[1990-08-27-WWF-Summerslam] Hart Foundation vs Demolition (2/3 falls)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Wow, those are some really terrible interviews before the match. Among the worst I've ever heard.

 

This isn't a bad match, but I think it's gotten too much love through the years. The hot crowd is the biggest positive, as the Philly crowd is very into this. They really seem to want to see Anvil kick some ass, as the biggest pops are for his power spots. I don't understand the DQ finish in the second fall. Did Smash complain about doing a pinfall job? There were some good ideas that weren't executed well. I liked Smash punching to get out of position for the Hart Attack, but he didn't do that good a job of it. The spot for Bret to be slammed into a moonsault position by Neidhart could have been a great spot, but it was clumsy and I wasn't sure Bret was going to pull it off in one piece. And we're supposed to believe that the referee can't tell apart Ax and Smash.

 

The crowd came unglued when the Road Warriors came out to serve some justice to Demolition for their cheating. That made this a great moment - genuinely - but I just don't see this as that strong of a match.

[PeteF3]

I don't think there was anything to the DQ finish. There was a second-fall DQ in the Brain Busters title switch as well. Even if their run as a top team was coming to an end you still need to keep the Demos reasonably strong if you're going to feud them with Hawk & Animal. No point in jobbing them twice if you don't have to. ("So why book a 2/3 falls match?" Shush.)

 

I don't know if it's the "best Demolition match" ever (I liked the MSG match with the Rockers quite a bit) and I don't even want to get into whether that's faint praise or not. But I thought this was pretty damn good, and an improvement over the SNME Rockers bout. The hot crowd helps, and the Demos are a lot crisper on offense this time even if they're not unleashing anything particularly high-end. The whole business of Ax and Smash suddenly becoming indistinguishable is goofy as all hell on every level--Vince is able to identify Smash even before he takes his mask off at the start but keeps harping on how it's impossible to tell them apart. But, the switch-offs generate great heat and the presence of the 3rd member was pretty much a given regardless of the match stips. That just adds to the effect of the final pinfall, as even with the LOD's help the Harts look like they've overcome the longest odds in the world. This was a result that shocked me at the time--I figured KVE would take the IC belt but I thought the Harts were just placeholder challenges like they were at the first SummerSlam, and that the Demos would keep the titles until it was time to drop them to LOD. From the crowd reaction here I think a lot of them felt similarly.

[soup23]

I was mostly bored by this. Good solid match but I don't even know if I liked it more than PnG/ Rockers and that took a lot less time. LOD coming out was a rare moment in WWF where they looked as big as they did in NWA.

[Matt D]

I am not a fan

[Kevin Ridge]

Sean Mooney gets confused easily. More talk about facing LOD down the road. Ax going to sit this one out. Did he wrestle at all once Crush showed up? Demolition with the first fall by the tag team elbow. Hitman takes the pinfall.

 

Second with Bret continuing to get beat up. He makes tag to Anvil. Hart Attack. Gets silly though as Crush could have broken the pinfall attempt but instead lunged over Bret and jumped on the referee instead. They don’t say that it was a disqualification though because of the title change rules.

 

Ax sneaks down and hides under the ring. He switches with Smash and since he’s fresh he has the advantage. Ax and Smash double team Bret outside the ring and switch places again. LOD have enough and pull Ax from under the ring and get into it with Smash. Crush is left alone and gets beat. Good match but not as strong as I use to view it.

[Zenjo]

It's good by WWF 1990 standards, but not by Yearbook ones. They just worked for the first 2 falls. Reasonable quality. Then we have the shennanigans with Ax entering the match. You'd have to be a complete moron not to be able to tell Ax and Smash apart. That's part of the referee's job description though so on we go. Then LOD show up. Can't they just let them wrestle? No, that would be silly.

[thebrainfollower]

The first PPV I ever saw was this live, but school was the next night so I was forced to go to bed after this match. So this was technically the main event for me. And made me a lifelong Bret Hart fan. Watching it again it's nowhere near as good as it seemed when all I had ever watched was WWF at that point, but I still think it's a great WWF match and a very good match anywhere. Anvil's final victory celebration over a victorious but near unconscious Bret is a great moment and erases the fact the LOD more or less won this match for the Foundation.

[thebrainfollower]

Sean Mooney gets confused easily. More talk about facing LOD down the road. Ax going to sit this one out. Did he wrestle at all once Crush showed up? Demolition with the first fall by the tag team elbow. Hitman takes the pinfall.

 

Second with Bret continuing to get beat up. He makes tag to Anvil. Hart Attack. Gets silly though as Crush could have broken the pinfall attempt but instead lunged over Bret and jumped on the referee instead. They don’t say that it was a disqualification though because of the title change rules.

 

Ax sneaks down and hides under the ring. He switches with Smash and since he’s fresh he has the advantage. Ax and Smash double team Bret outside the ring and switch places again. LOD have enough and pull Ax from under the ring and get into it with Smash. Crush is left alone and gets beat. Good match but not as strong as I use to view it.

 

Rarely. In six mans he wrestled and a few times when Crush missed shows but other than that I don't think so. End of the road for Ax.

