Summerslam 1994: A Retrospective Look

[Dagger Dias]

This summer I'll be looking back on each of the previous Summerslam events, one by one. Every few days I will submit a new topic until we reach 2014's edition of the 2nd biggest brand in WWE.

This thread will be for discussing.... Summerslam 1994!

Summerslam 1994 took place on August 29, 1994. It was held at United Center in Chicago, Illinois. Here are the results of the matches from this show:




0. Adam Bomb defeated Kwang in a singles match

1. Irwin R. Schyster and Bam Bam Bigelow (with Ted DiBiase) defeated The Headshrinkers (Fatu and Samu) (with Afa and Lou Albano) by disqualification in a tag team match (07:20)

2. Alundra Blayze (c) defeated Bull Nakano (with Luna Vachon) in a singles match for the WWF Women's Championship (08:10)

3. Razor Ramon (with Walter Payton) defeated Diesel (c) (with Shawn Michaels) in a singles match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship (15:03)

4. Tatanka defeated Lex Luger in a singles match (06:02)

5. Jeff Jarrett defeated Mabel (with Oscar) in a singles match (05:45)

6. Bret Hart (c) defeated Owen Hart in a Steel Cage match for the WWF Championship (32:22)

7. The Undertaker [Mark Calaway] (with Paul Bearer) defeated The Undertaker [Brian Lee] (with Ted DiBiase) in a singles match (08:57)






Now, here are some discussion questions concerning the event:

What was your favorite match on this show, and why did you like it the most? What about the worst match of this show, why did you like it the least?

If you could change a few things about Summerslam 1994, what would it be and why?

You may only use wrestlers who were available at the roster at that time or make changes that could have realistically taken place in August 1994. Please keep in mind the situations going into the show such as who could actually have been pushed into a title match, or what songs existed back then if you wanted to change the show's theme music, and so forth.

You may only discuss Summerslam 1994 in this thread. The remaining Summerslam events will be getting their own retrospective threads, any posts regarding other events will be considered spam and you risk getting an infraction.

Discuss!

 

[mcfly2012]

Best cage match ever for me. Mixed with wrestling and a load of violence aswell.

 

[Judah's Lion]

there are 2 things that jump out at me when looking back at SummerSlam 94. number 1 is the lack of major star power. and number 2 is the lack of time on this show. all the match times combined add up to about 90 minutes. that's half of Raw these days and this is for the 2nd biggest show of the year?!?! interesting to say the least.

can't remember who for sure was still with the WWF, moved on or was injured. so i'll do my best in re-booking this card from memory.

Razor vs. Diesel for the IC Title was good. probably next to best match of the night. the fact that these two guys are best friends in real life helped, i'm sure. i liked having HBK at ringside too, though he was clearly needed for this event. give him a spot in a match instead of a ringside seat for this one. otherwise leave it as is.

the Tag Team Titles weren't even defended here, which is criminal. i'd do Head Shrinkers vs. the Quebecers. either team can win.

Women's Title match can stay the same.

in my fantasy world, i had Lex Luger win the World Title at Mania 10 by beating Yokozuna in the main event. i'd have him lose it to Bret Hart at King of the Ring and set up a little program between Luger and Bulldog that culminates in a match at SummerSlam. after some hard fought matches throughout the year, they can eventually form the Allied Powers tag team due to mutual respect for one another.

since Tatanka had a program with Luger going into SummerSlam, i'd swap out Luger's side with Hacksaw. again, this is assuming that Hacksaw was still with the company at the time. not sure that he was. but if he was, i'd do Tatanka vs. Hacksaw with Tatanka claiming that Hacksaw sold out to the Million Dollar Man/Corporation. Tatanka would win the match and then reveal that it was in fact he that sold out. i really loved this angle between Tatanka/Luger at the time and think that it's highly under-rated. but Luger is needed elsewhere for this card and the character of that storyline really was replaceable. Hacksaw would work just as well in my opinion.

Jarrett vs. Mabel was kinda weird to me. can't even remember why this match was on the show if for any reason other than random filler. but on a 90 minute card, the fillers should have been kept to a minimum. how about Men on a Mission vs. IRS and some random Million Dollar Corporation member instead of this? in fact, maybe Jarrett since he was involved with the Million Dollar Corporation at the Rumble. anyone but Bam Bam, and for this reason...

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Adam Bomb. these guys had a little mini feud around this time and i am a big fan of both men inside the ring. so i'd do Bomb vs. Bam Bam here.

Piper was a guest ref at both Manias 10 and 11, so i'm assuming he's available for a match in between those two events. how about Piper/HBK at SummerSlam? not sure what the story would be, but the promo and ring work would be second to none.

