Retro Wrestle Respawn – WWF Summer Slam 1991

After spending the last month or so looking at ECW and NWA shows, I decided I would spend a week or two watching some shows from the WWF just to give things some variety. The summer of 91 was an interesting period for the WWF, as new blood in the form of Ric Flair and Sid Justice jumped from WCW whilst current mid card wrestlers like Bret Hart and Virgil started getting pushed further up the card (One did better than the other of course, but the thought was there at least)

This show was promoted as having both the “Match Made in Heaven” and the “Match Made in Hell” as part of its promotional material, with the former being the marriage of Randy Savage and Elizabeth and the latter being a two on three handicap match featuring Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior taking on Sgt Slaughter and his goon squad. Vince McMahon declares in the opening video package that “Nuptials will turn to NAPALM” in his usual throaty delivery.

Will Savage and Liz’s wedding go on as planned? Will Hogan and Warrior be able to overcome the odds? Let’s read on and find out shall we?

The event is emanating from Madison Square Garden on the 26th of August 1991

Calling the action are Gorilla Monsoon, Bobby Heenan and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, with Mean Gene Okerlund and Sean Mooney taking care of backstage interviews

WWF 1

Opening Match
The Warlord, Hercules and Paul Roma w/ “The Doctor of Style” Slick
Vs
British Bulldog, Kerry Von Erich and The Dragon

“The Dragon” is Ricky Steamboat, who jumped to the WWF following a low ball contract offer from WCW. Coming to the conclusion that being perhaps the best babyface of all time just wasn’t enough, Vince McMahon and the WWF brain trust decided that he needed to be an actual fire breathing dragon to get over with the WWF audience (Ignoring of course the fact that Steamboat had been in the WWF previously and had been very popular)

Kerry Von Erich, WWF Intercontinental Champion a mere year ago, is now permanently part of the mid card scene, where he would remain until finally being let go in 1992. Bulldog had been back in the WWF for less than a year at this point and had been feuding with The Warlord almost immediately upon putting pen to paper on his contract. Roma and Hercules were better known as “Power and Glory”, a team that the WWF pushed hard upon their formation but then just gave up on.

Roma hits The Dragon with a dropkick early on but stops to taunt the crowd and ends up taking some classic Steamboat arm drags in response. Hercules tries his luck with Dragon but also finds himself coming up short. Von Erich comes in and wears out Hercules with easy stuff like 10 punches, which carefully disguises the fact he was utterly broken down by this stage.

Bulldog and Warlord have their battle next, with Bulldog clotheslining Warlord and dropping him with a big vertical suplex. Seriously, I could watch Davey Boy Smith suplex Warlord around at will all day as it’s always impressive. Dragon comes in and tries a monkey flip on Warlord, but the big man blocks it and that’s enough for the heel trio to cut Dragon off for the heat.

Dragon sells impeccably during the heat (In other news; water is wet) and the heels work him over, targeting the back especially. Its basic stuff but it all looks decent and has the desired effect of the crowd getting behind The Dragon. Piper accidentally calls Dragon “Steamboat” during the heat and you can tell he gets a right earful from Vince McMahon over the headset because he doesn’t call him that again for the rest of the match!

Warlord goes up to the second rope but ends up landing face first onto a Dragon raised boot and it’s hot tag Von Erich! Warlord actually gets a sunset flip(!) but Von Erich manages to make the tag to Bulldog just before going down to the mat. Bulldog goes for a cross body but The Warlord catches him, so Von Erich adds a Tornado Punch so that Bulldog lands on top for a two count.

In an odd moment, Bulldog delivers the Running Powerslam to Roma but hesitates between making the tag and going for the pin. He compromises by pinning Roma for a one count before tagging in The Dragon, who gets a top rope cross body to put this match away.

WINNERS: DRAGON, VON ERICH AND BULLDOG
RATING: **

Nowt wrong with this at all, outside of the sloppy ending. It was your standard six man tag designed to get the crowd pumped up for the show and it achieved that aim so bravo!

Sean Mooney is backstage with Mr. Perfect and John “Coach” Tolos. Tolos was doing a sort of prototypical Bill Alfonso gimmick here, as he had a whistle he blew incessantly. Perfect says that Bret is excellent, but he’s not perfect, and that’s why he won’t win the intercontinental title tonight.

