Rewriting 1993, Part 3 of 4: Summerslam

[LODemolition]

​

Actual results:

1. Razor Ramon def. "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase

2. Tag Team Championship: The Steiner Brothers (c) def. The Heavenly Bodies (w/ Jim Cornette)

3. Intercontinental Championship: Shawn Michaels (c) w/ Diesel def. Mr. Perfect *by countout*

4. Irwin R. Schyster def. The 1-2-3 Kid

5. Bret "Hitman" Hart def. Doink the Clown (w/ Jerry "The King" Lawler) *by disqualification*

6. Jerry "The King" Lawler def. Bret "Hitman" Hart *by disqualification*

7. Ludvig Borga def. Marty Jannetty

8. Rest in Peace Match: The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer) def. Giant Gonzalez (w/ Harvey Wippleman)

9. Six Man Tag: Tatanka and The Smoking Gunns def. Bam Bam Bigelow and The Headshrinkers (w/ Afa and Luna Vachon)

10. Lex Luger def. Yokozuna (c) w/ Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette *by countout*


Well, to call SummerSlam a disappointment would be an understatement to say the least. It was the same old story of too many DQ or countout finishes to an already underwhelming card. First of all, in my view Bret Hart belonged in the main event before Lex Luger. I'm supposed to believe that he isn't hell bent on regaining the WWE Championship after losing it in controversial fashion at WrestleMania IX? His feud with Jerry Lawler was fine, but I don't agree with the timing. The same goes for face turn and main event push. His narcissist character was just fine and he had only been an active member of the WWE roster since the Royal Rumble. I would have to assume with Hogan gone, they felt that Luger could fill that All-American role by having him helicoptered onto the USS Intrepid and body slam Yokozuna on the 4th of July. It just felt rushed and I don't think they gave the Narcissist a real chance. In my rewrite, Yokozuna would have won King of the Ring and earned a title shot at Bret Hart, who had won his first championship on the grandest stage of them all from Ric Flair, who put his career on the line and was now out of the WWE. Speaking of King of the Ring, I don't think it needed to be its own ppv. Having the tournament play out on Monday Night Raw each week would have been just fine. This is my 8-man KOTR tournament:

Quarterfinal Round

Mr. Perfect def. Irwin R. Schyster

"The Narcissist" Lex Luger def. The 1-2-3 Kid

Tatanka def. The Mountie

Yokozuna def. Owen Hart

Semifinal Round

Mr. Perfect def. Lex Luger *by disqualification*

Yokozuna def. Tatanka

King of the Ring Final

Yokozuna def. Mr. Perfect to become 1993 King of the Ring

Now, on to SummerSlam...

Rewriting SummerSlam '93​

1. Marty Jannetty vs. Diesel

Shawn Michaels brought his new bodyguard Diesel into the fold in June after weeks of being attacked by his former Rockers tag team partner. Michaels would tell the world that finally he would get rid of Jannetty for good, who still wanted to even the score for the barber shop incident, which in this rewrite happened over a year and a half ago now. Jannetty would put up a good fight with his aerial assault, but in the end he would be outmatched by the nearly 7' tall Diesel and his jackknife powerbomb.


2. The 1-2-3 Kid vs. Doink the Clown

Doink would spend the summer months torturing another newcomer to the WWE in the 1-2-3 Kid. Finally having enough of Doink's antics and practical jokes, he would challenge him to a match at SummerSlam. Doink would walk to the ring and peel a banana, and he would drop the peel in the aisleway. Without anyone being able to warn The 1-2-3 Kid, he would slip on the peel when he would run to the ring and appear to injure his knee. Doink demanded that the ref start to count and sure enough, he would win when the Kid would be unable to enter the ring before the count of 10. Doink's little buddies Dink and Wink would come down to celebrate with Doink, pointing and laughing at The 1-2-3 Kid hysterically. Just when you thought WrestleMania was weird, we now had 1...2...3 clowns in WWE.


3. Tag Team Championship: The Steiner Brothers (c) vs. Money Inc.

On a mission to regain the tag team championships since losing them at WrestleMania IX, DiBiase and IRS would finally have their rematch here with the Steiners. However, Rick and Scott would prove that money can't buy everything and that Mania was no fluke when coming out on the better end yet again.


