Today In History 8/30: WWE Suspends Wrestlers After Steroid Bust, Fans Turn The Rock Babyface, More
* 17 years ago in 1998, the WWF had SummerSlam '98 live on pay-per-view from Madison Square Garden in New York, New York. As SummerSlams go, this is one of the best and most memorable, thanks to both the content of the card and the level of hype. The main event, WWF Champion Steve Austin vs. The Undertaker, had been built to slowly for three months until it was the biggest match the company could make, while the show in general was assisted by the premiere of Sunday Night Heat. That show was launched on August 2nd on USA Network largely as a test run to push SummerSlam. It did great ratings and was quickly picked up as a year-round show. Starting with this PPV, Heat became a live pre-show with original matches, a tradition that lasted a year or two.
After the great build-up, Austin-Undertaker turned out to be a disappointment, thanks in large part to Austin being knocked loopy early in the match when they accidentally clashed heads. There was a lot of brawling in the crowd, and it hurt the crowd heat since it was so hard to see. The match was also kind of dulled by the storyline about Kane and Undertaker reuniting going nowhere ('Taker sent him back to the locker room early on), as their reunion had been the focus of the build for a month. Still, they managed a good match, and the big spot (Undertaker hitting top rope leg drop off the top turnbuckle onto the Spanish announcers' table) was super-memorable, ending up in highlight packages for years.
The other big match was Triple H defeating The Rock in a ladder match to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship. This match stole the show. In the ring, they laid out a very smart story with Rock working over Triple H's (legitimately) injured knee, and both guys (coming off an underwhelming 30 minute draw a month earlier) completely blew away all expectations. The heat built even more thanks to Mark Henry interfering while Chyna fought him off. While the crowd never turned on Triple H and his win got the biggest pop of the night, this was the match that made The Rock a huge star. The moment he hit the People's Elbow on the ladder, the "Rocky sucks!" chants became "Rocky!" chants, and there was no real turning back.
Overall, the show was a big hit. There were no big matches and a lot got moved forward. For example, Edge was elevated as Sable's mystery partner against Marc Mero and Jacqueline, while Jeff Jarrett got a crewcut after losing a hair match to X-Pac, leading to him being repackaged. Ken Shamrock and Owen Hart's feud was blown off when Shamrock won a "Lion's Den" (faux MMA cage) match, too, making room for Shamrock to turn heel.
By the way, for fans there live, the start time on the tickets was 6:30 p.m. for a show that actually started at 7:00 p.m. So if you got there at about 6:00 p.m., you were inundated with the "Highway to Hell" promo video for the show over and over throughout a five hour period. A lot of the fans left the building hating AC/DC.
* Eight years ago in 2007, WWE suspended several wrestlers under the Talent Wellness Program. Earlier in the year, Signature Compounding Pharmacy in Florida had been raided for filling questionable prescriptions online as a drug mill for bodybuilding and "anti-aging" drugs. After the prosecutors went through what they needed to, they released customer names to various sports organizations and media outlets. At the time, WWE didn't announce suspensions, and there were conflicting lists from different media outlets,s o there was a little confusion. As a result, suspensions had to be inferred from who was written off TV. It was bad publicity for WWE at the worst possible time, when it seemed like the company had almost escaped the fallout of the Benoit murder-suicide. It looked even worse that wrestlers who had sworn to be clean during the post-Benoit media blitz were named as customers.
Sports Illustrated's list should be considered the most accurate, as it itemized who bought what drugs, while the other lists did not. ESPN reported that Batista was on the list, which he denied, promising to sue them, though he never did and there was no retraction. The list contained three wrestlers who were deceased (Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, and Brian Adams), as well as one (Sylvain Grenier) no longer with WWE. The 10 wrestlers still with WWE at the time were – Chavo Guerrero Jr., Shane Helms, Randy Orton, John Morrison, Mr. Kennedy (who said he'd been clean since the Wellness Program launched in February 2006), Shoichi Funaki, Charlie Haas, Umaga, William Regal, Edge, and Mike "Simon Dean" Bucci. All but Orton (WWE said he had already been punished for the orders in question) and Bucci (fired from his job as head of the developmental system) were suspended. That includes Edge, who was out with an injury but stopped receiving his guarantee for 30 days.
Kennedy got the worst end of the punishments, as he was set to get a gigantic push as "Mr. McMahon's illegitimate son." The suspension led to him being dropped from the angle, with Hornswoggle getting the nod until a complicated retcon made him Finlay's son.