1993 WWF Should Have Been A Transitional Year Like 2005

[RIPbossman]

When the New Generation started and Vince started pushing new faces in the main event and upper midcard, there should have been more of a transitional period.

In 2005 Batista and Cena were picked as the new leaders of the company. Several big name veterans (Triple H, JBL, Jericho, Christian, Angle, Guerrero) put them over in big matches to solidify them.

The same should've happened in 1993. It wasn't Vince's fault Hogan refused to put Bret over, but Randy Savage could've and should've been used to solidify some of the newer stars. He should have main evened WM 9 and tore the house down with Bret, losing to him and was denied a program with Shawn Michael's where he ultimately would've put him over. Yokozuna beat Hogan, but in a ridiculous manner, and Luger beat Mr. Perfect at WM. But Luger, Hart, Michaels, Yokozuna and Razor could haved used several victories in important matches over important guys who represented the old guard, not just rare instances of it. Bret' s title win over Flair wasn't even televised.

 

[HBKperfect23]

I completely agree. I just wrote out some fantasy booking for 1993, tried to keep it as realistic as possible. I'll copy/paste it here.

Rebooking 1993:

Royal Rumble 1993:
Marty Janetty over Shawn Michaels for the ic title
Money Inc over Nasty Boys retain Tag titles
Bret Hart over Razor Ramon WWF title
Savage wins Rumble last eliminating Yokozuna

Wrestlemania IX:
Shawn Michaels over Marty Jannetty IC
title
Doink over crush
Steiners over Money Inc tag titles
Mr Perfect over Ric Flair career match
Razor Ramon over Bob Backlund
Hulk Hogan over Yokozuna
Undertaker over Giant Gonzales
Bret Hart over Randy Savage retain WWF title

KoTR 93:
Tournament: Bret Hart wins as WWF champion. Savage attacks afterwards, turning heel
Yokozuna retires Hulk Hogan
Shawn Michaels defeats Tatanka ic title
Money Inc over Steiners tag titles

Summerslam 93:
Randy Savage defeats Bret Hart for WWF title
Lex Luger defeats Yokozuna

Survivor Series 93:
Team Hitman defeats team madness
Team Hitman: Bret, Owen, Razor/Kid
Team Madness: Macho, Hbk, money inc
Same ending with Owen being the only one eliminated from team Hitman. Shawn Michaels is the last one on team madness. Shawn "accidentally" super kicks Savage to cause him to be pinned by Bret. This starts savages face turn and the Savage/Michaels feud. This also starts Bret vs Owen for 1994.

All Americans: Luger, taker, steiners
Foreign fanatics: Yoko, lundwig, Quebecers.

As 1994 begins, nearly everything is still align to go down as it actually did. Savage would have completed a full face turn by 94, dropping the belt to Yokozuna at the royal rumble or before the royal rumble.

 

[Jonyboyuk2]

The reality is that - Vince put the belt on Bret because Bret was a popular fan favourite and very much so over in Europe (Germany and UK especially) and in the Middle East. Bret drew abroad more than he did in the USA. WWF was going through a scandal, and Bret and Shawn were booked on TV a lot and carried Raw. Remember HBK v Jannetty on Raw? Excellent fun. Anyway, Savage was not being used, and Hogan had stepped away at WM8. The heat on WWF cos of the scandal drove Hogan away to try and stay away from the spotlight. Hogans short Run between March 93 and June 93 did nothing for WWF and ruined Bret Harts Main event run. The truth is, many wrestlers vanished from WWF in late 1991 and worked over in Japan whilst the scandal ran its course. When they came back to the USA, a lot of them went to WCW. There was not enough main event stars to compete with Bret. I think the size of Savage is one reason he was in the announce booth during that year. Even though Undertaker was over, even at Wrestlemania 9, he had only been in the WWF 30 months. Bret's style would not have worked with Takers style back then.

My point is - there was no stars to compete with. I think the best booking that year on WWF TV was the 123 Kid's upset over Razor Ramon. It created a new mid-carder in the Kid which was fun.

