Summerslam 1990
Date: August 27, 1990
Location: Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Attendance: 19,304
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Roddy Piper

This is a personal favorite of mine as I’ve probably seen this show upwards of 40 times. It was the first tape I ever owned and I went through at least two copies. We have a double main event tonight with Hogan returning to face Earthquake and Ultimate Warrior defending the world title against Rick Rude in a cage for the final blowoff in their rivalry. Let’s get to it.

We open with a look at the fans coming into the arena and buying merchandise.

Now we get a traditional intro with Vince shouting about the double main event.

Rockers vs. Power and Glory

Power and Glory (Hercules and Paul Roma) get a jobber entrance. The camera immediately goes wide during the opening brawl so you don’t see Shawn’s knee get grazed by Hercules’ chain. His knee was REALLY badly hurt at this time so he’s just here for an appearance, making this a handicap match for all intents and purposes. Marty hits a quick dropkick to both guys and gets a small package on Roma but Slick has the referee.

Vince is freaking out over the referee missing stuff as Marty clotheslines Herc to the outside. We officially start with Roma vs. Jannetty and Roma tagging his way out of a sunset flip. Shawn is still on the floor as Hercules pounds away and slams Marty down. Roma plants Jannetty with a backbreaker for two but Marty comes back with a powerslam. The top rope fist connects with Paul’s head but Hercules breaks up the pin. Roma sends Jannetty into a clothesline from Herc as Shawn is screaming in pain. The superplex/top rope splash combo is enough to finish the massacre of Jannetty.

Rating: C-. The match wasn’t too bad all things considered. The crowd is white hot here and they carried the match to a higher level than it could have reached on their own. It’s kind of a shame that Marty had to be Shawn’s partner as his own skills were overlooked by his far more talented partner.

Post match Shawn finally gets into the ring but Marty covers his injured leg and takes a beating himself. Shawn is taken out on a stretcher.

Mr. Perfect isn’t worried about the Texas Tornado because he’s perfect. Tornado had been around for only a few weeks if even that coming into this. Heenan says Texas Tornadoes never do any damage because you can see it coming from a mile away.

Texas Tornado says that Perfect doesn’t know anything about Texas Tornadoes. They’re powerful and devastating, and tonight he’s going to go back into the clouds with the Intercontinental Title. I’ve always liked this promo: it’s short, it’s to the point, and it ties into the character name. Short and sweet. Note that Tornado is wearing yellow trunks here, just like Perfect. He’d change to white for the match

Intercontinental Title: Mr. Perfect vs. Texas Tornado

Tornado launches him into the corner to start and Perfect has a breather on the floor. The idea is that Perfect hasn’t had time to plan for Tornado and doesn’t know how to deal with him. Back in and Perfect hooks a quick hiptoss but Tornado slams him down and clotheslines Perfect out to the floor.

Back in and Perfect hits a clothesline of his own and the necksnap has Tornado in trouble. Off to a sleeper on Tornado but he quickly makes the rope. Perfect tries slapping him in the face, but Tornado pulls him into a slingshot, sending Perfect head first into the post. The Claw hold and Tornado Punch are enough for the pin and the title.

Rating: D+. This is a weird one as it’s about three and a half minutes of stalling before the fast ending. This was supposed to be Brutus Beefcake’s shot but he injured his face in a parasailing accident and Tornado was here as a surprise, which is likely why they went with the title change. Perfect would get the title back a few weeks later.

Mean Gene is talking about Sapphire being nowhere in sight (remember that as it becomes important later) when Hennig and Brain come in and say Tornado cheated by sending Perfect into the post. Heenan swears, yes SWEARS I SAY, that the shoulder was up at two.

Sapphire vs. Sensational Sherri

Sherri has on something like a big Mardi Gras mask which terrified me as a kid. Not that it matters as there’s no Sapphire. The music plays again but there’s still no Sapphire. Sherri says count to ten and then ring the bell. There’s still no Sapphire so Sherri wins by forfeit.

Dusty Rhodes isn’t sure where Sapphire, his chick, is. The idea is that Sapphire has been getting a bunch of gifts and no one knows who is sending them. The benefactor is scheduled to be revealed tonight. In what can only be described as a bizarre and random cameo, Jim Duggan pops up, says he hasn’t seen Sapphire either, and walks away. Dusty lists off the gifts (ring, bracelet, fur coat, Cadillac etc) and that’s about it.

Warlord vs. Tito Santana

Piper makes Mexican jokes as Tito grabs a headlock. Warlord easily shoves him down and Piper suggests going for a taco. Three straight dropkicks send Warlord out to the floor for a consultation with Slick. Back in and Tito pounds away but is launched to the outside on a kickout. Warlord rams Tito’s back into the post as Piper does a horrible Slick impression. Back in and Warlord pounds on the back but Tito fires off a quick clothesline and right hands. The flying forearm hits out of nowhere but Warlord gets his foot on the ropes. Back up a few seconds later and a powerslam abruptly ends Tito.

Rating: D+. Tito was a jobber to the stars at this point and made Warlord look as good as he could have, but the match was nothing special at all. Warlord just wasn’t all that good other than having muscles on top of muscles. Tito also jobbed to Barbarian at Wrestlemania so they had an idea of what they were using him for at this time.

Ad for Survivor Series. That show SUCKED.

Demolition says it’s going to be a surprise combination of them facing the Hart Foundation for the titles. Sean Mooney asks them about a match with Legion of Doom, giving us this joke from Crush: “They’re just a couple of second rate imposters.” It’s funny if you know your history.

Demolition has their entrance and it’s Smash/Crush. The Hart Foundation says they don’t care which combination they were going to face.

Tag Titles: Hart Foundation vs. Demolition

This is 2/3 falls and Demolition is defending. Basically the Harts have about as much chance coming into this as I have at being Miss America 1974. Bret starts with Smash but the Harts knock Crush to the floor before anything gets going. Things settle down and Bret gets a quick rollup for two. Anvil comes in to crank on Smash’s arm before Bret comes back in with a fist to the back. Smash tries to get into a technical match with Bret and gets caught in an armbar for his stupidity.

Smash finally slams Bret down and brings in Crush, only to have Bret avoid an elbow and pound away. Crush charges into a boot in the corner and gets rolled up for two before it’s off to Neidhart vs. Smash, only to have Crush kick Jim in the back to give the champions the advantage. Crush comes in again and misses a charge into the corner, allowing for another double tag to Bret and Smash. Neidhart falls to the floor as everything breaks down. Smash is whipped into Crush and Bret gets two off the middle rope elbow but here’s Crush again. The Decapitator to Bret is enough for the first fall.

The second fall begins with Crush hitting a hard clothesline on Bret and Smash pounding on the chest. After a quick neck crank by Crush, Bret fires off the Hart Attack clothesline on Smash, allowing for the hot tag to Neidhart. A powerslam gets two on Smash and Bret launches Anvil into Smash in the corner. The Hart Attack takes Smash down but Crush breaks up the pin for the DQ to make it 1-1. Why they didn’t let the Harts get the pin there is beyond me.

During the break between falls, Demolition knocks Bret to the floor, allowing Ax to run down and sneak under the ring. The third fall starts with Bret getting two off a sunset flip before taking Smash down by the leg. Neidhart picks Bret up for the reverse powerslam for two on Smash. Now things get tricky as Smash rolls to the floor and rolls under the ring, switching places with Ax.

The idea is that Ax and Smash look so much alike that the referee can’t tell them apart. This is fine except for one problem: THEY DON’T LOOK ALIKE! Ax is taller, heavier set and has a rounder head, not to mention a deeper voice. This reasoning never made sense to me as a kid and it still doesn’t to this day.

Anyway the fresh Ax destroys Bret and gets two off Bret’s chest bump in the corner. Anvil comes in sans tag as Smash takes Ax’s place again. They try to switch again and the Legion of Doom come out to break it up. Smash goes after Hawk and Animal as Anvil shoulder blocks Crush into a rollup by Bret for the pin and the titles. The place comes unglued as the Harts have shocked the world.

Rating: B. That’s probably a bit high but I love this match. The wrestling is just ok but the storytelling is as good as you’ll get in a tag match with the LOD coming out to even things up, allowing the Harts to finally do the impossible and win the titles. This is a popular match among old school fans and if you watch it you’ll see why.

Wrestlemania VII ad, with Vince promising over 100,000 fans. “Terror threats” prevented this from happening, which is WWF speak for “the Los Angeles Coliseum would have been half empty so we’ll move it to an arena.”

The LOD goes on a big rant about how they’re the real thing and Demolition is living in their world. The Harts come in and say they’ll fight anyone anytime.

Demolition wants to get their hands on the LOD.

Sherri has hear rumors about Sapphire and thinks she might be a UFO and not that stupid. It’s a rather strange interview and we’ll leave it at that. Basically Sapphire has done something that Sherri thinks is smart.

Nikolai Volkoff and Jim Duggan are proud to be international tag team partners. We’re in intermission if that wasn’t clear.

Earthquake and Dino Bravo brag about putting Hogan on the shelf. Big Bossman, Hogan’s friend of the month, will be no problem for Dino. Jimmy Hart says Bossman and Hogan will leave on side by side stretchers.

Jake Roberts says he isn’t afraid of Bad News Brown’s sewer rats. The snake keeps wrapping around Jake’s throat in a creepy visual.

Jake Roberts vs. Bad News Brown

Big Bossman is guest referee for no apparent reason. Brown jumps Jake before Bossman is in the ring but has to bail out of a DDT attempt. Back in and Bad News tosses Jake down and gets two off a legdrop. Jake tries the DDT a second time but Brown bails to the floor again. Roberts follows him out and gets hit in the ribs with a chair which isn’t a DQ for some reason. Back in and Bad News pounds away as Piper asks if Vince has ever smelled Brown. Jake avoids a middle rope elbow and hits the short clothesline but Brown backdrops out of the DDT. Another chair shot to Jake is good for the lame DQ.

Rating: D+. This didn’t have time to go anywhere and I’m still not sure why Boss Man was in here at all. Jake and Brown didn’t do anything else after this and Brown didn’t go after Boss Man after the feud, so I guess he was there as an enforcer for reasons not important enough to explain. The match was just ok.

Brown tries to drop a leg on the snake but Bossman makes the save. Bad News beats him down as well but Jake pulls the snake out of the bag to chase Brown off. This was Brown’s last major appearance in mainstream wrestling.

Demolition yells a lot.

Time for the Brother Love Show with a REAL American as his special guest: Sgt. Slaughter. This would be the start of his heel turn as he didn’t like the idea of Nikolai Volkoff becoming an American and wants America to be how he liked it. Slaughter gives Love the Great American Award and declares WAR on Volkoff, while also saying that Sadaam Hussein would destroy America in a real war. Somehow this took nearly ten minutes.

Mr. Fuji says his Orient Express will leave big red marks on Volkoff’s head.

Gene sees Sapphire go into a dressing room and lock the door behind her.

Orient Express vs. Nikolai Volkoff/Jim Duggan

Duggan and Volkoff sing God Bless America and get jumped in a twist on the old foreigners’ gimmick. We start with the small Tanaka trying to match strength with Volkoff. Vince: “That wasn’t too bright.” Piper: “Yep, real dumb.” You can’t make it any simpler than that. Sato kicks away at Volkoff a bit but it’s hot tag to Duggan who cleans house and finishes Tanaka with the three point clothesline. This was nearly a squash.

Sapphire won’t open the door for Dusty but Rhodes swears he’ll figure this out tonight one way or another.

Macho King Randy Savage doesn’t care about Rhodes being out there alone and says he understands Sapphire’s decision to leave a common man. I’m a big Savage fan and the energy he puts into his promos always impresses me. He’s got NOTHING to talk about here and he was going nuts anyway.

Dusty Rhodes vs. Randy Savage

Before the match we hear a familiar laugh and cut to Ted DiBiase on the interview platform. He’s been spending the last several weeks telling Dusty that he has a price just like everyone else but Dusty has kept turning him down. Tonight, someone else had a price: Sapphire, Ted’s latest purchase. Ted’s latest gift to her is a bag of money which is hard to pass up. DiBiase brings up the most obvious point to the story: who else could afford to pay for all the gifts Sapphire has been getting?

Rhodes charges at DiBiase but Savage jumps him from behind to start the match. Back in and Savage hits a top rope ax handle for two. Dusty comes back with some elbows but his heart isn’t in this. He has to stop to chase Sherri though, allowing Savage to knock Rhodes out cold with Sherri’s loaded purse for the pin. This was nothing.

DiBiase leaves his suite but bails with Virgil and Sapphire as Dusty arrives. This would start a long feud which would include the debuts of Undertaker and Dustin Rhodes and Virgil’s face turn.

Hogan says that he can’t tell a lie because he’s like George Washington. He loved his Hulkamaniacs for supporting him and remembers Tugboat for leading the charge until Earthquake and Bravo beat him down. Bossman says that Quake and Bravo have the Constitutional right to a beating tonight.

Hulk Hogan vs. Earthquake

This is Hogan’s big return after being gone all summer due to an attack by Earthquake which broke his ribs. They lock up but Hogan can’t shove the big man around. Now Quake shoves him down a few times as Jimmy is losing his mind. Quake shoulders him out to the floor and Hogan takes a breather with Bossman. Back in and Hogan tries pounding away but Quake sends him into the corner to take him back down. Hogan gets a boot up in the corner and nails some clotheslines but Quake won’t go down.

After knocking Bravo and Hart off the apron, Hogan finally drops Earthquake with the big windup punch. All four guys get inside and the heels both take big boots to the face. The referee puts Bossman out though, allowing Bravo and Quake to hit a double slam on Hogan. A big elbow drop keeps Hogan down and a top rope forearm (from the 468lb Earthquake) to the back has Hogan down again. Off to a Boston Crab but Hogan tries to push his way out. That doesn’t work so Hogan looks to his left and realizes he’s about four inches from the rope for the break.