4. Owen Hart vs. The Mountie

Finally breaking out into singles competition again after moderate success in the tag team division with Jim Neidhart and Koko B. Ware, Owen Hart would get his first big victory here against The Mountie, who would be doing just the opposite - winding down in his singles career and soon to be one half of The Quebecers. The Mountie would call out Owen in the weeks leading up to SummerSlam, cutting promos where he would say 1 Hart in the WWE was bad enough, but he would now rid the company of the black sheep of the Hart family that they're all ashamed of. Owen gets the win in a quick 5-minute bout with the missile dropkick.


5. "Macho Man" Randy Savage vs. Jerry "The King" Lawler

I'm basically taking what happened in reality when Lawler called out Savage on Monday Night Raw and told him he was too afraid to fight, only for Savage to be held back by McMahon, and making this Lawler's first real feud/match in WWE. Finally things would boil over and they would face off here at SummerSlam, where Savage would get the best of the self-proclaimed King. The Macho Man would go on to do color commentary later in the night.


6. Intercontinental Championship: "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels (c) vs. Razor Ramon

After being a guest on The Heartbreak Hotel (Shawn's talk show segment for those who don't remember) and being insulted, the recently turned babyface Razor Ramon would challenge Shawn Michaels for his Intercontinental Championship. With Shawn having tested positive for steroids in reality, he would be stripped of the IC Title - the reasoning they gave was that he had failed to defend the title within 30 days. They would hold a 20-man battle royal with the last 2 men remaining going on to compete in a 1-on-1 match, those being Razor Ramon and Rick Martel. Rather than go through the hoopla of the battle royal, I'd have just made Shawn do the job as a little extra punishment before his suspension. Michaels' 9-month-long title reign comes to an end at the biggest event of the summer in a match where Diesel would be banned from ringside.


7. Mr. Perfect vs. "The Narcissist" Lex Luger

With Luger being enraged after his DQ loss in the King of the Ring semifinal match (Luger would illegaly use the steel plate in his forearm), he would challenge Mr. Perfect to another round at SummerSlam. This feud writes itself with Luger being brought into WWE by Bobby "The Brain" Heenan and Mr. Perfect having severed ties with him this time a year ago. I'm basically taking their WrestleMania IX match and pushing it back a few months. Again, I feel it was too soon to turn Luger face and I'm not even sure I would have done it at all to be honest. Luger gets the win after again using the illegal forearm, this time when the referee's back was turned.


8. The Undertaker vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

I came very close to making these 2 WrestleMania opponents, but Bigelow as narrowly beaten out by one of my all-time favorites in Papa Shango. Very few big men could move in the ring like Bigelow, so these 2 would have put on a match that undoubtedly could have stolen the show unlike what we actually saw with Giant Gonzalez. Taker scores the pinfall after the top rope clothesline and chokeslam.


9. Six-Man Tag: Tatanka and The Smoking Gunns vs. Papa Shango and The Headshrinkers

Basically the exact same match we had in reality, only with Papa Shango in place of Bam Bam Bigelow. Very logical teams and it would of course serve it's purpse as a break for the fans before the big main event. Shango, Fatu and Samu get the win with the big splash off the top rope onto Bart Gunn while Shango took care of Tatanka on the outside.


