With Summerslam not so far away i’m going to spend my next few articles looking back at the previous Summerslam events, breaking it down to 80s/90s/00/10’s which will take us right up to this years event.
The first Summerslam event took place August 28th 1988, and as you could have guessed, took place in the iconic Madison Square Garden, and there was a mammoth 10 matches on the card, yes 10 matches on the card for an event in 1988!
The event started with a 20 minute time limit draw between two iconic teams, The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith & The Dynamite Kid) & The Fabulous Rougeaus (Jacques & Raymond), and a time limit draw was a very rare thing in a “PPV”. This match was followed by the brawler Bad News Brown defeating Ken Patera following a Ghetto Blaster. Elsewhere in the midcard, Rick Rude defeated The Junkyard Dog via DQ, The Powers of Pain defeated The Bolsheviks, Dino Bravo beat Don Muraco, The Big Bossman beat Koko B Ware & Jake Roberts beat Hercules.
Two of the three WWE titles were defended at the event. The longest reigning Intercontinental Champion of ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL time The Honkey Tonk Man got dethroned in a then record for a title match (31 seconds) by The Ultimate Warrior. Reigning Tag Team Champions Demolition retained their titles with a victory over The Hart Foundation, courtesy of Jimmy Hart’s microphone, and in the main event of the evening, WWE Champion Randy Savage teamed up with Hulk Hogan as the Mega Powers to defeat The Mega Bucks team of Ted DiBiase and Andre the Giant.
The 1989 Summerslam is probably remembered more for who was in the Main Event, rather than anything else. Of course the 1989 main event, was yet another tag team match, featuring the WWE Champion, this time being Hulk Hogan, teaming with Brutus Beefcake, facing the team of Randy Savage, and yes that main event killer, Zeus. Of course Hogan wins the match as he never lost in main event matches……
As for the rest of the card, well it went down a little something like this. The Brain Busters beat The Hart Foundation, Dusty Rhodes beat Honkey Tonk Man, Mr Perfect beat The Red Rooster, Rick Martel & The Fabulous Rougeaus beat Tito Santana & The Rockers, The Ultimate Warrior beat Rick Rude to become the new Intercontinental Champion, Jim Duggan & Demoltion beat Andre & The Twin Towers (Akeem & Big Bossman), Greg Valentine beat Hercules, and Ted DiBiase beat Jimmy Snuka.
The 1989 event was so poor compared to the first event, but that was obviously more down to the booking rather than anything else, and for being one of “Four” PPV events of the year, you would have expected for all the titles to be defended at the shows, but nope both events were headlined by tag team matches. With being an old git and having seen all these shows numerous times, I would suggest you check out the opening match of the 1988 event between the Bulldogs & Rougeaus, as well as the opening match of the 1989 event between the Brain Busters & the Hart Foundation, two very good tag matches there.
So to open it up to you guys, what is your views of the two Summerslams from the 80’s? Do you have a favourite moment? What about least favourite moment? Do contact me to let me know your views, and next week we’ll look at the Summerslams of the 90’s.
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