411's Roundtable Review: Summerslam 1991
Posted by Ryan Byers on 08.11.2006
We all know that this show was billed as "The Match Made in Heaven and the Match Made in Hell," but which will our panel of 411 writers be? Will they be at each other's throats, or will they ride off happily in to the sunset holding hands?
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen to 411 Wrestling's Roundtable Review of 1991. We're already up to the fourth edition of the WWF's August tradition, and noticeable changes have begun not just in the Fed's roster but also on our roster of reviewers. We have three brand new faces bringing this action to you, plus one old favorite. Here's the lineup!
- There's only one man intense enough to take this whole journey with me, reviewing every Summerslam from the distant past and on to modern day. That's Stuart Carapola, who normally pens This Week in Hardcore and That Was Then.
- New Kid on the Block number one is Ben Moser. He's on loan from our famed movie zone, in which he produces the Doctor in the Hallway News Report. He's the "bad boy" of the group.
- New Kid on the Block number two is Dino Zucconi. He periodically marks his territory in the wrestling zone, which is why Larry Csonka always has Febreeze on hand. He's the "cute one."
- New Kid on the Block number three is Taareq Elsokari, and, jesus, spelling his name properly is difficult. He usually mans the helm of the sports zone's soccer coverage. He's the "mature, older brother" of the group.
Our very own 411 Boy Band has the task of taking apart Summerslam 1991, which is one of the better remembered pay per views in WWF history. It's a unique show, as it is one of the few pay per views in which the "main event" was not a match but rather an angle being shot. Of course, I'm talking about the wedding of the Macho Man Randy Savage and Elizabeth, which suckered so many female fans in to wrestling around this very time. Of course, there was still some material for the gents as well, with Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior teaming up in the top match on the card and Mr. Perfect taking on Bret Hart in one of the finest examples ever of what professional wrestling should be. That's enough of my analysis, though. Let's take it to the panelists.
Match Number One: Davey Boy Smith, Kerry Von Erich, & Ricky Steamboat vs. Power & Glory & The Warlord
Ben Moser: A couple of things come to mind as I watch this match. The first is that Paul Roma is far better than I remember him being. Maybe his stint as half of the over-the-hill tag duo Pretty Wonderful slanted my viewpoint. The second is I will never get the hype behind anyone named Von Erich. I just won't. Kerry Von Erich does a lot of punching in this match. A lot. Bulldog does some impressive-ish power stuff, and Steamboat finishes this one off. Heenan and Piper's war of words was more interesting than the match.
Stuart Carapola: I had heard of the Warlord and Power & Glory before this, but I had never heard of "The Dragon", "The Texas Tornado", or "The British Bulldog" before now, and when I found out that Ricky Steamboat was a former WWF IC and NWA World Champion I thought to myself "You mean that guy who spent the whole match getting his ass kicked by the Warlord?" When I found out what all these men accomplished both before and after this show, I can't believe that the three of them were wasted in this match. A perfect example of how Ricky Steamboat is one of the all time kings of selling, this was a great match to start the show and get people warmed up.
Taareq Elsokari: Dragon starts off for the faces against Glory. Collar Elbow tie up to start off. Glory gets the better of the early exchanges with a knee to the gut a right hand and a body slam followed by a text book drop kick. Glory taunts the crowd giving the Dragon time to recoup and hit an arm drag as he comes off the second rope. Tag to Power, a few arm drags by The Dragon before the Tornado is in. Tornado shows his power and does the head to the turnbuckle 10 times before the 10 punches. Bulldog is in now and so is The Warlord and the crowd goes nuts. Bulldog takes him down and then brings in the Dragon. The Dragon then gets overpowered and takes the beating to set up the eventual hot tag. During the beating we get the classic Monsoon line "how much more punishment can one man take". The match end with a Dragon Cross Body off the top rope. Hot opener with good action.
