10 Worst WWE SummerSlam PPVs Ever

But while '94 suffered from a disappointing finale, the company had clearly learned from its mistakes two years later in 1996. Closing the show, Shawn Michaels and Vader put on an excellent display in their WWE Championship bout, with Michaels eventually retaining his belt at the third time of asking.

And the match that had preceded that—the Boiler Room Brawl between the Undertaker and Mankind—was a similarly exciting affair. But beyond that, though, there wasn’t all that much to shout about.

You could argue that the Four-way Tag Team Elimination bout suffered from a crowd that just wasn't into it, but there was likely a reason behind the audience’s apathy. And the rest of the mid-card matches were hardly the type to set the world alight: Sycho Sid facing the British Bulldog and Goldust going up against Marc Mero.

We also saw Jake Roberts take on Jerry Lawler, in a feud that wandered a little too close to home in exploiting Roberts’ troubles with alcoholism. After the match, Lawler poured whiskey down Roberts’ throat, before it was later found out that Roberts had in fact already relapsed and fallen off the wagon.

All in all, the general consensus on SummerSlam 1994 is that barring the final two matches of the night, everything else was largely skippable. Which isn’t exactly a quality you look for in a PPV event...