WWF Summerslam 1990 (8.27.90) review 

 

August 27, 1990 

 

Welcome to a post Jesse Ventura WWF. After a row over video game revenue* Ventura has left the WWF. He’s been replaced on colour by Roddy Piper. You would think Piper would slay in this role but ever since he’d returned to the WWF, his style has become more cartoonish. There’s a lot of stuff happening on this show as various angles tank and are concluded.  

 

*Ventura’s likeness was used in a Sega game, and he received no royalties for it. Ventura, who had always been for unionisation, decided to take a stand. It’s also important to remember that when Ventura was trying to drum up support for a wrestler’s union that Hulk Hogan stooged him out to McMahon. The fucking brown noser. If Hulk Hogan had lived in Nazi Germany, he would have vehemently supported Adolf Hitler, without a shadow of a doubt. With his racism, he would have fitted right in. 

 

Right before this show Fred “Tugboat” Ottman was removed from his spot. He had been cornering Hogan in his match with Earthquake. The booking plan was for Tugboat to turn on Hogan and face him at Wrestlemania. No, REALLY. Common sense prevailed and he was yanked off this show and removed from the bigger cards. His spot went to AWA defector Sgt Slaughter.  

 

Slaughter had been a big deal in the WWF in the mid 80s and only left to join AWA, in 1985, over the GI Joe toy line and income from that (I sense a trend). Having been one of AWA’s biggest stars during their waning late 80s decline he finally found his way back to the WWF. And right into the Iraqi sympathizer angle, which is heavily criticised, but the alternative was Hogan vs. Ottman at Wrestlemania. We dodged a bullet there. Not that Hogan vs Slaughter is any good.  

 

Thanks to jabronie WWF signing on to that awful Netflix deal, I have to pirate this content from sources I won’t mention so WWE doesn’t go after them. I have it on VHS anyway, let’s just pretend I watched that. Also, the video quality is no good, so don’t go expecting screenshots. 

 

 

Rockers vs. Power & Glory 

Shawn Michaels has a serious knee injury and can’t wrestle so they have Herc jump him in the aisle. Marty goes it alone and makes P&G look proper shit because he beats them both up on his own. The referee is incapable of getting one of the heels out of the ring and it’s just a mess. Shawn would end up sitting out until late October and didn’t wrestle for a month before this. Oddly enough, as soon as he was back they won the tag titles in a match that never aired, and the Hart Foundation got stuck keeping belts they didn’t want. The whole thing delaying Bret Hart’s singles push for another year.  

 

As for the match, Jannetty does a decent job of both firing up and selling. Jannetty is an underrated guy and at this point, was on a par with Michaels. That won’t be true in a year but enjoy it while it lasts. Power and Glory have a killer finish with Roma hitting a big splash right after Herc hits a suplex. Great timing on it. Someone should steal it. Match was maybe ** at the most. It might have been ok if Shawn was fit and you wonder why they even bothered putting them on the card. Maybe they owed Shawn a pay day? 

 

Video Control takes us backstage where Mr Perfect talks about his new challenger; Kerry von Erich. It was supposed to be Brutus Beefcake, but one parasailing accident put pay to that. Beefcake’s next match will be on Monday Night RAW. That’s how injured he is. He was so badly hurt he wished for death. He was due to win the IC belt here, so who knows how his career would have panned out if he didn’t get hurt.  

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship 

Mr Perfect (c) vs. Texas Tornado 

WCCW Kerry von Erich is long gone. Now he’s just a crappy Vince character, talking in weather metaphors. If Beefcake’s career is sad, it’s nothing on the tragedy of Kerry. By the time Beefcake is back on WWF TV in 1993, Von Erich will be dead from suicide. That’s not to say his WWF run is completely without merit but he’s so much worse than he was before signing that it might as well be.  

 

Kerry was so good in Texas that he could have had that Warrior spot and he’d have probably done better with it. He’s less of a jackass than Hellwig. They clearly don’t trust Kerry here as they keep it short and have Hennig bump around for him. Kerry clearly struggles at times. Any time he has to bump it has no snap to it. If you only ever saw Kerry in the WWF, you would struggle to understand what the fuss was all about. In 1985, I had him as the fourth best worker in the world. Claw sets up the discus punch and Hennig ruins the finish by doing a silly little twisty bump, as he always does.  

 

This wasn’t great but it wasn’t a disaster either. Perfect ruining the finish wasn’t ideal. Von Erich wasn’t in his best shape. Hey, at least Brutus Beefcake wasn’t in the match, if we’re reaching for positives. Rating is around *½ 

 

Sapphire vs. Sensational Sherri 

This is supposed to be the first part of the double header in this feud (Sherri vs Sapphire, Savage vs Dusty). Only Sapphire doesn’t turn up. We’ll get to that but safe to say, the reason for her absence is PROBLEMATIC.  

