Summerslam '90

Legacy Review

Summerslam '90

August 27, 1990 from The Spectrum in Philadelphia

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper

This was the first major WWF show to be billed as a "double main event". The Ultimate Warrior was WWF Champion, but Hulk Hogan was still the top draw.

Power & Glory (w/Slick) def The Rockers in 6:00- Shawn's coming into this match with a bum knee and needed some time off. He's walking noticeably gingerly to the ring. As soon as the Rockers get to ringside P&G Suzuki-Gun them. Herc hits Shawn's knee with his chain and he's doneski. Janetty manages to fight off both heels. Slick distracts the ref while P&G double team, and stays distracted while Janetty gets a small package on Roma. Shawn crawls up to the apron. Herc drags him off again, then Roma gives him another shot in the knee. Janetty turns a Herc slam attempt into another small package but Herc tagged on the way down. Or so the ref says at least. Janetty gets a powerslam on Roma, superkicks Herc off the apron, and hits a fist drop off the top rope. Herc recovers to save. It's only the first match and I'm already tired of the Vince/Piper commentary team. Not a good sign. As Janetty tries a roll up Herc kills him from the apron with a clothesline. P&G hit their superplex/big splash finisher and good night. The heels continue to beat on Shawn after while Janetty tries to cover Shawn's knee with his own body. Shawn does the stretcher job. Probably too long for what it was. For a 2 on 1 situation Janetty got a lot of offense in. He did his best to, as the saying goes, turn chicken shit into chicken salad. 3/4*

Perfect admits to Sean Mooney that he's taking this title match on short notice and maybe that would be a problem for normies but not him.

WWF Intercontinental Championship: "The Texas Tornado" Kerry Von Erich def Mr. Perfect (c) (w/Bobby Heenan) in 5:15- This was originally supposed to be Brutus Beefcake beating Perfect for the second straight PPV to finally win the IC belt they'd been teasing putting on him for over two years, but fate intervened once again, this time in the form of the infamous parasailing accident that broke his face. WWF newcomer Kerry von Erich was thrust into the spot instead. The most famous of the legendary Texas von Erich family, Tornado was a legend in the major Texas territory WCCW and was 6 years removed from a couple of weeks as NWA World Heavyweight Champion from one of Ric Flair's swings through the state. WWF brass obviously thought highly of him (and for some reason didn't seem to be 100% sold on Perfect yet), but his personal demons were already starting to take over. Cautious start. Perfect does a mega sell of Tornado's push out of the lockup. Perfect gets an armdrag and a hiptoss and doesn't seem to be taking Tornado very seriously, even getting Heenan to wipe his forehead with the towel like it's a jobber match. Tornado comes back and Perfect tries to do a 360 sell of a bodyslam, then gets clotheslined over the top and out. Perfect clotheslines out of an arm wringer and hits the neck snap. Sleeper! Tornado gets to the corner, starts to no sell and gives Perfect that slingshot into the post he loved to do so much. Claw, discus punch (with, of course, a Perfect 360 sell), and we have a new champion. Decent pop but not a mega one for the shock win. They didn't get enough time to really get anything going. Tornado's run would be less than spectacular thanks in large part to his continued mental/personal breakdown. Perfect would win the belt back in the fall and go on to one of the best IC title reigns of all time. *1/4

Mean Gene plants the seeds for the Sapphire intrigue that will dominate a good portion of the show. Perfect and Heenan storm in, blame the ref for the loss, and Heenan loses it on Okerlund. Perfect promises he'll be back.

Sensational Queen Sherri def Sapphire by forfeit- Sapphire no shows after multiple attempts. Fink and then Scary Sherri count her down to a forfeit. After their interactions in the WM 6 mixed tag match, I approve of this decision. I also would have approved of not booking the match in the first place. NR

Gene Mean is with Dusty Rhodes. Dusty has no idea where Sapphire is or where she's been getting all these mysterious expensive gifts from because that's not his bidness, that's Sapphire's bidness. Hmmmm, who is on the WWF roster with lots of money to burn and enjoys using it to mess with people's lives? It's a stumper.

The Warlord (w/Slick) def Tito Santana in 5:28- Santana put Warlord's former tag partner over at WM 6, now he's doing the same for him. While Santana works a headlock Warlord picks him up with one arm and tosses him across the ring. Santana hits a few dropkicks and Warlord powders. Thesz Press-like takedown from Santana. Warlord kicks out so hard Santana flies outside. Warlord follows and posts his back. Slick sneaks around. He's got a shoe off. Vince: "What's he going to do with a shoe?". Piper: "Chemical warfare.". First time commentary's had a good line all night. Warlord works the back. Slooooooooooooowly. Santana comes back and hits the flying tostada! Warlord gets a foot on the rope. A blocked monkey flip leads to Warlord planting Santana with a powerslam and we're done here. *1/4

Demolition takes time out from their promo on the Harts to call out the Legion of Doom as "second rate imposters". That's.....not the right way around.

