Summerslam - Civic Centre, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, August 27th 1995

Summerslam! Feel the heat! Or, as Todd Pettengill says during the opening video, “face the heat” which isn’t an expression. I kind of loved this opening video with it’s extremely 1995 music and comments from all the participants in the big matches. I’m not super impressed by card itself as I laid out in the Preview but WWFs production is and was the best in the world and they do their best with it.

This is the last PPV of the pre-Monday Night War era of wrestling. Monday Night Raw is currently on a two week hiatus and so the next episode is on September 11th 1995. The very first episode of WCW’s Monday Nitro took place on September 4th 1995. I’ll talk a lot more about that in the next Preview of course but it’s a major historical moment which needs to be mentioned.

Vince kicks off the show by letting us know that new character Dean Douglas will be critiquing each and every match here tonight at Summerslam. Thrilling (I do quite like this gimmick, God save me)

Hakushi vs. The 1-2-3 Kid

This match was preannounced but I assume any buildup had taken place on the weekend shows which I don’t have access to because there certainly wasn’t any on Monday Night Raw. Both these guys are very good wrestlers so maybe that’s all the build it needs? They’re teasing a babyface turn for Hakushi with Jerry Lawler running him down costing him his match to Bret Hart at King of the Ring, and Hakushi and Skip having a little heel-on-heel miscommunication leading to a loss to Barry Horowitz. More on that later.

They start out fast, locking up and going off the ropes, taking each other down with armdrags and then after a double bump both nip up to their feet in stereo which gets an appreciative round of applause from the fans. Good stuff. They continue to go back and forth, aiming for spinning heel kicks and both missing. Jerry Lawler speculates that both men are trying hard to impress Dean Douglas.

This show being in Pittsburg on the east coast means the crowd is quite a smart one, and there’s a lot of ECW fans in attendance. We can see that early as there’s a small but vocal collection of big Hakushi fans - cheering for heels was still pretty rare in 1995. That doesn’t bode well for tonight’s main event. 

Hakushi controls the match, grounding the Kid and then working on his legs with stiff kicks and gets another big round of applause with a handspring into a back elbow in the corner. He wows everyone with a somersault into a backflip up and over the top rope onto the Kid at ringside, and then a diving shoulder tackle in the ring. Hakushi is pretty awesome. He misses his diving headbutt finishing move and the 1-2-3 Kid gets back into it with a flip to the outside of his own and then a slingshot leg drop back inside. He jumps for a big spinning heel kick but Hakushi catches him and spikes him with a sort of modified powerbomb which is enough to get the three count. This was pretty great and a good victory for Hakushi. 

Despite promising us a Dean Douglas grading segment after each match, there’s no Dean yet. Alright then? I’ll give the match a B+

Backstage a very excited Dok Hendrix asks King Mabel to reveal his plan for tonight. His royal plan has worked perfectly so far - British Bulldog turned heel and helped Mabel and Mo beat down Diesel on Raw which, as plans go, isn’t terrible. 

Bob Holly vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley

The PPV debut of the future Triple H, much like the previous match, doesn’t appear to have had any build on TV. I’m actually ok with a couple of matches just being thrown on the show as a spotlight for new talents that the company wants to promote. It’s something they did a lot in the 80s and early 90s too.

HHH takes his time taking off his jacket and frilly white shirt at the start of the match and then pays for it with Holly slamming him around the ring. 

He counters a charge to the corner with a hangman up and over the top rope and then grinds down the racecar driver with lots of old school heel cheating like chokes in the corner and a rope assisted abdominal stretch. Bob fights back with his nice dropkick and a tilt-a-whirl to counter out of a bodyslam attempt which was nice. They’re quite evenly matched, but Hunter is undefeated and Bob Holly is not. 

He bounces “the American blue-blood” around the ring but when he goes for a backdrop, Helmsley stops in his tracks and turns it into the Pedigree for a PPV victory.

During the previous match, the recently-turned-heel British Bulldog was shown arriving at the arena - a big deal as he’s not scheduled to be here tonight, so the assumption would be that he’s here to play a part in tonight’s main event. 

The Blu Brothers (Jacob and Eli Blu w/Uncle Zebekiah) vs. The Smoking Gunns (Billy and Bart Gunn)

There was a little build for this one, at least in the sense that the commentators mentioned that these two teams have had issues in passing during Raw. I’ve talked before about how little time I have for the Harris twins both as performers and as human beings (They’re nazis) so my interest in this match is rock bottom. 

