The 1988 SummerSlam (marketed as SummerSlam '88) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It was the inaugural SummerSlam and took place on Monday, August 29, 1988, from Madison Square Garden in the New York City borough of Manhattan, New York. The pay-per-view was created to help the company compete against rival promotion Jim Crockett Promotions. It was one of the first four annual pay-per-view events produced by the WWF, along with WrestleMania, Survivor Series, and Royal Rumble, which were eventually referred to as the "Big Four".
The event consisted of 10 professional wrestling matches. The preliminary matches included a title defense by WWF Intercontinental Champion The Honky Tonk Man against a surprise challenger, revealed to be Ultimate Warrior, who won the match in just 31 seconds to end Honky Tonk's 14-month title reign, at the time, the longest Intercontinental Championship reign in history. The main event was a match pitting The Mega Powers (Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage) against their long-time rivals, The Mega Bucks (Ted DiBiase and André the Giant). Hogan and Savage won the match after Miss Elizabeth, Savage's manager, distracted André and DiBiase by removing her skirt to reveal her underwear.
Production Background
In the late 1980s, the World Wrestling Federation's (WWF, now WWE) main competition in the professional wrestling industry was from the National Wrestling Alliance's (NWA) Jim Crockett Promotions. WWF Chairman Vince McMahon countered Jim Crockett's successful Starrcade pay-per-view (PPV), which began airing in 1983, by creating WrestleMania in 1985. After WrestleMania III in March 1987, the most successful professional wrestling pay-per-view event in history at the time, McMahon created Survivor Series, which aired the same day as Starrcade in November 1987. After defeating Crockett in the ratings war, McMahon created the Royal Rumble, a free television special on the USA Network in January 1988, on the same night as the Crockett-produced PPV, Bunkhouse Stampede. The event set a ratings record for the network with eight million households tuning in to watch the event. In retaliation, Crockett created the Clash of the Champions I event, which aired simultaneously with WrestleMania IV. The latter garnered higher ratings, and not long after, Crockett filed for bankruptcy and sold his company to Ted Turner, who rebranded it as World Championship Wrestling (WCW).Assael, Shaun. Sex, Lies, & Headlocks, 74–80.
As the WWF continued to replace its closed-circuit programming with pay-per-view programming, McMahon added more pay-per-views to the lineup to capitalize on the success of his previous events. In addition to WrestleMania in March, Royal Rumble in January, and Survivor Series in November, McMahon created an event for August, which he named SummerSlam. It was scheduled to be held on Monday, August 29, 1988, from Madison Square Garden in the New York City borough of Manhattan, New York. To keep the WWF from having a pay-per-view market monopoly, Turner began airing monthly WCW pay-per-views. As a result, both companies brought in hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue.Assael, Shaun. Sex, Lies, & Headlocks, 94–95.
Storylines Before SummerSlam, The Honky Tonk Man had been the longest reigning WWF Intercontinental Champion in history. He was originally supposed to defend his championship against Brutus Beefcake, but Beefcake was unable to compete as a result of an (storyline) injury received from Ron Bass the week before.
Also before the event, Demolition (Ax and Smash) held the WWF Tag Team Championship, which they had won at WrestleMania IV after only a year in the WWF; they would defend their title at SummerSlam against former champions The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart), who had become fan favorites a few weeks earlier by turning on their manager Jimmy Hart.
The on-screen feud between Rick Rude and Jake Roberts began weeks before SummerSlam. As part of his gimmick, Rude would—after winning a match—invite a pre-selected woman from the audience to kiss him in the ring. On one occasion, one of the women refused to comply, later identifying herself as Roberts' wife, Cheryl. As the feud intensified, Rude began wearing a pair of tights with a picture of Cheryl stenciled on them, prompting a furious Roberts to charge into the ring and strip the tights off Rude, appearing to television viewers to leave Rude naked, although the live audience saw him stripped to a g-string instead.
For months before the pay-per-view, Hulk Hogan and undisputed WWF World Heavyweight Champion Randy Savage, two of the WWF's top crowd favorites, had feuded with André the Giant and Ted DiBiase, respectively. The two feuds first came together at WrestleMania IV, when—as the result of the vacating of the WWF World Heavyweight Championship—a 14-man single-elimination tournament was set up to crown a new champion. Hogan and André had been disqualified in their quarterfinal match, while Savage and DiBiase reached the championship match; in that final match, Savage defeated DiBiase with help from Hogan to win the vacant title. Savage and DiBiase feuded over the title throughout the spring and summer, but André did not become involved until mid-summer, when he and DiBiase helped instigate a 2-on-1 attack against Savage as he was delivering a promo. Savage quickly recovered and challenged André and DiBiase to a tag team match against him and a partner to be named. That partner was later revealed to be Hogan who returned after being off television for several months (Hogan was written off television after WrestleMania IV due to the birth of his daughter Brooke Hogan and to film No Holds Barred which was released a year later); the team became known as "The Mega Powers." The André and DiBiase team—which dubbed itself "The Mega Bucks"—retaliated by announcing the guest referee would be someone they declared to be fair and neutral: Jesse Ventura, a color commentator on the WWF's programs who favored the villains, though according to the main storyline, Ventura was chosen by WWF President Jack Tunney as the only person capable of handling such a match.