[BackToBionic]

Ax could've at least done his face paint differently.

[ajtroma]

I cannot hate those hideous WWF pre-written interviews aimed at the most submental 10-year-old any more than I already hate them.

 

First fall was okay. Then Ax rolls in to do the "illegal partner" bullshit and the match goes right into the toilet. The differences between Ax and Smash are abundantly clear (even Vince made it clear he knew it was Smash under the hood before the match) so either the referee (looking right at him) is on Demolition's side or is a complete and total idiot.

 

Fuck this match.

[Guest TheGreatPuma]

Yes, I've talked about this one before several times. It singlehandedly saved the WWF for me (after being a super fan but than losing interest to WCW/Japan/other leagues) as I was thiiiiiiis close to giving up on it but it was Bret Hart and stuff like this which kept me interested and wanting more. This is an all time classic which I have among the top WWF/WWE matches of all times. It's so brilliant on every single level conceivable from the buildup to the match to the interviews to the pay off. I've seen this several times and it always keeps its majic for me. I have compared it to some of the great All Japan tags from the past which coming from me is a major compliment since I love Japanese wrestling so much. That's how much this match means to me. One of my favourite all time tag matches from anywhere. This is how wrestling is done.

[Matt D]

I don't even like this match.

[soup23]

From 1990-1995, I cant think of a WWF hyped match that I think is as bad as this one. While, I wouldnt call Warrior vs. Hogan a five star classic, it was still good. I find it unfortunate that this match still gets revered when superior stuff like Tito vs. Perfect is right around the time period.

[Matt D]

Or hey, the 88 Demos vs Harts match which is legitimately great.

[garretta]

Again, bad booking takes me out of a match.

 

The first two falls were okay for what they were. I even liked Crush actually jumping on Earl Hebner instead of trying to break up the pin in the second fall, thinking that would get the Demos DQ'd and save the belts even if they got beat in the third fall. (By all rights, it should have, but that ship sailed when the Busters got the belts the year before despite the Demos being DQ'd in the second fall.) So on we go, and here comes the Ax, and there goes the match. I have no earthly idea why they didn't just book this three on two and have Smash and Crush do the majority of the work rather than make Earl seem too stupid to live. I mean, did whoever book this even realize what a mockery they made out of this match? Then, of course, Hawk and Animal come down and giftwrap the damn thing for the Harts, creating such a distraction that Crush ends up being pinned.

 

There were two solutions to this mess: 1) Book the match three-on-two, as I said above or 2) Reverse the second and third falls by giving the Harts a clean second fall pin. That would tie the match and increase the desperation for the Demos. At sometime toward the end of the third fall, have Ax come down and hide underneath the ring, then pull the same distraction they did here........only for the LOD to alert Earl to it. Earl throws out the fall, and the Harts win. The Demos think they've escaped with their lives, only for Earl to give the belts to the Harts. Vince explains that a championship can change hands in a multi-fall match when a champion is DO'd in one fall as long as one of the other falls is gained by pinfall or submission, and everyone goes home happy. But that would make too much sense, so it's a terrible idea.

 

What makes this all even worse is Vince covering for Earl by saying that he's "lost in the match". It makes Vince sound like he has no brains whatsoever or is totally blind, take your choice. Even Piper (who was excellent here) calls him out for perpetuating the myth of the Demos being "hard to tell apart" right before the LOD comes down. There was a different way to sell this whole thing to make it seem like a crafty plan of the evil champions that was thwarted at the last second instead of deliberate rulebreaking condoned by a referee whose IQ doesn't match his shoe size; that they failed to find that solution drags this match completely into the garbage pile.

 

Loss mentioned the terrible pre-match interviews that both teams gave, and they're another symptom of a promotion that neither knows nor cares how juvenile and ridiculous it's becoming, With WCW about to drown in Black Scorpion nonsense and USWA Texas going away, USWA Memphis is the top promotion in America right now, and that's in spite of prominently featuring a teenage mutant ninja turtle (note the absence of caps). No wonder so many fans found solace in lucha and puroresu.

[flyonthewall2983]

What the hell does Piper mean when he says something about a member of Demolition looking like a "Rachel Perry reject"?

[Strummer]

What the hell does Piper mean when he says something about a member of Demolition looking like a "Rachel Perry reject"?

 

 

I'd imagine this was what he was referencing

 

 

http://vitaminretailer.com/rachel-perry-natural-industry-pioneer-dies/

[dawho5]

Didn't care for the way they booked the finish. I barely know who Demolition is and I can tell you who is in the ring at all times. The early match conversation between Vince and Roddy didn't sell me at all on Ax and Smash looking alike.

[Lee Benaka]

The only thing I have to add here is that Smash's facial expressions in the cringey pre-match interviews are just nutty.  Is it really fearsome and intimidating to repeatedly make kissy lips and bulge your eyes out?  Maybe he was invoking the feminine side of Kiss, but he also could be trying out for the Johnny B. Badd character a few years early.  It's too bad Bill Eadie was apparently a bit over the hill at this point, because he looks like the toughest guy of the trio by far.  I was surprised by the Hart Foundation win as well.