Ranking All 29 WWE SummerSlam Main Events Ever
6. The Rock Vs. Triple H Vs. Kurt Angle (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.
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 fans loved these three guys, so it was a safe bet this was going to be a
good one.