411's Roundtable Review: Summerslam 1996
Posted by Ryan Byers on 08.16.2006
The Undertaker and Mankind fight in a boiler room and Shawn Michaels throws a hissy fit in the main event. What more do you need?
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to 411's Roundtable Review for Summerslam 1996. Since this August marks the ten year anniversary of the show in question, it's only fitting that we have our best Roundtable Review panel thusfar covering it. Yes, that's right, the best panel thusfar. Who comprises this elite group? Why, it's none other than . . .
- From This Week in Hardcore and That Was Then, it's Stuart Carapola! I owe Stuart big time because, as previously mentioned, he's volunteered to cover every single Summerslam with us.
- Up next is Arnold Furious of Furious Flashbacks and Furious on Film. I owe Arnold big time because he was a last-minute fill-in for another 411 writer who decided to not send in his review after committing to the feature.
- Last but not least, it's Ryan Mancuso of The Complete Playbook. I owe Ryan big time because he's crossed over from his normal Japanese beat to cover some American wrestling with us.
These three men will be dealing with Summerslam 1996, a show presented by a WWF that was clearly in transition. The majority of the players for the beginning of the Attitude Era were present, but a few remnants of the dreadful early 90's Fed were still drifting around, and the booking philosophy certainly hadn't undergone its drastic reformation yet. However, things were beginning to heat up, particularly with Shawn Michaels having a great series of title defenses and a feud between Mankind and the Undertaker that was garnering a good deal of fan interest. Combine that with other solid performers like Steve Austin, Vader, Owen Hart, and Marc Mero, and the 1996 version of Summerslam had a good deal of potential.
Free For All Match: Steve Austin vs. Yokozuna
Ryan Mancuso: This was a part of the pre-PPV show that WWE had at the time called Free For All. In my area, it aired on the Preview Channel which would later on become the TV Guide Channel. Austin won the King of the Ring two months earlier, but was not placed on the PPV card. However, he was given a huge opponent in former 2-time WWE Champion and WWE Tag Champion Yokozuna. It was a short match with Yokozuna being too much for the rising star. He used a big legdrop and was going for the Banzai Drop. However, the top rope broke and Yokozuna fell. Austin covered and got the victory. A significant victory for Austin because he used his wits to take advantage of an open opportunity and gain the victory over the former WWE Champion.
Stuart Carapola: You could see the beginning of the change in booking philosophy as Austin went over the former WWF Champion in less than two minutes, but the real memorable part was the end came when Yokozuna went up for the Banzai Drop, but had gotten so fat that the top rope broke, he fell off, and Austin got the pin. This would lead to a series of "I'm fat and no good for anything" type segments involving Yokozuna that went nowhere except his eventual release for being unable to keep his weight under control.
Arnold Furious: Yokozuna had been going slowly downhill (or uphill if you're measuring success on size) after spending 1995 mostly in tag matches. Of course in 1993 and 1994 he'd been a main event player. This would be his comeback match after Vader broke his leg, for storyline purposes, and he'd dropped a little weight to get himself into ring shape again (but not much he's still dangerously overweight). Austin is coming off the back of his King of the Ring win and it's almost a shock he's not on the actual card itself. He's still a few months ahead of the feud with Bret Hart that made him into a star but he's done his Austin 3:16 speech so he's already got a lot of fan backing for a heel. Seeing as Yokozuna isn't in the best of shape they keep this one short. Yokozuna hits his patented stuff; Samoan drop and the Hulkbuster legdrop but when he goes up for the Banzai drop his weight causes the ropes to break and he falls off giving Austin the easy pin. At the time beating Yokozuna was still a big deal so it put Austin over pretty big although it might have been better off placed on the actual card somewhere. Yokozuna would end up dropping 100lbs but it still wasn't enough to save him from eventually getting canned in 1998 after almost 18 months of paid shelf time. Austin went on to become the biggest wrestling star on the planet after his forthcoming feud with Bret Hart really transformed him into a main event star.
Match Number One: Owen Hart vs. Savio Vega
Ryan Mancuso: This was back when Owen took a page out of "Cowboy" Bob Orton's playbook by using an arm injury to his advantage. He would wear a cast and use that as a weapon. With Owen using that cast often, his injury would keep getting worse and had to stay in the cast longer. No Jim Cornette in Owen's corner for this match. Cornette was busy getting Vader ready for his WWE Title shot at Shawn Michaels later on. This was a decent match with Savio working over the "injured" arm. After the arm work, both men were hitting their big moves with some near falls. It looked like Savio was going to win the match with a superplex. However, the back of Savio's head hit Owen's cast. It seemed to knock him out because Owen got up first. He nailed Savio with the cast and locked in the Sharpshooter for the victory. After the match, a poor man named Justin Hawk Bradshaw attacks Savio.
