Every SummerSlam Main Event RANKED

19. CM Punk vs. John Cena – SummerSlam 2011

The middle of this list was hard to arrange because many of these matches were well-wrestled but just had bizarre choices. This was another one of them.

SummerSlam 2011 was right in the middle of the Summer of Punk and WWE had a chance to really get behind their next potential star. As would be the case for most of CM Punk’s run, they half-assed it.

Punk and John Cena had a solid match but didn’t come close to the heights of their Money in the Bank match. Punk managed to get the win even though Cena had his foot on the rope but that is when things got complicated.

Kevin Nash hit Punk with a Powerbomb and Alberto Del Rio cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to take the title from Punk.

This was one of the most overbooked main events in WWE history and was the first time WWE cut the legs off of Punk’s push.

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18. Hulk Hogan vs. Shawn Michaels – SummerSlam 2005

While this wasn’t one of Shawn Michaels’ best matches, it was one of Hulk Hogan’s best performances. This was a match marred in politics.

Hogan and Michaels are two of the biggest politickers in wrestling history and putting them together was an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.

When it was determined that Hogan would be getting the win and not come back for a rematch Michaels decided he would do the job but he would completely sabotage the match in doing so.

Michaels oversold all of Hogan’s offense to a hilarious degree. It is worth going back and watching this match for Michaels’ selling but the backstage stories surrounding it were perhaps even more entertaining.

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17. Brock Lesnar vs. Triple H – SummerSlam 2012

Brock Lesnar’s return in 2012 was bizarre. He was defeated immediately by John Cena and took on Triple H at SummerSlam.

Lesnar’s aura was almost non-existent after the Cena loss and this was an interesting way to try to get it back. This was a fairly standard Triple H match which may make it sound worse than it was.

This lacked the intensity of Lesnar’s match with Cena but as far as a main event wrestling match went it was pretty good.

Lesnar broke Triple H’s arm in kayfabe leading to a fake retirement, which is hilarious considering he is still wrestling to this day.

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16. Steve Austin vs. The Undertaker – SummerSlam 1998

‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin was by far the hottest star in the WWF in 1998. He had become WWF Champion at WrestleMania and now he had to take down the company’s most loyal star, The Undertaker.

This made all the sense in the world to book this match for SummerSlam and they managed to have a very solid match.

This was before the workrate of the WWF started to swing back up but the main events were always a joy to watch.

In 1998, it didn’t get any bigger than Austin and Undertaker. Mr. McMahon wanted the title off Austin but this was instead the next step in cementing Austin’s spot atop the promotion.

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15. The Rock vs. Brock Lesnar – SummerSlam 2002

In 2002, WWE was prepared to strap a rocket to the back of Brock Lesnar.

He had one of the fastest rises to the main event scene in WWE history and his ascent climaxed at SummerSlam. Here he faced The Rock for the Undisputed Championship.

The fans knew The Rock was about to take off for Hollywood again and were fed up with him. Therefore they embraced the young upstart Lesnar and cheered him to victory over the champion.

Lesnar showed experience beyond his years during his first WWE run and he completely fit in when placed opposite the company’s biggest stars. Together they had a good match culminating with a huge title change.

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