Mike Reviews WWF SummerSlam 1994

Happy Slamming Friday Everyone!

I haven’t sat down to watch this one in a while and it’s a SummerSlam event I quite enjoy, even though the Main Event is less than thrilling as two Undertaker’s do battle. Thankfully we’ve also got The Hart Brothers tangling inside a steel cage, so that will boost the overall show quality at least.

You can view the full card for SummerSlam 1994 by clicking below;

WWF SummerSlam 1994 Full Card

I pinched the match pics from a review by Paul Matthews, so please give him some clicks so I feel slightly less guilty for not taking my own screenshots

SummerSlam is emanating from Chicago, Illinois on the 29th of August 1994

Calling the action are Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler

Randy Savage is hosting the show rather than wrestling on it, which probably contributed to him wanting to leave for WCW later in the year

Opening Match
Bam Bam Bigelow and IRS w/ Ted DiBiase Vs The Headshrinkers (Fatu and Samu) w/ Afa and Captain Lou

The story here was that Bammer and IRS were supposed to be getting a Tag Title match with The Samoans here at SummerSlam, but then Diesel and Shawn Michaels won the belts on a house show so now the match has no stakes and it’s pretty pointless as a result. Diesel would go on to call the belts a “pittance” later on as well, which I’m sure made both of these teams feel good as they would have likely loved to have them.

It’s fun early on as The Samoans and Bammer go at it and throw down, with the crowd appreciating it as well. The opening exchanges in general are pretty fun, with all four wrestlers working hard and the action being pretty exciting. I could totally see this as a Tag Title match on a major pay per view like SummerSlam actually. Bigelow eventually low bridges Fatu at one stage, which gives us the cut off and the Heel heat segment of the match with IRS and The Beast from the East working Fatu over for a bit.

Samu eventually gets the hot tag and runs wild, with the crowd being into it. Samu even gives Bigelow a back body drop at one stage in an impressive looking bump for a guy Bammers size to take. Sadly the finish is pretty lame, as Bigelow attacks Lou and that leads to Afa coming in for vengeance on behalf of his long-time ally, causing a DQ in the process in around 7 minutes.

WINNERS: BIGELOW & IRS BY DQ
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was fine until the cheap finish, as up to that point it was a fun match full of mean guys throwing down. Considering the belts were no longer on the line they could have at least given us a pin fall finish though, probably to the Bigelow and IRS team seeing as Bigelow was the one they genuinely had plans for post-SummerSlam

All four competitors brawl to the back following that

Leslie Nielsen and George Kennedy are trying to solve the mystery of their being two Undertaker’s. Sadly the skits aren’t funny (except for one by the pool where Nielsen fails to catch Ray Rougeau before he falls into said pool. I enjoyed that one)

Match Two
WWF Women’s Title
Champ: Alundra Blayze Vs Bull Nakano w/ Luna Vachon

Vachon couldn’t get the job done on Blayze by herself so now she’s imported the monstrous Nakano from Japan to do it instead. Nakano of course has the Orient Express theme, because it’s apparently the only stock theme the WWF had for when Japanese people came in to wrestle. These two supposedly had a no contest on Raw as a way to heat this one up, so we’re looking to get an actual finish tonight. This is a good Davina Vs Goliatha match, with Nakano throwing Blayze around whilst Blayze tries to fight from underneath. Nakano’s work looks snug and effective, whilst Blayze sells it well. They do such a good job telling the story that the crowd actually gets into the match and cares about it, which wasn’t always the case when the women wrestlers would get in there during this era.

Nakano makes quite a few cocky covers when she has Blayze down, with the suggestion being that if she took things a bit more seriously then she could pick up the win, but she’s too busy hotdogging and inflicting pain like the villainous Heel she is. Nakano busts out the Scorpion Crosslock at one stage, which is part Scorpion Deathlock and part double chicken wing, and that gets an audible “Ohhhhh” from the crowd when Nakano locks it in. Blayze eventually manages to make a comeback with some running sleeper slams and then tries to bust out a Piledriver but Nakano is able to power out of that and gets a Powerbomb for two. Nakano heads up top for her trademark Guillotine Leg Drop, but Blayze dodges it and gets a German Suplex for the last gasp win after about 8 minutes.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: ALUNDRA BLAYZE
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: This was good stuff, as they told a strong story in there and the crowd got into it, with the work also being to a high standard. If they’d given them a few extra minutes then this could have had the possibility of moving into the 4 star range. The big pop for Blayze’s victory shows that there might have been some juice in the Women’s Division if they’d actually had a better rogues gallery for her to do battle with, as it was basically just Nakano at this stage

