Mid 20th Century
140-489: SummerSlam is a professional wrestling event, produced annually since 1988 by the world's largest professional wrestling promotion , WWE . Dubbed "The Biggest Party of the Summer", it is considered WWE's second biggest event of the year behind their flagship event, WrestleMania . It is also considered one of the company's five biggest events of the year, along with WrestleMania, Royal Rumble , Survivor Series , and Money in
280-640: A Six-man tag team match with manager Heenan tagging with the Islanders against the Bulldogs and Ware. Demolition , a leather-outfitted tag team who had their faces painted in a combination of black, white, red and silver colors, received their first major push in the fall of 1987, where they began aggressively dominating and overwhelming their opponents. After dominating most of the established face tag teams, Ax and Smash began targeting Strike Force ( Tito Santana and Rick Martel ), which had recently become
420-470: A double back elbow for a near-fall. Santana applied an armbar on Ax before Martel tagged in and applied an armbar, but Ax headbutted him and tagged out to Smash. Santana tagged in, but was caught in a bear hug and was clotheslined by Ax, before a scoop slam and suplex on Santana. Santana hit a flying forearm smash on an interfering Smash and tagged in Martel, who dropkicked both Ax and Smash
560-553: A dusty finish . André won the match when referee Dave Hebner 's identical twin Earl Hebner made the decision. Shortly after being awarded the championship, André kayfabe sold the title to DiBiase. Whilst André's championship reign is recognized by the WWF, DiBiase was stripped of the title. Plotwise, WWF President Jack Tunney vacated the title due to it having not been won in a sanctioned match and ordered it to be decided in
700-412: A high knee , before missing an elbow drop on Honky, who took control with a second turnbuckle fist drop . Honky went for his Swinging neckbreaker called Shake, Rattle & Roll on Beefcake, but instead Beefcake kneed him in the face. Beefcake put Honky in a sleeper hold. With Beefcake in charge of the match, Honky's manager Jimmy Hart hit the referee with his megaphone . The bell didn't ring, but it
840-415: A missile dropkick and a Frankensteiner . Dynamite tagged in and clotheslined Haku before he ran into Haku's boot. As a cowardly manager, Heenan tagged and stomped Dynamite before quickly tagging out to Tama. Tama hit a back body drop on Dynamite, but missed a big splash to allow Dynamite to tag Koko whilst Tama tagged Haku. Both members of the Islanders squared up to Koko prompting the Bulldogs to enter
980-547: A single elimination 14-man tournament at WrestleMania IV. As previous champions, André and Hogan received byes to the second round of the tournament, but faced each other in their second-round matchup. Hogan formed an unlikely alliance with a former enemy and top challenger to his WWF World Heavyweight Championship, Randy "Macho Man" Savage (which was later known as the Mega Powers ). Savage had been portrayed as an egomaniacal heel during most of his first two years in
1120-446: A " gimmick " consisting of a specific persona , stage name , entrance theme , and other distinguishing traits. Matches are the primary vehicle for advancing storylines, which typically center on interpersonal conflicts, or feuds , between heroic " faces " and villainous " heels ". A wrestling ring , akin to the platform used in boxing , serves as the main stage ; additional scenes may be recorded for television in backstage areas of
1260-527: A (kayfabe) botched move and became a heel. Following Bret Hart's elimination from the battle royal, he returned to the ring to challenge Bad News Brown. Bret saw a face turn, alongside partner Jim Neidhart . The pair also engaged in a new feud with The Fabulous Rougeaus (who turned heel and allied themselves with the Harts' former manager Jimmy Hart ) and also challenged Demolition for the tag team title at SummerSlam. Two years later, they would finally regain
1400-413: A background in authentic wrestling no longer mattered. After this time, matches became more outlandish and gimmicky and any semblance professional wrestling had to catch wrestling faded. The personas of the wrestlers likewise grew more outlandish. Gorgeous George , who performed throughout the 1940s and 1950s, was the first wrestler whose entrance into the arena was accompanied by a theme song played over
1540-436: A barber, vowed "to cut his (Honky Tonk Man's) ducktail hair" before winning the championship. Honky, meanwhile, was portrayed as a cowardly champion, frequently relying on outside interference from manager Jimmy Hart or on-screen girlfriend Peggy Sue to win matches, or intentionally getting himself counted out or disqualified to retain his championship with the champions advantage . The Ultimate Warrior had debuted in
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#17328023179091680-446: A brief suspension in connection with the dog-napping incident, Islanders members Haku and Tama began bringing dog collars tied to a chain to ringside to taunt the Bulldogs. At the same time, the Islanders' manager Bobby Heenan began making remarks on the legality of having animals at ringside (in lieu of official managers), and also made derogatory remarks about Koko B. Ware 's macaw , Frankie, who accompanied Ware to ringside. This led to
1820-478: A bye in the quarter-finals due to Rick Rude and Jake Roberts having wrestled to a time limit draw in the first round, Gang faced Savage in the semi-finals. Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake fought WWF Intercontinental Champion The Honky Tonk Man for the Intercontinental championship. Early in the match, Beefcake connected with an atomic drop at the outset of the matchup. Beefcake then hit Honky with
1960-532: A carny term for a shooting gallery gun whose sights were not deliberately misaligned. Wrestling in the United States blossomed in popularity after the Civil War , with catch wrestling eventually becoming the most popular style. At first, professional wrestlers were genuine competitive fighters, but they struggled to draw audiences because Americans did not find real wrestling to be very entertaining, so
2100-519: A central authority. Nor could any of them stomach the idea of leaving the NWA themselves to compete directly with McMahon, for that would mean their territories would become fair game for the other NWA members. McMahon also had a creative flair for TV that his rivals lacked. For instance, the AWA's TV productions during the 1980s were amateurish, low-budget, and out-of-touch with contemporary culture, which lead to
2240-585: A champion that Curley put forth: Dick Shikat . The National Wrestling Association shut down in 1980. In 1948, a number of promoters from across the country came together to form the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The NWA recognized one "world champion", voted on by its members, but allowed member promoters to crown their own local champions in their territories. If a member poached wrestlers from another member, or held matches in another member's territory, they risked being ejected from
2380-717: A chokehold. Heel character Ted DiBiase , who was portrayed as "The Million Dollar Man", an evil millionaire, offered Hogan a large sum of money to sell DiBiase the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, which Hogan refused. At the first Royal Rumble in January 1988, Hogan and André had an official contract signing for a WWF World Heavyweight Championship rematch. Their rematch took place on The Main Event I in February, where André defeated Hogan with
2520-471: A degree. Vince Russo, the boss of WCW in 2000, completely disregarded kayfabe by routinely discussing business matters and office politics in public, which alienated fans. I watch championship wrestling from Florida with wrestling commentator Gordon Solie . Is this all "fake"? If so, they deserve an Oscar . WrestleMania IV WrestleMania IV was the fourth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by
