horrorfan_1986

Summerslam
August 29, 1988

The Rougeau Brothers vs The British Bulldogs
For all of you trivia buffs, this would be the first match in Summerslam history. If you're trying to beat out WCW, you definitely need to audiences that your tag team roster is up for the battle. Unlike today, the WWE had that covered. The Rougeau's (Jacques aka the Mountie and Raymond) had just turned heel. Their heel turn ended up creating possibly the best
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
of all time. Any song with the lyrics "We don't like heavy metal, we don't like rock n roll, all we listen to is Barry Manilow" is fucking gold. It was damn near brilliant for the WWE to have the Rougeau's be heels by being overly fake American fans. Slow building match with a lot of wear down holds mixed in with the Rougeau's using a lot of cheat heel tactics. The referee decides midway through the bout to start doing his job. After the French Canadians were double teaming and not tagging, once the Bulldog's did a tag behind the ref's back, the ref doesn't allow it to stand. Nice assisted Headbutt by the Bulldogs (Davey Boy pressed Dyno and Dyno did the headbutt). But before the ref can count, the time expires. No contest. Really bizarre way to begin Summerslam. There's nothing wrong with doing a broadway. The Bulldogs had some great time limit draws with the Hart Foundation just a couple years earlier. However, if you're going to do one, why would you in the first match of the night? The slow pace was also an odd choice for this match to go first. Typically, PPV's start out a fast pace match to get the crowd into the show. Surprisingly, the fans were really into the match though. I doubt it'd go over as well today though. Enough of the bad though, the match is really good. Even with Dyno being a shell of his former self, as long as he was working with talented workers (Which the other three were) there was nothing to worry about. Soon after this match, Dyno would began his fight with Jacques which would result in Jacques using a roll of dimes to knock out some of Dyno's teeth. Sadly, the Bulldog's would be gone before the end of the year. That entire issue seemed to get Jacques a lot of respect though. Dyno was seen as a bully and Jacques was finally someone who stood up to him. A few months later, Jacques would impress everyone again by offering to take a bump for Dynamite at the Survivor Series. Sometimes what happens behind the scenes is more interesting than what the camera shows. Anyways, this match would end up being the best opening match for a WWE PPV up until next Summerslam. 20 Minutes. 3 1/2 Stars.

Bad News Brown vs Ken Patera
Bad News had just came into the WWE recently while Patera is just about gone from the WWE. Patera would end up in the AWA to have some success as one-half of the Olympians with Brad Rheingans. The team would end up becoming the AWA tag team champions. The titles meant nothing by then, but that was besides the point. The match is a complete bore as Patera and Brown proves to have zero chemistry and are that talented enough to actually quiet down the previously loud crowd. Brown wins with Ghetto Blaster. While he wasn't a great wrestler, I did enjoy Brown. He had a believable gimmick and was a legit bad ass. However, he had severe issues with finding workers that he actually had enough chemistry with to put on a good match. Even known talented workers such as Bret Hart and Roddy Piper had problems producing a good match with him. Randy Savage seemed to be the one guy who could figure out a way to make their intense battles good. Brown may of ended up holding the WWE title for a short time had he had some chemistry with more men. The folks over in Turnerland might of been a better place for Brown. With the natural racism felt by the Southern states, Brown would of been a perfect choice for a leading heel. As for the match, it's a candidate for worst Summerslam match of all time. Brown at least looked like a bad ass though. 7 Minutes. 3/4 Star.

