WWF Summerslam 1993

WWF Summerslam 1993
Venue: Auburn Hills, Michigan
Date: 30/8/93
Attendance: 18,500
Commentators: Vince McMahon & Bobby Heenan

As Hulk Hogan was to leave the WWF following the July/August European Tour, Vince McMahon decided simply to make a new Hulk Hogan in time for a big main event at Summerslam in Auburn Hills, Michigan. A big angle was set up on 4th July 1993 aboard the U.S.S. Intrepid in New York City where Mr Fuji and Yokozuna had challenged all comers to attempt to body slam the massive 550lbs plus WWF Champion. Failure to do so would of course, "embarrass America on it's most famous holiday" as put by Jim Ross. A host of NFL, NHL and NBA stars joined the likes of the Steiner Brothers, Randy Savage and Crush in an attempt to win the "Body Slam Challenge" but all failed. Just as it looked like defeat for the USA, a helicopter landed on the ship prompting big "Hogan" chants. To the surprise of most it would be heel Lex Luger who made his way towards the ring shoving Bobby Heenan aside in phase one of the quick fire face turn. Luger then cut a babyface, pro-America promo on the evil foreigners (Rodney Anoa'i was actually a Samoan from San Francisco)  and then tossed Fuji out of the ring. After a brief stare down Luger clocked Yoko with his steel plated forearm and, with Yoko's assistance, body slammed him to bring the house (or aircraft carrier) down! Babyface turn complete, the WWF set up a huge promotional tour where Luger would travel around the country in his "Lex Express" Greyhound bus in what was called a "Call To Action" campaign. The WWF really pulled out all of the stops to get Luger over as the new American hero and after a gruelling six weeks on the road, the stage was set for the big showdown at Summerslam.


Review
In a run-of-the-mill opening contest, newly turned babyface Razor Ramon defeated Ted Dibiase with the Razor's Edge. This would be Dibiase's final match in the WWF and he would retire from the ring later in the year following a short spell in AJPW.

The Steiner Brothers successfully defended the World Tag Team Title in arguably the best match of their WWF run against The Heavenly Bodies (Jimmy Del Ray & Tom Pritchard). Naturally the Detroit crowd were hot for the Steiners and there was some great tag team wrestling in this one.


The much anticipated clash between Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels and Mr Perfect did not deliver to the level that most expected. By his own admission Michaels was carrying excess weight around this time while Perfect was never quite the same after his back injury. The match was good from a technical standpoint but after the heated build up including a wild brawl in the street in New York City it did not resemble a grudge match at all. The cheap finish did not help as Diesel (Michaels' bodyguard Kevin Nash) cost Perfect the title and caused him to be counted out. During a backstage post match brawl designed to start a feud between Perfect and Diesel, Michaels dropped and shattered the Intercontinental Title belt and had to foot the bill for it to be replaced.

After a shock win over Razor Ramon and later Ted Dibiase, The 1-2-3 Kid was brought crashing back down to earth with a clean loss to IRS. The match itself wasn't bad but according to Sean Waltman the loss was in order to keep his ego in check.


It looked like we would be getting screwed out the battle to determine the real "King" of the WWF as Jerry Lawler appeared on crutches after being involved in a "ten car pile up". Instead Bret Hart would have to face Doink with Lawler watching from ringside. Hart had a decent battle with Doink until Lawler (genuinely) levelled him with a crutch when he had Doink locked in the Sharpshooter. After proving his injury to be phony, Lawler was forced to face Hart by Jack Tunney in a stiff and very heated brawl that unlike the Intercontinental Title bout, did feel like a grudge match. Hart won the match with the Sharpshooter but refused to release it afterwards and the decision was reversed. It was a bit ridiculous as there were at least ten people in the ring and they couldn't pull Hart off of Lawler. Overall though this was a really good angle where Hart got his revenge but Lawler remained a "King".

Newcomer Ludvig Borga (Tony Halme) crushed Marty Jannetty in a five minute squash. They clearly had big plans for Borga although he was extremely limited and didn't look particularly good here.


The Undertaker defeated Giant Gonzales in an awful "Rest in Peace" match which basically meant no disqualification or count outs. A top rope clothesline was all it took to beat this monstrous giant in the end. Paul Bearer made his return mid-match to reclaim the urn from Harvey Whippleman. Gonzales choke slammed Whippleman after the match to apparently turn face but nobody seemed that bothered.


Tatanka and The Smoking Gunns beat Bam Bam Bigelow and The Headshrinkers in an entertaining six man tag team bout. The match was good fun and was won by Tatanka pinning Samu with a roll up.

After a monster push and promotional campaign to get Lex Luger over as the new American hero babyface he was unable to unseat Yokozuna as WWF Champion winning only by count out. The wind was really taken out of Luger's sails right from the start as this meant he had already failed in the eyes of the fans. Imagine if Hulk Hogan could've only managed a count out win over the Iron Sheik back in 1984. If they were really serious about going all the way with Luger he had to go over here. As it was it was still a shockingly decent match, about the best they could've had really but despite acting like Luger had secured a huge victory at the end it all fell a bit flat. Randy Savage, the Steiner Brothers and Tatanka celebrated with Luger in the ring as balloons fell from the ceiling but Luger was not the champion so there was nothing really to celebrate. The music video at the end of the show featuring clips from the "Lex Express" tour was however, excellent. The plan was to make Yokozuna versus Luger the big money match at Wrestlemania X, except Luger lost so much steam as a babyface in the coming months that Bret Hart was put back into the world title mix come January.


Overall
Summerslam 1993 was a decent show, as long as you look past the non-finishes in the three big matches. The highlight of the show was the whole Bret Hart/Jerry Lawler saga which was heated and very entertaining. The involvement of Owen and Bruce Hart helped also, not least because Bruce was wound up by being dowsed in water by Doink without knowing it was coming. That was hilarious. Shawn Michaels versus Mr Perfect was good but at the same time disappointing, and the main event surpassed all expectations, until the finish. Summerslam 1993 drew a 1.3 buy rate, approximately 250,000 buys, which was a touch disappointing considering the amount of hype for Lex Luger's big night.


Results
1 Razor Ramon pinned Ted Dibiase (7:32) **1/4
2 The Steiner Brothers (c) def The Heavenly Bodies by pinfall to retain the WWF Tag Team Title (9:28) ***1/2
3 Shawn Michaels (c) def Mr Perfect by count out to retain the WWF Intercontinental Title (11:20) ***
4 Irwin R Schyster pinned The 1-2-3 Kid (5:44) **1/2
5 Bret Hart def Doink by disqualification (9:05) **1/2
6 Jerry Lawler def Bret Hart by disqualification (6:32) ***
7 Ludvig Borga def Marty Jannetty by submission (5:15) 3/4
8 The Undertaker pinned Giant Gonzales (8:04) DUD
9 The Smoking Gunns & Tatanka def The Headshrinkers & Bam Bam Bigelow by pinfall (11:15) ***
10 Lex Luger def Yokozuna (c) by count out. Yokozuna retained the WWF Heavyweight Title (17:58) **3/4


Rating
23.25/50 = 46.5%