Before we start, I am fully aware that I have suggested that there is already too much wrestling to watch….HOWEVER! I also thought it might be fun to dig back into the archive for something different…We are now on the road to Summerslam and I wanted to dig deep into the vault, back to a warm August night at Madison Square Garden in 1988 for the first ever Summerslam!

A small note, I owned this event on VHS when I was younger, so I’m going to try my best to not get nostalgic about it and do my best to tell you whether it is worth your time watching.

I also fully acknowledge that there are some people on this card that are subject to some piss poor behaviour (wait…I covered that subject here too!) and I don’t want anyone to think I’m celebrating them. Don’t be a racist, sexist, homophobic waste of skin…and that’s just Hulk Hogan!

Fun fact of the day, at this point Wrestlemania was established, the first Survivor Series was the previous year, and the first Royal Rumble would launch the following year. “The Big Four” has become part of the wrestling lexicon. In 1988, there weren’t 4 PPV level events in the WWE calendar. Anyway, back to the event…

The selling point of this 10-match card was The Mega Powers (Hulk Hogan & Macho Man Randy Savage) vs The Mega Bucks (André The Giant & The Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase) with Jesse Ventura as the guest referee. It was part of an ongoing story between all 4 participants, which started at Wrestlemania 3 and would continue to Wrestlemania 5! There was a time not so long ago that a two-year storyline would have been a thing of the past, but here in 2025…we’ve had some again! What a time to be alive!

Let’s get down to the actual wrestling!

First Match: The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers (Jaques & Raymond) vs The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith & The Dynamite Kid)

This is a decent opener that has held up excellently over time; it is a very traditional heel vs. face tag match. Rule-breaking, ref distraction, hot tags, power moves, cheap heat, double team moves, and an excellent story told from start to finish.

The Bulldog’s combination of high energy and tag team offence is balanced by the Rougeau’s dirty tricks and submission moves.

This match runs to a 20-minute broadway(draw), which, rather frighteningly, makes this one match almost as long as the following 5 matches and the longest on the card. This feels like a modern TV main event match, in a good way. Wide open finish to keep a story alive and rolling.

Second Match: Ken Patera vs Bad News Brown – Winner

It’s hard to say anything positive about this match. It’s not awful, but it is a real throwaway encounter. The strangest thing in this bout is the commentary, Gorilla Monsoon and Superstar Billy Graham make numerous references to Patera’s Olympic appearance and Pan American games medals (YAY! USA! USA!) for weight lifting, yet make no reference to Bad News’ Olympic and Pan American games medals for Judo…Patera got some action, but the match barely felt out of Bad News’ control. I guess you can’t expect miracles in 6 minutes. 

Third Match: Ravishing Rick Rude vs The Junkyard Dog – Winner

This is an example of the change in the WWE from 1988 to 2025. This match exists purely to further the feud between Rick Rude and Jake “The Snake” Roberts. It’s hard to fathom a Summerslam match that would end in a disqualification because of a run-in these days, let alone to exist to further a feud. Rick Rude had some truly spectacular matches, and this is forgettable at best. It feels like it would be a match in the middle of Smackdown, not a match worthy of the big four

Fourth Match:  The Bolsheviks (Boris Zhukov & Nikolai Volkoff) vs The Powers of Pain (The Barbarian & The Warlord) – Winners

Let me sum up this example of vintage 80s WWF quickly for you…

Roid monster 1 & roid monster 2 vs foreign heel 1 & foreign heel 2. Roid monsters beat foreign heels in 5 minutes. I struggle to remember watching a match that Boris Zhukov was involved in, where he wasn’t on the receiving end of a pin fall. The Powers of Pain are frighteningly agile dudes their size, but a few spots doesn’t cover the sense of this being a filler match. 

Up next was a Brother Love interview with Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Find the fast forward button or go to the bathroom. This feels out of place, and would have been better suited on a weekly show. I guess everyone needs a chance to go to the bathroom…even the audience.

Fifth Match: Intercontinental Title Match: The Honky Tonk Man vs The Ultimate Warrior – Winner

This match was meant to be Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake vs The Honky Tonk Man, but a previous segment had shown “The Barber” being injured by “The Outlaw” Ron Bass. HTM’s opponent was presented as a mystery until the final seconds, when the white hot Ultimate Warrior’s music played.

