25 Lamest WWE SummerSlam Moments Of All Time

18. All Of SummerSlam 1997

John Cena, Wade Barrett
WWE.com

1997 was a transformative year for WWE -- maybe, when it's all said and done, the most important year in the company's history. The rise of Steve Austin as top babyface ensured that not only would the company compete with WCW, but that it would eventually emerge victorious in the interpromotional war. Still, from an in-ring standpoint, the company hadn't found its footing -- essentially, 90% of matches not involving Steve Austin, The Hart Foundation, The Undertaker, Mick Foley, and Shawn Michaels were worthless.

SummerSlam proved this in full force. The card was weak top to bottom, with matches featuring The Godwinns and Ken Shamrock failing to impress. The Triple H-Mankind cage match was disappointing, and the Bret Hart-Undertaker main event was overshadowed by Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee.

Most noteworthy -- and possibly the scariest SummerSlam moment of all time -- was when Steve Austin suffered a broken neck in his match with Owen Hart. Austin managed to defeat Hart for the Intercontinental Title, but he was out for a couple of months and his career was almost abruptly cut short. All in all, SummerSlam 1997 was a card most people would like to forget.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013