30 Biggest SummerSlam Blunders
There have been many bloopers, botches and bad decisions at the biggest event of the summer.
Over the past 30 years, SummerSlam has been the host of many bloopers, botches and blunders. Accidents have happened in the ring, and bad booking has led to terrible results.
Let’s take a look back at the funny, frustrating and unfortunate mistakes of WWE’s second biggest show of the year.
30. Cee Lo Green
The “Fuck You!” singer incoherently performed the 2011 SummerSlam theme song “Bright Lights, Bigger City” while dressed as a bedazzled monk.
29. Common Discourtesy
After Bret Hart won the Intercontinental Championship from Mr. Perfect, Lord Alfred Hayes stood in the crowd asking Stu Hart how he felt about his son’s performance. Just as the Hart family patriarch was about to answer, Hayes cut him off and yanked the mic away! That called for at least 10 minutes in the Dungeon.
28. Tiger Ali Singh
In the summer of 1997, WWE was hyping up the arrival of the biggest bust in company history: Tiger Ali Singh, who was shown in the crowd next to his father, the legendary Tiger Jeet Singh.
27. Died in the Womb
Nikki Bella betraying her sister at SummerSlam 2014 was fine, a fun swerve that prompted the hilarious “Growing Up Bella” vignettes. It’s the follow-up that makes it a blunder – within three months, the twins reconciled and Brie turned heel even after her sister wished she died in the womb.
26. Diva Dodgeball
If you can dodge a Johnny Ace cumshot, you can dodge a ball. Members of the 2004 Diva Search (Christy Hemme and Michelle McCool as the standouts) played against WWE Divas captained by Trish Stratus. It could have been fun, but it was such a waste of time. And the divas got wrecked!
25. Brother Love Show
The inaugural SummerSlam felt more like a house show, and this is exhibit A. With all due respect to Bruce Prichard, this mind-numbing interview with “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan had me longing for the Abraham Washington Show.
24. Kiss My Ass
Before his Kiss My Ass match with The Rock, Billy Gunn revealed that when he won, The People’s Champ would have to pucker up not to Mr. Ass, but to this random fat lady. She was never mentioned before and never mentioned again. Of course, Rock won and Gunn’s head was shoved up her anus.
23. Shawn Michaels vs. Mr. Perfect
This was promoted as a 5-star match, back before anybody cared what that meant. But a combination of piss-poor chemistry and a lousy countout finish soured fans on this dream match.
22. Harlem Sewer Rats
At SummerSlam 1990, Bad News Brown was supposed to bring 200 pounds of Harlem sewer rats to counter Damien. When the camera did a close up of the crate, it showed one rat that was either fake or dead. Regardless, it was hilarious.
21. Rocco
Poor Paul Ellering rode a badass motorcycle down the aisle of Wembley Stadium with a fucking puppet.
20. No Nature Boy
Speaking of Wembley Stadium, how do you have SummerSlam without Ric Flair in action? The Nature Boy was relegated to a mystery angle where fans wondered if he’d help Ultimate Warrior or Randy Savage. Spoiler: he helped neither!
19. Seeing Stars
Kurt Angle suffered a concussion after the announce table broke before Triple H could deliver a pedigree. It’s scary looking back on it, knowing what we do about head trauma today, and downright disturbing to see Angle get back involved when he clearly doesn’t even know where he is. The show was built around his kiss with Stephanie, so WWE had to adjust quickly and it actually worked out well.
18. Zeus
Yes, it was a different time and the crowd was into it, but c’mon. Zeus was the shits! He spent way too much time in the match just choking and bearhugging. It just didn’t make sense that there was a difference between Hogan the actor and Rip the character, but Zeus was both actor and character. But that’s what happens when you try to apply logic to an illogical situation.
17. Undertaker vs. Kane
When creative has nothing for Undertaker or Kane, expect them to fight each other. That’s what happened at SummerSlam 2000 in a match that never even began as they brawled outside the ring and after Undertaker ripped Kane’s mask off, the Big Red Machine just runs away.
16. Na Na Na Na, Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey Hey…
After having his arm broke by Brock Lesnar, Triple H took forever to leave the ring in a sad, desperate attempt to milk sympathy and a standing ovation. The announcers speculated that Triple H was saying goodbye to wrestling, but obviously that was bullshit.
15. Hothead Kid
Before the Intercontinental Championship ladder match at SummerSlam 1995, the referee didn’t hang the belt correctly, so Shawn Michaels visibly yells for the title to come back down while stalling for time. After 30 seconds or so, the title lowered and Michaels fixed it himself, pushing the ref away when he tried to help out. It wouldn’t be the last time that ol’ HBK would lose his temper at SummerSlam.
14. Mysterious Ringing
While Undertaker trapped Brock Lesnar in the Hell’s Gate, the timekeeper rang the bell despite Lesnar never submitting and the referee not calling for it. There was a brief moment of confusion, which allowed Undertaker to low blow Lesnar and reapply the hold for the victory. It still makes no sense why the bell rang because it’s never happened before or after, and was simply a shitty way to keep Lesnar strong in defeat for a third match in their series. It also tainted an otherwise incredible bout.