If you go back and look at RR1993, you would probably be surprised that Ric Flair was in the match! There was no talent to really elevate anyone that year.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Looking back on 1993 in retrospect, they did have some opportunities that they messed up on. At the time it was an exciting year to my younger self, though I can now see as an adult 20+ years later that there were massive missed opportunities. The biggest is the obvious one, Wrestlemania 9. That show is widely regarded as being one of the worst Wrestlemania events of all time (2nd only to 11 with 27 not far behind it for my own rankings) and a big part of why it's looked back on so negatively was the stupid ending. Yokozuna should not have accepted Hogan's random challenge. It made no sense for Hogan to even be able to make that challenge and it made LESS sense for Yokozuna to accept it. Had he closed the show with his win over Hart then it would have added more desire for the fans to see a hero step up to defeat him. This brings us to Luger's big push later on. Why did they not go through with him becoming WWF Champion at Summerslam? Having that video package of him at the end despite NOT getting the championship always came off awkward. WWE missed it big time on both of their biggest shows of the year in 1993. Other than the launching of Raw on mondays, it really wasn't a good year at all.

 

[TDFG]

1993 was a bit of a cluster**** for WWE.

The British Bulldog, Sid Justice & Ultimate Warrior were gone at this stage.
Ric Flair left in early 1993.
Sgt. Slaughter had moved into semi-retirement.
Ted Dibiase moved in to the tag-division as his body was struggling to cope with injuries.
Rowdy Roddy Piper was on a sabbatical or something.

Lex Luger came in, and for some reason Luger just didn't seem to fit in WWE.

Randy Savage put Yokozuna over at Royal Rumble and I think they made a mistake moving Savage into commentary at this time. WrestleMania should have ended with Yokozuna standing tall with Savage taking him on at King Of The Ring.

A Shawn Michaels-Mr. Perfect feud for the IC Title would have been better than HBK spending the summer months feuding with the likes of Crush & I think an Undertaker v Razor Ramon feud would have gathered interest as well for the upper-card.

I'm not going to go through fantasy cards, but I think the booking could have been better to get the likes of HBK, Bret Hart, Razor Ramon etc. over than what it was.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

To be fair they did try some of this...

Shawn v Perfect at Summerslam 93 for example, but it was clear Hennig was either struggling with his back or more likely getting flak from Lloyds of London having claimed on their policy, so he wasn't around for much after that.

DiBiase's tag run was more about him saving his marriage than injuries... he'd been caught out and had to be home more - the Money Inc. period allowed for that and had him on the road with Mike Rotundo, who was a "good influence" on a notorious party guy.

A lot of the problems in 1993 apply even now... They raced so many new talents higher up the card than they ever had before. Yoko had no real business being pushed that quickly, same for Lex, Crush and Ludvig Borga... all of these would be the equivalent of an NXT class coming up post Mania... You'd know that they'd push a Roode or Joe immediately just as they did Lex for example.

The issue they had more than anything was that they didn't really allow anyone's push to properly form... he "got it from nowhere", then Yoko did, then within a year Diesel had...

The right guy to push at the time was Tatanka - he had built a solid years worth of work, winning the IC at Mania 9 was a no brainer... Shawn's politics (remember this is right about the time he admitted he lied about Marty and Hennig got Marty a "Billy Martin") actually screwed with a lot of what WWE were trying to do.

This was the first time they did an "oil change" of talent and it didn't work. They'd done it 87 and 90/91... After WM3 you had new guys like Rude, Bigelow, Warrior, Duggan and DiBiase replacing Sheik, Bob Orton etc... in 1990 you lost Rude, Brutus, Koko, Dino Bravo for guys like Slaughter, Von Erich, Bulldog & Undertaker and the following year you had Greg Valentine, Ricky Steamboat and Dusty Rhodes and Warrior leaving for guys like Flair, Sid, IRS and The Mountie...

Each time they changed out the roster, the replacements were not quite as big/as good and you had guys like Sid who bombed being pushed and Flair who just wasn't given the chance properly... By the time we got to them having to change it AGAIN in 92/93 cos of the scandals with Warrior and Davey, Nailz and Flair's leaving... the guys coming in were nowhere near ready.

Razor was immediately main event... it nearly killed him. It was only really blind luck the face turn worked for him after 1-2-3 Kid... Doink was interesting but shouldn't have been fighting Bret, neither should Lawler have been. Bigelow was arguably the best placed of those who "came in" at that time... arguably he should have won that Rumble ahead of Yoko... but they'd already decided he was going to be more of a jobber. Makes you wonder why they bothered at all with him.

