The summer of 1996 contained some of the most consequential events of any time period in wrestling history, with two major events that completely altered the direction of the business. The first major event came at King of the Ring in June, where a certain "Texas Rattlesnake" took down Marc Mero and Jake Roberts to lay claim to the cape and the crown, although he never actually wore either. Afterward, we got the famous "Austin 3:16" promo, and Stone Cold was off on his path to the top of the industry. In July, though, WCW provided a much bigger moment, at least at the time, during the main event of their Bash at the Beach pay-per-view. Hulk Hogan's heel turn, and the formation of the New World Order as Hogan partnered up with Kevin Nash (Diesel) and Scott Hall (Razor Ramon), would prove to be one of the most lucrative booking decisions ever made. World Championship Wrestling were now the preeminent wrestling power, and for the first time in over a decade, Vince McMahon faced financial jeopardy. McMahon had the opportunity for an immediate response, though, as the WWF had been able to secure the signing of one of the most noteworthy big men in the industry: the man they call Vader. The former IWGP and WCW Champion had the legitimacy and aura of a true monster heel, an archetype that McMahon had been desperate to fill since the departure of Andre the Giant. Plans were immediately put in place to have Vader rise to the top of the WWF, dethroning Shawn Michaels before the end of the big man's debut year, setting up a glorious redemption for Michaels when he took the WWF title back at the start of 1997, with the Royal Rumble event set to take place in Shawn's hometown of San Antonio, Texas. It seemed like a no-brainer title change that could've drawn a ton of eyes away from WCW's product, but there was still the first championship encounter between the two competitors to get through first, and a now infamous temper tantrum brought it all crashing to a halt.
- SummerSlam 1996 comes to you from the Gund Arena (now the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse) in Cleveland, Ohio, the first of many events to be hosted in this venue, including No Mercy 1999 and the Invasion pay-per-view. Vince McMahon and Mr. Perfect have been joined on the call by Jim Ross, who is slowly beginning his ascent to become the lead play-by-play announcer.
- Our opening contest is a singles match between Savio Vega and Owen Hart, the latter of which is working a "loaded cast" gimmick at the moment. Owen uses said cast to cheat his way to a win, with Savio getting knocked loopy after landing on it attempting a suplex off the top rope, then Owen removing the cast to brain Vega with it, locking in the Sharpshooter for victory. These two do work well enough together, escalating from some solid work by Owen as he wears down Savio's arm, to an exciting final stretch as Vega hits a spinning heel kick and Hart trades back with a top rope dropkick. Not terrible, but there's no reason to really care as Vega's current feud is actually with Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw, the future JBL, who gets in some cheap shots on a still wobbly Savio after the bell.
- The WWF has spent most of the summer pairing Sunny with a variety of different tag teams, as she jumped ship from the Bodydonnas to manage the Godwinns, then abandoned then to join the Smoking Gunns, the current tag team champions. Billy and Bart Gunn defend the gold in a four way tag match on this night, featuring the previous two teams, plus the incredibly awful New Rockers (Marty Jannetty and Leif Cassidy, aka Al Snow). This match exemplifies just how far the tag division had fallen in recent years, with almost no crowd investment for anyone other than Sunny, as the eight men are left to wrestle a sloppy and boring match in complete silence. Outside of a strange moment when both Gunns are tagged in, which is somehow legal and means they have to wrestle each other, and Zip being eliminated by being tripped by Sunny, weak, there's not much I have to say about this one. After the New Rockers are eliminated, the Godwinns' manager Hillbilly Jim attempts to toss the slop onto Sunny, unintentionally distracting the referee when Billy Gunn is being pinned, allowing Bart to deliver a diving double axe handle to retain the titles. Sunny then celebrates by displaying a glamorous photo of her self from the rafters, which I assume still hangs up there for every Cavaliers game.
- Hosses collide in the third bout of the evening, as the British Bulldog squares off with Sycho Sid, who turned face to team with Shawn Michaels and Ahmed Johnson at the previous In Your House event, replacing the Ultimate Warrior. Bulldog was one of Sid's opponents on that night, as a member of the villainous Camp Cornette faction, who are falling apart after in-fighting between Cornette and his lawyer, Clarence Mason. The frustration between Cornette and Mason is responsible for Bulldog's loss here, as after hitting a running powerslam, the referee is distracted from making the count by the confrontation taking place outside the ring. Bulldog attempts another powerslam, but Sid counters and nails a chokeslam for a well received victory, as the WWF crowds have always been big supporters of Sid. Outside of the impressive finish, there wasn't much to this match, just a few simple power moves, and getting it over and done with in 6 minutes was a good call.
- Goldust has continued to be the horniest entity on the WWF roster, as after smooching Ahmed Johnson in the lead-up to their match at King of the Ring, the "Bizarre One" has now targeted his affections towards Sable. Marc Mero attempts to stand up for his terrified wife, and after trading offense with Goldust for 10 largely uninteresting minutes, Mero gets many in attendance to take notice after hitting a Shooting Star Press. The move was rarely seen in the US at this time, and a guy of Mero's size using it was clearly a bit of a shock. It doesn't get Mero the win, though, as Goldust manages to fight back by sending Mero crashing into the turnbuckles, sternum-first. Mero is completely gassed by this point, using up everything he had left on that SSP, so he can barely make the jump up to take the Curtain Call, which gets Goldust the win.
