wrestling / Columns

411’s Countdown To SummerSlam: 1990

July 24, 2011 | Posted by Scott Rutherford

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SUMMERSLAM 1990
August 27, 1990 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Spectrum

Another summer and another SummerSlam. This year saw SS headlined by someone that was not Hulk Hogan as The Ultimate Warrior took the top spot against Rick Rude in a fairly lackluster cage match. Unfortunately this was the story of the night in terms of match quality.

Among the few highlight was The Hart Foundation winning back the WWF Tag Team Titles in a 2/3 Falls Match which was the beginning of the end of one of the most successful tag teams ever in Demolition.

The curse of the IC Champion continued when Curt Hennig became the third champion in a row to drop the title in three years in what some would describe as unexpected in a match wth Kerry Von Erich.

For the most part however this was a poor PPV as it lacked effort and spark.

For this look back at 1990 the following 411’s have given their thoughts….

Larry Csonka: 411 webmaster and editor of just about everything around these parts. Often hated and always over opinionated, Larry offers his old school, southern thoughts to proceedings.

Thomas Hall: Thomas currently has the unenviable task of recapping RAW and IMPACT every week. Madness will be his in no time at all.

Scott Rutherford: Longtime 411 stalwart and jack of all trades for over 7 years. Has bounced between most zones as an editor or news columnist. Spends most of his time these days offering music reviews and a Top 5 Wrestling contributor.

THE CARDsize=+2>

The Rockers vs. Power & Glory
Winner: Power & Glory via pinfall
Time: 6:00

Intercontinental Championship – Mr. Perfect vs. The Texas Tornado
Winner: The Texas Tornado via pinfall to win the IC Championship.
Time: 5:15

Sensational Qeen Sherri v. Sapphire
Winner: Sensational Queen Sherri via forfeit.
Time: 0:00

The Warlord vs. Tito Santana
Winner: The Warlord via pinfall
Time: 5:28

Tag Team Championship: 2/3 Falls Match– Demolition vs. The Hart Foundation
Winner: The Hart Foundations via pinfall to regain the Tag Team Championship.
Time: 14:24

Bad News Brown vs. Jake Roberts
Winner: Jake Roberts via DQ.
Time: 4:44

The Orient Express vs. Jim Duggan & Nikolai Volkoff
Winner: Jim Duggan & Nikolai Volkoff via pinfall.
Time: 3:22

Randy Savage vs. Dusty Rhodes
Winner: Randy Savage via pinfall
Time: 2:15

Hulk Hogan vs. Earthquake
Winner: Hulk Hogan via countout.
Time: 13:16

WWF Championship: Steel Cage Match – The Ultimate Warrior vs. Rick Rude
Winner: The Ultimate Warrior via escape.
Time: 10:05

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Best Match: The Hart Foundation vs. Demolition – The Hart Foundation vs. Demolition is easily the best thing on the show, a good tag team match that showcased the two teams, and got some time. The match saw Demolition getting a taste of their own medicine after months of cheap heel tactics. The big problem here is that the Anvil was supposed to get fired, so the logical thing to do would have been to take the tag titles directly to the Rockers. Anyway, good match, and again, far and away the best thing on the show.
Worst Match: Dusty Rhodes vs. Randy Savage – Man, you’re telling me that on one of the biggest PPVs of the year, especially back then, you can only afford to give Dusty Rhodes & Randy Savage, two money drawing hall of fame performers, 136 seconds and a FUCK finish? Seriously? Yeah, that’s what they did here. Absolutely horrible.
Highlight: The Hart Foundation vs. Demolition – With all due respect to The Hart Foundation & Demolition, it’s easy to shine when you’re a diamond in a pile of shit.
MVP: NONE – This show was bad, worse than 1989, but at least 1989 had Miss Elizabeth’s underwear and Warrior’s epic squash of the HTM.
Overall Rating: 2.5 – The early roller coaster of the Survivor Series PPV continued with the event. From poor to good to utter shit, the PPV just couldn’t find a groove. There is one match worth going out of your time to see, and even that match isn’t a classic, just a good wrestling match, featuring tag teams. Hey, does anyone see a theme here early on? The best matches were tag team matches. Such a shame WWE doesn’t give a fuck about tag team wresting thee days. I mean, if Vince McMahon had a pocket full of fucks, and he could re-ignite the glory of tag team wrestling with just ONE fuck, he wouldn’t give it. Anyway, a shit event, do not buy this, unless you are a completist and want to own all of them.

