Remembering Summerslam
by Drew “Darth Weasel” Barton
Raw Deal Staff Writer
darthweasel@hotmail.com

When Summerslam was released I was running tournaments at two locations located about 20 miles apart. Although geographically close the play styles at each location were quite dissimilar. The reaction to Summerslam, however, was pretty much unanimous.

It was loved at both locations. One easy thing to love was the selection of Superstars. Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Hall ‘n’ Nash were popular enough that some local players actually had Face and Heel versions of each. As an aside, if you were to ask me the single greatest mistake in modern human history I would have to point out that Back Rake was still a Heel card for the Hulkster. Tears still well up in my eyes at the thought of this oversight. Be that as it may, the other Superstars all seemed very popular as well. Tajiri, the Hurricane and Al Snow were all regulars at virtually every tournament.

The excitement people had to build these fresh new styles of decks was palpable. Flair presented a lot of problems, of course, but he was never the dominant force in our local area he proved to be in other sections of the country, largely due to our play styles.

Adding to the fun was the advent of two of our favorite Maneuvers ever; the Atomic Back Body Drop and the Tilt-a-Whirl Powerslam. These powerful, hard to reverse Maneuvers virtually assured anyone who achieved 5 Fortitude of also achieving 25 Fortitude. If your deck can reach 25 Fortitude then you can do a lot of things and many options are open to you. Turn up the Heat and You Feeling Lucky? Were 2 popular ways of amassing that key first 5 Fortitude.

Between the exciting new Superstars and the fresh ways to garner significant levels of Fortitude rapidly it was an exciting time to play Raw Deal. Not to long ago one of the Raw Deal fan sites was running a poll as to which era of Raw Deal was the favorite for various individuals. Due to the convergence of the above two factors I would personally say Summerslam, although like all opinions that is completely subjective and in no way, shape or form should it be considered a regret that things progressed from there.

I would, however, like to draw certain comparisons between the Summerslam era and the release of Revolution. Setting aside for a moment all the debates about what Revolution might mean for the future of Raw Deal, ignoring the format of Revolution, and simply looking at the set of Revolution as an expansion I am going to argue there are a great number of similarities.

To start with, the Superstars being released are perhaps the most marquee group collectively since Premiere. Setting aside all thought about who was released most recently, who has the most Superstar specific cards, and all other similar considerations, it is easy to argue the line-up is stronger top to bottom than any other in recent memory.

Any casual fan will instantly recognize Triple H, Batista, Rey Mysterio and John Cena instantly. You would be hard pressed to find four bigger names in today’s WWE. One could perhaps argue that the Undertaker would fit in there but he appears so seldom anymore that it is easily understandable how he could also be the fifth choice.

On top of that the ECW stars being released are some of the hottest names ever to grace ECW. If you have seen The Rise and Fall of ECW you will recognize how much name recognition Heyman himself believes Sabu and Sandman are worthy of. Even if you have not seen it, if you followed ECW at all, either the original incarnation or the reborn version you recognize how important these two have been to the ECW brand. Finishing out the new Superstars we have C.M. Punk, a name I heard a lot about before ever seeing him released, and Test whom has a strong cult following.

Although this is, again, personal opinion, I believe the entire Raw Deal community of established players would, while probably disagreeing to the extent that a certain segment would prefer an RVD or a Big Show or Carlito or some other personal favorite to one of the Superstars being released, I would argue the largest percentage of players will be more excited by this group taken as a whole than for any other possible combination. In the interest of full disclosure I will say I would rather have had…well…anyone other than Test. But his stature in the program is undeniable even to a die-hard anti-Test mark like me.

The point I am making is that this set has an extremely popular set of Superstars to draw on. Once that comparison to Summerslam is made I can turn to the game play itself.

It is my belief that Fortitude will be more attainable for both players in virtually every game than at any time since Summerslam. The sheer volume of different ways people can generate Fortitude is staggering.

The Great American Bash made Dynamic more feasible than ever while also introducing BASH which proved to be very effective at building Fortitude. We already had the Hand-shredding effectiveness of Chain, the sledge-hammer subtlety of Heat and the hard to reverse approach of the Precision move set coupled with Boot Lace and German Suplex (T). All of these proved, at times, to be very effective at generating Fortitude although they also ran into problems. Now, just as in Summerslam we have the advent of other Maneuvers which will prove very difficult to reverse.

I refer of course to Assaults, Holds and Throws. Control players must be salivating. Historically, most control decks sought a minimal amount of Fortitude which then allowed them to achieve victory through various strategies, often including “mill” cards such as Inferno Match and Enter the Stratusphere. As it became more and more difficult to generate the key starting Fortitude this became less and less viable as a strategy. Now with these new, difficult to reverse ways of generating that key Fortitude this play style can be more vibrant than ever.

At the same time, more aggressive Maneuver flinging players have more options for pounding through the red walls that at times have been the bane of anyone who preferred games played in the 20 – 30 Fortitude range. With the previous methods still open and a new way to climb the Fortitude ladder, these decks also have a new life.

For example, the A-Train is a seldom seen deck these days. Imagine him with a single Old School Beatings in play. He can search for the new Revolution Body Slam to generate his initial Fortitude. Using his ability he can then throw a Pump Handle Slam with a greater chance of it being successfully played by using that 6 Fortitude to have attempted Hand-clearing actions or by playing cards that are more likely to make his next card successful. He also has powerful new hard to reverse maneuvers such as the Revolution Power Slam and Revolution Press Slam available. For the A-train there is a wealth of new toys in Revolution.

Meanwhile Sgt. Slaughter will most likely continue using the Throwback maneuvers. However, since people are theoretically diversifying their Reversal base a little bit to deal with the new Maneuver types he is less likely to run into I Gotta Say Outta Play and therefore more likely to get his Maneuvers through successfully.

What I am arguing is the difficult to reverse nature of the new Maneuvers will lead to opportunities for even older Maneuver styles to be played successfully as people adjust to using…and defending against…the new toys.

One of the most cited things I have seen is that people will have to pack even more Reversals in order to be able to reverse everything. Of course, what is overlooked is that every Reversal added potentially removes the option for a card that positively accomplishes something. It is difficult enough to fit all the Divas cards in a Diva’s Win condition deck. Yet they receive a powerful boost from the new ways to generate Fortitude, so they are unlikely to either disappear or suddenly become so packed with Reversals that they are impotent. The expanded Maneuver types should present enough options that Fortitude should be possible every time out the gate.

Time will tell if I am wrong. It is possible this set will bear no resemblance to Summerslam. It could be that play will be more restricted and clogged with Reversals than ever before. I freely admit that is a possibility. But for the moment I look forward to this set and all the new toys it has given to some of my favorite deck types. As a fairly heavy agro-player I am more excited about the Revolution maneuvers than I have been about any others since Summerslam. Hopefully this has given a somewhat fresh outlook at the new set on the eve of its appearance. Thanks for reading.