History of Summerslam Memories

Summerslam got started way back in 1988 which for an old guy like me don’t seem all that long ago but it really is. That event was headlined by one of the most unique tag-team matches in the history of the WWF at the time. Randy Savage the World Champion was challenged to a tag-team match by Million Dollar Man and his Partner Andre the Giant. Savage would team for the first time with Hulk Hogan who had been dubbed as the Mega-Powers in the fall of 1987 and would end up working together to help Savage secure the World Title at Wrestlemania 4. It would be the first time that the Madness and the Mania would team up officially in the ring. Just to add a little more doubt to the match we had special guest Referee Jessie the Body Ventura. A role that Ventura would reprise years later as the current Governor of Minnesota in a World Championship Match 11 years later in the “Attitude Era” in 1999.

When you look at Summerslam it is not an event that is necessarily remembered for his great title matches. Sure it has had some that include the man challenging for the title this year Brock Lesnar defeating The Rock for his first world title. However that match was over shadowed by my personal favourite Summerslam match of all time between Triple H and a returning after a four year absence Shawn Michaels. It had been just over 4 years since HBK had been in a match in the WWF. He returned like he had left last week and had a very memorable match with Triple H. It was suppose to be his only match but would end up being a run that lasted till Wrestlemania 26 where he was retired by the Undertaker. It really was the start of a second career in a sense for Shawn Michaels who already had a hall of fame resume but also had a fairly unflattering reputation. Shawn is known by many names including “Mr. Wrestlemania” if there is a “Mr’ Summerslam” it may well be his greatest rival Bret Hart.

Michaels famously screwed Hart out of title at Summerslam when he refereed a match with Hart and the Undertaker in 1997. It would set in motion all the events that would lead to that infamous match in Montreal later that year in November. Hart had some of his best matches for not the World Title but for the Intercontinental title at Summerslam. It was a match of firsts in which he defended the title against his brother-in-law Davey Boy Smith the British Bulldog. It is the first and I believe only time the I-C title has main evented a pay-per-view. It was first and only time a pay-per-view was held outside of North America in London, England. The match was a wrestling clinic and had the emotion of the real life family element too it. Hart lost the match but was the star of it in many ways. That was in 1992. A year earlier an injured in real life Mr Perfect battling back pain would not let that stop him from putting on a classic and putting over Bret Hard to win the same Intercontinental title. It was at the time considered the best match of Bret’s career. He battled for the WWF Title with his brother Owen in a Steel Cage match too.

Summerslam has had some major mistakes as well. Long before Vince McMahon was calling the match with John Cena and Daniel Bryan “ A Swing and a miss,” in terms of drawing it had some bigger train wrecks in the event’s history. Lex Lugar and his summer on the “Lex Express” ended at Summerslam with a count out victory over Yokozuna to win the match but not the title. Another epic failure was the infamous Undertaker vs. Undertaker feud that just came off as goofy and silly.

Summerslam even has had a wedding with the two people that started this event in the first place. Randy Savage would part ways with Miss Elizabeth in storyline of wrestling for just over two years working with Sherri Martel as the Macho King for most of that time. After losing to the Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania 7 and as a result his career he would be reunited with Elizabeth. They two would than tie the knot few months later at Summerslam. It remains the only wrestling wedding that did not end in chaos. Although their reception would have an angle in which the happy couple was given a Cobra and it would lead to Randy getting re-instated to feud with Jake “the Snake” Roberts getting him out of his forced retirement.

Other moments that stick out is a young Randy Orton winning his first WWE Title over Chris Benoit. It is remembered more I think because we never really get to see it based on the tragic situation that Benoit will forever be tied too. That match took place in Toronto. Edge that is from Toronto had his feud with John Cena main event a Summerslam in his hometown of Boston. They two would top that match a month later in a TLC match at Unforgiven in the year of 2006.

The summer of Punk WWE version featured a re-match between him and John Cena from Money in the Bank where Punk left the company with the title. In his absence, John Cena through a series of events would become Champion again in his absence. It led to the re-match with in a sense Champion vs. Champion. In the end the re-match is not nearly as memorable as Punk did win only to have Kevin Nash Powerbomb him and have Alberto Del Rio cash in and take the title.

We could go on forever as I haven’t even mentioned the match with Triple H and Rock in a ladder match for the I-C Title. No mention of Austin and Undertaker on the highway to hell to Summerslam. In addition an infamous match between Shawn Michaels and Hulk Hogan. The WWE bills this as the biggest event of the summer and some years it has been and others it hasn’t been. It is a unique event that was the part of the big four pay per views that were created in the 1980’s and still exist to this day. 