WWF 2

Match Two
WWF Intercontinental Championship
Champion: Mr. Perfect w/ Coach Vs Bret “Hitman” Hart

We see that Stu and Helen Hart are in the crowd to watch Bret tonight and Heenan of course has a ball insulting them at every turn. Perfect had lost the title to Von Erich at the previous year’s Summer Slam but he won back at the turn of the year and has been champion since. This is Bret’s first serious singles title shot after years of tagging with Jim Neidhart as “The Hart Foundation”

As you’d expect from these two, there’s some solid chain wrestling from the start of the match with Hart tenaciously holding onto a side headlock. Heenan gets a great line saying you can’t pull Bret’s hair because you’d get “oil slicks” on your hands. Man, when Bobby was on he was outstanding! Perfect brings an end to the wrestling with a chop, but when he goes for a kick Bret catches the leg and delivers a kick of his own before sending Perfect to the outside.

Perfect tries to run away but Bret drags him back to the ring, ripping Perfect’s singlet in the process. The cameraman cuts to a shot of Stu and Helen looking worried, which Heenan says is because they snuck in without a ticket. Possibly his best line ever! Perfect cuts Bret off with a cheap shot in the ring and then sends him off the apron into the guardrail.

This fires Bret up and he hammers away with right hands back inside before getting an O’Connor Roll for two before Perfect cuts him off again. Perfect works Bret over but the challenger won’t stay down and keeps coming. Perfect is moving pretty gingerly here, which is a direct result of him having a legitimate back injury at the time, but he still finds the energy to slap Bret around and toss him from one corner of the ring to the other with a hairmare before going to a sleeper hold.

Bret fights his way out of the sleeper and goes for a crucifix pin but Perfect holds on and counters with a Samoan Drop. This has been a great heat segment, with both men playing their roles, pardon the pun, perfectly. Perfect hits Bret with the Perfect-Plex but Bret is able to kick out at two to a big pop. Bret comes back with an inverted atomic drop, followed with a standard one before giving Perfect a taste of his own medicine with a hairmare of his own.

Bret gets a vertical suplex for two and the fans boo loudly at the kick out. Yes, they actually bought that Bret Hart was going to win the IC Title with a standard suplex. Bret runs through his Five Moves of Doom but Perfect keeps kicking out and eventually bails outside. Bret follows Perfect out and sends him into the ring post before going after the leg with kicks when they get back in. Bret goes for the Sharpshooter but Coach distracts him, which allows Perfect to get a series of near low blows.

Perfect is smart not to go full on with the low kicks, instead going just near enough to the gut and inner thigh that the referee can’t officially disqualify him. He goes to the well once too often though and Bret his able to catch his leg and transition to the Sharpshooter for the clean submission win.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: BRET HART
RATING: ****

The Sharpshooter at the end was a little messy due to Perfect’s back injury, but it would be churlish to complain when you consider how much pain Perfect was in. Despite the agony he must have been suffering from, he still went out there and put Bret over clean as a sheet after a decent length match. All credit to him there. The fans were clearly behind Bret here and were very happy to see him win the title. In what surely must have been a rib, Alfred Hayes goes to interview Stu and Helen but pulls the mic away before either of them can barely saying anything. Bret comes over to celebrate with them in a lovely moment.

Mean Gene Okerlund is backstage with The Bushwhackers and Andre The Giant. The Bushwhackers say they’ll chew The Natural Disasters to pieces and then feed the remains to Andre.

WWF 3

Match Three
The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon) w/ Jimmy Hart Vs The Bushwhackers (Luke and Butch) w/ Andre The Giant

The backstory here was that Jimmy Hart tried to sign Andre The Giant to a contract but Andre refused, so Earthquake went after his knee with Hart’s megaphone to put him on crutches. Meanwhile, Typhoon (As Tugboat) turned on The Bushwhackers to join up with Earthquake. Originally this was supposed to lead to an Andre Vs Earthquake match, but Andre was too hurt in real life to make that happen so we got this match as a compromise instead.

The Bushwhackers shine on The Disasters with their usual array of biting and double teams, and it actually allows them to clear the ring early on. However, that’s short lived and Earthquake ends up squishing Butch with an elbow drop for the cut off. As the heat goes on, Bobby Heenan leaves the announcers table to go and confront Hulk Hogan. Meanwhile, Quake wears Butch down with a bear hug and then tags in Typhoon who gets two from a back elbow.