Bravo gets in some cheap shots on the floor but Earthquake misses an elbow drop back inside. Hogan finally gets to his feet (sidenote: Roddy Piper should not be allowed to cheer for Hogan. Ever.) but falls back down on a slam attempt. Off to a bearhug by Earthquake as the match slows down. Hulk punches out of it and tries a cross body like a schnook, earning the powerslam he gets as a result. Earthquake drops a pair of Earthquake splashes (seated sentons) but Hogan gets up at two to shock the crowd.

It’s Hulk Up time and there’s the slam but Dino distracts the referee after the legdrop. Jimmy comes in but gets tossed at Earthquake, sending everyone to the floor. Hart accidentally hits Quake with the Megaphone and Hogan slams the big man onto a table (it’s in Philadelphia after all)….for a countout? For the life of me I have no idea why Hogan didn’t get a pin here. I guess they wanted to save that for house shows, but it’s not like people wouldn’t want to see Hogan do it again live.

Rating: B-. The match itself was nothing of note but this is exactly what the fans wanted to see other than Hogan getting a pin. These two feuded on the house show circuit for the next four months or so, which really is amazing when you consider how basic the angle was that set it up. This falls into the fun category which is fine for a show like this.

Post match Quake chokes Hogan until Bossman blasts him in the back with a STEPLADDER. Quake finally drops him and looks at Bossman so the cop pulls out the nightstick to chase them off. Lots of posing ensues as you can see the house show rematches with any combination of these four guys being made up.

We go to the back where Rude and Heenan talk about Rocky Balboa facing Apollo Creed. Rude has beaten him before and he’ll do it again because a cage is his kind of match. Heenan says there will be no sequels either.

Dusty goes on a rant about being in a storm with only America being able to offer him shelter. He doesn’t have a price for Ted DiBiase and he’s coming for the Million Dollar Man. The feud would have been better if Sapphire hadn’t disappeared after this show.

Lord Alfred Hayes talks about the cage being constructed and how it’s put together. It’s more interesting than it sounds.

Hogan brags about winning and says there’s a fourth demandment: believe in yourself. He wants the world title back and will beat Earthquake as many times as it takes to be #1 contender again.

Vince and Roddy talk about Hogan vs. Earthquake happening again.

Earthquake, Hart and Bravo say the war isn’t over for Hogan and Bossman.

The Warrior rants about Rick Rude being cracked like the Liberty Bell. He says he’ll win and quotes some historic documents to continue the Philadelphia theme.

WWF World Title: Ultimate Warrior vs. Rick Rude

In a cage where you can win by pin or escape. Rude tries to block Warrior from getting into the cage so Warrior knocks him off the top and down into the ring. The champion finally comes in with a top rope ax handle smash and throws Rude into the cage. Rick goes into the cage a few more times but ducks a charge to send Warrior face first into the bars. Rude kicks Warrior away but jumps off the top to put him down again instead of climbing out.

A hard slam into the cage has Warrior down but Rude still won’t try to climb out. Rude tries the Rude Awakening after winning a quick slugout but Warrior easily breaks the hold with raw power. They clothesline each other down before Rude hits a quick Rude Awakening for no cover. Instead Rude goes up to the top of the cage for a right hand to Warrior’s head. Heenan is losing his mind trying to get Rude to cover but Rude goes up the cage again.

This time Rude jumps into a right hand to the ribs but Heenan slams the door on Warrior’s head as he goes to escape. After the two count both guys collide and they’re down again as the match drags some more. Warrior stops him from crawling out while pulling Rude’s trunks down in the process. Heenan is pulled in and whipped into the steel before being sent outside again. The champion Warriors Up and hits the gorilla press before climbing out to retain.

Rating: D. This match sucked and the ending was exactly what people expected. These two had a match on SNME a month earlier and maybe Rude should have taken the title there to give it back to Warrior here. There was nothing of interest here and Warrior never seemed to be in any real danger due to Rude not going for a cover or trying to escape.

Overall Rating: C+. This is a show where the individual parts don’t reflect how the whole show comes out. This is a turn your brain off and have fun show. The main events were exactly what the fans wanted and the other stuff is fun as well. There was a show long angle with Dusty which set up another feud on top of all that. It’s a good example of how not everything needs to be a huge show that changes everything and that’s a good lesson for modern WWE to learn.

Ratings Comparison

Rockers vs. Power and Glory

Original: B-

Redo: C-

Texas Tornado vs. Mr. Perfect

Original: B

Redo: D+

Sapphire vs. Sensational Sherri

Original: N/A

Redo: N/A

Warlord vs. Tito Santana

Original: C+

Redo: D+

Hart Foundation vs. Demolition

Original: A+

Redo: B

Jake Roberts vs. Bad News Brown

Original: C-

Redo: D+

Nikolai Volkoff/Jim Duggan vs. Orient Express

Original: D+

Redo: N/A

Randy Savage vs. Dusty Rhodes

Original: N/A

Redo: N/A

Hulk Hogan vs. Earthquake

Original: B+

Redo: B-

Ultimate Warrior vs. Rick Rude

Original: C-

Redo: D

Overall Rating

Original: A+

Redo: C+

Nostalgia is a powerful drug.

Here’s the original review if you’re interested:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2010/12/12/summerslam-1990/

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of the NXT The Full Sail Years Volume III (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/05/25/new-book-nxt-the-full-sail-years-from-dallas-to-new-orleans/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Summerslam 1989
Date: August 28, 1989
Location: Meadowlands Arena, East Rutherford, New Jersey
Attendance: 20,000
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Jesse Ventura

We’re back with another edition of the show with another tag team main event. This time it’s the now heel Savage teaming with an actor named Zeus to face Hogan and Brutus Beefcake. This isn’t even the blowoff match between the teams which makes the match even more of an odd choice. The other major match tonight is Rick Rude defending the Intercontinental Title against Ultimate Warrior, the man he stole the title from back at Wrestlemania. Let’s get to it.

Jesse blames Tony for having Heenan run off the air. I have no idea what he’s talking about as Heenan is on the show later tonight.

We get an intro video similar to the opening of a regular TV show with various highlights and people enjoying the warm weather.

Hart Foundation vs. Brain Busters

The Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard) won the tag titles a few weeks before this show, but since the match was already signed this is non-title. Why it wasn’t changed to a title match is beyond me but there’s no way this won’t be awesome. Heenan is with the Brain Busters here, making what Jesse said even more confusing. Bret and Tully get things going with Hart going straight for the arm. Arn comes in to take Bret to the mat with a headlock, only to have Bret crank on his arm as well.

A hammerlock slam puts Arn in a cute bit before it’s off to Neidhart for some powerful cranking on the arm. The Harts change two more times and both guys get to crank on the arm before Bret puts on an armbar. Arn slips out and brings in Tully who has his own arm pulled on by Anvil. Blanchard pulls on the beard to escape but can’t hiptoss the big man over. Back to Bret for more arm work before Anvil sneaks in without a tag. It’s only cheating if you get caught remember.

Anvil completely no sells some chops to the chest and sends Tully into the buckle before bringing Bret back in. The fans are all over Heenan with a Weasel chant while Bret works on a hammerlock. Tully grabs a top wristlock but Bret bridges off the mat to escape and the Busters are sent to the outside. Back in and Bret wins a slugout with Tully but gets suckered into a chase with Blanchard making a blind tag to Arn who blasts Bret from behind.

Everything breaks down again with the Brain Busters being knocked out to the floor once again. Back in and Bret sends Tully’s face into Anvil’s boot before bringing Neidhart again. Things break down again but Bret accidentally whips Jim into the buckle to give the Busters control. Arn drives a middle rope elbow into Neidhart’s back before it’s back to Tully for a reverse chinlock. Neidhart picks him up but Tully makes another blind tag off to Anderson to block a tag.

Arn punches him down but Anvil LAUNCHES Anderson off at two. Back up and both guys collide before Bret gets in a knee to Arn’s back to give Neidhart a breather. The hot tag brings in Hart vs. Blanchard with Bret dropping the middle rope elbow for no cover. Everything breaks down for the third or fourth time tonight with Bret being whipped into Tully to put both guys down.

Arn and Jim go to the floor but Bret slingshots Jim over the top into a shoulder block to Tully. Anvil powerslams Bret onto Blanchard but Anderson hits an ax handle to Bret’s head for the pin (while covering his head so the referee doesn’t see it’s Arn in the ring because Arn Anderson is more awesome than you).

Rating: B. I could watch Arn Anderson matches all day because of stuff like that at the end. I mean, who would think of such a little thing like that at the end of a match? This was a very solid opener but again I have no idea why the titles weren’t on the line here, especially if the Busters were going to go over by pin. The Harts wouldn’t even be a factor in the title scene for another year and even then they were big underdogs.

Dusty Rhodes talks about how the man in the blue suede shoes told him he can dance better than the Honky Tonk Man. This is a bit of a step down from Hard Times.

Honky Tonk Man vs. Dusty Rhodes

Dusty recently stole the Boss Man’s hat and nightstick after debuting early in the summer. We start with a dance off before Dusty takes him into the corner for a clean break. Honky bails to the floor to avoid the Bionic Elbow but comes back in for Dusty to grab his arm. Instead of driving an elbow into the shoulder though, Dusty messes with Honky’s hair to really get on his nerves. An atomic drop and the Bionic Elbow put Honky down with Dusty in full control.

Ten right hands in the corner drop Honky to the mat and it’s off to Dusty’s totally lame leg lock (meaning he stands there and turns Honky’s foot) fills in some time. Honky fires off some right hands but drops down to avoid a running Dusty. Jimmy Hart trips Dusty up and Honky just lays on the mat instead of going after Rhodes as Jimmy is stalked. Honky gets Jimmy’s megaphone for a shot to Dusty’s ribs and finally takes over with a chinlock.

It’s the long form version as we’re still in the hold about two minutes later. Dusty fights up and misses an elbow so it’s back to the chinlock. Rhodes fights up again and pounds away with right hands but Honky sends him into the referee to make this match go even further. Jimmy accidentally knocks Honky silly with the guitar and Dusty drops a big elbow for the pin.

Rating: D-. Who in the world thought this deserved ten minutes should be carried into the street and shot. Between the leg lock and the WAY too long chinlock, this could have been cut in half and nothing would have been lost. Honky was fine as a jobber to the stars at this point and he would maintain that position for months to come. This was way overbooked for what it was worth, but the fans loved Dusty which is the point of the match.

Honky asks someone to help him find the stage and wants to know where Priscilla is.

Demolition and King Hacksaw Jim Duggan are ready for their six man tag against the Twin Towers (Boss Man/Akeem) and Andre the Giant.

Mr. Perfect vs. Red Rooster

Perfect is still perfect at this point. They shove each other around to start until Hperfect shoves him down and hits a hiptoss. Things speed up a bit with both guys running the ropes and Perfect trying a slam. Rooster slips down the back and tries a slam of his own but can’t get Perfect up in a weird spot. Perfect sends him to the floor for a second and pounds away back inside, only to be shoved to the floor by Rooster. Perfect wins a quick slugout on the floor before going inside for the PerfectPlex and a very fast pin.

Rating: D. This was very odd with the match finishing out of nowhere after no build at all. The match had to be cut for time or maybe an injury because there’s no way this was the match they were planning. Or maybe they didn’t have time because we needed Dusty to have an even longer chinlock. These two are capable of having a far better match though and did many times.

Survivor Series is coming.

We go to Gene with Rude and Heenan in the back but the set falls down and the interview never stars. They try it again and the heels say they’ll do whatever it takes to keep the title.

The Rockers/Tito Santana vs. Fabulous Rougeau Brothers/Rick Martel

This should be awesome. Martel teases getting in there against Tito to start but sends Jacques in instead. As is his custom, Jacques requests a handshake but sneaks in some choking on Tito instead. The Rockers come in without tags and the good guys hit stereo dropkicks to send the French Canadians to the floor. Things settle down to Marty vs. Jacques with the latter going to the middle rope and head faking Marty, but Jannetty is faking the head fake and punches Jacques on the way down.

The advantage is short lived though as Ray Rougeau gets in a knee to the back from the apron and a kind of superkick to put Marty down. Off to Martel for right hands and some dancing followed by a cartwheel out of the corner. Marty is tired of the dancing and dropkicks Martel down but Rick runs away from the charging Tito. Instead it’s Santana putting a headlock on Ray before getting two off a clothesline.

Much like his brother did earlier, Jacques interferes for Ray and the Rougeaus take over on Santana with a double back elbow. Martel comes in to pound on the weakened Tito like a true weasel. Rick stomps away against the ropes as the fans are getting angrier and angrier at the Model. Jacques comes in again and hooks a front facelock to block the hot tag. Back to Martel but Tito fires off right hands to send the crowd into a frenzy. Jacques quickly pulls Tito’s hair to break it up but Tito gets a sunset flip for two.

Rick puts Tito down with a backbreaker and Ray hooks a Boston crab to stay on the weakened back. Back to Jacques for an abdominal stretch with a helping hand from Martel on the apron. Rick comes in again to break up another hot tag attempt and Ray stops Tito’s comeback just like Jacques did earlier. Tito hits a quick cross body for two and the Rockers finally come in to break up the interference. Ray comes in to keep Tito down but Jacques’ flying knee hits his brother, FINALLY allowing Tito to make the hot tag to Shawn.

Martel tries to hide in the corner but gets caught in a huge backdrop to send him running even further. A dropkick and a suplex put Martel down and the top rope right hand gets two as everything breaks down. Tito hits the flying forearm to send Martel to the floor and Marty rolls up Jacques, only to have Martel slide back in and blast Jannetty with a right hand, giving Jacques the pin.

Rating: B. Take six guys and two feuds, give them fifteen minutes in front of a hot crowd and witness the awesome. That’s exactly what happened here and the crowd got WAY into it, especially the Martel vs. Santana stuff. Those two just started feuding a few months before this and people were drooling to see Tito get his revenge. Really solid old school six man tag here which worked exceptionally well.

We recap Rude vs. Warrior. Rude attacked Warrior during a posedown at the Rumble before stealing the IC Title at Wrestlemania with help from Heenan. Tonight is the rematch with rude defending against a ticked off Warrior after Warrior spent months fighting through the Heenan Family. This was also used to set up Warrior vs. Andre the Giant over the winter.

