WTWWW WWE — page 28

Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan are in the booth, live from Albany, New York.  According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the show drew a crowd of 17,000 fans.  Despite more than a month of hype, the show drew a disappointing 1.80 buyrate (an estimated 260,000 buys), which was a sizeable drop from the 2.40 buyrate (440,000 buys) of the previous year’s Royal Rumble.

Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan are calling the action, announcing the go home show for The Royal Rumble, which also concludes a taping in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Vince McMahon and Mr. Perfect are in the booth for the final Superstars before The Royal Rumble.  They are concluding a four-show taping cycle in Austin, Texas.  Perfect vows that Ric Flair will win the Rumble.  McMahon tells viewers that the Mountie is the new Intercontinental titleholder, defeating a flu-addled Bret Hart a night earlier to capture the belt in Springfield, Massachusetts.  He adds that the Mountie will be defending the title against Roddy Piper at The Royal Rumble.

Randy Savage’s defeat of the Barbarian, which aired on Prime Time Wrestling on December 30 of the previous year, airs.

Vince McMahon hosts tonight’s panel, made up of the regular guests of Gorilla Monsoon, Slick, Bobby Heenan, and Mr. Perfect.  This is the last Prime Time episode before The Royal Rumble.

Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan are broadcasting, continuing the long taping cycle in Corpus Christi, Texas.  Heenan says that his hands are sweating in anticipation of the Royal Rumble.

Vince McMahon and Mr. Perfect call today’s action, still taped from Austin, Texas.  Perfect puts over all of the positive attributes of Ric Flair, who is a guest on today’s Funeral Parlor.

Vince McMahon moderates the evening’s panel, which features Gorilla Monsoon, Slick, Bobby Heenan, and Mr. Perfect.  The production values for the first episode of 1992 are an upgrade over 1991 as the panel has a background set with the WWF logo lit up behind them.

Heenan continues to put over Ric Flair’s odds for the Royal Rumble.

Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan calling the action, continuing a taping cycle from Corpus Christi, Texas that took place on December 2.

After 1990 saw declining house show attendance, television ratings, and pay-per-view buyrates, the WWF decided to pivot to a more controversial and adult oriented product in 1991.  The company ran controversial television angles that included the Undertaker trying to kill the Ultimate Warrior by suffocating him in a casket, Jake Roberts having a deadly cobra bite Randy Savage, and Roberts slapping Savage’s wife Elizabeth.  House shows saw a continuation of some of these themes as the Ultimate Warrior beat up Sensational Sherri after cage matches at the beginning of the year.  The WWF also tried to seize on current events by giving the WWF Championship to American hero-turned-Iraqi sympathizer Sergeant Slaughter.  However, this direction failed to restore fan interest and may have done the opposite as families began to tune out the product.  The WWF’s other media gambles were also flopping as the World Bodybuilding Federation (WBF) was losing money and an experiment in weekly pay-per-view, This Tuesday in Texas, failed to take off.  To make matters worse, the declining fan interest caused the WWF to lose a reliable cable partner in NBC.  The April 15 edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event would be the last of that series to air on NBC for more than a decade.

In response, WWF owner Vince McMahon pivoted back to Hulk Hogan, the centerpiece of the WWF’s 1980s expansion boom.  Hogan regained the WWF Championship from Slaughter at WrestleMania VII and spent much of the year defeating Slaughter and his cronies on house shows, eventually finishing the feud with a victory in a handicap match at SummerSlam.  However, while Hogan’s presence on top stopped some of the house show bleeding that had happened while the Warrior held the title, it did not lead to the revival that McMahon hoped for.  Hogan also did himself and the company few favors when questions about his past steroid use started to swirl.  On The Arsenio Hall Show on July 16, Hogan denied using steroids except to rehabilitate a bicep injury in 1983.  When questioned later, he was not able to keep his story straight.  The summer trial of Dr. George Zahorian also reflected poorly on Hogan as it was revealed that the former WWF ringside physician had sold steroids to Hogan, McMahon, and a handful of other WWF wrestlers.  While Hogan and the WWF hoped the scandal would go away, national media kept asking questions, which hurt the company’s image to families and sponsors.  And when Hogan briefly lost the WWF Championship to the Undertaker at Survivor Series, fans reacted positively to the title switch, signifying that they were ready to move on from the Hulkamania boom.

