Least we forget, us traumatized preteens had just recovered from Earthquake SMASHING Damien a few months earlier. We went a few weeks thinking Damien had died when Earthquake sat on that bag, only to find out he survived.
A few months later, my favorite snake of all time was GNAWING on the arm of my favorite Wrestler of all time. The horror in some of those kids eyes that the camera found.
I held it together ok until I saw Macho fall off the stretcher like the poison had him blind/deranged
Come to think of it, that was probably the best stretch of Wrestling I had ever seen.
- Earthquake smashed Damien in the spring and Jake the Snake lost his mind for the next year, hearing voices and whispering and shit
- Hogan got buried by the Undertaker at Survivor Series and broke my heart watching him pick up his cross chain and walk dejected out of the ring
- Macho Man got bit by a poisonous cobra
- And all of this came to a head when Ric Flair joined the WWF and survived the entire gauntlet of the Royal Rumble being one of the first guys in the ring and somehow lasting until the end to be the new champion as the new year started.
Vince was at his writing peak with quality wrestling mixed with equally quality drama and Hall of Famers at their peak 91-92
That period from Summer Slam 1991 to Wrestlemania IX in 1993 was the last great bloom of the Golden Age.
Vince was finally able to really let the creativity out because Hogan was gone for 1992 into 1993. Hogan hogged the spotlight and when he left, others finally got to shine. And in 1992 and 1993, there were a lot of Hall of Fame talent on the last ridge of their peak. In IR and political terms it created a multi-polar WWF that had been once dominated by the Superpower that was Hogan that dictated a very rigid balance of power with him at the top, usually a heel at IC Champ and one of three long-time tag-teams heading a mostly overlooked division.
But once Hogan was gone, and with Ultimate Warrior in and out thanks to Helwig's nuttery, for the first time since 1984, the WWF was in chaos and the title was up for grabs, leading to a trickle-down effect.
1) At the top of the WWF, there were now multiple contenders for the title. Flair's emergence brought in a true heel contender as great as Hogan himself. The Royal Rumble solidified him as a true champion that could very well rule the roost for some time. Meanwhile, there were other contenders. Old hands like Macho Man finally got out from behind Hogan's glory hogging, Perfect returning from injury and occasionally Warrior, with new up and comers like Bret Hart and Yokozuna making themselves felt. The jockeying for the title meant anything could happen and it often did. It was great, anything could happen and it did. My only regret is that they didn't give Flair more time as champ to really build some rivalries with guys like Hart. Vince mistakenly moved on from him too quickly. Without him they lacked in a skilled top heel for a couple years after.
2) As goes the Winged Eagle, so goes the IC title as well. The IC title as always there to balance the card so if the top title was in flux so was the IC title. Bret Hart was making his reputation, but it was a very robust field for contention with Piper finally winning the belt, along with Bulldog and Mountie. Waiting in the wings were also guys like IRS, Bossman, Jake the Snake and a new Razor Ramon, singles Shawn Michaels. In the past decade IC titles lasted months and changed to balance the cards, but now reigns were often counted in days or weeks. Anything could happen. And did. That period from Perfect winning the IC title until Razor Ramon and Michaels started trading titles was the best ever for the IC title. Lots of really talented guys got their shot and changed forever how the IC was viewed. It went from a consolation prize to being considered the "True Title" won by the real, skilled wrestlers who had much more talent than the roid heads Vince put the big belt on.
3) By 1992 the Tag-Team division was deep with good teams, but short on top talent. The LOD had completely dominated the scene as ok, but not great, monster and gimmick heel teams came and went. The consequence as that the tag circuit was very siloed and really irrelevant to the greater WWF. Individual tag team members rarely ever wrestled singles guys, to say nothing of having shots at the top card talent. And then Money Inc. came along. This, like the great instability with the two singles titles, shook things up. By pairing two upper-midcard singles heels together, who paired wonderfully, and having them easily dominate the tag division, Vince was able to add a new heel influence that impacted the entire WWF by having them feud with top-card singles. Tag-teams could now have a major role to play over singles titles and the power structure of the new multi-polar WWF. For the period of late 1991 to mid 1993, Money Inc. was the second big heel influence, after Flair, and feuded with the likes of Macho Man, Warrior, Hogan and Razor Ramon. They also elevated the tag division with great feuds with the Natural Disasters, Nasty Boys, LOD and were the Steiner Brothers big rivals.
Long story short: Once Hogan was out of the picture hogging all the spotlight, it allowed others to shine, and the formula for the late 90s and 2000s, of a multi-polar power structure came into being and when staffed with a whole bevy of Hall of Fame talent, many of whom were in the end of their last real peak, it was glorious.
The only bad thing to say about this period is that Undertaker, after the brilliant feud with Hogan, was really misused for years. Bad feuds with monster heels that were simply no good. It wasn't until he stared feuding with Yoko that he started getting some good storylines.