Dino Zucconi: First off, Slick ruled. If you don't know that, eat balls. As we may or may not know, The Dragon is Ricky Steamboat, but he was never acknowledged as such. Tornado = Kerry Von Erich. Power and Glory was another good team, but got destroyed by LOD and that was that. Either way, the point of this match? Bulldog had beef with the Warlord, and Power and Glory were in the same camp as the big bald man, so Bulldog found a couple friends of his own. The good: This is a pretty fast match, with a nice long beatdown of Steamboat in there. Everyone seems to have brought their game, with nothing too noticeable. I always enjoyed this match when I was younger, and it's still fun now. I have to say- and probably will a few times over- that the commentary is fantastic. Hearing Piper shout "Come on, TEXAS!" to encourage the Tornado is so frickin rad. The awesome thing is, Piper's best is coming up in just a little bit. The bad: There's really no real crowd interest per se, but Steamboat holds the match together well during his beatdown, Tornado looks good, Bulldog and Warlord's power showdown is nice, and Herc and Roma also looked good. Nothing earth shatteringly awesome, but a decent match. Overall: Like I said, it's a pretty fun match. Definitely a good start, with everyone not sucking at the very least, or clicking on all cylinders at best. I like!
Match Number Two: Mr. Perfect (c) vs. Bret Hart for the WWF Intercontinental Championship
Ben Moser: Can we just start by saying that Curt Hennig sells everything in the match like it just might end up killing him? Quick interweb research reveals that Henning's back was pretty messed up for this match, so maybe it isn't good selling. Maybe he really did think that he was going to be the first guy to die of disintegrated back syndrome right then and there. Honestly, the fact that he was so hurt just makes how enjoyable this match is all the more amazing. This was Bret's first run at the big time on his own, and some would say he owned the moment. I think, though, that Curt Henning gets the gold star for this one. Hart gets his stuff sold like it's pain-in-a-bottle, gets to kick out of the Perfect-plex, and gets a sweet little reversal of the wishbone legdrop into the sharpshooter for a submission that may have registered before the hold was even locked in tight. Just an honest-to-goodness fun match to watch.
Stuart Carapola: I can't believe that on my first WWF show, I was able to see one of the all time classics in Bret Hart vs Mr Perfect for the IC Title. I knew at the time that this was a good match, but even today it holds up well. This was Mr Perfect's last match for a while due to the back injury he suffered leading up to Summerslam, and due to this match alone, I couldn't wait for him to one day get back in the ring, which finally happened over a year later. Due to Perfect submitting nanoseconds after being put in the Sharpshooter (and please bear in mind that I was 11 and had been watching wrestling for a very short time at this point), I didn't understand the concept of submission and thought that this was a move that you somehow won the match just by successfully applying it. Turns out it was just a great way of building the Sharpshooter as an effective and believable finisher for Bret. Still one of my all time favorites.
Taareq Elsokari: The announcers put over how loud the live crowd is for Bret's entrance. Perfect then comes out to a chorus of boos and Brain noting "doesn't he look Perfect" and Monsoon saying "he looks confident". Brain also puts over the fact that Perfect "doesn't have to beat Hart", the "run and hide" method that Piper refers to. Bret starts off very aggressive and takes Perfect by surprise. Piper puts over how high stakes this match is for Bret and he has all to gain especially with his parents in the stand. Crucifix by Bret gets two and Bret goes right back to the headlock. Perfect tries to pull Bret's hair to counter and Bret returns the favour by pulling his hair to get him back into the headlock. Perfect breaks the headlock with a hard knee to the gut. Bret counters an Irish whip a cross body. The announcers are doing a great job of putting over the psychology and the importance of the match. Brain points out how when Bret was outside the ring and next to Coach, he paid no attention to Coach and just got right back into the ring. Perfect tries to walk down the isle and Bret goes to get him and throws him back into the ring. Awesome match with both guys working their butts off. A few near falls. Perfect Plex and Bret KICKS OUT. Piper is going crazy and Brain says "Nobody has ever kicked out of that" and then says how that must have demoralized Perfect. Bret now starts to take over the match and gets a near fall after a snap suplex. Another near fall with a small package and a Russian Leg Sweep that Monsoon calls as a neck breaker. Another near fall after a backbreaker and an elbow off the second rope. Bret argues with Hebner and Perfect goes for a rollup. The fight goes to the outside before Bret throws Perfect straight back into the ring. Bret now starts to work on the leg. Brain puts over how worried he is for Perfect by asking if the time limit is nearly up. Bret goes for the Sharpshooter but breaks it as the Coach gets on the apron and Bret knocks him out which brings a "HE HIT A MAN WITH GLASSES" by Heenan. Bret then blocks a legdrop to the mid section and just turns it into the Sharp Shooter to which Perfect gives up. What a great match and all three announcers put Bret over crazy amounts. Commentary isn't what it was and the match was just amazing. Bret celebrates with his parents as Alfred Hayes tries to get an interview and gets an "Its wonderful" from Stu.
