WWF SummerSlam 1997

With the Attitude Era getting off the ground, but still well behind WCW in the rating wars, the WWF pushed its annual SummerSlam spectacular hard – filling the show with gimmick blowoff matches centering on the Hart Foundation angle. While not breaking any records, the show drew well, actually managing to outdraw that years WrestleMania – though that feat had more to do with the underwhelming nature of WrestleMania 13 than the strength of the promotion.

From East Rutherford, New Jersey; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Jerry Lawler.  

WWF SummerSlam 1996

With rival WCW unveiling a game changing twist in the young nWo angle only a few weeks before SummerSlam, the WWF was rapidly plummeting in the Monday Night War ratings, and for the first time, became the #2 wrestling promotion in America. If ‘Feel the Heat’ was ever an appropriate tagline for SummerSlam, it was certainly in 1996 – fan interest in the card so low that it still ranks as the least commercially successful SummerSlam show.

From Cleveland, Ohio; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, and Mr. Perfect. Hilarious moment during the opening spiel, as some fan in the front row tries to get Perfect’s autograph (while he’s introducing the damn show), so Perfect shoots him an ‘are you fucking kidding me?!’ look these words can’t do justice.

WWF King of the Ring 2000

King of the Ring 2000 was held with two main goals in mind: elevate Kurt Angle to main event player (the WWF’s next choice as World Champion), and get that same title on The Rock to drop to Angle. In addition, the tournament itself was the largest in history – though only the last three rounds were featured on pay per view.

From Boston Massachusetts; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.

WWF SummerSlam 1995

For 1995, with business at the lowest point in the promotions history and rival WCW breathing down their necks with stars like Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, the WWF’s direction veered wildly as they tried to steady the ship. With WWF Champion Diesel’s title reign nine months strong and still underperforming, they elevated midcard tag teamer Mabel to main event level, hoping to build intrigue in the vein of Hulk Hogan’s battles with big men like King Kong Bundy, Andre the Giant, or Earthquake.

Unfortunately, the fans did not respond (myself included, thinking that they were stretching it more than Mabel’s waistband with that feud – and I was only ten), and the show achieved one of the lowest buyrates in the promotions history to that point (and became the least commercially successful SummerSlam to that point).

From Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler.

WWF SummerSlam 1994

There may be no better study in contrast than comparing the two headlining matches promoted for SummerSlam in 1994. On one hand, you had the Hart Brothers, who after feuding for the bulk of the year, were scheduled to face off in a steel cage for the WWF Title – the rematch from their all time classic showdown at WrestleMania the previous spring. On the other hand, you had the Undertaker battling… the Undertaker.

The show also marks Vince McMahon’s return to the helm of the WWF. Though he had never technically given up reigns, he had spent a good portion of the year in a courtroom while on trial for steroid distribution – charges he was acquitted of a month before SummerSlam. During that tense period, the day to day operations of the promotion were handled in large part by Pat Patterson, but with the trial over, McMahon was back in the drivers seat – all his attention on the WWF once more.

From Chicago, Illinois; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler. Randy Savage comes out to welcome the crowd to SummerSlam (his only on-camera participation at the event), making his last pay per view appearance for the WWF before bolting to WCW that fall – tired of being used as a broadcaster when he felt he still had something to offer between the ropes.

WWF SummerSlam 1990

With business down across the board in 1990, the WWF promoted it’s annual SummerSlam spectacular as a double main event – featuring WWF Champion The Ultimate Warrior battling Rick Rude in a cage, and (in the real selling point) Hulk Hogan making his return to battle Earthquake, after selling an injury from the natural disaster to take time off/build anticipation.

From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper – doing a hilariously insane, pop-culture laden job on commentary.

WWF SummerSlam 1989

After the success of the first SummerSlam in 1988, the WWF added it permanently to their pay per view lineup, and built the 1989 edition on a main event showdown between WWF Champion Hulk Hogan, and the maniacal Zeus. Zeus being an actor-turned-wrestler for the sole purpose of this ridiculous angle that ‘spilled over from the movie set,’ the WWF wisely made it into a tag team match – with Hogan’s WrestleMania opponent Randy Savage backing Zeus up, and Brutus Beefcake with the Hulkster.

From East Rutherford, New Jersey; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura.