Both teams move quickly through spots, tagging in and out rapidly which tells you that this match won’t last long. Billy and Bart have the advantage but when Bart stupidly distracts the referee, Jacob and Eli hit a big double team on Billy and then switch places - twin magic is their gimmick with even Vince and King unable to tell them apart. Vince defaults to just causing them “a Blu twin” and not even guessing.

Billy weathers the storm and counters a clothesline into one of his own and tags out to Bart. He runs through Jacob and Eli and tags Billy back in so they can hit their sidewinder double team move on one of the Blus for a clean victory, no fuss. Good. The outcome, not the match - at least it was short.

Skip (w/Sunny) vs. Barry Horowitz

This match gets an honest to goodness video package! Good for Barry. Good for Skip! 

There’s no mention of the Hakushi interaction I mentioned earlier but basically Hakushi and Skip were a team and Skip accidentally hit his own partner, giving Horowitz ANOTHER victory this time over Hakushi.

Sunny continues this show’s streak from Jacob, Eli and Zebekiah of genuinely terrible people but at least has the common decency to be very good looking to make up for it a little.

Horowitz has theme music (it's Hava Nagila, because he’s Jewish) and new sparkly ring gear so must finally have an actual contract. He moves fast, bouncing Skip around as he begs for mercy and the fans are more into this than you’d expect. 

He fights off Skip’s attack in the corner and actually suplexes the Bodydonna up and over the top rope to the outside. Sunny is beside herself and gets in the ring to protest to the referee and is told off by the referee. I thought that was going to lead to a spot but it didn’t, and she trips Horowitz as he runs the ropes so that her man can finally slow down the match and control it for a bit. Skip - real name Chris Canidio - was a very talented in-ring performer who was plagued, as was real life wife Sunny, by substance abuse issues. 

Skip slowly works over Horowitz, having the match won after a diving elbow off the middle rope but breaks his own pin. That’ll come back to haunt him. He pauses intermittently to do jumping jacks and pushups as Sunny cheers him on. Horowitz counters a piledriver into a back drop but when he goes to the top rope, Sunny shakes the ropes to stop him and he’s brought down the hard way with a superplex. At that point, Hakushi comes down to ringside for a closer look and, mad at having been cost a match of his own by Skip to Horowitz, provides a big distraction so that Barry can pull Skip into a small package for another big victory! Horowitz lost hundreds of matches in his career but now he’s won four in a row, including one on PPV! That cements Hakushi’s babyface turn which I talked about them teasing earlier too which is a good thing because the roster was getting very heel-heavy in the summer of 1995.

We were promised Dean Douglas analysis after every match but now, four matches in we finally get one - he explains the meaning of the word Vivify (basically the same as rejuvenate). Hakushi gave Barry Horowitz a second chance by distracting Skip, something which is has a big problem with. The referee gets an F for being distracted, Horowitz an S for Slacker for coasting off someone else’s work.

Elsewhere, Todd Pettengill interviews Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels. They talk about the danger of the ladder match and how there’s no way to prepare for it. Shawn seems serious and a little distracted about the match - it eats at him that he lost the first ladder match and now he has to avenge himself. He also mentions that he has nothing in his life but the title - he mentioned that no one remembered his birthday on Raw a couple of weeks ago too. I believe Shawn was going through a messy break-up and divorce at the time.

WWF Women’s Championship

Alundra Blayze © vs. Bertha Faye (w/Harvey Whippleman)

This match was set up months ago. I have looked into it and I wasn’t able to find out if Alundra’s time off due to a legit broken nose was planned (i.e. they knew it was broken and surgery needed and Bertha was booked to be the cause) or if it was unplanned (i.e. this match was supposed to pay off earlier but Bertha accidentally broke Alundra’s nose for real). Either way, Bertha has racked up a few TV wins now and her main gimmick is that she’s…unusual looking but thinks she’s gorgeous, and is managed by Harvey Whippleman, who she is deeply in love with. 

Andra starts out fast and this is a classic big person vs. little person match with her out-manuvering the larger Faye who gets frustrated by being unable to catch the champion. She finally gets control with a trio of big running charges knocking her on his butt as Jerry Lawler giggles about it. 

She misses a splash off the middle rope and kicks out of Alundra’s follow up victory roll. Blayze is working a bit more of a martial arts ringstyle here with knee strikes and chops. She knocks down Bertha with a big running take down but Harvey distracts the referee from counting. The champion chases him around the ring but hilariously he tripped so that she caught him very easily. They covered for it well with him wriggling out of his jacket to escape again and the distraction worked as back in the ring she’s dropped by Faye again. Alundra hits a hurricanrana and a pair of missile dropkicks but misses a third and then a sit down powerbomb gives Bertha Faye the shock victory! Bertha Faye wins the WWF Women’s Championship! That is a surprise. 