Dino Zucconi: So, the Hart Foundation broke up after losing the tag titles to the Nasty Boys at WrestleMania 7, and Bret- as we all know, my favorite- went out on his own, and earned himself a shot at Hennig. It was a battle of "Excellence against Perfection." Could Bret do it? Would Perfect's experience hold out? If you've never heard of this match, I really don't know what to say to you. It's so frickin good. The good: Seriously, huh? It's BRET HART and CURT HENNIG. Hennig also had an injured back at this point, but he goes out there and tears the house down with Hart. Also, Coach- former wrestler John Tolos- is great as a manager, and Fonzie pretty much owes him every single penny he ever made. For those who like keeping track, that is. High points in this match include Hart kicking out of the Perfect Plex- making him the first guy not named "Hogan" or "Warrior" to do so, if I remember correctly- as well as the finale with Hart locking the Sharpshooter out of nowhere while on his back, rolling over, and pulling Hennig so far back that Hebner's calling for the immediately, and that's still about four seconds after Hennig was submitting. Hart succeeds, and the first of many singles titles in the WWF was on the way for Hart. The bad: Riiiight. The bad is that it couldn't go on forever. Honestly, that match holds up very well. Nothing bad to say here. Overall: Always a sentimental favorite of mine, and it still holds up. It's technically solid, I swear it's pretty much loved amongst the smarks, and of course I love it. I'm not kidding, if you don't how much this match rules, I'm kind of sad for you.
Match Number Three: The Natural Disasters vs. The Bushwackers
Ben Moser: This is the revenge match for Tugboat turning on the ‘Whackers and becoming the mighty Typhoon(there was no revenge match for when he became thee mighty Shockmaster). For a reason that I'm to this day unable to put a clear finger on, I am a Natural Disasters mark-and-a-half. To me, two fat guys naming themselves after acts of God and forming a tag team was just a wonderful concept. So I absolutely love this squash. I recently read a book about great tag teams where I learned all about how violent Butch and Luke were as the Sheepherders. I don't see even a trace of that in the cartoonish Bushwhackers, but what do I know? Marvelous squash for a tag team that I wish had lasted longer. Backstage moment of significance: Bobby Heenan knocks on the Hulkster's door holding the NWA World Title and challenges Hulk on behalf of the "real world's champ," Ric Flair. At 12-years-old, I didn't know what I was seeing. As a 17-year-old who's seen this a hundred times, it still gives me a little stir.
Stuart Carapola: Really fun match because here you had these two normal sized (for wrestlers) guys against these huge men they wouldn't seem to have any kind of chance against, yet with their goofy style, the Bushwhackers were able to make this a very entertaining match. Even though the Natural Disasters won, I wondered afterward what would have happened if the Nasty Boys hadn't lost the Tag Team Title later in the show, because I thought the Bushwhackers would have had a good chance of beating them for the titles. Of course, I had no idea how ludicrous a concept the Bushwhackers as champs was at the time, I just thought they were cool. My dad thought they were some kind of fags because they went around licking people. I also believe this was Andre's last televised WWF appearance, as he was in the Bushwhackers' corner following an attack by Earthquake months earlier. The Legion of Doom's appearance at the end of this to defend Andre against the Disasters set off their months long feud that never really had an ending.
Taareq Elsokari: Butch starts off for the Bushwackers and then proceeds to byte Typhoons ass. A double team by the Bushwackers and take Earthquake down with a double clothesline. Brain announces that Hogan is in the building and that he will go and "embarrass him" as its now "Put up or shut up time" and then leaves. The Natural Disasters win the match when Earthquake hits his finisher on one of the Bushwackers. It was a sort of running ass drop. Looked totally painful. After the match, the Disasters go after Andre but Legion Of Doom come down to defend the Giant. The Natural Disasters get back in the ring and then the Legion Of Doom and the Bushwackers get in the ring and the Natural Disasters quickly leave the ring.
