5 SummerSlam Debutants Who Challenged For The WWE Title

Shinsuke Nakamura is all set to join an elite crew of WWE Superstars when he takes to the ring on 20 August in Brooklyn at SummerSlam. The 'King Of Strong Style' will be making his first appearance at the biggest party of the summer in the WWE Championship match, an achievement not too many that have come before him can boast.

Of course, making your SummerSlam bow in the match of all matches is down to timing. Like Nakamura, if you make your main roster debut in the immediate aftermath of WrestleMania and are given a suitable push then you're onto a winner. However, as we'll discover during the course of this list there are a number of ways to make it to the main event at one of the company's fabled big four.

WWE's 'Rockstar' has made it to the championship match against Jinder Mahal against the odds. His initial spell on the main roster has been colder than your leftover turkey on Boxing Day. He's been made to feel like just another superstar with the way he's been booked with the reigns certainly applied to his in-ring work. Hopefully, this has been a deliberate ploy from WWE, who will allow Nakamura to unleash the kind of performance we haven't seen since his NXT debut against Sami Zayn in Dallas - taking our breath away when we're perhaps not really expecting it.

Here are the five other stars who made their Summerslam debut in the WWE Championship match...

The main event of SummerSlam 1993 saw two Superstars making their first appearance at the biggest party of the summer take part in a WWE Championship match with the most nonsensical of finishes.

With the Lex Express in full (ish) flight, Luger, complete with metal plates in his arm as the result of a motorcycle accident, had to avoid defeat or he'd never get another opportunity at the title.

After a surprisingly decent match Lex struck down Yoko's manager, Mr Fuji, and while the referee was tending to 'Fuj the Stooge' the glorified bus driver would remove all padding from his metal-plated arm and wallop his opponent upside the head. Naturally, this sent Yoko to the floor and he couldn't get back in the ring before the referee's 10 count which meant Luger won... albeit via count out meaning the Championship didn't change hands.

Even though the evil foreign heel was still the champion, everyone in the arena - Bobby Heenan aside - seemed to think Luger had brought the gold back home. Balloons and streamers fell from the rafters while fellow babyfaces took to the ring for the most shallow victory parade imaginable.

The story goes that Vince McMahon sanctioned the celebration because he saw the win as exactly that even though the championship didn't change hands. But hey, Luger and Yoko made their SummerSlam debuts in the main event so good on them.