Kevin’s Random Reviews: WWF SummerSlam 1991

WWF SummerSlam 1991
August 26th, 1991 | Madison Square Garden in New York, New York | Attendance: 20,000

I always count this as the first wrestling show I ever saw. It might not have been, but it’s the earliest one I remember. I used to rent it all the time from my local video store and to this day, the Intercontinental Title match remains one of my all-time favorites. It’s a show that holds a special place in my heart. It was the fourth SummerSlam event in history.

The opening vignette hypes the “Heaven and Hell” theme. Heaven is the Randy Savage/Elizabeth wedding, but then, to quote Vince McMahon’s voiceover work, “NUPTIALS TURN TO NAPALM” as Ultimate Warrior teams with Hulk Hogan to take on the Triangle of Terror.

Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon, Bobby Heenan and Roddy Piper!

British Bulldog, Ricky Steamboat and Texas Tornado vs. Power and Glory and the Warlord w/ Slick
The fans were red hot for everything. Even a small arm drag by Steamboat got a huge pop. To be fair, Steamboat did have the GOAT arm drags. Tornado got the next shine for the babyface team. When Warlord came in, so did Bulldog. He hit an impressive vertical suplex to a pop. They were kind of feuding around this time, having met at WrestleMania and they would wrestle again at This Tuesday in Texas. Steamboat made a small mistake that led to him as the face in peril. That lasted a while until Warlord came off the middle rope (why?) and got caught with a kick. Tornado got the hot tag and threw a bunch of punches. He hit the Tornado Punch and Bulldog got two on a powerslam pin that was broken up. Tag to Steamboat who won with the flying cross body at 10:43. Fun opening contest. Steamboat sold well, but the heel team didn’t work a very interesting heat segment. Still, it had a hot crowd and some solid action. [**¾]

Backstage, Sean Mooney interviewed Mr. Perfect. He called Bret Hart excellent, but said he’s not perfect.

WWF Intercontinental Championship: Mr. Perfect [c] w/ Coach vs. Bret Hart
Stu and Helen Hart were in the crowd. Perfect came in with a completely messed up back. He took a strange bump on a hip toss and rolled outside, doing a great job making Bret look great. Bret ran with the headlock early. Even the simplest things were masterfully done by these two. Heenan and Monsoon reeled off so many classic lines during all this. Perfect had his singlet ripped, forcing him to wrestle the rest of the match that way. He took over and knocked Bret off the apron and into a photographer. Perfect worked the neck for a while. Coach blew his whistle like his name was Bill Alfonso. Bret kicked out of the Perfectplex to a great pop. That hadn’t been done before (though maybe Hogan did) and it showed that Bret was for real. It’s so important to protect finishers and is terribly handled in wrestling today for the most part. Bret’s backbreaker always looked great, but against Perfect with his back in the condition it was in, it looked brutal. Bret began kicking Perfect’s leg, which Perfect sold by flipping over. After Bret took out Coach, Perfect crotched him. He started in with leg drops to the gut, but Bret eventually caught one and turned it into the Sharpshooter. Perfect tapped at 18:04 to give Bret his first singles title. Incredible. Perfect’s performance is one of the gutsiest things I’ve ever seen. Bret was his usual fantastic self, the crowd was insane and they succeeded in making Bret look like a star. Two of the best ever, having their most famous match. And yet, I still prefer their KOTR match two years later. That’s how good they were. [****½]

Bret celebrated with his mom and dad in the audience. Lord Alfred Hayes tried to interview Stu, but it went horribly.

Mean Gene interviewed the Bushwhackers and their friend Andre the Giant. The team did a lot of yelling, while Andre said he’d get even with the Natural Disasters.

The Bushwhackers w/ Andre the Giant vs. The Natural Disasters w/ Jimmy Hart
The former Tugboat turned on the Bushwhackers to become Typhoon and join Jimmy Hart. Andre’s on crutches and doesn’t look too good. Piper asked Heenan what he would do if he was managing the Bushwhackers. Heenan: “I’d commit suicide.” Zing. The Bushwhackers started surprisingly well, but it didn’t last very long. The Disasters proceeded to basically squash the Bushwhackers, which is how it should’ve been. Earthquake hit his ass splash to win in a long 6:27. This should’ve been cut in half. [½*]

The Disasters went after the injured Andre, but the Legion of Doom arrived to make the save. The Disasters left, with Andre getting in some whips with his crutch.

In the back, Bobby Heenan knocked on Hulk Hogan’s door while holding the NWA World Title! He issued a challenge to Hogan on behalf of Ric Flair but had the door slammed in his face.

Elsewhere, Macho Man spoke to a fan on the phone about the wedding. Only he could make it an entertaining segment. Meanwhile, Ted Dibiase was interviewed about the upcoming match.

