We witnessed a rather disappointing summer spectacular from Jim Crockett Promotions, and the Summerslam 1988 review features yet another opportunity for Vince McMahon to deliver a body blow to his competition.
This is a show I’ve actually watched in the past few years, but for some reason don’t remember much about the thing.
It’s time to feel the heat. Let’s get right to Blake’s Summerslam 1988 review.
- Date: August 29, 1988
- Location: Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY
ANNOUNCE BOOTH: Gorilla Monsoon and……Superstar Billy Graham are your announcers for the evening. Be prepared for lots of Superstar commentary notes. He was not good. Not good at all.
The Fabulous Rougeaus vs. The British Bulldogs
My goodness did I love the Rougeaus. Typical weasel team that brought hilarious spots to the table. Superstar Billy Graham saying “Gorilla Monsoon” counter: 8. And we’ve only just begun. Make it 9 now.
The Bulldogs have the control, and we’ve got a hot crowd. It’s MSG, so of course we do. It’s also worth noting that Dynamite and Jacques hated each other after a backstage incident prior to this, so this could be fun. Jacques regains control after pulling Davey Boy’s leg and bringing him down while running the ropes. Now we’ve got all Rougeaus in this one. Davey Boy really getting worked over, but Dynamite gets the hot tag and now things change.
We get a near fall but Jacques throws the foot on the ropes. Davey Boy with the powerslam but now we have the Rougeaus back in control after more underhanded tactics. Abdominal stretch is now the name of the game as the Rougeaus take turns with the restholds. More great work as Raymond gets a cheap shot in with the ref’s back turned.
After more Rougeaus in control, we get another hot tag to Davey Boy. Dynamite then hits the headbutt and the bell rings. Time limit draw at 11:19. Yes apparently the time limit on this match was 11:19. Is this WWF or JCP? Decent match, and we get a chase to the back afterwards.
• Rating: ***
VIDEO: Recent events from Outlaw Ron Bass beating the shit out of Brutus Beefcake. Thank goodness. So now Honky Tonk Man doesn’t have a challenger for his IC Title later, but Gorilla says someone will challenge him. You knew this would….ahem…..ultimately happen.
Bad News Brown vs. Ken Patera
Because life could not go on unless we saw Bad News Brown vs. Ken Patera duke it out. Superstar’s “Gorilla Monsoon” counter: 49. It should be noted that Patera has smoother thighs than Beyonce here.
No reason to waste much time with this match. Brown wasn’t losing to Patera and his thighs. Brown with the Ghetto Blaster for the win at 6:35. This was not a good match and went five minutes too long.
• Rating: DUD
BACKSTAGE: Gene Okerlund with Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage and Elizabeth. The Mega Powers are ready.
Rick Rude (w/Bobby Heenan) vs. Junkyard Dog
Rude before the match uses the term “inner city sweat hogs.” Rude was a national treasure. JYD rushes Rude out of the ring immediately and this is 50 times better than Brown/Patera already.
And Rude is back in control. Rest hold time and then JYD gets the look and decides to pounce. It doesn’t last long and Rude goes up top and exposes the trunks under the trunks. It’s the face of Cheryl Roberts, which was of course Jake’s wife. That causes Jake to run out and blast him, causing the DQ at 3:55. Still not sure why they didn’t do Rude/Jake here instead.
• Rating: DUD
BACKSTAGE: Honky doesn’t give a damn who his opponent is for the IC title. He might change his tune on that one. See what I did there?
The Bolsheviks (w/Slick) vs. The Powers of Pain (w/The Baron)
As if the WWF tag division needed another strong team, here we have Barbarian and Warlord straight outta JCP (where they’d been booked to face the Road Warriors in a scaffold match at Great American Bash before jumping ship). And the MSG crowd LOVED these dudes. How could you not? Two big hosses that were absolute badasses. Sign me up.
Well it’s clear that the Powers of Pain aren’t selling shit here, and they shouldn’t. Total squash mode as the Powers get the victory at 4:43 to prepare themselves for an inevitable showdown with Demolition.
• Rating: *
IN THE RING: Brother Love segment with Hacksaw Jim Duggan. I’ve seen it multiple times and there’s no way I’m watching it again. Good luck to those brave souls that do.
The Ultimate Warrior vs. (c) The Honky Tonk Man – Intercontinental Title
More often than not, you know when a star is officially born. This was one of those cases. The roof absolutely comes off of MSG when the Warrior’s music hits, and at that point you knew.
And then of course Warrior completely squashes Honky and scores the pin at :30 to win the title. After Honky ruled the IC scene for over a year with shit matches, this had to happen. And the people absolutely loved it. Perfect booking. Obviously a squash, but it gets two stars for the overall importance of it.
• Rating: **
Don Muraco vs. Dino Bravo (w/Frenchy Martin)
Wonderful. A WrestleMania IV rematch. That match wasn’t a dud or anything. Update: Yes it was. These two could have been a great tag team as the Juice Masters. Have them bring out blenders and everything. Bobby Heenan could have promoted this like a champ. Speaking of the Brain, he’s on commentary here much to the delight of every eardrum ever. Superstar’s “Gorilla Monsoon” counter: 376.
