WWF Summerslam was a 1990 professional wrestling event put on by the World Wrestling Federation. It was the fifth annual Summerslam event, the fourth event in 1990, and the 34th event overall in the alternate WWF timeline. Hailing from just outside Chicago, Illinois in the Rosemont Horizon, the main event was WWF Champion Sting defending his title against his longtime nemesis, "Ravishing" Rick Rude inside a steel cage. Other matches on the card included Mr. Perfect defending the Intercontinental Championship against Davey Boy Smith (who was a substitute for the injured Bret Hart), The Midnight Express defending the World Tag Team Titles against the Steiner Brothers, and The Big Boss Man taking on "The Model" Rick Martel.
This event is also notable for being the last to feature Jesse "The Body" Ventura on commentary. He would be replaced largely by Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, who's managerial career was winding down at this time.
Prelude[]
Shortly after defeating Ted DiBiase at the King of the Ring, Sting was challenged by his old rival, "Ravishing" Rick Rude, for the WWF title. Sting agreed to face him on Primetime Wrestling, but the match ended in a no contest as Rude received outside help from his manager, Bobby Heenan. For his continued interference, Bobby Heenan had his "managerial license" suspended by WWF President Jack Tunney, forcing him to not be in the corner of Rick Rude or any other Family members during matches (in reality, Haku's contract had been "sold" to Mr. Fuji, while Bam Bam Bigelow and The Dynamite Kid had left the WWF, leaving Rude as the only member of the Family left) though he could still advise them backstage. To further ensure that no interference would interrupt the rematch between Sting and Rude, Tunney ordered the match to be held inside a Steel Cage, to determine once and for all who the better man was.
At King of the Ring, Mr. Perfect had taken his anger out on Bret Hart after the Hitman defeated him in a King of the Ring qualifying match. Perfect made sure that the Hitman was hurt badly, and thus couldn't win the tournament either. These attacks continued on Bret Hart, as Perfect viciously attacked Bret Hart's ribs on an episode of the Brother Love Show. This called into doubt the rematch for the Intercontinental Title that had been set for Summerslam. Eventually, Bret admitted that he had to bow out, but offered a challenger in his place in the form of his brother-in-law, Davey Boy Smith, aka The British Bulldog.
The Midnight Express had been feuding off and on with The Steiner Brothers for several months, due in part to Cornette insulting the Steiner Brothers' mother on numerous occasions. The feud had only intensified since The Midnight Express regained the World Tag Team Titles from Demolition at a house show. The two teams were finally set for a major confrontation with the belts on the line.
On an episode of The Brother Love Show, The Model Rick Martel had been a guest and had debuted his new fragrance, "Arrogance". The actual guest of the show was "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, who came out and insulted Brother Love and Martel. The Model, saying that Piper was "odious" began spraying his perfume around the Brother Love set. When he began spraying around Piper's kilt, the Hot Rod took umbridge and attacked Martel, only for The Model to spray Piper directly in the eyes. Boss Man came out to help the Hot Rod try and wash the perfume out of his eyes and kept Martel away. With Piper out, possibly blinded and his career nearly ended, Bossman swore revenge on Piper's behalf and challenged Martel to a match.
Other storylines included the Macho King Randy Savage against the Mighty Hercules and Jake "The Snake" Roberts against "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes.
Event[]
The first match of the night was the team of Rhythm and Blues against the former US Tag Champs The Rockers. Since losing the titles the tag team specialists of Michaels & Jannetty had been slightly off in their chemistry, but appeared to have righted the ship against the Honky Tonk Man and Greg Valentine, dominating the early part of the match. However the heels took control by isolating Jannetty, keeping him away from tagging Michaels. This went on for several minutes before Jannetty finally broke away, though in doing so he accidentally launched Valentine into the distracted Michaels, knocking him down. Michaels played up his injuries as Jannetty called for a hot tag, ignoring his partner as Honky came in and went back to work on Jannetty, finishing him off with a Shake, Rattle & Roll for the win. After the match, the Rockers continued to argue, with Jannetty storming off from Michaels, who feigned innocence. Next up was the Boss Man attempting to get revenge for Roddy Piper against Rick Martel. Martel actually dominated most of the match save for the very beginning, keeping the big man on the ground by working over his knee and attempting to chop down the big redwood. He seemed ready to set up the Boston Crab when Piper suddenly made his way to ringside, holding a blind man's cane and wearing dark sunglasses. Martel noticed this and was distracted, making fun of the seemingly blind Piper. This allowed Bossman to get back in the match with several power moves, before Martel hit a lowblow after the referee was knocked down. Martel tried to take advantage, only for Piper to suddenly rip off his glasses and, with perfect sight, whack Martel in the back with his cane, sending him staggering into Bossman who hits his slam and gets the win.
The next match saw Rockin' Robin successfully defend her women's championship against Tina Ferrari with little difficulty, winning the match with a flying headscissors takedown into a pinning combination. This was followed by the newly christened Macho King Randy Savage facing the Mighty Hercules. Savage, after winning the King of the Ring tournament, had demanded that Hercules bow to him and join his royal court as a "court jester". Hercules responded by stealing Savage's crown. The match was a typical Savage affair, as the Macho King used aerial attacks and a hit and run offense to try and take out the much more powerful Hercules. Herc attempted to lock Savage in the Full Nelson multiple times, but Savage was able to squeeze his way out of the hold more than once. Eventually Savage clipped the knee of Hercules and got him down on the ground long enough to finish him with a Top Rope Elbow Drop, picking up a hard earned win. The Midnight Express then fought their current rivals, The Steiner Brothers for the world tag team titles. True to form the Midnight Express would rely on their impressive teamwork and occasional outside interference from Jim Cornette, but ultimately the Steiner's athleticism was enough to withstand this action and the Steiners won the tag titles after a Frankensteiner from Scott and a powerful top rope bulldog from Rick on Stan Lane.