Warrior rants about Andre before saying he’ll get his title back from Rude.

Intercontinental Title: Ultimate Warrior vs. Rick Rude

Rude isn’t sure what to do with Warrior to start so he tries punching him in the face to no avail. A clothesline puts Rude on the apron and a sunset flip is easily blocked with a right hand to the champion’s face. Warrior easily picks him up and gorilla presses him to the floor as this is one sided so far. Rude is sent into the barricade as Jesse is losing his mind over the referee not disqualifying Warrior.

Warrior gets two off a top rope ax handle before throwing him into the corner and pounding away. A shoulder block gets two on Rude and there’s an atomic drop to crush Rude’s spine a bit more. Warrior swivels his hips but gets crotched on the top rope to Jesse’s glee. Rude pounds on the back as he did in the Wrestlemania match and gets two off a suplex. Off to a reverse chinlock with Rude dropping down onto Warrior’s back for good measure. Back up and Warrior breaks up the Rude Awakening but gets caught in a sleeper.

Warrior finally fights out with a jawbreaker but after they run the ropes a bit, Rude sends Warrior into the referee to put everyone down. It’s Rude on his feet first but Warrior starts to Hulk Up to a HUGE reaction. A big backdrop and a clothesline put Rude down followed by a powerslam but there’s no referee. Warrior hits a piledriver but the referee crawls over for two. A powerslam sets up the splash but Rude gets his knees up to slow Warrior down again.

Rude hits a kind of powerbomb (basically driving Warrior’s head into the mat) for a close two as things slow down again. Rude hits a top rope right hand to the jaw as Roddy Piper strolls down. A piledriver puts Warrior down but Piper flashes Rude, allowing Warrior to suplex him out of the corner. Warrior hits a quick shoulder block followed by the gorilla press and splash for the title and an ERUPTION from the crowd.

Rating: B. If there has ever been better chemistry between a talented guy and a guy who could barely survive against anyone else, I’m not sure where it is. Warrior looked great out there and got the win back to conclude a very well done feud. Good stuff here as this show is cooking after a somewhat weak start. That pop for Warrior pretty much gave him the world title right then and there.

Mr. Perfect says he’s perfect.

Roddy Piper laughs about costing Rude the title, setting up his first feud after returning to the ring.

Ronnie Garvin is in a tuxedo and gets to be a guest announcer tonight. Heenan comes in to interrupt him and rants about Piper coming to the ring and costing Rude the title. Rude isn’t pleased either and yells as you would expect him to.

We go to an intermission, which is just a graphic with a countdown clock until the show continues.

We recap the main event tag match. Hogan was in a movie with Tiny Lister portraying the villain. The idea of the story is that Lister’s character Zeus felt that he could beat Hogan in Hogan’s real life job so he beat up Hogan before a cage match. This would be like Harrison Ford picking a fight with Mark Hamill because of what Hamill did on the Millennium Falcon. I don’t know if we were supposed to take it seriously or not, but the main problem here is obvious: Zeus is an actor instead of a wrestler, meaning there isn’t much he can do in the ring.

Savage and Beefcake got involved to make it a tag match so Zeus didn’t fight alone. Hogan couldn’t hurt Zeus with a chair to the back but raking the eyes had an effect, giving Hogan an opening tonight. Savage was still a big deal at this point so this really was a big heel team to face Hogan and Beefcake. We get full clips of these moments as the intermission continues.

Twin Towers/Andre the Giant vs. Demolition/Jim Duggan

Duggan is King of the WWF and has his face painted like Demolition but is rocking an American flag pattern of course. Akeem starts with the King with Duggan absorbing the trash talk and pounding away on the big man before it’s off to Ax for some pounding on the arm. Smash comes in and Demolition pounds Akeem down before bringing Duggan back in to crank on the arm as well.

Akeem finally gets in a shot to Ax’s ribs and it’s off to Boss Man who is immediately pounded down by the fresh Smash. Boss Man rakes the eyes to slow Smash down but Smash rakes the eyes right back in a good bit. Ax comes in again and cranks on the arm but gets sent into the wrong corner so Andre can come in and pound away with big right hands.

Akeem comes back in but misses a slow motion splash, allowing for the hot tag back to Smash who slams Akeem down in an impressive power display. Everything breaks down and Akeem hits a bottom rope splash on Smash, but Duggan hits Akeem in the back with the 2×4 to give Smash the pin.

Rating: C. It wasn’t much of a match but for above seven and a half minutes with these six guys, this was as good as you were going to get. Duggan was about as big as he was going to get in the WWF at this point as the fans were WAY into his Hogan-Lite character. Demolition was fresh off losing the tag titles but but they were still the most popular tag team in the company. Good, fun little match here which was much better than I was expecting.

Ted DiBiase says he’ll beat Jimmy Snuka because he’s cultured and Snuka is a savage.

Greg Valentine vs. Hercules

Ronnie Garvin is guest ring announcer after being fired from being a referee. He takes a ton of shots at Valentine (“Weighing in at 249lbs…..but he looks about 30lbs heavier and wears a robe with cheap rhinestones.”) since Valentine got him suspended in the first place. Hercules jumps Valentine to start and powerslams him down for two. A quick rollup gets two for Greg before they head to the floor for nothing of note. Back in and Valentine pounds him down with some elbows but the Figure Four is broken up. Hecules suplexes him down but gets rolled up with Valentine’s feet on the ropes for the fast pin.

Rating: D. This was all about furthering Garvin vs. Valentine with the stuff before the match and a bit we’ll get to in a second. I’m no Garvin fan at all but this was an amusing angle given where you could turn your brain off and laugh at some stupid jokes for a few minutes every show. There’s nothing wrong with comic relief and having a talented guy like Valentine out there made it a bit easier to sit through.

Post match Garvin announces Hercules as the winner, which apparently is good enough to get Valentine disqualified. Like I said, this is the time to turn your brain off.

Randy Savage, Zeus and Sister Sherri gather round a cauldron and predict bad futures for Hogan, Beefcake and Liz. The late 80s were weird in case you were wondering.

Ted DiBiase vs. Jimmy Snuka

No story here as they’re just out there to fill in a few minutes before the main event. Snuka headbutts DiBiase to the floor before the bell and avoids a charging Ted to send him into Virgil for a big crash. An atomic drop sends DiBiase to the floor and the match slows down a bit. Back in and Snuka can’t get high enough for his reverse leapfrog so he sends DiBiase into the corner to keep control. Ted goes to the eyes to get a moment’s breather but gets caught by a shoulder to put him back down.

A quick stun gun sends Snuka into the top rope and Ted can stomp away like a good 80s heel. DiBiase works on the back with knees to the spine and a backbreaker for no cover but a middle rope elbow misses. Jimmy slams Ted down and hits a middle rope headbutt but Virgil breaks up the Superfly Splash. Snuka chases him around on the floor but gets sent into the post by DiBiase for the countout.

Rating: D. Another lame match here and I’m not sure why DiBiase couldn’t get a pin. Either way, the match was there to give the fans a breather from that EPIC Hercules vs. Valentine heat before the main event. Snuka was still a fan favorite so having him out there wasn’t the worst idea in the world.

Post match Snuka hits the Superfly on Virgil.

Hogan and Beefcake talk about riding motorcycles across a river (just go with it) with Liz riding on the back of Hogan’s bike. Savage and Zeus weren’t mentioned at all.

Genius recites a poem about Summerslam, saying he thinks Zeus and Savage (his real brother) will win.

Zeus/Randy Savage vs. Brutus Beefcake/Hulk Hogan

Before we get going, Liz gets her own full entrance as the secret weapon. It’s a brawl to start but Hogan can’t hurt Zeus. He goes to the eyes but can’t slam Zeus down so the monster chokes Hulk down. Beefcake tries to dive on Zeus but gets caught in midair. Now it’s a bearhug on Hogan but here’s Savage off a tag. Why in the world would you change when you had Hogan in trouble like that? A top rope ax handle gets two for Randy and it’s off to the sleeper.

Hogan elbows out of it and hits some shoulder blocks but Zeus knees him in the back to slow him down. Back to Zeus for another bearhug which takes Hogan down to the mat for some two counts. It’s back to Savage to snap Hogan’s throat over the top rope and a suplex gets two. Savage misses some elbow drops and there’s the hot tag to Beefcake. A high knee gets two on Savage and Beefcake hooks his sleeper. Savage rams him into the middle buckle and it’s off to Zeus, but Brutus puts him in a sleeper as well.

Randy breaks up the hold with Sherri’s loaded purse but he suckers Hogan into the ring instead of covering. Hogan stops Savage from attacking Liz but Beefcake is still in big trouble. Back to Zeus for some choking on Beefcake until the referee makes the save. Savage comes back in but walks into a double clothesline to put both guys down. The hot tag brings in Hogan to clean house but Sherri trips Hulk up to give Savage control again.

The big elbow hits but Hogan is up before there’s any cover. Savage runs away and it’s time for the showdown with Zeus. Hogan pounds away and finally puts Zeus down to one knee. Liz takes out Sherri and Beefcake intercepts Savage, causing him to drop the loaded purse. Hogan blasts Zeus in the face with the purse, slams him down and drops the leg for the pin.

Rating: D+. Amazingly enough, a non-wrestler like Zeus wasn’t capable of having a good match on any size of a stage. Beefcake and Savage were just window dressing here, but in this case the window dressing carried the match for his team. Zeus was just horrible here and was basically the original promotional stunt for a wrestling movie, which never works.

Post match Liz cuts Sherri’s hair. Much posing ends the show.

Overall Rating: C+. There’s a lot of bad stuff here but the good matches are more than good enough to make up for the lame short ones. The crowd is VERY hot all night to lift the show even higher up which helped a lot. The main event was horrible and while the cage match that blew it off a few months later was better, this is the match that should have been the big deal. Still though, the show is worth checking out but you should fast forward a few of the matches.

Ratings Comparison

Hart Foundation vs. Brain Busters

Original: B+

Redo: B

Honky Tonk Man vs. Dusty Rhodes

Original: F

Redo: D-

Mr. Perfect vs. Red Rooster

Original: C+

Redo: D

Rick Martel/Fabulous Rougeaus vs. Tito Santana/Rockers

Original: B+

Redo: B

Ultimate Warrior vs. Rick Rude

Original: A-

Redo: B

Jim Duggan/Demolition vs. Andre the Giant/Twin Towers

Original: C+

Redo: C

Hercules vs. Greg Valentine

Original: F-

Redo: D

Ted DiBiase vs. Jimmy Snuka

Original: D

Redo: D

Hulk Hogan/Brutus Beefcake vs. Randy Savage/Zeus

Original: B-

Redo: D+

Overall Rating

Original: B-

Redo: C+

About the same this time.

Here’s the original review if you’re interested:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2011/07/23/history-of-summerslam-count-up-1989-gather-round-the-cauldron/

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of the NXT The Full Sail Years Volume III (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/05/25/new-book-nxt-the-full-sail-years-from-dallas-to-new-orleans/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

We’re finally at the final of the Big Four WWE shows with Summerslam. Back in 1987, it was clear that pay per view was a big deal for the company, so Survivor Series was added to the schedule. That show was a huge success as well, so why not add a third pay per view on top of it? The new show was Summerslam which made its debut in 1988. The show was coming off the very successful Wrestlemania IV with Randy Savage as the WWF Champion, meaning the company was firing on all cylinders. Over the next 30 days I’ll be counting down the shows leading up to the 2018 edition. Let’s get to it.

Summerslam 1988
Date: August 29, 1988
Location: Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York
Attendance: 20,000
Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon, Billy Graham

The main event here is Hogan/Savage vs. DiBiase/Andre in a match billed as Mega Powers vs. Mega Bucks. Allegedly the plan was to have Ric Flair jump from the NWA and challenge Savage for the title but Flair backed out, giving us the tag match instead. Other than that we have Honky Tonk Man defending his title against a mystery opponent and the Hart Foundation challenging Demolition for the tag titles. The card wasn’t exactly stacked for this show. Let’s get to it.

The opening video has what would become the Royal Rumble theme song set over shots of the four guys in the main event plus their managers, Virgil and Miss Elizabeth.

Fabulous Rougeaus vs. British Bulldogs

These two teams could not stand each other behind the scenes, eventually reaching the point where the Bulldogs left the company as a result. Davey jumps Jacques to start and rams him into turnbuckle after turnbuckle to put him down. Smith throws Jacques over to Raymond for a tag in a nice display of bravado. Off to Dynamite for a quick headbutt and a slam to keep Raymond in trouble.

Off to an armbar by Dynamite Kid before Davey comes back in for one of his own. Dynamite comes back in with a wicked clothesline to take Raymond’s head off. Chris Benoit idolized Dynamite and you can see so many of Benoit’s moves when you watch Dynamite’s matches. Davey comes in and trades some snappy rollups before it’s back to Dynamite to continue cranking on the arm.

Davey comes in again but Jacques trips him up to shift control to the Canadians. It’s off to some leg work now as Jacques kicks away at Davey’s hamstring. The Rougeaus start tagging in and out with Ray coming in to drop some knees on the hamstring before Jacques comes back in to pull on the leg. Ray comes back in sans tag to pull on the leg before Jacques puts on a spinning toehold. Davey finally gets back up and monkey flips Ray down, allowing for the tag to Dynamite.

The Kid speeds things way up and sends Ray out to the floor, triggering a brawl between Davey and Raymond. Back inside and Davey hits the powerslam but Jacques breaks it up before a one count. Dynamite comes back in for the headbutt but Jacques drills him with a belly to back suplex for two. Off to an abdominal stretch by Jacques followed by a camel clutch from both Rougeaus. Kid fights up and rams Ray into the buckle to escape but it’s right back to the abdominal stretch by Jacques.

Dynamite finally fights up again and headbutts Jacques down to bring in Davey. Jacques immediately grabs the rope to avoid a dropkick but gets caught in a gorilla press onto the top rope. Everything breaks down and Davey picks up Dynamite to launch him into a headbutt on Jacques, but the time limit expires before there can be a cover.

