25 Years Since SummerSlam hit the UK - The Show

A tad over 25 years ago, thousands of people were sitting in anticipation at Wembley Stadium for the only major WWF pay-per-view event to ever cross the pond.

With a multitude of media coverage in the build up, tickets bought and transport sorted, it was time for the real event to begin.

The first bell saw a dark six-man-tag match with Hacksaw Jim Duggan teaming up with The Bushwhackers to take on the trio of The Nasty Boys and The Mountie. Despite being a match full of gimmicks that were old hat a t the time, it is obvious looking at a video of this match that the atmosphere was a special one from the word go.

Lee Kimber said: ''When the event actually started and the stadium was filling out, I can honestly say that I’d never experienced anything like it, and if I’m honest nothing since has come close.

''I’d never seen so many people in one place before and they were cheering every last thing that happened in that ring. It was a party atmosphere in the stadium and the footage of the event really doesn’t do justice to how loud the crowd were at times. ''

Alan Dicks said: ''It was loud and it was the first time I had been in a crowd with that amount of people. Everyone was into every match.

A loud USA chant erupted as Duggan and The Bushwhackers picked up a victory, and that was followed by Papa Shango defeating Tito Santana before the real action was to begin.

Vince McMahon and Bobby ''The Brain'' Heenan introduced the PPV action before the Legion of Doom's music hit and they rode out on motorcycles in one of the most memorable moments of the night to take on Money Inc.

Lee Kimber says: ''One of the biggest reactions was for the Legion of Doom. When their music hit and they rode down to the ring on motorcycles the crowd loved it.

Alan Dicks also believes this to be the one of the more memorable moments, stating: ''The LOD entrance stands out, I was at the top of the stairs when they came out on the bikes. ''

After LOD's victory, Nailz beat Virgil, Shawn Michaels and Rick Martel fought to a double countout in a match, The Natural Disasters beat The Beverly Brothers to retain the WWE Tag Team Championships and Crush defeated Repo Man before one of the most hyped up matches of the evening.

Credit - Lee Kimber

It was time for ''Macho Man'' Randy Savage to defend the World Wrestling Federation Championship against The Ultimate Warrior in a rematch of their ''Retirement match'' at WrestleMania VII the year before.

Lee Kimber says: ''I went in with low expectations of Warrior Vs Savage. I had enjoyed their WrestleMania match the previous year but this one seemed to come out of nowhere.

''I wasn’t a fan of Warrior’s matches and I didn’t see how he had earned a title shot. The match exceeded my expectations though and the crowd were certainly hot for it.

Alan Dicks said on the title match: ''I was looking forward to Savage v Warrior the most, Savage is my favourite ever wrestler and I loved their epic match from WrestleMania VII.''

Ollie Clark said: ''Warrior v Savage was good but not a patch on the retirement match from the previous year.

The match may not have been at the level of their WrestleMania bout but it was still worthy of the event. The two had a back and forth match for around 25 minutes before Ric Flair and Mr. Perfect came out to the ring, pretending to be in cahoots with Warrior before attacking him too. After Flair hit Savage with a chair which left him unable to get back into the ring, Warrior won the match by countout before he joined forces with Savage to chase the duo away. It was a bit of a bullshit end to a big title match, but the real main event was still to come.

A short match between The Undertaker and Kamala followed, with a memorable Undertaker entrance on top of a hearse being the highlight as Taker eventually won by disqualification following interference from Kim Chee.

After Tatanka beat The Berzerker in an encounter that never made the US pay-per-view broadcast, it was time for hometown hero ''The British Bulldog'' Davey Boy Smith, accompanied to the ring by British boxing great Lennox Lewis, to take on his brother-in-law Bret ''The Hitman'' Hart for the Intercontinental Championship.

One of the best matches seen in the United Kingdom saw Bulldog win the title in front of his hometown crowd to end the show on a high note.

Speaking of the main event, Lee Kimber said: ''''The Bret vs Bulldog match was the highlight of the night and still holds up as one of the best matches I’ve ever seen.

