WWF SummerSlam Spectacular (August 22, 1993)

 

Original Airdate: August 22, 1993 (taped August 16)

From Poughkeepsie, New York; Your Hosts are Jim Ross and Gorilla Monsoon

Yokozuna v Jim Duggan: Yoko's WWF Title is not on the line tonight. One thing I've noticed since the switch over to the new Network: the closed captioning seems to write out 'World Wrestling Federation' whenever it's said, as opposed to amending it to 'World Wrestling Entertainment.' Never got why they'd do that anyway, considering the full name was never the issue. Duggan attack while Yokozuna is doing his ceremonial salt routine, but the referee pulls the 2x4 away before Hacksaw can use it, allowing Yokozuna to return the favor. Hey, fair play. Mr. Fuji gets in a shot with the flagpole for good measure, but Duggan starts randomly no-selling, and Yokozuna is forced into a slugfest. Yokozuna wins that one, and he clobbers Duggan with a legdrop. Headbutt rattles Duggan some more, and it's bearhug time. Well, yeah, of course. I mean, he already did the legdrop AND the headbutt. That's enough workrate for one night. What is this, the Tokyo Dome? Jim escapes, and stupidly tries a bodyslam, but you can guess how that goes. Back to the bearhug, but Duggan blatantly bites Yokozuna to force a break, so Yokozuna clobbers him with a chop. Duggan is such a freakin' cheater! And he's so BLATANT about it, too. Not saying Yokozuna isn't a cheater as well, but at least he's trying to be stealthy. And, honestly, Duggan shoots first with the bad stuff, like, every time. Yokozuna goes for the avalanche, but Duggan dodges, and he starts making a comeback. 3-point stance looks to finish, but Fuji trips him up, and Yokozuna hits the avalanche. Banzai Drop and goodnight at 9:26. Pretty weak, but engaging. ¼*

Backstage, Vince McMahon catches up with Yokozuna 'just as he comes through the curtain,' despite Yoko now having a brand new shiny title belt, as opposed to the beat up one he just had moments before. Luckily, Jim Cornette is there to cut the big go-home promo on Lex Luger for him

Razor Ramon/Ted DiBiase feud video review. Honestly, we really should have gotten Razor/Kid v Money Inc at the PPV instead of the two individual matches

Razor Ramon v Blake Beverly: Razor is sporting red/white/blue wristbands here (I assume in support of Lex Luger), which look really, really weird on him. Blake tries to go toe-to-toe with the Bad Guy early on, but that ends badly for him, and Beverly ends up bailing. He suckers Razor into a chase, and uses the high ground to take control with a headlock, but Ramon uses the hair to escape, as Ross and Monsoon make excuses for him. Man, the babyfaces used to cheat a lot, didn't they? Beverly wants a test-of-strength, but Ramon would rather throw fists, and knocks Blake around. Charge, but Beverly is ready with a backdrop over the top, and he exposes one of the turnbuckles while the referee is busy with the count. Back in, Beverly hits a neckbreaker before cross corner whipping Ramon into the exposed buckle, and adds a backbreaker to stay on the part. Powerslam gets two, but Razor is ready with a sunset cradle for two, so Blake thinks fast with a clothesline to keep control. Turnbuckle smash sets up another whip into the exposed buckle, but Ramon reverses this time, and the Razor's Edge finishes at 6:07. The headlock early on ran for way too long, but pretty decent otherwise. *

SummerSlam ad. It's really insane how hard Yoko got pushed during this run. A year before this he was some barely known scrub from the AWA, and now he's a two-time WWF Champion, has headlined a WrestleMania, won a Royal Rumble, pinned Bret Hart, pinned Hulk Hogan, pinned Randy Savage... if Luger had beaten him cleanly and decisively, it might have actually worked. Not saying he was going to be Hogan 2.0, but he could have helped carry them through the down period anyway

