- Today here for one of the first PPV’s I saw live (as in,
on PPV) (I think that distinction goes to King of the Ring 1994, but this was
one of the first, yeah). I have always liked it as a mark, so lets see
how it holds up in the HITMAN383 rant for SummerSlam 1994!
- BTW, I use this system: ***** - Excellent **** - Great ***
- Good **- Okay * - Decent DUD - Awful.
- Live from Chicago,
Illinois
- Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry “The King” Lawler.
- “Macho Man” Randy Savage comes out first to welcome
everyone to SummerSlam! Some question his loyalty to the WWF for going to WCW,
but he still could still perform, but was made to do this. I will say this, he
is really nice to the fans.
- Vince and Jerry announce that we have new WWF Tag Team
champions as Shawn and Diesel have won the straps from the Headshrinkers the
night before.
- Opening Match: IRS and Bam Bam Bigalow vs. The
Headshrinkers: This was for the Tag Belts, but the Clique got involved, so
ya know. Bigalow starts with Fatu, and Bam Bam hammers away to start. He misses
a charge, and gets superkicked for two. Bam Bam quickly comes back with an
enzuguri, but misses a flying headbutt. Samu tagged in, and they double
superkick him for another two. IRS gets in, and gets his ass handed to him, as
the crowd goes crazy. The Shrinker’s are trying real hard here, I guess wanting
to show they want belts back. (Remember the days when effort actually went
hand-in-hand with pushes?) Fatu gets back in, but Bigalow pulls the
rope down off an Irish whip, and he tumbles to the floor. Ass whooping follows.
Bam Bam gets officially tagged in, and he and Fatu do the double KO spot. Both
tag out, and the crowd is in a frenzy as both Corporation members get their ass
kicked. Headbutt from the 2nd rope gets two on IRS, but Bam Bam saves. Some
nice tandem stuff follows, and they go for their big splash. It hits, but the
ref. is caught up with DiBiase. Pier Six breaks out with EVERYONE, managers
included, going at it as the crowd goes nuts. Bam Bam takes a triple headbutt,
and they brawl up the isle. The official call? The Corp. by DQ, at about 6:45.
Crowd don’t like that. Fun little match though, ** ¼.
- WWF Women’s Title: Alundra Blayze vs. Bull Nakano:
Stalling so start, and then Bull goes into ass whoop mode, and takes it to
Blayze. Hair slam spot (VICIOUS one) follows, and then another for good
measure. She hits the Hogan leg drop for one, and then chinlocks her. USA chant goes
up, but it doesn’t inspire Alundra or anything. She does pull off a rana for
two, and a spin kick. He tries it again, so Bull chokeslams her. She gets a
Texas Cloverleaf on, but Alundra makes the ropes. Bull now gets the
Sharpshooter on, and wrenches her back with it! My G-D that was vicious. Luna
interferes, Blayze gets a fluke roll up for two, and Bull hooks an armbar,
which Alundra rolls with for another two. Blayze with a few hair slam spots of
her own, and tries a powerbomb, but that backfires. Bull slams for two, and
then a great little sequence leads to an Alundra backslide for two. Bull gets
control again, but misses a butt splash from the top, so Blayze gets a German
suplex for three at 8:10, popping the crowd BIG. Damn good match too. ***.
- Todd talks with WWF IC champ, and Tag champ Diesel, along
with Tag champ Shawn Michaels. They are gonna hurt Razor Ramon, BTW.
- WWF Intercontinental Title: Diesel vs. Razor Ramon:
Crowd is pumped for this one. The crowd is actually CHEERING the heel Diesel,
but Razor gets a mammoth pop of his own. Man, did someone piss off Razor’s
second Walter Payton backstage? He has this look like “I have to act like I
wanna be here, but I don’t really. Wrestling is really stupid next to
football.” I hope someone smacked him up in the back. Razor pounds to start
popping the place, and Diesel sells all the way to the floor. Nash can sell?
