WWE SummerSlam: Ranking every main event in history

5. SummerSlam 2002: The Rock vs. Brock Lesnar

Widely regarded as one of the best SummerSlam events in history, the main event saw a blue-chip rookie take out one of the greatest of all time as Brock Lesnar took on The Rock for the WWE Undisputed Championship.

Brock Lesnar’s rise to the top of WWE in 2002 was a whirlwind. Not since Goldberg burst onto the scene in WWE in 1997 had a superstar reached the pinnacle so quickly and it was awesome to watch. If you only know Lesnar from his squash matches these days, I highly encourage you to go back and check out some of his early work on the WWE Network.

Lesnar won the King of the Ring tournament in June and earned a shot at the WWE Champion at SummerSlam, which would end up being The Rock after he defeated Kurt Angle and The Undertaker in a Triple Threat Match at Vengeance. The Rock would then go for double gold as he and Hulk Hogan battled Lance Storm and Christian on an episode of SmackDown for the tag team titles, a match in which Lesnar interfered and took out Hogan, who he faced a couple of weeks later, putting his title shot against The Rock on the line. This match would show exactly how much faith everyone had in Lesnar as he destroyed The Hulkster and made him pass out from a bear hug. Following the bout, he continued the onslaught with a steel chair attack that caused Hogan to bleed profusely and in a truly epic moment, Lesnar took Hogan’s blood (yes, the blood of the legendary Hulk Hogan) and smeared it on his own chest as a sign of dominance. Incredible stuff.

Once we finally got to SummerSlam, there almost wasn’t a doubt that Lesnar was going to win the title, especially with The Rock on his way to Hollywood, but the match was still fantastic. I wouldn’t put it on the level of the Bret Hart-Steve Austin double turn by any means but the crowd was with Lesnar for this one and it’s always fun to see The Rock in heel mode. Lesnar showed off his tremendous power in this match and after kicking out of a Rock Bottom, he landed one of his own. The finish saw Lesnar jump up from a spinebuster as The Rock was going for The People’s Elbow and hit a phenomenal F-5 to become the youngest world champion in history at the time, a record that would later be broken by Randy Orton. It was a true passing of the torch and lands in the top five on our list.