Rick Rude vs The Junkyard Dog
Once again we have a wrestler on the rise of his career (Rude) against another on the decline of his (JYD). Rude had been feuding with Jake Roberts over Cheryl Roberts (Jake's real life then-wife) for most of the year. Rude is wearing a pair of tights with JYD's picture on them. Rude easily had the best looking tights in wrestling at that time. That doesn't sound gay at all, right...right? JYD is in control for most of the match up until Rude takes over. Rude pulls down his JYD tights to reveal a pair of Cheryl Roberts tights. OOOHHHH. Fist drop by Rude. Jake Roberts watching in the back can't take it anymore and runs out to attack Rude drawing the DQ. Rude runs for safety while JYD foolishly is okay with Roberts costing him the match. JYD would end up leaving the WWE before the Coliseum Home Video even released the PPV to VHS. By this point of his career, Junkyard didn't even look to be putting in any effort. To his credit, Rude was able to save this match from being a total bomb. For newer fans, this match would seem like an odd choice for PPV. The most obvious match would have Jake Roberts and Rick Rude fight again after their draw at Mania. Due to that, this match is not only bad, but also fairly meaningless as it didn't really move the feud of Rude/Roberts along any further. 6 Minutes. 1 1/2 Stars.

The Powers of Pain w/The Baron vs The Bolsheviks w/Slick
Powers of Pain are The Barbarian and The Warlord as JCP's ripoff version of the Road Warriors. The Baron is former AWA legend, Baron von Rashke. Not sure what happened, but Rashke was only in the WWE as The Baron for a very short amount of time. This would be the Powers of Pain first major match with the E. Nothing special happens in here, POP just uses their power to destroy the Russians. The Barbarian finishes off Zhukov (Did Volkoff EVER take the fall in a loss?) with his great flying headbutt. Squash. I'm enough of a POP fan that I was at least entertained. The WWE clearly had some big plans for the Powers of Pain. For some reason, nothing ever did. Shame too, for a power team, they were quite good especially against talented teams (See: Anyone but the Bolsheviks). 6 Minutes. 1 1/2 Stars.

The Brother Love Show
Tonight's guest is 'Hacksaw' Jim Duggan. A lot of random talking that has no real point to it. Duggan ends up running Love off of his own show. Duggan was a last minute replacement for Ric Flair (Talk about a drop in quality) once Flair decided to stay with WCW. I know it's difficult to find replacements, but surely the WWE could of thought of someone...ANYONE better.

Long intermission break follows with a ton of hype for an upcoming boxing match. The whole idea was that Titan Sports was also backing the match, so they decided to shill the event for a solid 20 minutes.

The Honky Tonk Man w/Jimmy Hart vs The Ultimate Warrior - IC Title Match
HTM was scheduled to have a Wrestlemania rematch with Brutus Beefcake and drop the title. However, somewhere along the line, Vince began to have second thoughts on Bruti. After running an injury angle with 'Outlaw' Ron Bass and Brutus, the WWE began testing out a new challenger at house shows. That new challenger was newcomer, The Ultimate Warrior. Up til now, Warrior was a lowcard act who was gaining some nice attention from the fans. With some push, Vince believed that Warrior might just have what it took to bring in some serious cash. Before the match, Honkytonk Man announces an open challenge to anyone in the back. Long moment to build up the suspense until the Ultimate Warrior's music hits. The fans erupt as the Warrior runs down to the ring. Warrior ducks a punch. Closeline by Warrior and a splash to defeat Honkytonk Man and end the longest IC title reign ever. Warrior's music never end had a chance to be stopped. Blink and you missed the actual match. Even though it's incredible short, it's extremely fun. The fans were out of control loud during all of this. This would end up being one of the more memorable moments in WWE PPV and would begin the push of Warrior ending up being more popular than Hulk Hogan for a time. For as much flak as Warrior gets for being a poor worker, match quality for IC title matches actually improved once he was given the strap. The first PPV feel match of the night. Don't let the star rating lead you to believe this was a bad segment. 30 Seconds 1 star.

'The Rock' Don Muraco vs Dino Bravo w/Frenchie Martin
Muraco had turned face earlier in the year. Bravo was dealing with a life after The New Dream Team as a single's wrestler. Ironically, Muraco was feuding with Bravo's former partner, Greg Valentine at this point. A whole lot of nothing in this match. Muraco was on the decline of his career (I feel like a broken record) while Bravo was never good in singles matches. Bravo picks up the win with his side slam. While being one of the best heels in the WWE a few years earlier, Muraco ends up being one of the worst faces today. It's quite sad. Not as sad as Muraco job out to fuckin' Bravo though. Much like JYD, Muraco would be fired very soon. I assume it was because of drugs as well. 5 Minutes. 1 Star.

