10 Best WWE SummerSlam Openers

There's actually a bit of an interesting backstory to this one.

Rey Mysterio won the Intercontinental Title from JBL at WrestleMania XXV and was promised a lengthy run with the belt. He and Chris Jericho played hot potato with the belt over the spring/early summer, but Rey walked away from that programme as champ. At July's Night of Champions pay-per-view, WWE management asked the masked man to drop the strap to Dolph Ziggler and Rey refused.

Citing the fact that he was promised a longer reign, Rey stood his ground and ended up getting his hand raised. The match itself was good, but they definitely bettered it the next month in the opener of SummerSlam.

Rey was on a serious roll in '09, re-establishing himself was one of the best workers in the world. Ziggler was just starting to really find his mojo on the main roster after a bit of an iffy start. They found their groove early and Mysteiro was his wondreful flippy, springboardy self while Ziggler kept up with him every step of the way to the point that the Staple's Center crowd were chanting for him at the end.

After a bunch of awesome near falls, Rey countered a top-tope gutbuster with a Frankensteiner for the 1-2-3.