WWE SummerSlam 2018: Worst Matches in PPV History

WWE SummerSlam is a show that has a long and illustrious history of producing classic, Match of the Year candidates. Superb championship bouts, extraordinary grudge matches and unforgettably emotional wars of attrition are staples of the summertime spectacular.

Intermingled with the great matches, though, are stinkers that have threatened the overall quality of the event.

From a battle of doppelgangers to a title bout between two giants fans had no interest in, the worst matches in SummerSlam history are awful.

In hopes that fans will not be subjected to any as bad as these 10 craptastic showdowns, relive the worst matches in the event's history with this countdown.

10. Triple H vs. King Booker (2007)

SummerSlam 2007 featured the return to the squared circle of Triple H, some eight months after suffering the second torn quadriceps of his career.

Don't forget leg day, folks. 

His opponent at the show was King Booker, a former world champion on his way out the door and a familiar foe of The Cerebral Assassin.

The last time the two competitors battled at one of the company's most prestigious events, Triple H defeated Booker after a Pedigree, killing any and all momentum he had built prior to the bout.

Luckily for Booker, there was no momentum to kill this time.

Triple H wrestled a brief seven-minute match that felt shorter than his unfathomably long entrance. It was one-sided and never once felt like Booker had a shot at winning. The uncompetitive nature and the manner in which one future Hall of Famer was diminished to make another look no better than he was entering the match renders the contest one of the worst in event history.

9. Junkyard Dog vs. 'Ravishing' Rick Rude (1988)

Credit: WWE.com

The inaugural SummerSlam was little more than an experiment by Vince McMahon to see if he could spread the word of "Hulkamania" through another pay-per-view event and have fans eat it up in the same manner they had every other show he concocted.

The main event, pitting Hogan and Randy Savage against Ted DiBiase and Andre the Giant was a better-than-expected tag bout, but it was only one match of 10. Unfortunately for fans, that meant there was an ocean of crap to wade through before getting to the last match of the night.

One such match was the encounter between "Ravishing" Rick Rude and Junkyard Dog.

Now, some 30 years after the first SummerSlam, both men are revered Hall of Famers. They are looked upon as awesome performers for reasons entirely separate from each other.

Rude developed into a phenomenal heel with an underrated in-ring resume, while JYD was a larger-than-life character whose success as one of the first African American performers around whom an entire territory was built has only started to receive the attention it deserves.

Their match at SummerSlam 1988, live from Madison Square Garden, was neither man's finest moment.

Both Superstars appeared to be sleepwalking through it, the effort not nearly what one would expect from two of the most beloved performers in the sport's long and illustrious history. Who can really blame them, though, considering the entire thing was merely a setup for a vengeance-seeking Jake Roberts to hit the ring and attack Rude.

Whether booking was to blame for the lackluster finish does not excuse the six-plus minutes that preceded it, though. Instead, Rude and JYD go down in infamy as the first truly bad match in the event's storied legacy.

8. The Oddities vs. Kaientai (1998)

Credit: WWE.com

Ah, The Oddities.

Golga, Giant Silva and Kurrgan made up a trio of circus freak-like characters who, along with Luna Vachon and the Insane Clown Posse, brought a party-style atmosphere to the undercard of every B-level house show on which they appeared.

At SummerSlam in 1998, the trio teamed up to battle Mens Teoh, Taka Michinoku, Dick Togo and Sho Funaki in a handicap match.

Chocked full of unfunny comedy spots that were mostly an insult to the members of Kaientai who had torn the house down in arenas across the globe the year prior, the match was a terrible example of Attitude Era done poorly.

The babyfaces won handily, killing the credibility of the Japanese opposition, and everyone lived happily ever after. Or something like that.

Only Michinoku and Funaki would remain members of the WWE roster by the time the following year's show rolled around.

7. Jake 'The Snake' Roberts vs. Jerry 'The King' Lawler (1996)

Credit: WWE.com

The return of Jake "The Snake" Roberts to WWE programming in 1996 came with an inspiring tale of a beloved legend who had fought his demons (alcoholism and drug addiction) to come back better and more determined than ever to capture gold and rebuild his legacy.

It was a heartwarming story that helped Roberts form a bond with fans who genuinely wanted to see him do well.

Unfortunately, the rocket scientists booking the product at the time thought the best way to play up the story was to have him feud with Jerry "The King" Lawler, who would repeatedly jab him with jokes about his sobriety and his well-documented history of addiction.

If that wasn't bad enough, neither man was particularly good enough at that time to deliver a quality match of any kind, so when Roberts vs. Lawler was announced for the 1996 SummerSlam pay-per-view, many expected a lackluster in-ring result.

They overrated it.

Roberts and Lawler wrestled an abysmal match that went only 4:07 and was still entirely too long.

That Lawler went over and proceeded to pour booze on Roberts only made the entire ordeal even more unsettling.

6. Ring of Fire Match: Kane vs. Bray Wyatt (2013)

Credit: WWE.com

The rivalry between Kane and Bray Wyatt was so hot by the time 2013 SummerSlam rolled around that the company had no choice but to dust off the old Inferno match gimmick for a special Ring of Fire bout.

Or something like that.

The bout kicked off the pay-per-view event and reminded fans of why the Inferno match was so seldom used and criticized in the first place.

The fire around the ring was designed to keep Wyatt and Kane in and Luke Harper and Erick Rowan out. That did not work as the action spilled to the floor and Wyatt's minions directly affected the outcome of the bout.