2 Out Of 3 Falls Match for the WWF Tag Team Championship: The Hart Foundation def Demolition (c) 2-1 in 14:24- Two major things changed for Demolition after winning their record third tag titles at WM 6: they turned back heel, and Crush joined to make them a trio. Crush came on board because Ax was getting worn down by injuries and they wanted someone to potentially replace him, which ended up happening. Demolition started defending the titles under Freebird rules, and because they had always worn masks to the ring their opponents never knew which two guys they would face until the match started. Tonight it's Smash and Crush. Because of past shenanigans the contract for this match specifically stipulates only two Demos are allowed at ringside.

FIRST FALL- Bret and Smash start. Crush tries to sneak in but Anvil ambushes him and the Harts get the double team in. Quick Bret rollup for 2. Quick tag work on Smash's arm until he slams out of it and tags. Bret tries a crossbody but Crush catches him in midair and drops him. Crush kicks Anvil in the back of the head on a rope run. Anvil gets a big clothesline out of the corner and tags. Bret fights off both heels. The Demos are whipped into each other. Bret gets a Russian Leg Sweep on Smash for a long 2 count the crowd went for. On another cover Crush leg drops Bret in the back of the head. The Decapitation Device gives the Demos the first fall.

SECOND FALL- The Demos double team while Hebner gets Anvil out. Bret is face in peril until ducking a clothesline, hitting a diving clothesline of his own, and dragging Smash across the ring for the hot tag. Huge Anvil powerslam for 2. Hart Attack! Hebner visibly stalls counting to give Crush time to get in. He dives on Hebner to stop the count but draws a DQ.

THIRD FALL- Bret's outside recovering. While Anvil's with him Smash and Crush corner Hebner so he can't see Ax run to ringside and hide under the ring. The Harts hit their super cool Anvil powerslamming Bret onto the opponent double team move for 2. Smash rolls out and swaps out with Ax. Fresh Ax axes away and Hebner is clueless. Vince tries to make like Ax and Smash are impossible to tell apart, but come on. One has short hair and one has long hair, and that's just the start! Bret squeaks out of some near falls. Bret bump! Donnybrook! Crush and Anvil fight in the ring while Ax and Smash work over Bret outside. Smash stays out and Ax hides under the ring again. Bret takes a hot shot. The LOD come out and drag Ax from under the ring. Anvil hits Smash with the slingshot flying tackle and Bret rolls him up for the pin and the titles! Huge pop. There were a lot of moving parts and it got sloppy at times (not one of Hebner's best nights as traffic cop to be sure), but overall it worked. The Harts were supposed to only be transitional champions to the Rockers but the infamous broken rope match happened and they ended up carrying the belts all the way to the next WM. ***

Intermission time in the arena means promo time on TV. Promo for Wrestlemania 7 at the LA Coliseum. The LOD wanted Demolition's attention. Sadly this was another case of bad timing. Because of Crush taking over for Ax the potential dream feud would sizzle out quickly. Sherri teases more Sapphire developments. The Demos trash their locker room. Quake promises a double stretcher job.

Jake "The Snake" Roberts def Bad News Brown by DQ in 4:44- The Big Boss Man is your special guest referee, his first of two non-wrestling appearances tonight. As usual the heel is scared shitless of Damien. This time though, Brown brought some backup: Harlem sewer rats. At least in theory. There was one (hilariously awful) shot of one during the intermission promo run, other than that it's just a covered cage sitting at ringside everyone ignores. Even worse than Rowan's cage monster, if you can believe it. Boss Man is introduced last and the fighting's already started before he gets to the ring. Early DDT tease. Brown sets up early for the Ghetto Blaster but Roberts collapses. Brown with an arrogant one foot cover for 2. Brown and Boss Man trade some finger poking. Brawl on the outside. Brown gets a chair and gives Roberts a shot in the gut. Boss Man lets him off with a warning. Back in, Roberts gives Brown the ol' Spaceballs salute. That's not PG. Roberts dodges a fist drop off the second rope and rolls through his usuals. Brown backdrops another DDT attempt. He gets another chair and gives Roberts another gut shot and we have a DQ. Brown tries to leg drop Damien but Boss Man saves him. Brown jumps Boss Man from behind and beats him down until Roberts gets Damien out to play. Brown runs away. We never saw hair or whisker of any Harlem sewer rat. They weren't even mentioned once the match got going. Brown left the WWF shortly after this show and bounced around the indys with occasional tours of Japan the rest of his career. He's another guy I'd like to see in modern wrestling, I think he'd be a better fit today than he was in his time. 1/2*