Rating: C+. This was a solid opener as the fans were staying hot throughout the extended rest holds. The parts with both teams brawling and getting to move around made for a much better match, but you can’t do that for twenty minutes when you’re going for the draw. Draws were much more commonplace back in the 80s so this was nothing that odd to see.

We see Ron Bass attacking Brutus Beefcake and busting him open with a spur. The big red X saying CENSORED which doesn’t actually cover the cut on Brutus’ head is hilarious. Brutus won’t be able to challenge Honky Tonk Man for the Intercontinental Title tonight but there’s an unnamed replacement.

Bad News Brown vs. Ken Patera

Patera is a former Olympic weightlifter who has seen far better days. Bad News is a former Olympian as well, having won a bronze medal in Judo. Brown goes right after Patera during Ken’s entrance and drops a quick elbow for no cover. Patera comes back with a clothesline and takes his jacket off to really get things going. A back elbow puts Bad News down but an elbow drop misses. Brown stomps away on the apron as we’re firmly in punch and kick mode here.

Patera blocks a backdrop with a kick to the chest and gets two off a bad backbreaker. Off to a bearhug by Patera but Brown pokes him in the eye to escape. Patera can’t get his full nelson on in either attempt at the hold so he botches a charge into the corner instead, hitting the post shoulder first. The Ghetto Blaster (enziguri) is enough for the pin by Brown.

Rating: F. Patera was terrible by this point, not even being able to run into Brown’s elbow in the corner properly. Even the announcers were suggesting that he retire at this point, which I believe he did soon after. This match was nothing more than punching and kicking which doesn’t make for a very entertaining few minutes. It’s a product of the times on house shows that, which for all intents and purposes is what this show is: a big house show with a big main event.

Ad for a boxing PPV which had some kind of promotional deal with WWF.

The Mega Powers (Hogan/Savage/Liz) are hyped up for the main event and say that Liz is their secret weapon.

Rick Rude vs. Junkyard Dog

Just like in the previous match, the good guy is jumped during his entrance. This time though Rude is backdropped down and headbutted to the floor for a hug from Heenan. Back in and Dog misses a headbutt, allowing Rude to hit Dog with a top rope axhandle. Rude pounds away on the head as Graham shouts that it won’t work. Instead it’s off to a chinlock by Rick as the match slows way down.

Back up and Dog pounds away in the corner but stops to go after Heenan. A Russian legsweep puts Dog down, and Rude goes up top. Instead of immediately diving off though, Rude takes his own tights down to reveal another pair with Cheryl Roberts (as in Jake’s wife) on them. Jake charges in for the DQ as you would expect him to do.

Rating: D. The match sucked but it’s miles ahead of the previous match. If nothing else Dog had some great charisma and kept the crowd in it, as opposed to Patera who put the crowd to sleep seconds after the bell rang. The Dog was just a jobber at this point and would be in WCW by the end of the year.

The Dog is mad post match but nothing comes of it.

Honky Tonk Man, like the dolt that he is, doesn’t want to know the identity of his mystery opponent. He says he wants to be surprised.

Powers of Pain vs. Bolsheviks

The Powers (Barbarian and Warlord) are still faces here and have the Baron (Von Raschke) with them. Just like in the previous two matches the brawl is on as soon as the good guys hit the ring. The Powers double clothesline Boris Zhukov as Volkoff tries to sneak in for a cheap shot. Barbarian easily catches him coming in and sends him flying until we get down to Barbarian vs. Boris to start things off.

Boris puts his head down and…..something happens (it looked like a choke but it’s not really clear) before it’s off to Warlord for a gutwrench suplex on Zhukov. Both Russians double team Warlord but they can’t even get him down to his knees. Nikolai chokes away before Boris puts on a chinlock. The Russians have a double backdrop broken up and it’s off to Barbarian again. Everything breaks down and it’s a double shoulder followed by a swan dive to Boris for the pin.

Rating: D. Another lame match here but the Powers looked decent. The Baron would be gone in a few weeks as the company wasn’t pleased that a dark character was getting cheered, so they turned Demolition and their evil S&M looking gear face instead. Also did the Russians ever actually win a major match?

Ad for Survivor Series.

Here’s the Brother Love Show with a bell ringing to start it for some reason. After a minute or two of talking about love, he introduces his guest: Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Duggan says that he loves the country and that Love is a fake. Love thinks that Dino Bravo knows the meaning of love and loves his country (Canada), but Duggan says that the people of Canada don’t respect Bravo. Duggan says this isn’t Sunday school and he’ll police this company if need be. Love says he doesn’t see a badge on Duggan, but Jim says his 2×4 will do just fine. Duggan gives him a five count to leave and Love is gone at four. This was pointless.

Same boxing ad as earlier.

Intercontinental Title: Honky Tonk Man vs. ???

Honky says to get him someone out here to wrestle and he doesn’t care who it is. After a few seconds, the Ultimate Warrior charges to the ring, pounds Honky with right hands, hits a shoulder block and splashes him for the pin and the title in thirty seconds. The crowd ERUPTS, as this is what they’ve been waiting over a year to see.

So why was this so awesome? This was one of the most perfectly told stories the WWF ever produced and they nailed it every step of the way. Back in 1987, Ricky Steamboat was Intercontinental Champion but wanted to take some time off. The solution was to put the title on the comedic newcomer the Honky Tonk Man, who cheated to win the belt. Honky viewed as a total joke as champion due to his lack of skill and his gimmick of a wrestling Elvis impersonator.

The fans looked at him as someone who would lose the title the first time he defended it against someone far more competent than he was so it wasn’t that big of a deal. This is where Vince had the fans: what if Honky just didn’t lose the title? If there is one thing pure fans hate, it’s seeing a guy who doesn’t deserve a title holding onto it against people they like. Honky did this for the next 18 months by coming up with every way imaginable to cheat, ranging from getting counted out, disqualified, having Jimmy Hart interfere, walking out of matches and all points in between.

Honky continued to hold the title against far better talent, such as Jim Duggan, Randy Savage, Jake Roberts, Ricky Steamboat and Brutus Beefcake, with the idea being “he has to lose eventually.” All of a sudden, Honky was one of the biggest draws around because people would pay their money to see him get beaten up, thinking that the lucky streak couldn’t go on much longer. Well the streak DID keep going, stretching into the longest title reign in the history of the belt which still stands to this day and will likely never be broken.

This is why having Warrior out there was so brilliant. Warrior was the last guy on earth that you would expect to pull off something clever, but he did what everyone else had overlooked: he didn’t bother trying to outsmart Honky, but instead just ran over him and beat him in thirty seconds. This is EXACTLY what the fans had wanted to see for over a year and they got it to perfection. That’s the kind of storytelling that you never get anymore which is a shame.

Regis Philbin is here.

Survivor Series is coming, so here’s a four minute highlight reel from last year’s show. This must be intermission.

Sugar Ray Leonard, one of the boxers in the advertised show, thanks Vince for promoting his fight.

Video on Leonard and his opponent in the fight Donny Lelonde.

Lelonde talks a bit as well.

Leonard says he’ll win.

We see the intro video from the beginning of the show again.

Bobby Heenan comes up to the announcers’ booth and says that DiBiase is counting his money while Andre reads the Wall Street Journal. The Mega Powers are currently cowering in their locker room.

Dino Bravo vs. Don Muraco

These two fought at Wrestlemania earlier in the year as well. This is power vs. power so they shove each other around to start. Some armdrags put Bravo on the floor before heading back in for a hiptoss. Off to an armbar by Muraco but Bravo comes back with an atomic drop to take over. A Russian legsweep puts Bravo down but Muraco has to go after Bravo’s manager Frenchy Martin. The referee gets kicked but nothing comes of it, allowing Bravo to hit his side slam for the pin.

Rating: D-. Somehow that match ran five and a half minutes. Muraco would also be gone soon before the end of the year and it’s not hard to see why. He was nowhere near as bad as Patera earlier but it was clear that his best days were behind him. Bravo would become Earthquake’s lackey soon after this and have the most productive time of his career.

Another Survivor Series ad.

Jesse Ventura says that he’s going to be impartial as the guest referee in the main event despite taking money from DiBiase.

Tag Titles: Hart Foundation vs. Demolition

Demolition is defending and the Harts don’t even get an entrance. The champions have Mr. Fuji and the Harts’ former manager Jimmy Hart with them. Bret and Ax start things off with Ax pounding Hitman down like he’s nothing. Bret avoids an elbow drop and it’s off to Anvil (Jim Neidhart) vs. Smash with Neidhart taking over. Ax hits a knee to Jim’s back from the apron and the champions take over again.

Neidhart gets in a punch to Ax’s face and it’s off to Hart vs. Smash again. Smash will have nothing to do with this selling stuff and whips Bret shoulder first into the post as the champions get their first extended advantage. Bret’s bad arm is caught up in the ropes and both champs pound away on the injured limb. Smash bends Bret’s arm around his own leg Off to Ax for more cranking on the arm. Bret is shockingly not selling it all that well.

Smash sends the arm into the post again and Bret is in big trouble on the outside. Back in and Ax pounds away while Graham is SCREAMING at Anvil to do something. Bret comes back with a clothesline with the injured arm but the referee misses the tag. Smash charges into a knee in the corner and now the referee sees the tag. Anvil comes in and cleans house, even slingshotting over the top onto Smash on the floor. Back in and Bret throws Anvil into Smash in the corner for two before everything breaks down. Neidhart goes after Fuji, allowing Ax to hit Bret in the back with the megaphone to retain.

Rating: B-. This took some time to get going but once Bret got in and started selling, it was all awesome. Demolition would hold the titles for nearly another year in the longest tag title reign in company history. These teams would go at it again in two years in one of the most entertaining tag matches ever. This was good stuff, but they were capable of much better.

Boxing ad.

Honky is going NUTS in the back, ranting about how this isn’t fair.

Big Boss Man vs. Koko B. Ware

Boss Man is brand new here. This wasn’t included on the home video version for reasons that I’ve never figured out. It was probably a time thing though. Koko fires away to start and staggers the very fat Boss Man with a dropkick. Boss Man is one of the best cases of weight loss you’ll ever see as he lost probably 100lbs in a year and a half, making him MUCH smoother in the ring.

Koko charges into a front facelock and Boss Man pounds him down with a forearm to the back. A splash in the corner crushes Ware but Boss Man pulls him up at two. Off to a surfboard hold but Koko rolls forward and kicks Boss Man in the face. A stiff right hand puts Koko down again but Boss Man misses a top rope splash. Boss Man misses another splash in the corner and a missile dropkick gets two for Koko. Ware charges again but gets dropped face first onto the post, followed by the Boss Man Slam for the easy pin.

Rating: D. This went WAY too long for a squash early on in Boss Man’s run with the company. The match wasn’t terrible and Koko looked good with the high flying stuff, but therein lies the problem: there’s no reason to have Koko look so good here. He should have gotten destroyed in about three minutes as opposed to being somewhat competitive in twice as long.

Boss Man hits Koko with the nightstick post match.

Survivor Series ad. Again.

Ultimate Warrior celebrates in the back and talks about it being like a comic book tonight. He’ll be on the next spaceship to Parts Unknown.

Jake Roberts vs. Hercules

Jake goes for the snake but it’s merely a ploy to get in some quick right hands. A knee lift puts Herc down but Jake can’t hook the DDT. Instead it’s a headlock and Hercules can’t even break it with a belly to back suplex. Herc escapes and drops some elbows for no cover. Off to a chinlock on the Snake as Graham says you can use this to talk to your opponent. In non-announcer speak: it’s a nice way to call spots. A lot of spots could be called here as Herc keeps the hold on for well over a minute.

Jake finally fights up and tries a hammerlock but gets elbowed in the face for his efforts. Roberts pulls Herc from the apron to the floor, only to have his neck snapped across the top rope as Hercules comes back in. We hit the chinlock again but Jake immediately jawbreaks his way out of it. The short clothesline looks to set up the DDT but Hercules backdrops out of it. Herc drops an elbow for two but Jake slips out of a slam and knocks Hercules out lukewarm with the DDT for the pin.

Rating: C-. The match was nothing special but it certainly wasn’t bad. The DDT looked great and the fans went nuts for it so you can’t say they didn’t get what they wanted. Hercules was fine for a role like this as he was strong enough to be a threat to anyone but rarely won anything. Decent little match here actually.

We recap the buildup to the main event. Andre seemed to be challenging Savage for a world title shot but DiBiase jumped Randy from behind, allowing Andre to choke Savage down. The Mega Bucks challenged Savage to a tag match which Savage accepted, saying that he would announce his partner later. If you didn’t know who that was from a mile away, you fail as a wrestling fan. Jesse Ventura, long time Hogan hater, is guest referee for no apparent reason. Andre intimidated Jesse and DiBiase paid Jesse off so the fix is in.

Mega Powers vs. Mega Bucks

Jesse sends all three managers (Virgil, Heenan and Liz) to the floor but not to the back. He also makes the teams change corners for no apparent reason. Savage gets to fight Andre to start but it’s quickly off to DiBiase. He wants Hogan and gets both Hulk and an atomic drop into a right hand from Savage. Hogan pounds DiBiase as well and it’s off to Savage for some double elbows. A top rope ax handle gets two for Savage off a slow count from Ventura.

Andre comes in to beat Hogan down but Jesse is with Liz. Now the Giant comes in legally and sits on Hogan’s chest a few times before putting on a nerve hold. With DiBiase coming in sans tag, Andre chokes away with his singlet. Ted comes in legally for a near fall off a clothesline before dropping those trademark fists of his. Off to a chinlock which Gorilla swears is a choke. Hogan finally elbows his way out of the hold but a double clothesline puts both guys down.

The hot tag brings in Savage to pound away on DiBiase with right hands and a backdrop. A top rope ax handle puts DiBiase down again but Ted rams him into the top turnbuckle to change momentum again. DiBiase clotheslines Savage down and it’s off to Giant again. Andre sits on Savage in the corner which is a lot more devastating than it sounds. Back to DiBiase who gets two off a suplex. Ted goes up for a middle rope elbow, but Savage uses all of his flying elbow experience and rolls away.