1991 also marked the rise of a new talent in the WWF as veteran Bret Hart moved out of the tag team ranks and captured the Intercontinental Championship from Mr. Perfect at SummerSlam.  This changing of the guard started to build the foundation for a new WWF babyface, one that was not as strong on the mic but one who had stronger in-ring skills than past main eventers.  Former WCW/NWA Champion Ric Flair also jumped to the WWF in the summer, arriving with a great deal of fanfare.  However, the WWF failed to market Flair effectively to its fans and his series of “dream matches” on house shows against Hogan in the fall of 1991 failed to live up to box office expectations.  The WWF saw Sid Justice, another arrival from WCW/NWA as a future main eventer but Sid’s hot run was stopped in its tracks when he suffered an arm injury and was sidelined for the last three months of the year.  And the company found it hard to fill holes in the roster made by the Warrior, who was fired after SummerSlam; Rick Martel, who left shortly after WrestleMania VII after one of the hottest runs of his career; and Perfect, who was suffering from what was feared to be a career-ending back injury.

Overall, it had been a rough two years for the WWF.  Going into 1992 it had to find a way to creatively recapture the magic of the 1980s boom while also repairing relationships with television partners and sponsors.  Would it find a way to get Saturday Night’s Main Event back on the air?  Were they ready to move on from Hulk Hogan?  And how would it grapple with a steroid scandal that threatened to erode everything that had been built from the first WrestleMania?

For the last WWF show of 1991, Vince McMahon moderates a panel with the usual combination of Gorilla Monsoon, Slick, Bobby Heenan, and Mr. Perfect.  Heenan says that Santa Claus visited him and told him that his Christmas gift is coming on January 19 at The Royal Rumble.

Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan are in the booth, commentating a new round of tapings from Corpus Christi, Texas.  According to thehistoryofwwe.com, these tapings took place on December 2.

Vince McMahon and Mr. Perfect are doing commentary for the last Superstars of 1991, starting a new taping cycle in Austin, Texas.  According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the taping took place on December 4 and drew a heavily papered crowd of 7,500.

Vince McMahon moderates tonight’s panel, which features Gorilla Monsoon, Slick, Bobby Heenan, and Mr. Perfect.  Heenan and Perfect swipe some of the production crew’s Christmas gifts.

Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan are in the booth, calling the last episode of the taping cycle in Springfield, Massachusetts.  Monsoon gives Heenan a big Christmas gift.  Heenan thinks it is a big watch but runs away screaming when he thinks it is a bomb.

Vince McMahon and Mr. Perfect are in the booth, wrapping up a long taping in New Haven, Connecticut.  Perfect tells children at home that Santa Claus is Ric Flair.  Bells are heard in the background along with Flair’s voice.

Vince McMahon moderates tonight’s panel, which features Gorilla Monsoon, Slick, Bobby Heenan, and Mr. Perfect.  Slick has been recast as a babyface reverend, saying that he “saw the light” after getting powerslammed by the British Bulldog.  He shakes Monsoon and McMahon’s hands to make up for his heel ways.

Heenan says Jake Roberts went too far by hitting Elizabeth in Texas because it riled Randy Savage up.  Monsoon is irate, arguing that Roberts “raped Elizabeth of her dignity.”

Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan are calling today’s action, still broadcasting from Springfield, Massachusetts.

Some of the Superstars intro has been updated to remove Virgil holding the Million Dollar Championship Belt.

Vince McMahon and Mr. Perfect are the announcers, still broadcasting from New Haven, Connecticut.  Perfect announces that Ric Flair will be entering the Royal Rumble.

Vince McMahon moderates another night of discussion.  This time the panel features Gorilla Monsoon, Lord Alfred Hayes, Bobby Heenan, and Mr. Perfect.

A replay of WWF President Jack Tunney’s announcement on Superstars about the vacating of the WWF Championship is shown.  Heenan hates the idea because Ric Flair should be handed the title instead of having to go through 29 superstars to get it.  Perfect adds that Flair will prove that he is the “real world’s champion” in the Rumble.

Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan are in the booth, still broadcasting from Springfield, Massachusetts.