''The crowd were absolutely rabid for this one and they were split down the middle, with duelling chants for Bulldog and Hitman.

''When Bulldog cradles Bret for the win the place just exploded. I honestly don’t know if you’d got a bigger roar in there when England won the World Cup.

Ollie Clark agreed with his assessment, stating: ''I remember seeing shots on the TV screen during Bulldog v Bret and seeing Diana Hart but the screen was small and I thought it was Jeff Jarrett!

''The biggest reaction of the night was with the Bulldog and Lennox Lewis.

''Bulldog v Bret is probably the best WWF match of all time on UK soil.

Alan Dicks wasn't too pleased about the result as a youngster, saying: ''The Bulldog vs Bret match was really good to watch, I remember getting upset at the result as I was a huge Bret Hart fan.

Looking back on the events 25 years later, all three attendees have fond memories but realise there are many differences between professional wrestling then and the product on screen now.

Lee Kimber said: ''The crowd were great and it was a truly amazing experience, and I’ll always be proud to say I was there in the audience when the British Bulldog beat Bret Hart at Wembley Stadium in one of the greatest matches of all time.

''I watched it back a couple of years ago. On reflection it was not a good card and there were a lot of screwy finishes. It was more cartoony then, but the characters were half of the fun.

''As bad as some of it was though it still holds up against today's supercards and surpasses many of them. That said, the Bret vs Bulldog match still holds its own against anything you’ll see today. It was storytelling at its finest.

I am surprised given how much of a success this one was, but then it’s not all about gate revenues.

''With the core audience in the US you couldn’t run the live event in the UK and delay the US showing until its usual time slot. The results would be online immediately. Mind you with betting odds most of the results are online before an event has even taken place these days so maybe it’s irrelevant now.

''I’m not sure wrestling is popular enough now in the UK to fill Wembley Stadium again, but you’d still draw a healthy crowd.''

Alan Dicks agrees with most of this having watched recently, adding: ''I remember not being able to talk for a couple of days as I had been shouting so much.

''It was an enjoyable show and I got to see most of the big names of the time but it was strange watching without the commentary.

''I've seen it recently and would say it's a one match show with some cool entrances. The in ring work was a lot slower compared to today.

I don't think the show did too well in the US due to time differences but I would have expected other PPV's to have been held over here before now.''

The common theme seems to be that the characters hold up more than the wrestling in hindsight, and Ollie Clark also agrees with his, saying: ''I last watched about 2 years ago - the wrestling these days is better but the characters and storylines were much better in the 80s and 90s.

I'm not really surprised there hasn't been an event since as they made a loss and what with them holding fire on and UK Heavyweight events I don't expect to see another UK PPV this decade unfortunately.

''The UK interest in WWE peaked between 1989 and 1992 alongside the release of the WrestleMania song and Slam Jam.

''But saying that ,I am sure they would have no problem selling out Wembley for another SummerSlam, or a Mania or Rumble.''

Article by Andy Phillips (AndyP_GY)

Opinion: Every Minus Five Star Match according to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter or This Is Not The Worst Wrestling Article in the World, This Is Just A Tribute.

What makes a minus five star match, a minus five star match? On Dave Meltzer's scale, we can go all the way from the full five stars, through DUD into a minus five star, taking in quarter and half stars along the way, it's a faintly clumsy, unwieldy system (in that way, you could say it's like the title of this article) but it's one that works. I began thinking about this when recently a match at this year's BOLA between The Young Bucks & Adam Cole vs Ricochet, Will Ospreay & Matt Sydal got the full *****. This marks the first five for these performers to the best of my research but also, the first for PWG. It got me to thinking about the flipside of this match, the legendary Los Villainos vs Psycho Circus from last year's Triplemania, the only trios tag match to receive the menos cinco. Appropriately, there are but five matches to receive the -***** rating, I thought I'd take a look back at them and try to see if I can work out, what makes them truly, the worst.