10. WWE Championship: Bret "Hitman" Hart vs. Yokozuna

There's no question that these 2 would be on a collision course for SummerSlam after both men would have an incredible 1993. Bret Hart would be the Royal Rumble winner and go on to WrestleMania to end the 15-month reign of Ric Flair as WWE Champion. He would also have several successful televised title defenses against Bam Bam Bigelow, Razor Ramon and The Mountie. Yokozuna would be the man who could lay claim to killing Hulkamania - after giving him several bonsai drops at WrestleMania IX, he not only would win the match, but we have yet to hear from Hogan since. Yokozuna would also go on to win the King of the Ring tournament which would make him the #1 contender. Just when it appeared that the same fate as Hogan was in store for Hart when Mr. Fuji reached for the salt to throw into Bret's eyes, Randy Savage said enough was enough and threw his headset off, spinning Fuji around and decking him between the eyes. Just as Yokozuna was about to hit the bonsai drop onto the chest of Hart, Savage would reach into the ring and pull Bret out by the legs, causing the referee to ring the bell for a disqualification, but saving Bret a world of misery. As Bret laid on the ringside mat disoriented, Savage would jump into the ring and go toe to toe with Yokozuna, getting the better of him and taking him off his feet, going to the top rope and landing the elbow drop. Yokozuna would roll out of the ring, vowing revenge on his long walk down the aisle. As Savage played to the fans, the referee would announce the decision and Bret would make his way back into ring, turning Savage around and demanding an explanation. Bret is confused and upset, and shoves Savage to the shock of the fans. The Macho Man would tell Hart that Yokozuna was about to become new champion and that he couldn't just sit by and watch that happen, and the way he sees it the Hitman owes him one. Bret would still look ready to go, but finally look to the fans for advice, and finally offer a handshake to Savage which was accepted. SummerSlam would come to an end with Bret and Randy raising each other's hands to the approval of the Detroit crowd.


Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment and/or post your changes to this card.

Up next...Survivor Series!

 

[HBKperfect23]

The 5 year run of awesome summerslams ended here. Horrible. I put 93/95/96 among the worst.

Lex Luger defeats Yokozuna for the WWF title. After the build they had for him, Summerslam needed to be the payoff. And the actual ending with him celebrating couldn't have made Luger look any worse.

Ludvig Borga defeats the Undertaker. Borga was supposedly in line for a big push. It would help build up Yokozunas team for survivor series. I was fine with Taker/Gonzales once, twice was too many.

Tag titles: Steiners defeat Heavnly Bodies

Bret Hart defeats Doink w Jerry Lawler. Wish I had something better for Bret. I'd have evil Doink continue to be the character he was when he first debuted. Lawler would recruit him to take out Bret and Jerry would be cheating all match but Bret would come out on top.

Razor and Kid defeat Money Inc. Not sure why this wasn't a tag match

Shawn Michaels/Mr Perfect IC title stays the same. I liked the angle. The match should have been much better. Shawn mentioned in his shoot he never liked the match. Said they just didn't mesh well together in the ring.

Owen Hart defeats Marty Jannetty face vs face respect match. Think they could have a decent match here. Build up Owen a bit for his push in the fall.

Smoking Gunns defeat the Headshrinkers. Ditch the 6 man. The Gunns are the future of the tag division and get a big win here.

 

[Darbicus]

I always felt that, if you were going to give Lex the monster push in 93 and you wanted to wait till Mania to build it up, then you should have gone with making it perfectly clear that the Summerslam 93 match was a non-title match. That way Luger can get a clean victory on Yoko and keep his heat. You can then set up a title match later on (Luger's one shot opportunity) where he gets beaten up by a bunch of foreign heels (Quebecers, Ludvig Borga, etc.) and gets screwed out of the title. Luger then comes back from an "injury" and wins the Rumble outright before going onto Mania to win the belt from Yoko. And in between you can keep Yoko's heat by feeding him babyfaces to feud with (Savage, Duggan was still around, Tatanka, Razor Ramon, etc.) and defeat.

 

[Dagger Dias]

The biggest thing that needed to change here was Luger VS Yokozuna's ending. Sure it was a failed attempt at recreating a Hogan type of American Hero face with Lex but the WWE made a rather large mistake here. I give them credit in retrospect for trying to make this push work. The helicopter entrance for the Yokozuna challenge, The Lex Express and that video at the end of Summerslam. They were missing the biggest piece of the puzzle though. Why after all of that would you not go through with Luger winning the World Championship? Lex Luger should have defeated Yokozuna to win the title at Summerslam 1993. If he had the event would be looked back on more fondly by fans than it has been. There really isn't much else I would revise on the card myself.

 

[sikkbones]

The biggest thing that needed to change here was Luger VS Yokozuna's ending. Sure it was a failed attempt at recreating a Hogan type of American Hero face with Lex but the WWE made a rather large mistake here. I give them credit in retrospect for trying to make this push work. The helicopter entrance for the Yokozuna challenge, The Lex Express and that video at the end of Summerslam. They were missing the biggest piece of the puzzle though. Why after all of that would you not go through with Luger winning the World Championship? Lex Luger should have defeated Yokozuna to win the title at Summerslam 1993. If he had the event would be looked back on more fondly by fans than it has been. There really isn't much else I would revise on the card myself.

