SummerSlam (1996)

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SummerSlam
SummerSlam 1996.jpg
Promotional poster featuring Shawn Michaels and Vader
PromotionWorld Wrestling Federation, Hits of the World Wrestling Federation: We Gotta Wrestle
DateAugust 18, 1996
CityCleveland, Ohio
VenueGund Arena
Attendance~17,000[1]
Tagline(s)Opposites Attack!
Pay-per-view chronology
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The 1996 SummerSlam was the ninth annual SummerSlam professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It took place on August 18, 1996, at the Gund Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Nine matches were contested at the event, including one match on the Free for All pre-show.

Background[]

SummerSlam is an annual pay-per-view (PPV), produced every August by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) since 1988. Dubbed "The Biggest Party of the Summer,"[2] it is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series,[3] and was considered one of the "Big Five" PPVs, along with King of the Ring.[4] It has since become considered WWF's second biggest event of the year behind WrestleMania.[5][6] The 1996 event was the ninth event in the SummerSlam chronology and was scheduled to be held on August 18, 1996, at the Gund Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.[1]

Faarooq Asad had been scheduled to face Ahmed Johnson in a match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship at the event, but the match did not take place as Johnson was legitimately injured.

Event[]

During the Free for All match between Stone Cold Steve Austin and Yokozuna, the top rope broke when Yokozuna attempted a Banzai Drop, enabling Austin a guaranteed victory.

Todd Pettengill hosted the "Bikini Beach Blast-Off" party during the Free for All, where a pool was set up for everyone. Guests included Sunny, Sable, Marc Mero, The Smoking Gunns, Marlena, Goldust, T.L. Hopper, Who, Jerry Lawler, The Bushwhackers, Aldo Montoya, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, and Shawn Michaels.

The penultimate event was the first ever Boiler Room Brawl, Mankind’s specialty match. The heel Mankind would be facing The Undertaker, whom Mankind had been harassing and assaulting at random for months. Mankind would often hang out in the darkness of an arena’s boiler room (also known as a mechanical room), which was often hot and dusty, and where most of the arena’s internal infrastructure was. This match first featured The Undertaker entering the Gund Arena’s boiler room to seek out his arch-enemy, but Mankind struck first and they then proceeded to brawl for 30 minutes in the boiler room, the arena’s corridors, the entrance ramp and finally the ring, where Paul Bearer was waiting for one of the wrestlers to take his urn, which was the winning objective of the match. Bearer turned on his long-time protege, The Undertaker, to align himself with Mankind.

Vader had originally won the WWF Championship match twice, first by countout (after he press-slammed Michaels onto the guard rail) and then by disqualification (when Michaels struck Vader repeatedly with Cornette's tennis racket), but because WWF championships can only change hands by pinfall or submission, Cornette demanded that the match restart both times. WWF President Gorilla Monsoon allowed this when Michaels agreed. Before the main event Vader used a new version of his theme "Mastodon (V2)" with quotes in an interview with Dok Hendrix for the final hype for the main event.

Results[]

No. Results Stipulations Times
1F Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated Yokozuna Singles match 1:52
2 Owen Hart defeated Savio Vega Singles match 13:23
3 The Smoking Gunns (Billy and Bart) (c) (with Sunny) defeated The New Rockers (Leif Cassidy and Marty Jannetty), and The Godwinns (Henry O. and Phineas I.) (with Hillbilly Jim) and The Bodydonnas (Skip and Zip) Four-Way Elimination match for the WWF Tag Team Championship 12:18
4 Sycho Sid defeated The British Bulldog (with Jim Cornette) Singles match 6:24
5 Goldust (with Marlena) defeated Marc Mero (with Sable) Singles match 11:01
6 Jerry Lawler defeated Jake Roberts Singles match 4:07
7 Mankind defeated The Undertaker (with Paul Bearer) Boiler Room Brawl 26:40
8 Shawn Michaels (c) (with José Lothario) defeated Vader (with Jim Cornette) Singles match for the WWF Championship 22:58
  • (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
  • F – indicates the match was broadcast prior to the pay-per-view on Free for All

Other on-screen talent[]

Commentators
Interviewers
Referees
Spanish Commentators
Others

References[]

  1. ^ a b "WWF SummerSlam 1996 « Events Database « CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database". www.cagematch.net. Retrieved 2019-07-26.
  2. ^ Dee, Louie (2006-05-17). "Let the Party Begin". WWE.com. Retrieved 2008-05-12.
  3. ^ Ian Hamilton. Wrestling's Sinking Ship: What Happens to an Industry Without Competition (p. 160)
  4. ^ Sullivan, Kevin (November 23, 2010). The WWE Championship: A Look Back at the Rich History of the WWE Championship. Gallery Books. p. 124. ISBN 9781439193211. At the time, SummerSlam was one of WWE's "big five" Pay-Per-Views (Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, King of the Ring, and Survivor Series were the others), ...
  5. ^ "Could Brock Lesnar beat three men at SummerSlam to remain in the WWE?".
  6. ^ "WWE SummerSlam 2018 matches, card, location, date, start time, predictions PPV rumors".
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