Summer Slam (1988) - Background

Background

Prior to SummerSlam, The Honky Tonk Man, a villainous character, had been the longest reigning Intercontinental Champion in WWF history. He was originally supposed to defend his championship against Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake, but Beefcake was unable to compete as a result of a (storyline) injury received from "Outlaw" Ron Bass the week before. The Honky Tonk Man, left without a challenger, announced not to care whom he opposed. The Ultimate Warrior, the recognized number one contender to the Intercontinental Championship, accepted his challenge for SummerSlam. Also prior to the event, Demolition (Ax and Smash) held the WWF World Tag Team Championship, which they had won at WrestleMania IV after only a year in the WWF, and would defend their titles at SummerSlam against former champions The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart), who had become fan favorites a few weeks earlier by turning on their manager Jimmy Hart.

The on-screen feud between Rick Rude and Jake Roberts began weeks before SummerSlam. As part of his gimmick, Rude would—after winning a match—invite a pre-selected woman from the audience to kiss him in the ring. On one occasion, one of the women refused to comply, later identifying herself as Robert's wife, Cheryl. As the feud intensified, Rude began wearing a pair of tights with a picture of Cheryl stenciled on them, prompting a furious Roberts to charge into the ring and strip the tights off Rude, appearing to television viewers to leave Rude naked, although the live audience saw him stripped to a g-string instead.

For months prior to the pay-per-view, Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, two of the WWF's top crowd favorites, had feuded with André the Giant and Ted DiBiase, respectively. The two feuds first came together at WrestleMania IV, when—as the result of the vacating of the WWF Heavyweight Championship—a 16-man single-elimination tournament was set up to crown a new champion. Hogan and André had been disqualified in their quarterfinal match, while Savage and DiBiase reached the championship match; in that final match, Savage defeated DiBiase with help from Hogan. Savage and DiBiase feuded over the title throughout the spring and summer, but André did not become involved until mid-summer when he and DiBiase helped instigate a 2-on-1 attack against Savage as he was delivering a promo. Savage quickly recovered and challenged André and DiBiase to a tag team match against him and a partner to be named. That partner later was revealed to be Hogan; the team became known as "The Mega Powers." The André-DiBiase team—which dubbed itself "The Mega Bucks" -- retaliated by announcing the guest referee would be someone they declared to be fair and neutral: Jesse "the Body" Ventura, a color commentator on the WWF's programs who favored the villains.