YMMV / SummerSlam

• Ham and Cheese: Shawn Michaels notoriously oversold Hulk Hogan's attacks during their bout in the 2005 event. The reason Michaels did this is because Hogan used his backstage politics to screw him out of their supposed planned feud which was supposed to be a trilogy in addition to the planning of this particular match.^note The original plans were for them to have a Face vs. Face match with them only feuding due to circumstances, but Hogan wanted it to be a typical Face vs. Heel feud and he didn't want to be the Heel
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The opening graphics for the 1998 event that took place in New York City, which had many buildings, including the Twin Towers, being knocked over, became this after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
  • During the entrances for the Matt Hardy-Kane "'til Death Do Us Part" match for Lita in 2004, a sign can be seen in the crowd reading "LITA IS AN EVIL JEZEBEL." (Though Lita was a Face at this time, the event was being held in Toronto, the hometown of Lita's longtime Arch-Enemy Trish Stratus.) Less than a year later, the real-life scandal in which Amy "Lita" Dumas cheated on Hardy with Adam "Edge" Copeland ^note ironically another Toronto native would break out, resulting in Jim Ross often referring to Lita as an "evil Jezebel" on commentary.
• Heartwarming Moments: According to Bruce Prichard, Leslie Nielsen wanted to get his friend George Kennedy, who had fallen on hard times, a job so badly that he offered to let WWE pay Kennedy out of Nielsen's pay to hire Kennedy to appear at the 1994 event. (This was during the time where Nielsen reprised his role as Frank Drebin from The Naked Gun in a storyline where Drebin sought the whereabouts of The Undertaker, after Taker disappeared from the WWF following Royal Rumble 1994, hence the idea of bringing Kennedy, Nielsen's co-star in that film series.)
• Memetic Mutation: 2005’s "Custody of Dominik Ladder Match" is widely remembered as one of the most bonkers wrestling match stipulations of all time, so posting and editing its promotional graphic to joke about custody battles or crazy wrestling match ideas is common. Now that Dominik Mysterio is an active wrestler in his own right, his involvement in this match is still a minor Never Live It Down moment for him.
• Signature Scene:
  • 1988: Two of them. Ultimate Warrior Squashing The Honky Tonk Man for the WWE Intercontinental Heavyweight Title, and Miss Elizabeth taking off her skirt while wearing red bikini panties to distract "The Million-Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase and "The Eighth Wonder of the World" Andre The Giant during the MegaPowers-MegaBucks match.
  • 1992: The British Bulldog winning the Intercontinental Championship (in his home country).
  • 1993: Lex Luger's infamous celebration for defeating then WWF Champion Yokozuna despite not winning the title due to his victory being a count out.
  • 1994: The Undertaker vs. "The Undertaker".
  • 1995: The second ladder match between Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon for the IC title.
  • 1996: Paul Bearer turns his back on The Undertaker as he reaches for the urn, signalling a betrayal, and later, him hitting The Undertaker over the head with the urn.
  • 1997: Shawn Michaels (unintentionally) hitting The Undertaker with a steel chair, costing him the WWF title to Bret Hart, or Steve Austin's Game-Breaking Injury courtesy of Owen Hart's botched tombstone piledriver.
  • 1998: Triple H winning the Intercontinental title from The Rock in a ladder match.
  • 1999: Mankind winning the WWF championship for the third (and final) time.
  • 2000: The first-ever TLC match.
  • 2001: "Stone Cold" Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle for the WWF title, Booker T vs. The Rock for the WCW title, or Jeff Hardy vs. Rob Van Dam in a ladder match for the Hardcore title.
  • 2002: Brock Lesnar winning the WWE Title or Shawn Michaels wrestling his first match after a 4-year hiatus.
  • 2003: Goldberg spearing Chris Jericho through the glass pod of the Elimination Chamber.
  • 2004: Randy Orton becoming the youngest World champion in history.
  • 2005: Shawn Michaels vs Hulk Hogan - Icon vs Legend. Oh, and every single oversell from Michaels on that match out of frustration of Hogan's backstage politic antics.
  • 2006: Ric Flair vs Mick Foley in an "I Quit" match.
  • 2007: John Cena vs Randy Orton for the WWE title.
  • 2008: The Undertaker sending Edge to "hell".
  • 2009: CM Punk vs Jeff Hardy in a TLC match for the World Heavyweight Title.
  • 2010: Daniel Bryan revealed as the 7th and final member of Team WWE, and Team WWE subsequently beating The Nexus.
  • 2011: CM Punk defeating John Cena to become the undisputed WWE champion, then losing it to Alberto Del Rio minutes later.
  • 2012: Brock Lesnar vs Triple H.
  • 2013: Either Daniel Bryan winning the WWE World Heavyweight Title (until Orton cashes in Money in the Bank) or Brock Lesnar vs CM Punk.
  • 2014: Brock Lesnar squashing John Cena and winning the WWE World heavyweight title.
  • 2015: Either Seth Rollins unifying the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and the U.S. Championship or The Undertaker defeating Brock Lesnar.
  • 2016: AJ Styles defeating John Cena, Finn Balor becoming the first-ever WWE Universal Champion, or Brock Lesnar defeating Randy Orton by TKO.
  • 2017: Either Braun Strowman putting Brock Lesnar through two announcer's tables and literally flipping a third onto him or an enraged and fed up Cesaro assaulting a beach ball.
  • 2018: Either Becky Lynch receiving a standing ovation despite her Face–Heel Turn or Roman Reigns ending Brock Lesnar's 504 days reign as Universal Champion.
  • 2019: Either Seth Rollins beating Brock Lesnar cleanly to win back the Universal Championship, or the in-ring debut of The Fiend.
  • 2020: Roman Reigns' surprise return.
  • 2021: The returns of Becky Lynch and Brock Lesnar or Edge bringing back The Brood theme and entrance.
  • 2022: Brock Lesnar ripping the ring off the floor with a tractor, or Bayley returning after over a year alongside Dakota Kai (who had been originally been released a few months prior) and Io Shirai.
  • 2023: Brock Lesnar implicitly passing the torch to Cody Rhodes, and Jimmy Uso betraying his brother Jey.
• Signature Song: "Bodies", the 2001 theme. If that is disqualified for probably being more associated with "One Night Stand", then "Remedy", the 2005 theme, wins. "Ready to Roll", the 2008 theme, is also a contender.
• Strawman Has a Point: You may see Brock Lesnar as a mercenary who goes where the money is, and you may see Paul Heyman as a loudmouth prick, but that doesn't change the fact that in 2015, The Undertaker did indeed tap out...