10 Biggest WTF Moments In WWE SummerSlam History
They called it The Biggest Party of the Summer for a reason... everyone's pissed!
Aug 15, 2018
WWE WrestleMania is the party held by the coolest and most popular kid in school. It's the biggest and best party of the year - it's the one you need to be invited to because if you don't, your life is a waste of time and what's the point anymore?
The Royal Rumble, SummerSlam and Survivor Series are the next best parties you can attend within WWE's calendar year. If you don't make the cut for a 'Mania bash, then you'd better make sure you get to one of these otherwise that last strand of self-respect you had... gone, forever.
While the Rumble will always hold a special place in my heart, I always find SummerSlam to be the best of the rest in WrestleMania's shadow. I don't know if it's because the weather's always nice when it's on, because the show takes place in the same month I was born, or due to the fact it's always littered with supposedly famous people my old being has never heard over - it's always nice, isn't it?
In terms of moments, SummerSlam has produced its fair share of iconic once over the last 30 years. However, with a storied lienage so strong, there's bound to be a few moments that I'm sure even had Vince McMahon's eyebrows touching the ceiling, and his jaw hitting the floor. Here are the 10 biggest...
10. Dive, Duck, Dip, Dive And Dodge - 2005
Look at HBK go - it's like watching that scene from The Snowman where he's dancing and flying through the air and whatnot... truly magical!
I'm sure you all know how this one went down by now, with Shawn Michaels making Hulk Hogan look like an absolute mug in front of the world for supposedly going back on his word. The story goes that the pair were scheduled to have a two-match series in the middle of 2005, with Hogan winning the first and Shawn getting his win back the following month at Unforgiven. While HBK wasn't too enamoured with the prospect of having to put The Hulkster over at SummerSlam - and turning heel at the request of Hulk after being a good guy for so long - it didn't matter, right? He'd be getting his win back and the pair would be even.
Wrong. Hogan made it known that he'd be working the SummerSlam match hurt, and wouldn't be able to get through a return bout. Michaels was going to lose, and get nothing in return after sacrificing those sweet good guy merch cheques for the good for the feud.
As a result of this, the devilish Michaels did what only the devilish Michaels could do and oversold everything Hogan threw at him, making the contest an absolute farce. It was amazing. You need to see it if you haven't already.
So despite getting his way, Hogan would be the one to come out of this situation with egg all over his moustache. Glorious scenes.
9. You Didn't Win The Title, Lex, Calm Down - 1993
Imagine if Liverpool celebrated winning the Premier League title this season after finishing level on points with Manchester City, but losing out on the title thanks to an inferior goal difference. Of course they would celebrate because scousers are delusional, that much is a given. But it was weird to see Lex Luger being so silly following his SummerSlam 1993 main event against Yokozuna.
If Lex lost the match (in which he had to have the plate in his arm covered with padding) he'd never get a shot at the WWF Championship again.
In the closing stages of the match, Lex struck Mr. Fuji down. With the referee seeing to the stricken manager, Luger removed the padding from his forearm and whacked Yoko upside the head - it's not cheating if you don't get caught, right? This sent the Samoan-Sumo tumbling out of the ring and he wouldn't be able to answer the ref's 10 count.
Luger won the match, but of course, winning via countout meant he didn't win the WWF title - the only objective he had in the damn thing outside of fighting for Murca etc. Even though the title staying with a dastardly foreigner - something WWE have shown they don't really like over the years - balloons and streamers rained down from the rafters as members of the company's babyface roster took to the ring - all for a countout win, where the title didn't even come home, if you will.
Allegedly Vince McMahon was the one who sanctioned the pomp and circumstance because you've
gots to send the people home happy
- even if it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
8. Suplex City - 2014
Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex.
Brock Lesnar did the impossible at SummerSlam 2014, conquering John Cena in his best/worst match ever.
Of course, this was Lesnar's best match ever because he made Cena his little b*tch - something a near 10-year sustained push RIGHT DOWN OUR THROATS WHETHER WE WANTED HIM OR NOT seemingly rendered obsolete. Obviously, younger fans will compare the Cena of old to Roman Reigns today, but it's fair to say The Big Dog has been made infinitely more human compared to SuperCena at his superhero pomp. What Lesnar did at SummerSlam was utterly unfathomable heading into the bout.
