Top 10 SummerSlams : Number 8 – SummerSlam 2001

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Continuing on our journey to review the top 10 SummerSlams in WWE history, today we come down to number 8. For that, we go back to 2001, as the Invasion angle kick started in the then WWF, as stars from ECW and WCW joined the WWF in an attempt to take over the company. The background of the story was that Steve Austin turned on the WWF and aligned himself with The Alliance. Kurt Angle then challenged Austin for a match at SummerSlam which Austin accepted. Meanwhile, Booker T was the WCW Heavyweight champion, and challenged The Rock for a match at SummerSlam. The event took place at the Compaq Enter in San Jose, California. So without further ado, let us get down to business.

Under card:

Edge defeated Lance Storm to win the WWF Intercontinental championship

The opening bout saw the two Canadians squaring off against each other, as Storm was a member of The Alliance while Edge was the WWF guy. It was a good opener which got the San Jose crowd buzzing with anticipation. The end saw Christian run down and hit Edge by mistake, but Edge recovered and drilled Storm with the Edgecution DDT for the win. Post match, Christian celebrated with Edge. This was the beginning of the split between the two former tag team partners, and the rest is history.

Rating: ***

Backstage promo by Test, who explained why he joined The Alliance. Test was on a roll here, and it’s sad that he went nowhere after this.

Lillian interviewed Jericho next, and Jericho did his usual Stephanie bashing to end the segment.

The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley) and Test defeated The APA (Faarooq and Bradshaw) and Spike Dudley (With Molly Holly)

A decent match with good back and forth action. The Alliance got their win back on the PPV when Shane McMahon interfered and cost the WWF the match, when he hit Bradshaw with a chair for Test to pick up the victory. It’s sad how Alliance were made to look so weak. Nothing too special about this bout, but the crowd enjoyed it.

Rating: ** ¼

Backstage segment with Edge and Christian. Everyone congratulated Edge, and Christian came in and revealed that he got a match against Matt for the European title. They called their grandma who only wanted to talk to Edge. Good comedy stuff, which also gave mileage to the Christian heel turn.

Backstage, Stasiak went into Austin’s locker room, but found Debra. He asked her how to impress Steve. She told him to go out and kick some butt.

X-Pac defeated Tajiri to unify the WWF Light Heavyweight championship and the WCW Cruiserweight championship

It’s funny how almost every match has a WWF guy as a part of The Alliance, which is why it didn’t work. Vince didn’t want them to get over even in an angle, although most of them were WWF guys. X-Pac didn’t get much crowd support, and he put on a good match with Tajiri. The end saw Albert distracting Tajiri and enabling X-Pac to pick up the victory.

Rating: ** ½

Another segment backstage with Stephanie and Rhyno. Too bad Triple H wasn’t there.

Mid card:

Chris Jericho defeated Rhyno (With Stephanie)

This match reminded me how good Rhyno actually was in the ring. A fun match which saw Jericho kissing Stephanie when she tried to interfere, just after an awesome spot when Jericho leapt to the outside only to get gored! Jericho finished it off with the Walls of Jericho, and bent Rhyno completely. Ouch! Stephanie ran to the back crying.

Rating: ** ¾

Rob Van Dam defeated Jeff Hardy in a ladder match for the WWF Hardcore championship

On paper, this looked like an amazing match between the two daredevils. RVD is perhaps the greatest high flying wrestler, while Jeff is a bonafide dare devil. The match fell flat, as they only went for one spot after another. The end saw a botched spot, but RVD picked up the victory by getting the title down. Just an okay match between the two.

Rating: ** ½

The Brothers of Destruction (The Undertaker and Kane with Sara) defeated Diamond Dallas Page and Chris Kanyon for the WCW and WWF tag team championships

This was the point when The Undertaker was grossly under used in the WWF. He was relegated to the tag team division along with Kane (it’s a whole different matter when he was voted as the ‘most over rated superstar’ by PWI, which made it a joke in my eyes), and a guy like DDP was made to look like a joke as well. WWF dropped the ball majorly with DDP. Anyway, DDP was stalking Taker’s wife, and he wanted retribution. B.O.D let Kanyon go and set their sights on DDP, and finished him off with a Last Ride to pick up the victory.

Rating: *

Backstage, Stasiak tried to attack The Rock, but he moved out of the way. That was weird.

Kurt Angle defeated Stone Cold Steve Austin by disqualification for the WWF championship

Easily the best match of the night, Angle was made to look like a million bucks. Steve turned on the WWF and thus got into a match against Kurt Angle. Austin gave a couple of stunners to Angle, but he somehow managed to hang on, and got busted open by Austin. Angle came back, but Austin knocked the referee down. He stunned the next referee and decked the third one as well. Nick Patrick ran down as Angle connected with an Angle Slam, but he called for the bell, disqualifying Austin for attacking the referees. Angle got upset and locked the ref in the Ankle lock. What an amazing performance by Kurt, and this made him look like the butt kicking machine he later became.

Rating: ****

Main event:

The Rock defeated Booker T (with Shane McMahon) for the WCW championship

The main event of the night saw The Rock taking on Booker T in his return match. Like DDP, WWF just wanted to make Booker look weak, as he lost the WCW title to The Rock. Shane tried to interfere but was taken out, first by the APA and then by The Rock. Booker connected with a Scissors kick, but Rock kicked out and delivered the Rock Bottom for the three count. The crowd popped as Rock held the title over his shoulder to close the show.

Rating: *** ¼

Overall rating: *** ¼ (Out of 5 stars)

This clearly proved how WWF and Vince wanted to bury the WCW/ECW guys, while making their top stars look like jokes. DDP was completely buried while Booker’s momentum was killed. The PPV had some good matches, but was horribly booked. Anyway, that does it for the review of SummerSlam 2001, and as we count down the days to this year’s SummerSlam, we will continue to look back at the remaining editions of SummerSlams that made our list.