Dino Zucconi: So, Andre was "coming back," and he "needed a manager." When Jimmy Hart offered, Andre turned him down, and Earthquake jumped him, attacking the knee. As such, Andre was on crutches, and unable to return to the ring. Luckily, his good friends the Bushwhackers had no problem calling out Earthquake and his partner Typhoon- collectively known as the Natural Disasters- to a fight at the big summer extravaganza. The good: Bobby Heenan gets off a GREAT line, as he says "If I was managing the Bushwhackers, I'd commit suicide." Oh man, I'm telling you, all night long the announcing trio just ping off great lines with each other. It's fantastic. This is pretty much a squash, with the Bushwhackers starting strong early, but once they lose control, it's all Nats. The Earthquake Splash finishes the Whackers. Heh heh, I said Whackers. Also, after the match, the Nats try to jump Andre, only to have LOD come out and save. Pretty nice. The bad: I was never a huge Natural Disasters fan as a kid, so this match has no real meaning to me. It was pretty much to set up a future LOD / Nats feud, but the Bushies got their asses kicked. Overall: Inoffensive, served its purpose. The Natural Disasters would start a decent little run after this, winning a few tag titles along the way. LOD, of course, had some things of their own to take care of.
Match Number Four: Ted DiBiase (c) vs. Virgil for the Million Dollar Championship
Ben Moser: Virgil was coming off of being the lackey to Dibiase and had the crowd's support in an unreal way. I can watch this and see how over Virgil is. I can remember how much I loved Virgil at the time. How did he never really achieve anything in wrestling? Okay, this is an exercise in messing with your audience. Sensational Sherri, in Dibiase's corner for this one, interferes when Virgil has him in a Million Dollar Dream for the DQ. The cheap finish sucks the life out of the crowd unti…THIS MATCH MUST CONTINUE!!! Virgil gets the legit 3-count for the belt and the place pops like crazy. Like I said, I have no idea how Virgil wasn't able to ride this kind of fan support to something huge. Maybe we just hated Dibiase more than we loved Virgil? I got nothing. Hey 411mania wrestling staff, why didn't Virgil go on to bigger things?
Stuart Carapola: This was the feel good story of the evening. This was when Virgil was a semi-credible wrestler and wasn't doing jobs to Bastion Booger yet. I remember thinking that Virgil got screwed when Sherri drew the DQ when Virgil had DiBiase in the Million Dollar Dream, but marked out bigtime when the ref restarted the match and sent Sherri to the back. The super hot ending had DiBiase taking his battered and beaten former bodyguard to the corner to ram him into the exposed turnbuckle, but Virgil ran DiBiase into the corner instead and both men were down. In the dramatic ending and crowd pop to end all dramatic endings and crowd pops, Virgil crawled over to DiBiase as the ref counted both men down, and covered DiBiase as the ref got to 9 and pinned him to win the belt.
Taareq Elsokari: Virgil jumps DiBiase from behind and attacks with some high impact and throws him to the outside. "Boobs" is back and gets a little flack from Monsoon and Piper about his embarrassment by Hogan. Virgil locks in the Million Dollar Dream and has him in the move for a while before Sherri interferes. The ref rings the bell and The Fink makes the announcement that Sherri is bared from ringside or faces suspension and the match must continue. DiBiase takes control after a reversal on an Irish Whip which also gives us a Ref bump. DiBiase starts to taunt Piper and Piper starts shouting his instructions and encouragement to Virgil. Triple Verticle suplexes by Million Dollar Man and Heenan says "hope Virgil didn't do anything stupid and put a down payment on anything like a boombox" and Monsoon replies with his classic "will you stop". Piledriver and some more taunting of Piper. DiBiase uncovers the turn-buckle and taunts Virgil and goes to through him into it but Virgil counters by throwing DiBiase into it twice. Both men are down and the ref is up. And Virgil covers for the win. "The next time you see that belt, it will be hanging from the mirror of a 1970 Cadi" says Bobby Heenan as Virgil is celebrating.
Dino Zucconi: Okay, so this is where Roddy Piper transcends all things physical and becomes the greatest damn commentator of all time. I'll put whatever rep I have on the line, cause it's true. By the way, Virgil RULED THE WORLD. I loved it so much when he turned on Teddy, and he used to always be the heavyweight champ with my action figures. Virgil RULED, people. Anyways, after a screwy countout finish at WrestleMania 7, the two have a rematch for the Million Dollar Belt, COULD VIRGIL DO IT?!? The good: Good false finish early. Virgil gets a Million Dollar Dream on DiBiase, and Sherri clocks him with her (presumably loaded) purse. But WAIT! The ref decides that Sherri's gots'ta go, and the match WILL RESTART! That had the fans SUPER pissed for a second, but then SUPER happy. Also, PIPER PIPER PIPER. You'll find no better example of doing everything you can outside of the ring to get someone over as Piper does here. My personal favorite is when Virgil is in trouble- ref out, DiBiase dishing out punishment- and they do a quick camera shot of Piper. He gets this wicked angry look on his face and just screams out, "COME ON, VIRGIL!" I don't know, it's always been a huge favorite of mine. DiBiase hits two suplexes, as well as a piledriver, always taunting Piper with a "this one's for you." He goes to take off the turnbuckle pad, tries to slam Virgil into the metal, but VIRGIL BLOCKS! REVERSES! TED IS OUT COLD! 1-2-3! Piper goes NUTS, but doesn't enter the ring, leaving Virgil to have the moment to himself. Whatever, give it 1 asterisk if you want, this match rules. The bad: Pffft. Eat a fatty. Virgil was awesome. Overall: The crowd LOVED this, we LOVED it, and I STILL love it now. DiBiase had to get an ass whooping, and after all his garbage cheating, Virgil FINALLY showed that he had his fomer boss' number. SuperAwesome!
