Your SummerSlam Rankings

[The Brain]

Pretty simple topic. Rank the SummerSlams from best to worst. Use any criteria you want. Ranking things is usually difficult for me because I change my mind a lot, but here's my list (for now). SummerSlam is an event that rarely disappoints.

2002
1997
2005
1991
1989
2000
1995
1993
1992
1998
1988
2001
2008
2004
1996
1994
2009
1990
1999
2006
2007
2003

 

[Unsold Bacon]

Is this greatest to worst or worst to greatest? I think 1992 should be ranked a little higher either way.

 

[The Brain]

It's best to worst. I like 1992, but it doesn't really have anything besides the world and IC title matches. Although it could be argued that those two matches were good enough to make up for the rest of the card.

 

[Coco]

'03 should be right around '94. '01 should be a bit higher. '95 should be closer to the middle of the pack at the highest. '08 should be way, way lower.

 

[Coco]

I'd do my own list, but I haven't seen most from '93 and before. I'm sure I'm not missing much. I've seen the high points.

 

[Coco]

I might have issues with your placement of 2000. Actually, yeah. I definitely do.

It would have gained a lot from a 2/3 falls match that didn't pack three decisions into twelve minutes, a triple threat that didn't became a singles match, and a Taker/Kane match that actually went down without a hitch.

Man, there were a lot of shit SummerSlams. A lot like WrestleManias.

 

[Unsold Bacon]

It's best to worst. I like 1992, but it doesn't really have anything besides the world and IC title matches. Although it could be argued that those two matches were good enough to make up for the rest of the card.

How about Money Inc. vs LOD

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

Where's the love for '99? Seriously, i can't even remember what happened at any SSlam after that and i've near enough watched every single one. I've not seen any pre-99 so i can't comment but why is '99 so low on your list Brain?

Summerslam 1999.

-D'lo Brown w/ Debra vs Jeff Jarrett for both the IC and European Title
-Tag Team Turmoil Match for the #1 Contendership to the Tag Titles featuring E+C, The New Brood (Hardys), Mideon and Viscera, Droz and Albert, the Acolytes and the Hollys.
-Al Snow vs The Big Bossman for the Hardcore Title with on the spot commentary form the Road Dogg.
-Ken Shamrock vs Steve Blackman in a Lion's Den Weapons Match
-Ivory vs Tori for the Women's Title
-Test vs Shane McMahon in a Street Fight.
-Kane/X-Pac vs Taker/Show for the Tag Titles
-The Rock vs B.A. Billy Gunn in a 'Kiss My Ass Match'
-HHH w/ Chyna vs Mankind vs Steve Austin for the WWF Title w/ Jesse 'The Body' Ventura as Special Guest Referee

That PPV is great just for the ME, the street fight, the tag turmoil match AND the tag title match. Every other match is giving no name mid carders a chance to shine on PPV and then of course there's the Women's match.......

The match between Rock and Gunn was solid despite the stupid ending, and i don't think anyone saw the heel turn by Mark Henry and the double switch by Debra coming at the conclusion of the very first match! Plus Snow and Bossman tore up a bar across the street!

And who would have believed that Mankind, the guy added to the title match on the final Raw before the event, literally a week after returning from injury, would end up winning the belt? Plus it was also the beginning of the time where Austin moved out of the spotlight for a while allowing Rock and HHH to become the stars of 2000.

This PPV really did emcomapss the idea that anything could happen in the WWF.

 

[The Brain]

How about Money Inc. vs LOD

Money Inc. vs LOD was solid. I just hated what they were doing with LOD at that time. Carrying around that dummy Rocco was beyond stupid. Looking past that it was a solid match between two good teams and was LOD's last match in the WWF until 1997.

 

[The Brain]

Where's the love for '99? Seriously, i can't even remember what happened at any SSlam after that and i've near enough watched every single one. I've not seen any pre-99 so i can't comment but why is '99 so low on your list Brain?

Summerslam 1999.