Todd Pettengill interviews the WWF’s “two most happenin’ cats” Diesel and Shawn Michaels. Shawn cuts a funny, yet lame, Heel promo whilst Diesel mostly yells a lot. This was an entertaining promo segment, although Diesel being so awkward and uncool here was weird considering how confident he was during his Outsider days

Match Three
WWF Intercontinental Title
Champ: “Big Daddy Cool” Diesel w/ “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels Vs “The Bad Guy” Razor Ramon w/ “Sweetness” Walter Payton

Diesel won the belt from Razor and benefitted from having Shawn in his corner, so Razor has recruited Payton to back him up. Payton played for Chicago’s American Footballing Squadron, hence why Razor recruited him for this show in order to endear him to the 20,000+ Chicagoans in the crowd. Beats having to rely on 1-2-3 Kid I guess. Diesel’s entrance music was AWFUL at the time, as it was just an engine revving with a horn sounding. It’s honestly terrible and I’m amazed it took them so long to give him a theme that didn’t suck. The one has really good crowd reactions and I’ve seen it get good ratings in the past, but I’ve always found it to be functional yet dull. But then again; I’m not really much of a fan of Kevin Nash’s 1994 Heel output as I don’t particularly like his match with Bret Hart at King of the Ring 1994 either, although he had some really good matches in 1995 and 1996 IMO, so he was clearly improving as he went along.

They don’t really book Diesel as much of a monster in the early going here, with Razor bumping Diesel relatively easily in all fairness. I know that Scott Hall is a veritable giant when compared to the average human being, but against Diesel it’s not as obvious so I’m not sure he should be able to bump around and lift Diesel so easily, like when he busts out a back suplex without much objection in the early going. The crowd responds well to whenever Razor manages to knock Diesel over though, so I can’t say that it isn’t effective. Eventually Shawn shows off his experience by getting the referee and Payton to do distract each other, which allows Shawn to attack Razor out on the floor for the cut off. That gives us Diesel working some heat on Razor following that, with Razor selling really well and Diesel looking solid enough on offence. Payton earns his corn by almost saving Razor from going into an unprotected turnbuckle, but Shawn once again gets involved and that allows Diesel to whip Razor into it.

They’re doing a very good job with the manager antics here, with Payton being far from useless but Shawn just being smarter and quicker to the draw because he’s done it longer. It both makes bringing in Payton look like a smart play on Razor’s part whilst also making Shawn look like an effective weasel. The actual wrestling is basic and straightforward, but the crowd gets into it and Razor’s selling is really on point. It strikes me as a match that works better in the arena than on TV, but I can appreciate it being competently worked. In a good example of “Heel getting hoist by his own petard” Diesel ends up taking a trip into his own exposed buckle at one stage, which leads to Razor making a comeback as the crowd continues to be really into this. Razor gets near falls from a second rope bulldog and a bodyslam, and the latter would have gotten SUCH a bigger pop if Diesel hadn’t been bumped up to that point in the match yet, but c’est la vie I guess.

Payton stops Shawn from using the IC Title belt, but that leads to the referee and Payton arguing meaning that Shawn can try and sneak into the ring and play Razor some Chin Music. However, Razor ducks and Diesel takes the kick instead. Razor drapes an arm on Diesel, whilst Payton holds Shawn back, and that’s enough for the three count and, I think, Razor’s second IC Title after about 15 minutes. The crowd, as has been the trend at SummerSlam 1994 thus far, go absolutely nuts. Diesel and Shawn argue on their way to the back whilst Razor celebrates with Payton and Payton’s son.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: RAZOR RAMON
RATING: ***

Thoughts: An average match raised up by a fantastic crowd and competently executed story. Honestly my only complaints about the match would be that Razor bumped Diesel around way too much in the early going and the middle portion was a bit basic and dull. Aside from that, this had everything you’d want from a mid-card match. The wrestling was executed competently, the manager’s hit their spots, the story of the match was well told and made sense, and the crowd was really into it from start to finish. I think it’s fair to say that this bout was an unqualified success

Guest host Randy Savage stirs up trouble between Shawn and Diesel whilst bigging up Razor’s title win

Todd Pettengill interviews Tatanka and Lex Luger, who will be wrestling up next. Tatanka thinks that Luger has joined up with Ted DiBiase. This is probably Tatanka’s best ever promo actually, as he shows some good fire and seems genuinely angry at the thought of Luger going Heel. Luger says he didn’t sell out and he didn’t even consider it. Now if they’d only asked him a year later when he was about to show up on Nitro…