Heel miscommunication allows Luke to get the hot tag and he actually manages to bump Typhoon with a running head butt. The Whackers run wild with battering rams, but Typhoon is able to kick out at two. Earthquake delivers a back breaker onto Butch and then comes in with The Aftershock on Luke for the three count. Interesting how Quake was clearly positioned as the more effective member of the team, which makes sense seeing as he’d main evented in the past whilst Typhoon had been a joke in his previous gimmick.

WINNERS: THE NATURAL DISASTERS
RATING: *

I’ve seen worse matches. This one wasn’t good though. The Natural Disasters try to attack Andre post-match but The Legion of Doom run down to chase them off and set up a new program for the autumn.

Meanwhile, Bobby Heenan goes up to Hulk Hogan’s dressing room, the WCW World Title in hand, to challenge him on behalf of Ric Flair. We don’t even get to see Hogan, as he just slams the door in Heenan’s face. Heenan’s reaction to this is hilarious. For those not sure about what was going on here, Ric Flair had recently quit WCW and brought their World Title with him, so Heenan became his mouthpiece until it was time for Flair himself to debut in the WWF. Gorilla and Piper have a good laugh at Heenan’s expense.

We cut to Sean Mooney with Ted Dibiase and Sensational Sherri. Dibiase has a good laugh at all the demeaning things he used to make Virgil do when he still worked for him. Dibiase says Virgil can choose which gutter he ends up in tonight as New York is a city full of gutters. He finishes by offering him a crying towel before walking off laughing. Great promo!

WWF p

Match Four
Million Dollar Title
Champion: “Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase w/ Sensational Sherri Vs Virgil

Virgil used to be Dibiase’s bodyguard but finally turned on his abusive boss following cajoling from Piper, who spends the entire match on commentary cheering for him. The two had a match at WrestleMania VII which ended in a screwy fashion, so this is the rematch. Virgil runs wild on Dibiase to start and clotheslines him out of the ring. The fans are massively behind Virgil here and he unloads on Dibiase with some right hands and delivers an atomic drop for added measure.

Heenan comes down to re-join the commentary desk as Virgil misses a dive to the outside and hits the mats. Dibiase sends Virgil into the ring steps a couple times and then lays the bad mouth on him on him as well, just to be a jerk. Dibiase works over Virgil back in the ring, making sure to yell at Piper whenever the opportunity presents itself. However, Virgil is able to duck a clothesline and applies the Million Dollar Dream.

Sherri runs in and hits Virgil with her handbag just as Dibiase is about to submit. This should be a disqualification but the referee instead decides to withhold the DQ and restart the match, with Sherri barred from ringside. The referee really doesn’t have the authority to do that I think, but it makes the crowd happy so hey-ho. Piper declares that Sherri is used to being thrown out of places, which was probably an accurate statement back then.

Virgil rams Dibiase’s head into the ring post ten times but Dibiase reverses an Irish Whip and sends Virgil colliding with the referee. With the referee down, Dibiase works Virgil over with high impact moves like suplexes and piledrivers, mocking Piper with each one. Dibiase gets cocky however and tries to ram Virgil face first into an unprotected turnbuckle, but Virgil reverses and sends him into it for the three count.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: VIRGIL
RATING: **1/2

The place became completely unglued when Virgil won there. I loved the ending as it looked like it was building up to Piper running in for the rescue, but they instead went with Virgil winning on his own. These days WWE would have Piper lay out Dibiase and drape Virgil on top or something, because they don’t know how to book babyfaces anymore.

Mean Gene is backstage in the parking lot with The Mountie and some local cops. Mountie faces Big Boss Man tonight, with the loser spending the night in jail. Mountie brags that he’ll win and then talks down to the New York cops, demanding rough justice for Boss Man when he loses. I think we can all see where this is going…

Meanwhile, Sean Mooney is with Big Boss Man in the interview area. Boss Man says The Mountie shouldn’t be talking to the cops but instead praying to God that he makes it through the night when he takes a trip to jail.

WWF 4

Match Five
Jailhouse Match
The Mountie w/ Jimmy Hart Vs Big Boss Man

Boss Man slugs away on The Mountie to start and gets a big splash for two. Heenan talks about bringing Boss Man some cigarettes so he can bribe the screws later whilst he’s in prison in a funny bit. Boss Man works over The Mountie with his usual stuff and gets a big spine buster but doesn’t go for the cover. I remember watching this match as a kid and being petrified that Boss Man might lose and have to go to jail.