And yeah, this was the absolute worst of times too because The Beast hasn't had a different match since.
This one was all about timing, with Cena coming off a tepid win over rising star Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania, and Brock months removed from the single biggest victory in the history of professional wrestling; the Streak-ending win over The Undertaker. This was some way to carry on that momentum. I think we all saw Lesnar winning this one given what had gone down on the Grandest Stage of The All - but not like this.
7. Keep ROFLin' ROFLin' ROFLin' - 2015
There aren't too many words to describe this thing, so I won't try to. No version of The Undertaker should be doing this. It's just weird.
All I will say is that if you haven't already, watch the actual footage on the
WWE Networkbecause the reaction from the crowd inside the arena makes this moment all the more special.
6. The "Custody Of Dominick" Ladder Match - 2005
Wrestling is so weird, isn't it? In the real world, the custody of a child is sorted out in a court of law in what has to be a long, painful, and drawn out process. In WWE, however, the courts are forgotten about as 20 minutes of ladder-filled combat sees two men try to get their hands on a briefcase with all the essentials inside.
After teaming for a while, the seeds for this rivalry were sewn over a series altercations that resulted in Eddie Guerrero playing mind games on Rey Mysterio. Eddie knew Rey Rey's darkest secret, and understandably, the 619er didn't want the world to know.
That secret, of course, was the fact that Eddie had fathered Rey's son Dominick because Rey and his wife were having problems conceiving a child. Weirdly, WWE used Mysterio's real-life son to play the role of little Dom, who really did look too much like his real-life biological father for the storyline to pass off as legit.
The match itself was a barnstormer, with everything but the kitchen sink - and Vickie Guerrero who missed her cue - included. It's just a shame the storyline was WWE at their soap opera fetish worst.
5. Mean F'n Gene - 1989
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The more you hear about "Mean" Gene Okerlund, the more you realise the man's squeaky-clean demeanour is all a work, brother. The bloke's a rascal, a scoundrel, and he's absolutely brilliant.
This is a moment that should never have seen the light of day, as Gene revealed in an interview years later that WWE used the wrong tape as part of SummerSlam 1989. This outtake happened, they reshot the scene, yet whoever was in charge of inserting pretapes back then used the wrong bloody one. I'm sure that Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura were thrilled upon hearing this since they were the ones left to pick up the pieces after the hastiest of cuts back to them.
4. The Mountie's Night In Jail - 1991
Vince McMahon has a weird sense of humour, and the 1990s gave him the platform to share it with the world. One of the more prominent examples happened at SummerSlam 1991, following a match between The Big Boss Man and The Mountie.
A Jailhouse Match between the pair took place that night, with the loser being forced to spend a night inside a New York City jail. Mountie lost, was thrown into a van and taken away.
Upon arriving at the jail, Mountie discovered that he would be sharing a cell with an overtly camp, leather-clad individual. After getting into the cell, Mountie was confronted by the man who said: "Don't you just love the way leather feels against your body?"
We have no idea what happened to The Mountie over the course of the rest of the evening, but I'm sure it was interesting one way or the other.
3. The Undertaker Vs. The Underfaker - 1994
In the words of everyone's best friend Conrad Thompson: "Bruce, who booked this sh*t?"
This match had a strange tie in with the Naked Gun movie, presumably just so the entire angle could be rounded off with Leslie Nielsen and George Kennedy finding a locked briefcase on the floor just so they could say "case closed" - which they did, and undoubtedly had Vince McMahon doing that deep belly laugh he's so famous for.
The Undertaker was murdered at the 1994 Royal Rumble by a group of wrestlers doing wrestling moves on him inside a wrestling ring. His casket started farting, he floated to the rafters inside the arena - it was an absolute hoot. Over the following months, Ted DiBiase claimed to have bought the recently re-deceased Deadman, while Paul Bearer claimed he was a liar.
To SummerSlam we go, and after months away (one Raw taping aside which completely spoiled the result of this match for those in attendance) Undertaker returned to do battle with DiBiase's Underfaker. 'Taker would defeat 'Faker before shoving him into a casket. 'Faker then miraculously disappeared from inside the casket, with Nielsen and Kennedy finding that briefcase on the floor nearby and declaring the CASE CLOSED HAHAHAHA.