WWF SummerSlam 1993

As the summer of 1993 rolled around, the WWF found itself in need of a hero. With Hulk Hogan leaving the promotion after losing the WWF Title to Yokozuna at the King of the Ring, Vince McMahon needed a new, All-American challenger for the kids to cheer against his foreign heel champion. While the kids (and their parents) were already cheering for former WWF Champion Bret Hart in an increasingly vocal manner, the WWF decided to turn Lex Luger face by having him bodyslam the mammoth Yokozuna during a bodyslam challenge on July 4. After the hasty face turn and announced SummerSlam main event between the two, the WWF sent Lex Luger from coast to coast in a patriotic tour bus (dubbed the ‘Lex Express’) to drum up support on his way to battling Yokozuna for the title at SummerSlam.

From Auburn Hills, Michigan; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan.

WWF SummerSlam 1992

With the World Wrestling Federation becoming increasingly popular in Europe during the early 1990s, the WWF decided to take their annual summer spectacular abroad for the first time – all the way to Wembley Stadium in London. Originally, SummerSlam was set to take place in Washington DC, but after the success of UK Rampage in April, the WWF hastily rebooked the show for London – a gutsy move when they had a large stadium to fill.

It ended up becoming a tremendous success (drawing some 80,000 fans), and making for a great live atmosphere. As I kid, I once met John Tenta (Earthquake, who performed on the card), and (after hearing a silly internet rumor that the crowd was actually much smaller), asked him ‘how’ they made the place look so big. He assured me that it ‘really was,’ and it really was! In a first, due to the time difference the event took place in August 29, but didn’t air until two days later in the United States – a trick they would never be able to pull off in today’s iPhone world, but which worked wonderfully in 1992.

The biggest change other than venue (though, it was a direct result of it) was from the original booking that had Shawn Michaels capturing the Intercontinental Title from Bret Hart in the WWF’s first ladder match (one they rehearsed for at TV tapings over the summer) – the change delaying Shawn’s title for a couple of months, as ‘British Bulldog’ Davey Boy Smith challenging brother-in-law Hart for the title was deemed a better draw.

From London, England; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan.

WWF SummerSlam 1991

As a kid, SummerSlam ’91 was one of my favorite shows. Though I didn’t follow wrestling yet at the time it originally aired, I found it at a local video store one afternoon after school, and it quickly becoming a regular in my rental rotation. While the show came during a period when the WWF was trying to navigate the waters of the post-Golden Age boom in business, and was significantly less commercially successful than the three previous SummerSlams, it has often been a critical favorite.

The show also marked Ric Flair’s long awaited entry into the WWF, after having a legendary falling out with WCW. While he wasn’t advertised and didn’t appear on the show in person, the reigning NWA World Champion made a splash at SummerSlam by immediately targeting WWF Champion Hulk Hogan for a showdown, bringing the NWA title belt with him, and declaring himself the ‘real world champion.’ Unfortunately for fans, Flair’s use of the NWA Title on WWF programming led to disputes and lawsuits, and never to the anticipated dream match with Hogan.

From New York, New York; Your Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon, Roddy Piper, and Bobby Heenan.

WWF Royal Rumble 2001

By the time 2001 rolled around, the WWF was the indisputable king of the wrestling mountain. With the Monday Night Wars winding down, and WCW on death watch, the WWF began their build to WrestleMania X-7 without having to look over their shoulder for the first time in the shows history.
 
From New Orleans, Louisiana; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.

WWF Survivor Series 1999

Survivor Series 1999 came during an interesting period for the WWF, as head writer Vince Russo (one of the people most credited for helping the WWF create the Attitude Era, and in turn, become the number one wrestling promotion in North America again) had left for rival WCW the month before, and with top drawing star Steve Austin on the shelf with a severe neck injury, many of us around the lunch room table (and many professional sources) saw it as the death knell for the WWF – with predictions flying that their days were numbered.

From Detroit, Michigan; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.

WWF SummerSlam 1988

For the summer of 1988 the WWF’s business was red-hot, and they introduced a new event to their lineup to capitalize on the increasingly lucrative pay per view market: SummerSlam. Designed as a mid-season blowoff show (taking place five months after their flagship WrestleMania card, it was the perfect place to blowoff lingering feuds, and start developing angles for the next WrestleMania), SummerSlam has become one of their most popular, and enduring concepts. While the idea of a summer blowoff show was not new (the WWF had previously run big summer cards like The Big Event in 1986, or the Shea Stadium shows in the 70s, and the NWA held their Great American Bash cards annually in July since 1985), but this was the first attempt to take it to pay per view – and the most successful.

