SummerSlam Spectacular 1993

Date: 08/22/1993 (taped 08/16/1993)

Location: Poughkeepsie, New York — Mid-Hudson Civic Center

Announcers: Jim Ross & Gorilla Monsoon 

The Setup 

This was yet another WWF attempt to do another poor man’s Clash of the Champions in a final build to Summerslam. A world tag team title cage match with the Steiners vs. Money Inc. headlined the show. The WWF champion took on patriot Jim Duggan in a non-title match. 

The Business

The show had a 2.9 TV rating, well below Clash’s 3.8 the week before, but without nearly the star power. There wasn’t much difference between this and an episode of Raw, so the special didn’t feel special. 

They taped the TV in Poughkeepsie, so the attendance doesn’t matter. It was sold out, and the crowd was pretty damn hot.  

Results/Ratings 

Yokozuna def. Jim “Hacksaw” Duggan — ~6:42 **1/4 

Razor Ramon def. Blake Beverly — ~4:28 **1/2 

Tatanka & The Smoking Gunns (Billy & Bart Gunn) def. Barry Horowitz, Reno Riggins & The Brooklyn Brawler — ~6:05 *3/4 

Shawn Michaels (c) def. Bob Backlund (non-title) — ~9:50 **3/4 

Marty Jannetty def. Duane Gill — ~3:20 NR

WWF World Tag Team Title — Steel Cage: The Steiner Brothers (Rick & Scott) (c) def. Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase & Irwin R. Schyster) — ~17:55 **1/4 

Snap Bumps

-In the big buildup for Lex Luger’s first WWF title shot, they aired a repackaged sit-down interview he did where he talked about his life growing up. I think they were trying to humanize him and give him more depth than Hogan, but Luger was the most over as a babyface who used to yell and take off his shirt in promos. 

-One thing we did get was an absolutely fucking ridiculous rap HYPE VIDEO with RANDY SAVAGE and MEN ON A MISSION previewing the match. My goodness, why isn’t this brought up more? What a fucking atrocious go-home for the PPV. They literally did nothing right with Luger whatsoever. 

-The cage match had its parts, and the guys worked hard, but the rules made it so fucking stupid. Both men on a team had to hit the floor to win and were only allowed to go over the top. Not only did it feel like a race to the floor, but someone would climb out and have to climb back in to save a partner over and fucking over. The finish was superb, with Scott and IRS both climbing out, and Rick came over and put IRS on his shoulders to allow Scott to win. Other than that – blah. 

-I was never a huge Money Inc. fan, but they were not good in their final calendar year as a team. At least they made good money for that Mania match, but they felt out of place, then they had the horrible eight-man at KOTR, and this match to close out their biggest matches. 

-The Steiners ran through the whole tag division and won the titles in about eight months without a single angle of any kind. Guys like Bret, Steamboat, Savage, DiBiase,  Perfect, etc., at least got stories and angles to engage the fucking crowd. Something. 

-I dug Razor and Blake Beverly, but I’m also an unreasonable Mike Enos fan. Razor was so fucking over here. You could argue that after the entire Lex thing was self-sabotaged and Bret already had a shaky run as a draw as champion, they may have been better off going with Razor being the one to beat Yoko at Mania. They sat on him too long as a midcard guy, and that’s all he ever became, but given some of the people that worked PPV main events, it’s shocking that he only got one WWF title match on PPV. 

-They did a horrible fucking Giant Gonzalez in-ring interview where he actually spoke in very broken English to promo the Rest in Peace match with Taker at Summerslam. Taker came out, and he left. My God, can’t wait for this to be over. 

-Yokozuna and Duggan was fun for what it was. I liked ‘93 Duggan. He changed his look with the singlet and honestly appeared to be working a lot harder. It’s too bad he’s gone so soon. 

-Shawn worked his ass off with Backlund. You can argue some of his bumps were a little too comical, but I like that in matches where the other guy will bore you to death. A Bob Backlund atomic drop on Shawn Michaels doesn’t read like much. Watch it when Shawn bounces in the air like a superball and takes a big back bump.

-Reno Riggins worked his ass off in the enhancement All-Star six-man. The worst thing about that match was all the noticeable piped-in noise for a Tatanka hot tag when the crowd was super hot all night otherwise. 

-Ludvig Borga did an interview to combat Jannetty’s match and build their Summerslam match. Poor Marty. 

The Verdict 

Thumbs down. Honestly, I could have easily gone in the middle, but the presentation of Lex Luger was fucking horrible. Ditto the Giant Gonzalez promo. This show blew as a show to make me want to watch the PPV. The wrestling was pretty good, but it was not worth investing time.