After a vignette involving Ted DiBiase (one of several which showed that the Million Dollar Man may not be worth a million dollars anymore, this one showing his credit card being rejected at a fancy restaurant and being forced to wash dishes with Virgil to pay his dinner bill), we saw Dusty Rhodes take on Jake The Snake. Jake had turned his attention to the Common Man in recent weeks, and had nearly assaulted Sapphire during the leadup to the match. Dusty Rhodes showed a mean streak in this match that the WWF hadn't seen before, but this seemed to play right into Jake's hands, as Rhodes made mistakes that let Jake get the upper hand. Sapphire attempted to help Dusty in the match, but Jake cut her off and threatened to hit her with a DDT. This seemed to motivate Dusty who rallied and began beating down Jake. In defense, Jake pulled out a loaded boot and clocked Dusty across the face with it, though this resulted in a disqualification. Jake then hit Dusty with a DDT for good measure before leaving, though Dusty won the match. This was followed by a TV title defense, that was initially supposed to be The Mountie defending against former champion Brutus Beefcake. However Beefcake was injured (in real life he suffered a parasailing accident that crushed his face and would sideline him from wrestling for more than 2 years), and his place was taken by the recently debuted Kerry von Erich, better known as the Texas Tornado. It seemed like the Tornado was more than a match for the Mountie, as he kept the Canadian at bay for the entire match. Mountie and his manager, Jimmy Hart, stalled for time, allowing The Mountie to escape with his title by hitting the time limit for the match, resulting in a draw.
The Intercontinental Title was on the line next, as Mr. Perfect faced The British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith. Smith was a fill-in for the injured Bret Hart, who was shown at ringside in the crowd. Perfect had to withstand an early onset of power moves from the Bulldog, who tried to end the match early on and often. As the match wore on though, Perfect's technical execution started to take hold, as he wore down Smith quite a bit. The Genius, as he was often want to do, tried to get involved, but the interference was seen by the referee, and The Genius was ejected from the match. This distraction allowed the Bulldog to try and make a comeback, as he hit a powerful delayed Vertical Suplex on the champion that very nearly got a three count. However eventually Perfect caught him in his dreaded Perfect-Plex and scored the hard fought pinfall victory. Afterwards, Hart consoled his brother in law, only to be blind-sided by The Genius who had made his way down to ringside. Bret came out of the crowd and chased The Genius around the ring, only to be hit by Perfect, who then drove Bret into the ringpost sternum first, re-injuring his already damaged ribs. The next match saw the high flying duo of Brian Pillman and Owen Hart score something of an upset victory over Haku & The Barbarian, solidyfing their move up the tag ranks.
The main event closed the evening, as Rick Rude (sans Bobby Heenan, due to Heenan's managerial license being suspended by WWF President Jack Tunney) challenged WWF Champion Sting inside a steel cage. The two longtime rivals certainly knew each other well enough, but the addition of the steel cage to the mix added ferocity to the encounter. Both men beat each other against the steel cage, using the sides as a weapon as much as possible. Eventually the match settled into a rhythm, with Rude attempting to target the previously injured knee of the champion in an effort to keep him from escaping the cage. This even included sticking Sting's leg outside the cage and then bending it backward against the bars in an effort to damage it further. Sting fought through the pain though and fought back against the challenger, avoiding an attempt at a Rude Awakening and delivering several hard pancake shots into the steel cage. Despite his injured knee, Sting climbed halfway up the cage at one point, turned around and delivered a powerful splash onto Rude, knocking the wind out of both men. In the end, Sting hit a Scorpion Death Drop and managed to crawl his way out of the cage, retaining the title to the delight of the crowd.
Results[]
| No. | Results | Stipulations | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rhythm & Blues [The Honky Tonk Man & Greg "The Hammer" Valentine] w/Jimmy Hart d. The Rockers [Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty] by Pinfall | Tag Team Match | 9:47 |
| 2 | The Big Boss Man d. "The Model" Rick Martel by Pinfall | Singles Match | 10:10 |
| 3 | Rockin' Robin (c) d. Tina Ferrari by Pinfall | Singles Match for the WWF Women's Title | 8:18 |
| 4 | "Macho King" Randy Savage w/Sensational Queen Sherri d. Hercules by Pinfall | Singles Match | 11:00 |
| 5 | The Steiner Brothers [Rick & Scott Steiner] d. The Midnight Express [Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane] w/Jim Cornette (c) by Pinfall | Tag Team Match for the WWF Tag Team Titles | 16:55 |
| 6 | "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes w/Sapphire d. Jake "The Snake" Roberts by Disqualification | Singles Match | 9:17 |
| 7 | The Mountie w/Jimmy Hart & The Texas Tornado wrestled to a Time Limit Draw | Singles Match for the WWF TV Title | 10:00 |
| 8 | Mr. Perfect w/The Genius (c) d. Davey Boy Smith by Pinfall | Singles Match for the WWF Intercontinental Title | 17:08 |
| 9 | The Daredevils [Flyin' Brian Pillman & "The Rocket" Owen Hart] d. Haku & The Barbarian w/Mr. Fuji by Pinfall | Tag Team Match | 9:05 |
| 10 | Sting (c) d. "Ravishing" Rick Rude by Cage Escape | Steel Cage Match for the WWF Championship | 18:39 |
Aftermath[]
With Rick Rude leaving the WWF for WCW shortly after Summerslam, Sting would enter a program with Earthquake that would also temporarily involve a returning Hulk Hogan. The feuds between Rhodes and Roberts as well as Piper and Martel would also continue into the next big event, Wrestlefest.