-D'lo Brown w/ Debra vs Jeff Jarrett for both the IC and European Title
-Tag Team Turmoil Match for the #1 Contendership to the Tag Titles featuring E+C, The New Brood (Hardys), Mideon and Viscera, Droz and Albert, the Acolytes and the Hollys.
-Al Snow vs The Big Bossman for the Hardcore Title with on the spot commentary form the Road Dogg.
-Ken Shamrock vs Steve Blackman in a Lion's Den Weapons Match
-Ivory vs Tori for the Women's Title
-Test vs Shane McMahon in a Street Fight.
-Kane/X-Pac vs Taker/Show for the Tag Titles
-The Rock vs B.A. Billy Gunn in a 'Kiss My Ass Match'
-HHH w/ Chyna vs Mankind vs Steve Austin for the WWF Title w/ Jesse 'The Body' Ventura as Special Guest Referee

That PPV is great just for the ME, the street fight, the tag turmoil match AND the tag title match. Every other match is giving no name mid carders a chance to shine on PPV and then of course there's the Women's match.......

The match between Rock and Gunn was solid despite the stupid ending, and i don't think anyone saw the heel turn by Mark Henry and the double switch by Debra coming at the conclusion of the very first match! Plus Snow and Bossman tore up a bar across the street!

And who would have believed that Mankind, the guy added to the title match on the final Raw before the event, literally a week after returning from injury, would end up winning the belt? Plus it was also the beginning of the time where Austin moved out of the spotlight for a while allowing Rock and HHH to become the stars of 2000.

This PPV really did emcomapss the idea that anything could happen in the WWF.

I have a few problems with SummerSlam 99.

I don’t really care for matches like the tag turmoil. In my opinion that kind of thing usually comes off as lazy booking. The bookers are basically saying we can’t think of anything so let’s just throw everyone into a match together.

Over the years SummerSlam has produced great IC title matches and feuds. D Lo vs. Jarrett just didn’t do it for me. The match was solid, but I just wasn’t into the feud.

I pretty much hated the hardcore division. I hated matches that went backstage and outside the arena. Those kinds of matches can be fun at first but get old quickly. It was very old by SummerSlam.

I don’t mind The Rock vs. Billy Gunn, but overall it just reminds me of how much a failure Billy was as a singles wrestler.

My biggest problem is the main event. This main event should have been Steve Austin vs. Triple H one on one. That’s what was built up and I think Mankind ruined it. I also hated the result. The only reason Mankind won was so guest referee Governor Jesse Ventura could raise the hand of a babyface in the main event in his home state. The fact that Triple H won the title the next night is proof. It was cool to see Jesse back at a WWF event, but I hate how the result had to be altered because of him.

I really didn’t like 1999 in general, but I will say SummerSlam was easily the best ppv that year. It’s just not that good compared to other SummerSlams in my opinion.

 

[The Brain]

'03 should be right around '94. '01 should be a bit higher. '95 should be closer to the middle of the pack at the highest. '08 should be way, way lower.

A lot of these could be shuffled around. I knew what I wanted as my top four and bottom four. Everything in between could easily be shuffled.

2003 was at the bottom mostly for the main event. That main event should have been Triple H vs Goldberg one on one. That was the money match that summer. The chamber was obviously done because WWE couldn't figure out how to get everyone on the card. They sacrificed a great main event because they couldn't book their show properly. Other than Angle vs Lesnar nothing from 2003 stands out.

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

I don’t really care for matches like the tag turmoil. In my opinion that kind of thing usually comes off as lazy booking. The bookers are basically saying we can’t think of anything so let’s just throw everyone into a match together.

That's fair enough, i think they did it just to keep E+C, the Hardyz and the Acolytes relevant, because the whole 'New Brood' thing was just getting going, and the Acolytes had pretty much been shit on so that the Kane/X-Pac/Taker/Show fued could carry on. I mean the Acolytes won the belts in an actual month long fued with the Hardyz, and then dropped them like a week later to Kane/X-Pac, who immediately dropped them to Taker/Show.

Plus it was a chance to get Crash, one of WWF's newest acquisitions, on the show.

Over the years SummerSlam has produced great IC title matches and feuds. D Lo vs. Jarrett just didn’t do it for me. The match was solid, but I just wasn’t into the feud.

I pretty much echo those sentiments exactly.

I pretty much hated the hardcore division. I hated matches that went backstage and outside the arena. Those kinds of matches can be fun at first but get old quickly. It was very old by SummerSlam.

There's not many that stand out i'll grant you apart from the one in the Mississippi river and Kane/Show/Raven at WM17 but Road Dogg doing commentary throughout the whole match in person was funny to me, plus i think that's the one and only hardcore match i've seen where not only did they leave the arena, they went into a completely different building to finish the match.

