Historically Speaking: Telling a Summer Story

“With the historian it is an article of faith that knowledge of the past is a key to understanding the present.” – Kenneth Stampp

The Opening Chapter
In WWE, much like in a movie or a play, there is an art to putting together a coherent story. Things have to be built up in a logical way in order for them to make sense. Movies and plays have scenes or acts that build to a crescendo until they ultimately reach a satisfying climax for fans and viewers. Building a wrestling supercard works much the same way. Matches and events must be laid out in a certain order to so as to make a logical story for the viewers.

This past weekend WWE put on its 21st annual SummerSlam event and it was easy to see the logical placing of the night’s events. Despite three “world-level” championship matches, a hate-filled blood feud and a simple “first time ever” attraction match took more precedence over the championship matches that were clearly not filled the highest level of superstar that WWE employs. In fact SummerSlam has often worked this way in the WWE pay per view calendar. When the pay per view market was still in its infancy in the late ‘80s, every WWF supercard served a purpose. WrestleMania was the supershow that closed out a year’s worth of stories. Survivor Series was built around the attraction of multi-man tag matches and the Royal Rumble was set up for its unique main event. When SummerSlam came around it seemed as if it was merely a pit stop to help build the fire for future events. It was an event they could throw sh!t against the wall to see what worked, as back then the money was still in the house shows. The weekend syndicates were there just as infomercials for the house shows. Major level matches just didn’t happen on free TV, save for the occasional Saturday Night’s Main Event, so SummerSlam could be filled with inconsequential “big name” matches and fans wouldn’t feel like they were cheated.

Don’t believe me? Let me show how the first five events shaped up in regards to what constituted the SummerSlam “supercard.”

1988
Scott Keith said it best in his rants for the 1988 and 1989 SummerSlam cards that they really just felt like an episode of Nitro and if a card like that were put on PPV today, the company would be crucified for it.

The main event featured a tag team main event with all the company’s top players that was only there to further individual top card feuds. Back then the company’s three championships were all still held in high regard and so every Title match felt important. Ultimate Warrior came out of nowhere to win the Intercontinental Title in a wonderful crowd-pleasing moment. The Tag Champions Demolition defended against The Hart Foundation, a team that hadn’t been paired together in a while and were actually feuding with another team. Besides the Championship matches the opening match was also a very important part of the card, so the company put out The Rougeaus and The British Bulldogs to rile the crowd up in a fantastic twenty minute draw. And as for the rest of the card, Rick Rude took on Junkyard Dog while Jake “The Snake” Roberts battled Rude’s stablemate Hercules. Both matches just added to the Rude-Roberts rivalry that was eventually blown off on the house show circuit. The rest of the card was just filled with matches to feature new talent, as Bad News Brown took out the departing Ken Patera, Big Boss Man beat perennial jobber Koko B. Ware and Dino Bravo beat the departing Don Muraco. So we’ve got a main event tag, an unexpected Title change, a hot tag match designed to rile up the crowd, a couple mid-card matches to further other feuds and a pile of squashes designed to put over hot new heels. Sounds like Nitro to me, as opposed to the “summer’s biggest party.”

1989
The next year it was more the same. Hulk Hogan and the other top stars of the day were in another main event tag. The Intercontinental Title was defended in a match that was there to further other feuds and the Tag Champions battled in a non-title match. Then there was a pair of six-man tag matches that helped further four individual feuds. The rest of the show was filled with inconsequential mid-card matches that screamed second hour Nitro. The Powers of Pain went over The Bolsheviks to essentially debut on the big stage. Ted DiBiase beat Jimmy Snuka to keep his heat, while Dusty Rhodes battled The Honkytonk Man and Hercules fought Greg Valentine in mid-card matches to further other stories. The only real interesting match on the show was Mr. Perfect and The Red Rooster battled in a “young lions” type match that unfortunately cut short due to Rooster’s leg injury. It still makes me think of that infamous urban legend about Curt Hennig and Terry Taylor starting in the company on the same day and a coin flip determined who become “Perfect” and who became a “Rooster.”

1990
By 1990 it had also became apparent that SummerSlam was a place for select matches that could tell a story whereas WrestleMania was a bloated show that tried to get everyone on the card. They introduced the concept of a double main-event while putting on hot Intercontinental and Tag Team Championship matches. As a young fan, this was the first pay per view I watched front to back so it still holds a special place in heart. The rest of the show was actually used to blow off top feuds of the day and set up stories for the rest of the year. It looked as if WWF had found a nice formula, but it wouldn’t last.

