What is the worst Summerslam?

[The Extract]

What is the worst Summerslam? I am making my decision off of the card on paper, match quality, and draw. So, IMO, Summerslam 1990 is the worst Summerslam. Here is the card and times:


Dark match:
Shane Douglas defeated Buddy Rose. Unknown time.


Power and Glory (Paul Roma and Hercules) (with Slick) defeated The Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty). 06:00


The Texas Tornado defeated Mr. Perfect (c) (with Bobby Heenan), for the WWF Intercontinental Championship. 05:15


Sensational Queen Sherri defeated Sapphire by forfeit. 00:00


The Warlord (with Slick) defeated Tito Santana. 05:28


The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart) defeated Demolition (Smash and Crush) (c), Two out of three falls match for the WWF Tag Team Championship. 14:24


Jake Roberts defeated Bad News Brown by disqualification, with Big Boss Man as special guest referee. 04:44


Nikolai Volkoff and Jim Duggan defeated The Orient Express (Tanaka and Sato) (with Mr. Fuji). 03:22


Randy Savage (with Sensational Queen Sherri) defeated Dusty Rhodes. 02:15


Hulk Hogan (with The Big Boss Man) defeated Earthquake (with Jimmy Hart and Dino Bravo) by countout. 13:16


The Ultimate Warrior (c) defeated Rick Rude (with Bobby Heenan), Steel cage match for the WWF Championship. 10:05


There was hardly any in-ring action. Even if there was a lot of in-ring action, then it still was a pretty crappy card. So it's your turn, ready, set, GO!

 

[AttitudeChild]

This ones easy. SummerSlam 2010. I was there to see it live and that didn't even help me enjoy it.


Dark Match: Evan Bourne defeated Zack Ryder

Dolph Ziggler (with Vickie Guerrero) vs Kofi Kingston for the WWE Intercontinental Championship ended in a no contest. Great match that was ended too soon because of some lame Nexus attack.

Melina defeated Alicia Fox for the WWE Divas Championship. Who cares.

The Big Show defeated The Straight Edge Society (CM Punk, Joseph Mercury, and Luke Gallows) (with Serena) in an absolute SQUASH match. Worst match of the night by FAR!

Randy Orton vs Sheamus for the WWE Championship ended in disqualification. Just an ok match with a bad ending.

Kane defeated Rey Mysterio for the World Heavyweight Championship. The only thing of note about this match was Undertakers Return.

Team WWE (John Cena, Daniel Bryan, Edge, Chris Jericho, Bret Hart, R-Truth and John Morrison) defeated The Nexus (Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, David Otunga, Skip Sheffield, Michael Tarver and Darren Young) in a Seven-on-seven elimination tag team match. Pretty much a match where everyone on team WWE was eliminated, just to have John Cena come back and defeat the ENTIRE Nexus by himself. Terrible match and terrible end to the Nexus.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

This ones easy. SummerSlam 2010. I was there to see it live and that didn't even help me enjoy it.

I am mixed with Summer Slam 2010. But let's look at your individual points.

Dolph Ziggler (with Vickie Guerrero) vs Kofi Kingston for the WWE Intercontinental Championship ended in a no contest. Great match that was ended too soon because of some lame Nexus attack.

Haha, I kind of agree. But then again this match was done to death at the time so I really didn't care about this match.

The Big Show defeated The Straight Edge Society (CM Punk, Joseph Mercury, and Luke Gallows) (with Serena) in an absolute SQUASH match. Worst match of the night by FAR!

I see two sides into this. One on hand it was a squash match but it had CM Punk running cowardly with one of the SES members taking the fall. Now on one hand this was a good way to setup the Punk vs. Big Show feud that could have put Punk over.

The problem is Punk didn't go over even though he was more over than The Big Show at the time and Big Show just demolished Punk at NOC.

