The WORST Moment From EVERY WWE SummerSlam
28. Hotly-Anticipated Main = Highway To Hell! (1998)
WWF 'Attitude' was on fire by the summer of 1998. Austin had bounced back from disaster at the prior year's event, won the title at WrestleMania XIV, and he'd even elevated Kane by trading the belt with him before SummerSlam's clash with The Undertaker. Life was good, and it looked certain that Austin and 'Taker would rip the roof off Madison Square Garden that August.
The best laid plans of mice and men, and all that.
Austin ate a concussion during his so-so headliner vs. 'Taker, but there's another point worth making: The pair just didn’t click, and then things were worsened by the bell-ringer ‘Stone Cold’ suffered. This was the second consecutive SummerSlam with an injury for him, so Steve must've thought 'Slam was cursed.
Others like Bruce Prichard and Jim Ross have admitted that the WWF Title showdown between these legends proved to be a slight letdown. It should've been awesome, but follow up matches in years to come proved that they didn't have much chemistry as rivals. That's remarkable when you considered how damn good both were with other workers (Austin with Bret, Shawn, Mick Foley, The Rock, Triple H etc, and Undertaker with Foley, Rock, Hunter, Shawn too).
As it turned out, SummerSlam '98's best match wasn't its last. Hunter vs. Rocky in a ladder bout for the IC belt was 10x the match this WWF Title effort was. That cannot be denied. Worse, the fed watched their meal ticket take another pounding on one of the biggest supercards of the year.