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Cant disagree with number one. personally 92 wins for me everytime...for obvious reasons.
22) Summerslam ’93 – Flat out one of the worst PPVs I’ve ever seen. A main-event between Yokozuna and Lex Luger may have been a big deal from a build-up standpoint, but the match itself (the only match given more than 10-minutes) was the kind of dud you’d expect from Luger when he wasn’t in the ring with someone vastly superior. The potential saving grace match, Shawn Michaels defending the IC title against Mr. Perfect, turned out to be an awkward case of two guys who wrestle the same style being unable to mesh. A rare case of two all-time greats not having a good match.
21) Summerslam ’88 – The original event probably isn’t even good enough to watch only for the historical value. The main-event, which plays off Hulk Hogan’s movie “No Holds Barred” and his Wrestlemania 5 feud with Randy Savage, was good for what it was and entertaining for its time period. However, it was not enough to carry the show. I really don’t have anything to add…
20) Summerslam ’95 – A couple of solid, yet unspectacular matches involving Bret Hart and Undertaker supported a double main-event, one of which was a great rematch between HBK and Razor Ramon for the IC title and one of which was an absolutely horrible match between Diesel and Mabel/Viscera. This was more or less a one match show, as only the ladder match is worth watching and everything else is completely skip worthy. HBK, as he often did back then, prevented this from being one of the worst PPVs of all-time.
19) Summerslam ’89 – Definitely a step up from the inaugural event, with a few quality matches in the mid-card including an underrated match between Rick Rude and the Ultimate Warrior and a tag team match featuring two classic combos from that era in the Hart Foundation and the Brainbusters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard). The main-event was not as good as the previous year’s, as the non-wrestler/movie character Zeus just didn’t bring anything to the table.
18) Summerslam ’99 – There are two matches worth viewing on the entire card – the Street Fight between Test and Shane McMahon and the main-event triple threat between HHH, Austin, and Foley. Still, neither one of those matches were good enough to prevent this from being one of the more lackluster events in series history. 1999 was not a good year for the top four WWE PPVs. Ratings may have been at an all-time high on Raw, but quality sure as hell wasn’t.
17) Summerslam ’07 – If you watched this show live, you watched it because of Randy Orton vs. John Cena. The hype for that match was excellent and considering it was the first meeting between two of the top stars of the era made it a must-see. Unfortunately, the WWE booked this show as if there was no other match on the card. Triple H and Rey Mysterio made unremarkable returns to action after long absences, but neither of their matches was memorable in any way. Orton vs. Cena was quite good. Everything else was just OK…or worse. Out of 8 matches, only 2 went longer than 9-minutes.
16) Summerslam ’91 – This PPV definitely had a big event feel to it, with a lot of notable talents lined up throughout the card. From the Legion of Doom taking on the Nasty Boys to Virgil vying to give Ted Dibiase his comeuppance to Hogan and Warrior teaming up in the main-event, I remember this being a must-see event for its era. Shortly after this, a great many of the late 80’s top stars would be gone from the WWE. This would be Hogan’s last Summerslam until 2005, as well as Sgt. Slaughter’s last (period). A new era began taking up top spots in the year that followed this event. Of course, the most memorable match on the card and really the only sustained reason to ever give this edition a second glance was the classic IC title match between Bret Hart and Mr. Perfect – a bout that routinely ranks amongst people’s top ten matches of all-time.
15) Summerslam ‘90 – This is really just a two match show, as the main-event cage match between the Warrior and Rick Rude and the tag title match between Demolition and the Hart Foundation are really the only matches worth watching, but back then it was rare that you got two good matches on one PPV. The general formula up until around 1992 was to give only one match the time it needed to be anything special. Summerslam ’90 was one of those rare exceptions to that rule. For what it’s worth, this was the best summer spectacular of the first four events of its history.
14) Summerslam ’94 – Barring the Undertaker vs. the Undertaker and all the goofy shenanigans that surrounded it, plus the women’s title match, this was a solid all around event. It was, of course, highlighted by the classic cage match between the Hart brothers – a true masterpiece of storytelling in a gimmicked environment – but there was also a good match for the IC title between Razor Ramon and Diesel and an ongoing storyline throughout the night involving Ted Dibiase and his Million Dollar Corporation (a faction that I feel is underrated in WWE history due to the time period when it took place).