Stuart Carapola: I was glad to see this happen since I always liked Owen's work, but thought he was gotten pushed a bit too far down the card leading up to this, while Vega had become a reasonably successful upper-midcarder. It seemed that the booking would have had Vega win, so I was pleasantly surprised to see Owen go over.
Arnold Furious: Vega is quite over himself after coming off a fairly hot feud with Austin earlier in the year. However he's now in limbo until joining the Nation of Domination the following year. Owen has been largely in tag teams for two years after his main event push with elder brother Bret. At the time he was part of Camp Cornette before going on to briefly feud with Davey Boy Smith before the formation of the Hart Foundation after Bret's heel turn. Camp Cornette were the most over heels in the company with Davey having had shots at Shawn Michaels' WWF title and Vader being his current challenger. Owen has a cast on his arm, which has been there for months and is now totally superfluous. He's even warned not to use the cast or he'll get disqualified. That still doesn't stop him taking the cast off and bashing Savio with it before strapping on the Sharpshooter for the win on the unconscious Latino. This is a nice long match running over 13 minutes and showing off both men's speedy high flying styles. Lots of spin kicks and whatnot. Pretty even match up with both guys having similar strengths. Despite breaking the rules throughout the crowd reaction for Owen is very mixed. This was at a time where the face/heel alignments were getting a little blurry and the crowds, more than ever before, were just cheering for whoever they wanted to win regardless of what tactics they used. There's an ongoing storyline as well of the dissolution of Camp Cornette. Therefore Clarence Mason (the lawyer character that appeared to assist Cornette during 1996 and went on to join the NOD) comes out here to assist Owen in securing his victory and celebrates with him post match. The idea being that Cornette is too busy with Vader and the main event so Mason is trying to poach Owen away. He'd later secure the services of both Bulldog & Owen. After Owen takes the win Mason lifts his arm up and Owen sells it. Even though his arm isn't actually injured. I always loved that. Made me chuckle. Owen was just such a wuss and a whiny heel.
Match Number Two: The Smoking Gunns (c) vs. The Godwinns, The New Rockers, & The Bodydonnas in a Four Corners Match for the WWF Tag Team Championship
Ryan Mancuso: Yes, I remember the days when WWE had a tag division that consisted of more than 2 regular teams. For those who didn't follow WWE at the time, you'll be shocked when I say that all of these teams stayed together for over 6 months. These were the four best tag teams the WWE had at the time. All but the New Rockers got to wear the gold. The team that got the gold also got managerial services from Sunny. It wasn't like Sunny was a gold digger or anything like that. It just happened to be that as soon as a team lost the gold then she would break off managerial services with them. It was just one big coincidence. If you ever wanted proof as to why you shouldn't do drugs, then take a look at Sunny in 1996 and compare her to the woman she is now. There were a couple of storylines in this match. Phineas I. Godwinn, more known to fans as Mideon, had a crush on Sunny for some time. This would start from WrestleMania 12 when she was managing the Bodydonnas to tag gold. The Godwinns got the belts at a house show in Madison Square Garden in May. As a result, Sunny and Phineas were a couple. She betrayed the Godwinns a week later to let her knew team, The Smoking Gunns, win the belts. A few weeks before the match, Phineas got over his crush when he poured some slop over her. Sunny's old team, the Bodydonnas, brought in Cloudy and they defeated The Smoking Gunns in non-title matches. Also, The Rockers scored victories over The Bodydonnas and Godwinns to earn a title shot. Any team had a shot of winning the belts.
This was not a good match, it did not help that the crowd was totally dead. The action just felt lifeless. The Bodydonnas were eliminated very quickly. Skip, also known as Chris Candido, injured his neck at a house show a few days earlier and never tagged in the match. This would also be Skip's exit from the WWE to become future Triple Threat member Chris Candido in ECW. The New Rockers were the next team to be eliminated when Henry Godwinn used the Slop Drop (reverse DDT) on Leif Cassidy (Al Snow) for the pin. The Smoking Gunns retained the titles when Bart pinned Phineas. After the match, Sunny reveals a big picture of herself from the ceiling.