Hulk comes in again off the real hot tag and cleans house on both Mega Bucks but Savage jumps into Andre’s boot. Hogan puts DiBiase in a sleeper but Andre makes the save with some headbutts. The Mega Powers are down, but Liz gets on the apron and in the most famous part of the match, takes off her skirt to reveal a bikini bottom and some nice legs. The distraction lets the Mega Powers do their big handshake and Hulk Up as one. A top rope ax handle to Andre, a flying elbow and legdrop to DiBiase later and things are pretty much done. Jesse only counts two, so Savage has to shove his hand down for the three.

Rating: B-. Much like the original Wrestlemania main event, there isn’t much to see here but it’s a fun match. It gave the fans exactly what they wanted and the Liz bit was a big surprise as she NEVER did anything sexual up to that point and rarely did after. Hogan and Savage were obviously going to win, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a fun moment and a decent main event.

Hogan lifts Liz (who remember is rather scantily clad here) onto Savage’s shoulder for the post match celebration. Savage gives him a look that says “Dude, NOT COOL!” You could see the seeds being planted even back then.

Overall Rating: D+. This is more of the start of a historical series than a good show itself. The only things people remember are Liz’s legs and a thirty second squash and it’s really not surprising. The rest of the show is a bunch of boring matches with nothing of note to them at all. It’s certainly not a terrible show as there are some good tag matches and some decent singles matches, but nothing on here is must see television and nothing is really significant. For a big house show though, not too bad.

Ratings Comparison

For each of the twenty five reviews, I’ll be posting a comparison of the original reviews to the redos as I always do. Summerslam was one of the first set of reviews I ever did so the original ratings are going to be very interesting.

British Bulldogs vs. Fabulous Rougeaus

Original: B

Redo: C+

Bad News Brown vs. Ken Patera

Original: D+

Redo: F

Rick Rude vs. Junkyard Dog

Original: D

Redo: D

Powers of Pain vs. Bolsheviks

Original: C+

Redo: D

Ultimate Warrior vs. Honky Tonk Man

Original: A+

Redo: N/A

Dino Bravo vs. Don Muraco

Original: B-

Redo: D-

Demolition vs. Hart Foundation

Original: B-

Redo: B-

Big Boss Man vs. Koko B. Ware

Original: D

Redo: D

Jake Roberts vs. Hercules

Original: C-

Redo: C-

Mega Powers vs. Mega Bucks

Original: B

Redo: B-

Overall Rating

Original: D+

Redo: D+

How could I have possibly liked Muraco vs. Bravo? There’s NOTHING there!

Here’s the original review if you’re interested:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2011/07/23/history-of-summerslam-count-up-1988-liz-has-some-nice-legs/

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of the NXT The Full Sail Years Volume III (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/05/25/new-book-nxt-the-full-sail-years-from-dallas-to-new-orleans/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Monday Night Raw
Date: April 29, 1996
Location: Civic Auditorium, Sioux City, Iowa
Attendance: 4,000
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler

We’re passed In Your House and thankfully on a new taping cycle. Unthankfully though we’re now lacking Diesel and Razor Ramon, who will soon be off to the greener (as in dollars) pastures of WCW. That means WWF Champion Shawn Michaels needs a new challenger and I’m not sure how well that’s going to work. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

We open with a clip from after last night’s show with British Bulldog accusing Shawn of trying to sleep with his wife. Bulldog went to the ring but was held back by security. So that’s your title feud.

Bart Gunn vs. Mankind

Bart elbows his way out of the corner to start but can’t get anywhere. Instead Mankind rips at his face and pulls out some hair for fun. His own hair of course, because pulling Bart’s out would be uncivilized. Bart goes after the arm and Mankind is bleeding from the cheek. The threat of the Mandible Claw sends Bart bailing to the floor as this is already going longer than it really needs to.

A camera angle shows a VERY large area of empty seats as Mankind misses an elbow back inside. To be fair, the regular angle is showing a nearly empty row of seats so it’s not that much better anyway. Mankind shrugs off a wristlock and stomps away as there is blood on the back of Bart’s jeans. Back from a break with Bart being sent to the floor, right in front of someone who looks like a cross between George Lucas and Santa Claus.

The only thing Vince can talk about here is Billy Gunn returning from his injury in a little over a week. Uh, yeah. Mankind beats on him in the corner and drops the leg on the apron as Lawler notices Mankind’s lack of ear. Bart comes back with some left hands and a missile dropkick as this just keeps going. A top rope elbow gets two and Bart punches on the mat, only to get pulled into the Mandible Claw to give Mankind the win.

Rating: D. What is there to say here? Bart Gunn should never get ten minutes on a television show of any kind and this was hardly entertaining. Mankind should be beating people up in less than half of that time and Bart is far from a big enough star to warrant this much time. Terribly uninteresting match and a really bad choice for an opener.

Post match JR asks Bart what that was like and was he really paralyzed by the hold. Bart says it was like nothing he’s ever felt but Mankind jumps him to put the hold on again.

Scott Taylor vs. Steve Austin

Well this would be very different just a few years from now. Savio Vega is on commentary and has a strap with him. As Austin comes to the ring, Vega issues a challenge for a Caribbean strap match at In Your House. Austin stomps away in the corner as Vega explains the idea of the match. We get a giant swing of all things to keep Taylor in trouble as Lawler makes the most standard Puerto Rico joke you can imagine. Austin chokes on the ropes and drops an elbow before putting on what was supposed to be an STF but was just a chinlock while their legs were touching. The Million Dollar Dream ends a bad squash.

Post match DiBiase and Austin turn down the challenge so Vega whips Austin with the strap.

Here are Bulldog and his wife Diana with Jim Cornette to address the Shawn issue. Shawn and Jose Lothario come out to do this in person as Jose continues to feel very unnecessary and out of place here. Before Bulldog can even say anything, Shawn talks about adapting to Bret Hart’s style to win the title and then he did it again with Diesel to keep the title. So yeah, Shawn thinks he’s great though to be fair, the Diesel match was excellent.

Cornette is tired of hearing about how great Shawn is and goes straight to Shawn trying to sleep with Diana. We see a clip from last night of Diana getting a message during the show, telling her that Cornette needed her in the back. It turns out that Shawn sent it with an indecent proposal. Cornette goes into a rant as only he can, asking how Shawn could dare to do something like this to a virtuous woman like Diana. He wants Shawn to look into the eyes of the woman he tried to deflower because Shawn is a FORNICATOR.

Diana knows Shawn wants him (that gets a groan from the crowd) but Shawn says with all due respect, don’t flatter yourself. That earns Shawn a slap so he says he knows who wears the pants in this family. The brawl is on and we take a quick break. Cornette’s ranting was great and it was a good angle, but Bulldog wasn’t the kind of top level challenger that you needed around this time.

New Rockers vs. Godwinns

For a future Tag Team Title shot. With nothing happening early on, we go to Sunny who doesn’t care who gets the shot at the titles. Marty drives Phineas into the corner to start and a grand total of nothing happens. A drop toehold takes Phineas to the mat and it’s off to a front facelock as the announcers talk about the Shawn situation. There’s a right hand to knock Henry off the apron as the Rockers are wrestling like faces here. Phineas gets all riled up and clears the Rockers out so they can stay in the aisle for a long time.

Back in the ring, Henry sends Phineas into the corner, presumably out of boredom. Cue Sunny to show off the belts as we take a break. Back with Phineas looking at Sunny, who happens to be the only person getting any attention from the crowd either. With Henry in trouble, Cassady knocks a distracted Phineas off the apron without much trouble. Marty dives into a boot and it’s off to Phineas to clean some house. Everything breaks down and Phineas and Marty fight to the floor. That means a Sunny distraction is enough to cause a double countout.

Rating: D. My goodness I forgot how horrible the tag division was at this point. The New Rockers were just lame (as Al Snow put it, if you want to ruin a team from the start, just put NEW in front of their name) and the Godwinns felt like they should have been around in the 1980s instead of just three months before the NWO. That’s a big part of why things didn’t work and Sunny isn’t enough to save the division.

JR goes into the boiler room to find Mankind. After a look back at the attack on Bart Gunn, Mankind offers to demonstrate the hold on JR. Mankind talks about learning every pressure point in the human body through various experiments as a child. The most sensitive of all of these are under the tongue, making it the most vulnerable point on the body. Mankind isn’t afraid of Undertaker and promises to destroy Undertaker if he doesn’t show guts.

Isaac Yankem vs. Ultimate Warrior

This is Warrior’s first ever Raw match. Lawler, with his headset still on, is managing Isaac at the same time. We hit the stall button to start as Vince talks about Warrior University (don’t ask). Warrior starts fast by sending Yankem into the corner for some running clotheslines before we take an early break. Back with Warrior hitting more running clotheslines and dropping the splash for the pin. Not enough shown to rate but it was a total squash.

Lawler wants to go fight Warrior but doesn’t have enough slack in his headset cable. Instead he and Vince preview next week to end the show.

Overall Rating: D. Cornette’s ranting during that segment helps this a lot but egads you could feel the lack of Razor and Diesel showing already. It was too early for Vader to be going after Shawn so Bullet was about as good as they could have gotten. The rest of the show is the usually miserable 1996 fare and shows you why you don’t hear much about this era. Oh and Mankind’s talking was great, but that kind of goes without saying.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of the NXT The Full Sail Years Volume III (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/05/25/new-book-nxt-the-full-sail-years-from-dallas-to-new-orleans/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Monday Night Raw
Date: April 22, 1996
Location: Orange Pavilion, San Bernardino, California
Attendance: 3,000
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler

It’s the go home show for In Your House and the big deal this week is a match that will have nothing to do with the pay per view. The Intercontinental Title is vacant and instead of having it decided on Sunday, we’re getting the second half of a taped angle that will likely put us right back where we started for Sunday’s title match. I’m not sure why anyone would do that but let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Intercontinental Title: Goldust vs. Savio Vega

The title is vacant coming in after Vega hit Goldust with the belt to win the title last week. They slug it out to start with a lot more energy than the first match had to begin. A clothesline and powerslam give Vega two so Goldust bails, earning himself a superkick in the aisle. Back in and Goldust is fine enough to miss a splash in the corner but a low blow cuts Vega off. Lawler starts talking about various news stories because that’s still a thing we do on Raw.

Goldust starts in on the leg by wrapping it around the rope but an enziguri drops Goldust to send us to a break. Back with Goldust staying on the leg and Lawler still reading news. It’s off to a reverse chinlock as things slow way down in a hurry. With the hold boring the life out of the crowd, here’s a promo from Ultimate Warrior, who promises to make Goldust a squealing pig on Sunday. Great: Warrior Does Deliverance. Back to the full screen, Goldust’s cannonball onto the back hits a raised knee but he’s fine enough to drop a leg for two. The announcers talk about the NFL Draft as Goldust gets pulled into the post.

Cue Ted DiBiase and Steve Austin as Vega’s splash hits knees to send us to a break. We come back again with Vega slipping out of the Curtain Call and kicking Goldust in the face. At least he limped a bit between the landing and the kick. Marlena gets on the apron for no apparent reason, meaning there’s no count for Vega’s rollup, which only started after Marlena was on the apron. Austin blasts Vega with the Million Dollar Title and Goldust gets the title back.

Rating: C. This got things back to normal, though I’m not sure what the point was in having the title vacated and giving Goldust another reign as a result. Austin interfering is a good idea and keeps his feud with Vega going, but none of this matters as Goldust injured his knee in between the time this was taped and Sunday. Therefore, Sunday’s match would wind up being as big of a disaster as you could possibly imagine.

Vader vs. Fatu

Somehow Fatu is in the Hall of Fame and Vader isn’t because things aren’t fair in wrestling. We’re joined in progress with Vader forearming him down but missing a seated splash. A running Stunner (a weird move for a big guy) puts Vader down and Fatu’s top rope splash gets no cover as Vader pops up. Fatu gets run over and the debuting Vadersault (with Vince underselling the heck out of it) is good for the pin in a hurry.

We see a clip of Jake Roberts DDTing Owen Hart in German but British Bulldog ran in for the DQ. Jake fought back and gave him a DDT as well, plus put the snake on him for a bonus.

Godwinns vs. Yoshihiro Tajiri/Tim Patterson

Yes that Tajiri. Lawler is off commentary to do something in the back so Vince gets to enjoy some hillbillies on his own. The Bodydonnas and Sunny pop in to brag about being champions, which the Godwinns will never be again. Lawler is back, having seen a surprise that Sunny has planned. Tajiri kicks Phineas down to start and hits the standing moonsault for two. Patterson comes in and gets bearhugged by Patterson as Sunny comes out with the titles. That earns her a chase from Hillbilly Jim’s hunting dog because hillbillies like to hunt. Back in the ring, Patterson gets beaten down and the Slop Drop is good for the pin.

Rating: D. I liked the Godwinns when I was a kid but sweet goodness they don’t hold up well. They’re not funny, it’s one joke, and they’re fighting against two exercise enthusiasts who are somehow the more interesting team of the two. The Sunny thing was just kind of there and added nothing, but at least the visuals were a bit better.

Post match the Bodydonnas jump the Godwinns and shove slop in Phineas’ face.

Mankind vs. Aldo Montoya

Mankind stands in the corner so Aldo dropkicks him, only to be headbutted away. The speeding up right hands in the corner keep Aldo in trouble and Mankind pulls some hair out for fun. You can tell the fans have no idea what to make of Mankind, which is the same reaction that Undertaker received when he debuted. The running knee in the corner rocks Aldo and we take a break. Back with Aldo getting in some right hands but diving into a shot to the face. The Tree of Woe elbow sets up the piledriver and the Mandible Claw completes the squash.

Rating: D+. Just a quick win, even with the rather unnecessary commercial in the middle. Mankind was just a different kind of weird and is one of the creepiest characters ever. You could tell there was something very special about him and that’s the kind of opponent Undertaker needed. Beating up the same giants over and over is only going to last so long (just ask Hulk Hogan) so going with something like this was a necessary as well as very effective move.

