Best SummerSlam shows?

Ageyev

Summerslam 2002 is pretty much the gold standard - top to bottom great matches bar the odd BikerTaker appearance. It's got a punchy little classic with Kurt Angle v Rey Mysterio. Flair, Rob Van Dam, Edge, Eddie, Jericho all had great matches and the top 2 matches between Hunter/Shawn and Brock/Rock. There's not been a card like it since.

SS 1998 was good for its time but doesn't hold up well imo but for nostalgia. Similar to 2000.

I'd suggest 1995 was better than passable with the Kliq's matches being quite good except Disel obvs.

Ageyev

Ageyev wrote: »

Summerslam 2002 is pretty much the gold standard - top to bottom great matches bar the odd BikerTaker appearance. It's got a punchy little classic with Kurt Angle v Rey Mysterio. Flair, Rob Van Dam, Edge, Eddie, Jericho all had great matches and the top 2 matches between Hunter/Shawn and Brock/Rock. There's not been a card like it since.

SS 1998 was good for its time but doesn't hold up well imo but for nostalgia. Similar to 2000.

I'd suggest 1995 was better than passable with the Kliq's matches being quite good except Disel obvs.

I like Summerslam 97. Great cage match opener between HHH and Mankind, Austin vs Owen Hart was a good match until the injury and a really good main event between Taker and Bret.

jaykhunter

S'Slam 05 is a great PPV overall too; Ron Ron vs Eddie (Ladder match for custody of Dominick); Kurt Angle walloping Eugene, Orton v Taker and Shawn comedy prat falling/dicking around against Hogan. Awesome

Sonics2k

Summerslam 98 was fantastic.

Imnotthehulk

I think Summerslam 2000 is worth a mention.

It had the first TLC match between E&C, The Hardyz, and The Dudleyz.

After that it also had Jericho v Benoit in a 2 out of 3 falls match.

And Rock v Triple H v Angle in the main event.

Plus a couple of fun matches on the undercard (Shane O Mac v Steve Blackman)

LeeJM

1990 is a fun show. Double main event with Hogan vs Earthquake and Rude vs Warrior in a cage. Demolition vs Hart Foundation is a decent tag match for the titles. Texas Tornando vs Mr Perfect is fine too as well as Macho King vs Dusty.

And before anyone says it 92 was not a good show!

Itssoeasy

Imnotthehulk wrote: »

I think Summerslam 2000 is worth a mention.

It had the first TLC match between E&C, The Hardyz, and The Dudleyz.

After that it also had Jericho v Benoit in a 2 out of 3 falls match.

And Rock v Triple H v Angle in the main event.

Plus a couple of fun matches on the undercard (Shane O Mac v Steve Blackman)

Funny you mention 2000. That was shown unedited(blood and all) the next morning outside the watershed. I remember getting up to watch it as I hadn't recorded it. I'm sure someone in sky put the wrong tape in or else they hadn't edited it yet.

Itssoeasy

LeeJM wrote: »

1990 is a fun show. Double main event with Hogan vs Earthquake and Rude vs Warrior in a cage. Demolition vs Hart Foundation is a decent tag match for the titles. Texas Tornando vs Mr Perfect is fine too as well as Macho King vs Dusty.

And before anyone says it 92 was not a good show!

92 in Wembley ? Ah you had the hbk/ Tito match which was well done. And LOD was a good visual. And the bulldog and Bret was a belter of a match. Ah now lee I think you're being fierce harsh there.

LeeJM

Itssoeasy wrote: »

92 in Wembley ? Ah you had the hbk/ Tito match which was well done. And LOD was a good visual. And the bulldog and Bret was a belter of a match. Ah now lee I think you're being fierce harsh there.

Visually the show looked great and the atomsphere was great but the show in hindsight just isnt that good apart from Bret and Bulldog.

Speaking of 2000 that also had the epic thong stink face match between The Kat and Terri Runnels. An all time classic folks

Ageyev

1992 is probably the first big wrestling show many of us (older than 25) remember as WWF had been coming to Europe for a few years and was on Sky since about 1990. Mind you, Cablelink dropped sky from 92-94 due to a dispute.

Match quality wise 1998 just doesn't hold up well - Austin v Undertaker matches were almost always meh-just good, the ladder was good, undercard was decent. 2000 holds up better from that era. Agree 1997 was Ok.