Match Four
“The Native American” Tatanka Vs “Made in the USA” Lex Luger

The story here is that Tatanka has been accusing Luger of selling out and joining Ted DiBiase’s faction, but Luger is denying it. 54% of fans polled agree with Tatanka, but opinion polls will tell you anything so I’m told. Luger gets a mixture of cheers and boos for his entrance, showing that the storyline was a success to a certain degree. The problem with matches like this are that you come in expecting an angle, and everything prior to that angle just feels like they’re filling time. As a match; it’s totally fine, with both of them wrestling with a bit more of an edge due to Tatanka supposedly being mad that Luger has turned Heel whilst Luger is mad that he’s being accused of it when it isn’t true. Tatanka actually gets some boos as well, either because the Luger fans don’t like that Tatanka has been casting aspersions to Luger’s babyface status or because they believe that Tatanka is actually the villain here. Luger dodges a Tatanka cross body attempt and makes a pretty fired up comeback with some clotheslines and a powerslam, which leads to Ted DiBiase coming down to the ring with a big bag of money. This distracts Luger though and Tatanka gets a roll-up for three after about 6 minutes.

WINNER: TATANKA
RATING: **

Thoughts: This has decent energy to it, but it felt like we spent the whole match waiting to get to the fireworks factory and never quite made it

Tatanka beats up Luger post-match, revealing that it was actually Tatanka that sold out. This could have been an interesting SWERVE bro, but then Tatanka was just still Tatanka with an, admittedly quite good, Heel sneer and it didn’t really help freshen the character up that much. If they’d given Tatanka new gear and a proper makeover then this might have worked better. That being said, DiBiase’s Heel faction was generally a pretty lame group that never really got over, so it possibly was never going to work out regardless of what they did with Tatanka. This is a very good angle though, with Luger selling it like a Champ and Tatanka doing a good job of beating him down

Match Five
Country Music Vs Rap Music
“Double J” Jeff Jarrett Vs Mabel w/ Oscar

Jarrett wasn’t really that over yet as they hadn’t added Roadie to his act, but he’d be off to the races when that happened, only for him then to bail from the WWF for 4-5 months at the height of his overness in a questionable career move. Mabel was a smiling big babyface here, and normally tagged with Mo but I think Mo was out injured or something at the time so they were trying Mabel as a singles act for a bit. I guess they liked what they saw because they ended up trying to push Mabel as a top singles Heel in 1995. People joke about Oscar’s raps, but he actually gets the crowd pretty jazzed up here, which is pretty impressive when you consider that he’s hyping a dude that’s dressed like a slightly more violent Barney The Dinosaur (which is a gag Lawler later uses in fact).

Being the smaller sh!thouse Heel against the much bigger babyface can be a difficult formula to work sometimes, but Jarrett is very good at playing an arrogant comedy stooge Heel, so this actually gets reasonably over. It helps that Jarrett sells great and is happy to take some big bumps in order to make Mabel look good. Mabel by comparison kind of just lumbers around, although he does mock Jarrett’s strut at one stage in a funny moment. Jarrett shoves Oscar outside the ring at one stage and uses this as a way to distract Mabel and tie Mabel’s legs up in the ropes for the cut off, but Mabel soon shrugs that off so Jarrett goes to a sleeper instead. Mabel manages to survive that as well and then nearly ENDS Jarrett with a spinning wheel kick for two in a good near fall.

Meanwhile, whilst the match goes on, Steve Lombardi comes down to the ring dressed like he’s one of the members of the baseball gang from The Warriors with a sign saying that he’s on strike. This was in reference to MLB having an actual strike at the time. This of course made them ripe for comedy in Vince McMahon’s world, because having rights, a union and an off-season is lame whilst working all through the year with no rights and no union and destroying your body is where it’s at PAL! In a spot that doesn’t make a tonne of sense, Mabel holds Jarrett so that Oscar can slap Jarrett in full view of the referee, and it’s not a DQ, because reasons. They kind of lose the crowd a little bit when Jarrett keeps surviving, with the finish coming when Mabel misses a sit out splash to counter a Sunset Flip and Jarrett nicks a pin after about 6 minutes

WINNER: JEFF JARRETT
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: Started out okay but then trailed off a bit as the bout wore on. It was interesting that Jarrett essentially got a clean win there, but I guess you could justify it that Mabel was a tag wrestler in singles competition and was thus out of his element whilst Jarrett was a more seasoned singles guy and was able to catch Mabel OUTTA NOWHERE like that