I don’t mind The Rock vs. Billy Gunn, but overall it just reminds me of how much a failure Billy was as a singles wrestler.

His face going up that fat chicks ass totally killed all momentum he got from winning KOTR.

My biggest problem is the main event. This main event should have been Steve Austin vs. Triple H one on one. That’s what was built up and I think Mankind ruined it. I also hated the result. The only reason Mankind won was so guest referee Governor Jesse Ventura could raise the hand of a babyface in the main event in his home state. The fact that Triple H won the title the next night is proof. It was cool to see Jesse back at a WWF event, but I hate how the result had to be altered because of him.

Lol, ok i see where you're coming from. I personally wanted Mick to win, but this was way back when i was a total mark so those facts didn't really factor into my opinion. All i knew was that we had a new champion that wasn't HHH, and Austin had been taken out, so i was excited to see what would happen the next night on Raw.

I really didn’t like 1999 in general, but I will say SummerSlam was easily the best ppv that year. It’s just not that good compared to other SummerSlams in my opinion.

Fair enough. I forgot to mention one other thing though..... Y2J's WWF PPV debut

 

[Coco]

A lot of these could be shuffled around. I knew what I wanted as my top four and bottom four. Everything in between could easily be shuffled.

2003 was at the bottom mostly for the main event. That main event should have been Triple H vs Goldberg one on one. That was the money match that summer. The chamber was obviously done because WWE couldn't figure out how to get everyone on the card. They sacrificed a great main event because they couldn't book their show properly. Other than Angle vs Lesnar nothing from 2003 stands out.

Lesnar-Angle and the fine US Championship match (that would have been better if they hadn't worn out every combination of the four in the weeks leading up to the event) put on par or above some other one match shows on the list. That said, the EC wasn't the best choice for a main event. But now you're not judging the actual show. You're laying down some fantasy booking.

 

[The Brain]

Fair enough. I forgot to mention one other thing though..... Y2J's WWF PPV debut

That's actually what I remember most when I think of SummerSlam 99. Also I did like the tag title angle a lot. The evil Undertaker was upset that X Pac was trying to humanize Kane so he got someone even bigger to be his protege. Now we had two giants giving the small X Pac a beatdown while the usually emotionless Kane came to the rescue. It was a rare moment in the Undertaker vs Kane saga as Kane was the face and Taker the heel.

Surprisingly I also liked the match between Shane and Test over Stephanie. I say surprisingly because I don't usually like these kind of matches, but I thought this one was well done.

If the main event was one on one like it should have been I'd probably move this one up the list a little.

 

[The Brain]

That said, the EC wasn't the best choice for a main event. But now you're not judging the actual show. You're laying down some fantasy booking.

But it's not fantasy booking. Triple H vs. Goldberg was actually announced. Same with Jericho vs. Nash. It was later changed to the EC. It was so obvious they didn't plan properly and threw EC in as a desparate move. It would be one thing if the matches weren't already announced. After that EC was just a letdown.

 

[hitman413]

RANKING THE SUMMERSLAMS here is a more recent list up to the most recent 2012 edition

1. 2002 A
2. 1998 A-
3.1997 A-
4. 2008 B+
5. 1992 B+
6. 1991 B
7. 2001 B
8. 2011 B
9. 2005 B-
10. 2009 B-
11. 1989 B-
12. 2012 C+
13. 2000 C+
14. 1994 C+
15. 2004 C+
16. 1995 C
17. 2003 C
18. 1999 C
19. 1988 C-
20.2006 C-
21. 1990 D+
22. 1993 D+
23. 1996 D+
24. 2007 D+
25. 2010 D

 

[Big Nick Dudley]

1. 1991
2. 2002
3. 1992
4. 1997
5. 2011

Summerslam '91, to me, is still the total package, just an all-around entertaining show. Great segments with The Mountie heading to jail. The Bushwhackers and Natural Disasters, being the terrible shit it was, just happened to be one of the most entertaining tag matches I've ever seen, and all of that praise lands straight at the feet of Bobby Heenan.

It had one of the greatest wrestling matches I've ever seen with Hart and Perfect. The Hogan/Warrior team was a lot of fun to any wrestling fan in 1991. The Wedding segment, given the involvement of Taker and Roberts, was also great.

Outside of the first match and IRS vs. The Hammer, everything was fantastic. As I said, maybe not a great "classic" wrestling show, but easily the most entertaining Summerslam I can recall.