2660-410: A fee, a visitor could challenge the wrestler to a quick match. If the challenger defeated the champion in a short time frame, usually 15 minutes, he won a prize. To encourage challenges, the carnival operators staged rigged matches in which an accomplice posing as a visitor challenged the champion and won, giving the audience the impression that the champion was easy to beat. This practice taught wrestlers
2800-693: A fifth US title. Aside from guest appearances in the USWA in 1993 as a heel WWF invader, the babyface run Bret began at this show would last until his double turn with Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIII in 1997. Bam Bam Bigelow continued with the WWF through the summer of 1988, wrestling mainly One Man Gang and André the Giant. Bigelow, along with manager Sir Oliver Humperdink, left the WWF for Jim Crockett Promotions in September 1988, just before Ted Turner's purchase of JCP to form WCW. Harley Race had competed in
2940-414: A genuine sport, and the phrase "professional wrestling" therefore has a more literal meaning in those places. A notable example is India's Pro Wrestling League . In numerous American states, professional wrestling is legally defined as a non-sport. For instance, New York defines professional wrestling as: Professional wrestling means an activity in which participants struggle hand-in-hand primarily for
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#17328023179093080-482: A great moment, but the rest of the show is a pass." Retoprowrestling.com was also highly critical of the show's length, calling it "a chore to watch", and that "there's probably nothing wrong with a wrestling pay per view running nigh on four hours, but when about three and a half of those hours don't actually feature much in the way of entertainment, it often feels like you've spent your entire weekend just watching this one show." John Canton of TJR wrestling called
3220-405: A legitimate sport. Firstly, wrestling was more entertaining when it was faked, whereas fakery did not make boxing any more entertaining. Secondly, in a rigged boxing match, the designated loser must take a real beating for his "defeat" to be convincing, but wrestling holds can be faked convincingly without inflicting injury. This meant that boxers were less willing to "take dives"; they wanted to have
3360-478: A majority of these matches, although Duggan did have offensive moments in almost all of their matches. Having wrestled to a time limit draw in the championship tournament, Jake Roberts and Rick Rude were placed into a feud regarding Rude making kayfabe advances over Robert's real-life wife, Cheryl. For Rude, this was his second high-profile feud after several months of being primarily a mid-card wrestler. The Honky Tonk Man continued to feud with Brutus Beefcake over
3500-687: A match against Gus Sonnenberg in January 1929. Bowser then broke away from the trust to form his own cartel, the American Wrestling Association (AWA), in September 1930, and he declared Sonnenberg to be the AWA champion. This AWA should not be confused with Wally Kadbo's AWA founded in 1960. Curley reacted to this move by convincing the National Boxing Association to form the National Wrestling Association , which in turn crowned
3640-440: A new city, attendance was high because there was a waiting fanbase cultivated in advance by the cable TV shows. The NWA's traditional anti-competitive tricks were no match for this. The NWA attempted to centralize and create their own national cable television shows to counter McMahon's rogue promotion, but it failed in part because the members of the NWA, ever protective of their territories, could not stomach submitting themselves to
3780-557: A number of times and applied a Boston crab on Smash. Santana grabbed Mr. Fuji up onto the apron, allowing Ax to get his manager's cane. He nailed Martel with it as Smash covered Martel with a pin . As a result, Demolition won the match, and the WWF Tag Team Championships. The main event of WrestleMania IV was the tournament final for the vacant WWF World Heavyweight Championship between "Macho Man" Randy Savage and "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase. DiBiase
3920-467: A prelude to WrestleMania V" In the months that followed the event, Savage defended the WWF World Heavyweight Championship on multiple occasions, primarily against DiBiase, but also granted title shots to others such as the One Man Gang and Bad News Brown. Hogan, meanwhile, took a leave of absence from the WWF during the late spring and part of the summer to film the movie No Holds Barred . André
4060-765: A reported attendance of 80,355, which as of April 2023, WWE considers this to be their seventh largest live gate in history. From 2009 to 2014, SummerSlam was held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California and from 2015 to 2018 , the event took place at the Barclays Center in the New York City borough of Brooklyn . Beginning with the 2021 event , SummerSlam has been held in National Football League stadiums across
4200-700: A result of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, WWE had to present the majority of its programming for Raw and SmackDown from a behind closed doors set at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida beginning mid-March. The 2020 SummerSlam was scheduled for August 23 at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts , but it and the preceding night's NXT TakeOver event had to be relocated due to
4340-453: A result, both companies brought in hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue. Dubbed "The Biggest Party of the Summer", SummerSlam became one of the promotion's most successful events, eventually considered the second biggest event of the year, behind WrestleMania, and also one of the "Big Four" pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, Survivor Series, and Royal Rumble, the promotion's original four annual events and their four biggest events of
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4480-536: A similar angle featuring Andre, DiBiase and Virgil . Brutus Beefcake had become one of the most popular WWF superstars after turning face at WrestleMania III (after several years of playing a self-absored heel), and after feuding with former tag-team partner Greg Valentine, was receiving his first huge push toward the WWF Intercontinental Championship , held by The Honky Tonk Man . Beefcake, nicknamed "The Barber" after his gimmick of
4620-411: A third from Hercules took Warrior off his feet. Warrior then countered a Hercules clothesline and hit a clothesline of his own. In the corner, Warrior hit him with ten punches , but while Warrior was looking at the referee, Hercules hit an inverted atomic drop . He then tried to apply his finishing move , a full-nelson, but could not lock his fingers behind Warriors head. Warrior then pushed his feet off
4760-428: A time limit draw. The winners of these matches advanced to the quarterfinals. As Rude and Roberts tied, they were both eliminated from the tournament, thereby giving the One Man Gang a bye into the semifinals. In his PPV debut, The Ultimate Warrior faced Hercules . The pair locked up with Warrior chopping Hercules in the corner. Hercules fought back as he hit two clotheslines on Warrior, who no-sold them before
4900-503: A typical American household only received four national channels by antenna, and ten to twelve local channels via UHF broadcasting . But cable television could carry a much larger selection of channels and therefore had room for niche interests. The WWF started with a show called All-American Wrestling airing on the USA Network in September 1983. McMahon's TV shows made his wrestlers national celebrities, so when he held matches in
