Through different factors,WWEworks its way into being segmented by eras.
Usually its defined by direction and the talent promoted at the top.
As it is right now, were in the midst of an era shift.
These days, Cena and Orton are winding down and Batista is long gone.
Instead, were now in something resembling the Roman Reigns Era?
Will WWE finally give up on him and try something else?
Will it be an era defined by smaller guys with fantastic ringwork?
Its still hard to say.
Im often reminded of the first era shift I experienced, back in the early 90s.
Nothing could last forever and things began to change.
Hogans matches and storylines became repetitive and annoying.
The steroid trial forced certain hard-working undercard acts towards the top because of their less-impressive physical stature.
Usually, wrestling shows are about faces winning a handful of matches and heels winning a handful of matches.
A lot of the time, the ratio is nearly equal.
Not so much here.
The show was, strangely, upbeat on the whole.
read more: SummerSlam 2019 Matches and Results
SummerSlam 91is essentially theReturn of the Jediof 1980s WWF.
Its the optimistic season finale that lets us remember the era before the change starts to settle in.
This is basically a whos who of the previous five years of WWF.
Hell, Hercules had a good thing going as the go-to first level endboss of the company.
Some of them were lucky enough to at least show up at the 1992Royal Rumble.
Similarly, the card also featured Irwin R. Schyster defeating Greg The Hammer Valentine.
Valentine was also on the way out, along with those in the opener.
Better for IRS; worse for nearly everyone else.
At the same time, the years of bumping hadnt been kind to Mr. Perfects back.
The Intercontinental Champion needed to step down from active competition for at least a little while.
Perfect spent over a year afterwards as a commentator and a cornerman for Ric Flair.
Well, this was the first major step in his illustrious singles career in the company.
One of which hospitalized Hogan once upon a time.
Naturally, Earthquake crushed Luke with his vertical splash.
While all this was going on, the Bushwackers had Andre the Giant in their corner.
Though far past his prime, he still came off as a menacing god for several years.
In August of 1991, he was in a sad state.
Instead, the Legion of Doom stepped out and stepped up.
Butch joined their side and a hurt Luke eventually did the same.
He spent the next few years getting squashed by the likes of Yokozuna and Giant Gonzalez.
First he had a couple of knockoffs like Demolition and Powers of Pain.
Then he had the real deals and spent months building towards their big tag title win.
It was a great, albeit simple story.
In the build toWrestleMania VII, the Hart Foundation had the titles.
A tag team battle royal was put together to find the #1 contenders.
If one guy was eliminated, so was his partner.
Three important things happened in this match.
Second, the Legion of Doom were cheated out of the match because of Power and Glorys interference.
Third, the Nasty Boys won.
That stretched beautifully into a sensible Legion of Doom vs.
Nasty Boys match atSummerSlam, which Legion of Doom won.
And with that, they peaked.
It really shows the difference between following wrestling with and without the internet.
It took me along-ass timebefore I even noticed Ultimate Warrior wasnt around anymore.
Originally introduced with, America is too chicken to go to war with Iraq!
Not the Iraq war.
I mean actual Iraq.
When it came time forSummerSlam, he got his just desserts and was no longer deemed a threat.
He briefly became a tag team with Jim Duggan and then vanished completely.
Slaughter was washed up and the Macho King had been dethroned and pacified months earlier.
Even Earthquake had just settled down into the tag team division and I mentioned the fates of Mr.
Perfect and Ted Dibiase.
And really, they didnt last all that long.
Flairs time with the company was like the bridge between the Hogan Era and the New Generation Era.
The crazy thing, though?
Then again, how perfect is it that one of his opponents in thatSummerSlamtag match was the Iron Sheik?
It all came full circle.
It was a happy segment, building up on their entire WWF careers since they first appeared.
Yet for both their characters and their real relationship, it was the last smile before things fell apart.
And thats what the show is all about.
Seven years reached its apex and funneled into a three-hour celebration of the world they created.
Afterwards, the status quo became chaotic and crumbled.
The mainstays lost power and left.
The attempts to replace the big men with newer big men for the most part failed.
Instead, the meek inherited the company and the World Wrestling Federation became something very different.
Oh, and Id be completely remiss if I didnt mention the Mountie.
What Im getting at is that the Mountie started the Attitude Era and it just didnt catch on yet.
Guy was totally before his time.
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