And we’re back for another week of vintage collection fun and games. The opening promo gives us what is probably our main event match, but more on that later.
The Vintage Collection set is all still full of summerslam cut-outs, so we’re in for another week of summerslam matches.
The first match is from august 18th, 1996, and we’re featuring a match between Owen Hart and Savio Vega. The match is already underway, and we open to Hart in a bad position, taking a lot of punishment from Vega including 14 punches to the head. Vega gets in a scoopslam, drops a leg, and goes for the pin, which seems like a 3 count, but according to the ref, it isn’t. Vega still has the upper hand, delivers a sidewalk slam, and another near fall. Hart picks up here, and gets in a backbreaker, and he heads up to the top rope, delivers a near perfect dropkick, and gets a near fall. Hart tries again, going up to the top, but is stopped by Vega, who follows him up the ropes, Vega drops backwards, and he lands on the cast that Hart has on his wrist. Hart sneakingly pulls the cast off his arm, and hits Vega square in the head with it, and of course, the ref misses it. Vega is knocked out, Hart applies the sharpshooter, and the ref calls it. The winner of our opening contest, Owen Hart.
(And on a personal note, I’d just like to say that Owen Hart matches still bring a tear to my eye. he was a brilliant wrestler and I honestly cannot use Owen Hart’s name without adding a RIP Owen Hart)
After the ad break we’re shown a clip giving the history between Razor Ramon & Shawn Michaels with Diesel, mostly about the interference Diesel kept causing, leading to losses for Razor around the Intercontinental Championship.
Our second contest is coming to us from Summerslam 1994, and it is for the Intercontinental Championship between Diesel and Razor Ramon. Diesel has Shawn Michaels in his corner, and Razor has Walter Payton (NFL Hall of Famer) in his corner to (and I quote) “even up the odds”. Diesel is starting off strong, with some elbows to the body of Razor, until Razor gets some of his own back, which lasts about 2 punches before Diesel is in there with a clothesline. Razor comes back strong, or at least attempts to. Doesn’t last long at all. Diesel gets Razor into the corner, holds him there with a foot to the neck, while Shawn Michaels pulls the hair of Razor down from outside the ring. Razor gets in another few shots afterwards, but again, to no avail. Diesel locks in a sleeper hold for a bit, and Razor eventually counters it and both men end up on the ground. They both get up, and almost instantly Razor is thrown to the outside of the ring. And while the ref is counting over the body of Razor, Shawn Michaels gets the turnbuckle padding off. Michaels then starts off outside the ring, and gets Walter Peyton to go for him, and while the ref is holding Payton off, Michaels runs around the back, and hits Razor with a forearm to the nose. Again, the ref starts the count, and we go to the ad break with the count-out going strong.
Coming back in off the ad break, it appears that Razor has made it back into the ring, and there is a little back and forth with Razor blocking all the attempts from Diesel and manages to back him into a corner. When Razor goes to run into him in the corner, Diesel lifts his legs and Razor slides out of the ring. Only to grab the legs of Diesel and crotch him into the corner. Razor gets back into the ring, goes for the cover and it’s a near fall. Razor then delivers a scoopslam, but only for another near fall. And as Shawn Michaels climbs up on the ropes, he is struck by Razor. Diesel uses this to gain some momentum in the match. But Razor manages to get Diesel onto the ropes in the corner, but isn’t successful in pulling him off again. Diesel is again on top of this match, and he calls for “the jack knife” which Razor manages to counter and puts Diesel onto his back. Razor seems to be taking control, but Shawn Michaels gets up onto the outside of the ring again, providing a distraction so Diesel can regain control. We’re then shown Shawn Michaels grabbing the belt and trying to take it into the ring. Walter Payton is outside and tries to grab the belt out of Michaels hands, while this is going on, the ref gets distracted and ends up sliding out of the ring, obviously going after Payton who has the belt. Diesel has Razor in a hold, Shawn Michaels goes in for the superkick (sweet chin music), and Razor manages to duck out of the way, leaving Diesel to take a rather nasty superkick, which knocks him out. Michaels gets angry on the outside after this. In amongst the chaos, Razor manages to roll his arm over Diesel, and the ref finally notices the action inside the ring, we have a three count, and a new champion. The new Intercontinental champion, and winner of this contest, Razor Ramon.
We’re hit with promos for our next match, with the build up coming from a feud between Bret Hart and Jerry “the King” Lawler, and we get a classic line when they refer to Lawler as the “burger king”. Things got started at King of the Ring when a “kiss my foot” match ended badly for Lawler, who kissed Bret’s foot, and then also got a taste of his own foot at the hands of Hart. Obviously in retaliation, Lawler has recruited a dentist, Isaac Yankem DDS to fight his battles for him. (The debut of Kane in his horrendous, yet short-lived gimmick).