1990 was good iirc yep, I ooved those Rude v Warrior matches and Demolition v Hart Foundation I recall being great.

Gonna watch 2005 tonight. Hogan v HBK was the big match Lesnar v Orton is trying to be.

Mr.Nice Guy

Summerslam 2002 will be tough to top imo. Great matches and a great crowd too. Triple H was fantastic in that match with Michaels. That match is in my top ten all time favourites list.

Dazzmondo

2002 is the best by a considerable distance but there were some other very good Summerslam shows. 2013 was great imo with Punk vs Lesnar especially being fantastic. 2000 had one of the 3 best Summerslam matches ever in the TLC match imo. Jericho vs Benoit was a very good match. Main event was pretty good and was definitely entertaining. Also there was the insane spot in the Shane McMahon vs Steve Blackman match.

1998 had some good matches. Val Venis vs D-Lo Brown was an underrated opener imo. The steel cage match between Owen Hart and Ken Shamrock was a good match. The main event wasn't great but the crowd were still really into the match. Then obviously the main reason people remember this Summerslam, Triple H vs The Rock for the IC Title in a ladder match was fantastic.

2004 was solid. Benoit vs Orton was a great match which is forgotten for obvious reasons and Kurt Angle vs Eddie Guerrero was a very good match too. 2005 was similarly solid with the Eddie Guerrero vs Rey Mysterio ladder match especially standing out.

Not a big fan of wrestling from the early 90s and 80s so don't personally rate them very highly. There were definitely standouts from some of the early Summerslams like Mr Perfect vs Bret Hart 91, Bret Hart vs British Bulldog 92 (Shawn Michaels vs Rick Martell is quite underrated from that Summerslam imo while I think Bret Hart and British Bulldog had a better match at In Your House in 1995 and generally consider this match to be one of the most overrated), Bret vs Owen Hart in 94 (great match but again I feel overrated), Michaels vs Razor at 95 (literally the only good match on one of the worst PPVs of all time. Match is a bit overrated too imo and nowhere near the quality of their WM match).

Ultimately there are loads of other great individual matches like Angle vs Lesnar 03, Taker vs Edge 08, Punk vs Jeff Hardy 09, Punk vs Cena 2011 (not as good as MITB but still a great match), and Taker vs Lesnar 2015 but I do feel like a show as big as Summerslam should have more consistently great PPVs than it actually does.

LeeJM

Ageyev wrote: »

1992 is probably the first big wrestling show many of us (older than 25) remember as WWF had been coming to Europe for a few years and was on Sky since about 1990. Mind you, Cablelink dropped sky from 92-94 due to a dispute.

Definitely the first one I remember being mega hyped for. I think it was the first PPV on Sky Sports though I may be wrong about that, they were on Sky Movies before moving to Sports.

Turtyturd

Ageyev wrote: »

1990 was good iirc yep, I ooved those Rude v Warrior matches and Demolition v Hart Foundation I recall being great.

One of the first PPV's I remember. Taped it off Eurosport, and almost wore out the tape. Loved Janetty having to go it along against Power and Glory, Texas Tornado Vs Mr. Perfect. Even the Hogan/Earthquake injury/retirement storyline had me engrossed.

LeeJM

Hogan Earthquake was a brilliant storyline! Like how often was Hogan taken out on a stretcher after a beating from a relative newcomer. And the match at SS was really good

Reebrock

1997 for me. I loved the way all the Hart Foundation had a stipulation attached to their matches. The Own / Austin match is only remembered for the ending, but that had a great build and the match was really good until the end. Foley / Hunter in the cage was good for the time, and the main event of Undertaker / Bret holds up to this day, what an excellent match.

All went down hill for the Hart Foundation after this. They went from hot to luke warm to ice cold at Montreal.

Ageyev

LeeJM wrote: »

Definitely the first one I remember being mega hyped for. I think it was the first PPV on Sky Sports though I may be wrong about that, they were on Sky Movies before moving to Sports.

WrestleMania 6 was on Sky Movies. Not sure what the first on Sports was but then, I don't remember when Sports started. WWF had been on Eurosport in about 1988-89 for a short time. Fwiw, we didn't get In Your House (debuted debuted 1995) until April 1997.

I vividly recall colouring in Davey Boy Smith handouts in school in 1992.

paulie21

2013 was good in part I never expected DB to get a clean win over Cena for the title