We get a video package along with some interviews from both of the competitors in the WWF Title match and also with the Hart Family at ringside whilst they build the cage, because this was before they started having the cage coming down from the ceiling pre-made. Jim Neidhart is the one family member who is backing Owen here at SummerSlam, whilst Bruce Hart leads the anti-Owen contingent and Davey Boy Smith is kind of neutral. I mean, with hair that fabulous he can cheer on whomever he wants if you ask me! Gotta love Bruce making the ABSOLUTE MOST of any TV time he gets of course. Apparently it was originally meant to be Bret and Bruce feuding but Bret wanted to wrestle Owen instead, and that probably worked out for the better from a pro wrestling perspective, although Owen quitting the business as intended might have meant that he’d still be around today. All of this stuff is great though, with the video package and promo’s all delivering and doing an excellent job of getting you hyped as a viewer to see the match. Sadly it didn’t really do much at the box office, even though it delivered from both an in-ring and storytelling perspective

Semi-Main
Steel Cage Match for the WWF Title
Champ: Bret “The Hitman” Hart Vs “The King of Harts” Owen Hart

Tomas has actually written an article where he fantasy books this one

The story here is that Bret accidentally caused Owen to be eliminated at Survivor Series 1993, causing a rift between them. They seemingly mended fences at Royal Rumble 1994, but then they lost a match to The Quebecers and that led to Owen kicking Bret’s leg out from his leg to officially go Heel. Bret rebounded to co-win the 1994 Royal Rumble with Lex Luger. Bret had to wrestle Owen prior to his title shot at Mania X, wherein Owen actually scored the upset win. Bret went on to win the WWF Title later in the night by defeating Yokozuna, and then Owen won King of the Ring 1994 in order to set up this re-match for the Title here at SummerSlam. This one is escape rules rather than pin or submission, which is something that I know some folks have a problem with as the match is more of a climbing contest rather than the hate-filled brawl you might see in a classic NWA cage match. I think the reason I’m okay with it is that the focus for both brothers is to be the Champion, so them both focusing on just getting out of the cage so they can win works in that context.

It helps that the crowd loses it’s mind whenever one of the wrestlers makes an attempt to escape the cage, with some of the exchanges feeling genuinely desperate as one wrestler tries to find a way to escape whilst the other desperately tries to cling on to prevent it. When the two are focusing on going at it combat wise, it’s really good stuff, with both the offence and bumping/selling being on point. I personally feel that the match manages to balance the intensity of the wrestling with the drama of the escape attempts, and it makes the bout a really exciting contest to view, especially when you factor in just how invested the crowd gets. The classic WWF cage rules are a genre all unto themself, and if you’re not into cage matches where the focus is on escaping then I could see this one starting to wind you up, especially after the 10th or so tease. It’s not a version of the cage match that I personally like the most either, but this is probably the best example of it I’ve ever seen, and there is some stiff competition if you’re into that style of cage match when you take into account Hulk Hogan’s matches with Paul Orndorff and Big Boss Man, as well as the HHH Vs Mankind match from 1997 and the Mankind/Shamrock/Rock triple threat match from September 1998.

Owen is the first brother to get really close when he climbs out over the top and actually makes it onto the other side of the cage wall, but Bret manages to stop his brother and pull Owen back in for a slugfest on the top rope, which Owen actually wins and then follows up with a Missile Dropkick to a series of boos. The crowd is close to having kittens at points, as they mix in attempts to climb out with desperate crawls to the door, with both types of teased escapes working well. There’s a great moment where Bret is on top of the cage and starts to climb out whilst Owen is going for the door, with both brothers realising that the other is near to getting out and then stopping their own respective escape attempt to charge and stop the other, leading to them battling in the middle of the ring. That’s a nice little twist as you’d usually expect to see both try to race the other to escape, but here they decided to flip and actually head back INTO the cage to continue the fight, showing that the personal nature of the bout still matters even though the core focus is on winning.

Some of the offence is pretty high impact for 1994 WWF here as well, such as Owen stopping a Bret escape attempt and then giving Bret a back suplex from the top rope back down into the ring. I must say, knowing how hard the WWF ring was in 1994 and how miserable that blue barred cage looks to bump into, I have a real appreciation for both of these wrestlers to fling their bodies around for our entertainment here. There’s a great moment where Bret and Owen both roll around the mat throwing punches at one another quite literally like two young siblings squabbling in their bedroom or living room, and it gets a huge reaction from the crowd as it’s something most people can recognise. Even if you’re an only child, you probably have friends who have siblings and you’ve seen them just go for each other once or twice at some point. Some of Owen’s dramatic lunges to stop Bret escaping the cage are absolutely fantastic, with Owen’s timing an execution on them being absolutely spot on.

