Today In Pro Wrestling History: August 29th

The debut of SummerSlam of course deserved a slot, and WWE had quite a few things going on but there’s still a few other things for people who aren’t part of the WWE Universe.

• WWF SummerSlam (1988)

The very first SummerSlam is of course historic and memorable. Opening match of the historic event was the Fabulous Rougeaus versus The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith & Dynamite Kid). It ended in a Draw, but it was a great start that set the standard for the event. In a shocking adjustment, Honky Tonk Man was set to defend his Intercontinental Championship against Brutus Beefcake. But Beefcake was injured, so Ultimate Warrior came sprinting out when the Open Challenge was issued. This would prove a fatal mistake for Honky because Warrior snapped his 454 day reign in only 31 seconds. Not to overlook the main event, The Mega Powers faced The Mega Bucks. A story that came to a head during WrestleMania IV when Dibiase tried to pay his way through the Championship tournament. Andre was helping Dibiase, Macho Man had an assist from Hulk Hogan, so when Macho Man won the tournament, it ignited a rivalry between these four men. This was the culmination of long term storytelling, and the crowd was all behind The Mega Powers. Miss Elizabeth took a risk for 80s and hopped on the apron removing the bottom of her dress to reveal more of a mini skirt & bikini bottom combination which distracted Andre, Dibiase and even special guest referee Jesse Ventura. The Mega Powers won the match, and Hulk lifted Elizabeth onto his shoulder during the celebration, which laid the seeds for the implosion.

• WWF SummerSlam: WWF World Heavyweight Championship Steel Cage Match: Bret Hart vs Owen Hart (1994)

There were two other moments that people might remember with the Undertaker versus the Imposter Undertaker, as well as, the Intercontinental Championship match between Diesel and Razor Ramon. But the sibling rivalry is easily the marquee moment. During the 32 minute brawl, Owen’s foot got caught in the blue steel cage. Using the situation, Bret took the opportunity to escape the cage and win the match and retain the title. This is one of the most heralded matches in SummerSlam history from multiple different critics.

• AJPW Pro Wrestling Love in Ryogoku (2010)

This was an event with a lot of big moments during this era of All Japan. Kenzo Suzuki got a surprising win over Great Muta in a TLC match, which helped to propel him towards the main event. Manabu Soya & Seiya Sanada (aka SANADA) defeated TARU & Big Daddy Voodoo for the All Asia Tag titles. Kaz Hayashi was the AJPW Junior Heavyweight Champion, defending his title against Jimmy Yang. This was during Kaz Hayashi’s two year championship reign and the match itself was fairly good and had some notoriety because Yang still had some fame from his WWE run. The main event, was a history making moment. SUWAMA challenged Minoru Suzuki for the Triple Crown title. SUWAMA is one of Keiji Mutoh’s students, so during this era, he was positioned as the up and coming Ace. It was nearly a 45 minute match, but SUWAMA managed to survive Suzuki, fight back with his own strikes and land a devastating Backdrop Driver to begin his second Triple Crown reign that lasted 420 days.

• WWE Friday Night Smackdown: United States Championship: Solo Sikoa (c) vs Sami Zayn (2025)

In his home town of Montreal, Sami defeated Solo cleanly for the right to challenge. So this match took place in Lyon, France between two of the biggest names that splintered from the Bloodline story. Solo had his MFT crew, so the deck was stacked against Sami. As everyone expected, Mateo, Talla Tonga and Tama Tonga got involved, but not only did Sami fight through it, Jacob Fatu and Jey Uso came out to assist Sami by neutralizing the MFTs. Consecutive Helluva Kicks gave Sami the surprising victory. And while French Canadian isn’t French, it definitely was well received in the live audience.

• ROH Death Before Dishonor (2025)

Due to Dustin Rhodes injury, the tag titles and 6 Man titles were vacated. So there were a ton of new champions without actually having a champion drop the titles. Sammy Guevara was the replacement in the 6 Man team with the Von Erichs as “Sons of Texas” but Sammy turned on them, allowing Shane Taylor Productions to win the 6 mans. Sammy then teamed with Rush to win the vacant Tag Titles over The Outrunners. Queen Aminata defeated Taya Valkyrie for the inaugural Women’s Pure title. Bandido versus Hechicero was a critically acclaimed match, so for the hardcores this was memorable. The show also benefitted from the fact that their normal streaming company on Honor Club had issues, so the show was streamed on YouTube, which allowed it to have more visibility than the usually ROH bubble.

SummerSlam’s inception can’t be overlooked. It became one of the Big Four and is arguably many people’s second favorite of the “Big Four”. ROH was well received from the fanbase that consumes AEW and ROH, so that’s great that they turned a fairly devastating injury into a storyline contained within the show. Plus a day or so ago we saw Kento Miyahara’s second title reign to establish his Ace status, so seeing SUWAMA’s ascent as well works nicely in how AJPW is heavily mirrored to NJPW just at a much smaller scale.