Stuart Carapola: The tag team scene was really thin at this point, these were literally the only four regular teams in the WWF at the time, but the next month, the Gunns wound up losing the titles to the makeshift brother-in-law team of Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith, who I thought made MUCH better champions than these guys.
Arnold Furious: This is for the Gunns tag titles. Lots of people in there. The Gunns are champions because Sunny screwed over the Godwinns and she also used to manage the Bodydonnas. The Gunns are on their 3rd and final run as tag team champions and would split up after losing the belts later in the year. Bodydonnas were almost at the end of their run in the WWF. Zip (Dr Tom Pritchard) was fine but Skip (Chris Candido) was injured. He'd be gone shortly after this show. The ill-fated Cloudy gimmick is over by this point too. They're downgraded to spending roughly 4 minutes in this elimination bout before being sent packing. The New Rockers were the only team in the match to never hold tag gold. Marty Jannetty was supposedly helping youngster Leif Cassidy to become a star like Shawn Michaels. Cassidy would go on to greater success as Al Snow. The Godwinns are the only team with a future in this match. They still have two years ahead of them before becoming Southern Justice. As I already mentioned the Bodydonnas are at a disadvantage with the injury to Candido. He never enters the match and Zip gets himself pinned in short order to make this a three way. The general vibe of the match is face Godwinns v heel Smoking Gunns. To make the Godwinns the underdogs we also have the heel New Rockers there too. Cassidy shows his inexperience by miscuing on Billy Gunn. Showing their comedy team status they screw twice again allowing Hank to Slop Drop Jannetty out of the match at just over seven minutes. Seems a little rushed to me but we're down to the two teams that people want to see fighting. The remainder of the match is heat on Hank seemingly leading to a hot tag and a formula finish. Phinneas does his mule kicking and goes nuts with Hank down and unable to calm him. Hillbilly Jim isn't doing much to help his team either as he chases Sunny around the ring with a slop bucket giving enough referee distraction for the Gunns to double team the poor confused Phinneas for the win. So the Gunns retain and the match doesn't even make it to 15 minutes. Considering how many teams are in it that's quite disappointing. That said there was little to no crowd reaction for any of the teams.
Match Number Three: Sid vs. Davey Boy Smith
Ryan Mancuso: This wasn't much of a match. Bulldog surprisingly had Sid beaten cleanly when he used the Running Powerslam. However, Bulldog's manager Jim Cornette and attorney Clarence Mason had an argument at ringside. It distracted Bulldog, and gave Sid time to recover to use the chokeslam on Bulldog. A powerbomb later and it was victory for Sid.
Stuart Carapola: Yes, I'm a Hart family mark and was disappointed that inthe space of one year, Davey Boy went from top World Title contender to jobbing on the undercard. Sid went on to win the WWF Title a few months later.
Arnold Furious: Again the storyline for the heel member of Camp Cornette, Davey Boy, is that Clarence Mason is looking to poach him away while Cornette is busy dealing with Vader. But Cornette is wise to this and shows up at ringside as well for this match. Sid meanwhile is on his biggest ever push in the WWF and nothing seems to be able to stop him heading to the main event scene. He's already had sizeable success as Shawn Michaels' enforcer after they needed to replace the Ultimate Warrior and needed a big name in the process. His reactions are huge. Davey actually fares quite well here and has Sid down with a powerslam but he gets distracted by his two potential managerial suitors arguing on the floor. Davey goes for another one but Sid is too powerful and finishes with the powerbomb in six and half minutes. Despite the match having a short duration they still loaded it up with rest holds. It seemed Sid tended to only look good in quick matches. It's the old Goldberg formula. Get the pop for going out there and the pop for the finisher and keep him strong. Poor Davey meanwhile has dropped out of the main events in order to put over the next challenger in something that almost equates to a squash. Camp Cornette is in trouble.
Match Number Four: Goldust vs. Marc Mero
Ryan Mancuso: This was back when Goldust truly was the most bizarre WWE superstar on the roster. He was fixated on the future Mrs. Brock Lesnar in Sable. Mero was not going to let someone like Goldust anywhere near his lady. It did not help Goldust's cause for trying to win over Sable when he had his friend Mankind come down to ringside to call Sable "Mommy." The crowd was pretty apathetic towards the match until Mero started using his flying moves that were not seen by WWE crowds at the time. He debuted the Shooting Star Press in this match, but it did not get him the victory. Mero got distracted, and Goldust used the Curtain Call for the victory.