Speaking of Lex Luger, he's criss crossing the country in a BUS! The Network put up a really long (like, three hours) video of raw footage from the Lex Express tour a while back, and it's a great hidden gem if you haven't seen it

Jerry Lawler is hosting a special on-location edition of the King's Court, with guest 'Elvis Presley.' See, because he's tired of Bret Hart impersonating the 'king of wrestling.' The usual great Jerry Lawler heel promo that he could make look so effortless. Segue to Ross interviewing Bret, who does a stellar job of getting over the babyface side of the angle. Hart may not have been an all-time great promo guy, but he was really good at getting over reality based angles, and making you feel his motivations were absolutely believable

Six-Man Tag Team Match: Tatanka and The Smoking Gunns v Brooklyn Brawler, Barry Horowitz, and Reno Riggins: Billy Gunn starts with Barry, and they trade hammerlocks. Barry takes a cheap shot, but loses a reversal sequence, and eats a boot to the skull. Tag to Reno, but he runs right in for an overhead armdrag from Billy, and it's over to Bart for a hiptoss. Tag to Brawler, but Bart is ready with a drop-toehold, and it's over to Tatanka for a flying tomahawk chop. Powerslam follows, and it's back to Billy to work a wristlock, but Brawler whips him into the heel corner to escape. That allows Barry to come in with a bridging northern lights suplex for two, and Brawler adds a neckbreaker for two. They cut the ring in half on Billy with quick tags, until Reno loses a criss cross, and there's the hot tag to Tatanka - Roseanne Barr the door! It's chops galore, and the Gunns get rid of Barry and Brawler with stereo dropkicks, leaving Reno for Tatanka to finish with a flying bodypress at 6:44. This was a really weird match for the WWF, with the team of enhancement guys actually getting to work an extended heat segment, and not just getting destroyed like these things usually go. Not that the winners were ever in doubt, but still. I'm honestly surprised they didn't throw at least one name guy out there to lead the team, because as noted, this was not at all standard operating procedure for the WWF. **

More Lex Express. Even the NYPD's finest love them some Lex Luger!

Gene Okerlund (in one of his final appearances) brings Undertaker out for an in-ring interview, but Giant Gonzalez interrupts, so Undertaker chases him to the back. Well, 'chases' in the same sense that a tortoise might chase you. But, like, a really gothic tortoise. This was not a great segment, but it was a necessary evil

Lex Luger continues to criss cross

WWF Intercontinental Title Match: Shawn Michaels v Bob Backlund: Shawn with a bodyslam right off the bat, and he struts around off of it. Another one, and he keeps gloating, as his poor tights struggle to keep his chub covered up. Bob returns fire with a pair of hiptosses and his own bodyslam, followed by a backslide for two, and Shawn wisely bails. He goads Backlund into chasing him so he can get the high ground, and the champ takes over on the way back inside. Bob does some great selling here, as Shawn pounds on him. Michaels with a flying axehandle ahead of a front-facelock, but Backlund powers him onto the top turnbuckle to escape, and uses a backdrop as an enraged champ charges. Bob with a dropkick and a neckbreaker for two, followed by a hanging atomic drop - complete with nice oversell from Michaels. Diesel distracts the referee to prevent a count, however, allowing Shawn to hook a really awkward looking cradle at 6:27. Not a lot to this one. ½*

Had enough of Lex Luger yet? Yes? Well, fuck you, because here's more! This time it's clips from the multi-part 'Who is Lex Luger?' interview that had been airing over several weeks on RAW

Vince is with financial advisor Ludvig Borga to talk about Marty Jannetty's paycheck for SummerSlam. What's up with Vince doing all these backstage interviews tonight, like it's still the mid-80s? My guess is that Gene left (the night after this taping was his last with the promotion), and Vince filled in since a lot of these bits were probably taped later. Where was Todd Pettengill, though?

