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Awesome / SummerSlam

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Memorable moments from over the years at "The Biggest Party of the Summer" include:

1988

1991

1992

  • The main event: Bret Hart vs. The British Bulldog (Davey Boy Smith) for the Intercontinental Championship, the only time an Intercontinental Championship Match has ever been the main event for a major PPV. The event — moved from Washington to London to capitalize on both the WWF's popularity in England as well as British Bulldog's immense popularity in his home country — was held within Wembley Stadium, with over eighty thousand people in attendance. Davey Boy, despite being high on drugs at the time and having suffered a severe knee injury days before the event, put on a match with Bret that is still considered to be one of the best in the history of SummerSlam (and easily the best match of Davey Boy's career).

1994

  • Bret Hart retaining his title against his brother Owen in a Cage Match for the WWF Championship.

1995

1996

1997

  • The opening bout saw Mankind facing Hunter Hearst Helmsley in a steel cage match. Despite the interference of Chyna (who at one point slammed the cage door on Mankind's skull to stop him from escaping, and later took a bump off the side of the cage into the barricade when Mankind slingshotted Helmsley into it), Mankind had the win in the bag, being on the verge of climbing dropping to the floor outside the cage... only to pull off his mask, climb back up to the top of the cage again and then tear open his shirt and deliver a massive elbow drop to Helmsley in tribute to Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, whose own famous leap off the top of a cage in 1983 had inspired young Mick Foley to become a wrestler.
  • The infamous match between Owen Hart and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin for the Intercontinental Championship; Owen botched a Tombstone Piledriver, breaking Austin's neck — and while he won the match, the Game-Breaking Injury that Austin suffered ultimately led him to retire in 2003.
  • Bret Hart defeating The Undertaker for the WWF Championship, with his Arch-Enemy Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee (who inadvertently hit Undertaker with a steel chair that was meant for Bret). (That chair shot helped to set up the first-ever Hell In A Cell Match, by the way.)
    • Let's not forget the Undertaker doing what no wrestler had done prior to this match...breaking Bret Hart's Sharpshooter hold.

1998

  • The ladder match between Triple H and The Rock. Not only did the Great One finally earn the respect of the fans during this match, but it also helped make both Helmsley and Rocky main event players.
  • "Stone Cold" Steve Austin retaining his WWF Title against The Undertaker in a solid match.

1999

  • Edge jumps up on one side of the guard rail while Matt Hardy jumps on the other, both running like they were in a ninja film. When they reach the entrance way they both jump and Edge nails Matt with an unbelievable mid air spear.
  • Non-competitor Shane McMahon drops an elbow onto Test from the top rope to the announce table.
  • Mankind winning his third (and final) WWF Championship by winning a Triple Threat Match against "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Triple H.

2000

  • SummerSlam 2000 was a Crowning Moment of Awesome for many superstars that night.
    • Shane McMahon vs. Steve Blackman for the Hardcore title surpassed all expectations, and ended with Shane's first dive off the Titantron. It was especially risky because Blackman knocked him off, thus he had to do the dive backwards. Blackman would finish Shane off with an elbow drop off the Tron much to the shock and delight of the crowd.
    • The inaugural Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match saw Edge and Christian vs. The Hardy Boyz vs. The Dudley Boyz. For the past year, various combinations of these teams had been tearing up the Tag Team Division in Ladder matches and Table matches. It all came together here for the first TLC match in which these six men (and Lita, who took a wicked Spear on the outside) stole the show yet again. The Raleigh crowd was especially hot for this match considering that the Hardy Boyz were from nearby Cameron, North Carolina. Though the Hardys did not win the titles that night, everyone involved walked away with the respect of the fans worldwide.
    • The main event of SummerSlam was a triple threat between The Rock, Kurt Angle, and Triple H. Kurt Angle would suffer a concussion in the opening moments of the match due to the announce table breaking too early during a Pedigree attempt. While Rock and Triple H continued the match on the inside, Kurt would be stretchered out of the arena (which was likely going to happen if the spot had been done correctly anyway). However, Angle would return to complete the match anyway, despite barely having his wits about him. This was the first time (but certainly not the last) we would see the real-life Determinator side of Kurt Angle.