Jim Ross tries to interview the new champion and a jealous Harvey Whippleman tells him to stay away from his woman! Faye tells her to look at this and weep! She has the man, and now she has the gold. This was a genuine surprise - I had no memory of Bertha Faye ever winning the title. 

Casket match

The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) vs. Kama (w/Ted Dibiase)

Thankfully this match got a video package because despite Undertaker having been feuding with Dibiase’s corporation since last Summer and Kama specifically since Summerslam they have barely interacted since April. I also left in the Coliseum Home Video exclusive pre-match promo by Paul Bearer and Undertaker for funsies.

Undertaker hammers Kama, bouncing him from corner to corner and lifting him for slams and chokes. He drops him with old school and looks like he’ll easily win, rolling him into the casket but a distraction from Ted Dibiase allows Kama to escape and come back with a shot to the head from behind. Kama slowly works Undertaker over with punches and kicks to the body, pounding him down with very basic offense and dumping the Deadman to the outside. The Million Dollar Man takes the chance to throw some kicks at the downed Undertaker which brings Paul Bearer around the ring. He pulls off his jacket and has to be held back by the referees as the fans go NUTs for some potential manager on manager violence. Kama and Undertaker fight to the outside and Undertaker is suplexed onto the casket which was cool.

They battle on top of the casket and when Kama goes for a piledriver, it’s countered into a backdrop into the ring. Kama isn’t down for long and locks Undertaker in a long, long sleeper hold as Paul Bearer does what he can to get the crowd behind his Undertaker. He finally fights out of it with a big back suplex. The two go up and over the top rope and tumble into the open casket. The lid closes on them both and Kama emerges first, crawling into the ring but Undertaker drags him back by the ankles which is a cool spot. 

Undertaker spikes Kama with a tombstone back in the ring, rolls him into the casket and closes the lid with no fuss. Undertaker wins and honestly this match was far better than it had any right to be. They didn’t show him regain his melted down urn necklace but I assume that he did? 

Bret Hart vs. Isaac Yankem, D.D.S

So I’ve known about this match for years of course. This being the artist later known as Kane’s first gimmick is infamous but what I didn’t know is that this is literally his debut WWF match. It gets a video package too which is just wild to me.

Isaac’s “entrance music” is just a relentless dentist’s drill which is horrific to listen to. Todd Pettengill interviews Bret Hart before the match. I’m sure in both kayfabe and in reality Bret was desperate to be done with Jerry Lawler so he can move back to being a main eventer in contention for the WWF Championship. He calls Yankem the tooth fairy, which is probably homophobic.

Yankem aka Glen Jacobs is a BIG dude but that’s not news to long time fans. He previously wrestled down south as “the Christmas Critter” which was a gimmick which lasted as long as you’d expect. This isn’t the last time we saw this man in a goofy gimmick before finding his final form as Kane, but no spoilers and I’ll try to just take this as it comes. He powers Bret around and slams him with ease but misses a big elbow drop. Jerry Lawler keeps correcting people’s pronunciation of his surname “it’s YANKEM, not Yankem” and I honestly cannot hear the difference in what he’s saying. Maybe that’s the joke.

It’s a back and forth match with the bigger, strongest dentist giving Bret a hard time, but the Hitman using his speed to avoid charges in the corner and clotheslines so that he can get in some offense of his own. He actually tries for the Sharpshooter early in the match - unusual for Bret, he normally never went for it until he KNEW he could lock it in - but the big man powers out of that too. He slowly works over Bret as the Hitman does for roll up after roll up in desperation but he’s no match for the almost 7 foot dentist. On the outside, Yankem drives his spine first into the ring post and then in a very impressive display - something Jacobs was always known for for his size - comes off the top rope with a flying leg drop which only gets a two count. Vince brings up Yankem’s doctor’s bag full of tools totally unprompted which is probably a giveaway that it’ll be involved in the finish.

Bret shows off some new moves out his own - stuff he only broke out during the big matches - like a dive over the top rope to the floor and a running dive through the ropes - before going into his familiar finishing routine in the ring picking up near falls with a running bulldog, side Russian leg sweep and the pinpoint elbow off the middle rope. He locks Yankem in the Sharpshooter and a panicked Lawler jumps up off commentary to help his man get to the ropes and break the hold. Bret is furious but the distraction doesn’t quite work as Bret catches a charging Isaac and backdrops him up and over the top rope to the floor. They brawl around the ring and Bret is thrown into the ringsteps. Yankem goes to the top rope but he’s caught and slammed by Bret who was playing opossum and the three time WWF Champion is firmly in control. He uses a camera cable to tie Isaac’s ankles together, trapping up around the ring post and drills him with kicks before going after Jerry Lawler.

