Ian Hunter here, walking on out to the guitar rift from 1988 for SummerSlam. With the obnoxious red, yellow and blue logo searing across the screen, we pack as many people as we can into on friggin’ hot arena and subject you to the mediocre PPV event that has no meaning whatsoever as it tries to pick up whatever feud hype is leftover from WrestleMania. As we enter the 21st annual event, it’s time for us to take a look back and do the next two weeks on SummerSlam trivia! But first, we need to answer last weeks’ questions.
1: D. Timing in at thirty minutes even, one responder said, and I quote “It was essentially a 20 minute wrestling contest and then a 10 minute spot-fest including the famous mid-air blade-job.” Agreed.
2: C. Terry Funk, who darted to ringside for both the original fall and under the cage after the second one to make sure Foley was okay. He even took a bump to give Mick time to recover.
3: D. Shawn Michaels came back as a member of the nWo, only for it to fall apart after a few weeks. He would eventually feud with Hunter at SummerSlam, but more on that later.
4: Brock climbed on top of the cage! You can see fans clearly upset and flipping him off because of this. Rather funny.
5: A. It was going to be a simple cage match, but somewhere along the way it was suggested they take things to a different level and that the fans wouldn’t buy into a cage match. As if an extra five feet of playing room would have done the trick?
The curse is broken! We have not one, not two, but three winners in this week’s trivia! Sam Robinson, Mark Smallman and Jeff Mitchell. Your prize, you get to fight in a three-way Hell In A Cell match for supreme winner. I wanna see blood. Chop chop! As for the rest, let’s kick off week one with a trip down the original set of SummerSlam events. Answer the questions and email your answers to TorchTrivia@gmail.com. We'll post the names of those who got ALL FIVE correct. Good luck to you all!
1. The very first SummerSlam took place on August 29th, 1988 at Madison Square Garden, and followed the fallout of WrestleMania IV’s championship tournament. Rick Rude and Jake Roberts were still going at it as Jake cost JYD his match. The Ultimate Warrior pulled off a :31 second upset over the Honky Tonk Man for the Intercontinental title, and Demolition fought hard against the newly turned Hart Foundation to keep their tag team belts. But the main event was Ted DiBiase and Andre The Giant against the Mega Powers of Hulk Hogan and champion Randy Savage. Aside from a buncy Virgil and a skimpy Elizabeth, the match featured special guest referee Jessie Ventura who was reluctant to count to three on anyone’s behalf. Who eventually slammed his fist down for the final three count?
A. Hulk Hogan
B. Andre The Giant
C. Virgil
D. Ted DiBiase
E. Randy Savage
2. Next will be a write-in question. The following year the Mega Powers had exploded, and so had the film No Holds Barred (sorta), and that was the psychotic string-story that brought about the SummerSlam ’89 main event. Which is why we’re going to skip that one and go straight to 1990. It was at about this time SummerSlam was being used as a feel-good PPV. All the championships were won by faces, which in hindsight meant more to fans as most of the normal matches were won by heels. This was also an entry/departure PPV as it was the last time we saw Rick Rude for the next seven years, and the entry of someone new. Who?
3. SummerSlam ’91 is in many circles widely accepted as the best SummerSlam in history. Virgil beat Ted DiBiase for the Million Dollar Belt, The Big Boss Man sent The Mountie to jail for a night, and who could forget the twenty minute classic between Bret Hart and Mr. Perfect for the I.C. title? End of the night featured a handicap tag match between Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan against Sgt. Slaughter (in full Iraqi uniform) along with Col. “Iron Sheik” Mustafa and General Adnan. Now the original plans involved Jake Roberts coming out in what would look like him aiding the Warrior after all the promos they did, only to betray him and run (where Warrior would follow) and leave it as Hogan 3-1 to rely on Sid Justice. But Warrior went through the eventual ordeal of holding McMahon up for money, which led to the mismanaged ending we got at the end. McMahon promptly fired Warrior, turned to Jake, and said…
A. Don’t worry, he was an ass anyway.
B. You have the worst luck.
C. You still wanna go out there?
D. Aren’t you glad that’s over?
E. I’ll make it up to you at the next big show.
4. Ironically enough, 1992 not only saw the PPV return of the Warrior, but he was in a championship match with Randy Savage during his second reign. Held in Wembley Stadium to the WWF’s second largest crowd in history (80,355), a number of memorable moments took place at the company’s first major international PPV event. Strangely enough, Savage and Warrior may have been the championship match, but they weren’t the headliner at the end of the night. Undertaker against kamala was the second to last match, and the main event was Bret Hart against the British Bulldog. With a Canadian against a hometown boy, the crowd was on its feet for the entire match. When the final reversal came for the pinfall, the crowd went nuts, and history was made. But originally this match was not the main event of the evening and was swapped with Savage/Warrior. Who convinced McMahon to switch it?
A. Bret Hart
B. British Bulldog
C. Randy Savage
D. Pat Patterson
E. Shane McMahon
5. The final question will be a write-in. 1993 brought about some change, but the majority of the PPV was very forgettable. The Steiner Brothers were the Tag Team Champions defending against the Heavenly Bodies, Shawn Michaels kept the I.C. title from Mr. Perfect via countout (Curt has never had good luck at this PPV), the Undertaker took on Giant Gimmick, er, Gonzalez, and Bret Hart (at the peak of his career) was taking on Doink The Clown. The big main event for this year was Lex Luger against Yokozuna. For those of you who forget, Luger managed to bodyslam Yoko on the deck of the USS Intrepid in a one-hour PPV (that I seriously hope no one purchased), and instantly Luger was the next Hulk Hogan with no yellow to be found as a representative for the USA. He went against Japan’s greatest threat in champion Yoko. In the midst of all this it was revealed that Lex had surgery on his arm from a motorbike accident and had a metal plate in his arm as an advantage, and it was demanded that he cover it up. The was a second condition to the match that didn’t get much hype until later down the road… what was it?
A
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A
B
B
LATEST PRO WRESTLING TORCH NEWSLETTER #1045 (20 PAGES)
This issue begins with a cover story by Wade Keller on Jake Roberts's indy show meltdown... Keller's BBL looks at WWE's decision to put all three World Champs in a Triple Threat on the MyNetwork debut of Smackdown... Page 2 Buzz with Jason Powell features tons of insider news items from WWE and TNA... Part three of the "Torch Talk" with Lanny Poffo... Pat McNeill's "At the Bar for Unforgiven" column... In-depth coverage of the TNA No Surrender PPV including the newsletter-exclusive Roundtable Reviews from Keller, Mitchell, and McNeill... Plus WWE Newswire, TNA Newswire, and ROH Newswire, Keller's reports on Raw, Smackdown, and Impact, the Top 5 Stories of the Week... PDF EXCLUSIVE features include the Greg Parks's review of the new Mr. Perfect DVD and Brian Hoops looks at pro wrestlers with Olympic backgrounds........