Stuart Carapola: Not much to say about this except that it basically seemed like Goldust was in treading water mode after losing the IC Title to Ahmed Johnson.
Arnold Furious: This is more about the valets than anything else. Goldust sees Sable as a star and wants her for his budding stable of women. Meanwhile Marlena is in favour of this and they're playing the heels playing mind games with the Mero/Sable partnership. Mero would go on to greater success shortly after this when he won the IC title tournament that followed the forfeit from the injured Ahmed Johnson. This is a long, long match loaded with rest holds. Even more painfully so than in the previous match. Mero occasionally busts out the high flying moves to keep the crowd interested but Goldust is far more focused on his character. He seems to have decided that his character generally doesn't do much but pose and play mind games. That and have Marlena distract the referee to save him all the time. In this match she does so at the end where Mero hits his Wild Thing shooting star press. Goldust would normally be beaten but Marlena's distraction allows him recovery time. Mero ends up getting mentally out of his game and Goldust picks him off with the Curtain Call. The match really picks up towards the end but most of it is dull. Goldust had a string of yawners in the WWF where he worked on story rather than workrate. The problem I have with that is his story was "look at me, I'm weird" plus chinlock. The only amusement for the first nine minutes of this is a great shot of Howard Finkel checking out Sable's ass.
Match Number Five: Jerry Lawler vs. Jake Roberts
Ryan Mancuso: The rivalry between these two men was over Jake Roberts past. Jake Roberts returned to the WWE at the 1996 Royal Rumble. He was clean and sober from drugs and alcohol that took over his life because he found Jesus. I like to believe most people when they say that. However, I just wasn't buying this from Jake. I would be one of the first to have the blinders on because I am a Jake Roberts fan. Lawler would make fun of Jake for his past, and called Jake a liar about for saying that he was now clean and sober. Too bad, Lawler was right about Jake being a liar. After defeating a jockstrap on his head wearing Justin Credible, Lawler forced him to drink some booze after a match. Mark Henry, who the WWE just signed for a 10 year contract, saved the future Justin Credible from further humiliation. Mark Henry would do color commentary for this match, and he wasn't too good at it. It did not help that the babyface Henry was laughing at Lawler's heelish antics during the match. I thought Lawler would have given Cleveland a break because he is a big Cleveland Indians fan. However, he came to the ring wearing a Baltimore Ravens jersey. Art Modell had just moved the Ravens out of Cleveland, and ended the legacy of the Cleveland Browns for a few years in the NFL. This was not a good match. It was Lawler stalling and trying to get Jake to drink some booze he brought to ringside. Roberts went for his famous DDT, but Lawler escaped and nailed Jake with a Jim Bean bottle for the pin. After the match, Lawler poured some booze into Jake's mouth and Mark Henry made the save.
Stuart Carapola: Jerry Lawler was making fun of Roberts and making accusations that Jake was falling off the wagon (he was playing at being a recovered alcoholic/drug addict who found god at this point) and actually brought some large liquor bottles to mock Jake with to the ring for the match. He used one of the bottles to nail Jake and get the pin. Of course, Jake really had fallen off the wagon by this point, but we didn't all know this just yet.
Arnold Furious: This match didn't really key into the WWF's whole New Generation attitude in 1996. They forced it down the audience's throat again and again that they had the younger and more athletic stars. The stars of now and the future, unlike WCW who had all the old guys. Then they wheeled out two stars from the 80's who were both well past their best. Especially Jake who is well past anything approaching his best after falling off the wagon (wellness program didn't exist back in '96). Lawler decides to make this about alcohol because he thinks the recovered alcoholic Jake has fallen off the wagon, which he has. Thing is Jake was never really an alcoholic as such but a heavy drug user. But then censors tend to be happier about emptying a bottle of Jim Beam over someone's head on a show that kids watch than say, a crack pipe. Referee here is Harvey Whippleman who just seems to ignore all the blatant cheating creating a relaxed rules environment more at home in ECW than the WWF of 1996. Jake throws a blatant low blow and Lawler retorts by jabbing Jake in the throat with a bottle of booze and pulling the tights for the win. The match mostly has Lawler avoiding the DDT and little else. They also keep it short at just over four minutes, which is probably for the best. The only thing of note is 10 year contract recipient Mark Henry making his first in ring appearance and saving Jake from a beating post match after failing to provide any insight on commentary during said bout.
