And we’re on for another week of vintage collection, with our last week of looking back at Summerslam matches.
(on a more personal night, I’m going to try and cut down the length of my recaps and would love feedback on if you’d rather see short recaps or long ones!)
The first match is from Summerslam 97, and we’re looking at a tag team match between the Legion of Doom & the Godwinns. We’re brought in in the midst of the match, and the Godwinns are looking strong. They clothesline Animal over the side of the ring, only to have him come back up on the apron and be pushed down into the steel railing, leading on to a failed pin attempt followed by a tag. This is followed up by a really long submission hold wearing Animal down. Eventually Animal breaks the hold, a tag is made, and we see the Godwinns mess up the double team move, but Animal keeps taking punishment. Animal gets the tag in when the Godwinns man messes up a jump off the ropes. Hawk comes in, cleans up both Godwinns, and goes for the cover, which is broken by the other Godwinn. The Legion of Doom double team, hit a beautiful move, and get the win.
Coming in off the ad break, there is a very odd promo featuring a young looking Edge in his original gimmick.
Our second match comes from Summerslam 98 and is the pay-per-view debut of the “tortured soul” Edge, in a mixed tag featuring his partner, Sable, and Mark Mero with Jacquline. We come in to the two men lying on the ground, but both make tags to their respective women. Sable stomps all over Jacquline letting her get in no offense at all. Mero tries to get in the way and gets kicked where the sun don’t shine by Sable. Jacquline breaks up a Sable Bomb and manages to get in control. Things turn around again, and Sable goes for a pin, but Mero breaks it up. The women continue till Jacquline runs into Mero sending him out of the ring. This is where Edge comes in, flying over the top rope to take out Mero on the outside. Then Edge proceeds to throw Mero into the ring steps. Jacquline jumps onto Edge’s back, and the scene freezes because Edge is spanking Jacquline on the behind. We come back to moving picture as the men continue inside the ring. Edge comes very close on a two count on Mero. Edge hits a neckbreaker, but Jacquline saves Mero by placing his foot on the ropes. Mero is looking extremely shaky on his feet, and then again as he climbs the ropes, and of course Edge moves the ropes to crotch him on the top ropes. Sable delivers a hurricanrana off the top rope on Mero. And following on, all four participants end up in the ring, and in a rather amusing mistake, Jacquline falls forward, and her head lands in Mero’s crotch. Leaving him looking pretty stunned. Mero ends up on the ground, Edge picks up Sable, lifts her up and bodyslams her down on top of Mero for the three count.
Starting off our next match we see a cute little promo of a match between Jeff Jarrett with Debra & D-Lo Brown, where Debra shows the “puppies” to D-Lo, who doesn’t get too distracted and is still able to win the match. This opens to our next featured match which is from Summerslam 99 with both the European & Intercontinental belts on the line. Both men start strong, and there is a lot of back and forth between them. No one seems to be able to get the upper hand. D-Lo goes for the first cover of the match and continues what power he has over Jarrett for a short time. Jarrett manages to turn it around with a submission move, and the commentary team let us know that Debra is actually standing in D-Lo’s corner in this match. Of course, D-Lo reverses the hold and gets out, but doesn’t manage to get back on top of the match. Jarrett sends D-Lo out of the ring, and into the surrounding wall then into the steps. Which is where we go to an ad break.
Coming back in off the ads, Jarrett gets in what looks like a DDT type move off the top ropes, and manages to stay in control for a brief moment. D-Lo takes over again, getting in a lot of strong moves, including a powerbomb and after a brief time where both men were down, D-Lo hits a tiltawhirl, a leg drop, and gets a close cover. D-Lo is in offensive control until he goes for a moonsault and misses. The action moves from in the ring to Debra up on the apron, and Jarrett waves around his guitar looking like he wants to hit her with it. The ref is in the middle of Jarrett and Debra, and we see Mark Henry come in. He takes the guitar off Jarrett, and we hear a little commentary about how D-Lo and Mark Henry apparently are “running buddies”. And a nice double cross occurs when Henry smashes the guitar over the head of D-Lo. And it appears like everything has been a scheme as Debra is now back with Jarrett, and Henry is on their side too. This was a match filled with far too many cuts to the “puppies” and a rather amusing moment where the crowd chanted “we want puppies”. Ahh, the days before the PG era.
