10 Fascinating WWE SummerSlam 2006 Facts
A hearty dose of "Attitude Lite" ends the summer on a rather average note.
Between the tamer resurrections of ECW and D-Generation X (neither as cool and edgy as they once had been), WWE was blissfully living in the past harder than ever. This wasn't WWE in the unhip dregs of 1994, clinging to the likes of King Kong Bundy, Captain Lou Albano, and Nikolai Volkoff to fill out their shows. Instead, it was a post-Attitude, still-healthy WWE attempting to co-opt their successful formulas of less than a decade earlier.
On the surface, SummerSlam 2006 feels like an all-star extravaganza, a rare show where Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair wrestled, Mick Foley bled, the ECW Championship was defended, and Vince McMahon attempted to quell a rebellious babyface act straight out of 1998. The Undertaker, in full "Dead Man" regalia, was to have also wrestled on the show, but those plans changed (as we'll get to). Was this really 2006?
The involvement of John Cena and Batista in the World Championship bouts managed to steer the feel of the event somewhat more toward that present-day. It's something of a forgettable SummerSlam, hardly an end-of-summer bonanza with exciting payoffs galore. There have been worse incarnations of the show, as SummerSlam 2006 can be best described as "firmly average".
Here are ten facts about SummerSlam 2006 you may not have known.
10. SummerSlam Made Boston The First Host Of Every Big-Five PPV
Not even the hallowed Madison Square Garden in New York City can lay claim to this achievement. MSG missed out on ever holding a King of the Ring pay-per-view, despite having multiple versions of the other shows (Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series).
As of SummerSlam 2006, Boston became the first city to score each of the Big Five. Their first was the 1993 Survivor Series at the classic Boston Garden, followed by WrestleMania 14 in 1998. King of the Ring 2000 followed, then the 2003 Royal Rumble. SummerSlam 2006 made Beantown the first of only two cities to manage this distinction.
The other is Philadelphia, who actually pulled it off later in the year with Survivor Series 2006. Philly deserves all the love it can get for being subjected to the 1995 King of the Ring.