Ranking All 30 WWE SummerSlam Main Events

8. 2002 – Rock (C) Vs. Lesnar

Rock Brock
WWE.com

As a match, Rock vs. Brock Lesnar was an awesome battle. But it was the story of the Great One and the Next Big Thing that really drove this main event.

Lesnar had debuted just five months earlier and had run through everyone put in front of him. The Rock was still considered one of the true greats in WWE at the time. The question was whether the Brahma Bull could stop the charge of The Beast.

During the match, the Long Island fans read the writing on the wall and openly booed Rock and cheered for Lesnar. Brock kicked out of a Rock Bottom and hit his own, then no-sold a spinebuster setting up the People’s Elbow, ending the match with a devastating F-5 that kicked off Lesnar’s run at the top of the promotion.

This was a perfect example of WWE going all-in on a superstar and it paying off, big time. It’s also proof that the company knows how to do this.

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.