Brother Love Show time, featuring the reintroduction of Sgt. Slaughter, returning after 5 years in the AWA, but as a heel. Slaughter's initial impetus for coming back as a heel was Nikolai Volkoff's face turn, saying the US had become "soft" and "weak" for allowing someone like him in. He also says that should war break out in the Middle East the "great general" Saddam "Hussan" (Slaughter's mispronunciation) would kick our boys' butts, foreshadowing where his character would go as the Persian Gulf situation escalated.

Mean Gene gets a glimpse of Sapphire as she sneaks into her dressing room. He vows to stand guard for 2000 years until the Pandorica....no wait, sorry. Until after the next match.

"Hacksaw" Jim Duggan and Nikolai Volkoff def The Orient Express (w/Mr. Fuji) in 3:22- They missed out by not calling Duggan and Volkoff's team Spirit of Glasnost. The faces croon God Bless America before the match. Once the cats have been scraped off the ceiling the Express attack. The faces turn it around and atomic drop the Express into each other and they bail. Outsmarted by Duggan and Volkoff. Might as well pack it in and go home now. Volkoff throws Tanaka around. Sato sneaks off the top rope into Volkoff's back and he goes comrade in peril until he dodges a Tanaka splash and tags. Duggan takes down both heels, kills Tanaka with the 3 point stance tackle, and good night. At least it was short. 1/4*

Okerlund is with Dusty outside Sapphire's dressing room. Dusty begs for her to come out until he has to go out for his match.

"Macho King" Randy Savage (w/Queen Sherri) def "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes in 2:15- Just a few years before this could have main evented almost any wrestling show in the world. Things change quick. Before the match starts Ted DiBiase calls out to Dusty from the promo stage and reveals HE BOUGHT SAPPHIRE. NO! Someone showering her with expensive gifts to humiliate Dusty, how could it be him?! The best part is the "bag full of money" is a cheap merch stand WWF duffel bag. Dusty runs out to the aisle to save Sapphire and Savage jumps him from behind. Double ax handle off the top. Sherri gets her mandatory shots in. Dusty comes back with Bionic Elbows. A dropkick sends Savage out. Savage uses Sherri as a shield, and she slips him the Loaded Purse of Excessive Weight +3. Savage nails Dusty with it and gets the 3. Thank God this feud is over. There's few, if any, legitimate dream feuds I can think of that disappointed more than this one did. This was the absolute low point of Savage's trudge through midcard hell in between his main event runs. He'd slowly start sliding up again after this. DUD

DiBiase and Sapphire blow Mooney off as they get in DiBiase's limo and get out of town. Dusty tries to chase them down.

Oh, and after having half the show booked around her, Sapphire left the company weeks after this because she didn't want to stop working with Dusty. Bang up job, guys.

SEMI-MAIN EVENT FEUD RECAP- Earthquake stormed through the lower ranks of WWF in the early part of '90, eventually turning his attention to Hulk Hogan. He attacked Hogan not long after WM 6 on an edition of the Brother Love Show, giving him multiple earthquake splashes and sending Hogan out, like so many jobbers before him, on a stretcher. Hogan didn't appear on TV for the next couple of months to sell the injuries (and, correct me if I'm wrong, to film Suburban Commando) and even teased retirement. I think they also wanted to give Warrior some space without Hogan to see how he'd do with the title (not so good). His friend Tugboat started a letter writing campaign to entice Hogan to come back. Summerslam is his big return match. Tugboat was supposed to be in Hogan's corner but Quake squashed him too (ironically they'd be a tag team a year later), so the Big Boss Man is taking his place.