5040-586: A victory for all the pain to which they subjected themselves. In the 1910s, promotional cartels for professional wrestling emerged in the East Coast (outside its traditional heartland in the Midwest ). These promoters sought to make long-term plans with their wrestlers, and to ensure their more charismatic and crowd-pleasing wrestlers received championships, further entrenching the desire for worked matches. The primary rationale for shoot matches at this point
5180-410: Is a true sport. Wrestlers would at all times flatly deny allegations that they fixed their matches, and they often remained in-character in public even when not performing. When in public, wrestlers would sometimes say the word kayfabe to each other as a coded signal that there were fans present and they needed to be in character. Professional wrestlers in the past strongly believed that if they admitted
5320-409: Is considered to be one of the weaker events; with reviews commenting that the event was most notable for a year-long feud between Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan that preceded the event, with the two facing off a year later at WrestleMania V . Scott Keith of SmarK rant gave the event a "recommendation to avoid", and commented it was "long, boring (and) dull", and that the event was simply to "serve as
5460-428: Is distinguished by its scripted outcomes and emphasis on entertainment and showmanship . The staged nature of matches is an open secret , with both wrestlers and spectators nonetheless maintaining the pretense that performances are bona fide competitions, which is likened to the suspension of disbelief employed when engaging with fiction . Professional wrestlers perform as characters and usually maintain
5600-645: Is held annually between mid-March to mid-April. WrestleMania IV was scheduled to be held on March 27, 1988, at the Historic Atlantic City Convention Hall in Atlantic City , New Jersey . This event was advertised as being held at the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino , but taking place across the road at Convention Hall. Donald Trump used the event to promote his properties and, although only an audience member,
5740-487: The 1988 Survivor Series where Mr. Fuji lured Barbarian and Warlord to his side, thus turning the Powers into villains and champions Ax and Smash – which had been getting more fan support during the summer and fall – into good guys. Martel, meanwhile, would return in early 1989 and reform Strike Force with Santana, but during their WrestleMania V match against Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson, Martel turned on Santana after
SummerSlam - Misplaced Pages Continue
5880-624: The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board that professional wrestling is not a real sport because its matches have predetermined outcomes. Shortly thereafter, New Jersey deregulated professional wrestling. The WWF then rebranded itself as a " sports entertainment " company. In the early years of the 20th century, the style of wrestling used in professional wrestling matches was catch wrestling . Promoters wanted their matches to look realistic and so preferred to recruit wrestlers with real grappling skills. In
6020-776: The United States , Mexico , Japan , and northwest Europe (the United Kingdom , Germany/Austria and France ), which have each developed distinct styles, traditions, and subgenres within professional wrestling. Professional wrestling has developed its own culture and community , including a distinct vernacular . It has achieved mainstream success and influence within popular culture , with many terms, tropes , and concepts being referenced in everyday language as well as in film , music , television , and video games . Likewise, numerous professional wrestlers have become national or international icons with recognition by
6160-679: The WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship . Contemporary critics gave the event a lukewarm reception, noting its extended length. Retrospective analysis, some by sociologists, noted the presentation of wrestler's interpersonal relationships, and how the event's sponsor, Donald Trump , used the event to craft his public persona. WrestleMania is considered the World Wrestling Federation 's (WWF, now WWE) flagship pay-per-view (PPV) event, having first been held in 1985 . It
6300-544: The WWF Tag Team Champions and had defeated several top heel tag teams, including The Hart Foundation (from whom Martel and Santana won the belts), The Bolsheviks and The Islanders before Demolition demanded a match at WrestleMania IV. WrestleMania IV's coverage began with Gladys Knight singing a rendition of " America the Beautiful " . The first match of the pay-per-view event was a twenty-man over
6440-538: The World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). The event took place on March 27, 1988, at Boardwalk Hall (advertised as Trump Plaza) in Atlantic City, New Jersey . The announced attendance of the event was 19,199. The main event featured the finals of a one-night, 14-man single-elimination tournament for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship , in which Macho Man Randy Savage defeated "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase to win
6580-405: The previous year's event , which sat at 93,173, and was similar to the following year's 20,369. It drew a 6.5 PPV buyrate, which was reduced from 8.0 the previous year. WrestleMania IV received mixed to poor reviews from critics. Most reviews criticized the show's length as well as the number of matches. Rob McNew from 411Mania.com gave the show a 3.5/10 rating when reviewing the show, claiming
6720-608: The "WWE" abbreviation becoming an orphaned initialism . Also in March 2002, the promotion introduced the brand extension , in which the roster was divided between the Raw and SmackDown brands where wrestlers were exclusively assigned to perform— ECW became a third brand in 2006. The first brand extension was dissolved in August 2011, but it was reintroduced in July 2016. SummerSlam, along with
6860-532: The "biggest event of 2021". The 2021 event in turn became the highest-grossing SummerSlam event of all time. Beginning with WrestleMania 36 in 2020, WWE began holding WrestleMania as a two-night event. Beginning with the 2025 event , SummerSlam will also expand to two nights, scheduled for the MetLife stadium in East Rutherford on August 2 and 3, 2025; the 2026 edition had originally been announced as
7000-584: The 1920s, a group of wrestlers and promoters known as the Gold Dust Trio introduced moves which have since become staples of the mock combat of professional wrestling, such as body slams, suplexes , punches, finishing moves, and out-of-ring count-outs. By the early 1930s, most wrestlers had adopted personas to generate public interest. These personas could broadly be characterized as either faces (likeable) or heels (villainous). Native Americans, cowboys, and English aristocrats were staple characters in
7140-400: The 1930s and 1940s. Before the age of television, some wrestlers played different personas depending on the region they were performing in. This eventually came to an end in the age of national television wrestling shows, which forced wrestlers to stick to one persona. Wrestlers also often used some sort of gimmick, such as a finishing move, eccentric mannerisms, or out-of-control behavior (in
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#17328023179097280-460: The 1990s, WCW became a credible rival to the WWF, but by end it suffered from a series of creative missteps that led to its failure and purchase by the WWF. One of its mistakes was that it diminished the glamor of its World Heavyweight Championship . Between January 2000 and March 2001, the title changed hands eighteen times, which sapped fan enthusiasm, particularly for the climactic pay-per-view matches. In professional wrestling, two factors decide