WWF Million Dollar Championship: Ted Dibiase [c] w/ Sensational Sherri vs. Virgil
Virgil had the crowd hot. He started with fire and Dibiase bumped on an atomic drop by falling outside. He was clearly doing his best to help Virgil. Virgil missed a cross body to the outside, giving Dibiase the opening he needed. Dibiase’s offense was solid and everything looked crisp. He got too cocky and left the door open for Virgil to apply the Million Dollar Dream. The fans popped and Sherri freaked out. She entered to whack Virgil with her purse for the DQ. OR SO WE THOUGHT! Earl Hebner had Howard Finkel announce that Sherri was now ejected and the match would continue. Virgil laid shots into Dibiase. Ted took back over after a ref bump. Piper nearly lost his mind on commentary for everything. Ted hit a piledriver but the ref was still down. Ted exposed the turnbuckle, but it backfired as he was sent into it. Virgil made the slow crawl onto Ted to score the win to a THUNDEROUS pop at 13:11. The highlight of Virgil’s career. It did go a bit long, but the drama down the stretch helped put it over the top. They played the crowd perfectly. [***]

The Mountie was interviewed about the upcoming match. He called the local cops a bunch of “hicks” and said he didn’t want them to take it easy on Bossman. Big Bossman got a chance to respond in another interview.

Jailhouse Match: Big Bossman vs. The Mountie w/ Jimmy Hart
The loser gets arrested and sent to jail. Even though, as a Corrections Officer, Bossman doesn’t hold the power to arrest anyone. Bossman came out firing. He looked great and was quite agile for his size. He nailed a spinebuster, but a Jimmy Hart distraction turned the tide. Mountie whipped Bossman around the ring for a bit. When his offense isn’t enough to best Bossman, Mountie went for the shock stick. Bossman avoided it and caught Mountie with an uppercut. Mountie surprisingly kicked out of the Bossman Slam, but fell to an Alabama Slam at 9:38. Decent fun. Mountie’s heat segment wasn’t great. [**]

Mountie was arrested and walked out of the arena. His screams were funny.

It was now intermission time. Tons of interviews were conducted here and I don’t feel like recapping them all. Ted Dibiase (with Sherri), the Natural Disasters, Randy Savage, Bret Hart, the Nasty Boys, Big Bossman, LOD, Sid and Sgt. Slaughter were all interviewed. The only highlight was the intercutting stuff involving the Mountie getting booked at jail. He got tricked into taking his photo, lost his mind while getting fingerprinted and was all around hilarious.

WWF Tag Team Championship No Disqualifications Match: The Nasty Boys [c] w/ Jimmy Hart vs. The Legion of Doom
Isn’t is odd that Jimmy Hart managed two tag teams? Wouldn’t that be a conflict of interest? A brawl erupted around the ring at the start. That was a fine way to kick it off, but once they got to the ring, it became a regular tag. If there are no rules, why enforce that one? That slowed the pace and made for a match that doesn’t fit the teams involved. Hawk took his usual heat segment, which featured not much selling. Animal got the hot tag and ran wild. The Nasty Boys cut it off and went to use a helmet as a weapon. The referee was distracted, which again, wasn’t needed in this kind of match. Hawk ended up hitting both champs with it and Saggs was hit with the Doomsday Device to give us new champions at 7:45. There was potential here if they kept it as a brawl throughout. The odd use of the rules made for some boring segments. [*½]

The Mountie was shown getting put into his cell.

Greg Valentine vs. IRS
IRS cut his usual promo about taxes. I can’t stand his matches. They’re always so boring and repetitive. As expected, he spent the early portions of the match stalling. That was followed by the rope assisted abdominal stretch and a series of rest holds. I understand doing what you can to draw heat, but you don’t have to put people to sleep with it. A few “boring” chants were heard. The Hammer made his comeback, which woke up the crowd a bit. IRS pulled him into a small package to steal it at 7:07. It’s like IRS only had the repertoire to work about two minutes. The rest was filled with stalling and rest holds. [¾*]

Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior were interviewed about the main event. There was a lot of yelling, snarling and nonsense.

Col. Mustafa, Gen. Adnan and Sgt. Slaughter vs. WWF Champion Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior
Sid Justice was the guest referee. Sarge took the WWF Title from Warrior, so Hogan had to swoop in for the save and dethrone Sarge at WrestleMania. Hogan and Warrior took turns kicking ass and honestly did a bit of cheating with tandem offense. Hogan choked Sarge, which Sid correctly stopped. That set up Hulk as the face in peril. The heels did a lot of basic cheating tactics. Sid just sat there and watched as Adnan bit Hogan. Commentary argued if that was illegal. Seriously? Sarge went up top, so Warrior just shoved him off, even though he wasn’t legal. Warrior got the hot tag but it was false as he just got in trouble. Gotta save the real tag for Hogan. After he got the real hot tag, Hogan threw his always underhanded powder at Sarge and won with the Leg Drop at 12:40. Gorilla had the nerve to call it “victory powder.” This was about what I expected. The heels did a lot of nothing, Warrior was kind of just there, Hogan was his usual self and Sid didn’t really impact much. [*]

Hogan remained in the ring for his string of poses and taunts. Hogan signaled to the back. Sid poked his head through the curtain and it looked hilarious. He joined the ring for the pose down.

We head back to the jail for one final scene. He got put in his cell and a fellow inmate hit on him and said he loves the way leather feels.

Before the big wedding, they recapped Randy Savage proposing to Elizabeth. They also ran a touching music video of their relationship history. The wedding went off without a hitch in a great moment. The post-show reception was interrupted by Jake Roberts.

6.0

The final score: review Average

The 411

It may not show in a lot of the match scores, but I think this is a fun show. Only Bret/Perfect was a standout, must see match, yet a lot of other things worked. The Virgil/Dibiase stuff came off very well, the wedding was one of the most touching moments in wrestling history, the opener was solid and the Mountie segments were great comic additions. The rest of the show was mostly a miss, but at no point did I feel like it was a waste of time. Good old fashioned fun