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SummerSlam is just around the corner, sparking excitement for the second biggest pay-per-view of the year. There have been thirty editions of the Biggest Party of the Summer. A lot of great matches and moments have been showcased at SummerSlam, including the show-closing wedding between Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth, the Bret Hart vs British Bulldog IC title main event, and the absolute destruction of John Cena at the hands of Brock Lesnar. We have seen countless other memorable moments at the August supershow.
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However, it is not uncommon that sometimes SummerSlam turns out to be a dud. Many things could go wrong during a pay-per-view, like having below average matches or booking the wrong person to win them. These things have also infested SummerSlams in the past. There are situations where the logical winner is an obvious one for the benefit of everybody, but the WWE does the exact opposite. It is extremely frustrating and it may leave fans with a sour taste in their mouths.
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For every magical moment in SummerSlam history, there has been a barrage of bad decisions. These bad decisions then turn out to be costly for the performers who suffer. We have seen multiple wrestlers fail to recover from SummerSlam losses.
Such missteps are detrimental for the wrestlers involved, whose momentum gets flushed down the toilet. These victories were all unnecessary and did nothing for the victor, in any shape or form. Here are five times the wrong person won at SummerSlam.
#5 Hulk Hogan beats Shawn Michaels (2005)
The 2005 program between Hulk Hogan and Shawn Michaels was originally planned to be a three-match series, with Michaels winning the first one at SummerSlam and the Hulkster winning the remaining two bouts. However, in an alleged political move out of ego, Hogan said that he would not be able to do the remaining two matches due to a lingering back injury. This prompted a change of plans, with Hogan winning the one and only match between the pair of legends at SummerSlam 2005.
Michaels, who was furious at this possible blatant move, took matters into his own hands and made a complete and utter mockery of the impending "dream" match. Whenever Hogan would lay any kind of offence in on HBK, he would sell it like a dying fish out of the water.
The Showstopper did this throughout the match and turned it into a farce. He would flop around the ring with many unnecessary flips and bumps in a blatant show of unprofessionalism, albeit at the entertainment of the viewers.
It may have been a childish tantrum, but it will forever be remembered in SummerSlam history. However, Michaels should have been put over here. He was going on a stellar run, which included two absolute barnburners against Kurt Angle at WrestleMania and Vengeance.
His heel work leading up to this match was also brilliant, highlighted by the "Who's your daddy, Montreal?" promo he cut. This was the last time HBK would ever be an outright heel, a really underrated part of his second run in the WWE.
#4 Triple H wins the Elimination Chamber (2003)
Goldberg was on a hot run in on Raw in the summer of 2003, since debuting the night after WrestleMania XIX. He did grow a bit stagnant in the months leading up to SummerSlam, but a World Heavyweight Championship victory would have strapped a rocket on his back. He was supposed to challenge Triple H for the big gold belt at SummerSlam 2003 but plans changed when the Game suffered a groin injury, which caused him to do minimal in-ring work. He was also forced to wear those weird biker shorts. Man, how weird did they look?
Due to this, the match was changed from a one-on-one to an Elimination Chamber match which also featured Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash and Randy Orton. Triple H entered the match at number 5 and immediately got Superkicked by HBK, writing him out until the finish. Goldberg came out next and just destroyed everyone. He went on a massive tear and eliminated Orton, Michaels and Jericho consecutively before turning his focus to Hunter.
As he was going for the Spear, the Game whacked him with a sledgehammer shot and Pedigreed him before pinning the former WCW Champion. It was a shocking result for all the wrong reasons and Goldberg in WWE was conveniently ruined for the rest of his one year run. He would win the title at the next pay-per-view but it was too late. The 2018 WWE Hall of Famer had such an uninspiring run back then, one that was thankfully corrected during his excellent return in 2016 and 2017. Triple H would continue to hog the main event spotlight on Raw until finally giving it up to Batista in 2005.
#3 Shawn Michaels beats Vader
While Shawn Michaels should have beaten Hulk Hogan, this was a match he should have lost. Vader was unbelievable, one of the greatest big men in wrestling history. He was huge, strong, incredibly menacing and surprisingly athletic. Vader could do it all and was tipped for heavy success when he signed for WWE. After dominating Japan and WCW, there was only one destination for the Mastodon. He was set to conquer WWE when he debuted in 1996, but he then hit a massive brick wall called "Pissing Shawn Michaels off".