7420-411: The 19th century, who later sought to make matches shorter, more entertaining, and less physically taxing. As the public gradually realized and accepted that matches were predetermined, wrestlers responded by increasingly adding melodrama, gimmickry, and outlandish stunt work to their performances to further enhance the spectacle . By at least the early 20th century, professional wrestling had diverged from
7560-653: The Atlantic Athletic Corporation (AAC). The AAC shut down in 1960. In 1958, Omaha promoter and NWA member Joe Dusek recognized Verne Gagne as the world champion without the approval of the NWA. Gagne asked for a match against the recognized NWA champion Pat O'Connor. The NWA refused to honor the request, so Gagne and Minneapolis promoter Wally Karbo established the American Wrestling Association in 1960. This AWA should not be confused with Paul Bowser's AWA, which ceased operations just two months prior. Gagne's AWA operated out of Minnesota . Unlike
7700-619: The Bank , referred to as the "Big Five". The event has been broadcast on pay-per-view (PPV) since the inaugural 1988 event and via livestreaming since the 2014 event . The inaugural SummerSlam took place on August 29, 1988, at Madison Square Garden in New York City . The 1992 event was the company's first major PPV to take place outside of North America with it being held at the original Wembley Stadium in London, England ; it had
7840-462: The Giant and met the victor. Savage hit a hotshot on the One Man Gang, but Gang quickly took control of the match. Gang attempted a 747 splash , but missed after Savage dodged and later fell to the outside as Savage connected with a diving double axe handle . Savage then went for a scoop slam which failed. One Man Gang's manager Slick jumped on the apron and handed One Man Gang a cane ; which he hit Savage with and attempted to jab him as he lay on
7980-484: The Giant interfered in the match on behalf of DiBiase, and whilst the referee was distracted, Hogan attacked DiBiase with a steel chair . Freed from the submission, Savage climbed up the top rope for a second elbow drop attempt and hit the Diving Elbow. He followed it up with a pinfall victory. He won the tournament and the vacant WWF World Heavyweight Championship, making Randy Savage the first person to ever win
8120-481: The Giant was shortly placed in a feud with "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, however, the DiBiase-André alliance was renewed when the two attacked Savage during a television taping for the WWF's syndicated show Superstars of Wrestling . DiBiase and Andre offered a tag team match to Savage at the inaugural SummerSlam , where Savage chose to partner with Hogan and create " The Mega Powers ". The team of Hogan and Savage won
8260-508: The Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship during the spring and summer of 1988, with Honky retaining the championship by being intentionally counted out or disqualified on multiple occasions. Beefcake was granted a "final" match at SummerSlam, but was sneak attacked by Ron Bass one week before the event. Honky then lost his championship at Summerslam to The Ultimate Warrior . Demolition defended
8400-492: The Islanders were disbanded with the departure of Tama (of The Islanders) and a short-lived teaming with Siva Afi , still as The Islanders. Race returned for a short run at the end of 1988, including the 1988 Survivor Series and 1989 Royal Rumble, his final major in-ring wrestling matches for the WWF in his lifetime. Several other wrestlers finished their WWF runs at or shortly after WrestleMania IV, including Butch Reed, Sika and Ricky Steamboat, although Steamboat would return to
8540-408: The NWA, at which point his territory became fair game for everyone. The NWA would blacklist wrestlers who worked for independent promoters or who publicly criticized an NWA promoter or who did not throw a match on command. If an independent promoter tried to establish himself in a certain area, the NWA would send their star performers to perform for the local NWA promoter to draw the customers away from
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#17328023179098680-488: The NWA, which only allowed faces to be champions, Gagne occasionally allowed heels to win the AWA championship so that they could serve as foils for him. In August 1983, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), a promotion in the north-east , withdrew from the NWA. Vince K. McMahon then took over as its boss. No longer bound by the territorial pact of the NWA, McMahon began expanding his promotion into
8820-487: The ThunderDome. Inside the ThunderDome, drones, lasers, pyro, smoke, and projections were utilized to enhance wrestlers' entrances, and nearly 1,000 LED boards were installed to allow for rows and rows of virtual fans, who could register for a free virtual seat. Arena audio was also mixed with that of the virtual fans. While SummerSlam has been considered WWE's second biggest event of the year for many years, in 2021, it
8960-415: The United States. From its inception up through that 2021 event, SummerSlam was held annually in August. The 2022 event marked the first and thus far only time that the event was not held in August, as it was instead held in July, with SummerSlam returning to August with the 2023 edition . The 2025 event will expand SummerSlam to two nights. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, that year's SummerSlam
9100-513: The WWF in the fall of 1987, and his feud with Hercules was his first major angle, the two feuding over who was the stronger, gladiatorial-style superstar in the WWF. To further the angle, the two met in a match on WWF television, wherein Hercules attacked Warrior with his steel chain and beat him down, but Warrior was able to fight back, gain control of the chain and began using it on Hercules until other wrestlers and officials were able to separate
9240-541: The WWF, but in the late summer of 1987, began to slowly turn face. Their on-screen friendship, then, was formed when Hogan (at the persuasion of Savage's valet, Miss Elizabeth ) intervened when Savage was being attacked by The Honky Tonk Man and the Hart Foundation in an angle . Although Hogan and Savage teamed together at un-televised house shows, nothing more was made of it on national television until shortly before WrestleMania IV, when Hogan rescued Savage in
9380-401: The arena's loudspeakers, his being Pomp and Circumstance . He also wore a costume: a robe and hairnet, which he removed after getting in the ring. He also had a pre-match ritual where his "butler" would spray the ring with perfume. In the 1980s, Vince McMahon made entrance songs, costumes, and rituals standard for his star wrestlers. For instance, McMahon's top star Hulk Hogan would delight
9520-418: The art of staging rigged matches and fostered a mentality that spectators were marks to be duped. The term kayfabe comes from carny slang. By the turn of the 20th century, most professional wrestling matches were "worked" and some journalists exposed the practice: American wrestlers are notorious for the amount of faking they do. It is because of this fact that suspicion attaches to so many bouts that
9660-561: The audience by tearing his shirt off before each match. The first major promoter cartel emerged on the East Coast, although up to that point, wrestling's heartland had been in the Midwest. Notable members of this cartel included Jack Curley , Lou Daro, Paul Bowser and Tom and Tony Packs. The promoters colluded to solve a number of problems that hurt their profits. Firstly, they could force their wrestlers to perform for less money. As