Jimmy Hart distracts Boss Man and this allows Mountie to cut him off and work him over inside the ring. Mountie had a great gimmick that always drew instant heat, but he sadly wasn’t great as a singles worker. He suited being in a tag team much more, especially when tagging with better workers such as his brother Raymond and Carl Ouellette.

Boss Man tries to fight back but Mountie responds by biting him and then delivering a sloppy looking piledriver, but he doesn’t try to cover either. Piper actually points out that Mountie should be going for a pin. We eventually see why not, as Mountie tries to shock Boss Man with his cattle prod, but Boss Man avoids that and delivers The Boss Man Slam for two.

Fans are now starting to get worried, as that would normally be a finish. Mountie tries to go for another piledriver but Boss Man muscles Mountie into an Alabama Slam and that’s enough to pick up the three count. I’m loving this show, the faces are winning almost every match and it’s great!

WINNER: BIG BOSS MAN
RATING: **

Not much of a match, but let’s face, it it’s the post-match we’re all watching this for anyway. So Mountie gets handcuffed and shackled by the New York cops he insulted earlier and his taken away in the paddy wagon. See, he was a jerk and now he’s getting punished for it, because wrestling is supposed to be the ultimate morality play.

We get a parade of interviews now, as was the norm with early 90’s WWF shows

– Ted Dibiase and Sherri complain about what happened earlier to Mean Gene
– Sean Mooney is with Bret Hart, who says tonight he proved that there’s no such thing as Perfect
– Mean Gene is with Jimmy Hart and The Natural Disasters. Hart is worried about The Mountie whilst The Natural Disasters are annoyed at The Legion of Doom stopping their beat down of Andre earlier
– Sean Mooney is with Big Boss Man. Boss Man asks Sean what bird can’t fly? Why, a jailbird of course!
– Mean Gene tries to interview Randy Savage, but Savage is talking to fans on the 900 line. Gene tries to go an interview Elizabeth instead but Savage stops him

We head back to ringside where Gorilla, Piper and Heenan recap what has happened already tonight and hype up the main event later. Heenan thinks that guest referee Sid Justice might be up to something in the main event.

We cut to the paddy waggon showing up at the police station. The cops drag Mountie into the building whilst he yells “Do you know who I am?! I’M THE MOUNTIE!!!”

WWF 53

We segue from that to Sean Mooney, who is with Jimmy Hart and The WWF Tag Champs The Nasty Boys. Hart is distraught about what’s happening to The Mountie and assures everyone that his lawyer is on his way to the police station. The Nasty’s seem confident about defending their titles against The Legion of Doom.

Meanwhile, at the police station, The Mountie tries to cover his face so that the police can’t take his mug shot. Eventually the camera operator says “Well I guess The Big Boss Man kicked your butt huh?” Which causes Mountie to yell at her, enabling her to snap the picture. Haha! That was brilliant! Such great timing on the gag as well.

Mean Gene is with The Legion of Doom. They deliver the usual promo hyping the tag title match and also take a moment to address The Natural Disasters. Hawk declares that “There’s boys, there’s men and there’s monsters! Ohhhhhhhhhhhh what a rush!”

We cut from that to see The Mountie giving the cops the finger, which allows them to take his finger prints.

The parade of promos continues, as Sgt Slaughter, General Adnan and Colonel Mustafa hype up their match with Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior. Slaughter insults both men as his gaggle of idiots cackle behind him.

We cut to Sid Justice being interviewed by Mean Gene. He will be the referee tonight for the aforementioned match. Gene shows footage of Justice talking to Slaughters group. Sid declares that they approached him in the hallway and that he didn’t promise them anything, same as he didn’t promise Hogan and Warrior anything. He says that tonight, Justice will be served. Hopefully with a nice glass of Sancerre!

………….

I’ll get me coat

WWF 880

Match Six
WWF Tag Team Championships
No Disqualifications
Champions: The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobs and Jerry Sags) w/ Jimmy Hart Vs The Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal)

LOD had debuted in the WWF during the previous summer, whilst The Nasty’s had come in a little bit later following a stint in WCW. The Nasty’s had won the tag team titles at WrestleMania VII, defeating The Hart Foundation. LOD clear the ring to start and follow The Nasty’s out for a brawl, but rather than keep on with that the match instead eventually moves into being a standard tag match. I honestly think they should have just stuck with the brawl format to be honest, as it would have made the match stand out more and would have suited both teams’ styles better as well.