They went from changing it every 2-3 years to changing it every year from 90 to 95 and it showed.

 

[Makaveli31]

Shawn v Perfect at Summerslam 93 for example, but it was clear Hennig was either struggling with his back or more likely getting flak from Lloyds of London having claimed on their policy, so he wasn't around for much after that.

It was clear Perfect or whatever reason like you said was struggling at that time. He was basically pushed into coming back by Vince because he was losing established stars left and right but Perfect was nowhere near what he was in the late 80's/early 90's so his match with Shawn failed to do for Shawn what he did for Bret in '91 which is establish him as a top singles guy in an iconic match. Shawn would eventually do that a year later with Scott Hall.

DiBiase's tag run was more about him saving his marriage than injuries... he'd been caught out and had to be home more - the Money Inc. period allowed for that and had him on the road with Mike Rotundo, who was a "good influence" on a notorious party guy.

DiBiase did put over Razor at SummerSlam which also solidified Razor's face turn. DiBiase though still felt he had "more left in the tank" and didn't want to spend the end of his WWE career putting over the young talent so he left. DiBiase was notoriously jealous of the "clique" so it would be safe to assume he would have resisted putting them over.

A lot of the problems in 1993 apply even now... They raced so many new talents higher up the card than they ever had before. Yoko had no real business being pushed that quickly, same for Lex, Crush and Ludvig Borga... all of these would be the equivalent of an NXT class coming up post Mania... You'd know that they'd push a Roode or Joe immediately just as they did Lex for example.

I disagree. Most of those guys were veterans who had worked the territories by 1993. Yoko had spent time in the AWA. Crush was a veteran of Portland and learned from Bill Eady and Barry Darsow. We all know Lex and his background so the WWF was right in pushing those guys. They were the "New or next Generation." Yoko was slated to be top heel. Lex as top babyface. Crush and Borga gave Vince "big guys" to use in an era where they weren't any. I have no issue with the way they used any of those guys. Why would not want to push Yoko? He was a legit 500 pounder who could go with the Bret's and Shawn's of the world yet still have matches with Hulk and Lex. He was also a leader in the locker room.

The right guy to push at the time was Tatanka - he had built a solid years worth of work, winning the IC at Mania 9 was a no brainer... Shawn's politics (remember this is right about the time he admitted he lied about Marty and Hennig got Marty a "Billy Martin") actually screwed with a lot of what WWE were trying to do.

They tried to push Tatanka. The bottom line he was not over or otherwise they would've pushed him. He was not "moving the needle" so to speak. He just wasn't connecting with the audience. He was solid mid-card player but you want to give the I-C strap over a white hot heel Shawn Michaels? No way. People say it's "politics" I'm pretty sure it was Vince's decision to push who he wanted.

This was the first time they did an "oil change" of talent and it didn't work. They'd done it 87 and 90/91... After WM3 you had new guys like Rude, Bigelow, Warrior, Duggan and DiBiase replacing Sheik, Bob Orton etc... in 1990 you lost Rude, Brutus, Koko, Dino Bravo for guys like Slaughter, Von Erich, Bulldog & Undertaker and the following year you had Greg Valentine, Ricky Steamboat and Dusty Rhodes and Warrior leaving for guys like Flair, Sid, IRS and The Mountie...

Each time they changed out the roster, the replacements were not quite as big/as good and you had guys like Sid who bombed being pushed and Flair who just wasn't given the chance properly... By the time we got to them having to change it AGAIN in 92/93 cos of the scandals with Warrior and Davey, Nailz and Flair's leaving... the guys coming in were nowhere near ready.

It does not matter who you have as long as the guy "on top" is hot. In '87 Hogan was red hot so it trickled down to everyone else. Yes, you had an influc of "young talent' i.e. Rude, Warrior, DiBiase, Bam Bam but the common denominator was Hulk. You're wlays going to have guys in and out but when the top of the card is lacking (i.e. 1991/92) it's magnified even more. Did anyone notice Valentine, Steamboat, and Dusty were gone and replaced be Rotunda or Rougeau? Like you said, they put their eggs in the Sid basket and it bombed. Vince moved his eggs to the Warrior basket. Bombed. Finally he had to try to Bret basket and all the eggs didn't break unlike with Sid or Warrior.

