WWF SummerSlam 1993: Every Match Ranked From Worst To Best

The Biggest Party of the Summer in 1993 saw the American Hero Lex Luger challenge Yokozuna for the WWF Championship in the main event with the support of the whole USA. WWF had also promised the best Intercontinental Title match ever in the form of Shawn Michaels vs. Mr. Perfect. Was it the greatest match? Find out in this post as we rank all the matches from the show.

10. The Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez (Rest In Peace Match)

So after so much promotion of the ” Rest in Peace” stipulation, it turned out to be just a No DQ, No count-out match… I doubt anyone was excited for this match, but WWF could have at least tried. This match was slightly better than their ‘Mania encounter but that doesn’t say match and it was still very bad. If I had to watch either of their matches again, I would probably prefer to stop watching wrestling. (DUD)

9. Ludvig Borga vs. Marty Jannetty

I don’t mind squash matches if done right and if done with the right wrestlers, but this was the occasion where the chosen wrestler was wrong. The Ludvig Borga character is totally bland and uninteresting and this squash match was very boring. (*)

8. IRS vs. The 1-2-3 Kid

I am not sure if this should have been on the card but it was a fine match and didn’t get boring. It had some good stuff but I genuinely want to know what was the point of IRS winning when The 1-2-3 Kid had been on such a roll. The Kid should have definitely won here with a roll-up or something. (**)

7. Bret Hart vs. Doink

This was supposed to be Bret Hart vs. Jerry Lawler but Lawler faked an injury and instead we got Doink face Bret Hart first. The match isn’t anything special and is way below the standards that Bret Hart had set for his PPV matches. But the match was never supposed to be good technically anyway, and I would say it served its purpose and was a nice bridge to go into the actual match. (**1/2)

6. Ted Dibiase vs. Razor Ramon

This match was obviously done to put over Razor Ramon. Razor was a very popular wrestler and was loved by the fans, and Dibiase was the perfect veteran to do the job here. The match was solid and even though the ending was quite generic, with these two wrestlers it made sense and I didn’t mind it much. Razor came out of the match looking quite strong. This match also marked the end of Ted Dibiase’s in ring career in WWF. (**1/2)

5. Shawn Michaels vs. Mr. Perfect (WWF Intercontinental Championship)

This match was one of the most promoted matches of the show and the WWF had promoted it as The Greatest Intercontinental Title Match you would ever see. It made sense as both Shawn and Mr. Perfect were great wrestlers, and it was expected from the two to deliver great matches on more occasions than not. However, the match didn’t live up to the hype at all. It was a fine and perfectly watchable match, but it lacked chemistry and was a huge failure. The count-out ending also made no sense and left everyone even more disappointed. (**3/4)

4. Yokozuna vs. Lex Luger (WWF Championship)

The story behind this match was great and the way they had build up Luger as the American Hero so far was pretty good and he had tremendous support. The match was also quite well done for most part and it was a solid main event. However, everything they had done promoting and building up Luger as this huge babyface was destroyed with the finish. I am not saying the count-out finish was necessarily bad, as they could have built up a rematch from here. But, why the hell did Luger have to celebrate a count-out win? We are not even talking about a little celebration here, it was huge and it seemed like he had won the title, when he hadn’t. The celebration was very retarded and made Luger look like a big idiot. This was their only chance of putting the belt on Luger and Luger’s character and popularity only went down after this. (***)

3. Bam Bam Bigelow & The Headshrinkers vs. Tatanka & The Smoking Gunns

I went into this match with not much expectations and thought it would be just a time killer before the main event, but it actually turned out to be one of the best matches on the show. After the Borga/Jannetty and ‘Taker/Gonzalez matches, this one did the perfect job of uplifting the mood. All talents involved played their roles perfectly and made for a very nice match. (***1/2)

2. The Steiner Brothers vs. The Heavenly Bodies (WWF Tag Team Championships)

Another great match in the tag team division, thanks to The Steiners. This was a really fun match with lot of great action. It was a fast paced match which was not very common at the time and thus this match had more of an impact. The Heavenly Bodies also had a great showing and garnered interest of the fans in their act. I was quite satisfied with the match but I would have loved for this to go on for a few more minutes. (***1/2)

1. Bret Hart vs. Jerry “The King” Lawler

If we only focus on the actual wrestling in this match and ignore the story, the match is probably not that good. But, with all the story and pre-match and post-match angles combined, this was absolutely fantastic. It was so satisfying to see Bret Hart get his revenge on Lawler after he had talked so much trash about the Hart Family. Bret refusing to break the hold on Lawler’s leg was perfect and showed how much frustrated he was. Bret losing the match hardly mattered as he was the one who was standing. The two were originally supposed to meet in the ring once again at Survivor Series, but Lawler had to be taken out due to r*pe accusations on him. It’s a shame as this feud was very interesting and I would have loved to see more of the two in the ring. (***3/4)

And that’s all for today’s post, thank you all for reading. Stay tuned for the next part of this series where we will take a look at Survivor Series. Have a nice day!