10 Lessons WWE Can Learn From The Biggest SummerSlam Buy-Rates Ever

SummerSlam has quite the storied history with the Ladder match. We’ve already mentioned how 1998 staged such a contest as part of its extreme offering, but that’s only the start of it.

In total, of the five SummerSlam shows with the most buys, three of them featured ladder matches.

As well as the Rock’s Intercontinental title clash with Triple H in ’98, we saw Eddie Guerrero go up against Rey Mysterio in 2005 in ladder action for the aforementioned custody of Rey’s son Dominick—which literally featured the court documents dangling above the ring—and in 2001, Jeff Hardy faced Rob Van Dam with the Hardcore title up for grabs.

It probably helped that the participants in these matches were each current or future Hall of Famers. And again, the Ladder match may not have been the sole reason for the inflated number of buys necessarily.

But they certainly seemed to help, suggesting this stipulation in particular is another important addition to the perfect SummerSlam stew.