10 WWE SummerSlam Secrets You Need To Know About
The (Big) Dog Days of Summer
SummerSlam 2018 was really, really long.
That's not to say it was all bad either. The Universal Title match was an unexpected triumph, the various squashes stopped the show dragging half as much as most would have expected and, though short, Ronda Rousey's Raw Women's Title ascension was genuinely one of most satisfying contests the company are likely to produce this year.
That said, the company didn't exactly leave too many stones unturned. There weren't too many unanswered questions, some challenges left unresolved, mysteries left under wraps, or alternative surprises creepily lurking behind curtains like Randy Orton on the go-home edition of SmackDown Live. WWE show and tell fans virtually everything now because they have to. Something needs to ensure people keep glued to the Network for all those moneyed minutes.
It wasn't always like this.
Plenty's been hidden under the carpet over the years. SummerSlam's got the typical array of scuffles, scandals and screw-ups understandably shuffled to one side by a company more obsessed with the perception of perfection than Curt Hennig at a bowling alley, and that's discounting the quirky tales that don't typically emerge until a combination of wrestling lore and Wrestling Observer confirmation make it so.
10. Wet Hart
Wrestling has a rather troubling past with ribs, particularly ones labelled "harmless" by those that may not be the best judge of such a thing in the first place. This particular joke at the expense of a bewildered Bruce Hart stays just the right side of a razor thin line.
The camera-hogging Hart was as ostentatious as usual in his beige suit jacket and jeans alongside brother Owen in support of Bret ahead of his match with Jerry Lawler at SummerSlam '93, but he'd be cooled down before feeling the heat in a manner he had absolutely no clue about.
Lawler had installed Doink in his place at the start of the match, with the magnificent heel clown throwing a bucket of confetti on fans en route to the ring. He reared back to do the same to the ringside Harts, but instead lobbed a full bucket of water directly in Bruce's face. Targeted so perfectly that barely a splash hit Owen, the spot was obviously planned to make a fool of Bruce as the crowd and pay-per-view audience looked on. He was visibly livid with anybody he could get near in the aftermath, breaking the biggest backstage rib rule of all - never sell it.