SummerSlam 92: The SummerSlam You Thought You'd Never See

The Legion of Doom vs The Beverly Brothers not happening still blows my mind! While I liked the card we got, your card makes way more sense giving the storylines that were going on and then just dropped.

People are probably sick of me saying this, but I was there live for this one.... about a million rows back on the floor, but it was a kind of a sweet spot as I did have a perfect view of the large screens above the ring and could still kind of see the ring.

Also, one thing that I think often gets overlooked as much of the "history" of this show is about how it was the homecoming for The Bulldog, which it was and he was certainly worthy of his moment to shine. However, Bret Hart was just as popular as Davey Boy, we loved Bret here in the UK, I know that I was certainly cheering for Bret over Davey during this match.

A couple of other interesting things I remember in the lead up to SummerSlam 92 here in the UK were that first of all the official WWF Poster Magazine that we had here called Sporting Superstars had a contest to win tickets for SummerSlam 92, many months before the event was announced and they had it listed as being in Washington DC! Also, there was a contest with our Merlin WWF Trading Cards where the winner would get to go to SummerSlam 92, meet their favorite superstar and also get to be on a trading card. This contest actually happened as I have a complete set of this series and there is a card with the winner on it. Amusingly, thi sis a set themed around SummerSlam 92 and the wrestler the kid chose to meet was Tatanka, who was not even on the main card!

That could have been the card had the PPV been in Washington DC instead of the UK. Though, Warrior/Macho Man was probably going to be the Main Event, instead of Macho/Flair. I think they were going to go with Flair/Warrior in the fall, so they changed the main event to Warrior/Macho to help facilitate the upcoming feud. Was it ever advertised that it would be Flair/Macho at Summer Slam, I can't remember.

When it moved to Wembley, that changed the IC title picture which may have also changed a few other matches on the card. Prior to the event, it was down to Bret vs. HBK or Bret vs. Davey Boy. Depending on where the PPV was going to be held would determine the match. Originally it was going to be in D.C., and it would have been Bret vs. Shawn in a ladder match for the IC title. But when it went to Wembley, it changed to Bret vs. Bulldog in the main event, because these two were extremely popular in the UK. Putting Bret with Davey Boy left Shawn without an opponent, they ended up putting HBK with the Model because HBK interfered in the Bret/Model match prior to Summer Slam which caused them two to have issues with each other. Putting the Model with HBK meant no Tatanka/Model rematch from WM, so Tatanka ended up facing the Berzerker - who he may have been working house show matches with but was not shown as a televised feud. Also, since Bulldog ended up facing Bret at SSL, that left Repo Man without an opponent at SSL since he was the one feuding with Bulldog before the PPV. They ended up putting Repo with Crush, who kind of came out of nowhere, as I don't remember him doing much before SSL. Maybe they wanted him to make his debut on a big PPV, so they figured this would be the best spot for him.

The tag team scene is very odd, as the Beverly's were working with LOD ever since WM8, and the Disasters were working with Money Inc. I thought I remember hearing that the original plan for SSL was for LOD to win back the gold from Money Inc., but Vince started to sour on LOD because of the way Hawk was starting to act - mainly he was becoming unreliable. Maybe they decided to go with LOD and Money Inc anyways, just without the tag titles being on the line, and save the Money Inc./Disasters rematches for later in the year. To be honest, I didn't even know/remember that High Energy was facing the Nasty Boys at this time, I didn't even know Koko was back in the WWF until later in the year.

I do remember them setting up Slaughter and the Mountie for a feud, but I also remember reading that Slaughter decided to retire around this time, so that could have something to do with the feud never happening. I also remember reading that it was around this time that the WWF and Lawler's promotion started a partnership, and that some of the WWF wrestlers would make appearances in Memphis, and in return some of the Memphis wrestlers would start working with the WWF - most notably Lawler and Jarrett. With that being said, I remember hearing that Slaughter was one of the bigger WWF names that worked in Memphis at this time, that also could be why he didn't make the PPV.

As for Boss Man and Nailz, it kind of made sense that they didn't have a match at Summer Slam. They just brought in Nailz, who destroyed Boss Man and put him on the "shelf". It also makes sense if they were thinking of building Nailz into a top heel, that he would need someone to crush at SSL to give him a noticeable win for his first big match with the company and save the Bossman/Nailz match for later.

Yeah, I remember this promo photo of LOD with the tag team titles and the gold shoulder pads. I don't remember them getting the gold shoulder pads until WM8. I think these were taken before Vince soured on LOD, showing that they were going to regain the tag titles sometime in 1992.