The only people to come out of this angle were WWE's resident makeup team at the time, who managed to make Brian Lee look just like Mark Callaway - height and weight difference aside, of course.
2. Randy Orton Shows Brain - 2016
And not out of his shorts, unfortunately. I'm sure this will be the
only
time you'll see anybody bemoaning the fact his testicles weren't hanging outside of his wrestling trunks.
In what was quite an awkward moment, Brock Lesnar seemingly forgot that he was inside a WWE ring and not a UFC Octagon. Brock Lesnar forgot that he was performing on a show that was being viewed by children, largely, and gave them all something they would have nightmares about for months. Brock Lesnar worked himself up into a shoot, brother.
The Beast took the point of his elbow and smashed it into the head of poor, old Randal Keith Orton. What's worse is the fact that this wasn't a work, this was planned. Presumably, Vince McMahon walked up to Randy and said: "Hey pal, would you mind if a 300-pound gorilla called Brock legitimately busted you open only using his elbow?" Could you imagine?!
I hope Orton got a lot of money for going through with this - it was absolutely gruesome and pretty unnecessary. I also hope that a little bit more cash was added to his bonus, due to the fact that the crowd were chanting "boring" while his brains were quite literally spilling all over the ring. There's rubbing salt in the wound, then there's shooting it in there with a salty gun.
1. The Ultimate Trust Fall - 2000
Some of you probably think this is an undeserving number one due to the fact that he landed on padded in a relatively controlled setting. To that I'd say, get yourself up there and see how you get on. Shane McMahon's (lady) balls are potentially bigger than his sister's. Potentially.
Jim Ross might have overinflated the height at which Shane fell from, but that doesn't matter one iota. Whether it be 50, 75, or the actual 40 feet Mr. O'Mac fell from, it's bloody high. And he went backwards too, which must make it feel twice as high as it actually is. The margin for error couldn't have been smaller for this one.
I don't know about you, but I struggle to fall backwards into bed of a nighttime, just in case I land on a TV remote or something so goodness knows how Shane managed to pull this one off with such ease - I mean, of course we know how he managed to pull it off. He's Shane McMahon, and he really, really likes falling off really, really high things; but the point still stands.
WWE WrestleMania is the party held by the coolest and most popular kid in school. It's the biggest and best party of the year - it's the one you need to be invited to because if you don't, your life is a waste of time and what's the point anymore?
The Royal Rumble, SummerSlam and Survivor Series are the next best parties you can attend within WWE's calendar year. If you don't make the cut for a 'Mania bash, then you'd better make sure you get to one of these otherwise that last strand of self-respect you had... gone, forever.
While the Rumble will always hold a special place in my heart, I always find SummerSlam to be the best of the rest in WrestleMania's shadow. I don't know if it's because the weather's always nice when it's on, because the show takes place in the same month I was born, or due to the fact it's always littered with supposedly famous people my old being has never heard over - it's always nice, isn't it?
In terms of moments, SummerSlam has produced its fair share of iconic once over the last 30 years. However, with a storied lienage so strong, there's bound to be a few moments that I'm sure even had Vince McMahon's eyebrows touching the ceiling, and his jaw hitting the floor. Here are the 10 biggest...
10. Dive, Duck, Dip, Dive And Dodge - 2005
Look at HBK go - it's like watching that scene from The Snowman where he's dancing and flying through the air and whatnot... truly magical!
I'm sure you all know how this one went down by now, with Shawn Michaels making Hulk Hogan look like an absolute mug in front of the world for supposedly going back on his word. The story goes that the pair were scheduled to have a two-match series in the middle of 2005, with Hogan winning the first and Shawn getting his win back the following month at Unforgiven. While HBK wasn't too enamoured with the prospect of having to put The Hulkster over at SummerSlam - and turning heel at the request of Hulk after being a good guy for so long - it didn't matter, right? He'd be getting his win back and the pair would be even.
Wrong. Hogan made it known that he'd be working the SummerSlam match hurt, and wouldn't be able to get through a return bout. Michaels was going to lose, and get nothing in return after sacrificing those sweet good guy merch cheques for the good for the feud.
As a result of this, the devilish Michaels did what only the devilish Michaels could do and oversold everything Hogan threw at him, making the contest an absolute farce. It was amazing. You need to see it if you haven't already.