When seeing Punk's epic shoot last year, and seeing how this Big Show vs. SES rilvarly turned out, I can understand why Punk did his pipe bomb. At the time it did seem like the WWE went out of their way to always kill Punk's momentum.

Randy Orton vs Sheamus for the WWE Championship ended in disqualification. Just an ok match with a bad ending.

Since it was apparent Orton was going to win the title next month, Sheamus should have won, at least, semi-clean.

Kane defeated Rey Mysterio for the World Heavyweight Championship. The only thing of note about this match was Undertakers Return.

Match was fine.

Team WWE (John Cena, Daniel Bryan, Edge, Chris Jericho, Bret Hart, R-Truth and John Morrison) defeated The Nexus (Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, David Otunga, Skip Sheffield, Michael Tarver and Darren Young) in a Seven-on-seven elimination tag team match. Pretty much a match where everyone on team WWE was eliminated, just to have John Cena come back and defeat the ENTIRE Nexus by himself. Terrible match and terrible end to the Nexus.

Beginning of the end of Nexus here. The moment Cena won and, once again, defied the odds, Nexus was no longer an intimidating force and lost a lot of their heat.

I did like the build up but the end result after Summer Slam just killed the faction.

Note: Jericho was eliminated quickly here but, like the NOC PPV after this, he can just do his thing for less than 5 mins and the crowd would eat it up. It's amazing how the WWE never realized that Jericho can get the pops WWE's handpicked guys like Cena, Orton, Sheamus, and Batista gets in 15. I am exaggerating a little but Jericho can have the crowd eating out his hands. Problem is, like Punk at the time, they just refused to capitalize on his momentum.

Buy 2010 wasn't terrible. Maybe a C/C+ Average so it was watchable.

The worst for me had to be Summer Slam 2004. I don't know how the WWE did it but they managed to make the Toronto Crowd dead. Eddie/Angle and Benoit/Orton could not save this PPV. Eugene/HHH, JBL/Taker (fans were so bored they did the wave), come on! Also Diva's Dodgeball

 

[ProWrestlingFan]

Summerslam 2010 is the worst Summerslam in my opinion. The whole match card sucked. No big matches and the main event was a lame Elimination Tag team match.

The whole Team WWE vs Team Nexus shit was lame.

Kofi Kingston vs Dolph Ziggler ended in a No Contest.

The Big Show defeated The Straight Edge Society in a Squash match.

Sheamus vs Randy Orton ended in disqualification

Kane vs Rey Mysterio match was mediocre. The whole Kane/Undertaker rivalry was pretty lame (Background music playing during promos etc).

Two matches ending in a No Contest and a Disqualification and the main-event being a Tag-Team match on a PPV which is the second biggest PPV after Wrestlemania.

 

[SuperSteve16]

This one is easy for me. Summerslam 1995. Plenty of useless matches featuring a bunch of unknowns where the only good match was Razor Ramon Vs Shawn Michaels. There was a couple of squash matches and a pretty bad women's match. This PPV highlights the bad position the company was in at the time and features one of the worst main events of any PPV ever, in Diesel Vs Mabel for the WWF Championship

 

[localcompetitor]

I would go 1993 on this which only had one half decent match, that being the tag title bout between The Steiners and The Heavenly Bodies, however there were plenty of stinkers here.
The top offender was the match between Lex Luger and Yokozuna a feud the company had been building all summer for a bout that went 17 minutes long and ended with a count-out.
Also the awful Undertaker/Giant Gonzalez feud came to an end with a terrible No DQ match.
Then Bret Hart was wasted in a nothing match with Doink before the advertised match with Jerry Lawler ended in a DQ.
This card also featured the last time that Millon $ ManTed Dibiase would wrestle on PPV for the company however this was never mentioned on screen an insult to a great career that ended with a seven minute loss to Razor Ramon in the opening match.

I would however agree with those who have said 2010 as in recent memory that stands out as a fairly mediocre show.