Match Number Six: Mankind vs. The Undertaker in a Boiler Room Brawl
Ryan Mancuso: I thought this was a great feud. Mankind always seemed to get one up on the Undertaker. It seemed like Taker was going to finally even things up in the rivalry, but Mankind seemed to wound up getting the better of the two at the end. This rivalry really helped establish Mick Foley as a superstar in the WWE. This was Mankind's match because he hung out in Boiler Rooms. As a result, he knew every strength and weakness about it. The winner of the match would have to leave the boiler room, enter the ring and get the urn from Paul Bearer. This was an intense brawl with plenty of weapon use like pipes, 2x4 and trashcan lids. Mankind does an elbowdrop off the ladder. Mankind takes a vicious bump off the ladder and on the floor. When it looked like Taker was going to win the match, Paul Bearer turns back on him. It gives Mankind time to use the Mandible Claw on him. Bearer KO's the Undertaker with the urn. Mankind gets the urn from Bearer, and wins the match. This also signals the end of the relationship between Paul Bearer and Undertaker that lasted half-a-decade. After the match, Undertaker is carried off by a bunch of druids. This was a really good brawl, but I have to say that there were some points of inactivity in the match. As a result, it made the match feel too long.
Stuart Carapola: All signs pointed to the Undertaker getting his win back after losing to Mankind at King of the Ring, but the surprise ending saw Undertaker's longtime manager Paul Bearer turn on the Undertaker, bashing him in the head with the urn and giving Mankind the win. Although most of it was edited together Hollywood-style, Mankind did take some pretty sick bumps in this one, including a fall off a ladder onto a cement floor. Foley really deserves his retirement.
Arnold Furious: This rivalry started as soon as Foley got into the WWF a few months beforehand. He even bested Taker at King of the Ring in their first one on one meeting when Paul Bearer inadvertently hit Taker with the urn. Following a series of battles in boiler rooms across the country they decided to settle things in the first Boiler Room Brawl at Summerslam. This is really different and starts off in the back with a pre-recorded brawl before they fight out into the arena and try to take possession of the urn. The backstage stuff is a pretty slick shoot and looks like a movie at times with Taker stalking around the boiler room looking for the demented Mankind. What follows is a terrific brawl although the unusual environment doesn't create the best backdrop for it. Just a different one. As a result the match is good but not one of their best. It does demonstrate just how far Foley is willing to go taking several sick bumps around the boiler room in the process of trying to use his body as a weapon. The twelve foot bump off the ladder onto concrete being the harshest moment. Of course this is all just a pre-cursor to the live finish to this match. They brawl out into the arena where Mankind exposes the floor and piledrives Taker on concrete. That really should be the end of the match but Taker has wiggy undead powers so he's able to recover and throw Mankind off the apron onto the exposed concrete floor. Ouch! Naturally Mankind is completely fucked and can't get back up. Taker goes to get the urn but Bearer won't let him have it. Crowd suddenly realises that something screwy is afoot and the five year partnership between Taker & Bearer is at an end. Mankind is given so much time to recover he's able to slap on the Mandible Claw incapacitating Taker for Bearer to nail him with the urn shot heard round the world. Mankind takes possession of the urn to win his second straight PPV match over Taker. When you think back to it Foley got a huge push coming into the WWF. This feud would continue for the remainder of the year producing some memorable matches including the Buried Alive match.
Match Number Seven: Shawn Michaels (c) vs. Vader for the WWF Championship
Ryan Mancuso: This was easily the best match of the night. They did a great job at telling the story where HBK was at a big disadvantage. Vader was too big, too strong and too tough for him. Add in the fact that Vader scored the first pin over HBK on a WWE Televised event, since Wrestlemania 11, and the odds were in the favor of the challenger. I liked this match and I didn't. I didn't like the match because it reeked of rumored backstage shenanigans. The plan seemed that Vader was supposed to defeat HBK for the title. However, HBK balked at that idea. Again, this was just rumor. It did leave a bad taste in my mouth. To their credit, they did make the most of this match to where it benefited both men. First, Vader gains a countout victory. Cornette gets the match restarted because he knows Vader can't win the title that way. HBK got frustrated during that restart, and nailed Vader with Cornette's tennis racket. This caused HBK to get disqualified. Cornette asked for another restart and got it. The finish definitely saved face for Vader in defeat. Vader kicked out of HBK's Sweet Chin Music. He got too cocky and went for the moonsault. However, HBK got out of the way. He quickly climbed the top rope and connected with a moonsault bodypress for the 3 count. It made Vader look like he was only stunned enough to stay down for the 3 count and not knocked out.