Bret was stable enough to hold it until someone else (Lex) could be the next "basket." Vince was always looking for the "next big thing" like Hulk in '87 because he knows you have a Hogan in '87 or an Austin in '98 all the rest of it comes together.

They went from changing it every 2-3 years to changing it every year from 90 to 95 and it showed.
__________________

Because was looking for the next Hulk. The next Golden Goose

 

[relentless1]

Yokozuna should not have accepted Hogan's random challenge. It made no sense for Hogan to even be able to make that challenge and it made LESS sense for Yokozuna to accept it.

you've got that backwards buddy. Mr Fuji was the one that made the challenge to Hogan

They could've gone either way but yeah, Bret shouldve had solid wins over Macho Man and/or Hogan that year to solidify his main event status.

Or better yet, give Yoko a year run with the belt starting at WM 9 and have him run through Hogan, Savage, Taker and Luger throughout the year and have Bret win the rematch at WM 10

 

[Dagger Dias]

you've got that backwards buddy. Mr Fuji was the one that made the challenge to Hogan

I must have remembered it wrong. Either way.... it was a terrible decision on WWE's part. There should have been no idiotic challenge at the end of the show. Yokozuna wins at Wrestlemania 9 with no Hogan title shot, holds it until August where he should be dethroned by Lex at Summerslam. Yokozuna could then somehow win it back by the Rumble so that at Wrestlemania 10 Bret still gets the big win. This would have been a lot better.

 

[LBGetBack]

The Randy Savage usage was just baffling. He was the champion or in the biggest feud from WM 8 all the way to Survivor Series '92. Then he just basically stops wrestling and is a commentator for all of '93? Huh? It made no sense. As others have said, Savage-Hart and Savage-Michaels should have both happened.

 

[Makaveli31]

The Randy Savage usage was just baffling. He was the champion or in the biggest feud from WM 8 all the way to Survivor Series '92. Then he just basically stops wrestling and is a commentator for all of '93? Huh? It made no sense. As others have said, Savage-Hart and Savage-Michaels should have both happened.

Well two things happened. The divorce with Liz and the move to Connecticut. Savage moved to Connecticut and was actually involved in the booking meetings with Vince so he could not be on the road full time. Savage did return as an active wrestler towards in the end of 1993 but by that time Vince was already going in the "New Generation" direction. Savage-Shawn would've been interesting in that Savage was sort of the torch holder for the smaller wrestlers and it would've been a classic passing the torch moment if he would've put over Shawn but they were going with Razor as the guy and hard to argue that especially with the way their feud unfolded.

 

[LBGetBack]

Well two things happened. The divorce with Liz and the move to Connecticut. Savage moved to Connecticut and was actually involved in the booking meetings with Vince so he could not be on the road full time. Savage did return as an active wrestler towards in the end of 1993 but by that time Vince was already going in the "New Generation" direction. Savage-Shawn would've been interesting in that Savage was sort of the torch holder for the smaller wrestlers and it would've been a classic passing the torch moment if he would've put over Shawn but they were going with Razor as the guy and hard to argue that especially with the way their feud unfolded.

Yeah he returned and had the Crush feud and a few other matches here and there but he was never a full time guy for them again. Shawn- Savage could have happened at almost any point in 1993 and it would've been a better option than what they actually did with Shawn. The Tatanka feud was underwhelming and really didn't accomplish much other than to cool Tatanka off. The Perfect feud was also underwhelming, and then Perfect was gone shortly after.

Shawn-Savage at Mania would have stolen the show and put HBK on another level. Have Tatanka win at Mania(maybe against Bigelow?) and have a huge showdown at Summerslam between two guys coming off huge wins and rubs at Mania.

I feel like Michaels' 1993 should've been a lot better. He had all the skills and the push but the only matches and feud that really hit were against Jannetty.

 

[Makaveli31]

Yeah he returned and had the Crush feud and a few other matches here and there but he was never a full time guy for them again

That was in 1994 and it was only a brief feud. He did have a few matches in 1993 but never was involved in a long drawn out feud. Like I said, he had just divorced Liz and moved to Connecticut working on the booking committee at the time. He was taking a break of active wrestling. He did lobby Vince for the I-C title after Shawn was suspended toward the end of '93 and he would drop it to Shawn at WrestleMania 10 a "passing of the torch" match but Vince had decided to push Razor.