13) Summerslam ’96 – This really started the trend of Summerslam being a consistently good show that rivaled Wrestlemania in terms of quality matches. The main-event was the match of the night, as HBK always worked well with big guys and Vader was one of the better working big men of his time. The Boiler Room Brawl is worth a watch, as well, if for nothing else than its historical significance in the career of the Taker. Surrounding the two big matches were several solid ones and there really wasn’t what I’d call a truly horrible match on the card.
12) Summerslam ’03 – Despite a very thrown together feel, this was an event that lived up to its namesake. Featuring a near classic co-main-event/Wrestlemania rematch and the second ever Elimination Chamber (in which the Goldberg character was finally treated as it should have been all along), Summerslam 2003 is certainly worth a second look. However, its undercard is fairly uneventful and, while it doesn’t take away from the overall event, it just doesn’t add much to it.
11) Summerslam ‘04 – The event that will, unless something drastic happens, be remembered as the night that Randy Orton became the youngest world champion in history. He defeated Chris Benoit that night in a 4-star affair. Kurt Angle and Eddie Guerrero had a really good match in the mid-card of the show. Those two bouts were surrounded by a whole host of solid, yet unspectacular contests (most notably Triple H vs. Eugene and JBL vs. Undertaker) and one really horrible segment notoriously known as “Diva Dodgeball.”
10) Summerslam ‘06 – Holding a special place for me since it was the Summerslam that I reviewed for LOP’s main page, I am fairly fond of this event on not just a performance level, but also a sentimental one. Performance wise, there wasn’t a match on the card that rated below 2 stars. There aren’t many events that can stake that claim. While nothing rates above three and a half stars either, and only two matches reach the three-star level (McMahons vs. DX and Edge vs. Cena), it was still an above average PPV that worth watching. Is there anything worth watching again? I’d say the Cena vs. Edge match was good enough for another viewing, but you can safely skip everything else.
9) Summerslam ’92 – In all honesty, there are only two matches on this eight match card that are really even worth watching once – much less repeatedly viewing. Fortunately, those two matches are so good that you’d be nuts not to want to see at least one of them every year around mid-to-late August. Everyone knows of the Bulldog vs. Hitman classic for the IC title, but the World title match that night – a return match between Warrior and Savage from Mania 7 – was also a great one. The rest of the card leaves a lot to be desired, but those two title matches alone make this one of the most memorable Summerslams of all-time.
8) Summerslam ‘97 – This was what Wrestlemania 13 should’ve been. It was a maximal use of the talent available and, had Shawn Michaels wrestled, this could’ve been one of the best PPVs of that decade. The event had that “big fight” feel that was missing from Mania 5 months earlier and a lot of big rivalries and storylines reached their peak at this show. The three matches worth viewing a second time are the cage match between a young HHH and Mankind/Foley that opened the show, the main-event between Undertaker and Bret Hart (w/ HBK as the ref), and the underrated match featuring Stone Cold and Owen Hart – that match is remembered for being the one where Austin got spike pile driven into the mat, injuring his neck. Yet, the 15-minutes that preceded it were excellent. That was a potential MOTY candidate if the finish had gone, as planned.
7) Summerslam ’08 – With a classic match as its main-event and a great match that preceded it, it was hard to not rank this event pretty high on the list. While a solid World title match between JBL and CM Punk and a surprisingly adequate WWE title match between Triple H and Great Khali provide extra zest to the overall card, the entirety of the event just didn’t have the same feel as the other great events in Summerslam history. This was certainly worthy of the name and a good show, but the undercard didn’t feature anything that you couldn’t have seen on TV. The segment with HBK, his wife, and Chris Jericho was quite good, but I’ve always been one that frowns upon TV-like segments taking place on PPV. This was an exception to that rule, but it wasn’t enough to save the undercard from keeping this event from getting into the top 5.
6) Summerslam ’00 – A balanced card that featured several really strong matches, including an all-time classic spot fest (the original TLC match). Three other matches rated at 3-stars or better on my scale and, while there was a dud or two, the good matches far outnumbered the bad ones. This was a time period where there was a lot of talent on the roster and subsequently a loaded card was not out of the ordinary for any month. ‘Tis a damn shame that I had taken a hiatus from wrestling at that point in time, as this took place in Raleigh, NC and I could have easily made the trip over there to see it. Anyhow, the summer classic delivered exactly what was expected in the year 2000.
