Bigpapa42

So I recently borrowed the SummerSlam boxed set from a friend, with the intent to watch through all of them in the next couple of months. Its going to be a quiet (as in inexpensive) summer and it seemed like fun. Last summer and fall, I borrowed the Wrestle Mania and Royal Rumble boxed sets from the same friend, basically in preparation for going to WM this year.

I decided to do a kind of "running commentary of random thoughts" as I watch through these. Not the match-by-match breakdown and review that Jim does - what I would produce would be a farce compared to his reviews, so I'm not even going to try that approach.

I started watching the WWE in the mid 1980s, so everything from about 1985-1990 was a "golden period' in my memory. I watched through much of the 1990s, with some occassional gaps. I watched through parts of this decade, with some bigger gaps. I've seen many of these SummerSlams before, but definitley not all of them.

This will probably be a lot of comparing what the WWF/WWE used to do to what they do now. I'll try to avoid the overt nostalgia... Hopefully this will turn out be amusing to read...

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Tommy Platinum

Good idea. I've not actually seen many Summerslams. I don't think I have seen any pre-2000 Summerslams in their entirety. The only ones I've seen in full are 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2008, so I'm interesting to hear what is said about the others.

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Bigpapa42

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horrorfan_1986

Darsow and Eadie did have single careers in the WWE. Once Demolition wrapped up in early 1991, Darsow started the Repo Man character. Meanwhile, before putting on the face paint and before being a Machine, Eadie was The Masked Superstar. Both guys were much better suited in the tag team ranks though. As for the whole "Demolition were LOD rip offs", while they may of originally started out as such, they evolved into something much more than that. Up until the WWE started pushing the Roadies as legends in the late 90's, I'd even say Demolition were more over and well known to WWE audiences.

Bret did start off as a singles wrestler. However, lack of direction and not getting over led to Bret eventually being put with Neidhart. Being in the Hart Foundation allowed Bret to be pushed without the WWE having to put a lot behind the singles wrestler.

Roberts vs Hercules wasn't a major match, let alone the secondary main event. Much like with Rick Rude vs Junkyard Dog, it was just a thrown on match while the real feud (Rude vs Roberts) continued to go on at house shows. Pay Per View still wasn't the main source of profit back in 1988. So all of these 80's PPV's were more like super shows at MSG, Meadowlands, Spectrum or some other major arena.

If there was a secondary main event, It would of probably have been Warrior vs Honky.
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BTW, do they still have the intermission on the DVD's? The worst part about the show was a full 20 minute plug for an upcoming boxing event that Vince had some stake in.

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Bigpapa42

I realized the Eadie had been The Masked Superstar, same as Darsow had a run in JCP before WWE (okay, I had to look up the Darsow stuff on Wiki). Just with Eadie's age and their relative skills, I don't expect they would have been doing a great deal as singles wrestlers. So far as I can recall, Repo Man was essentially a jobber who got a few storylines because of his gimmick. Which is likely how I figure either would have gone as a single's career. Basically, I was just trying to get across that I think the tag team allowed them to accomplish much more than they likely would have as singles workers. And you are correct about Demolition having a bigger part in WWE lore than LOD, for the most part.

I knew that Bret didn't work with Neidhart immediatley upon joining the WWE, but I didn't think they really did much with him prior to it. Perhaps my assumption about him getting over eventually without the Hart Foundation are incorrect...

I almost forgot about Roberts causing the disqualification in the Rude-JYD match. That makes a lot more sense. I didn't think that Roberts and Hercules were feuding at that point, so it really didn't seem like a major match. I was just curious about the placement of it.

No intermission that I saw. I wouldn't put it past the WWE to leave it in there, though.

My intent is to do similar things for all of the SummerSlams. I welcome any comments and discussion, as that's kinda the reason I'm doing this. I really hope Jim continues to contribute, as his knowledge of wrestling history never ceased to amaze me.

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horrorfan_1986

I wouldn't say Repo was a jobber. If he was a jobber, then almost everyone was at the time. He was a midcarder who eventually drifted to becoming a low carder before leaving the WWE. Like a lot of guys not named Shawn, Bret, Taker or Yoko, Darsow wasn't given a lot of time with the new character. He did play an important role in the DiBiase/Virgil feud and had a nice short program with Randy Savage in 1993.

After he left the WWE, he continued his singles career in WCW. The only memorable thing he did during the initial return was along with Dustin Rhodes, being fired for blading during a taped match. That "Match" was on the back of a moving semi. I'm not sure when exactly he returned, but he was a regular on WCW Saturday Night in a golfer gimmick. I seem to recall he eventually started coming out to a new gimmick every episode of Saturday Night. It's those years (After the first firing) that Darsow was a true jobber. However, besides the Gambler, Darsow's jobber character was one of the more memorable ones at the time.

If it wasn't for the Hart Foundation, Bret would of become Bret 'The Cowboy' Hart. Something tells me he wouldn't have gotten over.

