Ranking All 29 WWE SummerSlam Main Events Ever

23. The Ultimate Warrior Vs. Rick Rude (1990)

Edge John Cena SummerSlam
WWE.com

This would be Ultimate Warrior’s first PPV match after winning the WWF Championship at WrestleMania VI. The poor guy had to contend with Hulk Hogan still wrestling on the card against Earthquake, so Warrior still was in the red and yellow shadow. At least he was in the ring with a capable opponent in Rick Rude.

Rude had defeated Warrior for the Intercontinental Championship a year earlier, so not only was there backstory, it was plausible that the Ravishing One could beat Warrior in the cage match. Of course, that wasn’t to happen, and Warrior would continue on as champ until Royal Rumble, when Sgt. Slaughter would derail his reign.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.