5) Summerslam ‘09 – With a match of the year candidate main-event, the best tag team match in multiple years, and two other matches that made it into the best of Summerslam list, there’s no doubting that this was an event worthy of the name. However, what keeps it from being up among the top 5 is that there were two matches that virtual wastes of time. An ECW title match that lasted less than 10-seconds and a battle that included useless big man, the Great Khali, bring the overall rating of the PPV down. You’d like to say that it didn’t take away from the event’s quality, but when trying to rank the best of the best, it just flat out does…
4) Summerslam ‘01 – Four of eight matches ended up being included on the best of all-time list for the event, so that should automatically tell you that it was a good event. There wasn’t a great match on the card, but there were those several good ones…and it’s difficult to point to a bad match. The entire event flowed pretty well and in addition to the four aforementioned matches, Chris Jericho vs. Rhyno just barely missed the cut. The match of the night was Austin vs. Angle, but the most memorable is the RVD vs. Hardy ladder match for the Hardcore title.
3) Summerslam ’98 – A strong opening match sets the tone for a PPV and often makes for a great overall event. Such was the case back in 1998 when D’Lo Brown and Val Venis wrestled quite a match (albeit with a disappointing finish) for the European title. It would push X-Pac and Jeff Jarrett to raise their games in their hair vs. hair match, prompting The Rock and Triple H to steal the show with their ladder match, only to nearly be topped by Austin and Taker in their main-event. Just an overall memorable card that stands out above similar events because of the two classics that ended the show.
2) Summerslam ‘05 – There have been better PPVs in the last five years, but there have been few that were as well hyped from top to bottom. I love this event, which includes four matches that are really good (three that are a must-watch for a new wrestling fan). The hype for the top matches was strong coming in and, sans for the Edge-Hardy match which wasn’t given the time it needed until the following PPV (their must-see cage match from Unforgiven that year), everything delivered. This edition will be remembered, I think, for the HBK-Hogan match where Michaels bumped around and oversold everything, but I have to admit that his overselling made the match special and added a touch of behind the scenes realism that is rare in pro-wrestling.
1) Summerslam ‘02 – An absolutely phenomenal PPV that I’ve already shared my feelings about in a previous column. To me, this is the greatest wrestling PPV of all-time. It had everything…there were great matches in the undercard and two excellent main-events, one of which was arguably the ’02 match of the year. Featuring the return of Shawn Michaels and the arrival of the Next Big Thing, Brock Lesnar, this event closed as strongly as any PPV I can recall. It also opened with the best 8-minute match I’ve ever been witnessed to (no exaggeration) in Angle vs. Mysterio. In between, there were two other 3-star or better matches and not one match failed to reach the two-star or better mark. As Davey Boy once wrote, this was a PPV to put in your vault and lock it away…you wouldn’t want to lose this one…
Cant disagree with number one. personally 92 wins for me everytime...for obvious reasons.
That's ma boyo...
Pretty much what Chris said. I hope you have a Mr SummerSlam column in the works. I have one in the works myself that will be looking in particular at one man's quest to deserve that title.
Vol 15 - SummerSlam 2010
Out Now >>>HERE<<<
You stealin' my gimmick, Maz? F!!!
Mr. Summerslam will be posted next week...and there are a lot of contenders...the most difficult month by a long shot, to this point.
Chris - 'Tis a great match from the event you speak of that even brings '92 into the top 10...
LOL - Let it go, Chad!!!
I will be very interested to see who you give the spot too. Mine wont be looking across the board but particularly at one man's matches at the event. Looking through, I earmarked main contenders and it was really down to 2 in the end.
Vol 15 - SummerSlam 2010
Out Now >>>HERE<<<
Ah, come on Chad!
#20, really? I've always loved Summer Slam 95. I thought every match except the tag team match, the women's match and, to a lesser extent, the main event, was pretty good. I still watch it today and think it's a good event. Although it was disappointing that they spent so much time on commentary throughout the night hyping up "royal plans" and nothing came of it. The wrestling throughout the night was solid though.
I reckon I just have a soft spot for it, as I loved pretty much everything from WWF in 95.
Other than that, pretty spot on. Great read too, looking forward to the Mr. SummerSlam edition.
Click the link below to read the latest edition of Deadly Venom on the LOP Main Page:
Deadly Venom: My Three Most Wanted Matches For WrestleMania 27
Thanks to Snowman for the awesome sig!
Stinger - I tried to like it! I just couldn't. I went back and watched a lot of old Summerslams through the power of Netflix. I had never seen 2000 or 2001, so it was fun to finally catch up on what I'd missed during my hiatus...