From New York, New York; Your Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Billy Graham.

WCW Fall Brawl 1993

After dropping the ‘WrestleWar’ show concept for the pay per view lineup in 1993, WCW created Fall Brawl as a new, permanent home for the popular WarGames match. The first show was built on another confrontation between Sting/Davey Boy Smith and The Masters of the Powerbomb – this time with their pals in tow for the ultimate blowoff.

Unfortunately, Sting and Davey’s pal Hawk fell out before the show, so they promised a mystery partner. At the Clash of the Champions the month before, they unveiled partner The Shockmaster (the WWF’s Typhoon, dressed as an overweight Stormtrooper with a bedazzled helmet), though his debut failed to make the splash WCW was hoping for when he literally fell on his face. In fact, the debut has become so legendarily embarrassing that, even twenty years later, people still use ‘Shockmaster’ as a verb for whenever a wrestler trips, or looks foolish.

From Houston, Texas; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura. Tony immediately makes a ludicrous claim that they are ‘jam packed to the rafters’ when there are rows (hell, sections) of empty seats visible, and over half the crowd papered.

WCW Bash at the Beach 1994

For 1994 WCW took its slightly altered ‘Beach Blast’ concept (changing the name to the more familiar ‘Bash at the Beach’) and did something they rarely did during the promotions run: pull something off better than the WWF did. After signing Hulk Hogan to a big money contract, WCW immediately gave fans the dream match they were waiting for (and the one the WWF failed to deliver in 1992), pitting Hogan against WCW Champion Ric Flair in a pay per view main event – going as far as billing Hogan as a former ‘five time WWF Champion’ to truly capitalize on the situation. The show was marketed on the strength of that main event alone, and people tuned in: drawing WCW’s biggest numbers ever (to that point), and more importantly, outdrawing the WWF’s King of the Ring from the month before.

While Hulk Hogan’s involvement in WCW would directly lead to the highest of highs (the nWo) and the lowest of lows (bankruptcy), they made a big mainstream splash, and were off to a great start before the mismanaging began. Personally, the signing of Hulk Hogan was a pivotal moment in my becoming a WCW fan. I had barely heard of WCW before (I would occasionally see it on if flipping past Saturday Night, but never actually got into it), but when I heard of Hogan’s arrival, it immediately became must-see TV for me.

From Orlando, Florida; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan, and Jesse Ventura.

WCW Beach Blast 1993

With the Great American Bash on hiatus, WCW brought back the Beach Blast concept for the month of July. The show focused on a showdown between Sting/Davey Boy Smith and Vader/Sid, which WCW promoted by making an infamous ‘mini-movie’ in which both teams have an altercation on a beach… along with a devious midget who blows up Sting and Davey Boy’s boat. While the feud had potential, turning it into a joke with a goofy mini-movie involving midget hijinks didn’t do them any favors, and the show failed to draw.

From Biloxi, Mississippi; Your Hosts are Eric Bischoff and Missy Hyatt (and her tits), with Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura (both dressed like Jules and Vincent at the end of Pulp Fiction) on commentary – all in front of a heavily papered crowd.

ECW One Night Stand (June 2005)

By the summer of 2005, with the WWE having won the rating wars, and the wounds healing, the nostalgia was starting to creep in. Now that the WWE owned ‘everything,’ Hall of Fame ceremonies started taking place. Classic clips were again played. A live episode of RAW rewound to 1993. And countless DVDs have been released acknowledging the history of wrestling.

One of the most well received of these nostalgia trips was ECW One Night Stand. Before the WWE ‘revived’ the ECW brand with WWE stars the next year, they held what was supposed to be a one-time only tribute/reunion show for ECW fans – using old ECW talent, ECW booking, and running it in an ECW venue.

From New York, New York; Your Hosts are Joey Styles and Mick Foley. Throughout the evening, we get a series of great video packages highlighting some of the more memorable moments from the original ECW.

WWE WrestleMania XX

2004’s WrestleMania XX was the last WrestleMania I saw live – in fact, the last WrestleMania I’ve seen in full, period. Though I had checked out as a fan a few years before, I still ordered WrestleMania because ‘it’s tradition!’ and the promise of an anniversary show drew me in one last time.

