11 Worst SummerSlam Posters In History
The bad, the bad, and the ugly.
When it comes to matters of the production department, the
WWE is usually at the very top of its game.
Some of the stage set-ups they’ve delivered in the past have been nothing short of spectacular, and still to this day I find myself going back and watching video packages from years gone by.
But another aspect of the company’s production that has been a little more hit and miss at times, is the promotional posters they put out for pay-per-views. Sure, it may not be the most major of elements, especially in today’s digital age. But often, the PPV posters provide the lasting image with which we remember these shows.
And in the case of SummerSlam especially, there have arguably been more misses than hits.
Granted, they’re doing a much better job than I could ever hope to do. But still, some of the renderings we’ve seen in the past have been questionable in one way or another.
So in the spirit of celebrating the bad and the ugly as well as the good, this article looks back at some of the less captivating posters from SummerSlams gone by.
Note: Most of the posters have had to be cropped to fit into this article, but if you fancy checking out the full-size images they're all readily available on Wikipedia, with links embedded throughout the article.
11. 1990
First up on the chopping block is the effort from 1990.
The PPV it was advertising was absolutely packed with talent, headlined by a cage match for the WWE Championship between the Ultimate Warrior and Rick Rude. Elsewhere on the card, Hulk Hogan took on Earthquake, Randy Savage faced Dusty Rhodes, and there were further appearances from Jake Roberts, Bret Hart, as well as a rookie Shawn Michaels.
The poster, however, wasn’t quite as impressive.
To me, the biggest issue is its simplicity. The stock image on a black background isn’t quite enough to convince me to purchase a wrestling show, and the wrestler's photos are on such a slant that you find yourself craning your neck just to try and make sense of it.
Maybe I’m just being lazy, but neck stretches aren’t what I look for in a PPV poster. That being said, I’ve refrained from placing this one any higher since it is, after all, even older than I am.