 

[Mr$intheBank]

I am going to go with Summerslam 2007. IMO there was only one good match and that was the main event. It also had the return of Rey Rey and Triple H but their return matches were meh. Rey vs. Chavo was probably the second best match and all the matches were fairly quick. Here's the card:


Kane def. Finlay

Umaga def. Carlito and Mr. Kennedy (Triple Threat for IC Title)

Rey Mysterio def. Chavo Guerrero

12 Diva Interpromotional Battle Royal

ECW Champion John Morrison def. CM Punk

Triple H def. King Booker

Batista def. World Heavyweight Champion The Great Khali (by DQ) (EWWW)

WWE Champion John Cena def. Randy Orton

 

[THTRobtaylor]

To be fair DiBiase wasn't planning for Summerslam 93 to be his last match for WWE, he was just headed to Japan for a tour when the injury occured that ended his career.

1993-95 was a pretty bad time for Summerslam, it was the PPV that showed up most the lack of talent WWE had at the time. Shows like Survivor Series got by on big returns like Undertaker and the classic Survivor concept. Summerslam struggled for stories that made people care and those that did come off had lame pay-offs, like Tatanka v Luger in 1994 for example.

1995 had one decent match with Hakushi v 1-2-3 Kid... but that they headlined with Diesel v Mabel summed up how badly off they were at that time. A year later, all change, but I think it was that show that forced them into hiring the talents from WCW/ECW that turned things round as what they had clearly didn't work.

 

[No Count Pup]

Summerslam 2007 was a lackluster show, and deserving of the "Worst Summerslam ever" distinction. What I found particularly frustrating was that it was the second straight Summerslam World Heavyweight Championship match to end in disqualification. The Triple H and Rey Mysterio returns were also unspectacular to say the least.

Of course, the dark cloud that loomed over WWE in the wake of Chris Benoit's unspeakable offenses tainted the organization's efforts for the latter half of 2007. In all my years as a wrestling fan, I found 2007 to be the worst year in WWE history, regardless of the financial successes of Wrestlemania. WWE was recovering from a worldwide tempest of criticism in virtually all media markets. I believe it affected the overall quality of WWE programming, including Summerslam 2007.

 

[dtroppe]

I have to disagree with the OP's worst summerslam being 1990- Look at the players on that card- Hogan, Warrior, the Rockers, Demolition, Rude, Perfect, Savage, Texas Tornado, and Jake the Snake. I would have loved to have see that show- these are some of the most entertaining guys of all time.

I think that the mid 90s was pretty bad.

I think that this year's 2012 Summer Slam will go down as one of the worst in a long time. Lesner v HHH is the only thing that sounds interesting to me. I think it will be a generic WWE PPV similar to all the others lately.

 

[HBsam31]

I have to agree that 95 was pretty bad. I agree with the poster that said 93-95 was a bad few years. Just a general lack of talent at the time. Any Summerslam headlined by King Mabel vs Diesel has to be mentioned. 2010 has to be added just because of how disappointed I was in the whole Nexus angle falling apart their. It was the first Summerslam I had ordered in a long time due to the Nexus angle and I feel they dropped the ball big time.

 

[jeritroll94]

Agree with those who say Summerslam 2010. Crappy match card headlined by WWE vs Nexus. I loved the whole Nexus angle and this match just stopped all the momentum they had before the PPV. The only good thing in this match was Daniel Bryan's return!

The World Title match ended with yet another Undertaker/Kane fued for God knows how many times. Wasn't the worst match of the night though.

That award goes to Big Show vs SES in the 3 on 1. A match that should've put CM Punk over ends in a squash...really?

WWE title match between Orton and Sheamus ended in a DQ (snore). Should have had a semi clean finish.

They also had Nexus take out Kofi and Dolph in the IC title match which was silly since those two had nothing to do with the whole Nexus angle.

Overall this was my least favourite PPV of 2010!!

