With Summerslam right around the corner I thought it would be a lot of fun to look back at all of the Summerslam events that led up to where we are today. I’ll be doing a RawView style recap of each PPV and then assigning a match of the night and will eventually lead to my personal thought of best Summerslam match of all time and my predictions for the upcoming Summerslam network special. If this is the first article of mine you have read please check out my weekly Monday Night and Tuesday night RawViews as well as my weekly Re-Writing the book series. Without further ado lets jump right into the first ever Summerslam which is ’88 and was the first wrestling VHS I ever owned.
British Bulldogs vs. The Rougeau Brothers- The first thing I noticed from this match was that the Rougeau Brothers entered without music and had instant heat as they were Canadians relocating to the US. The Bulldogs entered with Matilda and entrance music to a thunderous pop. The next thing I noticed was this is CLASSIC tag team wrestling. Cutting the ring off, double team moves and matching attire. Tag teams today should look back at this match and would quickly learn why many consider this the golden age of tag team wrestling. Young Davey Boy Smith looks like an absolute STAR in this match he has that look at me IT factor. Also Dynamite Kid is 80’s Chris Benoit you can certainly tell who Benoit modeled his career after. This is a fantastic opening match that has the crowd mega hot. We are going on about twenty minutes and the crowd is just as hot as they were to start the match and has me on the edge of my seat. The Bulldogs hit a fantastic finishing move as the time limit expires and such a great way to make both teams look good without either taking a loss and in my mind all four men look amazing after this.
Bad News Brown vs. Ken Patera – Again the heel has no entrance music and Ken Pantera comes out to Olympic style music and announced as a former Olympic champion. Bad News works as a true heel in this match and I am really digging him. As far as Patera goes, he looks like Kurt Angle with a perm. This is certainly a cool down match and a way to get heel heat on Bad News Brown. He hits his finisher “the ghetto blaster” for the win and they make a big deal out of Patera going into the turnbuckle post shoulder first after the match.
Mega Powers Promo—I miss this. LOL I know I sound like some old guy but when you grow up with Hulk Hogan promos you get instant nostalgia when you hear “You know something brother”. The Mania and the Madness together… they make comment of a secret weapon and put the first woman of wrestling front and center. Whatcha gonna do when the Mega Powers come for you?
Rick Rude vs. Junk Yard Dog – Rick Rude was so incredible at getting heat before a match. HA! He has Junk Yard Dog on his tights which was a gimmick of Rude’s for a while if I remember correctly. JYD another guy so over this is so much fun to watch as a fan of today’s product because every face is getting cheered and every heel is getting booed. JYD starts the match quick with the dog head-butts and Rude retreats to Bobby the Brain. Rude goes to the top and PULLS HIS PANTS DOWN to reveal a picture of Cheryl Roberts on tights under his tights. It’s a tightception? Jake Roberts comes down to a THUNDEROUS ovation and attacks Rude and gets JYD disqualified. Jake runs Rude out of the ring and tries to console JYD after the match like man sorry he well he ya know… he had my wife’s face on his crotch.
HonkeyTonkMan Promo– HonkeyTonkMan proclaims in his interview that he will take on anyone for his title. He eludes to Brutus Beefcake getting attacked before the PPV and being unable to compete tonight. He says he knew Beefcake would never actually face the greatest IC champion of all time. He says he wants it to be a surprise and is ready to wrestle anyone.
The Bolsheviks vs. Powers of Pain – Wow I just listened to “Something to Wrestle” with Bruce Prichard yesterday on Demolition and the Powers of Pain certainly looks like a rip off of the Road Warriors way more than Demolition ever did. I mean to the point that it’s like when the Dollar Store makes action figures but don’t have a licensing agreement and distorts a certain character so they can sell them. Again this is yet another very good tag team wrestling match where both teams are working AS A TEAM! The Powers of Pain pick-up the pin-fall victory after they hit a double shoulder tackle and a power slam/diving head-butt combo for the win.
Brother Love Segment – Brother Love has mega heat with the crowd and this character I believe could still work today. Jim Duggan is his special guest and I’m assuming this isn’t going to end well for Mr. Love. Brother Love degrades Jim Duggan until Duggan attempts to knock Brother Loves head off with a two by four.
HonkeyTonkMan vs. Ultimate Warrior – My wife just looked at me and said “wow people complain about wrestling today what is this guy with the side burns and awful hair?” I reply you know the longest reigning IC champion of all time. This match is for the IC title and The Ultimate Warrior comes out to a MASSIVE pop and takes the title before the crowd sits down. Warrior wins in a Strowman like squash.