The Nasty’s blind Hawk with an aerosol of some kind and then hit him with a tray of drinks to make him the face in peril. Animal now has to patiently wait for a tag, despite the fact this match is No DQ and he should technically be able to come in at any moment. Clearly No DQ tag matches in the WWF around this time were worked based on the honour system. Hawk continues to get beaten up but eventually The Nasty’s make an error and Animal gets the hot tag.

Animal pummels both champions and then hits Knobs with a powerslam, but Sags breaks up the pin. Sags hits Animal with a motorbike helmet, but he manages to kick out at two. Hawk grabs the helmet and lays out both Nasty’s with it, which leads to Sags taking The Doomsday Device to give LOD their first WWF Tag Team Title. This meant that the LOD had won AWA, NWA and WWF tag team titles, but the commentators don’t mention it.

WINNERS AND NEW CHAMPIONS: THE LEGION OF DOOM
RATING: *

Fans did not want to watch The Road Warriors sell for long periods of time. They wanted to either see them destroy a team of geeks in seconds or pummel their opponents mercilessly with a brief period of heat before the comeback. Basically, to get the best out of them you had to put them in with a team like Tully and Arn and have them pinball the heels all over the place. They had a good opportunity to do a crazy brawl instead of a standard match here but didn’t take it.

Meanwhile, back in the pokey, Mountie makes a break for freedom but he’s dragged back and stuffed in a cell.

WWF 89

Match Seven
Irwin R. Schyster Vs Greg “The Hammer” Valentine

IRS calls the fans cry-babies for not wanting to pay their taxes. I don’t think you could get away with an evil tax man in England, most because you’d have to give him a name like Henry Montague Robertson Chalice, which is a bit of a mouthful if I’m being honest. Valentine had originally entered the WWF as a heel way back in the early 80’s, but he turned face prior to WrestleMania VII and had been phoning it in on the house show circuit building up to this show.

It takes the commentators mere seconds to mention Valentine’s slow deliberate style and it’s not long before they’re openly ignoring the match and talking about other things. IRS works over Hammer with basic stuff and then goes to a rope assisted abdominal stretch. You can tell Gorilla isn’t paying attention because he doesn’t even bother to complain that IRS isn’t applying the hold correctly.

IRS heads up but Valentine throws him off and starts working on the leg to set up the figure four. Valentine applies the hold but IRS is able to make it to the ropes. Valentine stays on the leg but takes too long to go for the hold again and IRS gets a cradle to pick up the victory.

WINNER: IRWIN R SCHYSTER
RATING: *1/4

Match was sluggish and the fans didn’t really care, but the work wasn’t horrendous or anything. IRS had jumped to the WWF from WCW where he had played evil City Slicker Michael Wallstreet, so it wasn’t like it was a difficult leap for him to switch to a tax man.

Mean Gene is backstage with Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior. Hogan says he and Warrior need to wipe Slaughter and his crew out for good tonight. Warrior actually cuts a coherent promo for once, saying he and Hogan will walk in tonight and leave as they went in.

WWF 87

Main Event
The Match Made in Hell
Guest Referee: Sid Justice
Sgt Slaughter, Colonel Mustafa and General Adnan
Vs
WWF Champion Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior

In perhaps one of the most tasteless angles the company had done, the WWF decided to turn former pro American wrestler Sgt Slaughter heel and make him an Iraqi sympathiser during the first Gulf War. Needless to say, they got a lot of flak for it and it didn’t even lead to success at the box office when Slaughter finally took on Hulk Hogan either, as the WWF had to move WrestleMania VII from the LA Memorial Coliseum due to poor ticket sales.

Slaughter had defeated Warrior to win the WWF Title at Royal Rumble 91 but had then lost it to Hogan at WrestleMania, so this is the first chance Warrior has had at some payback, even though he was actually feuding with Jake Roberts and Undertaker at the time. Justice shows early on that he’ll be unbiased, by stopping Slaughter from taking off his belt and using it as a weapon. Hogan and Warrior tee off on Slaughter, much to Gorilla and Piper’s delight, but they can’t hold him down for three.