Lex Luger was due to win the belt at Summerslam 1993. However the night before the PPV he got drunk and told a few people in a bar about the scripted outcome. One of those being a reporter. Vince found out and took the title win away from Luger (asp punishment). The fans were not reacting to Luger as the WWF hoped and it was obvious he was not the man for the job (to take Hogans spot). By Summerslam 1993. The de pushed Luger after Wrestlemania 10 and built Hart into the next number 1 guy in the company (who didn;t draw much better at that time). Luger would have dropped the belt to Hart at Wrestlemania 10 if he did win at Summerslam. The ending for the match did not change however and that's why he got the big ovation at the end. Even although he had won the match by count out therefore not wining the title. Luger would have been a very poor choice for champion. Perhaps he done Vince a favor by mouthing off when drunk month night before

 

[tdmoon]

Lex Luger was due to win the belt at Summerslam 1993. However the night before the PPV he got drunk and told a few people in a bar about the scripted outcome. One of those being a reporter. Vince found out and took the title win away from Luger (asp punishment). The fans were not reacting to Luger as the WWF hoped and it was obvious he was not the man for the job (to take Hogans spot). By Summerslam 1993. The de pushed Luger after Wrestlemania 10 and built Hart into the next number 1 guy in the company (who didn;t draw much better at that time). Luger would have dropped the belt to Hart at Wrestlemania 10 if he did win at Summerslam. The ending for the match did not change however and that's why he got the big ovation at the end. Even although he had won the match by count out therefore not wining the title. Luger would have been a very poor choice for champion. Perhaps he done Vince a favor by mouthing off when drunk month night before

I thought that was just another of wrestling's urban legends?

I think Luger could have been a good champion. I'm not gonna' say he had the charisma of legends like Hogan, Warrior or Savage but he was certainly good enough to carry the title at that time. The beginning of Luger's face run wasn't perfect but had he proven he could finally win the big one, Luger's WWF tenure could have been a real successful one. They put all the pieces in place, they should have let it finish out.

I agree with those who have said this is the biggest change the card needed. Luger could have been a strong champion for the WWF even if it wasn't a lengthy reign. I'm okay with the above poster's suggestion of Luger losing it to Bret Hart at Wrestlemania; that could be a good transition from the musclebound champs McMahon had always preferred to the smaller, less steroid-y direction they were going. Luger-Hart at Wrestlemania 10 is more appealing to me than Hart-Yoko II. It would have had Luger as a heel again, too, which I've always thought was his strength. Luger was at his best when he was the physically gifted, arrogant jock-type character. Had this been done, I believe it could have worked well for both the WWF and Luger as a wrestler. From the first time I saw him, I thought he had the WWF look and assumed he'd end up there. It's too bad that when he finally did, things just didn't work out.

 

[Darbicus]

Lex Luger was due to win the belt at Summerslam 1993. However the night before the PPV he got drunk and told a few people in a bar about the scripted outcome. One of those being a reporter. Vince found out and took the title win away from Luger (asp punishment). The fans were not reacting to Luger as the WWF hoped and it was obvious he was not the man for the job (to take Hogans spot). By Summerslam 1993. The de pushed Luger after Wrestlemania 10 and built Hart into the next number 1 guy in the company (who didn;t draw much better at that time). Luger would have dropped the belt to Hart at Wrestlemania 10 if he did win at Summerslam. The ending for the match did not change however and that's why he got the big ovation at the end. Even although he had won the match by count out therefore not wining the title. Luger would have been a very poor choice for champion. Perhaps he done Vince a favor by mouthing off when drunk month night before

Jim Cornette seems to dispute this. He commented on his podcast (or at least insinuated) that he knew more than 24 hours before the event, though probably not more than a week out.