Taker vs. Taker was a very unique concept at the time (less so now that we've seen Kane vs. Kane and Sin Cara vs. Sin Cara) and i liked the story and even the match a lot. what i didn't like was that it closed the show. it could have been the second to last match on the card, but not the main event. the right Taker won too.

Bret vs. Owen in a Steel Cage for the WWF Title was absolutely the best match of the night, without question, and i highly doubt we'll see anyone on these threads say otherwise. these two got a literal five-star rating and it was well-earned. it is easily the best Cage Match of all time. their match at Mania 10 was so freaking good that i didn't think it could be topped. i was wrong and have never been more happy to admit it. these two were amazing, perfect, epic. pick the adjective of your choice. the match was stellar and is an all-time classic. my only complaint about it is that it didn't close the show. otherwise, the match and the story from Survivor Series the year prior to this point were flawlessly told. incredible feud and even better matches.

there's my SummerSlam 94, for better or for worse.

 

[Pedigree1]

I remember Summerslam 94 it was a good PPV.. By the time Summerslam hit,Luger had basically hit rock bottom,feuding at WM (He was supposed to walk out champion but got drunk at a bar and spilled the beans)to feuding with Tatanka.. Nothing wrong with Tatanka but never was anything higher than a lower mid-card guy..

The undertaker vs taker match was well didnt deliver. Not a real memorable match at all.. I would have shook up the world in this one though,I would have had owen actually pin bret to win the WWF title at that summerslam.. Owen was very deserving IMO and wold have made one helluva of a champion

 

[The Brain]

This will always be a special event to me as it was the first pay per view I attended. It was also the first major event to be held in the United Center. Has it really been 20 years? Great IC title match between Diesel and Razor Ramon with a fun appearance by the legendary Walter Payton. The women's title match was surprisingly good and still probably one of the best women's matches in WWE history. The Lex Luger vs. Tatanka angle was pretty good and Tatanka's heel turn was well done. I didn't appreciate Undertaker vs. Undertaker at the time but the angle has grown on me over the years. Terrible match though.

My favorite match was obviously Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart. This is my all time favorite cage match. Over 30 minutes of non stop action and great story telling. I have been to seven WrestleManias since this event and this match is still my favorite match that I was in attendance for. There are some others that come real close but this was so much fun to watch.

My least favorite match was Mabel vs. Jeff Jarrett. This was pointless. Rap vs. Country didn't do anything for me. I'll tie my change into this match and replace Mabel with The 123 Kid. This would have been a MUCH better match and a better angle too considering what happened at King of the Ring. Was Kid injured at the time? I don't think so but if not I don't know why that match didn't happen.

I don't have any other changes. It would have been nice if the Headshrinkers went in as champions like expected instead of losing the titles the night before. They could have just dropped them on Raw the next night instead. I would have liked to have seen Yokozuna on the card as he is one of the few big names I never got to see live. I was thinking maybe Yoko vs. Earthquake but I think Quake had left WWF by SummerSlam.

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

In my opinion the worst Summerslam of all time. One stand out match - indeed, a veritable match of the year candidate - in the steel cage; one decent mid-card match for the IC titke, and nothing else of substance save for T-t-t-Tatanka's heel turn.

The main event was an insult, why did WWE have so little faith in Bret Hart and his opponents that for three straight pay-per-views the WWE Title match was on second-to-last? Undertaker v Underfaker may well be THE worst ppv main event in history, just edging out the dreadful coalminer's glove (aka worst gimmick ever) match between Sting and Jake the Snake at Halloween Havoc '92. In truth, it would be another year before Undertaker started on his true path to legend status, his feud with Kama starting to bring out the best in him. At this point, though, he was still in the midst of being paired with large crappy workers (and Yokozuna) and his stories were more about his 'supernatural' powers and gimmick than his wrestling ability.

The tag title picture was a farce. Not unlike today, WWE had a swathe of teams in a weakened but still very much developed division, and then it went South within a few months, with departing teams replaced with random pairings. More should have been done to keep the like of the Steiners and the Quebecers, and Headshrinker Samu. But even with all that, to build a match between the HS and the Million Dollar Corporatiok based purely on the titles, only to have those titles change hands the previous night - on a HOUSE SHOW, to a completely different team - what was the point in that? As an earlier poster said, why not keep the SS match for the titles but have Diesel and Shawn win the titles at Raw the next night? This would also serve to 'prove' there was no dissention between the heels after the finish to the IC title match, so would have served that storyline better too.

Even with the limited talent pool at their disposal, WWE could have done so much better with Summerslam 94 - just a simple switch of having the cage match last may have been enough! But a poor event, in my opinion.