Hogan and Warrior actually work pretty well as a team, wearing Slaughter down with quick double teams. Hogan chokes away at Slaughter in the corner and Sid makes him break, to again show he is going to be unbiased. Slaughter is able to get a cheap shot on Hogan and then tags in Adnan for some exhilarating back rakes. That was so horrible that I’m actually happy to see Mustafa come in!

Mustafa gets a side gut wrench suplex and then goes to the Camel Clutch, but Warrior comes in to break it up. Slaughter chokes away at Hogan in the corner and Justice again gets in there to break it up. However, Slaughter uses the opportunity to whip Hogan into Justice, which causes both men to have a stare down. This allows Slaughter to jump Hogan from behind and bring Adnan in for some biting. Nice of him to vary his move set at least.

Slaughter heads up but Warrior throws him off and Hogan manages to make the tag. Warrior runs wild on Slaughter but clumsily runs into Justice, which allows Slaughter to cut him off whilst the two argue. I have to say the guest referee spots here have been good and have told an interesting story. Warrior manages to catch Slaughter with a shoulder block for the double down and then manages to tag in Hogan to a big pop.

Hogan unloads on Slaughter with the punches, which causes Mustafa and Adnan to run in. Warrior chases them to the back with a chair, which leaves Hogan and Slaughter in the ring. Whilst Sid is distracted by Warrior sprinting to the back with a chair, Hogan throws powder in Slaughter’s face and then drops the leg to pick up the fair three count from Sid.

WINNERS: HOGAN AND WARRIOR
RATING: **

When Slaughter was in it was alright, when the other two members of his team were in it was awful. Just a shame they couldn’t have actually given him a good worker to team with, but the Iraqi gimmick wasn’t long for the world at this point anyway and he was back as a baby face by Survivor Series. Hogan calls Sid back down to the ring following the match and the two men pose. To be honest, watching this stuff makes it kind of obvious that they were always going with Hogan and Sid at WrestleMania VIII. Warrior would actually be fired following this show after allegedly holding Vince McMahon up for money before going out to do the match. That’s mostly a case of “he said, he said” though in all honesty, so take it with a pinch of salt.

We see one more shot of The Mountie in his jail cell, where a beefy man in a leather jacket tries to flirt with him. Piper sums it up by saying “I think The Mountie made a friend!”

WWF 789

Match Made in Heaven
Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth’s wedding

To give a quick story recap here, Savage dumped Elizabeth back at WrestleMania V and took on Sherri as his manager. He lost a retirement match to Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VII and was attacked by Sherri, only to be rescued by a returning Elizabeth. A newly turned face Savage then proposed to Elizabeth, who accepted, thus we get the marriage ceremony here. The two had been married in real life for years of course.

Before the wedding we get a video tribute to Savage and Liz but it seems WWE has now lost the rights to “Together” as they’ve dubbed the video with a completely different song. That’s a shame actually. I mean, that song was sugary saccharine schmaltz, but it at least fit the occasion better than the song they replaced it with.

Anyway, the wedding ceremony surprisingly goes off without a hitch but the reception ends up getting ruined when Jake Roberts and The Undertaker show up to lay out Savage and scare Elizabeth with a cobra. Elizabeth corpsing ruins the angle somewhat but this was a big deal at the time and eventually led to Savage getting reinstated to go for revenge against Roberts.

Final Thoughts

This show really only has the one blow away match, but it’s very much a faces go over show, which means it’s a very pleasant and cheerful watch. Sometimes it’s just nice to watch the good guys win you know? The stuff with Mountie going to jail is great as well and possibly some of the best skits the WWF have ever done.

I can definitely recommend this show if you’ve never seen it. It works great as a time capsule for the era and the show really does breeze by. The MSG crowd being into pretty much everything helps as well, especially in the Hart/Perfect and Virgil/Dibiase matches.

Based purely on match quality, you’d probably have to give the nod to Wrestle War when it comes to deciding the best American pay per view of 1991, but Summer Slam is definitely the one I enjoy watching the most.

Thanks for reading

If you’re looking for other great content here on the site, then why not take a goosey gander at Ian’s review of De Blob for the Nintendo Switch? You can read it by clicking right HERE

Whilst you’re here, I would also be grateful if you could give Scott Keith’s Blog of Doom a look by clicking HERE. He’s been a big inspiration for my work and has plugged me numerous times, so it’s only fair that I plug him back!

Thanks as always to Adam Matters for the feature image

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