9800-536: The award, but André exited the arena before Hogan's speech was finished. In February, on an episode of Piper's Pit , André announced his new manager , Bobby Heenan , Hogan's longtime on-screen rival. Hogan asked André to leave Heenan, which André refused. André then challenged Hogan to a WWF World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania III , before ripping off Hogan's Hulkamania shirt and golden cross necklace, turning from an on-screen hero to villain ( heel ). At WrestleMania III, Hogan defeated André to retain
9940-403: The battle royal at WrestleMania IV, despite suffering a legitimate injury during a match against Hulk Hogan taped for a Saturday Night's Main Event program aired earlier in March 1988. Following WrestleMania IV, he took several months off, and his robe and crown were given to Haku. Haku thus went on to a major singles push during the rest of 1988 and into 1989 as "King Haku," the push coming after
10080-414: The belts from Demolition (by then once more villains) but for Bret Hart, this was merely the prelude to a run of singles championship success spanning the 1990s and including five WWF World championships , two WCW World championships , two WWF Intercontinental Championships and, at the time, four WCW US championships until his sudden retirement early in 2000, from which he briefly returned in 2010 to win
10220-412: The broader public. In the United States, wrestling is generally practiced in an amateur context. No professional league for competitive wrestling exists due to a lack of popularity. For example, Real Pro Wrestling , an American professional freestyle wrestling league, dissolved in 2007 after just two seasons. In other countries, such as Iran and India , wrestling enjoys widespread popularity as
10360-424: The cartel grew, there were fewer independent promoters where independent wrestlers could find work, and many were forced to sign a contract with the cartel to receive steady work. The contracts forbade them from performing at independent venues. A wrestler who refused to play by the cartel's rules was barred from performing at its venues. A second goal of the wrestling cartels was to establish an authority to decide who
10500-418: The case of heels). The matches could also be gimmicky sometimes, with wrestlers fighting in mud and piles of tomatoes and so forth. The most successful and enduring gimmick to emerge from the 1930s were tag-team matches. Promoters noticed that matches slowed down as the wrestlers in the ring tired, so they gave them partners to relieve them. It also gave heels another way to misbehave by double-teaming. Towards
10640-452: The chair, they both were disqualified by Marella and, as a result, were eliminated from the tournament. The second quarterfinal saw Ted DiBiase (without either André or Virgil after Virgil had been Suplexed in the aisle by Hulk Hogan) defeat Don Muraco by pinfall. With both André and Hogan disqualified, DiBiase got a bye to the final. The third quarterfinal saw Randy Savage defeat Greg Valentine also by pinfall. As One Man Gang had received
10780-492: The championship was vacated. As former champions, André the Giant and Hulk Hogan were given a bye and had directly qualified for the next round. In the first round, "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase (with bodyguard Virgil and André the Giant) defeated "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan by pinfall. "The Rock" Don Muraco (with Superstar Billy Graham ) defeated Dino Bravo (with Frenchy Martin ) by disqualification after Bravo pulled
10920-423: The character in shows must be considered fictional, wholly separate from the life of the performer. This is similar to other entertainers who perform with a persona that shares their own name. Some wrestlers also incorporate elements of their real-life personalities into their characters, even if they and their in-ring persona have different names. Kayfabe is the practice of pretending that professional wrestling
11060-512: The commission. The Commission did on very rare occasions hand out such authorizations, such as for a championship match between Jim Londos and Jim Browning in June 1934. This decree did not apply to amateur wrestling, which the commission had no authority over. Wrestling fans widely suspected that professional wrestling was fake, but they did not care as long as it entertained. In 1933, a wrestling promoter named Jack Pfefer started talking about
11200-468: The competitive sport to become an artform and genre of sports entertainment . Professional wrestling is performed around the world through various " promotions ", which are roughly analogous to production companies or sports leagues . Promotions vary considerably in size, scope, and creative approach, ranging from local shows on the independent circuit , to internationally broadcast events at major arenas. The largest and most influential promotions are in
11340-540: The current fashion of wrestling is the universal discussion as to the honesty of the matches. And certainly the most interesting phrase of this discussion is the unanimous agreement: "Who cares if they're fixed or not—the show is good." Newspapers tended to shun professional wrestling, as journalists saw its theatrical pretense to being a legitimate sport as untruthful. Eventually promoters resorted to publishing their own magazines in order to get press coverage and communicate with fans. The first professional wrestling magazine
11480-405: The end of the 1930s, faced with declining revenues, promoters chose to focus on grooming charismatic wrestlers with no regard for their skill because it was charisma that drew the crowds, and wrestlers who were both skilled at grappling and charismatic were hard to come by. Since most of the public by this time knew and accepted that professional wrestling was fake, realism was no longer paramount and
11620-468: The event "a below-average show", citing the event being "a 16 match card. That’s too many matches." Canton also commented on the length of these matches, and primary usage of "rest holds", and bad finishes. Bryan Rose from Voices of Wrestling called the show a "dud", before stating there was a "lot of nothing for 3 1/2 hours." Rose also suggested similarities that the event's length had to watch two Godfather films. Mike Powell of prowrestling.net called
11760-412: The event "really bad", and commented that had the show been less than three hours in length, rather than 4, it would have been an allround better show. However, John Powell, from SLAM! Wrestling called the event "excellent", saying that the show's greatness comes from its unpredictability. Powell, says that the show was "another tricky venture for Vince McMahon and he hits the jackpot again." Powell
11900-408: The event was between Hulk Hogan and André the Giant , similar to the year before when the two met at WrestleMania III . In January 1987, Hogan was awarded a trophy for his third year as WWF World Heavyweight Champion , while Hogan's on-screen friend André was awarded a smaller trophy than Hogan's for being undefeated in the WWF for the previous fifteen years. Hogan congratulated André over winning
12040-603: The facade of kayfabe as best as they could. In 1989, Vince McMahon testified before the New Jersey government that professional wrestling was not a true sport and therefore should be exempted from sports-related taxes. Many wrestlers and fans resented McMahon for this, but Lou Thesz accepted it as the smart move as it gave the industry more freedom to do as it pleased, and because by that point professional wrestling no longer attempted to appear real. The demise of WCW in 2001 provided some evidence that kayfabe still mattered to
12180-470: The first place. "Double-crosses", where a wrestler agreed to lose a match but nevertheless fought to win, remained a problem in the early cartel days. At times a promoter would even award a victorious double-crosser the title of champion to preserve the facade of sport. But promoters punished such wrestlers by blacklisting them, making it quite challenging to find work. Double-crossers could also be sued for breach of contract, such as Dick Shikat in 1936. In