Match Number Five: The Big Bossman vs. The Mountie in a Jailhouse Match
Ben Moser: So in a battle over who dishes out the superior justice, America or Canada, the loser of this match gets tossed in jail. The match isn't much to speak of, but again Heenan and Piper's remarks about how the life of the Bossman/Mountie in prison might be like are hilarious, even if they are sometimes pretty cheap. Also, after Bossman picks up the win, the Mountie screaming as if he feels Mr. Perfect's pain from earlier in the night is priceless. Between interviews he'll be dropped off for his evening of incarceration and fingerprinted. Fun stuff, but it needs matches to separate it, not interviews. Still, everything about this but the wrestling is high quality entertainment.
Stuart Carapola: Despite chicanery on the part of the Mountie and manager Jimmy Hart, the Big Boss Man reversed a piledriver attempt into a sort of spinebuster/powerbomb that knocked the Mountie out and left him easy prey for a three count. The Big Boss Man brought out the NYC cops, cuffed the Mountie, and threw him in the back of the police wagon. Throughout the rest of the show we were fortunate enough to see some incredibly funny skits of the Mountie in jail getting fingerprinted, photographed, then thrown in a cell with a gay biker. Classic, classic stuff.
Dino Zucconi: Obviously, when there are two different law enforcement type wrestlers, with one being a cop and the other a mountie, and one being a good guy while the other's a bad guy, they have to fight. And it has to be over who the real Law of the Land is. And the loser should absolutely have to go to jail. Mountie talks shit before the match to some local NYPD, treating them like idiots as he describes how Bossman is to be treated. Hey, remember when you could make fun of NYPD? Just asking. The good: Mountie impresses with a nice stalling piledriver on the Bossman- though admittedly, it took three tries to get Bossman up. To be fair, they made it look like Bossman was fighting it, and really, could YOU piledrive Bossman? Mountie gets some props for kicking out of the BossMan Slam, shocking the crowd more than somewhat. He trips the Bossman, tries a second piledriver- BOSSMAN BLOCKS. ALABAMA SLAM! BOSSMAN WINS! The Mountie's going to jail, folks. The bad: Crowd wasn't digging this at all times, but whaddayagonnado? The second it was over, they were LOVING it, so while it may not be a masterpiece, it got everyone into it, and the right guy won. Overall: Bossman proves to be in charge of the WWF. The whole ordeal with the Mountie being dragged off- as he previously described- is great. We'll see more of him later.
Match Number Six: The Nasty Boys (c) vs. The Legion of Doom for the WWF Tag Team Championship
Ben Moser: This is another historically significant match, as I believe that with this win the Road Warriors/LOD become the first team to hold the tag titles in the WWF, AWA, and WCW. The story here is that if LOD loses, then there will not be any more title shots. Pre-hardcore hardcore action involves a drink tray, Jimmy Hart's megaphone, mace, and ultimately a motorcycle helmet leading to the Doomsday Device. I suppose it isn't a horrible match for what it was. In some cases, it was even a serviceably watchable bit of sports entertainment.
Stuart Carapola: As I already said, the LOD won the titles here, although the significance of what they achieved escaped me until years later when I found out that with this win, they became the only team ever to hold the AWA, NWA, and WWF World Tag Team Titles.
Taareq Elsokari: A pretty good tag match with Nasty Boys working over Hawk before the hot tag to Animal. There was a cool spot where Knobbs goes to Hit Hawk with a helmet, but Hawk ducks and Knobs sort of stops shrugs his shoulders and just hits Hawk anyway. The finish came as Hawk hit Knobbs with a helmet and then Hawk went up for the Doomsday Device. New champs. In a very entertaining match.