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Best Match: The Hart Foundation def Demolition – This was a damn good tag team match. Demolition got theirs in the end and that’s all that really matters, right?
Worst Match: Sensational Sherri def Sapphire – There really wasn’t a match actually, but it’s still listed as one. So, yeah, since it’s listed as match, and there was a winner, I’m going to recognize it as worst match of the PPV.
Highlight: Kerry Von Erich winning the IC Title. Just saying that it was a good bout between him and Mr. Perfect and I thought it was good to see him win.
Hidden Highlight: N/A
MVP: Hulk Hogan for having what I thought a semi-watchable match with Earthquake.
Overall Rating: 4.5 – It wasn’t all THAT bad. It had it’s moments that really drew me in to the show. But in the end it was THAT great either. There were a lot of points that dragged it WAYYYYY down and made it overall boring.

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Best Match: Easy – Foundation vs. Demolition. This card is pretty crap up and down but this match is good and certainly miles ahead of anything else. What made it work was the various little extra bits. The 2-out-of-3 falls stip. The Demo’s working as a 3 man team, The Road Warriors appearance tipping their hand to the long awaited Demo/Warriors showdown that people have talked about for years. Even on a stacked card this match would have stood out because it had some much going for it and indeed it stood out. It also made it three years running that Bret Hart had pretty much the best match on the card.
Worst Match: Jesus…what kind of suck-titude are you wanting? List it off…The Warrior match was boring…the Hogan match was every Hogan match ever. Jake and Bad News just didn’t click. Rhodes and Savage was a joke. Hennig was just trying to not let Von Erich kill either one of them. Shawn was injured and turned the Rockers/P&G match into an abortion. The ladies was a NR when one participant didn’t show. The continual jobbing of Tito proceeded unabated. Duggan/Volkoff as a tag team was exactly as bad as you would expect. If this was put out as a PPV today it would be roundly shit on and called the worst thing ever.
Highlight:Von Erich winning the IC Title was a surprise. For those who knew who he was it was a feel good moment. If he had just gotten everything together he had the potential to go far with Vince.
Hidden Highlight: Just seeing the Road Warriors square up to Demolition was like a marks wet dream. Shit even the smarks were wetting their pants. Sure you had to be a student of wrestling and have a clue about the territories and the Demo’s rep as wannabes and the Warriors position as the real deal to understand. But if you did, this was a gem of an inside moment
MVP: Bret Hart. Easily the hardest working man in the WWF at that point making everyone he was in the ring with look good.
Overall Rating: D- – If it wasn’t two historic title changes this would have been easily the worst PPV ever. It’s that bad.

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Best Match: Hart Foundation vs. DemolitionThe fans wanted the Harts to win, they wanted Demolition to lose, and they got it in a SWEET style. This was a great tag match with all 5 guys in perfect flow the whole time. The Harts were the underdogs that we all wanted to cheer for and we got to do it. That’s exactly what the fans wanted and it made the fans happy. Couple that with GREAT wrestling and drama and you get a classic match. One of the best tag title matches you’ll ever see.
Worst Match: Jim Duggan/Nikolai Volkoff vs. Orient Express It was just so bland that it wasn’t any good. It was pure filler and nothing of note happens here. It wasn’t bad, just completely unnecessary.
Highlight: Hulk Hogan returns. Hogan had been gone all summer filming Suburban Commando and came back on this night to an eruption. He faced Earthquake, the man that injured him to put him on the shelf. The match ended in a countout win for Hulk and for the life of me I can’t figure out why. Pretty good match but the reaction for Hulk is great.
Hidden Highlight: Jim Duggan cameo. During an interview with Dusty, Gene asks if anyone has seen Sapphire. Duggan walks up, says he hasn’t seen her, and walks on. It sounds really pointless but it’s almost like a This Is Sportscenter commercial. At times at WWF shows, men in big blue underwear carrying 2x4s are around looking for short fat women in polka dots. Doesn’t that happen where you work?
MVP: Hulk Hogan. This is billed as a double main event but I think calling Warrior vs. Rude equal to Hogan’s match is a big stretch. Hogan returning was the selling point here and that’s really all there is to it. He was the focal point and like it did more often than not, it worked.
Overall Rating: A-. It’s personal bias, but I freaking love this show. You get a pure classic in the tag title match, some GREAT promos all night, although too many promos in general, a show long story, a white hot crowd, and some nice chances to catch your breath with some filler and how do you not have an awesome show? That’s the thing about filler: it can be a great tool to have, but it’s so easy to go overboard with it and if that happens, you’re in real trouble because the fans are bored. Feuds were begun and ended, stories were advanced, and the crowd went home happy. How does that not sound awesome? Definite recommendation as they nailed the formula here: have a big card without being as serious as Mania but treat it like Mania, if that makes sense.

Listen to the latest edition of the 411 on Wrestling podcast! On the show, 411’s Larry Csonka is joined by co-host Steve Cook to discuss WWE Smackdown, IMPACT Wrestling, CM Punk Comic-Con invasion, Sin Cara’s Wellness suspension, Chavo Guerrero’s recent comments and more!

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