10 Best WWE SummerSlam Openers
This is how to kick off the 'Biggest Party of the Summer'.
Like a nightclub DJ trying to select the perfect tune to kick off a big summer blowout, so to must WWE select the right match to start their SummerSlam pay-per-view in the right way. SummerSlam is considered by many to be the second biggest pay-per-view/special event of the year and a dud opener can mess things up and sour the tone from the off.
Previous letdowns include the Legion of Doom/Money Inc disaster from 1992, the totally underwhelming Too Cool & Rikishi Vs. Right to Censor six-man from 2000 and the Dudley Boys trying (and failing) to get something decent out of the still-green La Resistance in 2003. A PPV is not successful based solely off of its opening contest, of course, but it certainly helps to hit the ground running. It ism arguably, the second most 'important' match of the show, after only the main event.
With SummerSlam 2016 taking place later this week, I've looked back at some 28 previous curtain-raisers to see which matches kicked off the so-called 'Biggest Party of the Summer' most effectively.
*As an aside, my choice to open SummerSlam 2016 is Rusev and Roman Reigns' clash over the United States Title. Please feel free to revisit this article on Monday Morning and tell me how wrong I was in the comments section!
10. Randy Orton Vs. Sheamus - 2015
Now, just hear me out, OK?
There are fewer WWE superstars who draw the apathy that Orton and Sheamus have done over the past couple of years. They're excellent workers, of course, but they've been over-exposed and desperately in need of freshening-up. Plus, they'd opened the Battleground PPV a month prior to their SummerSlam encounter in a match that was little more than an average TV-style match.
Expectations weren't high, but SummerSlam 2015 was a big improvement, with The Viper looking more motivated and both men ramping up the creativity a couple of notches. Apart from one or two early prolonged chinlocks, there was a tonne of action here which helped to stir the Brooklyn crowd. Perhaps the increased workrate had something to do with NXT: Takeover taking place the night before...
A great sequence towards the end of the match saw Orton hit a top-rope draping DDT and then counter a Sheamus slingshot shoulderblock into a mid-air RKO. That would have been a GREAT finish, but Sheamus rolled out of the ring in order to avoid defeat. Orton tried to hit the running punt to finally finish him off but missed and, following the White Noise and two Brogue Kicks, was counting the Barclays Center's ceiling lights.
Perhaps a tad too much reversal/finisher/reversal for an opening match, but it kicked off the show on a high note and showed that Orton and Sheamus were more than capable of captivating a crowd, despite poor booking and audience burnout.