WWF Summerslam ‘94
August 29, 1994
Chicago, IL
Reviewed on July 25, 2014
We are clearly past the Hulkamania era and in the Bret Hart era. 1993 had tons of questionable things in a period of transition, but the WWF clearly realized it needed to create newer stars and move on. There’s a lot of New Generation references for sure.
We are in the midst of the Bret Hart WWF Championship run, and in the middle of the Hart Brothers’ feud. While maybe it wasn’t the biggest draw, it was critically an awesome feud that made Owen Hart.
The hokey stuff was still there though. The Undertaker was arguably the 2nd biggest babyface in the company when he left at the Royal Rumble 1994 (yeah, sorry Lex Luger, but Survivor Series 93 proved this), but took an extended break. The storyline here sucks though, as it is the infamous Undertaker vs. Underfaker feud.
Diesel vs. Razor Ramon is a notable match here, as it includes three guys (Shawn Michaels at ringside) who the WWF would be built upon for the next 18 months.
LET’S FIGURE OUT THE MYSTERY OF THE UNDERTAKERS SHALL WE?!
The Card
Randy Savage is our host and introduces us to Summerslam. You know, Vince wasting Savage here was a big reason he left at the end of the year.
We are told that Diesel and HBK won the tag belts at a house show last night. I don’t remember the storyline reason on why that was done.
The Headshrinkers vs. Bam Bam Bigelow and IRS
This was for the tag belts before the Headshrinkers lost them the night before.
The odd Headshrinker face run. Bigelow and IRS are part of the Million Dollar Corporation.
It’s sometimes jarring to see Fatu so skinny considering Rikishi later.
Really good hart hitting action here. Workrate overall really went up in 1994. Makes 1995 even more perplexing.
Samu backdrops Bigelow with ease, which was pretty cool.
Pretty terrible double reverse Russian legsweep there Shrinkers…
Bigelow and IRS win by DQ in 7:20. A billion managers (Albano, Afa, Dibiase all got involved and it leads to a DQ (Afa hit a headbutt first). Shame, this was a pretty fun match and I thought woulda been a good way to put Bigelow and IRS over, as the Headshrinkers were on their way out (which is also a shame).
The Leslie Nielson stuff is pretty horrible. He’s trying to find the Undertaker. This is like the WWF version of those terrible WCW minimovies.
Women’s Championship
Alundra Blayze© vs. Bull Nakano
Nakano has Luna Vachon with her, the story is Luna brought her because she couldn’t beat Blayze.
Crowd is into Blayze.
What a sick hair pull whip. Wow.
Hurricanrana from Blayze!
Standing sharpshooter from Nakano. Crowd popped huge. Probably because it was pretty bad ass.
Blayze goes for a piledriver, and while Nakano is countering she actually finger waves to the crowd “no”. That’s pretty awesome.
Blayze retains by pin in 8:10. German suplex gets the three and a HUGE pop. Great match. Blayze was the babyface in peril and Nakano was a bad ass. Why wasn’t this at Mania XI?
HBK and Diesel interview with their new tag belts.
Diesel wasn’t a promo guy at this point…although he looks like a bad ass here.
HBK calling Walter Payton a munchkin was something.
Intercontinental Championship
Diesel© vs. Razor Ramon
Ramon has Walter Payton in his corner.
Let’s be clear, Shawn Michaels was already one of the best heels in wrestling at this point.
This was Nash’s peak as a wrestler. Of course, he always did well against Kliq members.
Diesel is moving fast. Watching him here makes it obvious he phoned it in later in his career.
The dynamic of Shawn Michaels’ using Walter Payton’s inexperience to distract the referee…and attack Ramon…is fantastic.
One thing to say about Kevin Nash: He had the best sidewalk slam in the business.
Ramon is bumping everywhere.
Diesel with the abdominal stretch counter I always want to happen: the hip toss.
Shawn takes a punch from Ramon and goes flying off the apron into the guardrail. Wow!
Razor Ramon wins the title in 15:05. Michaels looks to hit Ramon with the IC belt, but Payton gets involved. Ref goes to Payton though, so HBK tries to superkick Ramon…and gets Diesel instead! Payton stops HBK from interfering, and Ramon wins his 2nd IC title. Another great match. No wonder Vince thought to put the title on Diesel after this. This of course was the start of the Diesel-HBK split and Diesel face turn.
Luger and Tatanka backstage with Todd. Tatanka has been claiming Luger sold out to Dibiase. Of course, how else will this end up?
Lex Luger vs. Tatanka
Fans are pretty dead, cheering Lex but not really.
