WWE SummerSlam 91'

WWE SummerSlam 91'

New York, NY - August 1991

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into this show, Hulk Hogan was the WWE World Champion, the Intercontinental Championship was held by Mr. Perfect, and the Nasty Boys were the WWE Tag Team Champions.

This show holds a soft spot in my heart as, if I'm not mistaken, it was the first, second, or third pay-per-view my family ever ordered (the first may have been WrestleMania VII or Survivor Series 90'). I love Vince McMahon's intro for the show as we head to the ring for a six-man tag pitting Slick's team of The Warlord, Paul Roma, and Hercules (the last two were a team known as Power and Glory) against Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, The British Bulldog, and "The Texas Tornado" Kerry Von Erich. Its a telling sign of just how much talent the WWE had in 91' that two former NWA World Champions were being used in the opener. This isn't anything special, but any Ricky Steamboat is better than no Ricky Steamboat. Check out Paul Roma getting arm-dragged from the top rope for proof. When Warlord and Bulldog get in the ring together, the crowd goes bananas and offers clear evidence as to why those two had face-offs on seemingly every PPV from 90' through 91' in some way or another. Hercules looks like he took all the steroids, but doesn't look anywhere near as mobile as he did a few years prior (when he was actually surprisingly quick for a guy his size). I liked how out-of-control this got and, again, Steamboat basically carries things as the face-in-peril for the longest stretch of the match. Not a match that I'd seek out, but if you're cueing up this show, there's no need to fast-forward through it either. (2.5/5)

After a word from the champion, Mr. Perfect defends his WWE Intercontinental Championship against Bret "The Hitman" Hart. For the longest time, this was my favorite match ever. It's still probably in the top 10. It is one of those matches that, from an in-ring perspective, is maybe flawless? Bobby Heenan and Roddy Piper's bickering on commentary gets annoying at times, but when they need to, both guys do focus on the action and characters in the ring. There are so many things to love here - Mr. Perfect's bumping is spectacular and really makes Bret look like a hero, the way Bret cinches in the side headlock that they build the first several minutes on (and somehow, its never dull or boring), the excellently-executed nearfalls and swerves in the back half, the kick-out trading and mirror work, Bret's bump to the outside that causes him to collide with an "international photographer." Its all just so good and so well-paced and, for lack of a better term, perfect. I can understand that, 30 years later, this match might seem a bit underwhelming to modern fans or that, even back in 91', if you were hip to the best wrestling action of the 70s and 80s or in Japan, this wouldn't be considered an all-time great match - but for the WWE, aside from the Savage/Steamboat match at WrestleMania III, this sort of match was light years ahead of the typical WWE match. Knowing now that Curt Hennig was suffering a serious back injury makes his performance even more badass. The criticisms lobbed against this match don't hold much water to me because they basically all rely on a knowledge of "better" matches or performances (Hennig's vaunted AWA work) or nitpicking that certain things weren't properly "built to," criticisms that ignore the context of the match, the fact that this was in many ways the first Hart/Perfect match that the broader audience saw (I didn't even know they'd had a series in 89'), and how, compared to what Hogan and Warrior were doing in the main event, this was a much more coherent and realistic match than the WWE audience had ever seen. A match that every wrestling fan should still absolutely see and that I doubt many would ever consider anything less than great. (5/5)

Andre the Giant guest-managed The Bushwhackers in their match against The Natural Disasters in the next contest. Similar to his appearance at WrestleMania, this was just an excuse to bring Andre out in front of the live crowd as he was no longer able to perform in any meaningful way. This wasn't a good match by any stretch of the imagination, but there are moments that make it, I dunno, not terrible the entire time? The Bushwhackers were over so the crowd isn't dead and, at one point, I loved how the heels switched places during a bearhug and the ref was none the wiser because referees in the WWE in the 90s were complete dopes. At a little over 6 minutes, it doesn't last that long and the post-match appearance by the Legion of Doom gets a massive, massive pop that, once again, highlights how much - on paper, at least - the WWE's 91' roster around this time was maybe the best collection of massively over stars that the company ever had at one time (even if more than a couple guys were on the shelf or had one foot the door or were being underutilized in the midcard). (1.5/5)

The next match is better than it really had any right to be, largely due to the excellent work of "The Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase, who is defending his Million Dollar Belt against his former manservant Virgil. Their match at WrestleMania VII had ended inconclusively so the feud continued through the spring, building up to this final confrontation. At WrestleMania VII, Dibiase had carried Virgil through a similar match, but here, Virgil showed that he had made some gains in and while it would be too far to say he was ever Dibiase's equal, when it came time for him to shine or rally, he was more than competent (check out the gutsy splash he delivers to the arena floor early on, for example). Dibiase looks so good here that it is surprising that his run as a major singles star was winding down by this point and, within a couple years, he'd be working as a manager. Piper is a bit overbearing on commentary (a problem that lasts throughout the show), but at least it makes a little more sense here as he was Virgil's storyline mentor. Dibiase basically has Virgil beat at one point but is so overly confident that it costs him the match, which was a wise way to maintain Dibiase's credibility. Because this exceeded expectations and had the crowd engaged from beginning to end, I'd consider this a better-than-average match. (3/5)