12320-681: The first-ever two-night SummerSlam before WWE later announced that the 2025 event would be two nights. Additionally, a future two-night SummerSlam will be held at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana as part of a partnership with the Indiana Sports Corp, which will see the 2025 Royal Rumble and a future WrestleMania held at the stadium. From its inception in 1988 up through the 2021 event, SummerSlam had been held annually in August. The 2022 event , however,
12460-610: The game is not popular here. Nine out of ten bouts, it has been said, are pre-arranged affairs, and it would be no surprise if the ratio of fixed matches to honest ones was really so high. The wrestler Lou Thesz recalled that between 1915 and 1920, a series of exposés in the newspapers about the integrity of professional wrestling alienated a lot of fans, sending the industry "into a tailspin". But rather than perform more shoot matches, professional wrestlers instead committed themselves wholesale to fakery. Several reasons explain why professional wrestling became fake whereas boxing endured as
12600-460: The government. They pledged to stop allocating exclusive territories to its promoters, to stop blacklisting wrestlers who worked for outsider promoters, and to admit any promoter into the Alliance. The NWA would flout many of these promises, but its power was nonetheless weakened by the lawsuit. Paul Bowser's AWA joined the NWA in 1949. The AWA withdrew from the Alliance in 1957 and renamed itself
12740-417: The highest-grossing event outside of WrestleMania. Professional wrestling 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Professional wrestling (often referred to as pro wrestling , or simply, wrestling ) is a form of athletic theater that combines mock combat with drama , with the premise that the performers are competitive wrestlers. Professional wrestling
12880-526: The independent. By 1956, the NWA controlled 38 promotions within the United States, with more in Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. The NWA's monopolistic practices became so stifling that the independents appealed to the government for help. In October 1956 the US Attorney General's office filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NWA in an Iowa federal district court. The NWA settled with
13020-492: The individual wrestlers are paid or have been paid for their performance in a professional wrestling exhibition. All engagements of professional wrestling shall be referred to as exhibitions, and not as matches. In the industry's slang, a fixed match is referred to as a worked match, derived from the slang word for manipulation, as in "working the crowd". A shoot match is a genuine contest where both wrestlers fight to win and are therefore "straight shooters", which comes from
13160-480: The industry was anything but a competitive sport. The first wrestling promoter to publicly admit to routinely fixing matches was Jack Pfefer . In 1933, he started talking about the industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , resulting in a huge exposé. The exposé neither surprised nor alienated most wrestling fans, although some promoters like Jack Curley were furious and tried to restore
13300-496: The industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , maintaining no pretense that wrestling was real and passing on planned results just before the matches took place. While fans were neither surprised nor alienated, traditionalists like Jack Curley were furious, and most promoters tried to maintain the facade of kayfabe as best they could. Not the least interesting of all the minor phenomena produced by
13440-586: The lineup to capitalize on the success of his previous events. In addition to WrestleMania in March/April, Survivor Series in November, and Royal Rumble in January, McMahon created an event for August, which he named SummerSlam. The inaugural SummerSlam was scheduled to be held on August 29, 1988, at Madison Square Garden in New York City , New York . To keep the WWF from having a pay-per-view market monopoly, Turner began airing monthly WCW pay-per-views. As
13580-485: The mat, but Savage kept rolling away. The referee caught Gang using his cane and disqualified him, awarding the match to Savage. Before the final round, Strike Force ( Tito Santana and Rick Martel ) defended the WWF World Tag Team Championship against Demolition ( Ax and Smash ), with their manager Mr. Fuji in their corner. The match started with Strike Force hitting Smash with
13720-596: The match before Savage turned heel against Hogan at The Main Event II . Hogan challenged Savage for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania V , with Hogan winning the title. In Hogan's absence, André the Giant's main focus for much of the summer of 1988 would be on Hacksaw Jim Duggan. The feud began when Duggan confronted André during a squash match involving the latter, before André suddenly grabbed Duggan and began attacking him violently, only for Duggan to knock him out with his 2x4 board . André would win
13860-536: The match with Dynamite catapulting Tama over the top rope. Smith tagged in, but missed an elbow drop on Tama, allowing Tama to tag Haku. Smith hit a flying crossbody on Haku for a near-fall . Haku hit an arm wrench and tagged Tama. Tama grabbed Smith's arm and came out of it with a military press slam . Tama tagged in Haku who put Davey in a backbreaker , but Smith flipped out of it and tagged in Koko. He hit Haku with
14000-498: The members of wrestling cartels as the champion drew big crowds wherever he performed, and this would occasionally lead to schisms. By 1925, this cartel had divided the country up into territories which were the exclusive domains of specific promoters. This system of territories endured until Vince McMahon drove the fragmented cartels out of the market in the 1980s. This cartel fractured in 1929 after one of its members, Paul Bowser , bribed Ed "Strangler" Lewis to lose his championship in
14140-530: The most successful professional wrestling pay-per-view event in history, 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 , an event airing for free 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
14280-622: 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 . WrestleMania IV 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). As the WWF continued to replace its closed circuit programming with pay-per-view programming, McMahon added more pay-per-views to
14420-576: The other original "Big Four" events, were the only PPVs to never be held exclusively for one brand during either brand split periods. In 2014, SummerSlam began to air on WWE's online streaming service, the WWE Network , which launched in February that year, and in 2021, the event became available on Peacock as the American version of the WWE Network merged under Peacock in March that year. As
14560-550: The pandemic. On August 17, WWE announced that SummerSlam would emanate from Orlando's Amway Center and it would be produced by way of a bio-secure bubble dubbed the WWE ThunderDome , which was first utilized for the August 21 episode of SmackDown . This made SummerSlam the first major WWE event to be held outside of the Performance Center since March 2020, as well as their first pay-per-view produced from
14700-717: The promotion's closing in 1991. In the spring of 1984, the WWF purchased Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), which had been ailing for some time due to financial mismanagement and internal squabbles. In the deal, the WWF acquired the GCW's timeslot on TBS . McMahon agreed to keep showing Georgia wrestling matches in that timeslot, but he was unable to get his staff to Atlanta every Saturday to fulfill this obligation, so he sold GCW and its TBS timeslot to Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). JCP started informally calling itself World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In 1988, Ted Turner bought JCP and formally renamed it World Championship Wrestling. During