Dino Zucconi: The Nastys robbed the Hart Foundation at WrestleMania 7, the Legion of Doom had been chasing the champs forever, and this was a no disqualification, no countout brawl for the belts. Uhh, you really haven't heard of this match? Yowsa. The good: Animal busts out a pretty sick powerbomb early on. This is just a really damn good brawl, with soda tubs (?!) being used as weapons. Seriously, the Nasty Boys, limited as they were, could always do a damn good brawl, and it's true here. Hawk grabs a helmet, and a Doomsday Device finishes, as the LOD finally get themselves a WWF tag title reign. If there's five actual moves in this match, I'd be surprised. Who cares? It's a rad, rad, RAD brawl. The bad: No blood? I guess it's pretty ticky tack, but that would've made it better. Not a blood bath at all, considering the chaos the whole time. But really, nothing else too bad. Overall: LOD, almost a year after showing up, finally got themselves the belts. They'd hold onto them for a while, surviving a feud with the Natural Disasters, but losing the belts to Money Incorporated- Ted DiBiase and Irwin R. Schyster. Remember that. It's kinda relevant.
Match Number Seven: Irwin R. Schyster vs. Greg Valentine
Ben Moser: Decent little match here, especially considering that this was entirely to build Rotunda as a force to be reckoned with in the WWF. Match ends when Valentine goes to the figure four well one too many times and gets caught in a small package. The crowd isn't into it, but I blame the lame IRS gimmick more than the wrestling.
Stuart Carapola: Uncommonly short and boring for this show, but it did the intended job of making me think that IRS was a tool.
Taareq Elsokari: Decent match between two ring technicians. IRS wins by rolling up Hammer as Hammer goes for the figure 4.
Dino Zucconi: IRS was new. I already told you the full name above, so let's roll. This is pretty much a "get the new guy over" match, so you can imagine how fun it is. The good: I like both guys, so that's kinda cool. Also, the announce team continue to amaze, pointing out why going after the tie of IRS should be obvious, with Piper countering that he heard "it's a clipon," which obviously negates grabbing it. I'm telling you, that trio kicks announcing ass the whole show. Otherwise, it's kind of a weak match, but who cares? Gotta cool the crowd before you get them to explode. The bad: It's kinda slow, Valentine "signals" for the finisher like 28 times at the end, confusing the shit out of Piper, and eventually gets caught in a small package for the IRS win. Whoop-a-dee-doo. Overall: Meh. Welcome to the WWF, Mr. Rotundo(a). Thank you, Mr. Valentine, for doing us this favor.
Match Number Eight: Hulk Hogan & The Ultimate Warrior vs. Colonel Mustafa, General Adnan, & Sergeant Slaughter
Ben Moser: Sid Justice(neither Vicious nor Psycho at this point) is your special guest referee, who has pledged all night to call it right down the middle. We're in full-on "Sgt. Slaughter, Iraqi Traitor" mode right now, too for those keeping score. Warrior Warrior would be relived of his duties after this match, because he held up the company for extra $ before the match (WWE version of the story). Anyway, in true WWF fashion, the evil foreigners are punished for being evil and foreign by a team that really knows punches and clotheslines. Yay, punishment of evil foreigners!
Stuart Carapola: This was the Ultimate Warrior's last WWF appearance until Wrestlemania 8, and the last we saw of the Warrior was him chasing Adnan and Mustafa to the back with a chair. I had no doubt that Hogan and Warrior would win, I just remember seeing Sid Justice for the first time and thinking to myself "this guy could kick ALL their asses." I was equally impressed by Sid's massive physique when he was coaxed back to the ring to join Hogan in a post match posing session.
