WWE SummerSlam '88

SummerSlam ‘88
August 29, 1988
Madison Square Garden
New York City, New York

Continuing the wave of success on Pay Per View, Vince McMahon decided to add another PPV for the year. SummerSlam was added to the calendar and it would become the biggest even of the summer. In 1988 they were playing off of Savage’s title win at WrestleMania IV and it was a natural tag feud to infuse him into the Hogan-Dibiase-Andre saga. This is a nice example of long term, forward-thinking booking. Let’s go to the show.

Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon and “Superstar” Billy Graham

Fabulous Rougeaus (Jacques Rougeau and Raymond Rougeau) w/ “Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart vs. British Bulldogs (Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith)

The Rougeaus were coming off a heel turn where Jimmy Hart took the contract of the Hart Foundation and gave it to the Rougeaus. Silly, but effective. The Bulldogs were pretty much just passing their time before their eventual departure from the WWE not long after this. This was a hot opener. For years I only had the clipped coliseum video version of this. I recently got the full broadcast PPV anthology version released a few years ago. I always knew the match had to be a little bit better than the clipped version suggests, because it ends in a 15 minute draw, and I’m pretty sure it was clipped down to about 10-11 minutes or so. I was right, and the clipped version doesn’t do it justice. Both teams were working very hard for the MSG crowd here. ***

Bad News Brown vs. Ken Patera

Bad News Brown was getting a push so the outcome here was not in question. I liked the psychology of Patera trying really hard to get either the bear hug or the full nelson locked in on Bad News to try and win, but it wasn’t going to work. Brown eventually hits Patera with the ghetto blaster for the win. Not a good match, but I’ll give a little credit for the minimal psychology. ¾*

“Ravishing” Rick Rude w/ Bobby “The Brain” Heenan vs. Junkyard Dog

Odd choice here as Rude was still in the middle of his white hot feud with Jake Roberts. You would think they would have a blow off match here, but times were different I guess. This would be Junkyard Dog’s last WWE PPV appearance before heading off to the NWA. Rude did his best here but JYD was pretty much un-carryable at this point. The end comes when Rude pulls down his tights to reveal another pair of tights with Sheryl Roberts face imprinted on them. This enrages Jake Roberts and he comes out to settle things with Rude but gets JYD disqualified for his efforts. ½*

Powers of Pain (Warlord and Barbarian) w/ The Baron vs. Bolsheviks (Nikolai Volkoff and Boris Zhukov) w/ Slick

The Powers of Pain came in with enormous popularity in 1988 and this was pretty much a match designed to get them over as monsters and prepare them for the inevitable feud with Demolition. The soviets got some token offense in, but this was pretty much just a squash match to put the Powers of Pain over. *

WWE IC Championship
Honky Tonk Man (champion) w/ Jimmy Hart vs. Ultimate Warrior

Most know the story here. This was originally going to be Honky vs. Brutus Beefcake. But Beefcake was “injured” by Ron Bass so this became Honky vs. a mystery opponent. He came out as the cocky champion, holding the title at this point for over a year, and said “bring out anyone!” Then Warriors music hit and the MSG crowd went absolutely apeshit. Warrior blitzed Honky and beat him in about 30 seconds. A joyful payoff to all of the months of Honky losing match after match by count out or disqualification just to save his title. ¼*

“The Rock” Don Muraco vs. Dino Bravo w/ Frenchy Martin

Bobby Heenan joins Gorilla and Graham on commentary for this match and hypes up the Mega Powers-Mega Bucks match later on. I guess this is a blow off to this feud here. Not much of a match, although the Coliseum video version has this clipped down to like a minute, and it’s actually a few minutes longer than that. Dino Bravo hits his side slam for the win. ½*

WWE Tag Team Championship
Demolition (Ax and Smash) (champions) w/ Jimmy Hart and Mr. Fuji vs. Hart Foundation (Bret “The Hitman” Hart and Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart)

As mentioned before, Jimmy Hart turned his back on the Harts and the idea here was he was scheming with Mr. Fuji to help the heel champions beat the Hart Foundation. That’s a simple story but a damn good one. I love this match, and it’s yet another match that has aged quite well over the years. They would have an even better match 2 years later, but this was almost as good, and the crowd was totally into it. The ending comes with Jimmy Hart throwing the megaphone into Ax and him blasting Bret for the 3 count to retain. I might have overrated this match but I don’t care I still love it today. ***3/4

Big Bossman w/ Slick vs. Koko B. Ware

Ray Traylor (Bossman) had just debuted so Koko gets the JTTS treatment here and it turns out to be a glorified squash match here to put Bossman over. Koko got some nice offense in the match, including a beautiful dropkick off the top rope. Bossman eventually overwhelms him. **

Jake “The Snake” Roberts vs. Hercules

Hercules doesn’t have Heenan here, leaving Gorilla and Graham to contemplate where he is. Turns out it was a subtle sign that Heenan was about to turn on Hercules and turn Herc baby face. Roberts of course as we saw earlier is still very much in his heated feud with Rick Rude. This was a decent match that sent the fans home happy as Jake got the DDT, the win, and Herc got the Damien treatment. *3/4

Main Event
Special Referee: Jesse “The Body” Ventura
Mega Powers (Hulk Hogan and “Macho Man” Randy Savage) w/ Miss Elizabeth vs. Mega Bucks (Andre the Giant and “Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase) w/ Virgil and Bobby Heenan

It was a natural match and it was great booking. The ultimate payoff would be the inevitable Hogan-Savage break up and match at WrestleMania V, but first you need to build the relationship up and show subtle cracks in the armor and that’s exactly what they did. I guess you can’t get away with that kind of long term forward thinking today because it seems that stories now only go week to week, and maybe month to month if we’re lucky. Oh well, that’s just the old geezer in me longing for the old days I guess. Anyway, this match is what it is. Formula tag match. The end comes when Elizabeth takes her skirt off (don’t get excited guys, she has a bikini bottom on still) and distracts everyone involved. The baby faces make the comeback. Savage hits the elbow, Hogan hits the leg drop on Dibiase, and Jesse makes the very reluctant three count and all is right with the world. This has always been a feel-good match for me. ***1/4

Final Analysis: The show is still entertaining today. I can’t say that it is a well booked show overall, but nothing here really is detrimental to any storylines going on at the time, and no one felt like they didn’t get their money’s worth.