We’re now up to our main event match, and leading into it, a promo to explain things. We see how both Kurt Angle and Triple H manage to both become contenders for the Rock’s title. We see where the fights began between Stephanie McMahon & Triple H, and with that, Kurt Angle becoming a “friend” of Stephanie’s. After a talking to from Vince, both men seem to be on the same page, but that doesn’t last long. And after Stephanie is thrown into steel steps both Triple H and Kurt Angle try to comfort Stephanie, and Angle kisses Stephanie. Talk about a confusing love triangle.
This match comes from Summerslam 2000 and is a triple threat match for the WWE championship between the Rock, Kurt Angle and Triple H. Before the Rock even makes an entrance we see Angle and Triple H beat on each other both inside and outside the ring, using the steel steps and basically making the match into what looks to be a pretty easy win for the Rock. I also have to mention what looks like a botch when the announce table collapses under both Triple H and Angle before Triple H can even hit the pedigree. Finally the Rock makes his entrance looking pretty annoyed. The Rock is in the ring with just Triple H, and he is dominating until Triple H manages to smash Rock’s face into an announce table, and then into the steel steps. They go back into the ring, Angle is still not in the match and seems to be badly injured. Triple H continues the beatdown until he gets distracted by Angle being wheeled out on a stretcher and the Rock takes over again. Which is of course where we hit an ad break.We come back in and somehow Triple H has taken control of the match again. This is a no DQ match so of course, Triple H is using that to his advantage. He runs the Rock into a ring post, and we see a sledgehammer on the ground. Both men end up back in the ring again, and Triple H continues to control using feet and knees to the chest of the Rock. Out of nowhere the Rock comes back from the dead, getting in some punches and even as Triple H tries to come back into this again, the Rock dominates, suplexing Triple H off the top rope.
The action is halted here by a cut to backstage where Stephanie is begging Kurt Angle to “please help Hunter for me”. And of course, even though Angle is on a stretcher, he says that he would help, but only for Stephanie. Cue an ad break here.
Coming back in off the ads, we’re shown Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley basically dragging Kurt Angle towards the ring. Triple H manages to get in a pedigree, and a near fall on the Rock, but Angle pulls him out of the ring then smashes him into the steel steps and goes to get the cover on Rock himself. Angle seems to have come back from the dead getting in some offense and a near fall. And we’re shown Stephanie just standing outside the ring doing nothing to help Triple H who is still injured on the sidelines. Angle is still going strong but the Rock gets in a belly to belly throw, a DDT, and a near fall which leaves both men lying in the ring. We see Triple H climbing up the side of the ring, but Angle knocks him down again. The Rock hits a Rock Bottom on Angle, but Triple H stops the count by pulling the Rock out of the ring. Triple H is beating on the Rock outside the ring and he shouts at Stephanie to throw him the sledgehammer as he pulls the Rock back into the ring again. Triple H tries to get the sledgehammer, but Angle gets it and Stephanie enters the ring and stands behind Angle. So of course, when Triple H goes to punch Angle, he ducks and Triple H punches Stephanie. Triple H is distracted by this, and Angle takes the opportunity to use the sledgehammer on him. Angle goes for the pin, but the Rock breaks it up and then smashes Angle out of the ring, and he uses the time to set up the peoples elbow on Triple H to get the three count, and the win, retaining the championship.
That’s all we’ve got for today, and of course, there is a reminder to check out this years Summerslam. Tune in to your local PPV provider for Summerslam 2009 which is not too far away now!
