WWF Superstars – August 27th, 1994

August 27, 1994

From the Wheeling Civic Center in Wheeling, WV

Your hosts are Vince McMahon and Jerry “The King” Lawler

The show starts off with Vince McMahon welcoming Bret Hart to the ring. He asks Bret about facing his brother Owen inside of the steel cage at SummerSlam. Bret never thought it would come to this then talks about wrestling his brothers inside of his family dungeon and now he is has to face his own flesh and blood in the most dangerous type of match. He promises it will be an ugly fight. Bret then talks about the whole family being involved in their feud and how its torn up the entire family but it has to be settled once and for all. Bret says the best thing about a 15-foot high match is that the “big fat tub” Jim Neidhart cannot get involved in the match and how no one else can stop this match, either. Bret then says we will find out who is the champion, King of Harts, and best there is, best there was, and best there ever will be. Lawler promises that Owen will close Bret’s mouth at SummerSlam. A much better promo here by Bret than what we saw at “Sunday Night Slam” where quite frankly he came off like a dick and justified Owen’s complaints. Here, Bret stressed out this match will end the feud that has torn their family apart and doesn’t want it to be this way but knows its the only way to get it to end.

This week’s featured match is Jeff Jarrett vs. Duke Droese.

We see Bret come back from his interview and get confronted by Owen & Neidhart as they get separated by several officials.

Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart w/ Owen Hart vs. Frank Stiletto

Vince is pissed at Lawler for sending Neidhart & Owen out early for their match as Lawler said he did it to stop Bret from talking. Neidhart beats the crap out of Stiletto as Owen screams encouragement to Neidhart from the outside. The announcers talk about the Hart Family being in attendance at SummerSlam as Owen screams at Stiletto then tells us that Neidhart is “awesome.” Neidhart then locks on the Camel’s Clutch and gets the win (2:18). Neidhart then reapplies the hold so Owen can snap his glasses off of Stiletto’s face. Lawler then goes on about Owen knowing the real Hart Family story and heads out to the ring to give him “equal time.”

Thoughts: I like how we got the reason why Owen & Neidhart came out to confront Bret. And Owen’s yelling on the outside

Lawler now tells Owen we heard from his jerk of a brother and wants Owen to tell his side. Owen tells Bret his reign is over and says he will hurt, humiliate, and beat Bret to become champion. Owen says Bret took the fun out of everything by robbing him of his youth and promise to hurt Bret then says he cannot wait to become champion while hugging Neidhart with a crazed look on his face. Another good promo for this feud. Owen’s crazed heel character was so awesome in this era. I also loved how they added these promos a few days prior to give the match one last push on TV.

WWF Live Event News hyping tonight’s Summer Sizzler tour show at the Meadowlands. Lex Luger also tells us how the timeslot in New York will be changing next week. Well, the Fox Network got the rights to NFL Games and added the pre-show as well. And with a lot of Fox affiliates showing WWF, this ended up really hurting the WWF in syndication. We will learn more about that in the coming weeks.

Mabel w/ Oscar vs. Barry Horowitz

Vince plugs Jarrett vs. Droese and Ted DiBiase & Undertaker as guests on the “Heartbreak Hotel.” Lawler makes fun of rap music as Mabel overpowers Horowitz. Vince continues to hype Mabel vs. Jarrett at SummerSlam as country music vs. rap as Mabel puts Horowitz away with a middle rope elbow drop (1:14).

Thoughts: More hype for the battle of rap vs. country music at SummerSlam.

We are shown a few previously scene Leslie Nielsen vignettes.

SummerSlam Report with Todd Pettengill.

Jeff Jarrett vs. Duke “The Dumpster” Droese

Jarrett attacks Droese on the outside before Droese even entered the ring. They head into the ring where Jarrett celebrates after hitting a dropkick. Jarrett follows with a flying double ax handle but tries it again and gets caught. Droese slams Jarrett then hits a clothesline yelling how its time to take out the trash. Jarrett avoids the corkscrew elbow drop but Droese catches him with a few punches. Jarrett then avoids a charge and uses a rollup with his feet on the ropes for the win (2:00). However, Oscar comes out and raps about Jarrett cheating to win then a second referee orders the match to be restarted. Jarrett knocks Oscar off of the apron then heads up the aisle until Mabel comes out. Droese comes down too so Jarrett bails through the crowd and runs away and gets counted out (2:42) 1/2*. Droese and Mabel then help Oscar to his feet as Vince hypes Jarrett vs. Mabel at SummerSlam.

Thoughts: Another segment to build hype for Mabel/Jarrett as Jarrett is the chickenshit heel who attacks the manager then runs away like a coward.

Another Live Event News Segment this time its Jeff Jarrett telling the New York area how to order SummerSlam before they hype the Meadowlands show.

We now hear from Walter Payton. He tells Shawn to watch his highlights to see how he will get hit if he tries to interfere into the match. Walter vows to prevent Shawn from interfering. I liked Payton in the promos. He is taking it seriously and appears invested.

Special guest ring announcer is T. Harris.

Razor Ramon vs. Mike Collins

Razor beats on Collins before taking him out from the corner with a hip toss. Razor stretches out Collins as the announcers talk about Razor vs. Diesel at SummerSlam. Razor then hits a super back suplex before using the Razor’s Edge for the win (1:51). After the match, Razor says the “Bad Guy and Sweetness” are coming to SummerSlam.

Thoughts: More last minute hype for Razor/Diesel.

Heartbreak Hotel with guests Ted DiBiase & The Undertaker. We are told this was filmed earlier this week. Shawn asks DiBiase about Paul Bearer and his Undertaker. DiBiase says he has actually produced The Undertaker while Bearer has produced nothing but hot air and cheap tricks. Shawn then asks if Bearer is having trouble resurrection courage after what happened on the King’s Court as Vince says it was a supernatural feeling. DiBiase does not want to talk about that and instead tells us that at SummerSlam, his Undertaker will destroy whatever Bearer brings out to the ring. DiBiase then says that Undertaker will then destroy Bearer. Shawn also comes out Bearer for not having the guts to confront them as the Heartbreak Hotel sign lights start to flicker then the lights go out. We see Bearer on the video wall telling us his Undertaker will destroy what DiBiase has and promises the mystery will be solved this Monday night. Bearer says he has summoned Undertaker then we hear Undertaker over the PA system telling DiBiase he will not rest in peace as the time has come to rise once more and he will destroy DiBiase’s Undertaker once and for all. DiBiase is now in a state of disbelief as Vince asks us to feel the spirit. This really did not come off well at all. There wasn’t much else you could do here since the build was for the mystery to be solved at the PPV but its crystal clear that the actual Undertaker will be returning with Bearer.

The hosts talk about the previous segment with Lawler at a loss of words before saying there are two Undertakers. Vince then hypes up SummerSlam but before we go makes Lawler tell us once again how there are two Undertakers.

Final Thoughts: They did a lot of interviews and angles to hype SummerSlam instead of the usual mailed-in syndicated shows we’ve seen over the years that aired the weekend of a PPV. Not everything is red hot but they have built up just about all of the matches. Anyway, the PPV is a couple days away and stay tuned for that recap tomorrow.