14840-439: The purpose of providing entertainment to spectators and which does not comprise a bona fide athletic contest or competition. Professional wrestling is not a combative sport. Wrestling constituting bona fide athletic contests and competitions, which may be professional or amateur combative sport, shall not be deemed professional wrestling under this Part. Professional wrestling as used in this Part shall not depend on whether
14980-613: The referee in front of him, causing the referee to be hit by a flying forearm from Muraco. "Macho Man" Randy Savage (with Miss Elizabeth ) defeated "The Natural" Butch Reed (with Slick ), Greg "The Hammer" Valentine (with "The Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart ) defeated Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat , the One Man Gang (with Slick) defeated Bam Bam Bigelow (with Oliver Humperdink ), and "Ravishing" Rick Rude (with Bobby "The Brain" Heenan ) fought Jake "The Snake" Roberts to
15120-435: The ring. All six men brawled in the ring before being separated by the referee, who ordered the Bulldogs into their corner. The Islanders used this distraction to pick up Heenan and throw him onto Koko, leading to a pinfall victory. Next, Randy Savage faced One Man Gang for a place in the final of the tournament. Ted DiBiase had already received a bye in the semi-finals due to the double disqualification of Hulk Hogan and André
15260-421: The ring. Following this, Santana introduced another power team, The Powers of Pain ( The Barbarian and The Warlord ) to avenge both the injury and title loss. The Powers substituted for Strike Force in their remaining scheduled return title matches, after which The British Bulldogs and The Rockers became Demolition's primary challengers. The Powers became top challengers again in late 1988 after an incident at
15400-400: The show was "bad". McNew was frustrated by the number of matches on the show, and the size of the tournament, saying "This show could have been so much better had they trimmed the tournament down to eight guys from fourteen. Instead, we got a bunch of short matches, none of which ended up being memorable. The show had its moments and isn't all terrible. Just way too long. Savage-Dibiase provides
15540-440: The stamina for an hours-long fight. Audiences also preferred short matches. Worked matches also carried less risk of injury, which meant shorter recovery. Altogether, worked matches proved more profitable than shoots. By the end of the 19th century, nearly all professional wrestling matches were worked. A major influence on professional wrestling was carnival culture. Wrestlers in the late 19th century worked in carnival shows. For
15680-587: The tag team championships against former champions Strike Force, The Young Stallions, and occasionally the Rougeau Brothers . In June 1988, Rick Martel took a leave of absence from the WWF to tend to real-life family issues, so a storyline was devised to end the Demolition-Strike Force feud, whereby Martel would be (in kayfabe) seriously injured by Ax and Smash by using their finishing move, the "Demolition Decapitation", on him outside of
15820-426: The territories of his former NWA peers, now his rivals. By the end of the 1980s, the WWF would become the sole national wrestling promotion in the U.S. This was in part made possible by the rapid spread of cable television in the 1980s. The national broadcast networks generally regarded professional wrestling as too niche an interest, and had not broadcast any national wrestling shows since the 1950s. Before cable TV,
15960-425: The title. At the first Survivor Series in November 1987, André along with team members One Man Gang , King Kong Bundy , Butch Reed , and Rick Rude defeated Hogan, Paul Orndorff , Don Muraco , Ken Patera , and Bam Bam Bigelow in a traditional Survivor Series match . Shortly after Survivor Series, during Hogan's WWF World Heavyweight Championship defense against Bundy, André sneak-attacked Hogan, applying
16100-400: The top rope battle royal . The winner of the match would receive a trophy. After fourteen eliminations, the final six participants were Bad News Brown , Bret Hart , Paul Roma , Harley Race , Jacques Rougeau , and Junkyard Dog . Race hit a back body drop on Rougeau, sending him over the top rope before Junkyard Dog punched him over the top rope. Brown eliminated Roma as Junkyard Dog
16240-570: The top rope to win the battle royal. Brown was presented with the trophy, but Hart interrupted and hit Brown with the trophy. Hart and partner Jim Neidhart later turned babyface over the next few months. Before the 14-man tournament for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship began, Robin Leach from the TV show " Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous " outlined the background for the tournament, and how
16380-412: The top turnbuckle and both men fell to the mat with both men being pinned. Warrior lifted a shoulder before the end of the count, awarding Warrior the win. The first of three quarterfinals saw Hulk Hogan take on André the Giant. During the match, Hogan hit André with a chair in front of referee Joey Marella . André retaliated, grabbing the chair and hitting Hogan. After both men hit each other with
16520-519: The trial, witnesses testified that most of the "big matches" and all of the championship bouts were fixed. By the 1930s, with the exception of the occasional double-cross or business dispute, shoot matches were essentially nonexistent. In April 1930, the New York State Athletic Commission decreed that all professional wrestling matches held in the state had to be advertised as exhibitions unless certified as contests by
16660-471: The truth, their audiences would desert them. Today's performers don't "protect" the industry like we did, but that's primarily because they've already exposed it by relying on silly or downright ludicrous characters and gimmicks to gain popularity with the fans. It was different in my day, when our product was presented as an authentic, competitive sport. We protected it because we believed it would collapse if we ever so much as implied publicly that it
16800-483: The two. After being left off the WrestleMania III card, The Islanders were in the middle of their second major feud since turning heel in the spring of 1987, going up against The British Bulldogs . The storyline began shortly after the inaugural Survivor Series , when during a match on WWF Superstars Of Wrestling , the Islanders took the Bulldogs' mascot , Matilda the bulldog , from ringside. Following
16940-621: The vacant title. This marked the first WrestleMania that did not feature Hulk Hogan - regarded as the WWF's biggest star in the 1980s - as a participant in the main event (though he was at ringside in Savage's corner). The undercard featured a 20-man battle royal won by Bad News Brown , Demolition ( Ax and Smash ) versus Strike Force ( Tito Santana and Rick Martel ) for the WWF Tag Team Championship , and Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake versus The Honky Tonk Man for
17080-405: The venue, in a format similar to reality television . Performers generally integrate authentic wrestling techniques and fighting styles with choreography , stunts , improvisation , and dramatic conventions designed to maximize entertainment value and audience engagement. Professional wrestling as a performing art evolved from the common practice of match-fixing among American wrestlers in