Who knew? He comes back in, and works over Ramon, not being lazy about it in
the process. WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS NASH? Shawn, of course, is THE MAN on the
outside, doing every trick in the book in terms of heel manager cheating. For
example, Diesel has Razor in the corner with the boot choke spot, so Shawn tugs
his hair at the same time. (It’s too bad Shawn wasn’t wrestling much
during this period, because I would have loved to have seen something, like,
Michaels/1-2-3 Kid at this show) Diesel gets a quick standing chinlock,
but Razor side suplexes him. Diesel quickly comes back, and tosses him over the
top to the floor, as Shawn removes the turn buckle pad. He and Payton tease a fight,
and as the ref. breaks it up, Shawn flying clotheslines Razor on the floor.
Repeat: SHAWN IS THE MAN! Razor beats the count, and Nash continues to pound.
He wants to use the exposed corner, but the ref. stops him. Michaels distracts
him, and Diesel rams him to the buckle, and sidewalk slams him for two. See,
Tony, THAT is a sidewalk slam. Take Note. Razor fights back, but Diesel kills
the attempt with a big boot for three, but the foot was on the rope. Nash then
gets an Abdominal Stretch, but is a good little heel and grabs the ropes. My
theory is: If you HAVE TO use things like chinlocks, and abdominal stretches,
use the ropes. Earl finally catches him, and Ramon gets a stretch of his own,
but Nash hip tosses him out. Nash gets rammed to the exposed buckle for a long
two, as the crowd lets out a mass “ohhh” thinking he had him. Razor pounds
away, and outsmart Nash (not a hard thing) (That’s not fair. Love him or hate him,
Kevin Nash is far from stupid) and crotches him to the post. BIG
bulldog hits for two, again getting this VERY hot crowd going. He slams Diesel
for another two, and Shawn goes up on the apron, so Razor decks him off in a
great bump. That was enough to distract him though, and he tries the Powerbomb,
but Razor backdrops out of it. He calls for the Razor’s Edge, but Shawn gets
involved, and a double KO spot follows. Shawn and Payton go on the outside, and
Shawn sneaks in to superkick Ramon, but he ducks, and Shawn hits Diesel! Razor
crawls over and covers for the win, and the IC title at 13:55. Good match here,
***. Diesel and Shawn have problems afterwards.
- Todd is with Luger and Tatanka. Todd say’s the WWF opinion
poll shows 54 % of the fans think Luger sold out to Ted DiBiase, and 46 % think
he didn’t. Tatanka makes accusations, and they’re gonna settle it TONIGHT!
- Lex Luger vs. Tatanka: The issue here is Tatanka
thinks Luger sold out to Ted DiBiase, but Luger say’s he didn’t. Crowd is
pretty convinced by this angle though, cheering Tatanka loudly, and a mixed
reaction for Luger. Funny thing, they stand in silence, and once the bell
sounds, they INSTANTLY start jawing at eachother. It’s like “SHHHHH! You can’t
talk until the bell, dummy!” They do the normal babyface vs. babyface match up,
doing tie up’s going to a clean break, and generally not being aggressive in
the early going. Which basically means we get a boring match with no one in
control. Finally, they blow up and start pounding eachother, which Luger wins,
and Lex gets a two off a snap suplex. He misses that big elbow, and Tatanka
gets a powerslam for two. Tatanka gets a great suplex, and heads up to hit a
tomahawk chop for two. He tires again, but badly misses, and Luger gets a
series of clotheslines, and out walks Ted DiBiase with a Red, White and Blue
bag full of MONEY! He offers it to Luger, and Tatanka rolls him up for the pin
at 6:00. Decent match. *. Luger throws a fit over the way Tatanka won, and Ted
comes in to give Lex some money, but Luger kicks it away, and Tatanka jumps
him?!? No seriously, I DID NOT see that coming at the time. He and DiBiase lay
in a major league ass kicking, and walk out, arms around eachother.
- Mabel vs. Jeff Jarrett: Oh boy! Can you believe
that this guy, who had no heat, and looked like an idiot would be the big shot
in WCW today? Back then I would have NEVER, EVER guessed it. (This
was written in 2000) BTW, Oscar can’t rap … AT ALL! Mabel over powers
Jeff to start, and Jeff struts without real reason. Mabel mocks it, and
continues to pound Jarrett. The Chosen One outsmarts Mabel, and hits a pretty
cool elbow off the 2nd rope. He keeps working to drop Mabel off his feet with a
bunch of stuff off the ropes. On the 3rd try, he gets caught but eye rakes out.