2001

2002

  • 2002 marked the return of Shawn Michaels from what many believed a Career-Ending Injury as he beat Triple H in a Street Fight at Summerslam.
    • A smaller CMOA occurred during the SummerSlam match thanks to referee Earl Hebner. Despite having no DQ rules, Hebner was warning Triple H about the unnecessary roughness he was putting on Shawn (specifically attacking his wounded back, using a sledgehammer, etc.) Finally, Triple H put Shawn in an abdominal stretch and was using the ropes for leverage (which is usually illegal). Hebner got Triple H to break the hold by pushing on him. Triple H shoved him only for Hebner to bounce off the ropes and shove him back. Hebner then backed Triple H into a corner and screamed at him to knock it off. Triple H looked sufficiently put in his place. Kudos to Hebner for getting in the face of the top heel in WWE.
  • Brock Lesnar defeating The Rock cleanly to become the youngest WWE Champion in history.
  • Kurt Angle vs. Rey Mysterio in an explosive opening match in which Angle won.

2003

2004

  • Randy Orton defeating Chris Benoit cleanly to become the youngest World Heavyweight Champion — and, thus, the youngest world champion in WWE history.

2005

  • Shawn Michaels vs. Hulk Hogan. It's more memorable for the hilarious overselling of Hogan's offense that Michaels did than anything else.
  • Rey Mysterio defeating Eddie Guerrero in a pretty great ladder match (despite the ridiculous stipulations behind it).

2008

2009

2010

  • While SummerSlam 2010 is considered by some to be lackluster, one moment has widely been regarded as a Moment of Awesome. WWE swerved just about everyone by having John Cena announce that the seventh and final member of Team WWE, the team that he masterminded, in the WWE vs. The Nexus match and the man that would replace The Great Khali was DANIEL BRYAN. Everyone from the IWC on up marked out noticeably as the American Dragon returned to assist Cena and the rest of Team WWE in a victory over the Nexus. Bryan managed to pretty much dominate every second he was in the ring, making both Darren Young and Heath Slater tap in record time with the LeBell Lock. It took an interfering The Miz blindsiding him with the Money in the Bank briefcase to bring him down. Striker also gets a small CMOA for screaming for the Cattle Mutilation and yelling for Bryan to kick Slater's head in. That the return managed to go unspoiled is a CMOA for WWE in itself. In an age where various wrestling dirtsheets manage to figure returns and spoilers within days of them occurring before spoiling them to the world, that Bryan's return managed to surprise perhaps every wrestling fan watching SummerSlam is a Crowning Moment of Awesome for WWE themselves.

2011

  • Everyone knew coming into the event that someone involved in the main event was going to have a Moment of Awesome. The question was, who would seize the moment. It turned out not to be CM Punk, John Cena or even special guest referee Triple H, but none other Kevin Nash, who turned the wrestling world upside down by attacking Punk after he unified both championships. This would allow Alberto Del Rio to cash in Money in the Bank and win his first World title, all the apparent shock of Triple H (though it remains to be seen that he wasn't involved somehow).
    • CM Punk channeling Randy Savage and dropping a Macho Elbow onto Cena to massive RANDY SAVAGE chants from the Staples Center.
  • Randy Orton and Christian put on yet another great match, capping off their series with an intense No Holds Barred match. The Humiliation Conga story of Christian was done very well, with a little bit of assistance from a pre-match promo from Edge, ending with him calling Christian a "whiny bitch". The ending was a Call-Back from their infamous Smackdown title change, with Christian jumping off the second rope, only to be caught in an RKO, only this time he caught it on the steel steps.

2013

2014

  • Brock Lesnar damn near killed John Cena to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, in a match which featured an F5 30 seconds in, and no less than 15 (officially 16) German suplexes. Special notice to Brock Lesnar sitting up, mocking The Undertaker.
  • Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins in a lumberjack match. Already circumspect from the IWC, as lumberjack matches only have a little bit of lumberjacking before breaking down into an all-out brawl, having little bearing on the match itself. So did this one...but with style. Dean goes about five minutes or so before completely disavowing the lumberjacks and takes the beatdown of Rollins all around the arena. They're near the cheap seats when Kane comes down and tells them to go bring them back to the ring. Seth Rollins is eventually captured, hoisted up, and carried by the lumberjacks to the ring...except that Dean was waiting on the top rope to jump onto the helpless Seth, flooring him and all the other lumberjacks. Dean also had the spot of the night after bouncing off/in the ropes, retaliating with a Clothesline From Hell x10, which hit Seth so hard that Seth was fully upside down vertically before landing face first onto the ring.
  • Paige defeating A.J. Lee in a vicious Divas title match, highlighted by an AJ clothesline off the top rope to the outside and Paige reversing the Black Widow into the Ram-Paige Cradle DDT for the win, winning the title on her birthday no less.
  • A similarly brutal Divas match saw Stephanie McMahon beating the holy hell out of Brie Bella. Stephanie performed so well that she actually won over the crowd despite her status as a well-established, much-hated heel, even getting a well-earned "You still got it!" chant. Brie got her own awesome moment in when, as Triple H tried to interfere with the match, she kicked him in the face, knocked him on his ass, and stood over him doing the "YES!" chant.