 

[The Brain]

There was hardly any in-ring action. Even if there was a lot of in-ring action, then it still was a pretty crappy card. So it's your turn, ready, set, GO!

I'm just curious, did you actually watch SummerSlam 90? I'm asking because the impression I get from reading your post is you are looking at the card at wiki or something and just assuming it sucked. The reason I think that is because you mentioned listing how the card looked on paper and listed the time of each match (even the dark match). If I never saw the event and just read about those short matches I probably wouldn't think much of it either. I'm not going to tell you it was one of the best but in my opinion it is definitely not the worst. The Hart Foundation vs. Demolition alone makes this show better than some other SummerSlams.

I'm going to agree with those that have said 2010. That had the most lackluster build of all the SummerSlams. The whole angle between Mysterio, Kane, and Taker was ridiculous and the payoff was weak. Orton vs. Sheamus was just bland. Big Show was not a good opponent for Punk and his cronies and one of the more interesting storylines going in WWE had lost its momentum. The Nexus was cool but I just wasn't buying the whole Nexus vs. WWE angle. I didn't like long time rivals like Cena, Jericho, and Edge teaming up to stop the threat of guys like Heath Slater and Darren Young. It probably would have been better to have Cena vs. Barrett one on one and have the other WWE guys in that match do something else. Seven on seven is too crowded for a SummerSlam main event, especially since we had pay per views like Bragging Rights and Survivor Series.

 

[HBKistheHOF]

Summerslam 2010:
1.) IC Championship Scramble - Was advertised in the program and could have been a great match. Then it was switched to Dolph vs. Kofi, if I'm not mistaken, which EASILY could have been the match of the night. But, NO! Nexus interupts to cuts a bad promo. Terrible booking here!
2.) Divas Championship - THIS was the big Title Change/Homecoming of the night! AND was given plenty of time, and it still wasn't a good match. Just cause Melina lives in LA, doesn't mean anyone in LA cares about her winning the title in a sub-par match.
3.) SES vs. Show - THIS was the match of the night IMO! Yeah, exactly! This handicap match, which basically ended with Punk running away and Show beating everyone up, was the most entertaing match live that night. And I am usually bored by any Big Show match without Taker, Kane, or a Hardcore stipulation.
Note: Serena is even hot bald.
4.) WWE Title match - Sheamus wasn't ready for his first WWE title, let alone a 2nd. He won every match in some cheap, boring way. Not to mention he wasn't nearly as bareable then as a performer and it was a really weak feud at the time.
5.) World Title match - The best one on one match of the night. Rey was injured though and it wasn't their best. Also, while Taker appearing is ALWAYS awesome, he looked REALLY out of it and the EXREMELY slow-paced scene, that ended with Taker a broken mess, was kinda boring.
6.) Nexus vs. WWE - This match had alot more potential IMO. First off, I didn't think R-Truth should be on team WWE and while Khali didn't even make it to Summerslam, his original involvment was stupid. Also, while he is a legend, Bret Hart on team WWE was just silly, nostalgia that is better suited for a RAW or Mania IMO (If your company was in jeopardy, would you put a 60 yr. old man that had a stroke and you had alot of problems with in the past, on your team? NO!) The suprise of Bryan was cool for a indie fan like myself and pretty much what seemed to save his career, but it was pretty lackluster overall and kinda just seemed awkward at the time. The match itself was pretty good, but between the Rookies headlining and "Super" Cena destroying everythng in sight for the victory, it just seemed like a lackluster RAW main event.

Also this year's title matches seem pretty terrible, ESPECIALLY Del Rio vs. Sheamus, AGAIN!
If it wasn't for the EPIC bouts of Lesnar vs. HHH and (Most Likely)Jericho vs. Ziggler, this years would be pretty low as well.

Note: I agree 93-95 were some talent/star-power lacking years!