Event + Other on-screen personnelRole:Name:CommentatorGorilla MonsoonSuperstar Billy GrahamBobby Heenan InterviewerGene OkerlundSean MooneyRing announcerHoward FinkelRefereeDave HebnerJoey MarellaTim WhiteJesse Ventura The event began with a match between The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and Dynamite Kid), and The Fabulous Rougeaus (Jacques and Raymond Rougeau). As soon as the bell rang to signify that the match had begun, Smith attacked Jacques. The two teams traded blows until The Rougeaus flipped Dynamite Kid over their heads so that he fell on his back to the mat. Dynamite Kid escaped another offensive maneuver before tagging in his partner, Smith, and The British Bulldogs performed a double-team maneuver on Jacques. Despite having the upper hand, The Bulldogs failed to pin Jacques in time, and the match ended in a twenty-minute time limit draw.
The next match was between Bad News Brown and Ken Patera. Before the bell rang, however, Brown attacked Patera, who retaliated by performing a clothesline from the corner. Patera then slipped both of his arms underneath Brown's armpits and locked his hands behind his neck, using a submission move known as a full nelson. At the end of the match, Brown defeated Patera by striking him in the back of the head with his finishing move, the Ghetto Blaster.Shields, Brian. Main Event: WWE in the Raging 80s, 174.
After the second match ended, Rick Rude and the Junkyard Dog made their way to the ring. Their match began as Rude attacked Junkyard Dog from behind, who retaliated by headbutting Rude several times. Subsequently, Rude climbed to the wrestling ring's top rope and pulled down his tights to reveal another pair of tights with a picture of Cheryl Roberts on them. As a result, Jake Roberts, Cheryl Roberts' husband, ran to the ring and attacked Rude, forcing the referee to disqualify the Junkyard Dog.
The next match was a tag team match between The Powers of Pain (The Barbarian and The Warlord), who were accompanied by their manager The Baron, and The Bolsheviks (Boris Zhukov and Nikolai Volkoff), who were accompanied by Slick. Immediately, The Powers of Pain chased The Bolsheviks from the ring. Slick, however, distracted The Powers of Pain long enough to give The Bolsheviks an advantage. Zhukov was then slammed to the mat back-first and headbutted from the top rope, which allowed The Barbarian to pin him.Shields, Brian. Main Event: WWE in the Raging 80s, 176.
The fifth match of the event was an Intercontinental Championship match between The Ultimate Warrior and the reigning champion, The Honky Tonk Man, who was accompanied by Jimmy Hart. Before the match, it had been announced that Honky's original challenger, Brutus Beefcake, was unable to wrestle due to being attacked the previous week on an episode of Superstars of Wrestling by Outlaw Ron Bass, who had raked his cowboy spurs repeatedly across Beefcake's forehead (television and even the PPV only showed the censored version of the attack). Before the match, the Honky Tonk Man refused to be informed about Beefcake's replacement, and immediately before the match, even grabbed ring announcer Howard Finkel's microphone and said: "Give me someone out here to wrestle, I don't care who it is". His challenge was answered by Ultimate Warrior. Warrior, who accidentally knocked Finkel to the floor when he rushed into the ring and hit the ropes, had the advantage from the beginning, attacking The Honky Tonk Man, who was still in his entrance attire. After body-slamming him to the mat and following it up with a clothesline, Warrior bounded to the ropes and landed stomach-first on The Honky Tonk Man using his signature move, the "Warrior Splash". Ultimate Warrior then pinned The Honky Tonk Man after only thirty-one seconds to win the title. The longest Intercontinental title reign in WWF history had ended with one of the shortest Intercontinental title matches in history. Honky's reign would be the longest Intercontinental Championship reign in WWE history until Gunther broke the record in September 2023.
The following contest was a re-match from WrestleMania IV between Dino Bravo and Don Muraco. Muraco, the crowd favorite, was in control for most of the match until Bravo's manager, Frenchy Martin distracted Muraco, allowing Bravo to use his side suplex and pin him for the win. The Rock had gone into the match without his manager Superstar Billy Graham, who could only look on helplessly from his position in the commentary booth alongside Gorilla Monsoon at the illegal antics of Bravo and Martin.
The seventh match of the night was for the WWF Tag Team Championship. Reigning champions Demolition (Ax and Smash), accompanied by both Mr. Fuji and Jimmy Hart, were challenged by The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart). As soon as the bell sounded, The Hart Foundation attacked both members of Demolition. Their control was brief, as Demolition then gained the advantage over Neidhart. As Bret Hart was tagged into the match, Demolition got the advantage over him when he was whipped shoulder-first into the turnbuckle, breaking Mr. Fuji's cane that he had placed there when the referee wasn't looking. After a few minutes of Demolition working over Hart's shoulder, a frustrated Neidhart chased Jimmy Hart from ringside and returned to tag back into the match. When all four men began fighting inside the ring, Neidhart attacked Mr. Fuji, who was on the ring apron. At the end of the match, Bret Hart attempted a piledriver, but Ax hit him with a megaphone given to him by Jimmy Hart sneaking back to the ring. Smash then pinned Bret Hart for the win.