Those are just some of the many memories that will come to your mind when you think of Summerslam. Will we remember anything from this year, as it becomes part of the legacy of this event as the years go by? It remains to be seen but the history is long and has some of the biggest names in the history of wrestling.

Perhaps the first ever Summerslam of sorts happened prior to 1988. It was “The Big Event” in 1986 that likely inspired the creation of such an event as well as giving the WWE the confidence they could fill the Silverrdome for Wrestlemania 3. Over 50,000 people filled the CNE stadium in late August on a fairly cold night for that time of year. 

Summerslam today is seen as the unofficial mid-season for the WWE where we start to look ahead to the next Wrestlemnia to conclude another wrestling calendar year.

 

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Condo On The Moon Getting Global and Extreme in Episode 10

I am having a fun wrestling weekend so the podcast is a little early this week. I am off to Global Wars in Toronto Saturday and taking in Alpha-1-Wrestling here in Hamilton. Kevin Steen will be on both of these events and I am looking forward to my first experience seeing ROH live. I have talked a lot about loving what ROH is doing and I am putting my money where my mouth is.

We also talk WWE and look back on Extreme Rules and a forgettable Raw.


So I am off to enjoy my wrestling weekend. I should have some exciting news over the weekend on a totally different front. Follow @CondoontheMoon for all the great stuff I am up to wrestling wise. You can also like us on facebook. Our facebook page is very jealous of our Twitter accounts success so show it some love to please.

A New Attitude Style Era About To Dawn In WWE?

Will the “Reality Era” be rated PG for the WWE? Many have called this last era for the World Wrestling Entertainment the PG era and it has been that way for a number of reasons. Linda McMahon making unsuccessful political runs was the one mentioned most often. There are others though with being open to more advertising options and marketing opportunities. The fact the WWE is now a corporately traded company for almost 15 years things have really changed from when they first arrived on the scene as an IPO in October of 1999. The company just has a more overall corporate feel to it compared to when they first burst on to scene in the financial world.

WWE has gone more back to the 80’s in their approach targeting kids and using Hulk Hogan as the main superstar in marketing to that group. Just like a John Cena is today with all the various things geared at kids with the “Be a Star” anti-bullying effort to programs for literacy for kids to the many make-a-wish moments granted by all the WWE Superstars and of course toys and t-shirts and merchandise streams that go on for days. 

Thing is as those kids from the 80’s grew up they were not as into that old PG model of larger than life superhero good guys. They were now older and wanted something different and that is genius of the attitude era really. Have we reached another point in the cycle where all those kids that have grown up on John Cena got older and tired of him after a decade?

Have we reached that point where the WWE might be slowly moving back towards a product primarily designed at an older audience. Before the attitude, the WWE had their New Generation that featured Bret Hart and Shawn Micheals as the two major stars of that era. It also had a fellow hall of famer like Razor Ramon and Diesel AKA Kevin Nash. These two along with a cast of characters like Yokozuna, Undertaker and others that made for a very talented roster.  Slowly the transition from goofy cartoon gimmicks to a much more wrestling focused and realistic product started to emerge. The land of giants was not as much the case with steroid allegations against the WWE and it opened the door to Bret Hart and HBK to be on that main event level.

Look at the WWE today and we see a number of stars getting long in the tooth with an every growing list of hungry lions looking for their place at the top of the card. The biggest difference to the New Generation Era and now is depth. No longer is there a WCW to compete with and TNA gets basically all the WWE’s leftovers that they don’t want. WWE has built a factory with performance center and NXT that can produce them talent for years to come. They have taken the odd independent talent and had a pretty good success rate at making folks from promotions like ROH into mainstream stars.

So perhaps this “Reality Era” as Triple H has coined it is the transition to the WWE starting to go with a more edgy product that is reflective of the core audience they have built with Cena getting older and starting to realize the guy they thought was so cool isn’t really that cool after all. They look for new heroes and not the traditional ones that are always doing the right thing. They want guys that are rebelling and fighting the system as heroes. This was primarily what Stone Cold Steve Austin became for a generation of fans.

Perhaps the best support of this theory of heading back towards a more edgy product is the WWE’s own very PG friendly ad for the WWE Network with a young boy growing into a man and having his own son become a WWE fan. It is proof that on some level this company see’s their product and audience in cycles of time. So that 7 year old kid that loved John Cena from when he debuted is now 17. Is he even still watching the product? How do we get him back if he isn’t? The answer is the product starts to go out of its PG era style and moves on to a more teen based target. Which means back to more of a PG-13 and beyond type of world?

