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[1992-11-26-WWF-Survivor Series] Ric Flair & Razor Ramon vs Randy Savage & Mr Perfect


Loss

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  • 2 months later...

I really always kinda hated this match, not because it's terrible (even though it's not really very good), but more because it was the end of Savage having a meaningful spot on top, and the layout really made him seem like a bit player. It was also a bit of a copout to not give a pinfall victory to Perfect over either Flair or Razor. If they went out of their way to do visual falls on both, why not just let him get the win?

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This match is just so bizarre. You have 4 guys that were all kind of in this transitional phase thrown together in a match. I have the episode where Savage picked Perfect as his tag team partner. There was some really great build up for it. I haven't watched the actual match in awhile but I remember it kind of sucking.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 11 months later...

Match does not age well. Remember first time seeing it and thinking it was really good. Now just not a very good match. They tease Perfect walking out on Savage but it's past being believable. Not a whole lot of heat in match either. Would have been way more interesting to see Flair/Perfect vs Savage/Warrior at this point.

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  • 11 months later...

Having not really seen AWA Hennig at this point, I was stunned by how easily Perfect slid into a babyface role. It was a really good refreshing of his character. Heenan's rant throughout the intros of this is one of my all-time favorite Brain moments--I love how literally every action by Perfect, from chewing gum to wanting to start the match, invites another reason for Heenan to go off. Not to mention his lament of "what society has come to" that fans are cheering him.

 

Finish aside, this was a pretty hot match. They keep the Perfect turn as organic as possible, with him teasing the walkout and sort of reluctantly accepting Savage's high-five at the end--this alliance was honestly a lot more believable than Savage and Warrior as buddies. The finish is blah but the post-match is done pretty well. This is the type of match where you kind of wish the WWF had a true, live Clash show--they could have run this match there with the cheap finish and set up either Perfect vs. Flair at the PPV or a Survivor Series-type match (I guess the singles match would have worked better).

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  • 2 months later...

Nice to give Perfect his own entrance after a year away. He looked good early and his interactions with Flair felt big. After that this was pretty weird. You've got Savage selling his knee for both heels and Perfect teasing a walk out just after turning face. Savage goes out of his way to sell for and make Razor look like a star here. For some reason this just didn't really click as no one seemed to be on the same page. The visuals of Perfect pinning both heels only to lead to a nonsense DQ was just awful. At least the heels showed some emotion in their promo afterwards. Definitely a disappointing match.

 

**1/2

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 years later...

This was a good idea, but the execution was off. I'm not going to call it a bad match, because if Vince wanted to keep the tag format, there weren't many others he could have chosen here. Bret was the only other logical choice, and he was busy with Shawn. Who else was there besides Curt once Warrior was let go? Maybe, maybe you swallow your pride, bring Hogan back early and use Curt as their cornerman, but that's about it, and I'm not sure Hogan would have returned under those circumstances; he'd have probably insisted on some involvement for Beefcake, to name just one sticking point.

 

So we got what we got, which was a handicap match except for the first few minutes and the closing stretch. The problem was, the focus was always on the partner outside the ring. Everything about this was predicated on what Curt would do once he got in there, and that's not necessarily bad, unless you know that 1) Curt can't do a hell of a lot and 2) The man you're partnering him with is still ostensibly either the number one or two babyface in your company, depending on where you put Bret. There should have been a whole lot more focus on how Flair and Hall were decimating Savage, on how well they were functioning as a unit, on how they'd each waited to get their most hated enemy in a position like this, with his only salvation a man who by his own admission he neither liked nor trusted. But that's too deep for this bunch, unfortunately.

 

What would I have done instead, assuming that all options were open? Simply split the match into two singles. Have Savage and Flair go at it for the number one contendership to Bret (Curt interferes, causing Savage to be DQed) and then Curt against Hall, since you're running Curt-Flair as Flair's last match before he goes to Atlanta. I'm not sure if it matters how this one turns out; maybe you have Savage interfere here to save Curt and the two of them bond. I'm not exactly sure how you work Curt's turn without the impetus of Savage needing a tag team partner, though. Maybe it's best if you move Bret into the tag match, leave Curt with Flair and Hall and have Michaels defend against Jannetty, although that kills one of your main events at the Rumble unless you do a screwy finish of some sort. You could always save Hall for later on and have Bret defend against Flair at the Rumble, with the belt on the line against Flair's WWF career.

