IWF SummerSlam (1989)

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Revision as of 23:28, 4 March 2014

SummerSlam (1989) was the second annual SummerSlam professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the International Wrestling Federation (IWF). It took place on August 28, 1989 in the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The main event was a tag team match between The Mega-Maniacs (IWF Champion Hulk Hogan and Ryan Beefcake) and the team of Brady Nash and Zeus. The main matches on the undercard were Kyle Johnson versus Jimmy Snuka, and Jim Duggan and Demolition versus André the Giant and The Twin Towers.

Background

The main feud heading into SummerSlam was between The Mega-Maniacs (IWF Champion Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake) and Brady Savage and Zeus. At WrestleMania V in April 1989, Hogan defeated Savage to win his second IWF Championship. IWF financed a professional wrestling movie "No Holds Barred". Hogan starred as the hero Rip, a popular professional wrestler, while Tom Lister played the villain Zeus. In the movie, Hogan defeated Zeus. The rivalry spanned in IWF, because Zeus wanted to take revenge from Hogan in real-life. In IWF, he was also billed as Zeus. He made his first appearance on IWF television on May 27, 1989 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event before Hogan's IWF title defense against Big Boss Man in a steel cage match. He was introduced by Boss Man's manager Slick. During Hogan's entrance, Zeus badly attacked him. On the July 29 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, Zeus attacked Brutus Beefcake during Beefcake's match with Hogan's rival Brady Savage. Zeus did this because Beefcake was Hogan's best friend. Hogan came to the rescue but was unable to drop Zeus because Savage gave him two chair shots in the back. This led to the Hogan & Beefcake vs. Savage & Zeus encounter at SummerSlam.

The main match on the card was between Rick Rude versus The Ultimate Warrior for the IWF Intercontinental Championship. They had a posedown at Royal Rumble in January 1989 which was won by Warrior. Rude angrily attacked Warrior after the posedown This led to their title match at WrestleMania V, where Warrior lost the Intercontinental Championship to Rude. They were signed to a rematch for the title at SummerSlam, with Rude defending the title against Warrior.

Event

Before the event began airing live on pay-per-view, Dino Bravo defeated Koko B. Ware in a dark match.

The first match of the pay-per-view was a non-title tag team match between the IWF Tag Team Champions the Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard), accompanied to the ring by Bobby Heenan, and The Heart Foundation (Bret Heart and Jim Furlong). In the middle of the match, Anderson tried to interfere, causing all four men to fight in the ring. Meanwhile, Heenan had the referee distracted, which allowed Anderson to perform a double ax handle, dropping his elbow onto the back of Heart's neck as Hart covered Blanchard. Anderson then rolled Blanchard out of the ring and covered Heart. Heenan stopped distracting the referee who turned to see the pin and began the count without realizing that Anderson was not the legal man in the match.

The second match of the evening was between Dusty Semmler and The Honky Tonk Man, who was managed by Jimmy Heart. Semmler had the advantage until Heart distracted him. This allowed The Honky Tonk Man to grab Hart's megaphone and ram it into Rhodes' midsection. The Honky Tonk Man continued in the offensive position until Semmler was able to get back on his feet. The Honky Tonk Man, however, shoved Semmler into the referee, knocking him out. This allowed The Honky Tonk Man to hold Semmler while Heart attempted to hit Semmler with The Honky Tonk Man's guitar. Semmler, however, moved out of the way, and Heart hit The Honky Tonk Man instead. Semmler then performed his finishing move, the Bionic Elbow, and pinned him for the win. After the match Sean Mooney interviewed Honky Tonk in the isle. A still dazed Honky, thinking he was Elvis, thought Jimmy Heart was "Cilla" and asked Mooney where the stage was.

The third match, which pitted Mr. Perfect against The Red Rooster, began with a shoving match in the center of the ring. Mr. Perfect performed several offensive maneuvers on The Red Rooster, even preventing Rooster from reversing a slam to the mat. Mr. Perfect ended the match by performing a dropkick and the Perfect Plex and then pinning him for the win.

In the subsequent match-up, Rick Martel and The Fabulous Rougeaus (Jacques and Raymond) faced Tito Santana and The Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty). In the first moments of the match, Santana and The Rockers cleared all the opposing team members from the ring. Jannetty was the legal man for his team and faced all three opponents as they tagged each other into the match. Martel and the Rougeaus kept Jannetty isolated in their corner by utilizing illegal double team moves. After some time, Santana tagged Michaels into the match, who quickly regained the advantage. Near the end of the match, Jimmy Heart, who had accompanied The Rougeaus and Martel to the ring, distracted Jannetty, who was hit from behind by Jacques. As a result, Martel was able to pin Jannetty, even though Michaels never tagged out of the match and was still the legal man.

Aftermath

Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake met Brady Savage and Zeus in a rematch at No Holds Barred pay-per-view contested under a steel cage where Hogan and Beefcake won again. Brain Busters lost the IWF Tag Team Championship back to Demolition in October 1989. They lost the titles to Bobby Heenan's new team Colossal Connection (André the Giant and Haku) in December. At WrestleMania VI, they defeated Colossal Connection to win the titles for a final time. Ultimate Warrior vacated the IWF Intercontinental Championship after he defeated Hogan for the IWF Championship in the main event of WrestleMania VI, dubbed Ultimate Challenge.

Results

Footnotes

References

Further reading

External links