 

[bitesthedust]

This is an event that isn't particularly noteworthy in my opinion other than the great cage match, a decent IC Title match, Tatanka's heel turn to little or no reaction, and lastly a awful Undertaker/Undertaker main event.

The best match was the Bret vs Owen cage match, pure wrestling with no blood, advanced the storyline. Definitely a contender for best match of the year.

Worst was the Undertaker vs Undertaker match; the only saving grace was that the crowd reaction was so flat the idea of a series was scrapped thereafter. The whole manner of Undertaker's absence after the Royal Rumble was nonsense anyway.

Moving on, changes.

First thing would to have the Head Shrinkers not drop the belts to Shawn/Diesel the night before; the slow burn of their split was to start here with the finish of the IC title match (Shawn superkick costs Diesel the belt), and them eventually forefeiting the tag belts was not needed.

With that in mind I'd open with the Shrinkers, who I recall were faces here unless I'm mistaken, facing the Quebecers. Shrinkers hold on to the belts. Not sure where this leaves IRS/Bam Bam, I'll come back to that.

No change to either the Women's or IC title matches/finishes.

In my booking world Lex Luger would have turned heel in 1994, around WM 10 (see previous posts), so the sell out storyline with he and Tatanka would not be on the cards. In real life Luger was on the outs by this time and he (as a face) would put over Bam Bam . Not sure on a storyline, but Bigelow's workrate would have made this a better match than the Luger/Tatanka one.

Crush would beat Tatanka, no heel turn for him. Random filler.

No change to Jeff Jarrett/Mabel, again random filler simply because the talent pool was shallow and I can't think of a better solution.

Reluctantly I would keep the Undertaker/Undertaker match, because the storyline was in full swing by then. Same finish, obviously.

That would go on second last, the main event would be Bret/Owen in the cage. No change to the result or brawl afterwards other than once the family members had cleared Owen/Jim Neidhart from the cage, they play Bret's music and let him pose to the crowd in celebration of retaining the belt.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

This follows on from the poor 93 they had and those bad decisions piling up to epic levels by this point...

There was so little of merit on this show that it's actually hard for me to remember fully, I had to go back and watch some bits.

What WWF HAD done well at that time was start to create some new viable talent, that they pissed it away was ridiculous.

Tatanka is a case in point. At the time Ted DiBiase was the Heyman of the WWF in that he had "on paper" a can't lose stable idea. but they filled it with garbage so that the big "turn" of Summerslam 94 was more a fart than an explosion. I remember being glad to see Tatanka turn heel and felt we would see a major push for him, but Vince seemed intent on making guys like Nikolai Volkoff, King Kong Bundy stars over the guys who really could have benefitted from DiBiase... like Bam Bam, like Tatanka and Kid later on.

The fake Taker was a case in point - I get it, Taker's best friend getting a push but it followed the most horrible angle in WWF history to that point, the awful casket match at the Rumble... that really did just about destroy Undertaker as a character so that this fake Taker angle, which again on paper was "can't lose" just failed.

DiBiase was never a bad manager at all... that he was hired right into the NWO proved it but he was being given mediocre and aging talents when his gimmick screamed "the top younger talent". IRS made sense, Bam Bam made sense, Tatanka made sense but a fake Taker just didn't when you knew it was only gonna end one way. Taker would have been better facing Bigelow at this show for his return who was one of the key guys involved in him losing the casket match... more on my changes in a bit.

By now the WWF was REALLY struggling for top talent and suffering for it's decisions and "tightness" with the purse strings. Attempts were made to capture Sting in early 94 as their new "American Hero" but money kept it from happening... Vince didn't quite want to pony up and decided to go with Diesel. The talent they had was in the main newer/cheaper guys. Jeff Jarrett was a solid hand and capable of the IC titles he got, but he was also very cheap coming from Memphis... it's why he made such an issue of money later cos he was so low balled in those early days. Likewise Nash and Hall... they quickly became the A players but were being payed B money while the aging guys who had now all left and shown up in WCW were on that A money.

The Steiners had gone after barely a year and with no LOD or solid tag teams it was a barren time that took years to recover from for tag teams. Again cos of money and Vince being cheap.

In WCW some of the "steals" they could have made got stopped by fate. Rick Rude would have been a lock to return to the WWF after his WCW deal expired as he loathed Hogan at the time but a bad ring set up in Japan killed it. Steve Austin "slipped on Duggan" and spent most of 94 out of action... sure it lead to his release but he was someone who could have been stolen far sooner. It's no coincidence that around the time of this show, a lot of WCW talent began to disappear. Things were clearly not going to include them and the steals Vince made and built a lot of Attitude on like Austin, Pillman, Simmons, Foley, HHH, Vader and Rhodes could all have been picked up sooner had Vince been willing to pony up some dough or had the vision that JR had in signing them. This card would then be SO much different.