First up we have Moondog Spot taking on Junkyard Dog in the second round of 1985's WWF Wrestling Classic. Moondog throws punches as soon as Junkdog gets in the ring, Moondog pulls off a jumping fist to the chest, climbs to the second turnbuckle, fall on his face, Junkdog headbutts him twice from his all fours position, stands up, does another headbutt and then falls on Moondog and counts his own pinfall. I thought I'd just write this out because it lasts forty-six seconds. It's not even the shortest match of the PPV (that honour goes to Dynamite Kid who dropkicks Ivan Putski as he sings the National Anthem for a three count) but boy is it somehow the sloppiest even in that short time. In the battle of these two dogs, it would seem, from this writer's POV that being one of having never seen either of these two men compete before, it would appear that in wrestling logic, Junkyard Dog's head is made of pure steel because three light head taps was apparently enough to just about kill Moondog. This is an odd one for the start of the list because yes it's dreadful, it has no story, no heel or face dynamics and no impressive performances and the ending makes no sense because if the ref isn't in the ring, why not wait for him, timekeeper? Just wait for him to get in the ring, I can only deduce that the issue with this is that it's nothing, it is literally a nothing match which does nothing for either men. There's nothing to say about it, so I'm not going to say anything more. Moving on...

...To Mr.T at Wrestlemania, no not the serviceable tag match from WM but Wrestlemania II's boxing match with 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper. Thirteen minutes. Thirteen minutes this match takes before in the fourth round, the ref takes a bump, Pipes goes for a bodyslam and some ground n' pound and gets disqualified. Thirteen minutes this goes on before we don't even get a proper ending. The worst part is, this isn't a boxing match, it's not a wrestling match, frankly, what the fuck is it? At least the battle of the dogs had the decency to be a rubbish forty-six seconds. I don't entirely know what to say here as they try to pretend that this is a real boxing match, which is fine in concept but neither men seem willing to put any conviction behind their punches. We're watching two men fail to act like they give a shit for a crowd who would prefer to just watch King Kong Bundy competitively sweat (ComSweatative?) against Hulk Hogan. It's not even a satisfying end to a story, it ends with the two men being pulled apart, trying to brawl to each other and then just leaving. Pipes is a legend of course, very few men from his era have been more deserving of a WWE World Title run and never had one but this was just filler, toxic celebrity ego stroking that tries to write in a wrestling ending to a boxing match and as a result ends up failing on all accounts. It could have worked but it didn't. Actually, maybe that's being too polite.

So our next stop on this magical train through shitland is WCW/NwO Halloween Havoc 1998 (which if you'd like to read more on, subtle plug here) with The [Ultimate] Warrior taking on Hollywood Hulk Hogan. Now the immediate problem with this match is that you have to compare it to the minor masterpiece that these two men pulled off at Wrestlemania 6. Actually comparing those two is unfair, if Wrestlemania 6 was Elvis Live in Hawaii, this was Pop Idol winner Steve Brookstein down his local pub reliving past glories but failing to remind anyone why they loved them in the first place. Neither Hogan nor Warrior are able to in any way go like they used to (debatably they never even could but that's a debate for another day) and watching wrestling's most infamous porn tape take on sport's entertainment's highest profile homophobic blogger try and relive such famous spots as 'dueling bodyslams', 'running the ropes' and 'punching' at half speed is not a pleasurable experience. And just when you thought the match was getting dull, the over-booking starts: this match features interference from The Giant (Big Show), Stevie Ray, Vincent, Horace Hogan and Eric Bischoff who straight up grabs the ref and chokes him but the ref doesn't consider this a DQ but then he also ignores a blatant lowblow from Hogan and oh yeah, Hogan setting his bloody face on fire (actually a tad inaccurate, his face on,y gets bloody from setting it on fire). The main issue with this match is the bad taste in your mouth from how clear it is that they brought back the melting waxworks of Warrior and Hogan to duke it out, just so Hogan could have the ego trip of being 1-1 with Warrior but here's the thing: their original fight, while to someone of modern wrestling sensibilities is ridiculously slow, is full of simple storytelling and easy symbolism of torch passing, this one is so ridiculous it literally has the torch blow up in Hogan's face. Of the three matches so far, this one is easily the most deserving of its full -***** rating.