Taareq Elsokari: The commentators tease whether or not Sid Justice can be trusted. Warrior comes out and runs around the ring doing his awesome entrance and Heenan says "here comes Captain Schitzo……..this guy makes coffee nervous", brilliant. Hogan Irish Whips Slaughter to the Corner with so much velocity that he goes flying on top of the turnbuckle. Hogan then smashes Slaughters head right into the top of the turnbuckle. Hogan and Warrior working like a well oiled team. Taking Slaughter apart and Slaughter is actually busted open. Justice teases a turn by pushing Hogan forcing a break. Mustapha in. Works Hogan over with a nice gut wrench suplex and then puts on the Camel Cluctch. Warrior then comes in and breaks the hold. Justice forces a clean break from Slaughter. Slaughter goes for an Irish Whip on Hogan but then spins him around and throws him into Sid. Hogan and Sid stare eachother down and then Slaughter attacks Hogan from behind. Slaughter continues working over Hogan as the commentators continue to tease a Sid turn. He goes to the top but Warrior walks along and throws him off the top. Hogan gets the hot tag and Warrior is in and takes Slaughter down with 5 clotheslines before running into Sid. They stare down before Slaughter pulls Warrior over to his corner and the triple team starts. Warrior getting beaten down and Piper shouts "come on Warrior get off your butt and tag". Warrior ducks a clothesline and hits a flying clothesline of his own. Both men are down and Warrior gets the hot tag to Hogan at 9. Hogan does his whole "No" and finger point. Hits the boot and Warrior is in to clean house and chases the Two Iraqis off with a chair. Hogan has some sort of powder and throws it into Slaughter's face and then hits the Leg Drop. Sid turns around and makes what seems to be a pretty quick count for 1, 2, 3. Piper keeps repeating the question "where'd Warrior go", looking back that's gotta be a reference to the whole Warrior holding Vince up for money and then getting fired for it. Hogan poses for the crowd and still absolutely no sign for Warrior.
Hogan calls Sid back into the ring as he acts like a turd acting all like "what do you want me to do", muppet. The two of them sit and pose.
Dino Zucconi: So, the bad guys are all Iraqi, or Iraqi sympathizers. Slaughter stole the belt from the Warrior, and Hogan won it from Slaughter. Sid (Justice) was newly signed from WCW, and he was there to uphold law and order. Just having Hogan and Warrior team up is cool enough for me. The good: The Iron Sheik, aka Col. Mustafa. Dude was a really good technical guy. He's got a nice gutwrench, and his camel clutch was nice. Sure, he looked broken at Mania 17, but even in 1991, he was still pretty good. Sid does a good job of calling it right down the middle, pissing off the fans when the heroes cheat and get busted. In the end, Warrior chases off the two that don't matter, while Hogan powders Slaughter, and finishes with the legdrop. Then Hogan and Sid share a very awkward posedown. The announcers even mention how Sid "has never posed before." Yeah, pretty awkward. The bad: That's the last match. I mean, it's cool and all, but a title match might've been nice. But considering that it was new champs all the way around, I'm okay with it. It was a nice blow off to the feud, and Slaughter was turned face shortly afterward, with the Warrior disappearing until WrestleMania 8. Overall: This one's got some degree of fame due to the whole "Warrior quitting / getting fired / holding Vince up for money" deal surrounding it. I don't know what happened for sure, but the fact is, when Warrior ran through that curtain chasing the jerks, he wasn't seen again until Mania 8, helping Hogan fight off Sid (Justice) and Papa Shango. Weird situation, but at least Hogan got the win.
Match Number Nine: Randy Savage vs. Miss Elizabeth in a Nuptial Match
Ben Moser: See this? Every time young Stephie Mac throws a wedding in our face, this is the reason why. Stephie and Test? Kane and Lita? Billy and Chuck? Dawn Marie and Old Wilson? All the fault of this wedding, which actually worked. Of course, it helped that people cared about these characters in a way that no one will ever care about "Chuckabilly" or Kane. Savage has a huge feather in his cap and checks with the audience to be sure it's okay to go through with the vows. Hilarious stuff, yet somehow touching.
Stuart Carapola: Even thought the wrestling was done for the night, the evening was closed by the wedding of Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth. This was, of course, in storyline only as they had actually been married for some time in real life. All through the evening, they had been pimping 1-900-ATTACHED, a 900 number that the fans could call to hopefully talk to either Randy or Elizabeth before they married at the end of the evening. To this day, I still find humor in the fact that, with only seven digits to work with, the number was actually 1-900-ATTACHE, and wondered if the WWF later sold the number to a company that sold briefcases. But this was a great way to close the evening with a happy ending, which would explain why they didn't show Jake Roberts and the Undertaker crashing the reception until the next week on TV.
