Ranking every WWE SummerSlam PPV in history

5. WWE SummerSlam 1998

• D’Lo Brown def. Val Venis by DQ to retain the WWE European Championship
• The Oddities def. Kaientai (Handicap Match)
• X-Pac def. Jeff Jarrett (Hair vs. Hair Match)
• Edge & Sable def. Jacqueline & Marc Mero (Mixed Tag Match)
• Ken Shamrock def. Owen Hart by submission (Lion’s Den Match)
• The New Age Outlaws def. Mankind to win the WWE Tag Team Championship
• Triple H def. The Rock to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship (Ladder Match)
• Stone Cold Steve Austin def. The Undertaker to retain the WWE Championship

The Attitude Era was in full swing when the 1998 edition of SummerSlam rolled around, making for a great card. Outside of maybe one match, everything that went down that night was entertaining and enjoyable to watch. The opener for the European Championship between D’Lo Brown and Val Venis ended with a disqualification but it was still good, which is more than I can say for The Oddities vs. Kaientai. This one isn’t worth getting into and was the worst match of the night.

Hair was on the line next as X-Pac and Jeff Jarrett went at it and this was another good matchup between two mid-card guys. They worked a nice pace and the end was fun as X-Pac used Jarrett’s own guitar on him to get the win. And we never saw those golden locks from Jarrett again. Thanks, Waltman.

Next up was a Mixed Tag Match with Jacqueline and Marc Mero taking on Edge, in his first-ever match on pay-per-view, and Sable, who had become one of the most popular performers in wrestling at this point. After trying to get Mero over, it was clear that all the fans cared about was Sable and this match was designed to push her even more. She got the pin on her then-real-life husband and the crowd loved it.

A Lion’s Den Match took place next as Ken Shamrock took on Owen Hart, who had Dan Severn with him. This was  held in the theater portion of Madison Square Garden, which was a little strange, but it was another good match on the card. It was a mix of wrestling and MMA, which makes sense with Shamrock and Severn involved, and Owen held his own nicely — that Dungeon training helped out here. He still took the loss, but it was fun.

Mick Foley (as Mankind) and Kane were supposed to defend the tag titles against The New Age Outlaws but Kane no-showed and Foley went it alone and took a beating. This was only a couple of months after his Hell in a Cell Match with The Undertaker so just him being alive was a good thing here. Kane did show up after the match to beat him some more. While it was nothing special, it moved a story along.

The penultimate match of the night was a Ladder Match for the Intercontinental Championship between The Rock and Triple H, who would obviously become two of the biggest stars of the era. And what a show these two put on. They had unbelievable chemistry together and that was on full display.

This was actually The Rock’s first SummerSlam appearance and he made the most of it. He had held the IC title for 265 days, making it a big deal when he lost it that night. This was an amazing match that told a great story and Triple H got the biggest win of his career to that point. The Rock would win the WWE Championship a few months later at Survivor Series, so it made sense to get this belt off of him here.

The main event was Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Undertaker, who were having just their second match on a pay-per-view at this time. Obviously, we know they had many more, but this is where it all started. Kane came down for a moment to help his brother but The Undertaker sent him to the back as he was still a babyface.

This was a great back-and-forth match, not quite as good as Triple H and The Rock, that told a good story with Austin getting a clean win over ‘Taker after hitting the Stunner. The Undertaker and Kane would start to work together to get the title off of Austin and would eventually do so when Vince McMahon stacked the deck against him and then “fired” him later. It served as a good finish to a good night.