Ranking every WWE SummerSlam PPV in history

23. WWE SummerSlam 2003

• La Resistance def. The Dudley Boyz to retain the World Tag Team Championship
• The Undertaker def. A-Train
• Shane McMahon def. Eric Bischoff (Falls Count Anywhere Match)
• Eddie Guerrero def. Chris Benoit, Rhyno and Tajiri to retain the WWE United States Championship (Fatal 4-Way Match)
• Kurt Angle def. Brock Lesnar by submission to retain the WWE Championship
• Kane def. Rob Van Dam (No Holds Barred Match)
• Triple H def. Goldberg, Chris Jericho, Kevin Nash, Randy Orton and Shawn Michaels to retain the World Heavyweight Championship (Elimination Chamber Match)

After a monster 2002, WWE hit a bit of a rough patch the following year. Ratings had gone down some and some of the next generation ofSsuperstars just didn’t quite seem ready to hit that next level, or at least it seems that’s what Vince was thinking that night.

After all, Vince, Shane, Stephanie and Linda were all featured at the 2003 edition of SummerSlam. Stephanie, who was the GM of SmackDown at the time, returned after being out for a few weeks to get into a fight with Sable following The Undertaker vs. A-Train match, which wasn’t very good.

Shane McMahon had a Falls Count Anywhere Match with Raw GM Eric Bischoff, who got a slap from Linda later on, not to mention Shane’s trademark elbow through the announce table to end the match. This was after Stone Cold Steve Austin had gotten involved to get that crowd pop after a pointless Jonathan Coachman heel turn. As for Vince, we’ll get back to him in a minute.

The undercard outside of the two World title matches was merely average with the Fatal 4-Way for the United States Championship topping the list. They didn’t get a ton of time to work, which actually may have helped the match as the pace was very quick throughout, but Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Rhyno and Tajiri put on a pretty good show with Eddie getting the win.

As for those World title matches, the first was easily the better of the two and clearly the best match of the night as Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle continued what was the best feud of the year. As they did at WrestleMania XIX, these two put on another spectacular clinic over the WWE Championship. They told a great story in the ring with Lesnar beautifully selling multiple injuries throughout the match.

The only thing that took away from this was Vince getting involved (told you we’d get back to him) and trying to take out Angle, which didn’t work. There was an unnecessary ref bump to help this along but in the end, Angle actually made Lesnar tap and then gave Vince an Angle Slam onto a chair.

The main event was an Elimination Chamber Match for Triple H’s World Heavyweight Championship. Joining him inside the structure were Kevin Nash (still don’t know why he was there and he only lasted a few minutes), Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, Randy Orton and Goldberg.

If you’ll recall, Jericho and HBK had a fantastic feud of their own that year, including a great match at WrestleMania, and they naturally kicked things off.  Orton was in next and then Nash and then Goldberg, who was booked very strongly here as the biggest threat to Trips’ title. He first took out Orton, then Michaels and then Jericho, who took a vicious spear into one of the pods in a very cool-looking spot.

The big problem here was that Triple H was nursing a legit groin injury and simply couldn’t do much. And yet he still picked up the win because he was just healthy enough to use a sledgehammer. This was a decent Elimination Chamber Match but certainly nowhere near the best ones we’ve ever seen. It was a bit surprising not to see Goldberg get his big title win here but he won it the next month in a one-on-one match.