It took me longer to type that paragraph than the match took…seriously, press play on this one and watch the whole thing in 3 minutes…

FULL MATCH – Ultimate Warrior vs. The Honky Tonk Man – Intercontinental Title Match: SummerSlam 1988

Classic Warrior squash. Lots of running, rope shaking, punches, flying tackle, clotheslines, big splash, done.

Judge this however you want. When I was a kid, this was the best thing ever! It is a short match, full of energy, and as much as I try, I can’t shake the nostalgia.

Up next, Gene Okerland interviews Sugar Ray Leonard about an upcoming boxing match. I’m guessing Vince had invested in a PPV. Fast forward time.

Back to the booth with Gorilla and Superstar…they are interrupted by Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, who stays in the commentary position for the next match. 

Sixth Match:  “The Rock” Don Muraco vs Dino Bravo – Winner

This match continues the theme of roid monsters and foreign heels. Dino Bravo’s manager Frenchie Martin is carrying a sign that says, “USA is not OK”. The most redeeming thing about this match is you are given a brief glimpse into the classic commentary team of Monsoon and Heenan, which actually made me realise how weak Monsoon and Superstar are as a pairing.

Other than that, it’s 2 big dudes hitting each other and not much else.

Interlude – Sean Mooney interviews Jesse Ventura. This interview is meant to cast doubt on Jesse’s ability to call the main event fairly. Jesse nails everything. The man is one of the best talkers ever, this short segment completely re-enforces that.

Seventh Match: Tag Team Title Match: The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart) vs Demolition (Ax & Smash) – Winners

Third tag match on the card, and another very enjoyable offering for very similar reasons to the opener. In this case, we get a winner with Demolition via some dirty tricks with assistance from Mr. Fuji and Jimmy Hart.

This is a strange match to try and recommend anyone check out because two years later at Summerslam 1990, they had an excellent two out of three falls match. This outing isn’t bad for 10 minutes, but if you want to see these guys at their best, hunt out the 1990 encounter.

Interlude Sean Mooney interviews a very angry Honky Tonk Man. It was amazing to see the very genuine anger from him in this short segment. Sorry Honky, you got the bum deal.

Eighth Match:  Koko B. Ware vs The Big Boss Man – Winner

When The Big Boss Man arrived in the WWE he was a massive guy (and not in a good way), in his defence was pretty agile for someone near the 400lb mark. However, he was massively blown up after about 4 minutes of this match and suffered for it. It’s amazing how much weight he would go on to drop and go on to become a valuable part of the mid card in years to come. This outing is totally forgettable again.

Interlude Sean Mooney interviews The Ultimate Warrior. This was a few years before the Warrior’s promo’s became complete (glorious) nonsense, but the level of intensity is something else! Warrior didn’t take a bump during the match…he probably took a different bump before this promo…

Ninth Match: Hercules vs Jake “The Snake” Roberts – Winner

I don’t remember Hercules having decent matches, he was a roid monster in a sea of roid monsters, but throw in the masterful Jake Roberts and suddenly you have a decent match on your hands. I remember enjoying this as a kid; as an adult, I can’t help but notice the masterclass of selling, subtlety and psychology on display by Roberts. Roberts has easily had better matches, but this is an example of Jake bringing up an opponent in defeat.

Cue the build-up to the main event…

The video package only focuses on the build up to this match, which is a shame as it wouldn’t have hurt to bring in the history between Hogan and André and Savage’s title win at Wrestlemania 4. That would have made this match feel even more important.

Final Match: The Mega Bucks (AndréThe Giant & The Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase) vs The Mega Powers (Hulk Hogan & Macho Man Randy Savage) – Winners

FULL MATCH – Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage vs. Andre the Giant & The Million Dollar Man: SummerSlam 1988

This is a classic tag team ensemble match where everyone involved plays their role effectively. Savage and Dibiase’s exchanges are smooth and technical, André plays the equaliser to any offensive build-ups, Hogan works the crowd and sells like a champ, the managers (Elizabeth, Bobby Heenan, and Virgil) interfere at the right times, and Ventura nails his role as the heel guest referee.