Once the WWE firms up long term T.V deals and is ready to move forward with the Network it isn’t crazy to think they can push the product to a more adult audience over time. Little signs are already sneaking through the cracks. Look at the beat down angles of the past few months. They are a lot more physical and violent than in the past. Lot more attitude in the product you could say?

However, WWE also launched Slam City which is something that clearly is after a kid’s audience. I admit as an adult I watch them too, but hey they are cute and funny.

The one thing the WWE has stuck to not doing may just be the sign of if this new attitude like era is every coming. That sign would be to have John Cena turn heel as Hogan did back in WCW to launch the N.W.O angle. Nothing can compare to that moment for older fans, but for all these kids that have grown up on John Cena would him turning heel be just as shocking? Could Cena be the perfect heel as one of these over top full of themselves celebrities that this world has a mass supply of. The idea of turning Cena heel has always been passed on based on who would replace him? Now with all the talent in place could a Daniel Bryan not carry that ball for a few years being replaced by one of the young and up coming stars like a Roman Reigns or a Cesaro? Possibility seems pretty likely with the direction of things currently. Question is are the WWE and Cena ready to take that risk and give him a re-birth as a heel to ride-out before perhaps one last face run before he leaves the company as an in ring competitor?

That is the million dollar question that no one knows the answer to accept them and when they would be willing to pull the trigger on it.

I feel that for wrestling to truly thrive and get back to a level it did at its peak eventually they will have to have their product be more a reflection of society as a whole and currently the WWE isn’t doing that. They try to be hip and cool and with it but look more like that old guy trying to still think he isn’t old. Much like that last line made me feel using such dated terms as I am sure hip, cool and with it are for the youth of today.

Will it reach the level of success an Attitude Era did or the Hogan Era? Not likely, but could it draw a lot more fans back to the product and make some new ones along the way? Chances are they could and they would be doing it with the weakest competition in the wrestling business that they have ever faced in terms of companies with the money to compete with them.

This may not happen in months from now or even may take a couple years but bet the farm on the Attitude Era style of WWE making a return for a whole new generation sooner rather than later doesn't seem as far fetched as it has in the past. 

Wrestlemania Memories

As cynical as we all can be as Wrestling fans, the thing about Wrestlemania that makes it special is how it ties to memories of our youth. They make you remember fond memories. I can remember my dad taking me to see Wrestlemania 2 on closed circuit television at Copps Coliseum. Even as a kid I could tell he really didn’t care much for this wrestling stuff, but he was going to take his son to something he enjoyed. Funny thing is even he got excited watching the British Bulldogs match with The Dream Team. My dad marking out for false finishes just like me was just amazing to see. 

Dad for whatever reason took a liking to Ricky Steamboat and as a kid my favourite and still to this day was Randy Savage. Mom took me back to the same venue to see Randy Savage lose to Ricky Steamboat in Wrestlemania 3. It would go on to be considered one of the classic matches of all time. As a kid I didn’t care about that in the slightest, all I cared about was my guy Randy Savage had lost and I was crushed. Needless to say I was not that happy with my dad for a week or maybe two after that match.

Sadly my father would pass away months later but I will always look back on those moments with him tied to going to wrestling events as some of my most fond memories of my father. I struggled after losing my father in June. Still getting use to life without him I would be back at the same venue to see Wrestlemania 4 and the tournament that would see Randy Savage go on to win the WWF Championship.

If I had paid more attention by the time Randy Savage met Greg “The Hammer” Valentine it should have been obvious that Randy Savage was going to win it all. Still I was just a nervous fan wanting to hope that my guy was going come out on top. Maybe young kids today have that same feeling about Daniel Bryan and if we will win the Championship.

Maybe all those kids that root for John Cena are in fear that he will lose to the evil Bray Wyatt. I think we lose that prospective of what it feels like to be that kid. They are not concerned with how good a match is or if someone is getting a push or being buried. They have no concept or knowledge of what those things are. They just have someone they root for and want them to win.

As an older fan I grew to appreciate the talents of Shawn Micheals and what he could do in a ring. He to me was the guy that replaced Savage as my favourite. Strange that being in Canada for Wrestlemania 12 and the Ironman Match I wanted to see HBK win it all. That match I watched with a good friend of mine that I recently re-connected with. Part of how our friendship began was both being fans of wrestling and video games. We met because our dad’s both bowled in a league on the same night. We as kids would tear around this bowling alley and wrestle and play video games. This once had a bad result as I took a belly to back suplex into the edge of a pop machine which resulted in my getting stitches for the first time in my life. Seeing my own blood was a lot different than watching Ric Flair or Hulk Hogan bleed that is for sure. Don’t try this at home was never professed back than.

