20 Greatest WWE SummerSlam Matches Ever

By Chad Matthews /

13. Christian vs. Randy Orton - No Holds Barred For WWE Championship (2011)

The summer of 2011 was most famous for the Pipe Bomb and the Punk vs. Cena feud that followed, but there was another classic rivalry that season between Randy Orton and Christian over the World Heavyweight Championship. It culminated in a No Holds Barred match at Summerslam after they traded the World title from May to July. Several amazing matches took place in their series, but arguably none better than the finale. Edge coming out prior to the match to basically put Christian€™s whiny character in his place set the tone and Christian, as usual, did a great job of overcoming what seemed like sure defeat to make it look like he legitimately had a chance to sneak out another win. Orton, meanwhile, was riding a wave of great matches. He and Christian brought out the best in each other and both went on a phenomenal hot streak from April to September, having a quiet game on Smackdown of €œWho€™s the best?€ The story told throughout the late spring and summer had so many layers to build on for their Summerslam match and they did quite well to utilize much of what made each of their other three PPV matches and their TV MOTY special. They stole the show right out from under Cena-Punk and kudos to the WWE for giving it the chance it deserved to do just that.