2015

  • While a lot can be said about the screwy finish, The Undertaker VS Brock Lesnar was a match full of awesome moments.
    • The Undertaker, despite being 50 years old, took an F-5 through an announce table, and came back for more.
    • Brock Lesnar made The Undertaker tap out to the Kimura Lock. (This, unfortunately, is where the aforementioned screwy finish came in; the referee didn't see the tap-out, but the Timekeeper did, and rang the bell, which confused the ref.)
    • While latched in the Undertaker's Hell's Gate submission hold (after taking a low blow from the Undertaker, no less!) Brock Lesnar goes down like a badass, flipping off the Undertaker before passing out.
  • WWE Champion Seth Rollins defeating U.S. Champion John Cena to become a double champion. This is also the match where Rollins is wearing his iconic white gear.

2016

  • Styles vs Cena II was an amazing match of the year candidate from start to finish:
    • Looking to make each other submit, Styles and Cena lock in Calf Crushers and STFs, countering each time.
    • Styles counters the AA by hitting the Ushigoroshi (a fireman's carry neckbreaker, which makes it, from a certain angle, resemble the AA). Can be a Funny Moment for JBL since he mistakes the Ushigoroshi for AJ hitting Cena with the latter's own move.
    • Cena breaks out a Code Red in desperation.
    • Finally, Cena hits a top rope AA...and Styles kicks out. Cena retreats to the corner, a shocked expression on his face as he realizes that he has no idea how to beat Styles. Going in for another AA, it gets countered into a Styles Clash, then gets followed up with a Phenomenal Forearm, and AJ Styles wins, clean as a whistle.
  • Finn Bálor overcoming Seth Rollins to become the first holder of the new Universal title. Moreso when it's later revealed Bálor had dislocated his shoulder after taking a running powerbomb to the outside barrier. Not only does he pop his shoulder back in to resume the match, he defeats Rollins without anyone ever suspecting that he's injured.
  • Big E's Big Damn Heroes moment during the Tag Title match; when his fellow New Day members faced Gallows and Anderson for the titles, Jon Stewart accompained the New Day to the ring. At one point, Gallows and Anderson attempted giving Stewart the Groin Attack that had put Big E out of commission, only for Big E to appear, saving Stewart.
  • Nikki Bella's triumphant return in the six-women tag-team match featuring the SmackDown women after career-threatening neck surgery to a massive pop.
  • Though the finish was largely disliked, the match itself between Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks was an awesome battle with both women beating the holy hell out of each (including a horrifically botched spot where Charlotte dropped Banks on her neck and back after attempting to do a sidewalk slam from the middle rope).

2017

  • The New Day and The Usos tear up the ring in the pre-show, of all places. Xavier Woods in particular was an absolute workhorse in this match, and there were awesome double team moves galore.
  • Natalya defeating Naomi to become the Smackdown Women's Champion (her first title in over six years) in one of the best women's matches the Smackdown brand has had in awhile.
  • Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins overcame their personal differences to beat The Bar for the Raw Tag Team Championship. Again, they pulled all sorts of double team moves, with Ambrose and Rollins paying homage to The Shield at one point with a double powerbomb attempt. And the final spot of the match, with Rollins launching Cesaro into Sheamus when they attempted their double team White Noise, has to be seen to be believed.
    • During the pay-per-view, the live audience started to crowd-surf a beach ball. So at one point during this match, Cesaro storms into the crowd and emerges with the beach ball, which he rips in half. You're gonna watch those four perform, and you're gonna like it, dammit!
    • And lastly: With this win, Dean Ambrose is not just the 8th Grand Slam Champion (of the current format), but at 31 years and 8 months old as of the PPV, he edges out The Miz by one month as the youngest ever!
  • Finn Bálor returning his "Demon King" persona to triumph against Bray Wyatt. Highlight of the match has to be Balor standing right back up as Bray goes for his signature Spider Crawl, causing the latter to experience a Villainous Breakdown reminiscent of his WrestleMania match with The Undertaker.
  • AJ Styles and Kevin Owens put on an entertaining match, with storytelling all over thanks to those two and guest referee Shane McMahon. Both men fell foul of Shane taking bumps, and there was a very narrow near fall when AJ got his foot on the bottom rope after Owens hit him with a Pop-Up Powerbomb. Owens legitimately thought he'd won at that point, but Shane had spotted AJ's foot at the last possible millisecond and held off the three count, and AJ went on to win the match and retain his United States Championship.
  • And the main event featuring Brock Lesnar, Samoa Joe, Braun Strowman, and Roman Reigns was a hell of a big hoss fight. These four repeatedly hit each other with everything they had and then some, with Roman spearing Brock through the barricade at one point and Joe putting the Coquina Clutch on people several times. But no one looked better than Braun, who gave Brock a beating so bad (including powerslamming him through two announcer's tables and tipping a third onto him) that he had to be carted out on a stretcher. And yet, Brock still came back and barely managed to sneak out a victory. It ended the PPV on a tremendous high note.