The Jailhouse Match is next - The Mountie vs. The Big Bossman. Before the match, The Mountie instructs the "hick cops" to treat the loser with "Mountie justice," which is on-the-nose foreshadowing that it'll be The Mountie who ends up in cuffs by the end of this match. The Bossman comes in with a ton of energy and was very over with the crowd, but this was still a bit underwhelming. The finish was a bit of a headscratcher to me too as well as The Mountie kicked out of the Bossman Slam, but ends up losing just 5-10 seconds later to an Alabama Slam (a move I definitely don't remember being very common in the WWE or WCW in 1991, but I could be way wrong). Also, no cattle prod spot? Seems like a missed opportunity there. The after-match shenanigans are classic, though, and nudge this one up a little bit as Rougeau gives an amazing performance, screaming and struggling and fighting as the cops take him out of the arena and the crowd goes wild. (2.5/5)

After a series of interviews, an intermission, and a whole bunch of clips of The Mountie getting hauled into jail (more on these later), its time for  our WWE Tag Team Championship match, a No DQ/No Countout match between The Nasty Boys and the challengers, The Legion of Doom. Despite the stipulation - which seemed a bit unnecessary as this was, to my knowledge, the first of their WWE matches - this is not as violent as one might expect based on their resumes. Instead, this is a straight-forward brawl with some rule-breaking by the heels and Hawk getting worked over until Animal comes in for the hot tag. This got 2-and-a-half stars from Meltzer, which seems a tad generous but also just goes show what was considered good wrestling at the time as nothing really stood out in this match. The crowd was certainly into it and you do get the "feel good" ending, but this wouldn't make either team's Best Of and the Nasties would end up putting on much, much, much better hardcore matches in WCW within a couple of years of this. (2/5)

As noted in the previous paragraph, the second half of this show features multiple segments involving The Mountie being booked at a NYC jail and every single one of them is amazing. Jacques Rougeau's performance in these are legitimately funny in a way that very, very few WWE segments of any era is legitimately funny and well-performed. He is so over-the-top that everything works - except for maybe the homophobic joke at the end when a biker in his jail cell asks him, with a cliche gay lisp, "Isn't it great how leather feels on skin?" Its the kind of "joke" that a 7-year old me would've never got at the time and does nothing but date the segment. Still, aside from that single 2-second tag, Jacques' performance is excellent and makes for some of the best comedy that was ever aired on a WWE program. (+1)

Back to the ring we go for a filler match pitting Irwin R. Shyster (Michael Wallstreet) against Greg "The Hammer" Valentine. I liked Roddy Piper mentioning how tough Valentine is, a little nod to the longtime fans who remembered his series of violent clashes with The Hammer in the early 80s (for the NWA, mind you). Anyway, IRS is a boring worker no matter how many commentators talk up his technical prowess. Valentine wasn't exactly the most thrilling worker either so you end up with a decent-to-good match that doesn't feel PPV worthy. Why not showcase The Undertaker here? Hell, wasn't Repo Man around? I'm not sure if they could legally have Flair appear on-screen yet, but a segment with him would've been preferred too. Honestly, leaving this match off the card would've been addition by subtraction too. (0.5/5)

Main event time - Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior take on Sgt. Slaughter, Colonel Mustafa (The Iron Shiek), and General Adnan. Sid Justice is the special guest referee too so, by my count, that's 6 performers in the ring with Hulk Hogan somehow being the most reliable for a good performance out of the whole bunch. That's saying something and its not saying something good. After an awesome match against Randy Savage at WrestleMania VII, Warrior had a bit of a feud going with Jake Roberts and the Undertaker on-screen, but was not a happy camper backstage and famously held up Vince McMahon before the show, getting himself fired  by the end of the night (I wonder if the finish, which sees Warrior disappear down the aisle in pursuit of Adnan and Mustafa and never return, thus missing the posedown with Hogan and Sid, was altered to get him off-camera). Sid was a "tweener" coming into things and I actually thought his performance as the referee was solid (in the sense that he could've fucked it up, but didn't). I like how got into it with both Hogan and Warrior at various points to add some much-needed drama to this match. The Triangle of Terror gimmick had run its course by April, so stretching it into August certainly wasn't brilliant creative work, but the crowd was into it because Hogan was still a big star and seeing him tag with Warrior to trounce on the heels was a guaranteed crowd-pleasing sight. This show somehow did more buys than WrestleMania VII, but about 100k less than the previous year's show (the WWE's pay-per-view business would continue to dip with only their biggest shows doing more than 400k buyers until things really picked up in 99'). Anyway, the match itself isn't unwatchable, but its not good and is less enjoyable than Hogan and Slaughter's fight at WrestleMania (which had the benefit of actual stakes and some blood). (1/5)

The show doesn't end there, though, as we get the Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth wedding. The softie in me wants to give this segment an extra point, but while every other segment involving these two was gold and really well-produced, the final 10-12 minutes of this show are just a slog to get through (and the Peacock/WWE Network version doesn't include the wonderful wedding party segment with Jake Roberts and Undertaker that would air on WWE TV in the weeks to come). The cheesy Savage/Liz music video that airs before the segment seems to have been overdubbed with new music that takes away even the nostalgia factor from watching this now. Too bad.


Though its Kwang Score - a measly 2.31-out-of-5 - would suggest that SummerSlam 91' is an average show, there are some intangibles that make this much more watchable than one might expect. Obviously, Hart/Perfect is a "must see" match, but the Jacques Rougeau segments are also delightful, the sheer number of babyface victories make the whole show feel joyous, and while the main event isn't a good wrestling match, the star power is there. Heenan and Piper's commentary is distracting at times and they show a surprising lack of chemistry - both guys too busy trying to get their jokes in to focus on the match or to even allow each other to shine - but its rarely dull and certainly keeps the show moving. There are some outright bad matches in IRS/Valentine and Bushwhackers/Disasters, but Dibiase/Virgil overdelivers and did I mention just how great the Jacques Rougeau segments are? 

FINAL RATING - Watch It...With Remote in Hand