Demolition (c) w/Mr Fuji and Jimmy Hart vs The Hart Foundation - WWE Tag Team Titles Match
Demoliton has twice the manager power~! Basically, after Bret turned face at Wrestlemania 4 and Neidhart turned later, they left Jimmy Hart feeling they no longer needed him. This would cause Hart to join up with anyone in trying to cost the Harts a match. Demolition works over Bret's arm for most of the match with Bret selling well. Bret plays the face-in-peril for awhile. Hot tag to Neidhart and the Harts take over. Hart's with their signature slingshot shoulder breaker. With everyone in the ring, the referee is distracted allowing Jimmy Hart to throw in his megaphone to Ax. Bret gets hit with the megaphone and is easily pins Hart to retain their tag titles. Demolition is now 2-0 on PPV defeating Strike Force and the Hart Foundation. Impressive. Both times are also by a weapon. By this point, the Harts were having great match after great match. In his book, Bret was pretty insecure about his standing in the company at this point of his career. Not having some gold really worried him. However, with the WWE wanting to get Demolition over with the audience, Bret and Jim were more valuable than ever. With Strike Force going on a hiatus due to Martel's injury and the Rocker's just debuting, it was up to the Harts to get Demo over. This one isn't as well known or as good as their 1990 match, but it's a forgotten gem. Maybe I'm bias because I love the pairing of the teams, but I loved this match. This would be the first in a long line of matches that Bret stole the show at Summerslam. Minus 1995, he would end up being in the best match at every Summerslam he wrestled at. 10 Minutes. 4 Stars.

The Big Boss Man vs Koko B Ware
Yet another newcomer introduction squash. Koko gets in a little offense, but Bossman's sheer power is too much for him. A Boss Slam puts Koko away. You know the drill - nothing match, but it's good for showcasing a newcomer. Boss Man would end up being pushed quickly after debuting. By the end of the year, he would be working with the two most over faces of the company, Savage and Hogan. 6 Minutes. 1 Star.

Jake Roberts vs Hercules
Hercules was just buying time until his face turn in a few months. Roberts was of course feuding with Rude. The crowd is dead for the bout. LONG rest holds by both men. Hercules backdrops out of the DDT, but Roberts reverses Herc into the DDT for the win. The match felt more like an episode of Primetime wrestling with how little the commentators talked about the actual match. The feud of Rude and Roberts killed the importance of both of their Summerslam matches. It's odd to see the crowd so dead for a Roberts match. 10 Minutes. 1 Star.

Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan w/Miss Elizabeth vs Andre the Giant and Ted DiBiase w/Bobby Heenan and Virgil - Special Guest Ref: Jesse Ventura
Well look what we have here, a match with an actual backstory with wrestlers feuding. This one had been building up since 1987, but it really came together at Wrestlemania 4. With Andre the Giant out to help DiBiase in any way he could, Hogan came out during the main event and used a chair to ensure Savage won the match and the title. Leading up to the match, President Jack Tunney decided that there was a need for a special guest referee. He decided on Jesse Ventura. On an episode of the Brother Love Show, Ventura refused any talk about him possibly being bias. This brought out Ted DiBiase and company. While DiBiase talked, he slipped cash into the jacket of Ventura. The big question was whether Ventura would be unbias or not. For some reason, Ventura decides to switch the ring ropes to the other pair of corners. It was a real "WTF" moment. We'll have to watch to see if there's a reason for that. The Megapowers are in control early on against DiBiase. Whenever Andre is tagged in, Hogan and Savage have an inability to have any real effect on the big man. Things are just not going well for the Mega Powers as both are knocked out of the ring. Miss Elizabeth climbs up on the apron and rips off her skirt. All of the heels including the managers and Ventura's jaws drop. The distraction allows the faces to knock Andre out of the ring and hit both of their finishers on DiBiase. Even though he's no longer the champion, Hogan still gets in the cover to win the match. The faces celebrate to close out the show. Hogan hugs Elizabeth and just for a split second Savage has a confused look on his face. Savage quickly snaps out of it and continues to celebrate with his best friend and girl. Great way to close out this event. With Andre being in such poor health, this was the best way to use his star status without hurting the quality of the match. DiBiase could work the match while Andre could come in to even the odds. The ending with Elizabeth ripping her skirt off is an iconic moment of the 80's. While it is extremely modest compared to what we've seen in the Attitude Era (It was basically her wearing a one piece bathing suit) it was a really scandalous moment at the time. Because Elizabeth had this classy beauty about her, it was sexier than the slutty T&A moments the WWE would be known for later on. The best moment of the entire match and show was Savage's very brief look at Hogan after the match. Without knowing it, the WWE had already planted the seed for their Wrestlemania 5 match. That's amazing storytelling there. The big tag team main event would end up being what Summerslam was known for early on. In some ways, I miss Summerslam being having it. With Summerslam being so well known for it's great tag team and IC title matches, it helped give Summer it's own unique feel to it. These days, it feels like any other non gimmick PPV. As for the tag ropes weirdness before the match, it seems as if it was done in order to have Elizabeth on the camera side of the ring. It would give the fans watching on PPV or tape a perfect view of her ass. Even Disney Vince McMahon believed that sex sells. 15 Minutes. 3 Stars.

