One MIND-BLOWING Secret For Every WWE SummerSlam

37. 1989 | Dave Meltzer Awarded WHAT Rating?!

OK, so this is not a secret per se, since the star rating was published 37 years ago, but it is mind-blowing.  

In the SummerSlam 1989 opener, Tag Team champions The Brain Busters went over the Hart Foundation. While you could describe the match as a very mild disappointment, given the sheer level of talent involved, it was not remotely bad. Closer to very good than great, but not bad. It was strange, in that it scanned as a burial of Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart, but come on. Bret’s stuff was as beautiful as you’d expect with two incredible dance partners, but Neidhart rocked in this match too. In one sequence, a petrified Tully Blanchard failed to make Neidhart flinch with a barrage of forearm blows. Neidhart then blew him away with a forearm of his own. Tully’s flailing bump was quality. A blend of scientific artistry and badass babyface vengeance, while this was hardly the best WWF tag team match of the 1980s, it was damn good.  

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter awarded it just ** (two) stars. This is considered below average. Hell, in the seven-star era, it’s considered rubbish. The Cagematch inmates disagree; 161 users of the database rated it an above average 7.61/10. 

To put one of Dave’s most bizarre ratings in further perspective, Dave also rated Edge and Christian Vs. Droz and Prince Albert from SummerSlam 1999 two stars. This was the third of five matches in a tag team gauntlet, and lasted just one minute and 49 seconds. 

WWE Unreal captured the aftermath of Becky Lynch and Lyra Valkyria’s match at SummerSlam 2025. Lyra was distraught at how badly it went. The entire point of Unreal allows WWE to brag about itself. The one time WWE had to admit it was crap, Dave went ***¾ on it!