Ranking every WWE SummerSlam PPV in history

27. WWE SummerSlam 1990

• Power and Glory def. The Rockers
• The Texas Tornado def. Mr. Perfect to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship
• Queen Sherri def. Sapphire by forfeit
• The Warlord def. Tito Santana
• The Hart Foundation def. Demolition to win the WWE Tag Team Championship (2-out-of-3 Falls Match)
• Jake Roberts def. Bad News Brown by DQ
• Jim Duggan & Nikolai Volkoff def. The Orient Express
• Randy Savage def. Dusty Rhodes
• Hulk Hogan def. Earthquake by count-out
• The Ultimate Warrior def. Rick Rude to retain the WWE Championship (Steel Cage Match)

SummerSlam 1990 was billed as having a double main event, with Hulk Hogan taking on Earthquake in a grudge match and The Ultimate Warrior defending his WWE Championship against Ravishing Rick Rude within the confines of a steel cage (and we’re talking about the old blue cage). But neither of those bouts took home match of the night honors.

That belonged to The Hart Foundation and Demolition, who battled it out for the WWE Tag Team Championship in a two-out-of-three Falls Match. Demolition won the first fall but The Hitman and The Anvil fought back to win the next two and the pop for the title change was huge. This was the Smash and Crush version of Demolition to start but Ax did get involved later on, which the referee was apparently too stupid to notice, but it all worked and was booked very well.

The rest of the undercard, however, just fell flat, which is unfortunate when you have Randy Savage and Dusty Rhodes on the card. Dusty was obviously past his prime and his match only lasted just over two minutes. This was all part of one big story with Dusty that saw Sapphire, who forfeited her match with Sherri earlier in the night, leave him after getting bought out by The Million Dollar Man.

The rest of the undercard were essentially glorified squash matches, even the Intercontinental Championship Match with Kerry Von Erich … I mean, Texas Tornado … going over Mr. Perfect. That was a bit of a surprise but that’s what happens when creative wants to build up someone.

The Hogan-Earthquake match was the typical Hogan vs. a big guy match from that era. The pace was slow and Hogan took his licks before making the big comeback. This was Hogan’s revenge for an attack earlier in the summer that nearly “ended his career,” and after a bodyslam on the outside onto a table (which didn’t break), The Hulkster got the win via count-out.

The final match of the night was the culmination of the long feud between The Ultimate Warrior and Rick Rude, who had fought for the Intercontinental Championship the year before at both WrestleMania and SummerSlam and continued their program this night for the WWE Championship. The problem here was that the match was too short. It went barely 10 minutes and Warrior picked up the obvious win by escaping the cage. Outside of the tag title match, there’s nothing on this card worth watching again.