Worst SummerSlam Matches in WWE History

We're only weeks away from wrestling's marquee event of the warm months. SummerSlam 2022 will commence on July 30 in Nashville, marking it the first SummerSlam to be held in July rather than August. It's 12 days away and it's already making history.

In preparation for the rapidly approaching event, let's look back at some of the worst matches in SummerSlam history and hope this year's edition will be better.

Find all WWE tickets at our trusted ticket partner TicketSmarter.com today.

Jinder Mahal vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (2017)

This match was a fumble by the planning committee. Mahal held the WWE Title but nobody really liked him and he tended to shrink when the spotlight was brightest over the years. Conversely, Nakamura was extremely popular and had recently taken down John Cena. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to have Nakamura take the belt and capitalize on momentum. Instead, Mahal defended his title and took down Nakamura in unspectacular fashion in one of the more disappointing SummerSlam matches in recent memory.

King Mabel vs. Diesel (1995)

The 1995 SummerSlam was pretty bad across the board and King Mabel vs. Diesel failed spectacularly as the main event. The crowd wasn't very interested and it was obvious. Worst of all, Mabel tried to get things going with a back jump and ended up injuring Diesel. A boring fight in which the defending champ gets hurt? All the boxes of a bad match checked right there.

The Undertaker vs. The Undertaker (1994)

Yes, you read that correctly. Someone in the WWE offices decided it would be smart to have The Undertaker fight himself. Turns out it wasn't a good idea. The fight was predictable and the crowd hated it. One can understand the angle of trying to maximize every drop of Undertaker's popularity but the creativity wasn't there to make it happen and now it lives on in memory as an abject failure.

Great Khali vs. Batista (2007)

Kahli had an epic run from 2007-2009 of hilariously bad SummerSlam matches but the first may be the worst. He spent most of the match trying to pin Batista and the crowd slowly died on him. Then Khali disqualified himself by hitting Batista with a steel chair. A DQ can be a fun ending to some matches but not the World Heavyweight Championship fight at SummerSlam.

Bray Wyatt vs. Kane (2013)

This was a match that fell far short of the great potential it had. Wyatt's recent arrival onto the WWE scene had fans excited. But his fight against Kane was poorly planned. It was billed as a Ring of Fire match but that aspect was pretty underwhelming and at one point a Kendo stick caught on fire. It is unclear if that was intentional. Then the actual end of the fight came, where Wyatt pinned Kane after spending most of the match getting whooped. Just a disaster all-around.