We eventually get the big Superplex from the top of the cage, delivered by Bret to Owen, which is basically mandatory in one of these things, and the crowd collectively loses their minds for it as expected. Bret slowly dragging himself back up after multiple attempts to make a break for the door is just perfectly done, with Bret’s selling being magnificent and Owen’s last gasp recovery to stop him is done brilliantly as well. Owen actually locks Bret Hart in The Sharpshooter at one stage, but Bret does the counter he was probably supposed to do a Survivor Series 1997 and puts Owen in the hold. In a nice touch, tough babyface Bret stoically countered the hold whilst the cowardly Heel Owen screamed and tapped out whilst in the hold, clearly delineating between the two brothers and highlighting how both of them tick. We get one more “let’s all fall off the cage into the ring” spot following that, with Bret trying to climb out and Owen stopping him, seeing both brothers falling back into the ring. The finish sees both brothers try to climb out, with Owen getting his legs tied up in the bars leaving Bret to jump down and pick up the win in around 32 minutes.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: BRET HART
RATING: ****3/4

Thoughts: My only slight complaint here is that they probably could have told this story in 25 minutes just fine so it didn’t need the 30+ minute run time, but aside from that I thought this match was as close to perfect a WWF escape rules cage match that you’re going to find. The wrestling was great, the storytelling was great and some of the escape teases were fabulously done. It might not be for everyone depending on your tolerance for the classic WWF “escape the cage” stipulation, but if you can get on board with that then this is an excellent match that you absolutely need to track down if you’ve never seen it before. You can watch it right now with a Netflix subscription in fact! (I’m open to free stuff Netflix, if you’re offering it)

Post-match; Neidhart clocks an applauding Bulldog, sending Bulldog careening over the metal railings to ringside, taking his wife Diana over with him in what was a pretty impressive bump from her. Neidhart and Owen then lock Bret in the cage for the Horsemen beatdown, but the rest of the Hart family and Bulldog eventually manage to climb in and chase Owen and Neidhart off. This would lead to Owen and Bret continuing to feud, with Owen costing Bret the WWF Title against Mr. Bob Backlund at Survivor Series 1994. This was a great angle, and a very NWA feeling one for a WWF show from 1994

Main Event
“The Undertaker” w/ Ted DiBiase Vs The Undertaker w/ Paul Bearer

Oh yes, this storyline. The real Taker had lost a casket match to Yokozuna at Royal Rumble 94 and seemingly “died” in the process, thus meaning he was gone for months and even missed that year’s WrestleMania. However, as summer came around Ted DiBiase announced that he had bought Taker’s services and brought out Brian Lee in Undertaker cosplay to start doing his bidding. Of course Paul Bearer wasn’t going to put up with that and thus brought the real Taker back to the WWF for the climactic battle between the two. It was a pretty lousy storyline and it also showed that Leslie Nielson was capable of being surprisingly unfunny when you give him absolutely nothing to work with material wise.

This one isn’t any good, mainly because it’s just two guys working the exact same deliberate Undertaker style. Undertaker was a solid worker and capable of having good matches; but he needed someone interesting to oppose him in order to do, so working against someone who wrestled exactly the same way as him is just dull as dishwater. Even in my younger days when I saw this for the first time I found it boring. Kane worked a bit better as a foe for Taker as he at least had some elements to his act that were his own that differentiated him, but Lee just goes for a straight up Taker impression. Mirror matches aren’t fun in fighting games and that extends to wrestling too. Taker eventually puts Lee away with multiple Tombstone Piledrivers to send him packing after about 9 minutes.

WINNER: THE UNDERTAKER
RATING: DUD

Thoughts: This was a boring match with a flat crowd and was just an overall bad idea to begin with. You could tell that Vince McMahon was quickly losing interest in the storyline when Lawler tried to do the whole “don’t they look so similar” bit and Vince was outright saying that they didn’t. Brian Lee would eventually get back to the WWF as Chainz in DOA, possibly because the WWF felt sorry for him that he had to be a fake Undertaker

Undertaker puts the Underfaker into a casket following the match to seemingly give this storyline a mercy killing.

In Conclusion:

The Main Event of SummerSlam 1994 is as awful as advertised, but the rest of the show is generally decent, with Nakano/Blayze, Diesel/Razor and Owen/Bret being the in-ring highlights. This is a show I’ve enjoyed since my younger days, and it held up pretty well for me on this viewing. Just maybe switch the show off after the conclusion of the cage match, as there’s nothing worth watching after that point

Recommended Show

If you want some more WWF from 1994, then Garth and Logan will have you covered