Video on Shawn Michaels vs. Diesel. We go over their whole history, which is actually quite the well put together story. It’s why you hear “they can be like Shawn and Diesel” so often today.

Diesel, sounding a bit drunk, joins us from German to say he’s going to hurt Shawn.

Some random people playing guitars take us out.

Overall Rating: D. That’s supposed to make me want to see a pay per view? The closing video was rather good but that’s three minutes on a forty minute show, which really isn’t a strong average. That being said, Sunday is the textbook example of a one match show so focusing the important efforts on that is about as good of an idea as you can have. So much for the hot streak from earlier in the month.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of the NXT The Full Sail Years Volume III (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/05/25/new-book-nxt-the-full-sail-years-from-dallas-to-new-orleans/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Monday Night Raw
Date: April 15, 1996
Location: Orange Pavilion, San Bernardino, California
Attendance: 3,000
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler

I can’t believe it but this show is on a roll. They’re doing good stuff both on the wrestling and storytelling sides of things and it has me wanting to see where some stuff goes. Having the show still at an hour means things are able to get some focus, which can be lacking if it’s not done right. Hopefully the hot streak continues so let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Tonight, Bret Hart breaks his silence about Wrestlemania, all of two weeks later!

Opening sequence.

Leif Cassidy vs. Marc Mero

Sable is here with Mero in her official debut as his manager while Cassidy has Marty Jannetty with him. They fight over wrist control to start with Mero going to the armdrags. A dropkick puts Cassidy on the floor and Mero gets to make his big screaming face which looks like Muhammad Ali when he made a similar face during his old WWF appearances. Mero rams Cassidy into Marty but gets posted for his efforts. Back in and Cassidy runs him over and grabs a chinlock as we take a break.

We come back with Mero being sent outside so Marty can get in some right hands of his own. It’s almost weird to see Marty in the company this late. Cassidy does some dancing as Vince talks about how classy Sable is. Back in and a very fast headscissors with Mero walking around on his hands sends Cassidy to the floor for a big flip dive. Back in and the top rope sunset flip ends Cassidy without much trouble.

Rating: C. Both guys were perfectly fine hands in the ring but Mero isn’t the most thrilling guy in the world. For a TV match this was fine and it makes perfect sense to put Mero over in a match against a low level name, but it’s all about setting him up for the big match with HHH down the line. Not that that’s the most thrilling thing in the world in the first place though.

Diesel calls in to blame Shawn Michaels for all of their troubles. Their match is going to be No Holds Barred and Diesel has a master plan. I think it involves pinning Shawn.

Bart Gunn vs. Steve Austin

They hit the mat to start, which is always so strange to see from Austin. He really was a different worker before his neck injury. Bart headlocks him to the mat and Ted DiBiase doesn’t seem thrilled. Back up and Bart takes a very fast fall to the floor, barely clearing the top rope and sailing outside. We hit the stomping against the barricade before a hard clothesline gives Austin two.

The chinlock goes on as it’s still weird to see Austin wrestling such a standard style. The aggression is there but this feels so strange for Austin. Back up and they both fall out to the floor and it’s off to a break. We come back with Austin kneeing him down for two and the chinlock goes on again. Back up and we get the BAAAAACK body drop on Austin, followed by the running bulldog for two. DiBiase offers a distraction but Austin gets rolled up for two anyway. A jawbreaker gets Austin out of a sleeper and the Million Dollar Dream is good for the win.

Rating: D+. Pretty easily the best Bart Gunn match I’ve ever seen and that covers…oh…I’m thinking nothing of note for the most part. Austin was such a different worker at this point and while he’s still better than most people in the company, he still needs to change things up to really make it work.

Here are Jim Cornette and Vader with the former bragging about Vader destroying Gorilla Monsoon, which was really a lot more awesome than I remember. Now Vader has injured former WWF Champion Yokozuna (the crack on the leg sounded great) and Razor Ramon is up next at In Your House.

Sunny music video, for the sole purpose of having her in swimsuits.

Intercontinental Title: Goldust vs. Savio Vega

Goldust is defending and drops to all fours at the bell. The tongue is stuck out but Vega doesn’t seem too disturbed. Things get a little heated and Goldust bails into the corner like a proper freaky villain should. They go into the corner together, this time with Goldust rubbing his hips against Vega’s crotch. Goldust hides in the aisle so Vince asks if he wears boxers or briefs. Why do I have a feeling he really wants to know that answer?

Back in and a side slam finally gives us some offense, followed by a bunch of right hands to Goldust’s head. We come back from a break with Vega hitting a running corner clothesline but Goldust drops him throat first across the rope. That means more crawling around and chest rubbing before we go to a more traditional reverse chinlock. Hang on though as Goldust grabs a mic and threatens to kiss every fan if they don’t shut up. It was a very different time.

Vega gets up with a crossbody for two but Goldust punches him down. Some slaps and more gyrating are followed by a clothesline but Vega kicks him down on the top. Goldust headbutts his way out of a superplex and kisses Vega to the mat, only to dive into a raised boot. Vega makes the fired up comeback and hits some running clotheslines for two as we take another break. Back with the ref getting bumped so Marlena throws Goldust the title. The belt shot misses though and Vega clocks him for the pin and the title.

Rating: C-. This took a long time to get going but worked well enough once they started trying. Vega was always good for an energetic effort and I liked him as a midcard guy. Goldust was all mental at this point and while he was good, the mind games were getting a little repetitive. That and trying to get past the horrible Hollywood Backlot Brawl at Wrestlemania was a tall hill to climb.

Hang on though as another referee comes out to raise Goldust’s hand. President Gorilla Monsoon comes out to say that the title is being held up and there’s a rematch next week. That’s quite the fast paced story with the Goldust vs. Warrior match set up for less than two weeks from now. Vince saying that Monsoon’s actions are wise in the vein of King Solomon is a little over the top too but that’s Vince for you.

We get some behind the scenes post match footage from after the Iron Man match with Bret being distraught. By that I mean Bret not being willing to talk and leaving without even getting changed.

Earlier this week, Bret was in Germany and said there were a lot of things wrong with the match. He doesn’t like the rule change with the time being added because Shawn made a mistake and was beaten but they paused so Shawn could have a breather. Bret won’t be going to another wrestling organization, nearly flat out saying he’s not going to WCW, which was probably done to calm down rumors at the time.

Overall Rating: C-. It’s ok and that’s as high as I can go with the whole thing as the hot streak hits a very firm wall. The lack of star power really hurts this one as it’s mainly focused on the Intercontinental Title match, which was only just ok. It also did nothing for the pay per view, which isn’t the best idea in the world with only one more show to go. Oh and that’s going to be about the Intercontinental Title as well. No wonder Nitro was picking up steam at this point.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of the NXT The Full Sail Years Volume III (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/05/25/new-book-nxt-the-full-sail-years-from-dallas-to-new-orleans/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Monday Night Raw
Date: April 8, 1996
Location: Orange Pavilion, San Bernardino, California
Attendance: 3,000
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Mr. Perfect

In something you don’t say too often in 1996, things are in a good place after last week with the debut of Mankind as the Undertaker’s newest top foe. It’s going to be something special but that gets to come later. For now we have new WWF World Champion Shawn Michaels in his first match as champion against Jerry Lawler, who is as good of a choice as anyone else. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Opening sequence.

Yokozuna vs. Vader

Yokozuna is listed at 650lbs, putting him at 200lbs heavier than Vader. Let me repeat that: 200lb heavier than VADER. They trade some very hard sounding right hands to the head until an impressive Samoan drop plants Vader. That just earns Yokozuna a hard clothesline as Vince hypes up the fact that the show is now airing at 8:57 to counter Nitro.

Jim Cornette gets in a tennis racket shot from the floor because he knows how to be a good heel manager. The Rock Bottom gets Yokozuna out of trouble for a bit as Mr. Fuji waves the American flag at ringside. Yokozuna pounds Vader down in the corner but misses a charge, allowing Vader to Vader Bomb the leg (CRUNCH) for a referee stoppage.

Rating: D. This was all about making Vader look like a monster and that’s exactly what they should have done. Yokozuna was just way too big to mean anything at this point and it was the right call to write him off TV for awhile. You might as well pencil Vader in for the Summerslam title match from here as it’s the absolute right call, even this far away from the show.

Post match Vader crushes the leg again and the swearing Yokozuna rolls outside in pain. There’s no way to get Yokozuna up so here’s a forklift to get rid of him. I remember watching this as a kid and thinking it was amazing. Now, it’s just a bit of a funny visual.

Vince brings out the Ullllllllltimate Warrior for his Raw debut. The first question: where have you been for the last three years? Warrior says they were places you won’t find on a map because he’s been deep inside his own mind. The voices never stopped and all of the fans spoke to him over the years. Vince asks about facing the stars of the New Generation and here’s Goldust to interrupt. Their match (non-title it seems) is announced for In Your House so Goldust breathes at him.

Warrior does that hard to describe noise of his and Goldust quotes movie lines. He can come in Goldust’s house but no one will be there. Maybe they can play a superhero game with Warrior as Superman….which makes him growl. Various sexual references are made and that’s too far for Warrior, who calls Goldust a freak. This could go very badly in a hurry. Warrior doesn’t give a “s***” whatever Goldust is into and freaks out when Goldust tries to touch his chest. A clothesline puts Goldust down and I guess this keeps Warrior as a good guy. Today, he would be the subject of a Twitter campaign to get him fired.

Yokozuna is still on the forklift so here’s Vader to beat on the leg with a chair. Now that’s a villain.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Duke Droese

Droese starts fast and cleans house with a clothesline to the floor. Back in and Duke slaps away in the corner as we see Sable slapping Helmsley last week. A gorilla press attempt goes badly and Droese is sent outside as the announcers talk about the Preview Channel getting great ratings from the Wrestlemania pre-show.

Marc Mero comes in for an inset interview, promising a surprise next week, thereby negating the idea of A SURPRISE. Some kicks to the ribs have Droese in trouble and we take a break. Back with Helmsley being catapulted into the corner and hitting a powerslam for no cover. The Trash Compactor is countered into the Pedigree for the fast pin.

Rating: C. Not bad at all here as Droese wasn’t half bad for a power guy with some size. There’s nothing you can do with a trashman gimmick though and it’s clear that he wasn’t getting any further than this. That being said, you would think he would get somewhere with his size and decent skills but it just never happened.

We look back at Mankind attacking Undertaker last week, which was still awesome.

Yokozuna is finally in an ambulance.

It’s time for arm wrestling between British Bulldog, flanked by Owen Hart, and Ahmed Johnson. Hang on though as Owen isn’t happy with the oil on Johnson’s chest and hands. Johnson uses the referee’s shirt to wipe down and grabs a chair, which Owen describes as “buttering up the referee”. Owen keeps running his mouth (as he is so adept at doing) and gets ejected. They lock up with Johnson’s arm stretched far longer than Bulldog’s. Johnson wins of course and Perfect freaks about him grabbing the table.

Of course Bulldog beats him down. A series of chair shots set up two whips into the table in the corner….which doesn’t break. The table (which is covered in oil) is so sturdy that Bulldog just drops it on him and then jumps on the thing a few times, which STILL doesn’t break it. That’s the best table I’ve ever seen. With nothing else working, Bulldog lifts it over his head and drops it onto Johnson from even higher, leaving Johnson mostly dead in a really effective beatdown.

Shawn Michaels vs. Jerry Lawler

Non-title with Diesel on commentary. Shawn knocks him down to start and Lawler does one of those over the top sell jobs that only he can do so well. A right hand to the face has Lawler in even more trouble so he tells the referee to stay in the corner as this turns into a boxing match. This goes as you would expect and Lawler crawls over to the referee for mercy.

There’s a backdrop to put Lawler down as this is downright masterful so far. We’re four minute in and it’s been punches and a backdrop but the fans are completely engaged in what’s going on. It’s time for the invisible foreign object but Shawn cranks on his hand. As this is going on, we go split screen to show Diesel chairing Shawn down at MSG a few weeks back.

Lawler gets in the cheap shot and chokes away as we take a break. Back with Lawler celebrating his right hands, again doing very little for a lot of success. Lawler dives into a right hand to the ribs though and there’s the top rope elbow. Some jawing to Diesel sets up Sweet Chin Music for the pin.

Rating: B-. I have a feeling this would be called horrible today as fans seem to equate the ability to do a bunch of stuff with quality. This was Lawler showing why he was one of the best of all time as he did almost NOTHING but punches and pantomime to make the fans want to see him get his head kicked off. Lawler was a master of getting the most out of almost nothing and it’s going to work every single time no matter where you are. Shawn was the star of course but Lawler was doing most of the work, which says a lot given how little he was actually doing. It’s about how you do it, and this was a great lesson.

Post match Diesel comes in and Mr. Perfect offers a distraction so Shawn can take a belt shot to the face to end the show.

Overall Rating: B+. Who said the Raw’s with Shawn as champion were bad? This is the second really good show in a row and while I doubt that lasts, Shawn vs. Diesel has some steam as a title match, if nothing else for Shawn’s first defense. Other than that the midcard is looking strong and the wrestling was good. That’s not bad for a fifty minute show and I had a good time with it. Keep this stuff up.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of the NXT The Full Sail Years Volume III (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/05/25/new-book-nxt-the-full-sail-years-from-dallas-to-new-orleans/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Monday Night Raw
Date: April 1, 1996
Location: Orange Pavilion, San Bernardino, California
Attendance: 3,000
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler

It’s the night after Wrestlemania XII and that means the boyhood dream has come true. Shawn Michaels is the new WWF World Champion and is the new undisputed top star in the company. Everything is about to start changing and unfortunately it would be part of a bad time for the company. However, there’s a BIG development tonight that would mean a lot of positives going forward. Let’s get to it.

Here’s Wrestlemania if you need a recap.

We open with a recap of last night’s biggest events, as you might have been able to guess.