The Hitman beats him up as Yankem comes off the top rope all the way to the floor, knocking down Bret. This is very much out of hand and its finally thrown out when Lawler helps Yankem tie up Bret’s head in the ropes and then yank on him, hanging the Hitman. Bret Hart wins by disqualification but the story is his potential injury as referees swarm to stop the attack and free Bret’s neck from the noose. The fans loudly boo both the finish and the Lawler/Yankem duo. This match wasn’t bad considering everything (the build, the goofy gimmick, the fact that Yankem is a brand new character) but that’s entirely down to the skills of Bret “Hitman” Hart.

Before the next match, Dok Hendrix interviews Razor Ramon. He seems a lot more relaxed about tonight’s ladder match than Shawn did. Razor has a chance to become the first ever 4 time Intercontinental Champion tonight. He says that history will repeat itself and it’s not just Shawn’s gold on the line, it’s his body. His pain is Razor’s pleasure. That seems like an odd line from one babyface to another. Cool bit of camera work as they follow Razor from his interview spot right out into the arena. 

At the time, the WWF was under fire from some kid protection groups about the perceived violence levels in wrestling which had become “unacceptable” and so, days before this match, they were told that they weren’t allowed to use the ladder as a weapon. Impossible, you would think, in a ladder match. Razor and Shawn were angry and felt set up to fail but took to the challenge and worked out ways that they could use the ladder in their match without outright using it as a weapon - jumping off it and landing on it basically. 

Ladder match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship

Shawn Michaels © vs. Razor Ramon

Razor gets a lot of love from the crowd who cheered just seeing the apparatus being set up above the ring to signify that this is a ladder match. Shawn gets a cool entrance, appearing in silhouette at the top of the ramp before being unveiled. The ladies in the crowd went NUTS for the Heartbreak Kid too - the sexiest man in the world in 1995, in wrestling at least. He’s fired up and I’m sure these two real-life best friends were as motivated as a man can be to make each other look like a million bucks tonight, just like they did at Wrestlemania X.

Dok Hendrix joined Vince McMahon on commentary from here as Jerry Lawler disappeared backstage with Isaac Yankem after the previous match. I have no idea if that’s an upgrade or not.

There’s a bit of awkwardness at the start of the match as the belt is raised but is hung incorrectly with the belt facing down towards the mat. Razor and Shawn both look angry about it, pointing and arguing with the referees and on the mic we can audibly hear Shawn tell someone named Mark to lower the belt so he can fix it. It does lower, he adjusts it - something he did at Wrestlemania X too actually - and then tells them to raise it again. Vince seems to have totally missed what happened and is very confused. 

The two lock up and trade right hands and arm wringers in the opening with HBK being the first to be sent up and over the top rope to the floor so that Ramon can go and get the ladder which is hilarious far up the entrance ramp and needs quite a walk to get it. Shawn stops him and they fight back to the ring - best to keep the ladder out of things as long as possible if they can’t use it properly. They make up for it with Shawn being suplexed up and out of the ring, catching his ankle on the metal security rail - brutal. 

In the ring, Razor throws Shawn around and brings him down off the top rope with a fall away slam before going to get the ladder. Dok mentions that Sycho Sid is the real winner here and on cue, he’s shown watching the match backstage. See, he was originally supposed to face HBK for the title here but the match was changed (I assume due to a mix of quality reasons, and also because the Klique were throwing their weight around and wanted Razor on the show). He’ll now face the winner of this match for the title on the next episode of Monday Night Raw on September 11th. 

In the ring, Shawn stops Razor from climbing the ladder and climbs himself. Ramon grabs his tights to stop him, exposing Shawn’s bare ass which gets a LOUD scream from the ladies in attendance and a full moon joke from Dok. He seems to hurt his knee when he’s yanked down off the ladder and lands awkwardly on his feet. Razor takes advantage, locking Shawn’s leg up in the ladder and then stamping on it. 

Razor is relentless on Shawn’s leg, slamming him legs first onto the ladder and then setting the ladder up in the corner so that he can pick up Michaels and run him legs-first into it in that position too. High drama as Razor defaults to working as the heel and the fans rally behind HBK. 