So despite getting his way, Hogan would be the one to come out of this situation with egg all over his moustache. Glorious scenes.
9. You Didn't Win The Title, Lex, Calm Down - 1993
Imagine if Liverpool celebrated winning the Premier League title this season after finishing level on points with Manchester City, but losing out on the title thanks to an inferior goal difference. Of course they would celebrate because scousers are delusional, that much is a given. But it was weird to see Lex Luger being so silly following his SummerSlam 1993 main event against Yokozuna.
If Lex lost the match (in which he had to have the plate in his arm covered with padding) he'd never get a shot at the WWF Championship again.
In the closing stages of the match, Lex struck Mr. Fuji down. With the referee seeing to the stricken manager, Luger removed the padding from his forearm and whacked Yoko upside the head - it's not cheating if you don't get caught, right? This sent the Samoan-Sumo tumbling out of the ring and he wouldn't be able to answer the ref's 10 count.
Luger won the match, but of course, winning via countout meant he didn't win the WWF title - the only objective he had in the damn thing outside of fighting for Murca etc. Even though the title staying with a dastardly foreigner - something WWE have shown they don't really like over the years - balloons and streamers rained down from the rafters as members of the company's babyface roster took to the ring - all for a countout win, where the title didn't even come home, if you will.
Allegedly Vince McMahon was the one who sanctioned the pomp and circumstance because you've
gots to send the people home happy
- even if it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
8. Suplex City - 2014
Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex, Suplex.
Brock Lesnar did the impossible at SummerSlam 2014, conquering John Cena in his best/worst match ever.
Of course, this was Lesnar's best match ever because he made Cena his little b*tch - something a near 10-year sustained push RIGHT DOWN OUR THROATS WHETHER WE WANTED HIM OR NOT seemingly rendered obsolete. Obviously, younger fans will compare the Cena of old to Roman Reigns today, but it's fair to say The Big Dog has been made infinitely more human compared to SuperCena at his superhero pomp. What Lesnar did at SummerSlam was utterly unfathomable heading into the bout.
And yeah, this was the absolute worst of times too because The Beast hasn't had a different match since.
This one was all about timing, with Cena coming off a tepid win over rising star Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania, and Brock months removed from the single biggest victory in the history of professional wrestling; the Streak-ending win over The Undertaker. This was some way to carry on that momentum. I think we all saw Lesnar winning this one given what had gone down on the Grandest Stage of The All - but not like this.
7. Keep ROFLin' ROFLin' ROFLin' - 2015
There aren't too many words to describe this thing, so I won't try to. No version of The Undertaker should be doing this. It's just weird.
All I will say is that if you haven't already, watch the actual footage on the
WWE Networkbecause the reaction from the crowd inside the arena makes this moment all the more special.
6. The "Custody Of Dominick" Ladder Match - 2005
Wrestling is so weird, isn't it? In the real world, the custody of a child is sorted out in a court of law in what has to be a long, painful, and drawn out process. In WWE, however, the courts are forgotten about as 20 minutes of ladder-filled combat sees two men try to get their hands on a briefcase with all the essentials inside.
After teaming for a while, the seeds for this rivalry were sewn over a series altercations that resulted in Eddie Guerrero playing mind games on Rey Mysterio. Eddie knew Rey Rey's darkest secret, and understandably, the 619er didn't want the world to know.
That secret, of course, was the fact that Eddie had fathered Rey's son Dominick because Rey and his wife were having problems conceiving a child. Weirdly, WWE used Mysterio's real-life son to play the role of little Dom, who really did look too much like his real-life biological father for the storyline to pass off as legit.
The match itself was a barnstormer, with everything but the kitchen sink - and Vickie Guerrero who missed her cue - included. It's just a shame the storyline was WWE at their soap opera fetish worst.
5. Mean F'n Gene - 1989
[embed
[/embed]
The more you hear about "Mean" Gene Okerlund, the more you realise the man's squeaky-clean demeanour is all a work, brother. The bloke's a rascal, a scoundrel, and he's absolutely brilliant.
