The Greatest Match From Every WWE SummerSlam Ever
The best matches from the biggest event of the summer.
Capping off the hot months with a bang, SummerSlam is ostensibly the second biggest show on the WWE calendar. While there’s an argument to be made that the Royal Rumble has since usurped it, the late August blowout remains one of the key events on the wrestling calendar.
We’re a little less formal than we are during WrestleMania; dressed in our shorts and shades, the pressure doesn’t weigh quite so heavy, and the looser feel has led to some of the best pay per view events in WWE history (including the only major PPV to take place outside of North America).
The upcoming event will be the 33rd in company history, and while for obvious reasons things will be a little different to normal, the name on the marquee alone is enough to get wrestling fans excited, and the card is shaping up to be a good one already.
With such a rich lineage, it can be tough to know where to start if you’re looking to catch up, but if you were to watch just one match from each SummerSlam since its inception, we’d suggest you begin with these.
32. 1988 - The British Bulldogs Vs. The Fabulous Rogeau Brothers
The very first match under the SummerSlam banner is a relentless affair between two tag teams with very real bad blood. After a lengthy period of bullying by Dynamite Kid, Jacques Rougeau snapped, attacking the famously tough Englishman with a brutal, planned out assault.
With that in mind, the Canadian team must have had some trepidation entering into a match with the volatile Bulldogs, but the bout goes off without a hitch. The Rougeaus play the anti-American heel role as well as anyone, slowing the match down for just long enough to infuriate the crowd before Bulldog or Dynamite Kid ramp up the pace with their explosive, powerful style.
The match ends in a 20 minute time limit draw, which could raise the ire of the WWE crowd but in this instance makes perfect sense - these two teams simply had too much animosity to get out in the constraints of the wrestling ring. Commentator Superstar Billy Graham suggests they might continue the fight in the showers, and that doesn’t seem too unlikely.