Marty Jannetty v Duane Gill: Marty's doing the red/white/blue wristbands like every other babyface tonight, but it's MARTY, so of course he's wearing four of them instead of two. Well, never let it be said that Marty Jannetty didn't... take four of things when two would do... I guess? Is that a saying? Let's assume it is. Anyway, Marty with a 2^nd rope somersault cutter, and a flying fistdrop at 3:13. ¼*

SummerSlam Report. I know I've brought this up a million times before, and I know there are more important hills to die on, but seriously, why did they ever do away with these?

WWF Tag Team Title Cage Match: The Steiner Brothers v Money Inc: No tags required here, and the only way to win is for both team members to escape. Cute start, as Ted DiBiase slaps Scott Steiner, and when the Brothers gang up on him, Irwin R. Schyster uses the distraction to start climbing! The Steiner's stop him, but while they're doing so, DiBiase climbs! He gets stopped, but the challengers manage to fight the Brothers off, and both climb. Rick Steiner pulls DiBiase down by hooking the tights, and IRS is brought down via his necktie. Money Inc keep getting in some shots and trying to escape, but the Steiner's are hot on their tails each time, until Ted ends up bringing Scott off the top of the cage with a vertical superplex, and they're able to gang up on him. That allows Rick to try and escape, but the challengers pull him down, and double up on him as well, until Scott saves! Both Brothers manage to get to the top of the cage, and over the side, but IRS brings Scott down with another superplex, and DiBiase manages to pull Rick down to ground in a front-facelock. Money Inc climb, but IRS is brought down with an overhead suplex from Rick, and Scott knocks DiBiase off by bashing his face into the cage! Scott quite nearly escapes, managing to get over the top and halfway down the side before Ted grabs him by the hair to keep him in. Following a big collision, Scott and Irwin both escape, but Rick is in much better shape than Ted is, and IRS quickly rethinks things, and climbs back in to stop Rick from escaping! That allows Money Inc to gang up, but Scott climbs back in with a flying axehandle off the top of the cage to save his brother! There appears to be some clipping going on here, but it's tough to be sure. IRS manages to escape, and he tries to assist Ted in doing the same - pulling his hand from the floor as Scott pulls his ankle from inside the ring! That ends in DiBiase upside-down in a tree of woe, which allows both Steiner's to climb, so IRS hustles back in to save! Rick manages to get away and escape, but Scott isn't so lucky, and eats an inverted atomic drop. Money Inc go to work on Scotty, but he manages to dodge a tandem clothesline, and take both challengers out with a double-clothesline! Scott is battered, but manages to climb, but he's dealing with two guys, and gets overwhelmed. That allows Money Inc to climb, and DiBiase escapes, so Rick thinks fast - running over to where IRS is almost out, and stopping his climb down by putting him on his shoulders! Hey, both feet must touch the ground, we know the rules! That draws DiBiase over to try and knock IRS off of Rick's shoulders, but in the meantime no one is covering Scott, and he escapes to retain at 20:00. And that marks Money Inc's last match as a team, ending a great run. You know, I've heard this one talked about so many times over the years, and I'd only seen the heavily clipped version from RAW before. Having seen the full match, it's honestly not that great. The finish is great, yes, but the match is mostly climb/save/climb/save sequences over and over, with very little else going on, and very little in the way of high spots for something that lasts twenty minutes. I found it to be very repetitive, and don't get the hype for this one. It is notable for being Money Inc's last match as a team though, and DiBiase's second to last match in the WWF period. * ¾

Men on a Mission and Randy Savage present a special Lex Luger tribute rap to wrap up the show. Seriously, all this just to book a countout finish?!? It boggles the mind, even over 25 years later! Especially since the WWF was never really a ‘the money’s in the chase’ type of territory, ever. Between this and the booking of that six-man earlier, it’s almost like we’re not even watching the WWF

BUExperience: Eh, this was fine. I didn’t really love it, but it did a good job of touching on every single match booked for SummerSlam in one form or another, so you can’t really say it was a waste of time. Plus, most people really love that cage match, so your enjoyment may be much greater than mine if you’re one of those people. And good for you!