 

[The Extract]

I'm just curious, did you actually watch SummerSlam 90? I'm asking because the impression I get from reading your post is you are looking at the card at wiki or something and just assuming it sucked. The reason I think that is because you mentioned listing how the card looked on paper and listed the time of each match (even the dark match). If I never saw the event and just read about those short matches I probably wouldn't think much of it either. I'm not going to tell you it was one of the best but in my opinion it is definitely not the worst. The Hart Foundation vs. Demolition alone makes this show better than some other SummerSlams.

I'm going to agree with those that have said 2010. That had the most lackluster build of all the SummerSlams. The whole angle between Mysterio, Kane, and Taker was ridiculous and the payoff was weak. Orton vs. Sheamus was just bland. Big Show was not a good opponent for Punk and his cronies and one of the more interesting storylines going in WWE had lost its momentum. The Nexus was cool but I just wasn't buying the whole Nexus vs. WWE angle. I didn't like long time rivals like Cena, Jericho, and Edge teaming up to stop the threat of guys like Heath Slater and Darren Young. It probably would have been better to have Cena vs. Barrett one on one and have the other WWE guys in that match do something else. Seven on seven is too crowded for a SummerSlam main event, especially since we had pay per views like Bragging Rights and Survivor Series.

First, I would like to say that I was a little biased while choosing 1990 instead of 2010. I actually saw the build for Summerslam 2010, which made the card seem a tiny bit better to me, while since I was only 1 at the time Summerslam 1990 came around, I had to watch it on youtube about a year ago.

So to answer your question, yes I have seen Summerslam 1990, and you are correct while saying the Hart Foundation vs. Demolition was a great match, but most of the matches that sounded good on paper just didn't deliver for me.

And to the poster that talked about the star power at Summerslam, I just have to say that most of the stars were booked horribly at that event. Just my opinion.

 

[KoC417]

If it wasn't for the EPIC bouts of Lesnar vs. HHH and (Most Likely)Jericho vs. Ziggler, this years would be pretty low as well.

Note: I agree 93-95 were some talent/star-power lacking years!

Hate to break it to you but Lesnar vs. HHH isn't going to be "epic". I'm predicting an easy victory for HHH. I'm looking for this match to resemble Goldberg vs. Lesnar.

But I agree with your assessment of Summerslam 2010. That PPV SUCKED. You have Nexus who has been dominating people left and right and a true power stable/faction losing to a team that literally could not get along up to a week before the PPV. I wish I could erase SSlam'10 from my memory entirely.

Can't wait to see the ZigZag man wipe the floor with Jericho though. And since Jericho is so awesome he will sell it perfectly and put on an amazing match if the WWE finally grows a set of balls and stops sucking Vince off in the back and allows these 2 athletes the TIME to put on a show. Not talking 7-10 minutes here either. Give these 2 men 25-30 minutes of solid action. They can go!

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

I'm just curious, did you actually watch SummerSlam 90? I'm asking because the impression I get from reading your post is you are looking at the card at wiki or something and just assuming it sucked. The reason I think that is because you mentioned listing how the card looked on paper and listed the time of each match (even the dark match). If I never saw the event and just read about those short matches I probably wouldn't think much of it either. I'm not going to tell you it was one of the best but in my opinion it is definitely not the worst. The Hart Foundation vs. Demolition alone makes this show better than some other SummerSlams.

I remember watching this one on PPV and it was indeed one of the worst, though I think 93 to 95 were even worse.

1) Hart Foundation vs. Demolition was the best match by far, but you had a 2 out of 3 fall match that last 14 minutes. This was far from a classic. It ended with the LOD running in to cause Demolition to lose the titles.

2) Von Erich Vs. Perfect - On paper, this is golden. In practice, it was a 5 minute match that ended REAL QUICK with a discus punch. I was shocked. I expected them to let this match run at least 15 minutes given the caliber of the guys, but it was almost a squash match.

3) Rhodes Vs. Savage - 2 minute match. Rhodes gets squashed. DiBiase starts a feud with Rhodes that no one cares about.