Tatanka is acting all heel though. Fans respond in kind.
Here comes Dibiase! Just as Luger takes advantage.
Tatanka pins Lex Luger in 6:09. Luger yells at Dibiase and gets rolled up by Tatanka. Luger continues to yell at Dibiase, and Tatanka turns. Was a big deal at the time, even if Tatanka absolutely sucked from this point forward. Match wasn’t much, but it wasn’t horrible or anything.
Mabel vs. Jeff Jarrett
This would be cooler if Jarrett came out to “Rap is Crap”. I mean, that’s not possible, but still.
I have NO idea what Oscar is rapping.
Mabel was fine as a fun midcard babyface. Of course, he was main eventing Summerslam next year.
There’s a lot of Memphis style wrestling here (taunting, and wasting time).
Jarrett shoving Oscar into the stairs is a highlight.
Jarrett screws up a top rope fist drop. Looked terrible.
Match is structured poorly. Jarrett already survived a Mabel elbowdrop and corner avalanche. What?
Mabel’s spinkick was always cool.
ABE “KNUCKLEBALL” SCHWARTZ in the crowd. He’s on strike!
Way not to DQ Mabel for the Oscar punch ref. Lawler asks why that was allowed. GREAT QUESTION!
Jeff Jarrett pins Mabel in 5:50. Mabel misses a sit down splash, and Jarrett pins him off that. Well, everything was solid or at least okay before this. Throw away midcard match being horrible won’t hurt the show too badly. Yes, this was horrible. At least Jarrett won.
Ugh, more Mystery of the Undertaker crap. Behind them was a shadow of the Undertaker. It’s a shame this isn’t next, which I’ll explain later.
History of the Bret vs. Owen feud. How much did this get Owen over? He was a practically a jobber or wrestled for lower level teams before this feud and Bret helped him so much some thought he should have been the World Champion.
WWF Championship: Steel Cage Match
Bret Hart© vs. Owen Hart
Timeline here: Owen and Bret argue at Survivor Series ’93 after Owen was the only Hart Brother eliminated. They patch things up, but another miscommunication in their Tag Title match vs. the Quebecers led to Owen kicking “Bret’s leg out of his leg”. Owen Hart then upset Bret at Wrestlemania, but Bret won the World Title later, giving some credibility to Owen that he could be champ. At KOTR, Jim Neidhart helped Bret retain his title…but then helped Owen win KOTR. Now we are here.
Note: The British Bulldog is in the crowd, which is his return.
Lawler blames Stu and Helen Hart for this whole match. Lawler says that he’s happy to see the Bulldog because he beat Bret two years ago at Summerslam. They interview Neidhart too.
Owen goes RIGHT for Bret as soon as he walks in. Amazing. No waiting around bs here.
In any cage match, early escapes usually don’t make sense, but it’s an awesome dynamic here as Owen wants to win at any cost and Bret just wants this to end.
Suplex off the top rope cageside by Bret.
Owen nearly falls out of the cage, but I think it was intentional to get a reaction.
Just great non-stop action from the start here.
Sick crotch spot off the top rope by Owen.
Bret actually keeps Owen in at one point by merely his hair. Awesome.
Amazingly, the structure of this match is simple. Escape attempt, big move off the top rope. Bret and Owen make each attempt look like the match can be over. And it’s amazing.
Perfect piledriver from Owen Hart!
Bret with the most convincing door escape false finish I’d ever seen there. Owen stops him!
They’ve got the crowd in their hands with these door finishes.
Lawler’s commentary by the way, brilliant. Just adds to Owen’s legitimacy.
Match has been fought at a 50:50 split exactly. I can’t state how much this made Owen Hart.
Superplex from the (near) top of the cage by the Hitman! Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.
Amazingly that’s not the finish! Owen stops Bret from escaping out the door, somehow.
Sharpshooter by Owen!
Bret counters into his own Sharpshooter!
Owen actually calls for Neidhart while in the Sharpshooter, which is genius in itself.
It’s still not over! Owen stops Bret again! A punch, and both go flying off the side of the cage!
Bret Hart retains in 32:22. Owen tries to escape again and Bret grabs him. Bret then leaves as well, and both men are a three foot drop from winning! Owen gets his leg caught and gets stuck in an inverted position on the cage, and Bret leaps down for the win! Yeah so that was incredible. It actually has a legit claim to Match of the Year over the Razor-Shawn ladder match at Mania, that’s how amazing this is. Non-stop back and forth action with Bret JUST coming out on top. No surprise this got five stars from Meltzer. One of my favorite matches of all time. Probably still the greatest cage match in WWE history, some may say of all time period.
