Page 2 - Top 10 SummerSlams : Number 4

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.