Mabel no sells some rights, and takes over the offense, but Jeff keeps fighting
back! He hits a crappy spin heel kick for two, and a big splash for another
two. Jeff gets control, but goes after Oscar, which costs him, and Mabel eats
him for lunch, but Jeff moves out of the way of a butt splash and pins him at
5:45. Lets move on, huh? ¾ *.
- Review of the Owen/Bret Hart Brother’s feud. This feud
worked SO well. The younger brother wants the older one, the older and wiser
Hart won’t fight his own brother. They finally reconcile, only for Owen to snap
thinking Bret was a selfish prick, and kicked his bad knee out. Bret agrees to
meet him at WrestleMania X, and after a 5-star match, Owen PINS Bret. Later
that night Bret wins his 2nd WWF title from the “unbeatable” Yokozuna, as Owen
stands in shock. Then, at King of the Ring, Owen wins the tourney, again
following his brother (Bret wins 1993), to establish himself as a contender. Also
at KOTR, Bret faces Diesel, and brought Jim Neidhart in to watch his back, and
Jim ends up costing him the match by DQ, saving the title to make sure Owen
would get it. This all leads to SummerSlam, in the steel cage so no one gets
in, and no one gets out. GREAT FEUD!
- We then go ringside, as they build the match EVEN MORE, as
Vince and Jerry speak with the Hart Family who are all at ringside. They all
hope that both come out okay, but the newly returned Davey Boy Smith hopes Bret
kicks some ass, while Jim Neidhart say’s Owen’s walking out WWF champion.
- They then build EVEN MORE as Todd talks with Bret, and
say’s he’s just getting over strep throat. Did he really have it, or was it
just an angle?
- WWF Title, Main Event, Steel Cage Match: Bret Hart vs.
Owen Hart: After a great entrance for both, Owen jumps Bret to start, and
beats him from end to end in the cage. He then does a 10-punch count in the
corner yelling “he’s NOTHING to me!” Bret comes back with an atomic drop, and a
clothesline. They exchange some blows, with neither really winning, as Owen
won’t quit. Bret gets a DDT though, and drops a leg. He starts to climb, but
Owen pulls him down, and enzuguri’s him. He climbs up, and Bret thwarts the
effort, side suplexing him off, knocking both out. Bret crawls to the door, but
Owen holds the foot, and drags him back. He posts Bret in the corner, but Bret
comes back with a great bulldog. He crawls out again, but Owen stops it, and
lunges, and Bret does the same, and they repeat that a couple times. Fun
sequence keeping the crowd really into it. Bret finally gets him down, and
drops an elbow. He climbs, but Owen slams him off. Owen climbs himself, as the
crowd has a heart attack, but Bret BARELY catches him. A great characteristic
about this match, is that every escape is THAT close, getting the crowd really
jacked. They brawl atop the cage, with Owen knocking him off, and hitting a
sweet missile dropkick. Owen nearly escapes again, but Bret comes up, and they
brawl at the very top. Bret wins that exchange, bashing him to the cage, with
Owen falling off. Back down on the mat, and Bret backdrops him off a piledriver
attempt. Good one too. They do a criss cross sequence into a double KO spot.