It wasn't all terrible. WWF did an A+ job in making Owen a main event heel and this show proved his worth. I do think he should have won here and lost to Diesel in seconds at Survivor Series. There were enough Hart's around to make sure it could happen... rather than Neidhart being with Owen I would have had Davey Boy turn heel to set up another series with Bret and Neidhart stay loyal to his best known partner (the "I liked teaming with Owen better" stuff was total garbage) and seeing the Pink and Black one more time would have been a great thing.

The thing that has me most angry looking back at the show is WHO they actually had under contract and didn't use... They still had Savage, Jacques Rougeau, Crush, The Barbarian and 1-2-3 Kid. There are several matches that could have taken place here.

So right away I remove Mabel v Jarrett and make that Jarrett vs the Kid.

Savage is leaving or on the verge of doing it behind Vince's back... so give him a match here and it's the return from Mania... a retirement match vs Crush... I'd be pushing to keep him so I'd set the stip only for Savage... if Crush loses he has to renounce his "evil ways"... If Savage stays then he goes over, if he's going to WCW, he loses - if injured Yoko and Fuji can always make a cameo to "seal Randy's fate".

If not injured then Yoko has a match against the man about to turn face anyway... The Barbarian/Seone... he allies with the Headshrinkers who are angry at Yoko disrespecting his Samoan heritage by saying he is from Japan... again I think Samu is going at the time so this can play into the new Headshrinkers in the tag division against Yoko and Crush going forward - shoring up that division.

For the Taker's comeback, as mentioned I go with Bam Bam... He will get his revenge over Yoko at Survivor series but for now he goes after Bigelow... Fake Taker was not worth it... so as the "pride of the Corporation" Bam Bam is given the role of heading off Taker's return, After a ref bump Tatanka interferes and double teams Taker... The crowd erupt as Lex Luger races to the ring...and stuns them by ALSO attacking Taker and taking DiBiase's money... Tatanka WAS right... but just not saying he too had taken the money.

This then sets up a lot of feuds going forward. Tatanka can go against Savage, Lex against Taker... Bam Bam can go after the IC title/Razor as we know Diesel is turning shortly and taking the belt from Owen. Shawn of course would be his top feud as happened.

Again simple changes using existing talent better, no magical signings, nothing drastically altering but a great card rather than a bad one.

 

[Cub McCallister]

Looking back I felt that this ppv lacked star power because there wasn't that many great matches and the rest were just fillers tbh, I would do a lot of changing around such as:

1) Headshrinkers (C) Vs I.R.S & Bam Bam Bigelow Vs The Steiner Brothers Vs The Quebecers
Four Corner Elimination Tag Team Title Match. I went with this match instead and and added two more teams where I.R.S & Biggelow get the straps.

2) 1-2-3 Kidd Vs Shawn Michaels
Single Match. This match would of been much better with Shawn getting the win and this would replace Jarrett & Mable.

3) Alundra Blaze (C) Vs Bull Nakado
Women's Title Match

4) Lex Luger Vs Tatanka
Stays the same.

5) Diesel (C) Vs Razor Ramon
Intercontinental Title No DQ Match. Have the same outcome with Razor going over.

6) Jeff Jarret Vs Adam Bomb
Single Match. Change this and have Bomb go over because he was a face.

7) The Undertaker Vs Crush
Change this to Crush trying to get one over the undertaker with Taker going over.

8) Bret Hart (C) Vs Owen Hart
Wwf Title Steel Cage Match. Stays the same but change it to the main event and have Bulldog turn heel at the end but let Bret have his moment.

 

[Weems2k]

I remember this was right in the middle of The E's New Generation push. Bret and Owen had the match of the night for sure. The best thing about the 2 Taker's angle was the Frank Drebin(RIP) bits they did on Superstars during the Summer.

 

[The Fabulous Rougeau's]

Not the best SummerSlam for sure, but the Bret/Owen match alone saves this from being one of the worst. Unfortunately there wasn't really much with the current roster that could have been done to make it a better show. You had the right WWE Title match, the Taker angle was compelling, Razor and Diesel for the IC title was a strong midcard match too. The problem is that after that there wasn't much else around. The tag division was brutal and most other singles wrestlers were either too new, or weren't worth much.

 

[LBGetBack]

Savage, Michaels, British Bulldog, Backlund, and Yokozuna(was he hurt or something? Don't remember) all not on the card.

What a waste.