Another story I remember from my days in high school was about a house show at the Copps once again. I watched Curt Henning from the first row of ringside and yelled after he completed a move “that was perfect” and he pointed at me and said “your damn right it was.” I attended the first ever Royal Rumble although it was not called that at the time it was a special for U.S cable being taped up here not a PPV. Hacksaw Jim Duggan as you all maybe aware won that first rumble. I am here to tell you though if the fans on that night had their way it would have been HOF Inductee this year Jake “The Snake” Roberts.  The Chants of “D-D-T” were loud from the moment he entered to the moment he was eliminated. Not really good advice from us as crowd to eliminate people but was a sign that Jake was very over more than anyone on that night. In fact, even more than Hogan who was there to sign a contract for his big re-match with Andre The Giant that would end up setting the wheels in motion for the tournament Savage won at Wrestlemania 4 I mentioned earlier.

The points I make here are a couple I guess. Wrestlemania has become an event that we tie memories to not just of the matches and the events that take place but of our lives. I realize this comes off as a bit of a sappy thing like the WWE Network commercial with the boy that grows up to have a son and family through his WWE Fandom. Thing is you swap those Cena and Punk shirts for Steamboat and Savage and that was me and my dad. It’s something I can relate too, even if you want to consider it sappy dribble.

Wrestlemania has grown to be an event that has a rich and long history that ties to our memories of the past and represents some of the current events of those times. I just listened to Review-A-Wai and they reviewed Wrestlemania 7 which was another famous Savage moment. His Career vs. Career match against Hall of Fame Inductee the Ultimate Warrior. It is the core of why I will never like the Warrior as he ended that match by putting his foot on Savage’s chest after kicking out of 5 elbows from Savage.

This might be the point where the jaded fan and smarter fan started for me. That jerk just ended Macho’s career at the time by covering his with his foot? Savage would not be gone long as this was my first experience at realizing the wrestling retirement was not exactly binding. Brett Favre must have been a wrestling fan given his career. The point was Savage carried that sack of garbage to the best match he ever had and he ended it by putting his foot on him. Worked or not that just seemed so wrong to me.

The fact we are over 20 years removed from that event and I still feel that way tells you what Wrestlemania does in terms of creating lasting moments. The results are pre-determined and they can be predictable but still those Wrestlemania Moments they talk about are real. Not just for the wrestlers but for fans as well.

People look back and review these shows that never experienced them at the time and I always find that interesting. They often see how horrible these cards were in the context of today. In reality that just isn’t fair in some sense because out of context a great many things don’t look good by today’s standards. I can still laugh along though at how goofy some of the stuff seems now-a-days.

The other thing the CM Punk loving John Cena hating me learned from this was that maybe I forget what it was like being a kid watching this stuff. Maybe while I am tired of John Cena and his entire act which is nothing more than a modern version of Hulk Hogan that I forget what it was like as a kid. Although, being a Savage fan, I never liked Hogan and only tolerated him during his time with Savage in the Mega Powers. I was the exception not the rule and just like many kids today love John Cena I maybe should respect that a little and remember how I felt as that kid.

Every wrestler I have ever loved has some tie back to that original love of Randy Savage. Punk wearing those tribute tights after the death of Savage made me as a grown man get teary eyed. His doing the Savage Elbow and keeping Savage alive through chants of his name in crowds today is the best gift he could give to me as a Savage fan.

It all in the end comes back to those magic moments at a Wrestlemania that cement our fandom in the people we love. It isn’t always about how good or bad a match was. About who should win or lose and booking of the product. It is about those memories that are created and that connection it creates for us with a wrestler. Mania provides wrestling fans with moments that can take them back to where they were and what they felt at that time. Like this is you life type of feel all connected to this event. Something that when it began no one could have imagined what it would truly become. Vince McMahon regardless what you think of him has given us all something that we can look back to as part of our history as both fans of wrestling and people in general.

That is something that is priceless. Not even the Million Dollar Man can take away the memories you have for this iconic wrestling institution. 

Wrestlemania Is Suppose To Be A Privilege Not A Right

I have some serious concerns with what the WWE has done with Wrestlemania and the card this year. What the hell happened to "Ruthless Aggression" and the idea of being on the biggest show of the year being a privilege and not some entitlement by simply being on the roster? Between the Andre The Giant Battle Royal and the Diva’s Invitational, I am left to think if you are not on this Wrestlemania card you should just quit now or accept you are never going to be on T.V again.

Yes wrestling is not a true sport and it doesn’t have playoffs or keep track of your win/lose record over a time period, but Wrestlemania is billed as the showcase of the immortals. Sorry to break the news that Zack Ryder, Rosa Mendez and a list of other jobber level talents are not immortals. They have no business at all being on the biggest show of the year.

