RVD and Jeff threatened to steal the show at Summerslam with a spotty (but unquestionably breathtaking) ladder match. Both men were arguably somewhere near their peaks here, Jeff fresh out of tag team stagnation and yet to be caught up by his personal demons, Van Dam combining his ECW flair with a growing grasp of storytelling and psychology. Some of the bumps were a little clumsy and reckless, but in hindsight it adds to the match in a certain way, lending it a dangerous edge. At this point the future must have looked incredibly bright for the WWF, even in the midst of the disappointing Invasion. Unfortunately neither man really delivered on the promise shown in this match. Hardy did go on to become incredibly over (particularly with the women and children demographics) on the SmackDown brand, but was eventually let go due to his drug use. Similarly, RVD blew it at just the wrong time, caught in possession of marijuana at the very start of his ECW/WWE double-title run in 2006. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjYW3W5hQMY
