butch and Luke.)

Main Event: WWF Intercontinental Champion Bret Hart vs. Skinner in a non-title match: Hart takes Skinner down with a headlock and keeps control on the canvas. Skinner sends Hart into the ropes and attempts a slam but instead sends Hart to the floor. Skinner grabs his alligator foot and nails Hart coming off the apron. Skinner nails Hart over the head with it, too. Skinner snap mares Hart and chokes him with his necklace. Skinner bites Hart’s forehead and chokes him with his boot. Skinner puts an abdominal stretch on Hart. Skinner uses the ropes for leverage as the referee is out of position. Skinner sends Hart to the floor again and does a dance. Skinner drives Hart face first onto the canvas a few more times. Hart comes back with a sunset flip for a near fall. Skinner plants Hart with a shoulder breaker. Skinner goes to the top rope but Hart pops up and punches Skinner in midair. Hart plants Skinner with a side Russian leg sweep for a near fall. Hart continues with a backbreaker for a near fall. Hart runs into a big boot in the corner and Skinner is happy with himself. Skinner knees the lower midsection of Hart. Hart counters a leg drop attempt and locks in the Sharpshooter to win the match. (*. Yeah, this was basically an extended squash match for Hart though Skinner did have some brief moments of offense.)

Bobby Heenan claims to have the scoop as to what corner Mr. Perfect will be in at SummerSlam. Heenan is not happy with McMahon’s claims that he doesn’t know what’s going on.

Backstage, Mean Gene is with Mr. Perfect and Ric Flair to close the program. Gene demands to know whose corner they will be in. They have one thing to say…. “WOOO”

Final Thoughts:
I’d say this was a pretty good show to hype up SummerSlam that was one week away. Tito/Flair was the best match on the show, but the tag match was entertaining for an angle advancement standpoint. They touched upon all the major matches taking place on SummerSlam. I think I’d be more inclined to check out the PPV after this show.

Thanks for reading.