Taareq Elsokari: They show a video package to honour them. It's a pretty nice package and tune. Works pretty well for them. It's a shame how both of them have turned out these days, you know with Elizabeth dead and Savage crazy. The ring ropes have been taken off and the ring is set up for the wedding ceremony. Piper goes off on Heenan when he says "I can't wait till Elizabeth comes out, I want to see what blue lace special dress she's wearing." Savage comes out to a big pop and points at the crowd and he's dressed in a sweet white Macho Man tux. Piper then threatens Heenan if he messes it up. Now Elizabeth makes her entrance, but first there's a little flower girl. Next we get the ring bearer. Now here comes Elizabeth and a huge pop for her. When the Priest asks if he taker her to be his wife he replies with his trademark "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH YEAH". Macho Man ruled. Liz says "I Will" and Piper goes "so glad they got all the right answers". The Priest pronounces them as Husband and Wife and Randy takes his hat off and gets ready to kiss the bride. They now show the reception and Heenan is in the line to congratulate the couple but he's walking with his down to floor and shaking his head and Savage replies "I feel sorry for you to Brother……show this man the exit" genius. They do the whole cake thing and then open the presents and one of the boxes has a snake in it and pandemonium breaks lose. Undertaker attacks Savage knocking him out with the urn. Jake "the Snake" Roberts taunts Elizabeth with the Cobra till Sid chases him off with a chair.
Dino Zucconi: Yeesh. Okay, I think we ALL know the story, so let's make this quick. The good: Dude, this thing was MONEY. I remember watching the show where Savage proposed, and my Mom stopped cleaning - which she already never did, but she HATED wrestling - and watched the whole thing. She was SO excited when Liz accepted. That's why this thing is so fondly remembered - it got a LOT of people talking about it. Hell, Stephanie McMahon admitted that THAT is what hooked her. But seriously, my Mom HATES wrestling, and she was digging it. It was a nice finale to the climax of Liz saving Savage at Mania 7. The bad: It's a wedding at a wrestling show? But at least nothing ornery happens. A CLEAN FINISH IN A WEDDING?! WHO KNEW?!? Overall: Everyone sheds a tear, and you get to hear Savage "plight thee my trough." Man, the fucked up shit they have him say in his vows is insane.
Final Thoughts
Ben Moser: The wrestling isn't always there, but the show is still a lot of fun to watch. There's something for everyone in this one: Hart v Henning is there for the work rate freaks, the Macho Wedding is there for sports entertainment purists, and everything in between seems to be hit. I'll be back to give you the word on '97. Until then, don't do anything I wouldn't do…
Stuart Carapola: Summerslam 1991 was not only the first wrestling PPV I ever saw, but my first WWF show ever, and it instantly had me hooked. I remember getting the tape from my dad's girlfriend at the time because she knew I was into the wrestling on ESPN at the time, so she taped it for me. At that time, I was used to watching the daily one hour USWA and GWF shows and I had no idea that shows could run more than that. Not that I was complaining, and in fact I loved the show so much that I hoped it would never end, and was incredibly bummed when it did. Without a doubt, one of my favorite PPVs of all time and one that will always hold a special place in my heart.
Taareq Elsokari: Overall, I would have to say this is a pretty awesome show. Some fun matches, great promos and fantastic commenty. This was the first ever Summerslam I ever saw and the three things I fully remembered before watching this were The Match Made in Heaven and Hell and ofcourse the amazing Intercontinental Title Match. Listening to the commentary on this I kind of wish Piper would come back and so commentary, and well Heenan is definitely the greatest heel commentator ever. I give this show 8/10.
Dino Zucconi: The good: I love SummerSlam '91. It's solid from top to bottom, with only one real questionable match in IRS and Valentine. However, the commentary MORE than makes up for any bad spots, and everyone seemed to have brought their "A Game," if you will. Seriously, the whole "Match Made in Heaven... and the Match MADE IN HELL" stuff crushed. Great show, and it holds up rather nicely. Bret Hart gets made, Virgil gets a chance, the LOD get a win, and Hogan finally ends Slaughter. Nice. The bad: No World Title match, but it's okay. I'll take Hart winning a belt. Overall: SummerSlam '91 rules. Get it if you don't have it. There's nothing mindblowing here, but that's the difference- everything is done for a reason, and the announcers actually TALK about the matches. If this card exactly were to happen today, all three would be asking who they thought Sid would help in the main event all night. Instead, that's only spoken of briefly in matches, and then BETWEEN matches. Roddy Piper makes the Virgil / DiBiase match sound like the second Hogan / Andre in terms of importance. Seriously, I'm not trying to be sarcastic, and I'm not overdoing it- Heenan, Piper, and Monsoon absolutely DESTROY at the booth. Everything is given proper attention, with constant attention to details. A hella, HELLA good show.
