Forgotten WWE SummerSlam classicsBy Matthew Martin| August 17, 2021 WWE Blogs This year promises to be one of the bigger and more important SummerSlam events in WWF/E history. Not since the famous 1992 event that took place in Wembley Stadium has SummerSlam taken place in such a massive venue. This year, the so-called Biggest Party of the Summer will air live from a stadium most had pegged as a future WrestleMania location, the new at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, NV. Now, long-time fans know that just because there’s a big venue, that doesn’t guarantee a hot show. WrestleMania 32 aired in front of a supposed 100k fans and it was barely serviceable. WWE ratings have been in a preeeetty steady freefall over the past, I dunno, decade or so, and lately Raw has seen its audience dip to as low as 1.4 million. Low viewership plus the fact that a solid (though not earth-shattering) Manny Pacquiao vs. Errol Spence PPV boxing match is taking place on the same day (in the same town, no less), and the added factor that the PPV will air in the USA through the abysmal Peacock streaming app, means it’s likely that a lot of fans will miss this one. Looking ahead to the card this year reveals some possible gems that are sure to entertain. Will those matches be remembered six years from now? Six months from now? Maybe not. There’s a precedent at work here. SummerSlam, despite being the number two (maybe number three) show on the WWE calendar every year, is always overshadowed by the massive hype train that is WrestleMania. Indeed, over the long history of the summertime event, there have been some classic matches that have been forgotten. For example… ULTIMATE WARRIOR vs RICK RUDE – SUMMERSLAM 1989 These two had an underrated feud in the late 80s and early 90s and though their WrestleMania V and SummerSlam 1990 matches are more memorable (the former saw Warrior shockingly lose the IC title and the latter was a cage match for the WWF Championship), it was this contest that arguably convinced Vince McMahon that Ultimate Warrior was a viable commodity in the main-event scene. To this point, he had mostly been in short squash matches that got him in and out of the ring before he had a chance to expose his limited skill set. Against Ravishing Rick Rude, however, Ultimate Warrior lasted a marathon (for him) time of sixteen minutes. Of course, the real credit goes to Rude, who worked his tail off in every match he had with Warrior, but in WWF it’s not the guy who makes you look good that matters; it’s the guy that looks good. WWE politics aside, this match is a great showcase of the late-80s style: Cartoon muscle men with over-exaggerated mannerisms, throwing hands with great commentary complementing the action (in this case, a rare Tony Schiavone/Jesse Ventura combo). Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content SHAWN MICHAELS vs VADER – SUMMERSLAM 1996 HBK has a legacy of excellent PPV matches and often stole the show on whatever event he performed. Vader likewise is one of the most infamous monster-heels in the history of the sport and is a certifiable legend in both NWA/WCW and Japan. Vader’s short stint in the WWF, however, hardly lived up to his reputation elsewhere and his biggest match in Vince’s company, this WWF Title match at SummerSlam, is overshadowed by the drama happening around the match, instead of in it. Most fans know that HBK didn’t like working with the stiff, hard-hitting Vader, and their title match is mostly only remembered for it feeling like the perfect time to crown a new monster heel champ, only for HBK to retain. Allegedly, Michaels politicked his way into the finish we got and that’s that. It’s the story around the match that we talk about, making the match itself a forgotten classic. Politics or no, these two put on an excellent (for the mid-90s WWF) match, with the smaller HBK bumping like a mad man for twenty minutes before stealing a win and surviving the fight. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content TLC 1.0 – SUMMERSLAM 2000 That’s right, a TLC match can be a forgotten gem. How? When it’s sandwiched between the proto-version, the “Triangle Ladder Match” at WrestleMania 2000, and the impeccable TLC 2 at WrestleMania X-Seven. This one sort of gets forgotten, probably because it’s the one that didn’t take place at WrestleMania. It also happened to fall on one of the hottest and most enjoyable SummerSlam events in history. Nevertheless, for eighteen minutes, the teams of Edge/Christian, Dudley Boys, and Hardy Boys innovated and improved in every possible way on the Triangle Ladder match from a few months before, and laid the foundation for the match as it would come to be defined. All subsequent ladder matches—single and tag—owe a debt to the work these six men did to innovate the gimmick with Tables Ladders and Chairs, but while you’re studying the greatness of the match that would come in 2001 at the Houston Astrodome, don’t forget about the match that pioneered the whole thing. MELINA vs ALICIA FOX – SUMMERSLAM 2010 https://dai.ly/xi1nh6I kid, I kid… FINN BALOR vs SETH ROLLINS – SUMMERSLAM 2016 Easily the best-worked, most consequential match on this list. It’s an absolute banger, a co-main-event, and saw a new world title being awarded to the winner. How can something like that become forgotten? For starters, it was instantly overshadowed by two other matches that happened that night, one being AJ Styles’ “clean as a whistle” victory over John Cena (a thing unheard of at the time) and the other being the main-event match between Brock Lesnar vs Randy Orton, which ended with Lesnar driving his elbows into Orton’s head enough times to make him bleed like mid-80s Terry Funk. Those were the top two stories coming out of the show, and any attention that the new Universal Champion would have gotten was undercut by the fact that the winner, Finn Balor, had to vacate the title the next night on Raw, after injuring himself in the victory. It’s a shame because this was actually Balor’s PPV debut and the first big opportunity for the WWE (non-NXT) audience to experience “the demon.” He didn’t disappoint, either: He and Seth Rollins worked a match that made viewers think “the future is here.” Both were NXT vets who developed a particular style; fast-paced, athletic, frenetic, with lots of counters and reversals and quick pins-and-kick outs. It’s sort of like a Bret Hart/Kurt Angle mat-technician style…in fast forward, and with an ariel component to boot. Naturally, the match rocked and the crowd was very into it, but twenty-four hours later it was, at best, only the fourth biggest thing being talked about, and since then it has basically disappeared. Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party. YouTube privacy policy If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh. Accept YouTube Content ***** SummerSlam is a classic PPV event, spanning five different decades. These were just a handful—one from the 80s, 90’s, 00’s, and 10’s—of matches that were great in their today, and are still great today, even if they are a bit overlooked. What great SummerSlam matches do you think are too often forgotten about? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