My memories of the show are of watching it with my then girlfriend (not a wrestling fan in the least), and it running so long she asked me to drive her home in the middle of it. Not that I minded, as at over four and a half hours it became a chore to sit thorough at points, and the drive provided a much needed break.

From New York, New York; Your Hosts are Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole, and Tazz. The Harlem Boys Choir sings ‘America the Beautiful’ to kick things off.

WCW Beach Blast 1992

For 1992, WCW introduced a new event to their pay per view calendar: Beach Blast. The show was the first pay per view to take place under Bill Watts’ run as head booker (previous pay per view WrestleWar still involved a lot of transition from Kip Frey) – the promotion for the event confusing: two major champions (World Champion Sting and United States Champion Rick Rude) booked in marquee matches made non-title, and a mildly anticipated (outside of Japan) main event between the Steiner Brothers and the Miracle Violence Connection for the tag titles.

With Watts now firmly in control, the focus of the promotion was shifted back to 1970s-style mat wrestling – off the top rope moves were quickly made illegal, and the floor mats around the ring removed to discourage crazy bumps. These ideas were not embraced by the roster, the fans, or really anyone outside of the misguided Watts – but it certainly succeeded in making the product wildly different than the WWF’s.

From Mobile, Alabama; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Eric Bischoff, with Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura on commentary. Schiavone and Bischoff interview Bill Watts before we get started, allowing him to make a fool of himself by saying ‘rules’ about three hundred times in two minutes, and make a point that WCW has many more rules than their competitors.

WWF UK Rampage (April 1993)

To avoid the post-WrestleMania downturn, the WWF once again headed to the hot Europe market in the spring of 1993 – and along with a tour, held another UK-exclusive pay per view.

From Sheffield, England; Your Host is Lord Alfred Hayes, with Jim Ross and Bobby Heenan on commentary.

WWE WrestleMania XIX

WrestleMania XIX is interesting for a number of historical reasons: it’s the first promoted after the World Wrestling Federation ‘got the F out’ and became the WWE, the first under the flawed Brand Extension, and also the least commercially successful WrestleMania of the decade. It (along with WrestleMania XX the next year) also served as something of a swan song for many of the eras biggest stars – the Cena/Orton/Batista era set to begin.

This is another one I ordered purely because ‘it’s tradition!’ – not at all following the product at this point – and I remember being fairly unimpressed with it.

From Seattle, Washington; Your Hosts are Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole, and Tazz. Ashanti sings ‘America the Beautiful’ to kick things off.

WWF WrestleMania X8

WrestleMania X8 was an interesting one for me, as I had completely checked out as a fan over the summer of 2001, and pretty much ordered it strictly out of tradition – which dated back to my first pay per view ‘Mania in 1995. I remember being quite disappointed with the show at the time – one notable exception – though I’m excited to rewatch with over ten years of perspective.

For the WWF, this was the first WrestleMania truly promoted after the end of the Monday Night Wars (you can’t count X-7, as they had only bought WCW, like, the week before), and also the last promoted under the ‘WWF’ banner – which they would change later that spring. Despite having won the war, much of the reason I remember being let down by this show in 2002 was lack of any truly great cross promotional showdowns – again with one very notable exception. This was also the first WrestleMania to truly start the now overdone strategy of selling the show on the brand name over the card – a lot of the promotion focusing less on matches or feuds, and more on the fact that those matches would be taking place at WrestleMania.

From Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler – a group of my friends among the near seventy thousand fans at SkyDome.

WWF Battle Royal at Albert Hall (October 1991)

After the success of UK Rampage earlier that year, the WWF returned to the UK that fall for another exclusive pay per view, this time from the world famous Royal Albert Hall.

From London England; Your Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan.

WWF UK Rampage (April 1991)

After previous televised on non-televised appearances in the UK since 1989, UK Rampage became the WWF’s first attempt at a UK only pay per view – essentially a glorified house show that kicked off their post-WrestleMania VII European tour.

From London England; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper.

WWF at London Arena (October 1989)

In the fall of 1989, the WWF began what would be a long a profitable venture – UK only shows. Though these would later become bigger, more official spring pay per views scheduled to avoid post-WrestleMania downturns at home, their first appearance in London was scheduled for October (and a brief European tour to follow), and the WWF broadcast the glorified house show on SKY ONE – in front of a sold out house at the London Arena.

From London England; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and Lord Alfred Hayes. Schiavone fits right in, as the production values are less WWF late 80s, more WCW early 90s.