If you know anything about bad wrestling, you had to know, we'd eventually get something from 1999's Heroes of Wrestling. The entire PPV is full of bad matches, weird, sloppy finishes and only one man looking like he's having fun and that's Jake Roberts and he's only having fun because he's at peak drunk. So the match that Meltzer Driver deemed the worst on this particular PPV is the Bushwhackers vs Nikolai Volkoff & The Iron Sheik a match in which a Croatian masquerading as a Russian and an Iranian get 'USA' chanted at them for ten minutes as they fight two New Zealanders. In sticking with the -***** tradition, this is a limited offense match. There's forearms, elbows, headbutts and clotheslines. At one point Sheiky baby locks in something approaching a Camel Clutch to add variation. I should give credit to The Iron Sheik actually, he comes the closest to delivering a performance in this match, especially in a stunning sequence where he threatens to leave the match if the crowd don't stop chanting USA, only to decide to come back just before they get counted out. The heels! This match is of interest as time-wise, it's so close to the WWF reunion of the four men at Wrestlemania 17's Gimmick Battle Royal (because the gimmicks and the battle royal rules are 'over the top'. Geddit?) but whereas that was played for laughs, this one isn't even really played. At one point Dutch Mantel on sedated commentary says words to the effect of 'the referee doesn't seem to have seen Volkoff tag in but I don't think he cares'. He's not alone, a dreadful match but one that frankly, if you expected anything other than detritus from this PPV, you really are an unstoppable optimist.

Our final match (luckily) is from Mexican promotion AAA and last year's Triplémania XXIII where Los Villainos (Villaino III, IV and V) took on the Psycho Circus (Murder, Monster and Psycho Clown). The first question I have about this match is what did Hugo Savinovich think about it? We never got to find out because shortly after the match started, his mic cut out and was replaced with a horrendous fucking buzzing noise (the one good piece of commentary Matt Striker provides is suggesting people imagine he's calling a Killer Bees match. A bad joke but y'know, you take what you can get). You know what everyone loves about trios matches: fast paced action, big high-flying spots, technicos in peril from those dastardly rudos cutting off the ring, well instead here we get some half-speed weak slapping, a few sloppy to reckless looking suicide dives and umm, so which team were we meant to cheer for? Was it you, Murder Clown? Were you the hero we dreamt of as a child, Murder Clown? So the crowd are cheering for both the villains and the psycho clowns so I can only deduce that this is like The Undertaker if he took on Sting, they could try and heel it up but no one wouldn't cheer them. Still, this match does have one nearly functioning dungeon of doom spot till you realise that oh yeah, the clowns are actually powerbombing the two villainos holding the third clown, they're trying to murder murder clown (or is it monster? I didn't keep track) so the match eventually ends after one of the clowns goes for the least convincing chair work this side of Horace Hogan (thank you to Matt Striker for pointing out that it was a chair and that we probably knew that. He's a quick one that Matt Striker) but gets distracted by his respect for Villaino III stops him being able to pin him leading to him getting clumsily rolled up. So I do want to use this time to ask everyone - top rope falling headbutts, has anyone apart from Rey Mysterio ever made them look like anything other than them falling and twatting themself on the ring? It looks especially sloppy when you actually miss the other person and the camera angle needs to cover your shit, Mr.Clown. Put simply, this match is a fucking mess but it's almost a beautiful one, of the five matches here, this is the only one I would watch again. If The Final Deletion was the Sharknado of wrestling, all knowing winks to so bad it's good culture (and no, Delete or Decay was not the Sharknado 2: The Second One of wrestling, Sharknado 2 had a cameo from Kurt Angle, Delete or Decay had Joseph Parks) then this match is feasibly the 1959 Santa Claus movie where Mexican Santa and Merlin fight the devil from Santa's spaceship. It's campy, ridiculous, goes on for a bit too long but is occasionally so utterly tone deaf and so bizarre that it becomes oddly fascinating, not necessarily good (definitely not good) but certainly interesting, and for that reason I disagree with Big Dave and give this *****. Just kidding, it's really fucking bad.