Razor finally climbs after pummelling his knee for a long time but HBK clambers to the top rope and flies off with an axe handle to stop his Klique buddy from regaining the title. Michaels begins his own comeback, limping around the ring and throwing Razor into the ladder. The fans boo HBK and it becomes clear that the split between these two babyfaces is a deep, manly boo for Michaels and a high-pitched girly boo for Razor. Michaels comes off the ladder with a standing moonsault and hammers on Ramon’s face with right hands, followed by a second dive from the very top of the ladder…which misses! 

It’s a slow race to the top of the ladder and they trade punches before causing the ladder to topple over sending both men crashing out to the floor. Shawn works to get the original ladder into the ring as Razor smartly goes around the ring and gets a second one from underneath. Shawn climbs but Razor brings him down the hard way with a Razor’s Edge and both men are down once again, exhausted. 

They both climb their own respective ladders and end up at the top at the same time, reaching for the belt. Shawn throws out a superkick, hitting a Sweet Chin Music which knocks Razor off his ladder! Shawn reaches but he’s out of position and can’t quite reach the title belt so jumps in desperation, missing and crashing to the mat. He backdrops Razor out of the ring when he tries a second Razor’s Edge and HBK climbs up, just barely reaching the title belt but when he grabs it and falls it doesn’t unclasp and he falls to the mat empty handed! HBK is furious and stops selling, throwing the spare ladder out of the way and positioning his own properly so that he can climb up and finally retrieve the Intercontinental title belt to win an awesome ladder match. 

Razor gets in the ring and snatches the title belt from Shawn Michaels. Is this a heel turn? No, he hands the title belt to Shawn and shakes his hand before they embrace and celebrate together. An awesome match despite the botched finish with the right outcome. I do wonder where Razor goes from here but, as it happens, he wondered himself. More on Razor’s future in the very near future.

Dean Douglas critiques the ladder match and its performers - he explains the meaning of the word “bad”, He insults Razor Ramon but before he can finish his thoughts, a sweaty Razor himself arrives and calls Douglas a book worm with a big mouth. Dean tries to get in a cheap shot on the Bad Guy but pays for it with a big right hand which knocks him on his ass. So that’s Dean’s first proper feud, and Razor’s next. 

WWF Championship

Diesel © vs. King Mabel (w/Sir Mo)

We waste absolutely no time and go straight from that previous segment right into King Mabel’s entrance. He’s announced as 568lbs which is a hilarious overexaggeration and an attempt to recapture the “magic” of Yokozuna. He’s carried to the ring while Dok and Vince speculate on the whereabouts of the British Bulldog and whether he will be here to help out King Mabel once again.

Todd interviews Diesel who shows no fear of either - he owes Bulldog payback, and he’s going to get medieval on the King. Not very inspiring by Big Daddy Cool.

This match was never going to be any good, especially following that ladder match but with less than 10 minutes left of the PPV as the WWF Champion makes his entrance at least they seem to have smartly decided to keep it short.

Vince says that the WWF has been going “quite well” running on Diesel Power. That’s faint praise, but also it isn’t true - 1995 was the worst year, financially, in the company’s history. That’s a record that stands to this day.

Mabel muscles the champion to the corner and hammers him with clubs and punches. He takes a moment to scream “I’m gonna be the first black champion!” to the crowd and I do wonder who told him to say that?

Diesel comes back and with a big running shoulder tackle sends the 1995 King of the Ring out of the ring. He follows him out with a big dive up and over the top rope - Kevin Nash wasn’t athletic enough to do that and lands awkwardly, hurting his leg. He’s reversed into the ring post and the pair of them are selling like they’ve been going at it for 20 minutes less than 3 minutes into the match. 

They walk around the ring slowly throwing punches and clubbing on each other until Mabel hits a messy looking slam and a pair of leg drops. Diesel kicks out. The referee is knocked out of the ring as they run the ropes and Sir Mo gets in the ring to help his man double team Big Daddy Cool. Lex Lugar runs down to make the save - a shock to me and it just goes to show that Vince still had plans for him right up until the last moment, I’ll talk about him more in the next Preview too - and after failing to help, does beat up Mo and chase him to the back. 

Mabel hits a big belly to belly suplex but Diesel kicks out. Mabel misses a splash off the middle rope and then a big diving shoulder tackle off the top rope gives Diesel the victory. He retains the WWF Championship in a pretty poor match, his fifth rubbish PPV main event in a row. Vince seems happy though and bellows about how he’s the leader of the New WWF Generation while pyro goes off to end the show.