 

Warlord vs. Tito Santana 

Tito is 38 years old here and considered past it and only of value to put over younger talent. It’s mad how age perception has changed in wrestling since then. Although, wrestlers taking better care of themselves has helped their cause. Warlord has taken an enormous amount of steroids. He’s so big here. Coincidentally Warlord would leave the company during the steroid trials. What a coincidence.  

 

So, Roidlord continues to beat on Tito and the match feels painfully long. This is 5:28??? Are you kidding me? Tito tries hard to make it not suck. If I was All Japan, I would have taken a punt on him. He ended up working for SWS in 1991, as part of the WWF connection, so maybe they thought of him as a traitor. Anyway, Warlord wins. Tito looked good here. Warlord did not.  

 

Two Out of Three Falls 

WWF Tag Team Championship 

Demolition (c) vs. Hart Foundation 

Demos had entered their Freebirds phase. Basically to cover for Ax being unable to compete. He would continue to wrestle until 2017, because of course he did. Bill Eadie’s problem was a heart condition, caused by an allergic reaction to shellfish. Of course, the WWF was sympathetic (lol) and he was booted out later in the year. The New Demolition would continue until the following summer before being phased out and repackaged.  

 

While normally Demolition matches would cease to be good once their music finished, this one benefits from Bret Hart. It also has good pacing. This is Bret auditioning for a top spot in the company. He looks every inch the star. From his match structuring to his selling to his execution. He proves he can look believeable against the big boys too. Bret still gets pinned for the first fall but it’s all part of the story. Hart Attack would level it up, but the Demos get disqualified for 1-1. 

 

While most tag teams, that were good, had not obvious ‘better worker’, Bret is miles above Anvil here. Ax runs down and jumps in. “It’s tough to tell them apart” says Vince. Haha, are you shitting me? He looks COMPLETELY different. Legion of Doom, fed up with this injustice, run down and that’s enough distraction for Bret to roll Crush up for the titles. If you can ignore how stupid the ‘masked confusion’ switch is, this was good. First fall in particular. *** 

 

Vince stops off to shill Wrestlemania VII. Still hoping to sell out the LA Coliseum. Oh…and indeed…boy. LOD get a promo saying they’re coming after Demolition, leading to house shows on the loop and contributing to the Survivor Series. Harts show up too to say they’ll wrestle anyone. This would lead to a phantom switch to the Rockers, in October, which never aired on TV after the top rope broke. Hart Foundation would end up with the belts until Mania, much to Bret’s chagrin.  

 

A load of promos follow during intermission.  

 

Bad News Brown vs. Jake Roberts 

Brown has “mutant sewer rats*” to combat Jake’s serpents. Special referee is Big Bossman. This should be the culmination of the feud and Brown should be eating a DDT and going out on his back. Well, it doesn’t happen like that. Jake brings a lot of personality and selling. Jake is probably the perfect example of a good wrestler who didn’t have good matches. This one flat out stinks. Bad News uses a chair, for the third time in the match, and that’s a DQ. Pfft. Jake’s selling aside, this sucked. Also, there’s no pay off because Brown left the company immediately. This is his last match in the WWF. 

 

*Possums  

 

Brother Love Show 

Bruce Pritchard, man. A corporate suck-up to the bitter end. He’ll be defending Vince McMahon until the day he dies. Luckily the Brother Love experiment is nearing the end, and he’ll disappear as an onscreen personality but soon weasles his way back into the office in 1992. He’s got Sgt Slaughter on here to declare war on “pinkie commie puke” Nikolai Volkoff for daring to support the USA when he’s a no good Russkie. How can he be a commie and a fan of Americana? How did this not draw 100,000+ to the LA Coliseum?? People of California just hate the United States of America, that’s all there is to it. 

 

Orient Express vs. Nikolai Volkoff & Jim Duggan 

Volkoff is nearing the end of his run. Don’t panic, he’ll be back. Orient Express does not have the masked Paul Diamond but rather Akio Sato partnering Pat Tanaka. Badd Company was a badass tag team. In an attempt to provide fresh info here; Luka Peruzovic, the Yugoslavian footballer, is Volkoff’s brother. Something I found out literally today.  

 

Volkoff gets a hell of a rub here. He’s double teamed, beaten up, has Mr Fuji’s cane in the throat and all sorts but he doesn’t give up. Hot tag to Duggan and poor Tanaka gets pinned. This was very short, which is good because it was quite bad. Volkoff would work Slaughter on the loop until Survivor Series, which would be his last night in the company. Until Vince got desperate and re-hired him. 

 

Dusty Rhodes vs. Randy Savage 

The ongoing story tonight has been Sapphire’s absence. She arrived before the last match but won’t let Dusty into her locker room. Savage is secondary in all this, and you have to wonder how he felt about being less important than his opponent’s manager…again. Before we get started Ted DiBiase shows up to tell us he’s BOUGHT Sapphire. So, they ran an angle where a rich white man PURCHASED a black woman. Keeping in mind, he already has Virgil as his minion. Juanita Wright, who played Sapphire, was reportedly so upset at this angle that she burst into tears and left the company shortly afterwards. 