The logic as to why they are is it allows people to get Wrestlemania Payoffs as a reward for the year of service. Which by the way has yet to be explained how those will work and likely is a reason that Zack Ryder is in Wrestlemania and C.M Punk is not? That issue aside Wrestlemania is suppose to be a show that you earn the right to be a part of. The plot line of Total Divas that saw the Bellas match get bumped showed how crushing it can be for a performer to be left off the show. You can debate if that was a real or scripted moment but it did drive home the fact that Wrestlemania is special and unlike all the other PPVS in a year.

The WWE has become PG and geared at kids and this idea of everyone getting on Wrestlemania is like every kid getting a trophy in a sports league. What kind of a world have we become honestly? This is a professional business and it isn’t about making everyone feel all warm and fuzzy, it is about putting on the best show possible regardless of the number of people that takes. If I get to see HHH and Daniel Bryan wrestle 10 more minutes and am not able to see a battle royal that means nothing I am all for that. If Bray Wyatt gets 5 more minutes with John Cena and the Divas Title match has to go on the pre-show that is the way it goes.

When exactly was the point the WWE lost it’s grapefruits about booking Wrestlemania 30 the way it should be? If you book it like this is there any motivation for talent to strive to make it to that next level? Just by giving them some manufactured meaningless moment is that suppose to be some carrot to drive them to want to be in bigger more meaningful matches?

Just because you do bust your ass is no guarantee of anything and history shows that. C.M Punk has never made it to the main event. He has surly earned it through his work over the years but he has been upstaged by former stars and even The Miz taking that spot from him. Aside from Daniel Bryan who initially was not going to be in the main event the guys that have had the best year in the WWE you can argue have been The Shield. Their reward for that is another 6 man tag match with lesser stars than the year prior. Big Show, Randy Orton and Sheamus are a step above a match with Kane and New Age Outlaws that have not been in a mania in like over a decade.

Is the Undertaker in a match with someone who is a regular on the roster that can benefit from challenging the streak….5 out of the last 6 years the answer has been no. Granted it has produced classic matches and the Undertaker at the end of the day has to sign off on his opponent but still can we not find someone worthy on this roster of that honor?

Wrestlemania is a brand that has been established for having the very best compete in matches that are meant to have a chance to stand the test of time. The more that concept is watered down the more the brand of Wrestlemania suffers for it. Maybe not next year or the year after but if you continue down this path eventually it stops being the showcase of the immortals, it stops being different from every other WWE PPV and in the end it stops being special.

This is the one show a year that draws even some of the most casual and past fans of the product to it. If your goal is to win those people back shouldn’t you be giving them the very best of what you have to offer? Isn’t that the point of a show like this?

Wrestlemania is starting to lose its magic and just like the age of the Undertaker the warts are starting to show through. Wrestlemania has now reached the number 30 and if it is to keep on rolling to 50 and higher numbers this can’t be the type of attitude that is going to take it there. At some point these new young stars need to take ownership of this event and make it into what it is suppose to be which is not a right but a privilege to be a part of. Signing a contract to be in the WWE should not be a ticket to being on the biggest show of the year. It should be an opportunity to earn the right to be on it.

Hell the Scooby Doo Movie that just came out was harder to be a part of than Wrestlemania. Making the WWE Video Game was harder too. According to the Bauer and Pollock show no less than 63 performers are booked for this Wrestlemania. That is insane and not necessary in any way shape or form. NXT Arrival was harder for the NXT Roster to get on than it was to be on Wrestlemania how screwed up is that logic?

If you want to call wrestling a sport it would never work like that. If you want to call it entertainment how many people are left out of movies and T.V shows on casting calls?

Wrestling is all about establishing some sense of credibility with its audience. Things like this make it hard to take any of this seriously in the slightest. The reason we love the C.M Punk’s and Daniel Bryan’s of this world is their long struggles to make it to this big stage but not just because they made it to the WWE. Once they got there they didn’t stop earning it, they progressed and became two of the biggest stars in the company.

Being handed things like appearances in Wrestlemania for whatever people say it does for moral of the roster is over shadowed by the damage it does to the credibility of the card and the special nature that Wrestlemania has come to represent. Kids that dream of getting into this business dream of being on this show and one day being in its main event. The boyhood dream of Shawn Micheals is as real as wrestling can get. Now you are starting to spit on what that represents by allowing talent that isn’t even good enough to be on Raw be allowed to be a part of the biggest show of the year.

It is just NOT what is BEST FOR BUSINESS in a REAL and significant way.