As I said earlier, I owned this event on VHS as a child, but tonight, watching it for the first time in years, I saw something I had never seen before: a flicker of jealousy in Savage’s eyes as he saw Elizabeth hugging Hogan in celebration. It was the briefest glimpse, but it was an incredible hint of what was coming over the following months as the Hogan and Savage feud built towards Wrestlemania 5.

It’s also fair to say, any time you are faced with a big Hogan match, his command of the crowd makes it hard not to get a little swept up in the match, no matter the quality.

Is this a main event to the standard we would expect now? Probably not. But it is an interesting combination of performers, at a high point in their careers.

In Conclusion…

Is this card worth your time?

Maybe. This is more of a glimpse into the WWE at this time, rather than an event that is worth nearly 3 hours of your time. A history lesson, more than a strong outing. Of the 10 matches on the card, 5 are easily forgotten, and of the remaining 5 matches, each wrestler has had stronger performances. To a certain extent, you could do some serious skipping and get through it a lot quicker.

Non-finishes feel like a terrible thing on a big card, but I’ve always been a fan of the broadway as a storytelling device. Tt is far more interesting than a double count out or disqualification and can add to an ongoing feud by raising the participants. The opening bout delivers on this front, however, there are probably better draw/time limit finishes out there. It was a strong opener, though.

It’s almost worth watching The Bolsheviks vs The Powers of Pain for a benchmark of the roid monsters in WWE at this time. If this era has escaped you, it’s only a few minutes…

You can watch the Warrior match, including build-up up in less than 3 minutes, it is far from his best in ring performance (check out his match with Randy Savage at Wrestlemania 7), but I can’t help but think this is a crazy moment in the history of the WWE. Two very important moments occur in 30 seconds. Firstly, The Ultimate Warrior wins his first title, which would send him on the path to his iconic champion vs champion match with Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania 6. Second, it was the end of one of the longest single reigns of the WWE intercontinental title. The Honky Tonk Man held the title for 454 days and lost it in 30 seconds. This is one for the history books, mostly for shock factor rather than match quality.

The main event is a footnote in the story of Hogan and Savage, is it a match that will be talked about on lists for the greatest matches ever? No. Does it serve a purpose to further the storyline between Hogan and Savage? Perfectly.

It is also a glimpse, for better or worse, into how far women have come in the WWE. In 1988, Elizabeth’s involvement was taking off her dress as the men in the match stood around shocked, staring at her. Mainstream wrestling has come a long way and I am going to remind myself that Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey deserved to headline Wrestlemania because it was the hottest thing in wrestling at the time…mostly because of Becky.

Wrestlemania 1 has not aged well and I think it’s fair to say the same of 2. Wrestlemania 3 was the first event of that name that really showed potential for being a special event. Hogan vs André and Savage vs Steamboat were both excellent for different reasons, the rest of the card wasn’t great, but it laid some of the groundwork for what we know as a super card in the WWE.

Summerslam ’88 suffers from a similar problem. Was it great? No. Are there better Summerslams from this era? Yes.

If you are an older fan, like myself, is it worth watching out of nostalgic curiosity? Sure. It’s a walk down memory lane, that you could stick on in the background and tune in and out when needed.

However, if you are relatively new to the world of wrestling then it’s probably not worth your time. If you do wish to dig into the archives of “biggest party of the summer”, I’d say 92, at Wembley Stadium is a stronger contender from this time period and feels more relevant given AEW’s shows at Wembley.

Summerslam ‘92 was (at the time) the only major WWE pay per view event held outside North America. The 80,000 strong crowd was white hot from start to finish (I’m a little biased as a 10 year old me is part of that number). Big entrances from the Legion of Doom and the Undertaker. Classic matches from The Ultimate Warrior vs Randy Savage and the main event between Bret Hart and The British Bulldog are the highlights. I’m not going to pretend that Crush vs The Repoman is going to change your life, but it’s a better match than Ken Patera vs Bad News Brown. Michael Partridge

All images used courtesy of WWE

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