2018

  • After Charlotte Flair won back the SmackDown Women's Championship (in a match that originally only featured Becky Lynch and Carmella), Becky violently attacked her, angry after being constantly screwed out of title victories time after time. Made even more awesome was that the crowd was firmly behind her throughout the entire assault, even outright booing Charlotte.
  • Roman Reigns finally ending Brock Lesnar's 504-day reign as the Universal Champion, thanks to Braun Strowman's interference.note 

2019

  • Edge executing a spear on Elias signaling he may have recovered from his career ending injury.
  • The debut of The Fiend.
  • Seth Rollins defeating Brock Lesnar to become the Universal Champion for the second time. This was the third time he got a win over Lesnar and, apart from the ring post and table-breaking attacks, was also Brock's first clean loss since Survivor Series 2016. This is even more impressive when you consider that the build to the match had been booked so badly (combined with some poorly-judged social media behavior by Seth that had soured people on him) that at the start of the match the majority of the crowd were against Seth, the underdog babyface. But by the end of the match, Seth's sheer in-ring talent and storytelling ability had completely won over the formerly hostile crowd until the same people who had started out booing him were cheering his epic victory!

2020

  • Roman Reigns making his return and turning heel. Immediately stealing the thunder from The Fiend's victory over Braun Strowman for the Universal Championship, Roman beat the piss out of both monsters, declaring that Strowman wouldn't be where he is if not for him, and hoisting the title up in the air himself. The big story was not The Fiend had taken back his prize, but that Roman was coming for it and the day he would reclaim his yard was imminent!

2021

  • Becky Lynch making her long awaited return and winning the Smackdown Women’s Championship.
  • Brock Lesnar would make a similar shocking return after Roman Reigns won his match.
  • Edge makes his entrance doing a recreation of when he was in The Brood with a real Ring of Fire and Gangrel's theme "Blood".

2022

  • In contrast to their sub-30 second match the previous year, Becky Lynch and Bianca Belair would once again pull off a clinic that saw both women take each other to the limit. Bianca defeating Big Time Becks would eventually see the latter regard her opponent as a true champ, shaking her hand in the process.
    • This would be followed-up by Bayley returning, with Io Shirai and Dakota Kai (the latter of whom was among those that had been unceremoniously released over the past few months) in tow to put the women's division on notice. Bianca however was not fazed, with Becky cementing her face turn by standing by Bianca's side to stare down the new challengers.
  • Logan Paul once again overachieves in his singles debut, bumping like crazy for The Miz, while also impressing everyone with his moves, the big highlight of which was topping his Frog Splash from WrestleMania by pulling off a Frog Splash from the turnbuckle to the announcer's table!
  • Brock Lesnar makes his entrance riding a tractor and staring down Roman Reigns from the bucket before the two absolutely tear into each other from bell to bell in the Last Man Standing match. Just when you've seen it all however, Brock decides to stop playing around and uses the tractor to tip over the ring. Silly? Yes. An awesome sight nonetheless? Absolutely.

2023

  • Cody Rhodes defeating Brock Lesnar in their final match. After the match, Brock gets up and congratulates Cody by raising his hand and a hug. This moment was actually not planned, so Brock is telling everyone, including everyone in the back, Cody is The guy with the Beast Incarnite's respect.
  • The Triple Threat between Asuka, Bianca Belair, and Charlotte Flair was high-octane from start to finish. Props go to Bianca who hobbles back to the ring with an injured leg while Charlotte's got Asuka in a submission hold and lands on Charlotte with a 450 Splash!

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