WWE SummerSlam '90

WWE SummerSlam ‘90
August 27, 1990
The Spectrum
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

After WrestleMania, Hogan took a little time off to film his movie Suburban Commando. The Warrior was the new champion and a new era had begun. There was one enormous problem. There weren’t a lot of big time heels in the company at the time. You had Randy Savage, Rick Rude, and Mr. Perfect. Mr. Perfect was set to dominate the IC title rankings and couldn’t really afford to be jobbing to the Warrior at every house show spot, and Savage was kind of in limbo and still feuding with Dusty Rhodes. That left Warrior’s old nemesis Rick Rude. The WWE was in a definite state of limbo here. As I mentioned in the WrestleMania VI review, I started watching wrestling not long after that. Monday Night Prime Time Wrestling was my favorite time of the week. In other words, this was the first show that I really got to look forward to. Of course, living in a small town and with very few options for satellite television, PPV was not available for me (and even if it was, I doubt my parents would ever spring for the show anyway). So I was forced to wait for results to be told to me on WWE television. I also began picking up WWE Magazine at the local grocery store and eventually subscribing to it. Anyway, the point of the story is I was hooked for life.

Commentators: Vince McMahon and Rowdy Roddy Piper

Power and Glory (Hercules and Paul Roma) w/ Slick vs. Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty)
Power and Glory was recently formed right before this. Shawn Michaels had a legitimate knee injury before this match too, so they worked an angle where Hercules attacked Shawn with his chain. Nice way to make it a virtual handicap match without saying so. Marty did a really nice job against two guys, and this was actually a fun match up. Eventually the heels took control and hit one of the coolest tag team finishers ever. Hercules would hit a superplex, and Roma would come off the top rope at almost the same time with a splash. Very cool! Really too bad that Shawn wasn’t able to go, because this could’ve been a classic. As it stands, it was short, but decent for what it was. *3/4

WWE IC Championship
Mr. Perfect (champion) w/ Bobby “The Brain” Heenan vs. “Texas Tornado” Kerry Von Erich
After the Warrior won the WWE Title at WrestleMania from Hogan, his IC Championship was vacated and put up for grabs in an 8 man tournament. Mr. Perfect won the tournament in the finals with help from Heenan over Tito Santana. This match here was originally supposed to be Brutus Beefcake getting the title here, but the aforementioned parasailing accident cut his WWE career short. Von Erich had recently debuted, and got substituted in on short notice. Von Erich would win here in what would be deemed as an enormous upset. Crowd loved it though. Could have used more time, but Perfect overselling everything is always fun to watch. **

Tito Santana vs. Warlord w/ Slick
The Powers of Pain split up earlier in the year. Barbarian went with Bobby Heenan, and Warlord went with Slick. Tito as previously mentioned is JTTS. Warlord is a slug, but he was being pushed as a strong heel midcarder. He wins with a running powerslam. *

WWE Tag Team Championship – 2/3 Falls
Demolition (Smash and Crush) (champions) vs. Hart Foundation (Bret “The Hitman” Hart and Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart)
Bill Eadie (Ax) suffered a temporary heart condition apparently shortly after WrestleMania VI in Japan. In a shoot interview he said it was due to some shellfish. This caused the WWE to come up with the concept of 3 members of Demolition and they brought in Crush. This gave Demolition a decisive advantage over their opponents. I still for the life of me, even in kayfabe, didn’t understand how this was legal. This match is outstanding, and the shining moment for the Hart Foundation. The Harts on this night were almost (I said almost) as popular as Hulk Hogan. The first fall was Demolition getting the pinfall. The 2nd fall went to the Harts on a disqualification when the inexperienced Crush stopped the ref from counting. During the chaos between falls, Ax came out and hid under the ring. In the 3rd fall Smash switched out with Ax and hid under the ring and the Harts were against all odds. They switched again, but this time the Legion of Doom (recently debuted) came out and solved the big mystery. During the melee Anvil hit Crush with a flying shoulder tackle into a schoolboy roll up from Bret Hart. This is a tremendous tag team contest that probably could’ve been even better with more time, but it was pure gold, and I still get goose bumps watching it today. This is an excellent example of how to build up an underdog story. ****

Special Guest Referee: Big Bossman
Jake “The Snake” Roberts vs. Bad News Brown
This is basically like the Andre the Giant feud, without the star power of Andre. Bad News is afraid of snakes. For whatever reason, the Bossman was entered in here as the special referee. I can’t remember if there was an actual reason for that or not, but his involvement wasn’t really necessary. He disqualified Bad News for using a chair on the outside. I remember this feud actually being rather decent at the time, but this match was just not there at all. DUD

“Hacksaw” Jim Duggan and Nikolai Volkoff vs. Orient Express (Sato and Tanaka) w/ Mr. Fuji
Volkoff had recently turned baby face and was now an American sympathizer. Anyway, this match was pretty much dominated by Duggan and Volkoff, and totally just an excuse to have Volkoff and Duggan sing “God Bless America”. I’m not kidding. Orient Express gets credit for bumping for the two power houses. 1/4*

“American Dream” Dusty Rhodes vs. “Macho King” Randy Savage w/ Sensational Sherri
This match is terrible, but it was significant in one way. Sapphire had been getting lavish gifts from some mystery person for weeks leading up to the show. At SummerSlam the source revealed himself as, of course, “The Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase. Dibiase came out and cut a promo rubbing Rhodes’ nose in dirt. Macho took advantage and beat Rhodes after a shot to the head with the loaded purse. Nice transition from Savage to Dibiase. ¼*

Co-Main Event
Earthquake w/ “Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart and Dino Bravo vs. Hulk Hogan w/ Big Bossman
As I said earlier, Hogan left for a little while to film Suburban Commando. To write him off, they had Earthquake attack Hogan on the Brother Love Show and knock him out with injuries to his ribs. They really laid it on thick to and even had a Get Well Hulk campaign. It worked on me. I wrote a letter, in crayon, telling the Hulkster to get well. Here is problem #1 though as to why the Warrior wasn’t going to work out. Despite being champion, this feud got more play on TV. Hogan was still perceived to be bigger than the Warrior. This match was actually ok, as despite his enormous size, Earthquake was pretty athletic for a big man. Interesting booking here as Hogan wins by count out. Apparently the thinking was to keep Earthquake strong because they needed Hogan and Quake to draw on the house show circuits. So in other words, Hogan was still on the A list show, while Warrior was headlining the B list show. **1/2

Co- Main Event
WWE Championship – Steel Cage Match
Ultimate Warrior (champion) vs. “Ravishing” Rick Rude w/ Bobby Heenan
So after WrestleMania, the Warrior began to feud once again with Rick Rude. Rude cut his hair short and went with a marine look. He did some cool training vignettes in preparation for the big showdown with the Warrior. The match is ok as steel cage matches go, but the outcome was never in doubt. Even as a young kid I knew there was no chance that Warrior wasn’t going to come away with the title. Warrior wins by escape. **3/4

Final Analysis: So the Warrior era marches on. Thankfully he would begin a new program with Randy Savage and get a little more credible, but the big title match never happened. Instead, the war in the gulf got escalated and they turned to Hogan again to face down the Iraqi sympathizer Sgt. Slaughter. But that is for another time. This show has a really nice flow to it and I’ve always liked it for nostalgia.