4) Sapphire Vs. Sherri - Forfeit. Part of the angle with Rhodes/DiBiase.

5) Hogan Vs. Earthquake - This was an okay match, but you're left with Hogan Vs. Quake. There was never any doubt who would win, and it was a typical Hogan vs. Big Guy match, only this one ended in a countout.

6) Roberts/Brown....again, high potential, but we're left with a 4 minute match that ended in a DQ, which was typical of Bad News Brown matches at the time.

7) Finally, you got Warrior and Rude in a cage match that underwhelmed. Usually these two were entertaining together. I think Rude didn't bump nearly as much in this one, and the result was again lackluster.

At the end of it, the entire PPV ran for just over 2 hours, and was one of the shortest PPVs they ever ran. A few more decisive wins or letting one of the marquee matches run longer would've helped it a lot.

 

[The Brain]

I remember watching this one on PPV and it was indeed one of the worst, though I think 93 to 95 were even worse.

1) Hart Foundation vs. Demolition was the best match by far, but you had a 2 out of 3 fall match that last 14 minutes. This was far from a classic. It ended with the LOD running in to cause Demolition to lose the titles.

2) Von Erich Vs. Perfect - On paper, this is golden. In practice, it was a 5 minute match that ended REAL QUICK with a discus punch. I was shocked. I expected them to let this match run at least 15 minutes given the caliber of the guys, but it was almost a squash match.

3) Rhodes Vs. Savage - 2 minute match. Rhodes gets squashed. DiBiase starts a feud with Rhodes that no one cares about.

4) Sapphire Vs. Sherri - Forfeit. Part of the angle with Rhodes/DiBiase.

5) Hogan Vs. Earthquake - This was an okay match, but you're left with Hogan Vs. Quake. There was never any doubt who would win, and it was a typical Hogan vs. Big Guy match, only this one ended in a countout.

6) Roberts/Brown....again, high potential, but we're left with a 4 minute match that ended in a DQ, which was typical of Bad News Brown matches at the time.

7) Finally, you got Warrior and Rude in a cage match that underwhelmed. Usually these two were entertaining together. I think Rude didn't bump nearly as much in this one, and the result was again lackluster.

At the end of it, the entire PPV ran for just over 2 hours, and was one of the shortest PPVs they ever ran. A few more decisive wins or letting one of the marquee matches run longer would've helped it a lot.

As I mentioned, I'm not saying SummerSlam 90 was among the best. The thread asks which was the worst and I don't think 1990 was the worst. I would rank it toward the bottom but I just can't call it the absolute worst. I'm not criticizing the OP's opinion. I was honestly asking if he had seen the show. Just from the way he worded his OP I got the impression he was basing his opinion off what he read rather than what he had seen.

I stand by my original opinion that 2010 was the worst SummerSlam and really it's not even close. Even taking 2010 out of the equation I would put 2003, 2006, and 2007 below 1990. I also think the mid 90s SummerSlams get too much hate. They weren't among the best but 1993-1995 were solid shows.

 

[HBKperfect23]

They weren't among the best but 1993-1995 were solid shows.

Ill agree with this. I dont know why these shows get so much hate. 95 did have a shitty main event but had a solid undercard. 1994 had a great cage match, good payoff to the Taker vs Taker feud, and a good IC title match. 1993 was the best of the bunch in this stretch. The build for Luger/Yoko was great, one of the best build ups ever. The tag match a great match, Money Inc/Razor Kid was an enjoyable feud that gave two good singles matches. HBK/Perfect was pretty good too.

I wasnt watching from 2006-2010 so im excluding them. Ill go with 2003. 2003 doesnt look bad on paper but the build to it wasnt enjoyable, Brock/Angle didnt deliver like they usually do, and the elimination chamber was the worst that I saw.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

I'm sticking with 1990.

Again, indecisive finishes, poor action, short matches, and a total runtime of about 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Blech.