All 27 WWE SummerSlam Opening Matches - Ranked

16. British Bulldogs Vs. Fabulous Rougeau Brothers - 1988

kurt angle vs rey mysterio
wWE.com

The opening match of the very first SummerSlam event saw The Britsh Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and The Dynamite Kid) taken on the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers, Jacques and Raymond. For some reason Raymond reminds me of Tobias Fünke from Arrested Development, but that matters not. The match goes to a 20-minute time limit draw, a strange decision for the opening match of a big event but this was 1988 when everyone needed to be protected at all times.

One thing of real note from this match is just how mental the crowd is. They despise the heels, and absolutely love the faces. With the jaded crowds that we are used to do today, this was something of a breath of fresh air to revisit. The Bulldogs showed some heel tactics throughout, but the crowd were so anti-Rougeau that they didn’t mind one jot. The Bulldogs have the match won it seems, but time runs out and the match is a draw. The two teams then brawl to the back, another much-missed trope of tag team wrestling. There’s a lot to love about this match, and whist that might be nostalgia I have no problem with that.

The Rougeaus were great in hindsight.

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.