Minus the main event, none of the placement really means anything. After all, we got a freakin' time limit draw in the first match.

I assume it's not in then. You would of remembered it if you would of saw it. It was nothing but interviews of boxers and shots of boxing.

I like the structure of the reviews. Just something a bit different than the normal way. I'm looking forward to review of '89. That's one of my favorite Summerslams. I've been meaning to review 1990 for months now. Seeing yours might get me interested in doing it.

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Bigpapa42

I wanted to get away from the standard review style because I'm not sure I could possibly do it justice in that regard. Just throwing out my thoughts as I watch I can do. Looking at getting the 1989 one up later today.

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Bigpapa42

The Brain Busters d. The Hart Foundation
The Ultimate Warrior d. Rick Rude - Intercontinental Championship Match
Hulk Hogan + Brutus Beefcake d. Randy Savage + Zeus


-this one has me excited right off the start. Why? Jesse Ventura. I always loved him a heel commentator. It wasn't just the verbal jabs he took at whoever he was sitting with. It was the way he spun everything... Should've been clear even at that point that the man was cut out for a career in politics.

-Ventura's partner? Tony Schiavone. WTF? Did I know Schiavone worked for the WWE? Probably going to have to say no. Never a huge fan of the guy. Ventua being involved more than makes up for it, though.

-the 1989 SummerSlam starts with another solid tag team match - The Brainbusters versus The Hart Foundation. How can you not enjoy that one? Arn and Tully... so good together but man, I have just never liked that name. But how can you not like that they are managed by Bobby Heenan? The man is simply amazing. Just like watching a good tag match makes me miss a good tag division, watching Heenan do his thing makes me miss managers.

-Dusty in polka dots... The match against Honky is decent, and Rhodes sells like no ones business. Can't help but think of a WWE house show I went to around this era, when Dusty was feuding with DiBiase and my friend got a $50 when Dusty took the money from DiBiase's attemped buy off and gave it to the fans. My friend got the bill, but I ended up getting half of it. What does that have to do with this match? Nothing, but it is random...

-Mr Perfect is another guy who I never really appreciated back in the day. Never really liked or disliked him, but I enjoy him more and more when I go back and watch old stuff. Here he beats the snot out of The Red Rooster... what a stupid gimmick. Taylor was supposed to be a pretty talented worker, but gimmicks like that make you think they wanted him to fail...

-a pretty good 3v3 tag match, with Martel and the Rougeau's beating Santanta and the Rockers. Like the finish, with Jannetty getting pinned despite not being the legal man. I like that both Slick and Jimmy Hart with the heels. Again, this kind of thing just makes me miss the use of managers in the WWE.

-the Ultimate Warrior beats Rick Rude to win the Intercontinental belt. Again, a reminder the Warrior was pretty limited in the ring. Rude was prety good, at least better than I remember. Depsite the Ultimate Warrior, it doesn't turn out to be a bad match - the crowd's love of Warrior, Rude, Heenan, and the appearance of Piper all make for an ultimately watchable match. Love the rant by Heenan a short time after Rude loses the belt. Have I mentioned yet that I love Bobby Heenan and desperately miss managers in the WWE?

-next up is Duggan + Demolition against Andre, Bossman, + Akeem. The faces win after Duggan tags Akeem with his 2x4. You know, I really didn't recall faces using nefarious means to win quite this often...

-the Greg Valentine vs Hercules match is simply to drive forward a feud between Valentine and Rugged Ronnie Garvin, apparently. I don't recall the feud. I don't even really recall Garvin being in the WWF. I do, however, recall having the match from 1987 where "Hands of Stone" Ronnie Garvin won the NWA belt from Ric Flair on tape forever. Why do I remember it? Because of a post-match montage set to "We are the Champions" which I loved. Don't judge me - I was a kid.

-DiBiase is one more guy that I probably didn't appreciate as much back in the day as I should have. Despite the fact that his gimmick managed to put $25 in my pocket once. What can I say? I was about 9 years old.

-Zeus. Good lord, Zeus. I remember seeing No Holds Barred in theaters, and I remember watching his first appearances in the WWF. I guess he's not that terrible of a worker given his lack of being a wrestler and all, but his big move is the bear hug... Really, a bear hug? Still, a watchable main event. I do like that its the second SummerSlam in a row with no world title match - that's something the current WWE could do a bit more, I think. Also note-worth - the pop that Miss Elizabeth got before the match when she made an appearance was huge. Again, made me wish... yeah yeah, you get the point. Unfortunately, this one did not feature Miss Elizabeth's underwear in any notable manner. That, at least, was disappointing. And the match ended when Hogan used Sherri's "loaded purse" on Zeus... Second SummerSlam in a row where the faces had to essentially cheat to win. Hmmm...

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horrorfan_1986

Be prepared, I'm going to probably multi-quote for all of these reviews.

Tony was in the WWE for a brief time in 1989-1990. He'd be used as a B-Level face play-by-play announcer while Gorilla remained on for the bigger shows.

