10 Best WWE SummerSlam Openers

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.