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)

Worst Intercontinental Champion...

Worst WWF/WWE Intercontinental Champion

(as voted by @wrestlingspast followers)


1. Chyna

 

 17 Oct 99 - 12 Dec 99
22 Aug 00 - 4 Sep 00
Total: 64 days


2. Dean Douglas

 

22 Oct 95 - 22 Oct 95

Total: 15mins (approx.)

 

3. Albert

 

26 Jun 01 - 23 Jul 01

Total: 27 days

Thank you everyone who voted. Full results below.

 

1	Chyna	16
2	Dean Douglas	10
3	Albert	9
4	Santino Marella	6
4	Ezekiel Jackson	6
4	Marc Mero	6
7	The Mountie	5
8	Honky Tonk Man	4
9	Marty Jannetty	2
9	Big Show	2
9	Big E Langston	2
9	Curtis Axel	2
9	D'Lo Brown	2
9	Val Venis	2
15	The Godfather	1
15	Road Dogg	1
15	William Regal	1
15	Daniel Bryan	1
15	Wade Barrett	1
15	Rowdy Roddy Piper	1
15	Ultimate Warrior	1
15	Test	1
15	Ricky Steamboat	1
15	Jeff Jarrett	1
15	Drew McIntyre	1
15	The Miz	1
15	Ric Flair	1
15	Billy Gunn	1
15	Rikishi	1
	Total Votes	89

Greatest Intercontinental Champion...

 

Greatest WWF/WWE Intercontinental Champion

(as voted by @wrestlingspast followers)

 

 

 1. Mr. Perfect

 

 

23rd April 90 - 27th August 90

19th November 90 - 26th August 91

 Total days: 406

 

 

2. Bret "Hitman" Hart

 

 

26th August 91 - 17th January 92 

5th April 92 - 29th August 92

Total days: 290

 

 

3. The Ultimate Warrior

 

 

29th August 88 - 2nd April 89

28th August 89 - 1st April 90

Total days: 432

 

 

Thank you everyone who voted. Full results below.

 

 

1	Mr Perfect	58
2	Bret Hart	24
3	Ultimate Warrior	16
4	Honky Tonk Man	12
5	Shawn Michaels	11
6=	Randy Savage	8
6=	Razor Ramon	8
8	Chris Jericho	6
9	Ravishing Rick Rude	5
10	The Rock	3
11=	Chris Benoit	2
11=	Road Dogg	2
11=	Val Venis	2
14=	British Bulldog	1
14=	Carlito	1
14=	Chyna	1
14=	Don Muraco	1
14=	Goldust	1
14=	Jeff Jarrett	1
14=	Ken Shamrock	1
14=	Pat Patterson	1
14=	Ricky Steamboat	1
14=	Rowdy Roddy Piper	1
14=	Texas Tornado	1
14=	The Godfather	1
	TOTAL VOTES	169

 

WWF Wrestlemania VI

 

 

 

WWF Wrestlemania VI

Venue: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Date: 1/4/90

Attendance: 67,678

Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon & Jesse Ventura

"Upon the examination of the galaxies of space, images begin to appear… Images of strange and powerful forces… But of all the forces in the universe, the two most powerful; Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior prepare to explode... Champion versus champion... Title for title... IT'S THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE!! IT'S WRESTLEMANIA!!"

You've got to love Vince McMahon's intros for the old pay-per-view events. That one was my personal favourite. As was the case with Wrestlemania V the original video release of this event saw virtually every match edited down to fit on a three hour tape, the exception being the main event. Fortunately I'll be reviewing the full version which can either be found on the Wrestlemania Anthology DVD series or the WWE Network. The only down side with the full version is that some of the entrance music has been dubbed over to save on paying royalties. Sadly they include the theme music for Dusty Rhodes, Demolition and Slick. On another note, this was Jesse Ventura’s final WWF pay-per-view as colour commentator.

Review
Rick Martel and Koko B Ware kicked things off with a short, passable contest. Martel won by submission with a Boston Crab... Demolition regained the tag team title from The Colossal Connection in a okay bout, which would be Andre The Giant's last due to his failing health. For this reason Haku fought almost the entire match by himself, although Andre did get one last hurrah as he turned on Haku and manager Bobby Heenan after the bout. Demolition were massively over and the result brought the house down...

Andre The Giant has finally had enough of Bobby Heenan

Earthquake scored a fairly straightforward win over Hercules as his big push continued. As had
become customary, Quake gave Hercules an "Aftershock" following the bout to further force home his dominance. The match was about as basic as it gets... Mr Perfect finally lost his 'Perfect Record' as he fell to Brutus Beefcake by pin fall in an average match. Perfect did at least avoid getting a haircut from "The Barber", The Genius was not so lucky... Rowdy Roddy Piper and Bad News Brown fought to a double count out in a so-so brawl. Piper and Brown fought all the way back to the locker room just as they did at the Royal Rumble...