The notable thing about this is that for the second year in a row, Bret managed to have the best match of the night. This would be the common trend up until he left the company. Even with Bret not appearing at a Summerslam for over 10 years, he's Mr. Summerslam in my eyes.

Once again, we get a random match instead of the real feud, in this case, Rhodes vs Boss Man.

Another early SS trend was the 6 man tags.

Easily one of Warrior's best matches. In yet another common trend, the IC title changes hands.

Duggan wasn't completely facelike at times. Since he was pretty much a dumbass, he would cheat a lot and most of the time get caught.

Garvin came into the company in early 1989. His only feud was against Greg Valentine. They would end up having a pretty good hard hitting match at Royal Rumble 1990. After that, he was squashed by Earthquake on SNME and only appeared now and then before drifting off once and for all. Garvin was up there in age when he came to the WWE, so a long career wasn't in the cards. Pretty forgettable though.

Just like at the previous SS, Hogan and company were able to work together to help a weaker talent get through the match. Unlike Zeus, Andre was a good worker, but his body was just giving out to him, but he still knew how to get a reaction. For Zeus, it was just the same old shit over and over. It's a true testament of how good Hogan was that he was able to make him look like he had a shred of talent. Thankfully, they let Savage do the brunt of the work. As for the cheating thing, keep in mind that the heels spent the entire time building up the match cheating. Savage won a lot of matches using Sherri's loaded purse. So it was like beating the heels with their own tricks.

I loved these early Summerslams though. To me, they were more of a stripped down simple PPV compared to the gimmick ones of Survivor Series and Royal Rumble or the celeb driven Wrestlemania. It was very little glitz and glamour, but more of just straight out action. I love how they had certain common trends of 6 man tags, new IC champions and a killer tag team match. Starting with the next one, you're going to see more common PPV matches. Feuds are going to be put into matches for PPV instead of just being house show draws. Sadly, the workrate of 1990 can't come close to compare to 1989. 1989 is easily my favorite wrestling year.

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Bigpapa42

Texas Tornado d. Curt Hennig - Intercontinental championship match
Randy Savage d. Dusty Rhodes
Hulk Hogan d. Earthquake
Ultimate Warrior d. Rick Rude - WWF World Championship match


-the commentators... Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper. Don't mind Piper at all, and at least Vinny Mac hasn't got into his over-selling of pin attempts as he will slightly later in his commentating career. That is endlessly annoying.

-the show starts with another tag match.... I see a trend here! This is Power & Glory beating the Rockers. It doesn't live up to the openers from the last two.

-Texas Tornado and Curt Hennig battle for the Intercontinental championship. I think I enjoy this one more than I should - two good workers in a fairly short match. But you throw in Bobby Heenan and the IC belt, and its good times. Heenan's lead-in promo was great. No one did the subtle digs like The Brain.

-the first four matches contain less than 20 minutes of wrestling, and one of them has zero - Sapphire not showing up to face Sherri. So much for the idea of short matches being a more contemporary (mid 90s on) WWE thing... No idea where I got that idea from anyway...

-the Hart Foundation take the belts from Demolition in a Best-Two-out-of-Three Falls match. Really enjoy this one. From the third member of Demoltion bit to the Road Warriors showing up, its just fun. Again, the tag team division delivers. I think someone needs to sit Vinnie Mac down and show him some of these old DVDs...

-three more matches with about 10 minutes of total time in the ring. One of those is Savage beating Dusty Rhodes. The entire match is basically for storyline of Sapphire leaving Dusty, apparently. Its kind of disappointing when you think about it, as its the kind of match that is something of a dream match up. The resulting 3-minute Savage win is not a thing of greatness.

-promo with Rick Rude... Where the hell did his mullet go? I like him less without the mullet. Thank goodness he's still rocking the porn 'stache.

-I remember the Hogan feud with Earthquake pretty well. At least, I thought I did. For some reason, I thought it happened when Hogan still had the belt for some reason, so apparently I don't remember it all that well at all. The match is pretty good, in part due to a hot crowd. They do love them some Hulk. I get the feeling that its Hogan dragging Tenta to a pretty decent match, as I don't recall him doing a great deal otherwise. I also remember his Earthquake finisher being more fearsome when I was young, but it doesn't seem nearly so impressive now. Just the way he lets off before he sits.

-a series of promos between that match and the main event. Time to get the cage together. They showcase the good - Hogan and Rhodes, separately - and the incomprehensible - Warrior. I guess you have to give Ultimate some credit, as he's clearly passionate in his promos. Just completely nonsensical.

-main event time. Rude and Warrior for the title in a cage. Sounds like fun. Rude is rocking a hella nice robe on his way to the ring. Still doesn't make up for the lack of mullet. Nice tights, too. The Ultimate Warrior counters with some great tassels on his boots. The match is meh... Doesn't seem to live up to the IC match on SS '89. The crowd really gets into it about halfway through. Bobby Heenan getting involved and selling like hell helps.

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