This is a moment that should never have seen the light of day, as Gene revealed in an interview years later that WWE used the wrong tape as part of SummerSlam 1989. This outtake happened, they reshot the scene, yet whoever was in charge of inserting pretapes back then used the wrong bloody one. I'm sure that Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura were thrilled upon hearing this since they were the ones left to pick up the pieces after the hastiest of cuts back to them.
4. The Mountie's Night In Jail - 1991
Vince McMahon has a weird sense of humour, and the 1990s gave him the platform to share it with the world. One of the more prominent examples happened at SummerSlam 1991, following a match between The Big Boss Man and The Mountie.
A Jailhouse Match between the pair took place that night, with the loser being forced to spend a night inside a New York City jail. Mountie lost, was thrown into a van and taken away.
Upon arriving at the jail, Mountie discovered that he would be sharing a cell with an overtly camp, leather-clad individual. After getting into the cell, Mountie was confronted by the man who said: "Don't you just love the way leather feels against your body?"
We have no idea what happened to The Mountie over the course of the rest of the evening, but I'm sure it was interesting one way or the other.
3. The Undertaker Vs. The Underfaker - 1994
In the words of everyone's best friend Conrad Thompson: "Bruce, who booked this sh*t?"
This match had a strange tie in with the Naked Gun movie, presumably just so the entire angle could be rounded off with Leslie Nielsen and George Kennedy finding a locked briefcase on the floor just so they could say "case closed" - which they did, and undoubtedly had Vince McMahon doing that deep belly laugh he's so famous for.
The Undertaker was murdered at the 1994 Royal Rumble by a group of wrestlers doing wrestling moves on him inside a wrestling ring. His casket started farting, he floated to the rafters inside the arena - it was an absolute hoot. Over the following months, Ted DiBiase claimed to have bought the recently re-deceased Deadman, while Paul Bearer claimed he was a liar.
To SummerSlam we go, and after months away (one Raw taping aside which completely spoiled the result of this match for those in attendance) Undertaker returned to do battle with DiBiase's Underfaker. 'Taker would defeat 'Faker before shoving him into a casket. 'Faker then miraculously disappeared from inside the casket, with Nielsen and Kennedy finding that briefcase on the floor nearby and declaring the CASE CLOSED HAHAHAHA.
The only people to come out of this angle were WWE's resident makeup team at the time, who managed to make Brian Lee look just like Mark Callaway - height and weight difference aside, of course.
2. Randy Orton Shows Brain - 2016
And not out of his shorts, unfortunately. I'm sure this will be the
only
time you'll see anybody bemoaning the fact his testicles weren't hanging outside of his wrestling trunks.
In what was quite an awkward moment, Brock Lesnar seemingly forgot that he was inside a WWE ring and not a UFC Octagon. Brock Lesnar forgot that he was performing on a show that was being viewed by children, largely, and gave them all something they would have nightmares about for months. Brock Lesnar worked himself up into a shoot, brother.
The Beast took the point of his elbow and smashed it into the head of poor, old Randal Keith Orton. What's worse is the fact that this wasn't a work, this was planned. Presumably, Vince McMahon walked up to Randy and said: "Hey pal, would you mind if a 300-pound gorilla called Brock legitimately busted you open only using his elbow?" Could you imagine?!
I hope Orton got a lot of money for going through with this - it was absolutely gruesome and pretty unnecessary. I also hope that a little bit more cash was added to his bonus, due to the fact that the crowd were chanting "boring" while his brains were quite literally spilling all over the ring. There's rubbing salt in the wound, then there's shooting it in there with a salty gun.
1. The Ultimate Trust Fall - 2000
Some of you probably think this is an undeserving number one due to the fact that he landed on padded in a relatively controlled setting. To that I'd say, get yourself up there and see how you get on. Shane McMahon's (lady) balls are potentially bigger than his sister's. Potentially.
Jim Ross might have overinflated the height at which Shane fell from, but that doesn't matter one iota. Whether it be 50, 75, or the actual 40 feet Mr. O'Mac fell from, it's bloody high. And he went backwards too, which must make it feel twice as high as it actually is. The margin for error couldn't have been smaller for this one.
I don't know about you, but I struggle to fall backwards into bed of a nighttime, just in case I land on a TV remote or something so goodness knows how Shane managed to pull this one off with such ease - I mean, of course we know how he managed to pull it off. He's Shane McMahon, and he really, really likes falling off really, really high things; but the point still stands.
