One MIND-BLOWING Secret For Every WWE SummerSlam

20. 2006 | One Last Match

Kurt Angle ECW
WWE

2006 was a terrible year for WWE’s onscreen product - and big juicy soaped-up rumours, it would seem. It’s just as well that 2007 yields something utterly phenomenal in the theatre of the mind. 

The subject of this list isn’t the Undertaker Vs. the Great Khali, but that is the most prominent lost match of SummerSlam 2006. If your brain is capable of retaining information from two decades ago, you’ll probably recall that Khali laid down the challenge for a Last Man Standing match at SummerSlam, to which ‘Taker said “Can we do it on telly instead, mate? My hip is giving me bother and I need to take a month off.”

If you trawl through several pages of Google too many, contemporary reporting from Lords of Pain suggests that there was talk internally of adding Kurt Angle to the ECW World title match between the Big Show and Sabu. This would have improved what was a pretty tame affair, but there was just one problem: by the time SummerSlam happened, Angle was no longer with the company. He had been released and was bound for a wildly unexpected jump to TNA; the darkest rumours suggest that Vince was frightened that Angle, with his legs blackened by horrific injury, might die on his watch. 

Angle was in no condition to wrestle at SummerSlam, but this was a different time. He was somehow considered healthy enough to work a house show on August 14, 2006. In his last WWE match during his first run, he wrestled Danny Doring.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick (Creative Writing BA Hons) is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over a decade of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential UK institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!