It has been well documented that Michaels came off as an extremely unlikeable being during his run in the late 90s, with the prime being when he was the WWE Champion. He would intervene in booking decisions and politick his way out of losing various matches. He even went as far as faking "losing his smile" to avoid putting Bret Hart over at WrestleMania 13. That was the kind of egomaniac Shawn Michaels was back then. The champ would overturn a planned Vader title victory at SummerSlam 1996, claiming that he was too stiff and hated working with him, from the pair's matches during tours.
A Vader title victory would have cemented him as a world-beating conquerer, but he ended up looking ridiculously silly. After the match was restarted twice, Vader was beaten by the politicking Heartbreak Kid. This was quite possibly the death of Vader's credibility as a top headliner in WWE as he would never recover from this loss. Michaels would lose the title at Survivor Series, to Sycho Sid, and win it at back at Royal Rumble, in his hometown of San Antonio. Had Vader received that spot, his WWE career would have been much, much more fondly remembered.
#2 Alberto Del Rio cashes in on CM Punk (2011)
CM Punk may currently be embroiled in a legal mess, losing friends, fans and fights, but a few years ago in 2011, he was the talk of the wrestling town. His story going into Money in the Bank was a huge breath of fresh air in the WWE at that time. It felt real and organic, something people can get invested in. Punk walked into the arena with his hometown crowd of Chicago giving him the response of an all-conquering hero, and he did just that. He beat John Cena in an instant classic and ran off into the night of Chicago, title in hand. It was a masterclass from two elite performers and remains the last WWE main roster match to receive five stars from Dave Meltzer.
He "left" WWE for a week or so, before returning to challenge John Cena, who had won the WWE title in Punk's absence, to a title unification match at SummerSlam 2011. CM Punk won and the Summer of Punk looked to roll on but in a completely stupid and unnecessary swerve, Kevin Nash emerged and ruined everybody's night by Powerbombing the undisputed WWE Champion. As a result of this assault, Mr.Money in the Bank Alberto Del Rio cashed in his briefcase on a downed Punk. WWE ruined the entire Summer of Punk angle by concluding it with Alberto Del Rio as WWE Champion.
Post-SummerSlam, it was John Cena who would challenge Del Rio for the WWE Championship while Punk ended up feuding with Kevin Nash and Triple H. WWE risked completely ruining CM Punk permanently before he was rescued by a fulfilling WWE title victory over Del Rio at Survivor Series, to begin his 434-day reign as WWE Champion. WWE took the hottest angle during the summer of 2011 and ruined it for everybody. They did the exact same thing the previous year, but it was even worse.
#1 The Nexus lose to John Cena (2010)
If you thought the WWE's handling of the Summer of Punk was bad, wait till you see what happened to the Nexus. A group consisting of the eight rookies from the first season of NXT, they invaded Raw and left it like a dump to make a statement. They tore the entire place apart and ran roughshod over the entire Raw roster. Daniel Bryan would get fired, but the remaining seven members were a united front.
They were ready to destroy anyone put in front of them. The first two months of the Nexus were actually well booked, showcasing them as threats to the established WWE structure. They were set to face John Cena and his team of WWE superstars, in a 7-on-7 elimination match, at SummerSlam 2010.
Cena's team consisted of himself, Edge, Chris Jericho, John Morrison, Bret Hart, R-Truth and the returning Daniel Bryan. There was heavy dissension within Team WWE, as Edge and Jericho went to do business for themselves, while all seven members of the Nexus were all for the team. It seemed like a no-brainer that Wade Barrett and co. would win this monumental match, but no. John Cena took matters into his own hands and altered the result of the match to him winning. It was a bizarre decision that literally made zero sense, even less after Cena was DDTed onto the exposed concrete floor.
It made Wade Barrett look extremely stupid, as he and Justin Gabriel failed to put out a damaged Cena. This was Super Cena at his toxic worst, as he single-handedly ruined the bright prospects of seven potential future stars in just one move. Edge and Chris Jericho had told Cena to put Barrett over at SummerSlam and knew it was the wrong decision for the multi-time World Champion to come out on top in that case. Cena himself admitted his mistake later that night, but it was too late to salvage the remains of the buried Nexus members. After such a bright start to their WWE careers, only one of the seven remains in the company as a full-time wrestler, Heath Slater. What a crazy fact.
Out of all the bad booking decisions at SummerSlam, this one was by far the worst one as it derailed the momentum of seven promising wrestlers at once. None of them would even hold one world championship in the WWE, including Wade Barrett, who had all the tools to do so. His stock was never higher than the period from his debut until that fateful SummerSlam night in 2010.
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