Owen semi-recovers first, and crawls for the door, but the Hitman stops the
effort. Bret tries to climb out, and gets ¾ the way, when Owen catches the
ankle, and drags Bret into crotching himself, getting a loud “ohhhh” from the
fans. He tries to escape out the door, and Bret barely stops it, and hits a low
blow. He goes to the top rope, and goes for a big elbow, but Owen moves. HE
goes ¾ the way now, and actually almost makes it out, but Bret stops by
grabbing the hair, and slamming him in. Bret IMMEDIATELY goes over the top, but
Owen fallaway slams him off, in a great spot. Owen is just about out, when Bret
makes it up, but Owen wins the exchange, and both are down. Bret is over the
top, and half down, when Owen catches him. The crowd went CRAZY when Bret
almost escaped. Owen with a side super-superplex from the cage. Owen takes over
with a piledriver, but both are so battered Owen can barely climb. He does make
it most of the way though, giving the crowd a heart attack, when he decks Bret
off, then falls getting crotched. Bret crawls to the door, and is half out when
the King of Harts grabs an ankle. Bret won’t quit however, and gets ¾ out, but
Owen won’t quit either. They wrestle/brawl on the mat, and Owen almost slides
out. This match rules six ways from Sunday! Bret slingshots him to the cage, as
the crowd is absolutely RABID at this point. Bret teases yet another escape,
and Owen makes the save. Bret climbs again, and Owen drags him in by the hair,
and hits his spin kick. He very slowly climbs out, and is INCHES from winning
when Bret gets him in. They trade punches on the top, and Bret kicks his
brother off, and Owen narrowly stops Bret’s escape. Owen works him over on the
mat, and another double KO spot follows. Owen recovers first, and is gonna win,
when Bret climbs up and super-superplex from the cage. That spot ROCKED! I
mean, whoa! Both guys are DEAD now, and Bret can barely get to a sitting
position. He crawls to the door, and Owen stops it with mere SECONDS to spare.
He drags Bret mid-ring and hooks the Sharpshooter! Crowd is in shock as they
see a new champ. Bret reverses, however, getting Chicago into a frenzy. He lets off and climbs
over the top, when Owen lunges (in a single motion mind you) to the top of the
cage, and pulls him off. Owen climbs now too, and Bret follows up, and both men
are climbing down the side. Bret hammers him to the side of the cage, and Owen
gets into a Tree of Woe type position on the cage, and Bret leaps down for the
win at 32:17. However, it’s not over as Jim Neidhart jumps the rail,
clotheslines Bulldog over the railing too, and then he and Owen take Bret in
and kill him, with the door padlocked shut. The whole Hart Family tries to get
in, but Owen the Jim keep them at bay, and continue to kill Bret. Eventually
Davey takes his shirt off (making him stronger) and now they get in, running
the heels off. GREAT FEUD, and a great match to add to it. The near escapes,
and general feel of this match RULED! The match itself is about 4 ¾ *’s, but
the angle leading to it, and the angle following add an extra ¼ *, giving it a
full *****.
- Backstage Owen and Jim yell at the Hart Family, and
proclaim victory.
- Video recap of the ‘Taker vs. ‘Taker feud. Actually pretty
interestingly done, albeit really stupid.
- “Main Event:” The Undertaker vs. The Undertaker:
Yeah, a ***** classic, and now this. I mean, who the hell needs this match? The
entrances take an hour here, as DiBiase comes out first, then calls down his
‘Taker. Then Paul comes down alone, calls out a casket, takes an urn out,
flashes it around, and his ‘Taker comes out. Pretty boring to sit through. They
stall FOREVER to start, and then trade punches. Criss cross sequence goes no
where, and the fake UT no sells a boot to the face. UT suplexes the Faker, and
he sits up. ‘Taker controls, and tosses him to the floor. The Faker gets a
stunner, but UT comes back, and hits the ropewalk forearm. They trade more
shots, as the crowd is GONE, which Vince explains by saying “they are in awe.”
Really big crowd though. UT takes a “bump” to the floor, and Brian Lee (the
fake UT/Chainz in later years) hammers away. He hits a chokeslam, and taunts
him, which makes the real UT sit up. He gets him up for (and hits) the
tombstone to counter that vicious sit up spot, but UT (ever the workrate freak)
sits up again! ‘Faker tries again, but UT reverses and hits his own tombstone.
He picks him up, and does it again, and then one more time for the three count
at 8:57, getting a big pop. TERRIBLE match though, - **** ¼. The real UT then
tosses the Underfaker into the casket, and kneels down to the power of the urn.
Yeah, whatever. (Such a weird turnaround in that you could always count on an
Undertaker match to ruin a perfectly good show during the 90s, and today he’s
sometimes the only thing saving shows. Who would have ever thought the guy
would age like fine wine?)
- Bottom Line: Well, this show is pretty damn good …
up until the last match. I mean, the opener was fun, the IC and Women’s title
matches were good, there were two decent enough matches, and then the
TREMENDOUS cage match. That alone is a high recommendation, but the UT/UT match
sucks A LOT! It takes it from a high recommendation to just a recommendation.
But still, the show rocks.
Recommended.
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