Opening sequence, which actually isn’t new. You would kind of expect that here but not so much.

Mankind vs. Bob Holly

Here’s the big deal as Mick Foley makes his WWF debut. Ok his real debut as I’m not counting those squashes from 1986. This guy is BIZARRE, walking with that weird hunched over look and the dark lighting. Mankind TERRIFIED me as a kid and this first appearance makes me remember why. He really was that creepy and no one else could play that character. Some early right hands in the corner and the running knee have Holly in trouble.

An elbow to the mask gives Holly a breather and there’s the dropkick for his first real offense. Mankind low bridges him to the floor though and grabs a hot shot onto the apron. Fans: “HE’S HARDCORE!” The running ax handle in the Tree of Woe rocks Holly again and Mankind pulls out his own hair. The Mandible Claw makes its debut to finish Holly, who foams at the mouth after Mankind pulls out.

Rating: C-. So that’s how Mankind debuted and WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT? Mankind is instantly one of the creepiest things wrestling has ever seen, looking like he was completely deranged to the point where you almost have to watch and see what he’s doing next. I never knew what to make of him as a kid and looking back he’s still just as odd. Incredibly performance here and no one knew just how good he was going to become.

Stills of Marc Mero debuting last night.

Sable is in the front row.

Isaac Yankem DDS vs. Marc Mero

Sable pops up and cheers for Mero. Marc wastes no time in dropkicking him to the floor and hitting a running flip dive, followed by a slingshot legdrop for two. A top rope ax handle gives Mero two but here’s Hunter Hearst Helmsley to flirt with Sable. The distraction lets Yankem send him into the corner and we hit the chinlock. Mero fights up and gets two off a crucifix before a big left puts Yankem down. The top rope sunset flip gives Mero the pin.

Rating: D+. Not much to the debut here but the key thing that stuck out to me was Vince’s commentary. I couldn’t count how many times he said “the Wildman Marc Mero” so that it stuck in your head. That’s the entire point of something like this and Vince knows how to make you care about someone like Mero, who isn’t the most interesting guy in the world to begin with. Just a debut, but it did its job.

Post match Sable applauds and slaps Helmsley before leaving with Mero.

Ed Begley Jr. is going to host the Weekly World News April Fools Special and is looking for a clothing optional barber shop. Moving on.

Bodydonnas vs. Barry Horowitz/Aldo Montoya

Non-title as the Bodydonnas won the titles the night the night before on the Free For All (preshow). Aldo chops Skip in the corner to start and headlocks him down but it’s quickly off to Zip. Another headlock takeover has the champs in trouble and Aldo does a third, this time adding a headscissors to Skip at the same time. Barry comes in and keeps kicking Zip away as Vince gets distracted by Sunny’s low cut top.

A blind tag puts the champs in control, though it might be that they’re fighting Horowitz and Montoya. Zip tries a suplex over the ropes but gets suplexed over the top for a big crash on the floor. You don’t see that counter very often. The referee misses Barry’s victory roll on Skip so it’s a delayed two, followed by the regular version for the same result on Zip. Skip’s super hurricanrana sets up a top rope seated senton for the pin on Montoya.

Rating: C-. This was a nice little match with Horowitz and Montoya being good enough to put on a good performance. To be fair though, the division was bad enough that it wouldn’t have taken much more than a few wins to make them realistic #1 contenders. That’s not a good sign when you have two very low level jobbers in that spot but it’s where they were at this point.

Bob Backlund campaigns for President.

Call the Hotline! Set to Lex Luger’s WCW music for some reason!

Here’s Shawn Michaels for his first comments as WWF Champion, complete with a white hat saying “WWF Champion 3-31-96 Heartbreak Kid”. That’s so generic looking that you would think a fan made it. Shawn talks about being here because of the fans, who deserve a lot of thanks for getting him here. He’s not worried about facing Jerry Lawler next week or Diesel at this month’s In Your House.

As for Bret Hart, he made a believer out of Shawn last night and Bret will always be a champion in the fans’ eyes. Shawn promises to wear and defend this belt with the dignity that Bret did in the past. Back to Lawler (cue the BURGER KING chants), who Shawn calls Kingfish, he’ll be going back to the White Castle next week. Vince mentions Diesel being on commentary next week but Shawn isn’t sweating him either. He and Diesel were good friends but they’re better enemies (In Your House’s subtitle) so at In Your House, he’ll dance on Diesel’s face.

So to recap: take everything Shawn did that made him awesome and turn him into the smiling good guy that the company is always trying to push. It didn’t work for Diesel and it’s not going to work for Shawn, but never let that spot the company from trying to do something that doesn’t make sense.

Justin Hawk Bradshaw vs. Undertaker

Bradshaw, undefeated at this point, wastes no time and actually plants him with a powerslam. No cover of course, as Undertaker sits up so they can fight to the floor as we take a break. Back with a sidewalk slam getting two on Undertaker, who catches Bradshaw diving off the top with a powerslam.

There’s no cover again, with the idea being that Undertaker is so worn out from last night’s match against Diesel that he’s not at full strength. I’ve heard worse ideas. Bradshaw hits a big boot but a raise of the Urn lets Undertaker hit the jumping clothesline. The chokeslam and Tombstone have Bradshaw finished but here’s Mankind for the DQ.

Rating: C+. Now that’s more like it with both guys beating the heck out of each other. I know Bradshaw doesn’t have the best reputation but if you put him in a power match with someone like Undertaker, he’s more than capable of holding his own and even putting on a heck of a match. Even a weakened Undertaker can still go and this was a lot of fun. But now for the important stuff.

Post match Mankind annihilates Undertaker, sending him into whatever he can find and putting on the Mandible Claw. Undertaker foams at the mouth, which had me terrified as a kid. Referees get Mankind off of him but he comes back to beat on Undertaker even more as Undertaker is left laying. He’s finally dragged away and Undertaker’s music plays over the ads for next week’s show to wrap things up.

Overall Rating: C+. Aside from the main event, this was almost all about setting up the new stuff with Mankind being a major highlight. You could tell they had something new here and he comes off like a star immediately, which isn’t the easiest thing in the world. It makes him seem like someone who isn’t going to be easy to get rid of like Kamala or Giant Gonzalez, which is the right idea. The rest of the show was good enough too, but bigger things are on the horizon.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of the NXT The Full Sail Years Volume III (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/05/25/new-book-nxt-the-full-sail-years-from-dallas-to-new-orleans/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Monday Night Raw
Date: June 28, 1999
Location: Charlotte Coliseum, Charlotte, North Carolina
Attendance: 19,533
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

It’s the night after King of the Ring and, believe it or not, a lot of things have changed. Last night saw Billy Gunn beat X-Pac to win the tournament (because having Road Dogg move on to the finals to face Gunn was too basic and logical for Russo) and the McMahons regained power from Steve Austin due to some shenanigans. Now why do I have a feeling that more shenanigans are afoot? Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

We open with a stills package from last night’s main event with Austin getting screwed out of his powers as CEO. Was anyone really expecting anything else? Your trivia: that was the last time Vince and Austin faced each other in a match.

Opening sequence.

Here’s the Corporate Ministry and balloons fall as Vince starts to celebrate. Vince and Shane are downright giddy and Shane gets to fire Austin as CEO. With Paul Bearer and Mideon dancing together in the background, Vince promises that Austin is going back down to the bottom of the ladder. As for tonight, Austin will be in a preliminary match and then get to take the ring apart to end the show.

This brings Vince to the rest of last night, including Undertaker making Rock’s upper lip curl and the general success of the Corporate Ministry. In honor of everything going well, Vince is willing to offer Undertaker the opportunity to defend the WWF Title against HHH at Fully Loaded. Cue the Big Boss Man to his old music (freaking sweet) to stare Vince and Shane down….and then and rejoin the team.

That’s finally enough and it’s time for Austin to blow the roof off the place. Austin gets straight to the briefcase being raised up, and really he’s not surprised. He’s so not surprised that he did something when he was still CEO. In addition to giving himself a new contract for more money and the ability to attack Vince whenever he wants to, he’s facing the Undertaker for the title TONIGHT and if anyone interferes, Austin wins the title.

Ken Shamrock vs. Steve Blackman

Weapons match and Shamrock is in street clothes. Before the match, Shamrock yells about Vince sending Blackman to take him out, because he’s never going to stop. They start fighting on the floor but Shamrock’s bad ribs flare up. Some weapons shots to the ribs make Shamrock bleed from the mouth and he can barely move. That’s enough for Blackman, who hits Shamrock in the head with a kendo stick, puts his weapons back in the bag, and leaves. As is so often the case, this was more of a segment than a match.

Shamrock refuses medical attention and Blackman leaves.

Here’s King Billy Gunn for a chat. He brags about “winning” the Tag Team Titles last week but quickly shifts over to winning three matches in a row last week over people “at the top of their game”. Gunn is tired of carrying people everywhere because now it’s all about him. Cue Chyna and HHH with the latter holding a shirt. He’s out here on business and asks if Billy has gotten his royalty check lately.

They’re a little lower than they should be because X-Pac and Road Dogg are claiming the rights to the DX name. Therefore, all the shirts like the DX shirts he’s holding are putting money in X-Pac and Road Dogg’s pockets. The three of them were DX so it’s time to go get the rights back where they belong. HHH is busy so Chyna can help Billy instead. They have a deal but here’s Rock to go after HHH for costing him the title last night.

Chaz (formerly Beaver Cleavage) and his girlfriend Marianna is asked about “breaking character” last week (you know Russo wrote this because no one else would be stupid enough to put something like this on TV). He’s been down “gimmick alley” before and says he doesn’t want to be anything but himself. Egads this stuff is hard to watch.

GTV shows us Test and Stephanie McMahon leaving a Marriott together.

Meat vs. Chaz

It’s the battle of the underwear with Meat, with PMS, in pink briefs and Chaz in smiley face boxers. Chaz stars with a powerslam as we hear about Rock vs. HHH being made for tonight. Lawler of course can’t shut up about Stephanie and Test at the hotel, even as Meat gets two off a layout F5. Terri offers a quick distraction so Jacqueline can punch Chaz, leaving Marianna shoves Terri down. The bigger distraction lets Chaz hit a reverse Death Valley Driver for a fast pin.

Test is in the back for an interview but Shane McMahon and the Mean Street Posse run in and beat him down.

Here’s Hardcore Holly, who isn’t impressed by Big Show throwing a car on him. Holly: “Well guess what. YOU MISSED!” As for tonight, he wants Kane due to a fight last night at King of the Ring.

Hardcore Holly vs. Kane

Kane elbows him in the face to start but gets crotched on top. The referee gets distracted for the sake of convenience, allowing Big Show to sneak (because giants can do that) in for a chokeslam on Kane to give Holly the pin.

Post match Kane pops up and chokeslams Holly four times.

The Rock vs. HHH

Before the match, Rock talks about leaving a tattoo on the back of Undertaker’s 33lb head saying how badly he beat Undertaker up. The slugout it on in a hurry with Rock getting the better of it off a running clothesline. HHH is right back up with some right hands in the corner as we’re waiting on whatever run-in they have for this match. Rock’s DDT gets two and it’s Billy Gunn coming in with a club to knock Rock cold less than two minutes in.

Prince Albert and Droz are beating up Val Venis.

Godfather vs. Edge

Godfather is in the Hall of Fame before either Rock or HHH. There’s something very wrong with that reality. Unfortunately Lawler has seen Austin Powers recently and is now full of jokes from the movie. As Edge is coming to the ring, we see a clip of Edge coming off the middle rope to spear Jeff Hardy out of the air, which JR thinks is amazing. Time continues to not be kind to this show. They punch each other a bit and here are Droz and Albert for no logical reason. Edge falls down before a clothesline touches him and there’s the Ho Train. Droz, distraction, sitout gorilla press, spear gives Edge the pin.

Post match Godfather gets beaten down again. His arms get tied into the ropes and Albert goes to pierce one of the Ho’s tongue with Edge making a save. The ladies seem very happy and are all over Edge, who can go with this. A displeased Gangrel is watching from the crowd.

Gunn tells someone to come out if he’s needed.

Billy Gunn vs. Bradshaw

This is taking place because Gunn took a title belt with him after winning a six man tag where he was partners with the Acolytes, who are the actual champions. Bradshaw clotheslines him to the floor and Faarooq gets in a belt shot to no reaction. Back in and Gunn punches him down because Faarooq hitting you in the head with a title belt is just an inconvenience.

Gunn’s Stinger Splash is countered into a fall away slam but a tornado DDT plants Bradshaw. With Bradshaw down, Gunn pulls the trunks down at Faarooq, who hits Bradshaw with a belt by mistake. The Fameasser is broken up by an interfering X-Pac and the Clothesline gives Bradshaw the pin and the title back, even though it’s a Tag Team Title being won in a singles match and Bradshaw never lost the thing.

Rating: F. Ok I know I harp on this stuff a lot but we just had a three minute match with multiple belt shots, two people interfering and a singles match for a Tag Team Title that was stolen when a partner won a six man tag to wrap up a two week story. Are we really going to have people changing the channel to Nitro (featuring the Cat vs. David Flair and Sid Vicious vs. Scott Putski before a main event of David Flair challenging for the World Title) if things weren’t moving this fast?

Post match Chyna throws X-Pac inside but Road Dogg comes in for the save. Was it really necessary to have Chyna, who was shown with Gunn earlier, as a mystery?

Here are new Women’s Champion Ivory and Nicole Bass for a chat. Ivory talks about how real she is and how she wants some competition. Therefore, let’s have an open challenge to any fan in the crowd. A woman gets in the ring but starts to back off. Ivory slaps her and the catfight is on, only to have Bass powerbomb the fan. More beating ensues and Ivory drags her around by the hair as security makes the save.

Vince isn’t worried about Austin.

Intercontinental Title: Jeff Jarrett vs. X-Pac

Jarrett is defending and has Debra with him, who gives Lawler a SHOW ME THE PUPPIES shirt. Oddly enough, that’s worthy of a small grin. They run the ropes to start and it’s X-Pac missing a charge in the corner. Jeff tosses him to the floor as Lawler says the briefcase being raised up last night was a trick of the eyes. Back in and Jeff whips him hard into the corner, followed by the sleeper.