Macho King Randy Savage with Sensational Queen Sherri

The Hart Foundation crushed The Bolsheviks in 19 seconds after back jumping them during Nikolai Volkoff's singing of the Russian national anthem. This didn't do a lot for the Harts who were soon to be in line for a tag team title shot. The nature of their victory made you feel bad for the heels, which is not the idea of course... Tito Santana put over The Barbarian in a dull encounter. On the plus side, Barbarian's top rope clothesline finisher looked awesome thanks to a great sell by the reliable Santana... In one of the feature matches of the under card, Macho King Randy Savage teamed with Sensational Queen Sherri to battle Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire in a mildly entertaining mixed tag team bout. Elizabeth made her return in the corner of Rhodes and Sapphire and was instrumental in their victory as Sapphire pinned Sherri with a roll up. As was evident here Sapphire clearly did not belong in the ring...

The Rockers prior to their bout with The Orient Express

The Rockers and The Orient Express contested a decent enough match up that was still some way below what they were actually capable of producing. The Express took the win via a disappointing count out... Hacksaw Jim Duggan scored a popular win over Dino Bravo in a poor match up after nailing Bravo with his 2x4. Duggan was made to pay for this though as Earthquake crushed him in the aftermath... Another big feature match on the card was the battle between "Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase and Jake "The Snake" Roberts for the Million Dollar belt. While perfectly acceptable, the match fell well short of the red hot grudge match many were expecting. Dibiase triumphed by count out following the same ring post spot they used at the Royal Rumble. Roberts DDT'd Dibiase after the bout and gave away some of his money to the crowd but even that couldn't mask the anticlimax here...

Jimmy Snuka leapfrogs Ravishing Rick Rude

The Big Boss Man easily beat his former tag team partner Akeem in less than two minutes despite being attacked by Ted Dibiase right before the bout. Now that's what you call a burial; Akeem was finished after this... Ravishing Rick Rude cleanly defeated "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka by pin fall after a Rude Awakening in match not unlike the opening bout. Rude was being prepared for a run in the main events over the summer...

Hulk Hogan applies a rear chinlock on The Ultimate Warrior

The match that everybody came to see was of course Hulk Hogan versus The Ultimate Warrior in a super main event with both the WWF World Heavyweight and WWF Intercontinental Titles on the line. This was the first time a main event of this magnitude would be contested by the two top babyfaces in the company but as greatly anticipated as it was, not much was expected in terms of match quality. Hogan was capable of having good matches with the right opponents but Warrior's limitations meant he usually had short matches unless he was in the ring with a super worker like Rick Rude or Randy Savage. This meant Hogan was in the unfamiliar role of carrying the match (usually the heels job) and building for his opponent’s comebacks but to the surprise of many Hogan performed the role admirably on the night. Warrior also played his part well in what was a great rollercoaster ride of a match in which you really could not tell who was going to win. As it turned out Warrior went over in what was Hogan's only clean loss of his famous second run in the WWF which was supposed to usher in a new era with the Ultimate Warrior as the top star in the company. The atmosphere was really special as the crowd was red hot throughout the match and it appeared to be a perfect 50/50 split. It's also worth noting there was no booing from either section of the support, something that just would not happen these days. The match is still very fondly remembered today as one of the great Wrestlemania main events.

Hogan presents the WWF Heavyweight Title to the Warrior

Overall

Wrestlemania VI as a whole was a letdown as everything aside from Hogan/Warrior was bang average, or worse in some cases. The setting of Sky Dome however was fantastic, a massive step up from the previous two years at Trump Plaza. The stars really aligned for the main event which was booked and executed to perfection avoiding hurting either man as Warrior got the accolades in victory and Hogan got sympathy in defeat. It was arguably Hogan's best performance of his 1983-93 WWF run and only Randy Savage would get a better match out of the Ultimate Warrior in his entire career. The even split in the crowd reactions and constant cheering was a huge bonus as it's always a risk that someone will receive boos in an all-babyface clash. The match was a massive success and saved what was otherwise a very much below par Wrestlemania. Wrestlemania VI drew 550,000 buys on pay-per-view.

Results
1 Rick Martel def Koko B Ware by submission (3:51) *3/4

2 Demolition def The Colossal Connection (c) by pinfall to win the WWF Tag Team Title (9:30) **

3 Earthquake pinned Hercules (4:52) 3/4

4 Brutus Beefcake pinned Mr Perfect (7:48) **1/4

5 Rowdy Roddy Piper and Bad News Brown fought to a double count out (6:48) **

6 The Hart Foundation def The Bolsheviks by pinfall (0:19) SQ

7 The Barbarian pinned Tito Santana (4:33) *1/2

8 Dusty Rhodes & Sapphire def Randy Savage & Sensational Sherri by pinfall (7:31) **

9 The Orient Express def The Rockers by count out (7:38) **1/2

10 Hacksaw Jim Duggan pinned Dino Bravo (4:15) *

11 Ted Dibiase def Jake Roberts by count out (11:50) **1/2

12 The Big Boss Man pinned Akeem (1:49) 1/2

13 Ravishing Rick Rude pinned Jimmy Snuka (3:59) *3/4

14 WWF Intercontinental Champion the Ultimate Warrior (c) pinned Hulk Hogan (c) to win the WWF Heavyweight Title (22:51) ****

Rating

24.5/70 = 35%

Star Rating Guide

*****   Excellent/World Class

****     Very Good

***        Good

**           OK/Acceptable

*             Poor

DUD       Abysmal

SQ          Squash (Less than 1 min)