Overall
Well there you have it, the first Summerslam. As you can tell, Vince hadn't decided what to book Summerslam as yet. With Pay Per Views still not having a distinct purpose yet, Vince was still booking for house shows. Due to that, most feuds ended on house shows. So instead of having feuds come to an end at this PPV, they were merely featured in interference. That wouldn't be too terribly bad if all of the non feud matches were good. The matches fit into two different categories. The terrible and the good. There's nothing average on this show. Had the WWE cut out everything except for the tag matches (Minus POP vs Russians) and the IC title match, they would of had a fantastic In Your House-like PPV. Instead, there's more bad than good. Vince would begin to change his booking so that everything major would be headlined on PPV. The other problem with the show is the sheer amount of terrible wrestlers. Most of the bad wrestlers were ones that needed to retire. The changing of booking and the loss of those bad wrestlers instantly helped the PPV's and 89's Summerslam would be so much better. The PPV is worth checking out for the infamous moments and for the three good tag matches. But be aware that you will be forced to do a lot of fast forwarding.

Best Match: The Hart Foundation vs Demoliton
Worst Match: Bad News Brown vs Ken Patera

Overall Grade: D+

__________________

Brandon

Bump.

Sweet review, man. The only match I remember is the main event.. it's been so long since I saw the entire PPV.. but the tag matches sound pretty sweet. I used to love good old fashioned tag wrestling.

KenTheKiller

Great review.

I'd like to see the Harts/Demolition match. Surely it's very good as I loved the other one they had (I assume it's the one from 1990 but I could be wrong).

I hate all the squashes. To me, the most squashes a PPV should have is one, and that should be a Mordecai/Scotty 2 Hotty style squash. Seems so cheap to do.

__________________

Meldrew

I have this on DVD. Pretty solid review man

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


Sig by James N Roses

Tommy Platinum

Whats not bad about such a long IC title reign ending in 30 seconds? Reminds me of Santino/Regal but a lot worse lol.

The Demolition/Harts match definitely seems worth checking out, but the PPV in general looks poor, hence the D+. >_>

__________________

horrorfan_1986

When you pop create a loud pop like they did in MSG, it's not a bad thing. Regardless of what HTM would like you to believe, his title reign didn't do much to help the title. If anything, I'd say he had hurt the title. For the first time since the title was created and crowned in "Rio de Janeiro", the IC title wasn't the highlight of cards as far as quality. Even vastly talented wrestlers like Ricky Steamboat and Randy Savage couldn't get anything too good out of HTM. Warrior's short title win created a buzz and finally made the IC title exciting again. It seemed only appropriate that the champion who ducked and ran his way out of matches to protect his title would finally have a wrestler screw him over by not even waiting for the bell.

Sometimes a short match to switch titles is a good thing, even better than having a normal length match.

__________________