 

On to the match and, mercifully, it is short. Rhodes is done as a worker and is very sluggish here. Savage can’t get much of anything out of him. Sherri hands Savage her purse and Randy knocks his big ass out with it. First, he’s involved in the slave trade and now he’s unconscious. A bad day for the American Dream. Poor Sapphire is the victim here though. Abused by the system and upset at being broken up with Dusty, she left the business and died of a heart attack in 1996.  

 

Earthquake vs. Hulk Hogan 

Tugboat replaced by Big Bossman in Hogan’s corner. After proving his worth at Wrestlemania, in a carry job of the Ultimate Warrior, this was a huge chance for Hogan to prove he could work like a motherfucker. I think we all know where this is going. Hogan had been working house shows with Dino Bravo to get back into shape. Prior to that, he’d not worked since April. I can’t wait for the release of Suburban Commando, personally.  

 

Hogan absolutely dogs this match. He gives the whole thing over to Quake, in an attempt to make him look strong. What it really serves is for Hogan to do nothing but lie around. In order to give Bossman “the rub” he’s allowed to stroll into the ring and do stuff. Hogan is real stupid here. He keeps going to slam Quake. The whole storyline is that he has bad ribs. Why do you need to slam him? Is it your ego Terrence?  

 

They put in a loooooong bearhug before Quake starts with the butt drops. You know what happens after that. Hulk up. Etc. Hogan gets the visual pin while Bravo distracts. We then powder out so Hogan can slam Quake on a table and win on count out. Logically, you would want Quake to win here to set up the house show loop, but no. Eventually Hogan would have got the win back at Survivor Series or the Rumble. They try and have him pound Hogan after the match, but he’s already taken the visual pin and lost so it’s too late. 

 

This was quite long and achieved very little. Hogan vs big guys is never good and is usually bad. Call it **-ish. I like Tenta, but it takes two to tango. The feud drew money, so what do I know. However, I am RIGHT about Warrior. That’s next. 

 

Comms takes a moment to talk about tonight’s matches and the term “nightmare” is used. My nightmare is listening to Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper in 1990. Who knew it would be this bad? Jesse Ventura is underrated. He was almost impossible to replace. However, they’ll figure out it’s Bobby Heenan soon. We get a bunch of interviews as they set up the cage. “What do Bobby Heenan and the Liberty Bell have in common? One is cracked, the other is a ding dong” – more Warrior nonsense. That makes no sense, Jim. Warrior is one of the most confident people who had no right to be confident I’ve ever seen. Proper dipshit Yank syndrome.  

 

Cage Match 

WWF Championship 

Ultimate Warrior (c) vs. Rick Rude 

Rude earned this by beating Warrior at Wrestlemania V. He proved, in that match, that he could get a tune out of Warrior. The blue bar cage is a curse though. A structure which never saw good matches. It was easy to climb, I guess. Rude sells a lot while Piper starts taking the piss out of Warrior on comms. You can HEAR the end of his push during the match. The crowd is audibly not invested in this. 

 

The match is really boring. Rude doesn’t appear to care and Warrior is incapable of leading the match. At least Rick gets colour. As with Hogan-Bundy, they eventually get Heenan in there to take some bumps. After about ten minutes, they finally get going. Rude takes a load of bumps off clotheslines and then Warrior just climbs out and wins. Huh. * 

 

When I watched this, the first time, I thought Warrior was completely finished as a top guy. However, in steps Randy Savage, the god damn miracle worker. Rude was finished however and was gone before Survivor Series. Rude didn’t jump straight to WCW and indeed was working Indies in summer 1991 before going to AJPW first. It’s a little sad to see his hard work over this WWF run boil down to one bad match with Warrior and he’s gone. Four years of grafting down the drain.  

 

The 411: 

The show is ok until the Harts-Demos tag title match. There’s nothing great before that but it’s inoffensive for an undercard. The post Harts win part of the card is rough as fuck though. Roberts-Brown, Duggan & Volkoff, Savage-Dusty, Hogan-Quake and Rude-Warrior. It’s all poor. They tried to get this over as the second biggest card of the year but not even Hogan can get a clean win. Jake couldn’t beat Bad News, and he was fucking leaving! What are we even doing here?  

 

Important to note, I think, that Vince McMahon had issues away from the ring that begin to surface around here so the poor performance of his own PPV was maybe not foremost in his mind. Business was still good at this point with Warrior and Hogan both drawing. The departure of Jesse Ventura is the first sign of trouble in paradise. A move that genuinely hurts the product. Mere weeks after this show, Vince’s mind was elsewhere as he created the World Bodybuilding Federation. A roided up freakshow that happened to coincide with the conviction of George Zahorian. Vince McMahon is about to be very busy away from wrestling.