Owen and Neidhart then lock Bret in the cage, fend off the family, and beat the hell out of Bret. Also amazing. Bulldog eventually finds his way in to chase them off.
You know what else that was amazing? That wasn’t the main event of the show. Kinda a shame to be honest.
The Undertaker vs. The Undertaker
We get a review of what happened at the Royal Rumble (which I also covered in my Rumble review). Taker died, rose, etc. Also a soliloquy. Can’t forget that. Yokozuna beat him. (So um…why not the Undertaker vs. Yokozuna revenge match here?). So apparently random people have seen the Undertaker, and Dibiase (which did make sense since Dibiase brought him in) claimed to buy him off.
Then Dibiase brought in…the Undertaker! I like that in that segment, Taker was so over no one cared Dibiase was the one bringing him back and cheered him huge.
Brian Lee played a good Undertaker on Halloween, but it didn’t really work. WWF kept with the story about Brian Lee being the Undertaker though. There’s a crazy Paul Bearer in this though.
Todd Pettengill takes a great random shot at Lawler in all this build up.
I’m gonna use the Underfaker term from now on, it’s just easier to write.
Let me give you a (the only) positive in this whole debacle. Underfaker uses the same entrance Undertaker was using his whole career. Lights off, but nothing too crazy. Lee looks pretty stiff coming down though, like he hadn’t mastered the walk. This is the first half of this point.
After Paul Bearer’s theatrics with a coffin and the urn and all, the real Undertaker shows up and admittedly, it’s pretty awesome. When he appears in all that blue/purple smoke Vince calls it perfectly (“NOW THAT’S THE UNDERTAKER”). Lawler also sells it brilliantly (from all there’s no Undertaker to “oh my gosh” in shock). That’s the second half of this point. The Undertaker had evolved.
All of it does take WAY too long though.
The purple gloved Undertaker is probably the most awesome version in terms of look. Of course, it led to perhaps a horrible run of opponents, so it was wasted. Unless you were a Mabel fan.
Ok another positive. Undertaker I believe debuted the corner light turning on thing here. Also awesome.
Onto the match. Sigh.
The Takers mirror the hat and tie taking off deal. Taker is a few inches taller than Lee (way not to lead Lee’s boot).
You really see the Undertaker vs. guy in an Undertaker costume on Halloween comparison once they meet in the middle of the ring.
It’s worth noting that Undertaker’s style had clearly changed already. Leapfrog by the Undertaker, for example.
The story becomes which Undertaker can no-sell the most. Seriously.
Some kind of Undertaker into the ropes move by Lee.
Vince says that the crowd is in awe. No, the crowd is silent because this sucks.
Faker gets a chokeslam, and Taker sits up. Fans cheer as that probably means the end is near.
Faker with a Tombstone! Sit up!
Faker goes for another one, but Taker counters! Tombstone…and Faker isn’t getting up.
Undertaker pins Underfaker in 8:57. Three tombstones. And it’s over. Pretty bad. Crowd was dead silent the whole time. I will say I think this a good attempt at an awful idea. (Unlike Kane vs. Kane, a bad attempt at an awful idea). Can’t go farther in the good column than that. Boring, terrible match, but it brought back the Undertaker and all and the fans are happy about that at the end. Probably didn’t help that Bret vs. Owen was incredible and right before this. Still, a big downer. Just put this between Tatanka-Luger and Jarrett-Mabel and you’re fine.
Some last second George Kennedy and Leslie Neilson stuff, with a closed case pun. Whatever.
This PPV was an A and even could have been pushed to an A+ with a great main event. Matches were mostly good, even Luger vs. Tatanka was decent. Jarrett vs. Mabel is inoffensive filler. There’s some big history too, as Diesel vs. Razor was a big sign of where the WWF was going, as well as the establishment of Owen Hart. Bret and the Undertaker held their places at the main event.
But man, you know we complain about CM Punk not being in main events as champion…yet somehow Bret didn’t end one PPV in his 1994 World Title reign. The other times, I can kinda see it, but this time, what the hell? Maybe it was because they wanted to run the Owen thing and not finish on that, but the match absolutely ruled.
Undertaker vs. Undertaker was that bad too. Cool entrance, even good finish, but it really messed up the flow this show had going.
But the rest of the card was very good to great mostly, and Bret vs. Owen is just incredible. And since we never saw the Underfaker again, I can accept this conclusion to an awful storyline. Still drops it a little from A though.
Final Grade: A-