Summerslam 1993: A Retrospective Look

Publish date: 2024-05-04
This was the year the chickens came home to roost for WWF talent, Vince and the fans... From January 1993 onwards, 3 years of poor decision making began a big cascade effect that really showed most on this card.

What decisions? Well Warrior's decisions from 1990-92 for one... not letting Rude have a short run with the belt, holding up Vince, the steriod bust on him... Hogan too with flat out refusing Rude as an opponent, picking Slaughter, not putting over Sid or Flair and then basically screwing Bret... Vince allowed a massive portion of proven talent simply leave over those 3 years, starting with Rude but major lynchpins of Summerslam were no longer part of the roster come 1993's event... There was no Tito Santana, Rick Martel, Big Bossman, LOD, Duggan, The Mountie and sacriligiously... Randy Savage... some were aging but most were having more than a fine time in WCW... Rude was the best heel in the business bar none, Bossman was transitioning back to his Bubba character but doing fine...

The final nail in this process was the end of Ted DiBiase's active WWE career, while he was still very much a valuable commodity at this show to Razor Ramon, sure they got their IC champ for the next 2 and a half years from it but the poor decision to axe Ted led to his ill fated Japan trip and like that, his career was gone.

Vince had brought in a massive number of cheaper new signings that in the main hadn't caught to replace these guys. Ramon till that point had been a dud, The Steiners hadn't caught the imagination in the same way LOD did as a debuting team, the Headshrinkers were buried under an awful stereotype 10 years out of date and even promising talent like Doink, Crush and Tatanka were beginning to feel politics wrecking their chances.

They were also relying on some "older" talent with a bit more name value like Mr. Perfect and Jerry Lawler rather than the proven guys they had active a year earlier like Savage and even Flair... Lawler was seen as a cheaper version of Flair by Vince, and the fans...

At the top of the card you had seen Hogan completely derail any value Bret had had with his Mania stunt. To this day there is no viable reason for how that whole situation could be "good for business". It ruined Bret, damaged Yoko almost irrepressibly and forced Luger onto the masses before he was ready.

Ah the Lex Express... what seemed a good idea at the time quickly became the worst idea of the year until Jim Crockett nailed a board across the walkway for Shockmasters entrance. Luger himself wasn't a bad pick but the fans had no time to get used to him even as the Narcissist before he'd 180's and was being literally rammed down people's throats... then he didn't win at Summerslam? It made it all redundant.

Was the show itself terrible... hmmm bad but not terrible, the best matches were the ones with nothing riding on them... Bret v Doink was great as they sold Doink correctly in those days, before Borne got in strife and Apollo took over. DiBiase showed why Vince was mad to be letting him go and helped people see Razor as something more than the whole rest of the year had let him be and IRS v The Kid was a great if short contest.

No one who was really supposed to "look good" did though... Luger and Yoko both came out looking weaker for there not being a proper finish... even if they'd screwed Luger and had him pinned, it was better than what they gave. Ludvig Borga was supposed to be a monster and Jannetty did his best to sell the offense, but it was an awkward matchup and Shawn and Perfect vomited a match out seemingly... it was not what it could and should have been because neither trusted the other cos of the Janetty situation. Shawn screwed Marty, told Perfect and he not only told Vince but got Vince to re-hire Janetty and give him the belt as originally planned... You can imagine the tension between them...

How do you fix it?

Well lets assume anyone gone is gone... no keeping Flair on or the like... Hogan has been a dick and refused to face Bret...

First off you make the title vacant after King Of The Ring... there was enough shenanigans with Hogan's awful attempt at using flash paper to strike a line through it. As KOTR is done with it can't be for the belt but as Bret is King he is in the match for the title.

The 4th of July challenge still happens but with the stipulation that it will be Yoko v Bret unless someone can slam Yoko... cue the same thing happening, Savage gets close but Luger arrives and pulls it off.

Of course this is not gonna be simple as Cornette is involved, he threatens to sue unless Yoko is involved and so what basically happens at Wrestlemania 10 happens now at Summerslam 90 with the 4th man in the equation being determined by a battle royal.

At the battle royale, Yoko reveals his alliance with newcomer Ludvig Borga and they severely "injure" Owen, Bret is powerless to stop the attack but Randy Savage manages to get Owen to safety by eliminating Borga from behind only to fall prey to the winner of the Battle Royal, Ted DiBiase.

Summerslam arrives and Bret faces off against Yokozuna in the first match of the tournament... he is heartened when Owen recovers enough to come to be in his corner but Owen's temper gets the better of him and he inadvertantly costs Bret the match... Yoko thus advances. Next, Luger faces DiBiase who has purchased the services of Bam Bam Bigelow... Bam Bam manages to do a number on Luger during a ref bump but Luger rebounds to stun DiBiase with his "illegal" forearm and get the win.

Elsewhere on the card, Razor Ramon teams with Mr Perfect and the 1-2-3 Kid to take on Shawn Michaels, Jerry Lawler and the mysterious Doink with the stipulation that if Michaels is pinned, his IC title is lost. He does indeed lose... to the 1-2-3 Kid in a stunning upset.

The Steiners take on The Headshrinkers for the titles (WTF were they Smoking putting the Heavenly Bodies in that match, they can face the Gunns) and Borga faces Randy Savage with Savage getting a "reverse decision" when Borga refuses to stop attacking Randy after the bell... Savage is saved by the "bell" and darkness... When the lights come up Savage has gone and the Undertaker stands in the ring staring down Borga... I keep Taker off this show on purpose, he was better in no match than with Gonzales.

For an opener use IRS v Janetty - nice short match but Janetty deserved better than he got at the time.

In the main event, Lex defeats Yoko to lift the title when DiBiase and Bam Bam's interference backfires - this sets up DiBiase v Luger for the title and a face turn for Yoko to face Bam Bam...

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