Maz - I'm just messing with you, bro...kind of. I think i have a good idea who you are talking about writing that column on. I think it may very well be my Mr. Summerslam
I'm with you too Stinger, while I can't remember the full card now I definitely remember liking SS 95. Outside the interference I actually liked the ladder match better (right man won) only downside was the main event where I was pissed because in every frickin' interview they would ask Diesel if he'd be able to jacknife Mabel and he kept saying he'd try yet he never even attempted to. Just annoyed me, plus the match was short even though the event ended way ahead of schedule. Always a pet peeve of mine.
Hard to say what I'd list as my #1 but it's hard to argue with Lesnar/Rock and the return of my favorite wrestler of all-time in a classic match that by all means any normal person couldn't have done.
Yet another great column Chad.
Disagree on SummerSlam 88... Warrior winning the IC title over Honky is one of the most memorable moments in WWE history, but Megapowers vs. Megabucks was HUGE in its day! Plus, Demolition vs. Hart Foundation and the British Bulldogs vs. Rougeaus were great Pay Per View tag matches.
I don't know how 88 is not in the top 5, seriously!
Dr. C: SummerSlam's been a big deal to me for almost as long as wrestling has been. It will always will be the number two show of the year in my eyes. It made me happy to see the love for Bret & Davey's classic in '92. That's one of my favorite matches from any show, ever. Some part of me thinks that the '97 show maybe could've been ranked higher, but at the same time, I can't decide which of the remaining field I'd bump, so maybe you're on to something there. I'm also glad that you highlighted the significance of the '02 card. A little while ago, hustle did a piece proposing that Sheamus has had the biggest WWE rookie year ever. I begged to differ, and referenced that very '02 SummerSlam card as the cornerstone of sorts for my argument in favor of Brock Lesnar. I do have to question something that seems to be a glaring omission, however: how can you bring up SummerSlam '91 and not talk about Macho Man & Elizabeth's pretend wedding? I guess you were still dizzy from that Hart-Hennig masterpiece. As far as "Mr. SummerSlam" goes, I think it might have been Bret Hart up until he left. Since Hart's been gone, I think Edge has to be in that conversation. That said, the only names I can think of to span both periods are Mean Mark and Shawn Michaels. I don't see how it can be any one else. Maybe H? I'll leave that to you, Doc. Good stuff, as always.
Monk - Thanks for the feedback. Determining a #1 was a no brainer for me, from a match reviewing perspective and a pure mark perspective (thanks to the return of HBK, who is also my favorite of all-time).
Tito - Two formulaic tag team matches? Great? Agreed that Warrior vs. Honky is memorable, but since I got into match reviewing, I've always had a hard time not looking at a match through the reviewer's glasses. I did enjoy the main-event of that event, but as mentioned above felt it was the only match truly up to snuff...part of that was because it was the only match that was given the time to be anything more than average...
Big Thing - Ah, yes, the wedding...you are spot on to call me out on that. That should've definitely been mentioned. I agree with you about Lesnar, without question. The build-up for his title reign alone makes his rookie year shine far brighter than Sheamus. Lesnar was mauling everyone in impressive fashion with what I still consider to be the coolest finisher of the last decade (F5). As for Mr. Summerslam - you nailed a lot of the potential options, I'll tell you that. Stay tuned...
Thanks to all for the feedback...
I remember the anxiety I felt when reading Hustle's version of this column. My only thought was "I hope he doesn't rank SummerSlam 93 at the bottom."
He didn't. I laughed...maybe cried...felt alive.
Now this. Thanks for ruining my day, Doc.
People fail to mention, if memory serves, that Lex Luger tried to run Yoko into the ropes and roll him up!
You know the kind of roll up...where you are standing behind someone....spooning in a brokeback mountain type way....then you drop to your back, your opponent goes on top of you and over you, then you roll over and are sitting on them...
That kind of roll up. Can you imagine if they had done this?
Possibly the most absurd attempt at a move in history...tho it may not even have happened as I haven't seen the match in years. Anyways, I can't read the rest of your list...I'm sure the other choices were better.
Great idea here Doc, I was wondering where you'd put Summerslam 1998. Glad to see it ranked highly as it was by far my favourite Summerslam to date. The whole Highway to hell theme and Undertaker vs. Stone Cold with Undertaker finally having admitted his cahoots with Kane. I remember Austin had to hit a low blow to get the win but still, I think it was his biggest test to date as champion. Ken Shamrock and Owen Hart wasn't bad either and the HHH-Rock ladder match is still my favourite ladder match ever.
