Hart, Flair, McMahon and 1992

Hey Scott,

Longtime reader and diehard fan of the rants and blog. My question concerns the WWF in 1992, specifically the extremely odd booking. I understand that McMahon was in the midst of the steroid scandal, and understandably distracted. That being said, there are some questions I’ve never heard satisfactorily addressed; perhaps you can offer some insight.

It was obviously a time of transition. Flair gets the belt back from Savage with the full understanding that he’s a transition champion at that point. Despite their later issues, Flair at the time had no problem whatsoever with putting over Bret Hart clean, wherever and whenever. The story both Flair and Hart convey is that for some unexplained reason, McMahon lost faith in Flair and wanted the new era to begin sooner rather than later. Even if that’s TRUE, why do it at a house show and piss away millions? As a businessman, McMahon was an 11 on the incompetence scale here. And since money trumps everything, I have a hard time believe backstage political considerations, whatever they were, would drive McMahon to piss away a huge payday while laying the foundation for the future.

Flair still had a monumental rub to give, and you go with that? If he waited another few months, he could have built a monster feud; it would have been totally new and fresh. Instead of the fall of ’92, do the “new generation thing” at the Royal Rumble with Flair tapping to the Sharpshooter after a 30 minute classic. Remember, these were still the days of the “big four” PPVs. Hart gets an amazing blast-off to start the era and instant credibility to carry the torch into the 90's. Due to this shortsightedness, 1993 is an unmitigated disaster financially, and Hart has to wait until WM 10 until he’s finally viewed as someone on par with Flair and Hogan as an anchor company guy, at least in my eyes.

Shawn