This match is bad and Bravo hits the sideslam for the win at 1:16 to get revenge from the WrestleMania tournament match I guess. Six matches thus far and only two have gone over a single star. Great pacing.
• Rating: DUD
BACKSTAGE: Jesse Ventura is your referee for tonight’s main event and Sean Mooney questions him. What an awesome duo these two were.
The Hart Foundation vs. (c) Demolition (w/Mr. Fuji and Jimmy Hart) – WWF Tag Team Titles
Something tells me our streak of duds is over. The story is that the Hart Foundation are good guys now after sending Jimmy packing. Unfortunately, Jimmy still owned the team’s contract, so he could appear at ringside for this one. So naturally he’s gonna get involved in the match. It was impossible not to cheer Demolition at this point though. Total beasts.
Hart showcases his wrestling ability early, delivering a good sequence of moves to both Ax and Smash. And then the game changes when Smash rifles Hart shoulder-first into the post. That leads to a lot of offense from Demolition before the hot tag to Neidhart. But the ref didn’t see it. IS TEDDY LONG REFEREEING THIS MATCH?
Finally Neidhart gets the legal tag and he slams everyone in sight. Well not the referee or Bret or any of the people in the crowd. Mostly just Ax and Smash.
Cool slingshot spot over the top with Neidhart taking out Smash. Near fall on the powerslam. Bret gets another near fall on Smash and the crowd is reacting to every count. Neidhart heads over to attack Fuji on the apron, which distracts the ref and allows Jimmy Hart to throw the megaphone to Ax. I’ll give you two guesses what he does with it.
Ax bonks Bret and Smash scores the pin to retain at 8:11. Liked this as much as I liked the opener.
• Rating: ***
BACKSTAGE: Honky is pissed. That’s about it.
Big Boss Man (w/Slick) vs. Koko B. Ware
Welcome to another squash. Actually not a terrible back and forth match overall, as Boss Man was obviously very talented.
The crowd goes bananas when Koko almost gets a near fall midway through the match. But Boss Man hit the sideslam right after that to get the victory at 5:55. It was much better than a dud since the crowd was into it, even if it was short.
• Rating: *1/2
BACKSTAGE: Ultimate Warrior promo alert. He’s overly excited after winning the IC title. Muraco is also here just hanging out in nothing but a towel. Cool.
Hercules vs. Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts
Hey this has potential. Herc tries to attack Jake from behind to start the match, but that doesn’t go well. However, Herc does eventually lock in the chinlock to take control of the match midway through. I’ll give Superstar credit here: he’s really doing a good job of selling Herc as a dangerous threat. The “Gorilla Monsoon” counter may be up to 809, but at least Superstar is making progress.
A very slow-paced match. If they wanted to bring the crowd down before the main event, it worked. Jake finally hits the DDT and pins Herc for the win at 10:08. Little heat until the finish. Not their best work.
• Rating: *1/2
VIDEO: Main event hype time. The build was obviously pretty good stuff.
Andre the Giant and Ted DiBiase (w/Bobby Heenan and Virgil) vs. Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage (w/Elizabeth) – Special Guest Referee: Jesse Ventura
Sidebar to what this could have been: It’s common knowledge that Vince was doing serious negotiating to try and bring Ric Flair into the WWF at this point. He reportedly even went as far as offering him a title match against Savage here in the main event slot. But Flair decided to stay with JCP. That match would have been glorious.
Jesse already showing his authority by changing the tag ropes to different corners. Then we get him almost belting Hogan, which I’m sure he would have loved to do.
Andre and Savage get us started before DiBiase tags in quickly. Then Savage tags in Hogan. Of course Hogan gets the most of this exchange, but after a few minutes finds himself being worked on by Andre and DiBiase. And DiBiase locks on the sleeper hold while Gorilla and Superstar knock Jesse’s refereeing skills. Hogan finally makes the tag to Savage, and he’s going haywire on DiBiase.
But Savage’s luck runs out and DiBiase delivers a hard clothesline before tagging in Andre. And now we come full circle with Hogan getting the tag and going at DiBiase. Hogan drops Andre and crowd can’t believe it. Then we have Savage catching a boot from Andre off the top rope. Andre then clears the ring as he and DiBiase momentarily stand tall.
Elizabeth gets on the apron and she removes her skirt. SHE’S GOT LEGS AND SHE KNOWS HOW TO USE THEM. Even Elizabeth has to drop her head and laugh at the absurdity of this whole thing. Hogan and Savage then do their super awesome handshake on the outside and completely take over the match. Hogan makes sure he gets the pin on DiBiase at 14:48. Fun match from start to finish.
• Rating: ***
Blake’s SummerSlam 1988 Awards
- Best Match: Mega Powers vs. Mega Bucks
- SummerSlam MVP: Miss Elizabeth
- Overall SummerSlam 1988 Rating: 6.5/10
- Thoughts: You never forget your first. That was the case with this installment of Summerslam, even if it was far from great. It was more about storyline advancement rather than awesome matches. Nothing wrong with that. All of the tag matches on the show were entertaining, with the main event actually delivering a solid payoff. Little did we know what the future would hold for the Mega Powers.
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