There's also the urban legend that the locker room would have revolted in Luger was given the belt after less than a year with the company (since Bret was popular backstage and had basically been screwed by Hogan earlier in the year). By most accounts I've heard though (in shoot interviews with Cornette, Bruce Prichard, and Luger himself), the only reason Luger wasn't given the belt was because Vince wanted to stretch the program out to Wrestlemania.

 

[relentless1]

The only thing id make happen on this card is Hogan vs Hart for the WWF championship; have Yoko defeat hart at wrestle mania, Hogan beats Yoko at King of the Ring and then drop the belt to Hart at Summerslam that year.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Lex Luger was due to win the belt at Summerslam 1993. However the night before the PPV he got drunk and told a few people in a bar about the scripted outcome. One of those being a reporter. Vince found out and took the title win away from Luger (asp punishment). The fans were not reacting to Luger as the WWF hoped and it was obvious he was not the man for the job (to take Hogans spot). By Summerslam 1993. The de pushed Luger after Wrestlemania 10 and built Hart into the next number 1 guy in the company (who didn;t draw much better at that time). Luger would have dropped the belt to Hart at Wrestlemania 10 if he did win at Summerslam. The ending for the match did not change however and that's why he got the big ovation at the end. Even although he had won the match by count out therefore not wining the title. Luger would have been a very poor choice for champion. Perhaps he done Vince a favor by mouthing off when drunk month night before

I've heard of this story before, but I always thought it was that he let it slip about that he was supposed to win it at Wrestlemania 10, not Summerslam. This would explain the weird co-winners of the Rumble angle with Bret thing that they did, as well as how Bret went on to win at Wrestlemania 10 but Lex didn't. Regardless, Lex's massive push in retrospect could have been salvaged if he won at Summerslam. Maybe he wouldn't have been that great of a World Champion. He was nowhere hear Hogan's level and Hart was better than him at virtually everything so who knows. I would have had Lex win the at Summerslam 1993 then lose the title back to Yokozuna at Royal Rumble 1994. Yokozuna would then lose the title to Bret (who wins the 1994 Rumble) at Wrestlemania 10. Everything from Summerslam onward would have made a little more sense that way in my opinion.

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

First let's discuss King of the Ring. Now at KOTR, I'd have Yokozuna win the WWF Championship from Bret Hart, as you need big things to happen at the fledgling ppv. I'd also have Hogan's return (and the Beefcake angle) switched to after Wrestlemania, Money Inc essentially taking out their frustrations for losing the tag titles on Beefcake. So Hogan and Beefcake face (and defeat) Money Inc here.

As for the KOTR tournament, they were clearly priming Lex Luger for big things, so why not have him win the tournament? First round, Luger beats Hacksaw Jim Duggan; Mr Perfect beats Mr Hughes; Randy Savage beats Razor Ramon and Bam Bam Bigelow beats Crush. Second round, Luger beats Perfect and Savage beats Bigelow, and in the final, Luger beats Savage. Three wins against big names in one night. Luger is established.

Now onto Summerslam. Again I'd make a few changes. Hindsight being 20/20, I'd open with Luger beating Tatanka, thus ending Tatanka's two year undefeated streak (it went for nothing just two months later anyway, so at least doing it here further pushes Luger towards the main event)

The tag team titles would be the Steiners v the Headshrinkers, basically in the match they had a Wrestlemania in reality but here for the titles. Steiners retain.

I like the earlier suggestion that Razor and the 123 Kid should team up against Money Inc rather than have two singles matches, so I'll go with that. As DiBiase is on the outs, he loses to the Razor's Edge.

Keep Ludwig Borga beating Marty Jannetty

Keep Bret Hart beating Doink the Clown, Bret needed a storyline after losing the title, Doink and the Lawler will continuously make fun of the Hitman for losing the title so the first match is here, though Lawler furthers the story here by abusing Bret's parents post-match

Shawn Michaels retains his Intercontinental title here against Mr Perfect. Same match as happened.

Undertaker pins Mr Hughes in the next match - not sure why they never had a ppv match in reality.

Just prior to the main event, the Smoking Guns can get a quick win over the Heavenly Bodies

The main event will be the Yokozuna v Hogan title match from KOTR, but with Hogan challenging. It also won't have such a screwy finish, and Yokozuna wins clean with a banzai drop to cement his title reign