As is always the case, it’s reversed into a sleeper on Jarrett but this time he reverses into a third. That’s broken up with a low blow as the fans chant for Mongo (Debra’s ex-husband) and X-Pac grabs a sitout powerbomb. The Bronco Buster connects but here’s Gunn with a guitar. That’s taken away and Jeff gets clocked but there’s no referee as Debra has her jacket opened. The distraction lets Gunn hit the Fameasser so Jarrett can retain the title.

Rating: D. You know, because these two, as in two of the best hands of the generation, can’t get five minutes on a show packed with this much stuff. Oh but at least we got another segment in the DX fallout after all those other segments in the DX fallout, including in the previous match. As usual, too much packed into too short of a time and it doesn’t have time to connect.

Post match Dogg comes in, quickly followed by Chyna until referees break up the brawl.

WWF World Title: Undertaker vs. Steve Austin

Undertaker is defending and gets flipped off before the bell, meaning the slugout is on in a hurry. They slug it out in the corner with Undertaker actually getting the better of it until a Thesz press gets Austin out of trouble. They’re already out on the floor with Undertaker going face first into the steps but he kicks Austin in the face back inside (thankfully without the knockout ala Summerslam 1998). Paul Bearer gets in a shoe shot and there’s a clothesline to the floor. Lawler: “Austin is like the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz! He’s got no heart!” Maybe Lawler should focus on his film/literature studies more than the puppies.

Austin fights back and drops Bearer with a right hand but walks into a clothesline. Back in and we hit the choke before Undertaker falls on top of a slam attempt. You know, because Austin is known for his slams. We hit the chinlock for a bit before Old School gets two. Austin pulls him face first into the corner though but his crotching against the post is pretty easily kicked away.

That means a third chinlock but Austin is up much faster this time, only to have a double clothesline put them both back down. Back up and the Tombstone is countered into a Stunner for….two with Bearer pulling the referee out. Austin is right back in with another Stunner to get the title back.

Rating: D+. And that’s the highest rated match in the history of cable, drawing over 10 million viewers for a record that is never going to be broken. These two never do have a strong chemistry together and this wasn’t their best effort either. They had a little extra time but it was still just about ten minutes long, which isn’t exactly what you want for a match this big.

Post match Undertaker hits him with the belt to draw some blood and beats Austin down to end the show.

Overall Rating: D. The main event was huge but the rest of the show was the usual flying through a dozen stories at once, often with stories that didn’t need to exist (the Tag Team Title belt for instance) or were done far too many times in one show (the DX stuff). It wasn’t as bad as some of these shows have been, but I’ve only been done watching the show for a short while and I’m trying to remember what I watched. That’s the case way too often around here and is more exhausting than anything else.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of the NXT The Full Sail Years Volume III (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/05/25/new-book-nxt-the-full-sail-years-from-dallas-to-new-orleans/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Monday Night Raw
Date: June 21, 1999
Location: Pyramid, Memphis, Tennessee
Attendance: 15,757
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

It’s the go home show for the King of the Ring and that doesn’t exactly have me instilled with confidence. You never know what you’re going to get around here and Steve Austin as CEO isn’t going to make things much better. Hopefully we get more than one match to break five minutes this week but there’s no guarantee. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

We open with a recap of the end of last week’s show with Rock beating HHH and Undertaker to earn a title shot at King of the Ring. The Corporate Ministry is imploding, mainly due to a series of incidents that could only happen because the script says so.

Opening sequence.

Here are HHH and Chyna to open things up. HHH wastes no time and wants Undertaker out here for a fight RIGHT NOW. Cue a ticked off Undertaker and Paul Bearer, who you don’t call out without expecting an answer. Vince McMahon is right there with the Corporate Ministry though and violence is cut off. This is what everyone here, plus Steve Austin and the Rock want.

Vince polls the fans on wanting to see the two of them fight tonight but that’s not happening. Since that’s not the case tonight, let’s talk about Sunday, when Chyna will be crowned Queen of the Ring. Vince talks about how you can’t always get what you want, like Rock not being able to get the WWF Title this Sunday. As for the new CEO, Austin is willing to put his powers up in the ladder match. The McMahons know a bit about climbing the corporate ladder and that’s the ladder Austin will be at the bottom of after Sunday.

This brings out Austin, with a ladder and the briefcase full of beer. After having a seat on top of the ladder and some generic insults, Austin promises to win the WWF Title again. Austin promises violence on Sunday and throws in a bonus stipulation: if any member of the Corporate Ministry interferes on Sunday, he’s in full control. Vince makes it no holds barred (meaning interference is allowed) because Vince and Shane McMahon say so (even if Shane didn’t talk).

Now it’s Commissioner Shawn Michaels rising up through the stage (Huh?) to say someone has to have a level head around here. Before he can make a decision though, he needs a cup of coffee, so here are his new associates: Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco. We can’t just have people throwing stipulations around so tonight we’ll have a match between Austin vs. a member of the Corporate Ministry to decide if interference is allowed (with Shawn explaining the stipulations all over again).

Vince picks Undertaker but Shawn says he’s booked. Same with Shane’s pick of HHH, because Undertaker is defending the title against HHH tonight. They finally settle on Big Boss Man so Shawn makes himself guest referee. Austin promises violence to FINALLY end this segment after a stupid amount of twists and turns. That should be a month’s worth of….and hang on because Michaels isn’t done.

Tonight it’s Patterson/Brisco vs. the McMahons to really end this. Egads this felt long and would have made me change the channel to Nitro back in the day. Just have some action already and stop with the twenty minute open….GOOD GRIEF IT’S STILL GOING! Vince sends the Corporate Ministry (save for Viscera due to plot convenience) after the Stooges so here’s Ken Shamrock through the crowd to chair Viscera in the back in an attempt to get to Vince.

That was long. Moving on.

Jeff Jarrett and Debra argue with Shawn that they can’t wrestle tonight because they’re not in their gear. Shawn doesn’t care.

Vince and Shane rally the troops to guard against Shamrock. Mideon says he saw a spare belt in Shane’s bag and asks if he can have it. Shane doesn’t care.

Ken Shamrock vs. Test

Good thing Shamrock left the ring and then came back for this match. Now you won’t believe this but HANG ON A SECOND because something is changing.

Ken Shamrock vs. Test vs. Jeff Jarrett

And one more change, as per a Pat Patterson announcement.

Intercontinental Title: Ken Shamrock vs. Test vs. Jeff Jarrett

Jarrett is defending. The challengers double team Jarrett to start but get in an argument over who should get the pin, allowing Jeff to come back. Test kicks him in the face but gets crotched on top. Jarrett breaks up an ankle lock but here’s Steve Blackman with a kendo stick. A shot to the back puts Shamrock down and another to the head knocks him out. Jarrett comes back in and steals the pin to retain.

Blackman left during the break.

The Rock vs. Edge

My goodness this would have been different at another time. Before the match, Rock promises to take a piece of the learning tree and use it for something rather painful on Undertaker. Rock wastes no time in punching him in the face but gets caught with a spinwheel kick. The Maivia Hurricane gets two and a suplex is good for the same as the announcers talk about the Stooges being in action tonight. Edge’s missile dropkick gets him out of trouble….and then he dives into the Rock Bottom. The People’s Elbow is good for the pin.

Rating: D. You can’t call this disappointing as Edge was a newcomer at this point and nowhere near a star yet. This is more a footnote that would wind up on an Unreleased DVD or something like that, which is perfectly fine. Edge got in some offense and wasn’t squashed, but this was all it should have been.

Post match Undertaker comes in with a Tombstone to Rock.

HHH tells Vince that he’s winning the title tonight. How many times do you think they’ve had that same chat over the years?

Mark Henry vs. Viscera

Gorilla press match because one regular match in a row is enough. This was set up last week on Heat when Viscera crotched Henry against a post. Clearly gorilla pressing is the obvious next step. Viscera jumps him from behind but can’t get an early slam attempt. Henry, in street clothes for no apparent reason, slugs away as JR thinks this is just a glorified body slam match. And that’s why they pay him so much. Henry gets him up for a slam but can’t turn it over and hurts his back in the process. Viscera misses an elbow but Henry takes forever going up and gets slammed (nearly a press) down to give Viscera the win.

Post match Viscera goes up top (oh dear) but D’Lo Brown runs in for a double slam to leave Viscera laying. Mideon runs in with the European Title (not identified) to lay out Brown and Henry.

Beaver Cleavage is ready for a match with Meat tonight but takes off his hat and says he can’t do this. The director shouts that “WE’RE LIVE CHAZ” as he walks off. So much for that terrible character, thank goodness.

Big Boss Man vs. Steve Austin

Michaels is guest referee and the winner gets the stipulation they want at King of the Ring. Austin wastes no time in throwing it to the floor as the McMahons come out carrying a ladder. That just gives Austin another weapon to hit Boss Man in the face and it’s back inside with Austin hitting a top rope ax handle of all things. Hang on though as the McMahons are back with the ladder again. We’re not even a minute and a half into the match yet and we’re on our second run-in.

Austin wraps Boss Man’s leg around the post as Shane is on commentary and Vince climbs the ladder. The fight heads outside and Austin puts Boss Man on the announcers’ table, with the ladder being turned over so Vince lands on the table as well. I guess jumping down wasn’t in Russo’s extensive script. Back in and Boss Man grabs a chinlock before a double clothesline takes them both down. Austin scores with the Thesz press and Vince rants on commentary. The nightstick shot misses and Austin hits the Stunner for the pin.

Rating: D. What exactly were you expecting here? You had to have the interference to make sure it wasn’t a big waste of time as Boss Man vs. Austin isn’t going to be the most thrilling match in the world. At least they didn’t go too long with it either and that made this about as good as it was going to be. If nothing else it’s weird to see Austin wrestling a lower level guy like this, even with such a big stipulation.

Austin and Shawn share some beers.

During the break, the Corporate Ministry beat the heck out of the Boss Man.

Val Venis vs. Prince Albert

Albert gets a pre-match promo but Val dives onto him anyway (hard to do while wearing a towel). He even manages to handcuff Albert’s buddy Droz to the ring and hits a Money Shot on Albert before the bell. Albert gets handcuffed too and Val opens Albert’s tattooing kit. Albert’s tights go down (of course) and guess where Val tattoos him. It’s a VV, which just looks like a W. No match, and quite the retaliation for the forced nose piercing a few weeks ago.

Road Dogg/X-Pac/Kane vs. Acolytes/Billy Gunn

Hang on though (ERG!) as X-Pac wants the Acolytes to put up their Tag Team Titles. Sure, why not.

Tag Team Titles: Road Dogg/X-Pac/Kane vs. Acolytes/Billy Gunn

The Acolytes are defending and it’s not clear who exactly is challenging. It’s a brawl to start with X-Pac kicking Gunn in the face…and the Fameasser is good for the pin in just over a minute. Billy leaves with a Tag Team Title and oh my head hurts.

On GTV, AL Snow picks his nose but denies it to the Head.

A Seattle Seahawk is here. King: “What’s he doing in Memphis?” Fair question actually.

Big Show vs. Hardcore Holly

Fallout from Show chokeslamming Holly last week on Heat. Of course there’s something to be said before the match with Holly telling Show that he sucks. Holly is tired of hearing about how big Show is so let’s make this a hardcore match. Show chops him down in the aisle and they go up next to the stage to really go hardcore. They’re already in the back for the pre-tape with Holly missing a toss of a trashcan. They head into the parking lot with Show shoving a car off a ledge and possibly onto Holly, who is easily pinned. So that happened, again in about two minutes. Next segment.

Pat Patterson/Gerald Brisco vs. Vince McMahon/Shane McMahon

The Stooges take them down and we’re ready to go in a hurry. Vince and Shane take over with rights and lefts in the corner and a low blow cuts Patterson off. Cue Ken Shamrock so Vince leaves Shane to take the beating. Shamrock chases Vince to the back but the Mean Street Posse comes in with Joey Abs making his debut and Pillmanizes Patterson’s ankle which is finally enough to have the match thrown out.

Brisco gets his ankle snapped too.

WWF World Title: Undertaker vs. HHH

Undertaker is defending and JR describes HHH as a “youngster”. Egads that’s hard to shake your head at anymore. They trade big shots in the corner and a clothesline takes HHH down for the first two. Old School connects but Undertaker comes up holding his knee. What a coincidence. HHH chop blocks him down and cannonballs down onto the knee but an unintentional Chyna distraction causes HHH to get pulled outside.

They slug it out on the ramp for a bit before heading back inside to continue the punching. You know, what passes for wrestling around here. Undertaker’s knee is wrapped around the post as HHH is trying to make this a match. We hit the Figure Four until Undertaker sits up and grabs him by the throat for the chokeslam ala Giant vs. Ric Flair. Not that it matters as here’s Rock for a Rock Bottom and the DQ.

Rating: D+. HHH was trying out there for some reason and that’s all you can ask for. Undertaker’s knee selling was fine but there’s only so much you can do with interference and brawling to fill in the span of less than seven minutes. That’s the problem with so many of the matches on this show and it’s holding back the matches that could work in the first place.

Post match Rock hammers on both of them as a smoking Brahma Bull logo comes down from the ceiling. The Acolytes come in for the save but the Boss Man runs in to take them out. Bearer gets tied to the symbol and Rock promises to win the title to end the show.

Overall Rating: D. Another Russo style show with nothing to see as they were trying as hard as they could to set up King of the Ring, though I couldn’t tell you more than two people in the actual tournament. As usual, pay per view doesn’t mean much in this era and it’s getting a little annoying having this happen week after week. At this point, a C- match that gets seven minutes would be the best thing I’ve seen in a long time. I can see why this stuff was exciting at the time but egads it doesn’t hold up at all, especially with every match feeling like I’m just waiting on the big interference or whatever. Slow down a bit already.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of the NXT The Full Sail Years Volume III (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

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