WWE Championship PPV Matches : 1992-1994
1992 Royal Rumble Match :
**** 3/4
Ric Flair vs Randy Savage WM VIII :
**** 1/4
Randy Savage vs The Ultimate Warrior SS 92 :
**** 1/4
Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels SS 92 :
*** 3/4
Bret Hart vs Razor Ramon RR 93 :
*** 1/2
Bret Hart vs Yokozuna WM IX :
** 1/2
Yokozuna vs Hulk Hogan WM IX :
N/A
Hulk Hogan vs Yokozuna KOTR 93 :
* 1/2
Yokozuna vs Lex Luger SS 93 :
** 3/4
The 92 Rumble is the GOAT, hands down. Features the most talent ever assembled in one ring, a mixture of consistent storytelling and compelling drama, and let's not forget what IMO makes this match so amazing ; The GOAT commentary performance by Bobby Heenan. This commentary performance was so amazing that this match was actually included on Heenan's DVD, that in itself is fantastic. The delivery of all of his pro-Flair lines and how he switches allegiances so many times only to have him EXPLODE at the end when Flair finally wins it. Flair stays consistent as a character throughout, and with Heenan he makes this match a VERY, VERY close to ***** match.
Flair-Savage is storytelling in the ring personified. Here we have two formula workers in Ric and Randy, and you let them go at it on a stage such as Wrestlemania ? This REALLY should have been the main event (again, I love you Hogan, but fuck you
) but instead it takes a backseat to Hogan and SID (We'll get into how awesome SID became later)? Anyways, I love the whole "Randy's going to kill Flair" dynamic, but he can't or Flair will keep the title, kind of like Punk-Jericho from this years Mania, except Punk was champion so it was a little more effective there. The fact that Macho cheats against the dirtiest player in the game to win, and the leg work/subsequent psychology makes this in all time classic in my book.
Macho-Warrior II might be the least talked about classic championship match in WWE history. IMO Warrior's best title match, him and Savage just go back and forth exchanging big move after big move for nearly 30 minutes (by the way, this might be the most colorful match of all time if you look at what these two wear to the ring) , with Flair and Perfect coming to ringside and trying to start shit, only to become torn to bits by the end of the night. The near falls and counters were there, and I thought the ending was necessary given that neither man really deserved to lose here. Another 1992 classic WWF championship match.
Bret-Shawn from SS 92 for me, embodies everything good about their matches together, with a few smidges of the bad. For instance, I thought the latter half of this match was amazingly well paced wrestling with great holds and moves with substance. However, the first half of this match features badly paced action with too many raw holds that don't amount to anything. Seriously, the first half of this match means NOTHING, as we get Bret working the right arm of Shawn for a while, and it just goes NOWHERE. That really pisses me off with these two, as they just love to abandon psychology. Much better than the Ironman simply because the shit doesn't last as long, but when it's good, it's REALLY good. Their second best match together (behind SS 97
) .
Bret-Razor was a very great but very formulaic match, in which Bret plugs Razor into his big man formula ; work on the legs with various holds, sell accordingly, and we'll have a great match. Bret makes Razor look pretty great here, and goes out of the ordinary in this one (complete with a beautiful suicide dive by Bret to the outside where he almost jumps straight into the railing at ringside) to get the fans off their feet. Bret wastes NO time trying to keep the big man down, a staple in his later matches against the likes of Diesel and Sid. Razor sells very well to his credit as well, and it's just another reason why Bret's matches were so awesome in this timeframe.
Now we have to get into the Yoko matches... WM IX actually was pretty decent, as Bret once again plugged Yoko into his big man formula. Obviously Yoko can't do what the likes of a Scott Hall or Kevin Nash could do, but he did his job in the sense of letting Bret do all the work and carry him to a decent Wrestlemania main event (albeit very short). The Hogan matches : The Wrestlemania match was fucking bullshit, and one of the WORST booking decisions that I have ever seen, while the KOTR match was every bit as terrible booking wise, but it sucked in the ring as well. It was a basic 80s Hogan vs monster match... in 1993. Summerslam 1993 vs Luger is probably Yoko's best singles match IMO, as Luger seems to drag the best out of monsters during this time frame. Luger kept it at his pace and Yoko actually hangs pretty good for.. You know... The fat motherfucker that he was. The ending makes NO SENSE whatsoever and is one of the biggest headscratchers ever, but hey, atleast it had ATMOSPHERE, and we got DAT CONFETTI!