SummerSlam 2006 — The Summer Wasn't as Sizzling as It Could Have Been

One of the biggest pay-per-view events of the year from World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is SummerSlam. This annual event is what I consider to be one of the “big four” events from the WWE—Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble and Survivor Series being the other three. SummerSlam 2006, held in Boston, Massachusetts, was dubbed as the “Biggest Party of the Summer” as it was the first inter-brand pay-per-view event including the RAW, Smackdown! and ECW brands. Quite honestly, it was tepid at best trying to vie for lukewarm status.

Call me predictable but the only reason why I really had any inkling of an interest was due to Hulk Hogan competing in a wrestling match. There’s nothing pretty about a Hogan match but I was curious to see how well he would fare. His performance in SummerSlam 2005 against Shawn Michaels was not bad. I know there were many who disagreed with that outcome but both participants did a decent job. Now, one year later, in a match touted as “The Legend vs. The Legend Killer”, he faces off against an even younger stud in Randy Orton. It doesn’t even matter if the match was good or not. What always surprises me, and even to this day, is the crowd’s reaction to Hogan. His wrestling ability was never the greatest but his ability to draw the biggest applause is still unnerving, and it didn’t even matter if he was in a mid-card match.

I’ve always liked Rey Mysterio for his high-flying and exciting maneuvers. In his match against Chavo Guerrero, they fought to keep the memory of the late Eddie Gurrerro alive and well. But no one could account for the interference of Vickie Guerrero, the widow of Eddie.

Ric Flair vs. Mick Foley in an “I Quit” match has been in the making for a very long time. These two really don’t like each other in real life. It was only a matter of time until they settled their differences in the squared circle. But they had to do it in such a brutal fashion with no disqualifications, count outs, and lots of foreign objects available, including garbage cans, tables, chairs, thumbtacks and barbed wire. It is, without a doubt, the bloodiest match on the card, and it wasn’t even an ECW match.

Speaking of ECW, the one and only match on the card from this brand was for the ECW title. The Big Show, the ECW Champion, defended his title against the number one contender, Sabu. But it was contested under Extreme Rules, meaning all hardcore rules. I seriously thought someone was going to get extremely damaged with all the broken tables that lay strewn in and around the ring. Morseo, given the size disadvantage to Sabu (Big Show is 7-feet tall and roughly 500 lbs.), I’m surprised the match lasted as long as it did.

The top three cards had some good heat going into the event, but really failed to capitalize and change the status quo.

World Heavyweight Champion King Booker defended his title against Batista while WWE Champion Edge took on John Cena. All participants put on a good show but the results weren’t anything spectacular. I can understand the reasoning behind these results as it adds more fuel to the various storylines and gives more heat to the heels, but it can become tiresome.

I find any match with Vince McMahon, owner of the WWE, will always be exciting, especially on a pay-per-view event. In a tag team match with his son Shane, they fought against D-Generation X members Triple H and Shawn Michaels. It was anything than a regular match with interference by the Spirit Squad, Mr. Kennedy, William Regal, Finlay, The Big Show and Umaga fighting on behalf of the McMahons, at least trying to soften up the opponents before getting their own hands dirty. Surprisingly, I actually liked this match just from the storyline angle alone. McMahon has great heat and riles up the crowd taking them to another level.

I’ve always felt SummerSlam was just another average pay-per-view event compared to the other big three. Royal Rumble has the 30-man, over-the-top elimination match that always holds great interest; Survivor Series always had unique elimination group matches that made things fun; and Wrestlemania is just the biggest annual event that has no comparison. SummerSlam has always felt like a filler to me between Wrestlemania and Survivor Series.

There have been memorable SummerSlam matches in the past. Two standouts for me are the matches between Bret Hart and Mr. Perfect in 1991, and Bret Hart and British Bulldog in 1992 (can you tell I’m a Bret Hart mark?). SummerSlam 2006 wasn’t anything spectacular in my mind, but it still had entertaining moments. Still, there was nothing that really stood out to make me remember what happened in this particular event.