1991
The 1991 card featured a combination of hot blow-offs and middling mid-card angle advancement. They once again featured a main event tag, correctly titled “the Match Made in Hell,” that was hyped more on the debut of the guest referee than anything else. The actual main event (The Match Made in Heaven) was the best piece of storyline drama that the company has ever done, and something Stephanie McMahon and Vince Russo wish they could recreate. The card also included hot mid-card goodness over the Tag Championships, Virgil and “Million $ Man” Ted DiBiase, the law and order match between Big Bossman and Mountie and the best pure match the company could probably offer at that point between Bret Hart and Mr. Perfect. It was then that I started to slowly realize that some feuds are only played out on house shows as the company had been hyping British Bulldog and Mr. Perfect over the Intercontinental Title all summer only for Hart to get the big PPV payday. Meanwhile IRS beat Greg Valentine in a Nitro-style squash to get over as a hot new heel while a six man tag with the top mid-card babyfaces not featured elsewhere opened the show. If the company employed luchadores and cruiserweights, they would’ve gone in that opening match spot, but Davey Boy Smith, Kerry Von Erich and Ricky Steamboat would have to suffice.

1992
I remember all the build-up to SummerSlam ’92 like the back of my hand as my wonderful sister had recorded the entire summer’s Primetime Wrestling episodes for me and I still have them on tape somewhere. I can still list off the big house show feuds over that summer only for me to be completely taken off-guard when matches were announced for the show were none of the summer’s big stories. The Natural Disasters, WWF Tag Champions, defended against The Beverly Brothers, who were feuding with the Legion of Doom. LOD were then booked to battle Money Inc., who were feuding with The Disasters. The card was headlined by two face-face Title matches with The Macho Man-Ultimate Warrior and Bret Hart-British Bulldog while the undercard featured an ultra-rare heel-heel singles match between “The Heartbreak Kid” and “The Model.” To this day I still find this card to be one of the most random supercards the company ever assembled, but as time wore on I have come to realize how much the card hinged upon Bret Hart and British Bulldog in the main event and the rest of the card fell out from that.

The Perspective
I stopped after 1992 because by that point RAW had become a fixture on cable television and big-name matches become more prelevant. The company had started to figure what they want to do with the summer spectacular, before it started to slowly look like every other pay per view as the calendar became more bloated with events. But I think I’m still bitter I didn’t get to see British Bulldog-Repo Man and Undertaker-Berzerker get the proper PPV blow offs they so richly deserved.

For this week the vault is closed…

Linked to the Pulse
David B. takes us back to the days of the Old Age Outlaws.

The patriarch of Pulse Wrestling is back!

Scott Keith reminds us all of The Rock’s greatness.

This Day in History
I figured if we are talking history around here we should pay homage to what has happened on this very day in the years gone by. It will either make you long for the old days or be happy for what we have now.

1962 – Verne Gagne defeated Mr. M (Dr. Bill Miller) for the AWA Heavyweight title
1965 – The Crusher defeated Mad Dog Vachon for the AWA Heavyweight title
1979 – Dusty Rhodes defeated Harley Race for the NWA Heavyweight Wrestling title
1995 – USWA Tag Team title held up
1997 – WCW Clash of the Champions XXXV was held.
1997 – Steve McMichael defeated Jeff Jarrett for the WCW U.S. Heavyweight title
1997 – Alex Wright defeated Ultimo Dragon for the WCW Television title
2002 – Jerry Lunn defeated Low-Ki for the NWA-TNA X title

1970 – Nathan Jones was born.

The Assignment
It’s important to know your history to know where you have come from and where you are going. Back when Nova was in charge of the WWE developmental system he implemented mandatory history assignments for the students of the developmental territories so they would know pro wrestling’s history and they would learn just how many moves Nova created and apparently the best ways to get on-line prescriptions. I feel Nova had a great idea there and every week I will assign a book or DVD for you to check out and learn from. They are not only educational, but very entertaining.

If you call yourself a wrestling fan, do yourself a favor and pick up My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling by Bret “Hit Man” Hart. As far as wrestling biographies go its only rivals are the first Mick Foley book and Chris Jericho’s Lion Tale. Hart apparently kept recordings and journals of his entire career from its very start so all his stories seem very fresh and detailed. You get the feeling as if you are really there as he’s telling stories about Koko B. Ware getting fired while Jim Neidhart and Marty Jannetty abuse drugs and alcohol. Bret is brutally honest about himself and his family. He holds nothing back when talking about himself, including his use of steroids, drugs and alcohol, and rampant infidelity. Seriously, the guy has never been faithful in regards to his ex-wife. I found his incredible detail when describing his WWF run absolutely fascinating as I remember watching a lot of the stuff he talks about in great detail. He thankfully skims a lot when he gets to his abysmal WCW run as he seems to have just as hard of time keeping it straight as his fans did. He spends a great detail of time discussing the Owen Hart tragedy and his screwjob. Even after reading it, he still hasn’t convinced me that he shouldn’t have dropped the belt as he was asked. I could go on about the goodness of the book, but do yourself a huge favor and pick this book up. It’s hands down the most detailed wrestling biography out there and still has some great laugh out loud moments combined with harrowing stories about his terribly dysfunctional family. I had always thought of the Harts as Canadian royalty, in truth they were the misfits of Canada.