17220-535: The way of proceedings: the "in-show" happenings, presented through the shows; and real-life happenings outside the work that have implications, such as performer contracts, legitimate injuries, etc. Because actual life events are often co-opted by writers for incorporation into storylines of performers, the lines between real life and fictional life are often blurred and become confused. Special discern must be taken with people who perform under their own name (such as Kurt Angle and his fictional persona ). The actions of
17360-416: The world championship at WrestleMania (as the championship was not defended at the inaugural event and Hulk Hogan successfully retained at the following two installments). After the match, Hogan, Elizabeth and Savage celebrated Savage's WWF Championship win. The attendance for the event was announced as 19,199, with a total of $ 1,400,000 in admission fees. This total was significantly reduced from that of
17500-420: The wrestlers quietly began faking their matches so that they could give their audiences a satisfying spectacle. Fixing matches was also convenient for scheduling. A real ("shoot") match could sometimes last hours, whereas a fixed ("worked") match can be made short, which was convenient for wrestlers on tour who needed to keep appointments or share venues. It also suited wrestlers who were aging and therefore lacked
17640-561: The year. From 1993 to 2002, it was considered one of the "Big Five", including King of the Ring , but that PPV event was discontinued after 2002. In August 2021, Money in the Bank became recognized as one of the "Big Five". In May 2002, the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) following a lawsuit with the World Wildlife Fund over the "WWF" initialism. In April 2011, the promotion ceased using its full name with
17780-425: Was Wrestling As You Like It , which printed its first issue in 1946. These magazines were faithful to kayfabe . Before the advent of television, professional wrestling's fanbase largely consisted of children, the elderly, blue-collar workers and minorities. When television arose in the 1940s, professional wrestling got national exposure on prime-time television and gained widespread popularity. Professional wrestling
17920-414: Was WWE's first PPV and livestreaming event produced from their bio-secure bubble , the WWE ThunderDome . After the promotion resumed live touring with fans in July 2021, that year's SummerSlam was promoted as the "biggest event of 2021" due to WrestleMania 37 having to be held at a reduced venue capacity. The 2021 SummerSlam in turn became the highest-grossing SummerSlam event of all time until that record
18060-564: Was accompanied to the ring by Andre The Giant, whilst Savage had his regular valet Miss Elizabeth. Savage had wrestled three prior matches, whilst DiBiase had wrestled one fewer, having received a bye from the quarterfinals. DiBiase controlled much of the match, before a fightback from Savage, who attempted a top rope elbow drop on DiBiase, but DiBiase moved out of the way. DiBiase applied a Million Dollar Dream submission on Savage. To aid Savage, Elizabeth went backstage to bring Hulk Hogan to ringside to neutralize André being at ringside. André
18200-433: Was announced that Beefcake won by disqualification , which meant that Honky was still the champion. Post-match, with Honky Tonk apparently knocked out in the ring, Beefcake cut the hair of Hart with his barber shears . The Islanders ( Haku and Tama ) and manager Bobby Heenan took on The British Bulldogs ( Davey Boy Smith and Dynamite Kid ) and Koko B. Ware in a six-man tag team match. Dynamite and Tama started
18340-514: Was broken with the 2023 event, which also became the highest-grossing non-WrestleMania event for WWE. 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,
18480-488: Was challenges from independent wrestlers. But a cartelized wrestler, if challenged, could credibly use his contractual obligations to his promoter as an excuse to refuse the challenge. Promotions would sometimes respond to challenges with "policemen": powerful wrestlers who lacked the charisma to become stars, but could defeat and often seriously injure any challenger in a shoot match. As the industry trend continued, there were fewer independent wrestlers to make such challenges in
18620-471: Was highlighted in the broadcast. Much of the promotion of the event featured the continued rivalry of André the Giant and Hulk Hogan , who had faced off in the previous edition's main event . This took place inside of a single elimination fourteen-man tournament for the vacant WWF World Heavyweight Championship . The event was broadcast across closed-circuit television to 175,000 homes, and also on PPV. The most heavily promoted feud heading into
18760-415: Was left to battle Hart and Brown. The duo double teamed Dog before Brown attempted a clothesline on Dog, but hit Hart instead. Junkyard Dog hit both men with several headbutts before they both decided to cooperate and they eliminated Junkyard Dog. After eliminating Dog, Hart indicated that he and Brown would share the trophy; however, Brown caught Hart with his Ghetto Blaster before eliminating him over
18900-523: Was previously considered a niche interest, but the TV networks at the time were short on content and thus were willing to try some wrestling shows. In the 1960s, however, the networks moved on to more mainstream interests such as baseball, and professional wrestling was dropped. The core audience then shrunk back to a profile similar to that of the 1930s. In 1989, Vince McMahon was looking to exempt his promotion (the World Wrestling Federation ) from sports licensing fees. To achieve this, he testified before
19040-642: Was promoted as the promotion's biggest event of that year. WrestleMania 37 in April 2021, which was the promotion's first event with live fans since before the pandemic, had to be held at a reduced venue capacity due to the ongoing pandemic. In July 2021, WWE resumed live touring with fans, and in an effort to sell out that year's SummerSlam , which was held at the Allegiant Stadium in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada , WWE promoted SummerSlam as
19180-415: Was something other than what it appeared to be. I'm not sure now the fear was ever justified given the fact that the industry is still in existence today, but the point is no one questioned the need then. "Protecting the business" in the face of criticism and skepticism was the first and most important rule a pro wrestler learned. No matter how aggressive or informed the questioner, you never admitted
19320-417: Was the "world champion". Before the cartels, there were multiple wrestlers in the U.S. simultaneously calling themselves the "world champion", and this sapped public enthusiasm for professional wrestling. Likewise, the cartel could agree on a common set of match rules that the fans could keep track of. The issue over who got to be the champion and who controlled said champion was a major point of contention among
19460-616: Was the first SummerSlam to not be held in August, as it was instead held in July. It took place on Saturday, July 30, 2022, at the Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee . The 2023 event was scheduled for Saturday, August 5, 2023, at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan , thus returning SummerSlam to the month of August. The 2023 event would break the 2021 event's record to become the highest-grossing SummerSlam of all time, as well as
19600-413: Was very positive about the show's tournament, stating that it and Savage's title win was the highlights of the night. Bret Mix from Wrestling DVD Network commented on the structure of the event, before calling the event "average", but "underrated" for its high quality of matches throughout the show, despite the number of matches. As an event in the annual WrestleMania series of events, WrestleMania IV
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