For this edition of This Week in Sid History, we continue with the 1992 year. In the last edition, we covered the 1992 Royal Rumble, the same one that saw Sid eliminate Hulk Hogan. This led to Hogan helping Ric Flair eliminate Sid, crowing Flair as the new World Wrestling Federation Champion.
After the match, Sid and Hogan got into it with each other, arguing about losing a shot at the title.
Cooler heads prevailed, or so it seemed. This week, we cover the Saturday Night’s Main Event (SNME) tag match as Sid and Hogan face off against Flair and the Undertaker.
The air date for the show was Feb. 8, 1992. The show in fact was taped about a week earlier at the Municipal Coliseum in Lubbock, Texas.
SNME used to be on NBC, but moved to FOX by that point. It was the second to last SNME show as the show would be off the air for 14 years.
On commentary were Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan. The show on this night had four matches, which included an Intercontinental Title rematch between the Mountie and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, as well as the blow off between “Macho Man” Randy Savage and Jake “The Snake” Roberts.
Joining Hogan and Sid at ringside would be Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake. McMahon notes on the broadcast that it’s Beefcake’s first big ringside appearance since his parasailing accident. (I have no comment about Beefcake’s attire. However, I bet it took a lot of work.)
Presumably, Beefcake was there to make sure Flair and Taker’s corner men, Mr. Perfect and Paul Bearer, didn’t interfere.
Sid and Hogan have a “discussion” as to who should start the match. Sid guided Hogan to the corner and opened the ropes to make it easier for Hogan to get onto the apron. A great tag team partner, AMIRITE?
Sid and Flair, both wearing red trunks, started the match. The two locked up, before Flair raked his eye. Sid reversed an Irish whip into the corner and back body dropped Flair, followed by a hip toss to get Flair off his game. Flair rolled out of the ring to re-group, as Mr. Perfect, his adviser, helped out.
Sid makes the first tag of the match to Hogan and it was soon Hogan versus Flair. Hogan attacked Flair, copying what Sid did with the back body drop, followed by a hip toss. The Undertaker rushed in to help Flair, only to be hip tossed, livening up the Lubbock crowd.
Sid and Hogan worked together as Sid lent his knee to Hogan, who used it to bash the Undertaker’s head against.
It was soon Sid against the Undertaker. The two punched each other briefly, before the Undertaker tried to lift him for the scoop slam. The Undertaker failed though, as Sid lifted him and did his own slam.
Sid and Hogan continued to double-team as Hogan once again was tagged in. Soon Hogan found himself fighting off a two-on-one attack, which he was successful at and in the process got the fans excited.
Sid was back in; looking to maintain momentum against the Undertaker, but it came to a halt thanks to a throat thrust by Taker.
Flair and the Undertaker double-teamed Sid and after a couple of near falls, all four men are in the ring. Sid and Hogan knock both Flair and the Undertaker out of the ring and right as the match goes to a commercial break, Hogan does his taunt, much to Sid’s dismay.
After the break, the Undertaker snuck in the ring and caught Sid by surprise. They cornered Sid and Flair was tagged in, chopping away. The referee admonished Flair for a close-handed fist punch or something and the Undertaker proceeded to choke the life out of Sid. Hogan got in to argue, but it only distracted the ref even further. Moral of the story: DON’T DISTRACT THE REFEREE!
Flair and the Undertaker continued to work over Sid, but alas, some hope in the match. Sid grabbed both men by the hair and butted their heads together. Sid inched slowly toward Hogan, grabbing Flair by the hair. He tagged in Hogan, who went wild on everyone, including Bearer, but not Perfect.
Perfect latched onto Hogan’s leg as Flair started attacking the leg/ankle/some kind of area. Flair worked quickly and immediately got Hogan into the Figure Four Leg Lock.
Hogan reached out to Sid for a tag, who turned his back. Hogan was able to reverse the Figure Four and soon was free. The Hulkster crawled toward Sid, looking to make the tag.
Our hero stood and stared at Hogan as the crowd in Lubbock booed away. The Undertaker and Flair continued to work over Hogan. Sid smiled at least once as Hogan kept getting beaten up. Flair and the Undertaker continued, until a double-team clothesline went horribly awry.
Hogan crawled back once more; reaching out for a tag, but Sid dropped off the apron and walked away. Beefcake argued with Sid, but it was to no avail.
As Sid walked away, Flair and the Undertaker continued to double-team. Flair threw the referee to the mat, which led to a disqualification. This meant Sid and Hogan won. However, some probably argued at the time it wasn’t much of a victory.
With nobody around to help, Beefcake hopped in the ring to help out Hogan. He was cornered, until Hogan got up and the two cleaned house.
Afterward, Hogan and Beefcake had a calm discussion about the events. Beefcake informed Hogan of what Sid said, whatever it was that McMahon said he was saying…I think it was about Hogan helping himself or something.
The match itself received 2 ¼ stars from Dave Meltzer at the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Interestingly enough, the Newsletter led two consecutive issues with the Sid turn. Okay, it was more about the main event changes.
Originally, as the Observer reported, the main event for Wrestlemania VIII would be Hogan vs. Flair for the WWF Championship. It all changed thanks to the Feb. 8 SNME.
Wrestlemania VIII featured Sid vs. Hogan, while Flair defended his title against Savage. The Road to Wrestlemania was set.
Postscript
In the Observer newsletters around that time, Meltzer noted that Sid made an appearance on the Barbershop, hosted by Beefcake.
In the segment, Beefcake confronted Sid, regarding past issues with Hogan, including the Royal Rumble. Beefcake also mentioned the press conference announcing the Flair/Hogan title match and brought up the previous night’s tag match. (NOTE:The WWF did all of their TV tapings for the month in Lubbock and Amarillo over the course of a couple of days.)
Sid told Beefcake to shut up and said he didn’t care.
“I’m going to do you a favor...I’m going to re-arrange your face,” Sid told Beefcake.
Sid grabbed a chair and broke the Barber Shop window, making that the second time in the last couple of months that the poor window was broken.
As Beefcake ran away, Sid proceeded to destroy the Barber Shop set. The rest of the video spoke for itself.
Meltzer noted during the time that Dr. Harvey Whippleman would be Sid’s new manager. According to Meltzer, the doctor concept was Sid’s idea and it involved a stethoscope and a stretcher. It was something he pitched to WCW.
Huh...Really makes you think..