The rest of your choices were pretty solid although I would have 1992 a little higher up. Catch ya next time!
Nice column. I really enjoyed this.
Summer Slam '98 is a classic pay per view, but is often overlooked. It's good that you gave it some recognition as being the great event that it was. This pay per view was probably one of the most hyped events of all time, and featured Austin being the first person to cleanly beat The Undertaker. With the exception of Val Venis losing by disqualification to D-Lo, the faces won every match.
I won't argue '02 as the best, though.
Good job.
This was a great idea for a column and it certainly entertained me for a while. I would have maybe had Summerslam 00 in the top 5 or even 3 but agree with your choice of no1.
Davie - That's the nice thing about a list column - it's always good for discussion...everyone has a different opinion of where to rank 22 PPVs...
RIP - What would you say is #1? '98 makes a strong case. Was Mankind not the first guy to cleanly beat Taker?
Mister E - I thoroughly enjoyed the main-events at '92. In fact, you can put '92's main-events against any other year and it'd be right there at the top. It was the rest of the card that didn't hold up its end of the bargain
Shane - So, why would you like '93 to be higher : ) ...a move that happened in a match? Glad to see you back in here, brother...
Wow! Damn dude, that's the first column of yours I've ever read, and it was awesome. You got yourself an instant fan!
See, I still disagree with you on Summerslam 88... Formulaic tag team matches? Ugh, tell me another SummerSlam that has 2 solid tag matches in comparison, please do!
Warrior's title win and Mega Powers vs. Mega Bucks put SummerSlam on the Map! That, at the very least, deserves recognition and the main event, with Dibiase in and mixing it up with Hogan/Savage (Andre was pretty limited by then) was pretty damn good...
At least get it out of the bottom half of the countdown on historical significance, alone! Second worst of all time? Seriously?
Tito - Via match rating averages alone, absolutely. It's like the original Wrestlemania. From a historical perspective, it deserves to be ranked very high amongst the best. But the standard bearer was not that good of a show compared to the others in terms of match quality. Same goes for Summerslam.
Summerslam 89's two tag team matches (although one was a six man) were better than 88's...
Shaggy - Thank you for the compliments. I've done a poor job of feedbacking the new guys since the NXT competition began...I will do my best to make that right...
Hey, your welcome Doc it was top-notch! I look forward to seeing what you think of my work too!
This was awesome. Easily digested, clear understanding of why things are awesome.
How do you go about this selection process? Did you plop down a bill for that watercooler set?
From memory (WTF!) ?
in closing: CHAAAAAAD!
The next entry in the column that's been called:"... killing it."
"...thought provoking and intelligent... excellent.""I didn't read it but I don't like it.""Not horrible..."
I think the women's match at Summerslam 1994 was better than solid. It's probably my favourite WWE Women's match.
Interesting choices. I wouldn't agree, but then I think for the most part the quality of PPV's has gone down over the past decade rather than up. Still, that's just my opinion.
Prime Time - Discuss away...tell us what your top 5 would be...not enough folks discussing the columns topics these days! I disagree about the quality. In the last decade, overall PPV quality has decreased (from a match rating perspective, anyway). Much of the early events followed a format of giving the main-event(s) a lot of time, but giving little to no time for anything else.
Warchild - Netflix, brother...Netflix...
Thanks for the feedback, gentlemen
Yeah, time management is definitely better these days. I think that if they could combine the psychology of the old territory educated wrestlers with the format of the more reccent ppv's wrestling would be pretty incredible.
As for my top 5... well i've not given it too much thought, but the ones that jump out immediately at me are probably 1990, 1994, 1996, 1997 and your top choice of 2002. I also like the first two events more than you do (soft spot for the six man tag at 1989). I don't really mind your top choices - 2001 was OK but like most of that year (following Wrestlemania) was just a huge creative disappointment, while I am yet to see 2009 as it came in my, uh, 'sabbatical' from wrestling. I kinda like 2005, but I do think my choices (and probably 2000) are better, while I like parts of 1998 but I think that really, like most attitude era events, it's very of it's time and doesn't make for good rewatching, the HUGE main event excepted. That match is a grower. At the time I didn't much care as I didn't think Undertaker had any chance, while know I think it's probably THE match of Austin's first reign.
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