So are these the five worst matches I've ever seen (Really with Mr. T vs Pipes, the question is 'was that a match'?)? I mean they are all undeniably awful but it's hard to really see if these are the five worst I've ever seen, I don't know. But is a -***** even a negative thing? On the surface yes, but there are only five -***** matches, at the time of writing there has been eighty-one ***** matches, so really it's in its own way, more prestigious to wrestle a shitsterpiece than a masterpiece. In my exploration of the backside of the wrestling scale, I don't know if I've learnt what makes a -***** worthy of such damnation, what makes it so much worse than a -**** for instance? I still don't know but here's the thing, none of these matches are worthy of anything less than our complete contempt, sure there have probably actually been worse displays of wrestling than these but for what they represent, it makes sense to keep them as the reminders to all bookers - your match could be next. Don't book matches if you don't think they matter, don't try and make people give a shit about fake boxing, don't try to relive past glories if you were possibly approaching past it when you were living them and just don't watch Heroes of Wrestling. So what makes a -***** match? There's a lot of bad wrestling out there but something stood out that made these special. Maybe what we should take away that just because a journalist thinks something, doesn't make it fact (no, that would mean I don't matter and that can't be true) or maybe we should just take it that Dave Meltzer shouldn't have to represent everyone. If he likes a match, that's fine, if he doesn't and you did, it doesn't mean you can't like that, maybe you wanted to watch The New Day drink piss jugs with Jon Stewart, but just be prepared for someone to disagree with you. I want there to be some deeper meaning to this article than 'I dunno maybe some matches are just always going to suck' but really that's all I've got. A really unsatisfying conclusion to an article about matches with weak endings, it's almost like I planned this all along. I didn't.

Words - Jozef Raczka 
Images - James Marston & Jozef Raczka 
Editor - James Marston

WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony 2015 Thoughts

This article is part of #ATPW24, in aid of MIND Charity. You can help support the cause by going to www.justgiving.co.uk/acrossthepondwrestling

If WrestleMania is Christmas, that makes the Hall of Fame Ceremony Christmas Eve right? Well with Kevin Nash, Arnold Schwarznegger, Randy Savage and more going in this year, it had to be an incredible ceremony, right? This is less of a "review" of the ceremony and more a collection of thoughts.

Kevin Nash

Inductor - Shawn Michaels

Michaels induction speech was top, top, quality, exactly what you'd expect from the Heart Break Kid. Lots of laughs and some great stories about the time the two spent together on the road. Michaels talking about the reaction he had when Vince McMahon wanted to put the World title on Nash felt very real and was a fascinating story that really showed off the friendship that the two shared.

Nash got plenty of time for acceptance speech, which was honest and laced with humour. Oz is perhaps one of the worst gimmicks than anyone has ever been given, so seeing is showcased here, one more time, and getting the ridicule it deserved was satisfying. Apparently his wife is Unicorn, which knowing what I know about Kevin Nash I really wouldn't be too surprised if it was true!

Arnold Schwarznegger

Inductor - Triple H

Triple H's induction speech just oozed class, as he put over Arnold effortlessly, managing to tie his love of bodybuilding and wrestling together. The idea of Schwarznegger possibly becoming a wrestler instead of a bodybuilder is probably Vince's wet dream.

Schwarznegger came across as very humble for what he has achieved throughout his life, spending a lot of time putting Triple H and others over, which was probably the right thing to do at a wrestling Hall of Fame. His stories about his times with Bruno Sammartino are always interesting, those two would have made a formidable tag team!

