Ranking The 26 WWE SummerSlam Main Events From Worst To Best

5. The Rock (c) vs. Triple H vs. Kurt Angle (WWE Championship) - SummerSlam 2000

When is a three-way match not a three-way match? When one of the competitors is legit knocked out for half of the match. So went the 2000 SummerSlam main event title match, with Kurt Angle going down for a large chunk after a Pedigree attempt on the Spanish announce table went awry. (If you watch the video of the match, you can see HHH trying to hold a dazed and confused Angle down after the crash, clearly grasping that Kurt was loopy and hurt.) Still, The Rock and HHH managed to put on a pretty damn good match, with Angle rejoining the fray at the end. Rock was in the midst of a four-month reign as champ, having taken the belt from The Game two months earlier by pinning Mr. McMahon in a six-man tag match with the title on the line. Angle would go on to end Rock€™s reign in October at No Mercy. Angle and HHH became co-contenders for the WWF title by simultaneously pinning Chris Jericho. This was during the awesome and jettisoned-without-a-proper-conclusion love triangle between HHH, Angle and Stephanie McMahon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWsAuvyrdM4 The match ended with HHH accidentally knocking Stephanie out, Angle knocking HHH out with the sledgehammer, and then Rock dispatching of Angle and pinning HHH after a People€™s Elbow. It€™s the kind of fast-paced mess that you either loved or hated during the Attitude Era, but most loved these three guys, so it was a safe bet this was going to be a good one.

4. Jeff Hardy (c) vs. CM Punk (TLC Match For WWE Championship) - SummerSlam 2009

Sometimes when art imitates life, it makes for compelling art. Such is the case with the 2009 feud between the sometimes-troubled Jeff Hardy and the Straight Edge Superstar, CM Punk. The two men€™s personal stories meshed perfectly for a tale of the conflict between a hero who has succumbed to vices before and a drug-free villain who is only too gleeful to point out the heroes failings. Punk and Hardy traded the World Heavyweight Championship back and forth between them several times during the summer of 2009, with Punk cashing in his second Money in the Bank briefcase in June, only for Hardy to win the belt back in July. Punk would recapture the gold at SummerSlam in a TLC match that showcased the best the two men had to offer. Hardy hit a Swanton Bomb off a 15-foot ladder, putting Punk through the ECW announcers€™ table, but Punk was able to climb the ladder for the win. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIsmNYId0wE Really, the end result was never in doubt, as Hardy was leaving WWE. But the two let it all hang out for the fans. Unfortunately for Punk, Undertaker would return to chokeslam the Second City Savior, paving the way for a new title feud that Punk would ultimately lose.