Hulk Hogan (w/The Big Boss Man) def Earthquake (w/Jimmy Hart and Dino Bravo) by countout in 13:16- Big match circling and a tentative lockup. Quake pushes Hogan out. Hart celebrates like they just won the match. Earthquake hits a couple of shoulderblocks and *Hogan* powders. Didn't see that often. Hogan goes for an early slam and fails. He stops Quake's offense with a boot up int the corner. Even after clotheslines and punches Quake won't go down. After one more big punch Quake flops down on his ass. It's a start. Quake takes a walk. All four guys fight on the outside and continue donnybrooking in the ring. Hogan and Boss Man take down both heels with double big boots. Hebner does nothing. Bravo and Quake double slam Hogan. Quake gets a 2 count after an elbow drop. He goes to the top rope (damn!) and drops a fist on Hogan. Boston Crab. Hogan gets the rope. Bravo slams Hogan on the outside. Back in, Hogan dodges another big elbow and tries again for a slam, but Quake falls on top of him for 2. Bear hug. Hogan tears Hebner's shirt off. OK then. Then he punches his way out. Some shoulderblocks stagger Quake. Hogan tries a cross body, but Quake catches him and gives him the powerslam that's the setup for the big Quake splash. And here's the tremors. Quake hits the splash, but gets up and gloats. Quake splash 2! Hulk up. 3 punches, big boot, big man slam, legdrop....but Bravo is distracting Hebner. The match goes outside again. Hogan slams Quake on the table that was set up for Bad News Brown's sewer rats empty cage, but the table only falls down instead of breaking (I AM THE TABLE). Hogan gets back in and Quake is counted out. Quake attacks again. Boss Man fights him off with chair shots to the back. But not with a normal chair, it's some kind of metal stepstool that leaves massive welts on Quake's back. And even though it was only a countout win, and not even the main event, Hogan celebrates forever like normal. This match isn't near good, but it didn't have to be a lost cause either. There's potential. Quake was one of the better big men Hogan worked with. With some rejigging and rethinking it might have turned out decent. Or they could have just made it the traditional Summerslam tag match since Boss Man and Bravo were out there anyway. *

Another long promo run as the cage is set up. The NWA was already doing cage lowering at this point, why couldn't the WWF? Unless the blue bar cage was too heavy to do it. Anyway, Dusty digs deep and finds about 80% of a classic Dusty Rhodes promo lamenting Sapphire's betrayal. Hogan brags about earthquake proof buildings in the South Pole. Quake promises revenge. Heenan gives us the cage match rules disguised as a promo. Warrior snorts a lot.

Steel Cage Match for the WWF Championship: The Ultimate Warrior (c) def "Ravishing" Rick Rude (w/Bobby Heenan) in 10:05- Unusually for WWF in this era, it's pin or escape rules tonight. Rude breaks the PG boundary by dropping "Pennsylvania pissants" in his usual prematch routine. Warrior runs laps around the ring. Rude taunts him from the top of the cage, so Warrior goes to join him. As he climbs the bell rings. So, if he just dropped straight back down would he win? They fight on the top until Rude eats cage and falls down. Warrior hits an ax handle off the top rope. Pillar to post cage rammings for Rude and he's bleeding. Rude dodges a charge and Warrior flies into the cage. Rude tries to climb but Warrior makes the save. Now Warrior takes some cage shots and also gets busted open. It's still a no blood era in WWF, nice to see both guys with some color to sell the cage match. Slow slugfest. Rude tries to give Warrior the cheese grater spot, but it doesn't work nearly as well with the blue bar cage. Rude goes for the Rude Awakening. Warrior powers out. Rude gets his knees up on a big splash. The Rude Awakening hits! But Rude doesn't cover. Then he bypasses the door and starts climbing. He stops, turns around, and gives Warrior a fist drop off the top of the cage. Cool spot, but really dumb. He had the match won! Heenan: "What are you doing?". Rude climbs but stops AGAIN. He tries another fist drop off the top, but Warrior gives him a shot in the gut. Man, way to make Rude look like an idiot. Warrior crawls for the door but Heenan slams it in his face. *Now* Rude covers. Warrior kicks out. Rude tries for the door. Warrior and Heenan play tug of war with him. Warrior pulls Rude's tights down and it's a full moon tonight. He drags Rude and Heenan back in. Heenan super sells a punch and gets atomic dropped out the door. Heenan wins! Oh wait. Now that'd be a hell of a twist. Russorific, but fun. Rude hits a clothesline but Warrior starts warrioring up. Running clotheslines. Gorilla press. Warrior climbs up and strides over the top and out with zero drama, mocking Rude with a hip swivel on the way down. This is one of the worst Summerslam main events and major cage matches ever. It's hard to believe these same guys put on a near classic in the IC title match just the year before. Rude knew the shelf life of top heels in the WWF at the time and jumped ship a couple of months later, stopping in Japan for a while before heading to a tremendous legacy defining run in WCW. 1/2*

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Yeah, this one sucks. I think it'd be down to either this show or WM 2 as the worst PPV of the early WWF PPV years. It's a very promo heavy show too, which really gives it a disjointed feel. To make matters worse, Vince and Piper are just a horrible combination on commentary.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D