 

I didn't much care for the commentary. Heenan was wonderful going after Curt (although his Rumble performance from earlier in the year can't be topped for glorious partisanship), but Vince just doesn't play off of him the way Gino does in this kind of situation. Earnest, geeky Vince doing the best he can to be a professional and call this tag team matchup isn't what was needed; Gino had to be there to twist the knife every time Heenan breathed and drive him out of his cotton-pickin' mind.

 

I was a bit surprised that Vince remembered how to properly apply an abdominal stretch when Hall had Savage in one; hearing him talk about Hall having to hook his toe behind Savage's calf isn't a detail I thought he'd bring up at this point in his career. I didn't care for his constant references to "The Perfect Team", though, especially since I don't believe they ever crossed paths in the same ring again.

 

The DQ was comical, especially when the whole world saw Earl trip himself in order to take his second bump. Did Flair or Hall forget to hit him, or was he supposed to be so afraid of them that he backed up from them and fell down? It really felt like they just said, "Nobody can do the job, and nobody can go over clean, so let's just throw this sucker out and go home." Curt's original bump into Earl didn't look all that good either, but that's understandable since nobody wanted to see Curt get hurt again. They should have just had Flair or Hall slug him because they could.

 

A continuity error, maybe: Curt seemed to be having a good time high-fiving Savage and saying "Dig it" in the prematch promo, but after the match they do the staredown routine. Go one way or the other, guys. Remember, most of us are either under the age of twelve or would like to be, and we're easily confused. The same thing applies to the walkout, although Vince tried to spin it as Curt going outside to "regroup", which was actually pretty clever.

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  • GSR changed the title to [1992-11-26-WWF-Survivor Series] Ric Flair & Razor Ramon vs Randy Savage & Mr Perfect
  • 6 months later...

Compared to the other WWF matches during this period, this is a standout. Unfortunately, the booking is so wishy-washy that it mars the entire deal.

Flair and Razor seem game for everything. Flair feels totally on and Razor more than holds his own. I started watching after Razor was already a babyface IC-title mainstay so I can only imagine the hesitation as a fan committing to The Diamond Studd as a main event player. But his alliance with Flair and Heenan paid off.

Savage is a master storyteller. The extended 2-on-1 and the post-match uncertainty about Perfect are the epitome of things missing from today's "story" based matches. Savage (and the WWF in general during this era) were fantastic at hammering home the important tales. Not a big fan of Perfect briefly walking out though because it didn't really have an impetus other than Savage getting beat up for a while. I really do appreciate not turning Hennig into an automatic face based on one angle, but this match feels like Vince had a checklist of moments and put it all together without telling a complete story.

And the ending is just a huge letdown, even taking into account Perfect getting two visual pins. If anything, it did get me interested in seeing Perfect against both Flair and Razor, although I don't think the latter match ever happened on TV, PPV or tape.

This is a big case of "what might have been" with Savage getting phased almost totally out of the ring and Flair leaving, this great story doesn't go anywhere other than the famous Raw LLT match.

Also, I guess Vince was desperate for faces with Bulldog and Warrior out because Perfect doing the Halloween Havoc 1995 turn on Savage 3 years early would have been the best thing ever. Pull the trigger on a WWF Flair faction with Flair, Razor, Perfect, Heenan and another threat (debut Bigelow or Luger as the missing piece?) and all of a sudden you have 1993 WWF set up to be the best thing ever.

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  • 1 year later...

This whole storyline is quite hard to follow because a lot has changed since the last PPV. Warrior's out of the company, Savage dropped the world title to Flair, who then dropped it to Bret Hart. Perfect joins up with Savage, and Razor Ramon debuted and somehow joins forces with with Flair. Heenan is super pissed off at Perfect and it's one of his best colour performances ever. The crowd are invested into the Perfect turn. They seem happy that they can finally cheer for him after spending the past three years being a heel. He teases turning on his back on Savage. Ramon is making his PPV debut here and looks very good, he's great at playing the big bully. Flair and Savage have great chemistry together and it shines whenever they are both in the ring. This ends in a DQ after some referee shenanigans.  Shit finish and questionable booking aside, this was a lot of fun.

★★★¾

 

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I wonder what would have happened if they had more time to change up this match, if they could have gotten Hogan in the Mr. Perfect spot. It could have been a good continuation of his quasi-angle with Flair before leaving earlier that year, and working with a new promising character like Razor could have given him a bit more shine then if it was a babyface Mr. Perfect coming back. 

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