- Utilizing real world issues for wrestling storylines has long been a staple of the business, but I'm very rarely a fan of integrating a performer's personal issues into an angle, as it can cross into extremely uncomfortable territory very quickly. Jerry Lawler bringing up Jake Roberts' past struggles with alcohol abuse was something that no one ever needed to see, especially considering Jake was still dealing with those issues at the time of their feud. Lawler shows up for their match on this night brandishing several bottles of booze, and also some Baltimore Ravens merch, earning cheap heat with the local fans who were still smarting from the Ravens ransacking the Cleveland Browns in the midst of a bitter relocation. The only way this match could even approach being slightly acceptable is if Lawler got his butt whooped, but instead, the humiliated Roberts is beaten after having a bottle poked into his throat. Lawler then attempts to force Roberts to drink after the match, only being stopped by Mark Henry, who was seated at the commentary desk. Everything about this was awful, and the fact that Jake relapsed afterward makes it so much worse. I have never wanted to watch a match less than this one.
- Mankind and The Undertaker have been engaged in a violent feud that began shortly after WrestleMania 12, with Mick Foley's bizarre creation slowly starting to get over. Like with Undertaker, the decision was made to give Mankind a unique match to wrestle in, the "Boiler Room Brawl". This match starts backstage in, you guessed it, a boiler room, and the objective on this night is to be the first man to make your way to the ring and claim the urn held by Paul Bearer. Mankind and Undertaker beat the stuffing out of each other, with lots of weapon shots and a few creative spots, like Mankind using steam from a furnace to blind Undertaker, and the "Deadman" then trading back by spraying Mankind with a fire extinguisher. The whole thing feels very gritty and personal, and while it wasn't the most exciting brawl I've ever seen, I thought it really demonstrated how much these guys hated each other and how dangerous each could be. Mankind fights his way out of the boiler room and they make their way to the entrance ramp, then finally into the ring. Undertaker overpowers Mankind and seems to have the match in hand, but Bearer refuses to hand over the urn. The crowd doesn't quite pick up on this heel turn right away, so Bearer makes sure they get it by slapping Undertaker in the face while Mankind holds him down. Multiple applications of the Mandible Claw finally take the fight out of The Undertaker, as thanks to the betrayal by Bearer, Mankind has made Undertaker look more vulnerable than he perhaps ever had before. To add to that feeling of complete defeat, Undertaker is then carried away by several hooded figures, as it seems that Bearer and Mankind have struck a fatal blow. This wasn't quite on the level of the wars these two men would wage in the future, especially in the Hell in a Cell match at King of the Ring, but it was still entertaining and was an important stepping stone towards the kind of hardcore mayhem that would take over the WWF's product in the years to come.
- Main event time, as Shawn Michaels defends the WWF Championship against Vader, who pinned the champion at last month's In Your House event. Shawn gets the better of the bigger man early with some creative offense, including a slick headscissors takedown over the ropes and onto the floor. Vader fights back with a powerbomb on the floor, which was delivered with significantly less force than he would normally deliver moves, likely the result of Shawn threatening to get Vader fired unless he toned down his stiffer offense. Shawn attempts to wear down the bigger man, but Vader is too much for the champion, and after a brawl on the outside, the challenger wins by countout after dropping Shawn on the barricade. Jim Cornette intervenes in a bid to goad Shawn back into the ring, and the ref elects to restart the match. Cornette then tries to get involved to distract the official once the match is back in the ring, but Michaels puts a stop to it, and seizes Cornett's signature tennis racket. Shawn then wallops Vader with the racket, getting himself disqualified. The crowd goes wild for this, despite it coming across as extremely heelish to me, as it really seems like Shawn is cheating to take the easy way out like an absolute coward. After both men are separated, Jim Cornette then wants one more chance for his client, as the match restarts again. Both men trade near falls, as Vader kicks out of the Sweet Chin Music, before taking back control. Vader has a beaten Michaels ready to be put away with the Vader Bomb, but Cornette eggs his charge on to perform the top rope moonsault instead, which misses. Shawn then nails a moonsault on a standing Vader, which Jim Ross on commentary smartly sells as a flash knockout by showing Michaels' knee colliding with Vader's head, and the champion retains. The dual match restarts really hampered the flow of this one, and Shawn's babyface character was jeopardized with that idiotic intentional disqualification. Shawn's real-life scumbag behavior is exposed in a moment during the match when Vader forgets to roll out of the way of a dive by Michaels, which Shawn freaks out about, berating Vader and kicking him in the head, which was totally uncalled for. I had really high hopes for this match, which really weren't met, though it was still an acceptable main event in front of a hot crowd.
6/10
This was a two-match show, as outside of the Boiler Room Brawl and WWF title match, everything else on offer ranged from mediocre to abysmal. This includes a couple woeful promos from Ahmed Johnson and Faarooq, who were scheduled to have an Intercontinental title match on this card before Johnson was sidelined with kidney issues. The show did really pick up with those last two matches, as well I had my complaints on the main event, it was entertaining, and the last 70ish minutes of these 3 hours just flew by. All in all, this was okay, but any show that includes something as awful as that Jerry Lawler/Jake Roberts match isn't one I can consider too highly.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: Survivor Series 1996, where Shawn Michaels defends the WWF title against Sycho Sid, and Bret Hart faces "Stone Cold" Steve Austin in a somewhat forgotten classic. See you soon.
- Henry
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