Top 10 SummerSlams : Number 4 – SummerSlam 2011

Kofi Kingston, John Morrison and Rey Mysterio

We’re less than 24 hours away from the biggest party of the summer – SummerSlam. Before heading to the second biggest PPV of the year, we set out on a journey to find the top 10 SummerSlams of all time.

This year’s edition has all the tools to be amongst, if not top the previous SummerSlams, with the challengers for the WWE title and the World title being two of the biggest fan favourites.

Also, let us not forget the much anticipated CM Punk-Brock Lesnar match which will likely blow the roof off of Staples Center.

But before we get to that, we go back to 2011, a time during which the WWE was going through a transition – the CM Punk transition. The main event was between Punk and John Cena for the WWE championship, followed by Christian and Randy Orton for the World Heavyweight championship.

Without further ado, let us jump right into the mix.

Under card:

Kofi Kingston, John Morrison and Rey Mysterio defeated The Miz, R-Truth, and Alberto Del Rio (With Ricardo Rodriguez) in a Six man tag team match

It was a decent opener, as Miz and Kofi started things off. Morrison came in and played the “face in peril”, as Truth and Miz took turns and laid into JoMo. He would have been a great upper mid-carder, but sadly his personal preferences took over his professional prospects.

Anyway, Kofi got the hot tag, but ADR stopped him in his way. The hot tag sequence followed as Kofi tagged in Rey Mysterio, who took out the heels, and ended things with a 619 followed by a big splash on Truth for the pinfall victory. That was a good encounter, and had the crowd interested and invested in the bout.

Rating: ** ¼

Mark Henry defeated Sheamus via countout

I nearly dozed off while watching this bout. Mark Henry has improved immensely over the years, but this bout was anything but a classic, and was more of a slugfest.

Sheamus and Henry exchanged blows to start things off, but Henry proceeded to dominate the bout for the major part. Sheamus tried to make a comeback by overpowering Henry, but that didn’t happen.

The end came when Henry ran Sheamus through the barricade and made it back into the ring before the ten count to pick up the countout victory. It was okay, considering Sheamus was pretty bland, and Henry was too big for Sheamus to work with.

Rating: *

Kelly Kelly (With Eve Torres) defeated Beth Phoenix (With Natalya) to retain the WWE Divas championship

Do you miss Kelly Kelly “hulking up” by yelling during her matches? I don’t either.

Beth Phoenix was grossly underused while she was in the WWE. Anyway, Kelly played the underdog champion, countering Beth’s moves while Beth was on the offensive for the major part of the match.

The end came when Kelly countered a Glam Slam and rolled Beth up to pick up the victory. I miss Beth; she along with Natalya were the only reason to watch the Divas division.

Rating: * ½

Mid card:

Wade Barrett defeated Daniel Bryan

The funny thing is, this was the main event during the last episode of Smackdown! Anyway, this was at a time when it was evident that no one believed in Daniel Bryan.

This was of course before he won the World Heavyweight championship or before he became a sensation, and the commentators put him down throughout the bout.

It was a solid PPV match, with Wade Barrett dominating the majority of the match. Barrett went for the Wasteland before it was countered into a guillotine choke, and then into the LaBelle lock! That was awesome.

Barrett reached the ropes, and won the bout by finally delivering the Wasteland. The match didn’t mean anything to Wade’s career, sadly.

Rating: *** ½

Randy Orton defeated Christian

Randy Orton defeated Christian in a No Holds Barred match to win the World Heavyweight Championship

This was at a point when Orton and Christian were constantly putting on 4+ star matches. Christian is one of the best workers in the business, so it didn’t come as a surprise.

What was surprising though, was Christian losing the World title (again) so soon. They followed up with their phenomenal match at Over The Limit, as Christian went through literally everything.

After being put through the announcer’s table, a normal table, a trash can, a puddle of hot chocolate (Okay, maybe I made that up), Orton finally finished Christian with an RKO on the steel steps! Ouch!

Orton covered Christian for the pinfall victory and to become the new World Heavyweight champion! It was obvious that the crowd was firmly behind Christian, and didn’t like the title change. But that was an amazing match.

Rating: **** ½

Main event:

CM Punk defeated John Cena with Triple H as the special guest referee to retain the WWE championship

This was confusing, as I didn’t understand why Triple H had to insert himself as the guest referee (Newsflash, 2 years down the line, the same thing happened!).

Anyway, Punk and Cena worked really hard and put on year another good match. Punk and Cena have the Austin-Rock chemistry, so it naturally worked, and still does.

After good back and forth action, Punk connected with the GTS and covered Cena for the pinfall victory, although his foot was on the ropes (so we could expect a rematch at the next PPV). That was yet another solid match between the two, and the right guy won.

Rating: *** ½

Wait, but that’s not all. Post match, Kevin Nash came into the ring and dropped Punk with a Jackknife Powerbomb. Triple H had the “No way! I thought he tore his quad” look and didn’t understand what was happening.

Cue Alberto Del Rio’s music, as he came out and cashed-in his Money in the Bank briefcase to pin Punk, and become the new WWE champion! The PPV faded with Del Rio celebrating in the ring with the WWE title.

Overall PPV Rating: *** ¾

That was a really good PPV, and had three good, no, great matches. The Orton-Christian match overshadowed everything else to no one’s surprise, while the Punk-Cena and Barrett-Bryan matches were really good as well.

The PPV also produced the “Oh my God” moment with Kevin Nash interfering. This was also the PPV which killed Punk’s momentum, thanks to Triple H and Nash.

That does it for this edition. Join us next time as we look back at the 10 best editions of SummerSlam.