20 Greatest WWE SummerSlam Matches Ever

By Chad Matthews /

11. Hulk Hogan vs. Shawn Michaels (2005)

Summerslam 2005 was one of the best examples of how the €œBiggest Party of the Summer€ can and should be built in a similar fashion to WrestleMania. Despite numerous PPVs to get through before Summerslam that year, WWE started hyping the August event two months in advance, directly, and right after Wrestlemania, indirectly. Seeds were planted for the Legend vs. Icon match between Shawn Michaels and Hulk Hogan after HBK asked the Hulkster to come back for €œone more match€ to help him fend off that year€™s version of the anti-USA gimmick. In reality, Hogan needed to test out his new hip. Since he worked at Backlash and got through it, they had him come back from time-to-time to wrestle on Raw. It was after one such occurrence when HBK clocked Hogan with Sweet Chin Music and began his brilliant, albeit brief, 2005 heel turn. The HBK-Hogan hype featured numerous classic HBK segments; including the spoof of Larry King€™s show where Michaels hilariously impersonated Hogan and the final Raw before the show emanating from Canada where he tapped into his 1997 self and channeled some old aggression toward Bret Hart. The match was an unquestionable Summerslam classic. HBK bumped around like it was 1992. Because Hogan was so immobile, the match relied on Michaels to do virtually all of the work and he delivered what was one of his most underrated performances. They told a good story, Hogan bled buckets, and Michaels carried the way to a great match. Did HBK oversell? Surely, but it made, rather than took away, from that match.