WWE SummerSlam 2015: Worst Matches in History of PPV

Over the course of its long and illustrious history, SummerSlam has been home to some of the greatest pro wrestling matches of all time.

There were the two intercontinental title classics involving Bret Hart in 1991 and '92, the original TLC match in 2000 and Shawn Michaels' triumphant return to the squared circle in a Street Fight against Triple H in 2002.

While the show has certainly had far more hits than misses, it has also housed some spectacularly bad matches.

From doppelganger Undertakers to rings of fire and wrestling announcers to street fights involving McMahons, the show has unintentionally battered fans with some horrendously bad wrestling.

With the 2015 edition of SummerSlam approaching, the current crop of Superstars is simply to good to allow such a travesty to occur. There is a certain quality fans can expect from the show that simply was not always the case.

As you gear up for the upcoming event on August 23, take this stroll down Memory Lane and relive the worst of the worst, featuring such acclaimed stars as Mabel, Eric Bischoff, the Disciples of Apocalypse and the Great Khali.

8. Jerry Lawler vs. Tazz (2000)

In the summer of 2000, Tazz underwent a character change, becoming a heel bully of sorts. It did not really fit him, given most of the guys he was supposedly bullying were bigger than him. That did not deter him, though, and by the time SummerSlam rolled around, he had set his sights on the commentary team of Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.

This led to a match between the Human Suplex Machine and the King at the August pay-per-view and the results were...ugly.

A tedious match ended when Ross left the announce position and blasted Tazz in the face with a candy jar, forcing him to break the Tazzmission he had locked in on Lawler and allowing the King to score the pinfall victory.

Why the company booked an aging Lawler to beat Tazz, who was in the prime of his career, rather than building the former ECW champion up remains a mystery, but it would be difficult to suggest pushing either man following the lackluster bout that evening.

7. World Heavyweight Championship Match: Batista vs. Great Khali (2007)

So injury plagued was the SmackDown brand in 2007 that WWE Creative was left with no other option than to put the World Heavyweight Championship on the Great Khali.

Yes, the Great Khali.

The giant from India won the gold in a Battle Royal, then began his oppressive reign over SmackDown that summer. His first, and greatest, challenger was Batista, who managed not to be one of the stars on the injury list through sheer luck.

At SummerSlam, they were paired together in a match for the brand's most prestigious title. Instead of booking a gimmick match to help camouflage Khali's obvious deficiencies in the ring, though, Creative had the performers work a straight wrestling match.

Anyone who has ever watched Khali for even a moment knows how bad of an idea that is.

The match bombed. Batista won by disqualification, and unfortunately for the fans of SmackDown, the feud continued for a few months thereafter.

6. The Disciples of Apocalypse vs. Los Boricuas (1997)

No two teams worked as many matches together and produced as many clunkers throughout the second half of 1997 as Los Boricuas and the Disciples of Apocalypse.

Two of the three teams involved in WWE's Gang Warz, the two teams worked with each other at seemingly every pay-per-view throughout the fall and early winter months that year, delivering some truly insipid matches.

The first in the series was their SummerSlam match, which was way too long. Even with the Nation of Domination arriving on the scene to try and drum up interest for the contest, it simply did not work.

Los Boricuas would pick up the win in a nine-minute bout that felt more like a half-hour Iron Man match.

The feud continued for months with nothing new or exciting happening.

It was kind of like their first SummerSlam anti-classic.

5. Street Fight: Shane McMahon vs. Eric Bischoff (2003)

Neither Eric Bischoff nor Shane McMahon are trained wrestlers, but that did not stop WWE from putting them together in a Street Fight at the 2003 event, hoping they could recapture some of the magic Shane O'Mac produced with his father at WrestleMania two years earlier.

Instead, their match turned into a mess.

There was a heel turn from Jonathan Coachman that, at the time, made no sense whatsoever. There was a run-in from Steve Austin, an overabundance of gimmickry to cover up for their lack of in-ring skill and, worst of all, it stretched on for way too long.