13. King Mabel vs. Diesel
If you’re sick of Roman Reigns challenging Brock Lesnar, at least it’s not King Mabel challenging Diesel. The match was a clusterfuck, Mabel nearly broke Diesel’s back, the crowd couldn’t care less and this was the headliner for the least-bought SummerSlam up to that point.
12. Randy Orton vs. John Cena
In 2009, Orton retained the WWE Championship against Cena after the match was restarted a ridiculous three times: once after a DQ, once after a countout and once after Orton had his feet on the ropes. Finally, a fan (later revealed as Brett DiBiase in an angle never followed up on) ran into the ring, causing Cena to be distracted and RKO’ed.
11. Your SummerSlam Million Dollar Chance
This wasn’t Mr. McMahon’s Million Dollar Mania – that was a mistake that should have been learned from by this debacle. For a month before SummerSlam 1997, clues were given during Raw that if found, gave you tickets to SummerSlam and a chance to win a million bucks. So a kid and a dude in his late 20s-early 30s won the contest and were about to try their luck. Out of 100 numbers, they had to pick which one unlocks a casket full of a million dollars. Before that, Todd Pettingill, Sunny and Sable called people at home. The first person didn’t answer, the next person wasn’t watching and other people got disconnected. And after all that rigmarole, neither the kid nor the dude won the money!
10. “Where the fuck was Vickie!”
In a page out of HBK’s book, Eddie Guerrero flipped out at SummerSlam 2005. After stalling atop the ladder, waiting for Vickie to come out and prevent him from winning, his wife missed her cue and Guerrero had to improvise. Rey Mysterio pulled the ladder away so Guerrero was dangling, and then Mysterio yanked him to the mat, almost injuring him. Latino Heat was boiling hot, pounding the mat and screaming at the referee “Where the fuck was Vickie!”
9. Temper Tantrum
Speaking of HBK, who can forget his epic temper tantrum at SummerSlam 1996 when he scolded Vader for not being in the right position when he jumped off the turnbuckle?
8. “Fuck It!”
It’s edited off WWE Network, but at SummerSlam 1989 as “Mean” Gene Okerlund interviews Rick Rude and Bobby Heenan, the sign falls behind him and Okerlund yells “Fuck it!” Gotta love, Mean Gene.
7. Extinguishing Punk’s Fire
The Summer of Punk ended in one night as the hottest star in wrestling got a tainted win with Cena’s foot on the rope, then ate a powerbomb by dusty, old Kevin Nash, and finally, lost his WWE Championship due to an Alberto Del Rio cash-in.
6. Balor’s Bad Break
In 2016, Seth Rollins powerbombed Finn Balor into the barricade, tearing his labrum and keeping him out of action until the night after WrestleMania. Despite the injury, Balor would continue the match and win the Universal Title, but he had to forfeit it the next night on Raw. To this day, Balor has never regained his momentum.
5. Squashing Bianca
So, Bianca Belair was supposed to defend the SmackDown Women’s Championship against Sasha Banks in a WrestleMania rematch. But Banks wasn’t cleared to wrestle (which we didn’t learn til match time), so Carmella was chosen as her replacement. And then Becky Lynch surprised everyone by returning after 15 months away to be a mom. Bianca vs. Becky seemed like a super showdown fitting for SummerSlam…until less than 30 seconds later when Becky won with a rock bottom. Bianca, who had been a made woman at WrestleMania, was illogically squashed just a few months later.
4. RIP Nexus
After the hottest angle in years, the group of seven rookies hellbent on destroying the company was defeated in their first big matchup, even losing out on a 2-on-1 advantage to Super Cena. The Nexus never recovered.
3. Underfaker
Such a silly, campy storyline. After Undertaker had ascended into the heavens at Royal Rumble 1994, Ted DiBiase claimed to have purchased the Deadman. Paul Bearer called his bluff, and a match was set for SummerSlam. As you can imagine, a fight between two zombies wasn’t exactly riveting, and the crowd was bored to death. It was an awful way to end what had been a hot show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txH6YPEqyGE
2. Austin Breaks Neck
The Attitude Era may have floundered, WCW may have won the war and Mr. McMahon may have never become a thing had Steve Austin never recovered from SummerSlam 1997. During the Intercontinental Championship match, Owen Hart dropped Stone Cold with a tombstone piledriver, except he landed on his ass instead of his knees. Austin’s neck was driven into the mat, and it looked like the Texas Rattlesnake was paralyzed. Miraculously, he was able to crawl and barely pull Owen down for a school boy to end the match. Austin spent the next few months on the sidelines, and although he was able to come back and bring the business to unprecedented heights, his career was ultimately cut short due to the lingering effects.
1. Lex Luger Chokes
After an entire summer of inspiring grassroots support via the Lex Express, after Randy Savage led Aaron Neville out to sing the National Anthem in front of a jacked crowd waving mini American flags, and after his bus driver mentioned terminally ill children relying upon Lex Luger to slay the foreign menace…Luger defeats Yokozuna by countout.
He didn’t even bother putting him back in the ring! In the most ridiculous display of Vince McMahon’s stubbornness, all the faces came out to celebrate with Luger as balloons fell from the ceiling and then a sappy music video played.
But he didn’t even win the WWE Championship! He was not a hero – he was a delusional joke that failed America.
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