10 Absolute Worst Matches In WWE SummerSlam History
It's my Biggest Party Of The Summer, and I'll cry if I want to.
WWE's "second biggest" pay-per-view is not really its second biggest pay-per-view.
With Royal Rumble lighting the long Road To WrestleMania since 1993, the January Classic captures the prestige of the season along with a stipulation match that has inspired generations of performers and fans alike in their fawning fandom of 'The Grandest Stage'.
Vince McMahon hates the Survivor Series, but fans have clung to the elimination format almost every year since its 1987 inception. Even King Of The Ring, briefly considered the fifth of "The Big Five" in WWE's calendar had a tournament that the company championed as a starmaker in spite of Billy Gunn and Mabel's horrendous failed runs.
SummerSlam is none of these things and never really was, and yet remains the secondary jewel in the company crown. All because of absolute bangers like the ones in this list, not because of the disasters below.
The August supercard asks for major, WrestleMania-level matches even if the organisation hasn't always got its sh*t together enough to deliver as promised. Often lacking the platform WrestleMania provides, a lack of bells and whistles can prove fatal for a contest that needs a helping hand from the pencil, rather than a sharp stab in the eye...
10. Sheamus Vs Alberto Del Rio (SummerSlam 2012)
A dreadfully dull battle that perhaps might have resonated with fans that had just discovered pro wrestling in 2012 (but a decade of decline suggests there probably weren't too many of those...), Sheamus' successful World Championship defence against Alberto Del Rio fell victim to neither of the pair being over enough to satisfy their brief for the night.
'The Great White' hadn't ever managed to escape the curse of his original title win at that year's WrestleMania - the 18 second victory over Daniel Bryan triggered a "YES Movement" but a profound "No" from the audience to ever accepting the Royal Rumble winner as their chosen champion.
Foreshadowing years of that sh*t, Sheamus was the first and thus least-damaged by the role, but Alberto Del Rio had been in a semi-permanent state of flux since debuting too. Permitted to get moderately over in his first year, he was damaged goods nearly two years into a tepid heel run that had already peaked a year earlier.
Under the circumstances, competent work became a worst case scenario for two men laughably expected to produce a corker. The silence (years before boredom would produce boos) was deafening.