Randy Savage 

Inductor - Hulk Hogan

Hulk Hogan's speech just didn't do it for me unfortunately. It came across as a little hollow, knowing the animosity that the two had for each at the time of each others death, I think it would have been nice for Hogan to talk about his regret for these times. Pretty generic Hogan chatter.

Savage's brother Lanny Poffo collected the award on his behalf. This was always going to be a bittersweet moment. Poffo's collection of poems added a different edge and a change of pace from the other acceptance speeches. His stories about Savage's love for the Special Olympians is genuinely touching, I wonder if WWE getting involved with the Special Olympics over the last few years was part of Poffo agreeing that Savage could go into the Hall of Fame.

Tatsunami Fujinami

Inductor - Ric Flair

Flair's induction speech was short and sweet, putting over Fujinami as the "greatest wrestler in the History of Japan". After a statement like that what else could he have said!

Fujinami's speech was kept fairly short, likely due to Fujinami's lack of English, but he still seemed to do a good enough job of saying what he wanted to say. The crowd were very respectful at this moment which was good to see.

The Bushwackers

Inductor - John Laurinaitis

Laurinaitis' speech was super quick, he put over The Bushwackers as his mentors, which was good to hear about the time when Luke and Butch were more than just a comedy babyface team in WWF.

The Bushwackers were a lot of fun during their speech. They got a chuckle out of me on more than one occassion, and they seem likely genuinelly funny guys. Getting Roddy Piper, Ted DiBiase, Bret Hart and Jim Duggan to do the classic walk was a nice touch. I also enjoyed the off the mic chats that you hear the two having, which for someone reason I found quite touching. 

Connor "The Crusher" Michalek

Inductors - Dana Warrior & Daniel Bryan

Wow, this was sad. I was an absolute mess through Dana's speech and didn't even bother writing notes, because the speech was just perfect. There's nothing else to say about it really. Just perfect. Bryan's speech about Connor was simlarly lovely. He made sure the crowd knew that this was all about how much of an inspiration Connor was and it would be difficult to argue against that point.

Steve Michalek collecting the award on Connor's behalf was heart wrenching. Nothing else can describe it really. A superb way to honour a very brave little boy with a big heart.

Alundra Blayze

Inductor - Natalya

Natalya had one of the strangest deliveries of a speech I've ever heard. She seemed to stop ever four word and then say another four words. It's clear that this was an important moment for her, and maybe it was just nerves that caused her to say her speech in rhythm?

Alundra's was a lengthy name-dropping type deal. The biggest pop it got from me was for a reference to the forgotten member of 3 Count, Evan Karagias. Having her husband back from the army for the show was lovely touch, although I'm not sure how much I enjoyed the stuff she did with the trash can. It seemed a bit like flogging a dead horse and attempting milk it at the same time.

Larry Zbyszko

Inductor - Bruno Sammartino

For a guy who spent so long on top of the wrestling business, Sammartino has absolutely no charisma. His speech about sending Zbyszko to different territories was interesting and those kind of stories always interest me. Although, attempting to put their feud of like it was legit in 2015 felt a little bit silly. Let it go, Bruno.

Zbyszko exists to annoy with his name. His speech include quotes from Sigmund Freud and Alice and Wonderland references which was novel idea. The story about how he first met Sammartino was told wonderfully and it's great story to begin with. Although I couldn't help being distracted by the fact he looks like Frank Underwood from House of Cards.

Rikishi

Inductors - The Usos

The Usos did a really good job of introducing their Dad and looked very comfortable with their speech. Perhaps one of the slickest of the entire night. Funny, endearing and kept nice and short.

Rikishi's speech was very geared towards his family, which seemed very important to him. Although the non-existent reaction when he mentioned Manu was perhaps my highlight of the entire night. It was inevitable that Kish was gonna crack out a dance, wasn't it? A nice fun way to open the ceremony.

Finally...

As Hall of Fame ceremonies go this was a rather enjoyable evening, spent with some of the greatest the industry has produced. Some great stories, some really funny and moments some heart breaking ones. It wasn't half long though!