All 27 WWE SummerSlam Opening Matches - Ranked

14. Jeff Hardy Vs. MVP - 2008

kurt angle vs rey mysterio
WWE.com

Something felt off with this match. MVP is very good at what he does, and when he’s hot Jeff Hardy can be the best babyface in wrestling. In fact, around 2008 he was exactly that. It was around 2008 that he also seemed to fall off the wagon so to speak, and Hardy’s focus during this match brings it down a peg or two. They failed to get into any real rhythm during this match, and of course that tarnished it.

It wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, MVP’s style lends itself to heat segments and he was still a pretty fresh act at this point. At one point in the match MVP hits a sweet running belly-to-belly suplex from which Jeff practically hits the turnbuckles. It looks great, but it looks painful as heck. Jeff rallies, but for some reason Shelton Benjamin gets involved allowing MVP to hit the Drive By and pick up the win.

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.