Dino Bravo vs. The Rock….Don Moraco – Dino Bravo comes out to some decent heat and no one seemed to care about Moraco. Honestly I can’t get into this match either not that either are doing anything wrong but The Warrior coming out and doing what he did has everyone kind of spent. It’s weird hearing Gorilla Monsoon call a match and use the name “The Rock”. We get a ref bump after The Rock attempted to slam Bravo and Bravo reversed it into a side slam for the win. Yep someone won a match with a side slam what would your thoughts be in 2017 if that happened.
Hart Foundation vs. Demolition – I can now firmly see why they consider this the golden era of tag team wrestling. This is the third tag match on the card and the third tag match that will be very good. Man Ax and Smash are absolutely huge they make Anvil look normal sized. I sound like a broken record I know but another tag match on how to bait people in and make them care. Utilizing tag team maneuvers and quick tags to wear down the opponent. Demolition has picked a body part on Bret and has been working on it ala Tully and Arn who always get major kudos for that. Bret Hart showing in this match an incredible baby face comeback in this match. You can see even hear Bret has something about him that says singles competitor. His selling for Demolition has been awesome. Anvil comes in for the hot tag and the crowd is on FIRE! Bret Hart goes for the pile driver to win as the referee is distracted but is hit with a megaphone and the crowd is in disbelief. This will be tough on match of the night I can tell you that now between this and the first match of the night.
Big Bossman vs. KoKo B Ware – KoKo comes out and the crowd goes mild. Again another cool down match after a fantastic tag team match that had the crowd in the palm of their hands. Bossman with the early sneak attack and the announcers play up the size difference between Koko and Bossman. Bossman working as a classic heel including picking up Koko when he appears to have the match in hand because “he wants to punish his opponent” as the announcers would say. Bossman picks up the win after another squash Koko got some good offense in however Bossman displayed some great strength that Koko couldn’t overcome.
Hercules vs. Jake “The Snake” Roberts – Man it really feels like they are just throwing everyone on this card and I feel like Roberts and Rude should have been wrestling on this event and not Hercules and JYD. Anyway back to the match and Jake Roberts has great psychology and works the crowd so well. Watch him get the crowd excited calling for the DDT early in the match only for Hercules to roll out. That’s some great work getting the crowd all hot and bothered and just teasing them. This match goes way longer than I thought it would go and Hercules is actually looking pretty good in this match with Roberts. Again late in the match Roberts gets the crowd almost ready to explode calling for the DDT only for Hercules yet again to avoid it. Roberts finally hits the DDT and the crowd goes bonkers. He then puts the Snake on Hercules after the match and the crowd going crazy.
Mega Bucks vs. Mega Powers – A tag team match is closing this show and with the way the show has gone that’s how it should be. Also this match FEELS huge as they recap how we got here with a fantastic promo before it. WWE has literally been doing flawless video packages for almost thirty years. The crowd is very hot for this match and making it feel like the biggest match on the card. I didn’t remember this however The Mega Powers are entering together to Randy Savage’s music. I know he’s the champion and they should but Hogan owned the eighties brother. This match hasn’t disappointed and about midway through the match we are waiting on Hogan to make the hot tag to Savage. Again wow Hogan is doing his part to help get Savage over as the world champion. Andre and Hogan work so well together as far as getting the crowd to a point of excitement only for Andre to cut him off again and piss the crowd off. Savage gets the hot tag and is instant offense and has the crowd in a frenzy. Its Savages time to get worked over now only to need to make the hot tag to Hogan. We get to a point in the match where the mega powers are down and the mega bucks are in complete control when Miss Elizabeth gets on the apron and REMOVES HER SKIRT! Everyone in Madison Square Garden are seeing red and only red at this point. Hogan drop Dibiase with the big body slam and Savage drops the elbow to setup for the Hogan leg brother. The PPV closes with Real American playing and Hogan, Savage and Miss Elizabeth posing. They hoist Elizabeth up and you can see Hogan saying something to Savage before placing his hand on Elizabeth’s backside. Hogan then gives Elizabeth the belt and now knowing where this goes that is great foreshadowing by the WWF.
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Summerslam ’88 was a pretty good event considering it was the first of its kind. While most of the singles matches were kind of a snoozer the tag matches and the Ultimate Warrior surprise kept this event on the good side of grading. While I originally was going to go with the Bulldogs/Rougeau or the Hart Foundation/Demolition match as the match of the night I’ve changed my mind. The main event certainly delivered here. We had an all-star cast of talent in the match. Both teams worked as teams in one common goal to defeat the other. The crowd was super into the match and it also secretly setup for the upcoming Wrestlemania main event we were going to get the next year. At this time I have to crown The Mega Bucks vs. The Mega Powers as the match of the night. Hope you enjoyed my RawView for Summerslam ’88 and look for Summerslam ’89 to be coming soon. Until next time be awesome.