This contest is from Summerslam 95. And we’re brought straight into it, with Bret Hart dominating over Isaac Yankem. Hart manages to clothesline Yankem over the top rope, and then flies over the ropes after him. The match moves outside of the ring, with Hart delivering every blow. And throws Yankem back into the ring, following him in and hitting a clothesline from the top rope before rolling Yankem over to attempt to put him into the sharpshooter. Yankem manages to prevent it, but Hart does get in a head butt to the grounded Yankem. Both men end up standing again, but Hart is dominating. Hart attempts a rollup, but only gets a two count. It does look like Yankem is going to get in a hit, but Hart manages to stay in complete control, before going for a backslide and pin attempt. This is where Yankem gets some offence in, sending Hart running, and as he comes back, Yankem picks him up and throws him at the ring ropes, where Hart gets his hand caught between the twisted ropes. Yankem does nothing while Hart is strung up, leaving Hart enough time to get out, but Yankem has control, getting in some punches, and sending Hart smashing into the corner of the ring. We cut to the ad break with Hart lying on the ground in pain.
And we’re back again, and Hart is back in the match, getting in a ton of strikes. Hart sends Yankem into the corner, and slides out behind him, pulling his legs, looking like he is going to crotch him on the ring. But Hart doesn’t do that, he grabs a cord and ties up the legs of Yankem so that he is trapped there, and gets back into the ring to start delivering feet to the head of Yankem. While the ref is untying the feet of Yankem, Jerry Lawler gets up onto the side of the ring and Hart goes for him immediately. Hart is getting in punches outside the ring, and obviously the ref has untied Yankem who appears in the background climbing the ring ropes. Yankem launches himself onto Hart, breaking up the altercation between Hart and Lawler. Hart is thrown back into the ring, where he manages to get in a clothesline, but as he is running back to try more offence, Lawler grabs his feet sending him face first down. As Hart gets in-between the ropes to go for Lawler again, Lawler grabs his head, pulls him down and then Yankem comes from behind landing on the back of Hart’s head. Somehow the pair of Lawler and Yankem manage to get Hart’s head caught up between two ring ropes. This is where the ref calls the DQ. And as Hart hangs there with his neck in-between the ropes, Yankem and Lawler pull on his legs. Finally a group of referee’s move them on and manage to get Hart free. No announced winner, but obviously your winner is Bret Hart by disqualification.
The main event on vintage today comes from Summerslam 96 and it is a WWF/E Championship match between Shawn Michaels and Vader. We start in with Vader on the ground and Michaels hitting him with fists. Michaels moves quickly, and manages to get one in on a standing Vader, who then reverses it, and they go towards the ring ropes with Vader holding Michaels, and as Michaels ducks, Vader is sent flying over the top rope to the outside. Michaels also gets in a baseball slide to knock Vader down again on the outside, following that up with a cross body from the top rope to the outside. Michaels’s showboats in the ring while the ref counts. Michaels goes for another baseball slide, misses, but still manages to push Vader back into the ring. Michaels goes straight up to the top rope, and sends a flying arm at Vader. Michaels then manages to get Vader down onto the ground, and waits for Vader to get himself back up again before leapfrogging up onto his back, getting in some punches, and as Vader stumbles forwards Michaels grabs the top rope, leans forwards and manages to send Vader up and out over the top rope. Michaels then tries to come off the top rope, but Vader manages to catch Michaels and power bomb him down outside the ring.
We come back in with Michaels back inside the ring again, but on his back, and taking some abuse from Vader who has his foot on Michaels’s neck. As Vader goes to sit on Michaels, he lifts his knee and crotches Vader. Michaels then goes off the top rope, hitting Vader in the face. Michaels manages to gain some control again when he is sent running, jumps for a cross body, and manages again to swing it so that Vader is sent over the top rope. Vader then picks Michaels up over his head, and throws him down on the steel barrier outside the ring. A very quick count happens, and Vader is awarded the match. But Jim Cornett who is on the outside for Vader gets on the mic and states that they don’t want the win like that, and tells Michaels to get back into the ring so they can get a clear winner. So the match is restarted when Michaels agrees to it.
The next section of this match happens quite quickly, with Vader getting in some hits to Michaels who still hasn’t made it back into the ring. Jose Lothario is there on Michaels’s side, and tries to get Michaels up again, until Vader stops him. Jose is being pushed away by the ref as Cornett comes in from behind with a tennis racket to the back of Michaels. As the ref didn’t see it, the match continues and Michaels is thrown back into the ring to suffer some more at the hands of Vader. Michaels kicks out of a belly-to-belly suplex, and is taken up for a Vader bomb but he manages to get in some punches and gain back control of the match. Michaels is tuning up the band in the corner when Cornett pulls his leg, and as the ref is breaking it up, Cornett throws his tennis racket into the ring, and Michaels turns straight around and grabs it, delivering blows to both Vader and Cornett. Of course the ref sees this, so Michaels is disqualified and Vader is announced as the winner a second time. But again, Cornett is there with a mic, dares Michaels to continue, and of course, the match gets restarted a third time.
Michaels starts off strong, getting in all sorts of high flying offence on Vader. Michaels tunes up the band, and this time hits the sweet chin music, but only gets a two count. Michaels and Vader battle on, and somehow the ref ends up in the middle of it and disappears out of the ring. Vader hits a Vader bomb, but with no ref, no count. A ref gets in there, but Michaels kicks out at two. Vader then climbs up to the top rope, and hits a moonsault, which is crazy considering his size. Michaels moves out of the way, and as Vader is on the ground, Michaels climbs the ropes himself and then hits a moonsault on Vader, getting him the three count. Michaels retains his title.
And yet again, we’re reminded to check out Vintage Collection next week for the final week of looking back on past Summerslams.