Stuart Carapola: First Michaels got counted out, but Vader's manager Jim Cornette wouldn't accept a win like that because Vader came to win the title, so they restarted the match. Then Michaels got disqualified, and again Cornette wouldn't accept the victory, so they restart again. Of course, the third time Michaels gets the win, but with a twist: Vader kicked out of the superkick. Michaels then went up and got the pin with a moonsault, but Vader kicking out of the superkick was big at the time, and it seemed to point to a rematch down the line where Vader won the title, but that never came.
Arnold Furious: This is the main event and Shawn's biggest title defence since winning the title off Bret at Wrestlemania 12. He's mainly been tussling with Davey Boy Smith since. Vader has been booked as an unstoppable monster throughout the year and has, amongst other things, put Yokozuna on the shelf and made himself into the most threatening man to the title. He's already pinned Shawn in a 6-man tag and was originally slated to take the title belt away from Shawn at Summerslam. That is until Shawn pitched a fit and got to go over keeping the belt until he could drop it to Sid. A champion he could belittle weekly on TV, bury completely and then beat in Shawn's hometown while still trying to play babyface while the majority audience booed the hell out of him. There are times when hatred of Shawn is entirely justified because when he was on top of the company he was a complete prick. Vader never recovered from the title snub and went into mediocrity for the remainder of his WWF career without another big title match (barring one with Taker where he filled in for an injured Ahmed Johnson and never had a shot at actually winning). The template for this match is an easy one to work. Shawn uses speed and quick strikes while Vader just pounds away and uses his power moves. Shawn tries to hit and move and even throws Vader outside just so he can hit a dive. He tries a similar trick going for a diving rana but gets caught and powerbombed on the floor in an "oh shit" moment. Vader spends the following minutes working the back over in preparation for the powerbomb. Seems like Shawn's time as champion is almost up. He tries every little defence he has like jabs and skinning the cat but nothing is effective against the powerhouse that is Vader. Shawn ends up getting totally desperate and hitting a crossbody taking both guys to the floor. Vader gets a touch pissed off with being taken off his feet in such a manner and dumps Shawn on the rail. He's so winded he can't get back in the ring and gets counted out. But Cornette calls it a cheap finish and goads Shawn into carrying on. Not sure he can actually make that decision though. Cornette makes a point of waffling him with the tennis racket just to underline the trouble his title reign is in. Shawn punches his way out of the powerbomb though, disarms Cornette and uses the racket on Vader to get himself disqualified. Cornette gets the mic again and again calls it a cheap loss and Shawn has taken the easy way out like a coward and it's on again. Vader eats superkick after taking the Savage Elbow but kicks out to the crowd's absolute shock. People don't just kick out of the champions finisher. I remember thinking it was over at the time and that Vader couldn't be beaten. Now all he had to do was finish it. The ref is bumped and Vader hits the powerbomb, which would get 3 if the replacement referee had been quicker coming out. So now Vader has told the crowd his finisher is better and all he needs to do is hit it again and it's over. Cornette gets Vader to showboat though and do the moonsault, which misses and Shawn hits a moonsault press to retain with his knee clocking Vader in the head for realism. The combination of Shawn's selling & bumping along with Vader's hard work and offensive array of destruction we had ourselves a great main event. Almost a shame they never got the chance for a rematch because Shawn ending up going over so clean. As it stands it's probably Shawn's best title match during his 1996 title run barring the Mind Games bout with Mankind but the title was never really under threat in that match.
Final Thoughts
Ryan Mancuso: There were two great matches on this show with HBK/Vader and Mankind/Undertaker. Owen vs. Savio was decent, but everything else was not good. Basically, this show is fast forward material until Mankind vs. Undertaker.
Stuart Carapola: I guess this show wasn't that bad, but it felt really lacklustre at the time, and I don't feel like I missed much despite the great reviews the Boiler Room Brawl and Michaels-Vader got.
Arnold Furious: Great main event with Shawn & Vader both looking like stars. The Mankind-Taker match was a good story and something different with a lot more hardcore action than 1996 WWF fans were used to seeing. The rest of the card was quite mediocre but just having Shawn-Vader on there was good enough for me and I remember loving the show when it first aired. I showed it to several of my friends who'd stopped watching wrestling and one who'd stopped watching WWF in favour of WCW. They liked it at the time and the cogs were in motion for attitude. I give this a slight upwards nod and has one of the best Summerslam main events IMO.
