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Biggest Party of the Summer: Looking Briefly at the History of Summerslam
As we head towards Summerslam this upcoming weekend, I wanted to take a look back at what is being hyped as the brother of the biggest stage of them all, WrestleMania.
Summerslam was originally instituted by Vincent Kennedy McMahon in 1988 in order to compete with Jim Crockett Promotions (Known as World Championship Wrestling later on).
JCP had been in a ratings war with the World Wrestling Federation, especially on pay-per views, so both promotions began to create several big shows a year. The WWF created Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, King of the Ring, as well as Survivor Series as the competition to JPC before creating Summerslam.
The "Classic Five" WWF shows had begun to have bigger buyout rates than anything on JPC, but Summerslam was always the biggest event of the summer.
The first ever Summerslam show was on August 29th, 1988 where 20,000 were in attendance at Madison Square Garden to see Hulk Hogan team with Randy Savage (The Mega Powers) would take on the team of Andre the Giant and Ted DiBiase (The Mega Bucks).
During this match, we would see Miss Elizabeth take off her skirt in order to distract the Mega Bucks and this would lead the Mega Powers to victory.
The fans were also treated to The British Bulldogs taking on The Fabulous Rougeas in a solid tag team match as well as the famous moment when Ultimate Warrior would finally end Honky Tonk Man's eighteen month Intercontinental Championship reign.
After a very successful buy rate from Summerslam, the WWF
decided to keep the show as one of the more prestigious pay-per-views in their yearly lineup. Summerslam would go on to rarely disappoint us and treat us to some of the most unforgettable moments in wrestling history.
For example, in Summerslam 1991, we saw the first time the Road Warriors would win the Tag Team Championships, by defeating The Nasty Boys. We also saw the renowned marriage between "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth.
There were many subsequent attempts at marital storylines in wrestling history, but none really matched this one if you ask me.
Last year, we experienced a rather mediocre edition of Summerslam, but we did at least experience one of the greatest “Hell in a Cell” matches of all time, between Edge and the Undertaker.
This proves to me that each year, a moment or two always goes down in WWE history as the greatest (insert moment/match here) of all time, or at least in recent memory. Modern legends and icons that we would normally never see in a match against one another have squared off in the ring during Summerslam; the only real comparison would be WrestleMania.
Undertaker was a man who always put on phenomenal
performances at any Summerslam event he participated in. Most notably, Undertaker is remembered for his first and final showdown with the devious fake Undertaker, as well as his brutal Boiler Room Brawl against Mankind, where Paul Bearer betrayed his own son to aid Mankind at Summerslam 1996.
On that cold night in Cleveland, we saw Bearer take the urn from the Undertaker and make sure that Mankind would win the match that Undertaker clearly was about to win.
Another man that had been an icon was Shawn Michaels, especially in 1997, where he accidentally helped his longtime rival in Bret Hart win the WWE Championship, screwing Undertaker in the process.
After all of the emotion and passion during that feud between Michaels and Hart, we also remember moments where Michaels truly shined.
For starters, there was the betrayal of Hulk Hogan which had given us a very solid storyline, though Hulk was never all that special to me.
Then Michaels was involved with his longtime friend, Triple H, in D-Generation X in 2006. Whether he was loved or despised, the Heartbreak Kid had put on one hell of a show.
Summerslam has not only provided us with unbelievable moments from top stars in the business, but it would also serve to elevate younger talent. There were many young stars that thrived in the spotlight, but the one that I look at more than others is Randy Orton.
Orton would go on to win his first World Heavyweight Championship in 2004, while during that night, Evolution had kicked him out over the jealousy of Triple H. After
then, Randy would proceed to become one of the most prominent stars in the WWE today.
So each year when Summerslam arrives, we always know that whether the show is phenomenal or just leaves us with one or two memories, we all know that we’re watching the biggest party of the summer.
Summerslam has brought together fans from all over the world throughout the years to celebrate professional wrestling at it's finest.
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