WWF Summerslam 1990

WWF Summerslam 1990

Venue: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Date: 27/8/90

Attendance: 19,304

Commentators: Vince McMahon & Rowdy Roddy Piper

Following his defeat to the Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania, Hulk Hogan took some time away from the ring in order to film Suburban Commando while Warrior stepped up to be the top guy in the WWF. The trouble was despite Warrior's popularity he was not drawing well at the arenas and it wasn't long before fans were clamouring for the return of Hogan who had been put out of action by Earthquake. The injury angle where Earthquake crushed Hogan's ribs was genuinely upsetting for some younger fans and garnered plenty of sympathy for Hogan while making Earthquake look like a killer heel. Perhaps concerned about a low buy rate for Summerslam the WWF heavily hyped Hogan's return to the ring which understandably overshadowed Warrior's title feud with Ravishing Rick Rude. However, Warrior versus Rude would still go on last as scheduled as part of a special "Double Main Event".

Review

Newly formed heel team Power & Glory (Hercules & Paul Roma) defeated The Rockers in a good opener. Shawn Michaels was attacked before the match to cover for his legitimate knee injury meaning this was essentially a handicap match. Jannetty gave it everything as a babyface should but eventually fell to the "Power-Plex" which was a super-plex/top rope splash combination. Power & Glory looked ruthless here and Michaels sold like his leg was on fire... As was the case at Summerslam 1988 Brutus Beefcake was scheduled to win the Intercontinental Title but once again had to miss out due to injury. Beefcake suffered severe facial injuries in a parasailing accident which would require major reconstructive surgery. He would not wrestle again for two and a half years. WWF newcomer Kerry Von Erich stepped in under his new moniker the Texas Tornado to defeat an over confident Mr Perfect in just over five minutes. Despite Von Erich's status outside of the WWF this was still a shock result and quite a memorable moment. The match itself though was only passable with a slingshot into the ring post leading to Mr Perfect's downfall for the third pay-per-view in a row!

 

Texas Tornado is about to finish Mr Perfect

Sensational Sherri was awarded a forfeit victory over Sapphire who failed to show up for the match. We'll get to the reason later. Sherri's catlike get-up was pretty bizarre even by her standards... Tito Santana put over The Warlord in much the same way he did for his former tag team partner The Barbarian at Wrestlemania VI. The match was basic and existed to help establish Warlord as a singles wrestler. The original plan was for Santana to face former tag team partner Rick Martel but for whatever reason Martel was pulled from the show... The Hart Foundation defeated Demolition in a really good best two out of three falls match to become tag team champions for a second time. Demolition had very quickly gone from being super-over babyfaces to heels for two reasons; firstly Ax was now unable to wrestle full time due to concerns over a heart condition so Crush was brought in to make a threesome, something that would not work as faces. Secondly the signing of the Legion of Doom meant they would instantly become the top power team on the good side of the fence. The duo of Smash & Crush defended the title here and they took the first fall following their "Decapitation" finisher before the Harts levelled things up via a disqualification. Ax made his way down during the third fall and somehow managed to tag into the match, you know because Demolition were clearly identical. In the end the Legion of Doom made their way out to expose the shenanigans and the Harts took the championship during the chaos. As the winning fall came about because of a distraction I feel it would have been nice for the Harts to have taken the second fall with a clean pinfall as opposed the lame disqualification. Still despite this and the stupidity of the referee not noticing Ax tagging into the match, this was still a quality tag team bout. It would be all downhill for Demolition from here though partly because Crush just wasn't up to the standard of Ax...

 

The Hart Foundation win their second WWF tag team title

Jake Roberts scored a disqualification win over Bad News Brown in an awful match refereed by the Big Boss Man. Brown supposedly brought Harlem sewer rats to the ring to oppose Damien, obviously we did not see them. Brown used a steel chair on Roberts for the lame finish... Sgt Slaughter appeared on the Brother Love Show having recently returned to the WWF as a heel. Slaughter proclaimed support for Iraq following their invasion of Kuwait as the WWF began to exploit what would become the Gulf War... Hacksaw Jim Duggan and the new America-loving Nikolai Volkoff needlessly squashed the Orient Express in a match more memorable for Duggan and Volkoff's dreadful rendition of "America The Beautiful" before the bout... Randy Savage ended his feud with a shell shocked Dusty Rhodes by defeating him in about two minutes. Rhodes had just discovered Sapphire had been bought by the Million Dollar Man and he was naturally heartbroken. This would move Rhodes straight into a feud with Ted Dibiase but at the same time was a very anticlimactic end to his feud with Savage. This was all about the angle, the match barely existed...

 

Earthquake has Hulk Hogan trapped in a Boston Crab

Hulk Hogan made his return to the ring and defeated Earthquake by count out in a surprisingly decent affair. Hogan was accompanied by the Big Boss Man (replacing Tugboat who was injured by Earthquake) in order to combat any interference from Dino Bravo and Jimmy Hart. Hogan survived two Earthquake drops and slammed Quake on a table for the count out victory. Hogan didn't get a pinfall victory here to presumably get more mileage out of the feud on the house show circuit... Finally the Ultimate Warrior beat Ravishing Rick Rude in a steel cage match to retain the WWF Heavyweight Title. The match, while perfectly adequate, did not reach the heights of their previous encounters and was a touch on the short side. Warrior won by escaping the cage and Rude would soon be on his way out of the World Wrestling Federation.

 

Ultimate Warrior launches Rick Rude into the steel cage

Overall

A disappointing show overall much like Wrestlemania VI only there would be no super main event to rescue this show. Warrior and Rude were always going to struggle to follow Hogan's return match and thus the show felt a bit flat at the end. While both Warrior/Rude and Hogan/Earthquake were fine it was the tag team championship match for which this show tends to be remembered. Warrior would continue as champion for the rest of 1990 but his numbers did not improve and the WWF would soon turn back to Hulk Hogan. This was the first pay-per-view to feature Vince McMahon on commentary duties and the first without Jesse Ventura who had recently left the WWF. Roddy Piper took over colour duties and did a good job despite being unable to decide whether he was face or heel. Summerslam 1990 drew 507,000 buys on pay-per-view.

Results
1 Power & Glory def The Rockers by pinfall (6:00) **3/4

2 Texas Tornado pinned Mr Perfect (c) to win the WWF Intercontinental Title (5:15) **1/4

3 Sensational Sherri def Sapphire by forfeit N/A

4 Warlord pinned Tito Santana (5:28) *1/4

5 The Hart Foundation def Demolition (c) in a Best 2 out of 3 Falls match to win the WWF Tag Team Title (14:24) ***3/4

6 Jake Roberts def Bad News Brown by disqualification (4:44) DUD

7 Jim Duggan & Nikolai Volkoff def The Orient Express by pinfall (3:22) 1/2

8 Randy Savage pinned Dusty Rhodes (2:15) 1/2

9 Hulk Hogan def Earthquake by count out (13:16) **3/4

10 The Ultimate Warrior (c) def Ravishing Rick Rude in a steel cage match to retain the WWF Heavyweight Title (10:05) ***

Rating

16.75/45 = 37.22%

Star Rating Guide

*****   Excellent/World Class

****     Very Good

***        Good

**           OK/Acceptable

*             Poor

DUD       Abysmal

SQ          Squash (Less than 1 min)