Shane won the match, of course, and branched off into a feud with Kane that would take him through the rest of the year. Bischoff would return to his role as the heel authority figure on Raw, and everyone lived happily ever after.

Except for the fans, that is, who had to watch McMahon versus Kane nonstop over the next four months.

4. Ken Patera vs. Bad News Brown (1988)

One of the first matches in SummerSlam history, Bad News Brown's squash victory over former intercontinetnal champion Ken Patera ranks as one of the worst matches in SummerSlam history for a number of reasons.

First, it was so one-sided it never really had the opportunity to be any more than what fans had been exposed to on Superstars or Wrestling Challenge. 

Secondly, Patera was way past his prime. What was supposed to be a grand return to the squared circle following time spent in prison was really just a humbling realization the former Olympian was no longer the performer he once was.

Patera was slow and unconvincing as he sold the offense of his meaner, nastier opponent. That his star value had decreased significantly did not help matters.

Hardly a showcase for either man to look particularly good, it was a black eye on what was an otherwise quality broadcast from top to bottom.

3. Ring of Fire Match: Kane vs. Bray Wyatt

The 2013 edition of SummerSlam kicked off with a Ring of Fire match between Kane and Bray Wyatt.

Anyone who had ever seen the setup recognized it as an Inferno match, though the object of this contest was not to set your opponent on fire. Instead, the giant wall of flames existed solely to keep the opponents in the ring and the rest of the Wyatt Family outside it.

Luke Harper and Erick Rowan still managed to get involved, leading to a Wyatt win.

While that was the right decision, what was not was everything that preceded the victory.

The contest was a brutally slow one, with the action being contained to rest spots in the center of the ring to avoid one of the competitors getting burned accidentally. With little in the way of chemistry, the Superstars bored the Los Angeles crowd in one of the worst possible ways to kick off one of the most important shows of the year.

The fact Harper and Rowan so easily broke the roles and interfered in the match did not help matters, basically negating the gimmick.

2. WWE Championship Match: Diesel vs. King Mabel (1995)

The 1995 SummerSlam event was headlined by a WWE Championship match between Diesel and King Mabel.

I will let that one sink in for a moment before we continue.

...AND we're back.

That Mabel was in the main event at the second most important show of the year is an indictment of the product at the time. He was a big guy at a time when Vince McMahon was desperate to replicate the success of the 1980s and was searching for the monstrous heel to program against his larger-than-life babyface champion.

Unfortunately, Mabel was awful and Diesel was not someone who could be relied upon to deliver consistently when matched with anyone not named Shawn Michaels or Bret Hart.

Their match at SummerSlam 1995 marked the second straight year one of the company's marquee extravaganzas was capped off with one of the worst main events ever promoted by Vince McMahon.

Unlike the previous year, the boss had full say in Mable's title opportunity, making the decision even more baffling than the ridiculous Undertaker versus Undertaker fiasco. 

Diesel won with a forearm from the middle rope, mercifully putting an end to a main event that was too long, uninteresting and academic from the opening bell. 

It should be of no surprise to anyone this was Mabel's one and only appearance in the top spot on a WWE pay-per-view.

1. The Undertaker vs. the Undertaker (1994)

In 1994, someone thought the idea of pitting Undertaker against an evil, doppelganger Undertaker was a fantastic one. Better yet, they thought that match would be the perfect main event for a SummerSlam show that also featured Bret Hart versus Owen Hart inside a steel cage.

With Vince McMahon preoccupied with the conclusion of his court case, there was no one to rein in the stupidity and prevent it from actually happening.

Thus, fans were treated to one of the worst main events ever promoted by WWE.

Undertaker was not yet the tremendous worker he would become and Brian Lee, who portrayed the Underfaker, as the Internet would deem him years later, was hardly the worker to guarantee a great match at any point in his career.

The contest was slow, lacked enthusiasm and was only notable for the return of the Phenom after months away from the squared circle.

Of course, the real Undertaker picked up the win and went on to become the greatest phenomenon in WWE history.

His first major pay-per-view main event since the 1991 Survivor Series?

Not so much.