This was a match with a gimmick that made little sense and featured subpar action for the era in which it occurred, although the show improved exponentially later in the evening.

5. Undertaker vs. Kama (1995)

Credit: WWE.com

How The Undertaker managed to emerge from the 1990s as one of the most respected Superstars in WWE history given the crap he was asked to turn into gold during that decade is a mystery. That he did is a testament to the performer.

In 1995, Undertaker was embroiled in a rivalry with Ted DiBiase's Million Dollar Corporation. After dispatching IRS and King Kong Bundy at Royal Rumble and WrestleMania, respectively, The Deadman had his treasured urn stolen by Kama.

The Superstar with tattoos strikingly similar to those previously seen on Papa Shango melted the urn down and turned it into a gold chain, which he used to taunt his undead rival at every turn. Their rivalry culminated in a Casket match at SummerSlam.

A slow, plodding contest that featured punches, kicking and rest holds and an utterly bored Pittsburgh fanbase, it was the third straight Undertaker match to underwhelm at the summertime spectacular.

The Phenom won, obviously, and moved on from the horrific storyline that had bogged down the quality of his work throughout the year.

And that is, perhaps, the only silver lining to come out of this one.

4. Diesel vs. King Mabel (1995)

Credit: WWE.com

The 1995 King of the Ring was a truly putrid show that gave the wrestling world the one thing it was oh-so-eager for: King Mabel.

That is sarcasm, for those of you unable to read tone.

See, Mabel was a tag team specialist as one-half of Men on a Mission. At 6'9'' and 487 pounds, the size-loving Vince McMahon saw dollar signs in him and booked him to win a tournament that also featured the likes of Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker and Yokozuna.

Let that digest for a moment.

The backlash endured by Mabel and WWE at the hands of a rabid Philadelphia fanbase that took to chanting ECW in protest at the crappy show they had been force-fed was, apparently, not enough to change McMahon's mind in relation to a push for the big man.

At SummerSlam in Pittsburgh, Mabel would get his WWE Championship opportunity against another big man struggling to connect with fans, Diesel.

The two giants of the squared circle would work a laborious main event that lasted less than 10 minutes but felt like it took somewhere between three and six weeks to wrap up. Interference from Mabel's partner Mo, the recently turned British Bulldog and Lex Luger could not help polish a turd that was dead on arrival.

Diesel won and Mabel's days as a headliner came to a halt on the receiving end of a flying forearm by Big Daddy Cool.

The only real winner? The fans who could beat the traffic by heading out of the famed Igloo a few minutes early.

3. Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez (1993)

Credit: WWE.com

It is difficult to imagine a scenario in which management sat together in a room, envisioned a feud between The Undertaker and Giant Gonzalez and actually thought it was a solid idea.

And if that wasn't enough, they watched their WrestleMania IX abomination and thought, "you know, a second pay-per-view match between these two would be money!"

Yet, the 1993 SummerSlam brought with it a Rest in Peace match between The Deadman and the muscle suit-wearing giant from Argentina.

Like the aforementioned WrestleMania eyesore, the match was ugh-inducing.

Undertaker won off a flying clothesline because his opponent was too tall and uncoordinated to do anything else and by the time the show concluded, Gonzalez was a thing of WWE's past.

That the Rest in Peace stipulation meant little more than placing a wreath at or near the fallen body of the loser only cemented the match's legacy as one reeking of lameness.

2. Thong Stinkface Match: The Kat vs. Terri Runnels (2000)

Credit: WWE.com

While WWE celebrates the announcement of its all women's Evolution pay-per-view on October 28, the ghosts of its past treatment of female Superstars creeps up from time to time, as is the case here.

In 2000, The Kat and Terri Runnels were engaged in a neverending rivalry. When Terri teamed with Dean Malenko in a losing effort against Kat and Rikishi, she found herself on the receiving end of the Hall of Famer's Stinkface.

Humiliated, she attacked Kat during an appearance at WWE New York and delivered a Stinkface of her own.

With tensions kinda, sorta, at a high, the first (and only) Thong Stinkface match was booked for SummerSlam.

If the title of the bout is not cringe-worthy or embarrassing enough, the match that unfolded in the ring certainly was.

Comprised of unfunny comedic spots and interference from Al Snow and Perry Saturn at ringside, it mercifully ended after just three minutes when Kat rubbed her backside in Terri's face. Yes, you read that correctly. No, it probably still doesn't make sense, even with context.

The match was the last of its kind and signaled the end of Kat and Terri's months-long feud, so there was that.

1. Undertaker vs. Undertaker (1994)

Credit: WWE.com

Without a shadow of doubt, the worst match in SummerSlam history is the 1994 anti-classic pitting The Undertaker against The Underfaker.

The main event of the broadcast, the contest was the culmination of months of storytelling and answered the question of just who would produce the real Deadman: Paul Bearer or "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase.

If you guessed the former, you win.

For nearly nine ungodly minutes, the real Phenom and DiBiase's bought and paid-for ripoff slogged through a tedious and never-once-mildly-entertaining match before our returning hero conquered his half-assed doppelganger with a Tombstone piledriver.

That actor Leslie Nielsen of Naked Gun fame was tapped to investigate the mystery of The Undertaker leading into the show had some hoping this was merely a bit of fun, a bit of comedy meant to reintroduce the real Phenom to the masses.

It was not.

The entire ordeal, at least from a storyline and in-ring perspective, was treated as a serious angle and the result was akin to watching paint dry.

With binoculars.

And idiot fans counting down every second of the nine-minute clock.