10 Highly Underrated WWE SummerSlam Matches

6. D-Lo Brown Vs. Val Venis (1998)

Daniel Bryan SummerSlam 2011 backflip
WWE.com

By the summer of 1998, the Attitude Era was in full swing, permeating WWE programming from top to bottom.

The best matches of the era were the wild brawls with creative use of signature moves, so something like Brown and Venis' European Championship opener is a nice slice of something different. Instead of succumbing to the era's relentless style, they told a story.

Brown's use of a weighted chest protector as an unfair weapon became part of the tale, with Venis trying to wrest it away for his own use. The slow and steady build wasn't quite paid off due to a disqualification finish, but for the time being, it was a very enjoyable match, and the New York crowd was duly into it.

Contributor
Contributor

Justin has been a wrestling fan since 1989, and has been writing about it since 2009. Since 2014, Justin has been a features writer and interviewer for Fighting Spirit Magazine. Justin also writes for History of Wrestling, and is a contributing author to James Dixon's Titan series.