WWE SummerSlam: Ranking every main event in history

15. SummerSlam 1999: Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Mankind vs. Triple H

This was the first of two consecutive Triple Threat matches to headline SummerSlam and while the next year’s was a bit better, this battle involving three of the biggest superstars of the Attitude Era served its purpose, even if they kind of dropped the ball the following night on Monday Night RAW.

The build toward this match was done extremely well and all signs seemed to be pointing to Triple H finally breaking through and winning his first-ever WWF Championship. He was finally fully out of the shadow of Shawn Michaels and all things seemed to be in place here. Throw in Jesse “The Body” Ventura, who was making his second appearance as a special guest referee, this time as the governor of Minnesota (this event took place in Minneapolis), and we got a pretty fun three-way dance for the strap.

Multi-person matches are always difficult to work, especially when there’s an odd number of competitors involved, but I thought these three did a nice job of making it work and it really never turned into a full-on two-on-one situation. Austin still had the crowd in the palm of his hand at this time but there were plenty of people in the audience rooting for Foley, who had already won the title twice that year. The match started a little slow but I really enjoyed the last few minutes of this one. The end saw Mankind get a surprising win, made more so by the fact that he pinned Austin and not Triple H.

Unfortunately for Mrs. Foley’s baby boy, his third and final championship reign wouldn’t even last 24 hours as he dropped the title to Triple H the next night.