Ranking every WWE SummerSlam PPV in history

3. WWE SummerSlam 2008

• MVP def. Jeff Hardy
• Beth Phoenix & Santino Marella def. WWE Intercontinental Champion Kofi Kingston & WWE Women’s Champion Mickie James (Winner Takes All Match for both titles)
• Matt Hardy def. ECW Champion Mark Henry by DQ
• CM Punk def. JBL to retain the World Heavyweight Championship
• Triple H def. The Great Khali to retain the WWE Championship
• Batista def. John Cena
• The Undertaker def. Edge (Hell in a Cell Match)

The 2008 edition of SummerSlam was the first SummerSlam in the PG era and it was still able to deliver on so many levels. In his first SummerSlam match since 2001, Jeff Hardy kicked off the show in a very good match with MVP. They got about 10 minutes to work and had a nicely balanced match. Shelton Benjamin, who had the US Championship at the time, got involved near the end and distracted Hardy, which allowed MVP to pick up the victory.

If you thought that the Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch vs. Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans match was the first intergender match with both a men’s and women’s title on the line, you’d be wrong. Back in ’08, Santino Marella teamed with Beth Phoenix to take on Intercontinental Champion Kofi Kingston and Women’s Champion Mickie James. The interesting part here was that the men could wrestle the women. It didn’t get a ton of time but it worked just fine as Santino and Beth emerged victorious. Beth was the standout here but Santino celebrated like he had picked up the win; he was always pretty funny.

Shawn Michaels was out next and he teased retirement in an in-ring promo with his wife Rebecca by his side. It was getting somewhat emotional and then Chris Jericho hit the ring. The two had a great feud five years earlier and this was part of their second big program, which was probably the feud of the year in 2008, or at least tied with the participants in the main event. Jericho threw a punch at the end that Michaels ducked and it legit connected with Rebecca. It was a great promo segment that actually worked instead of a match in this spot. The two would go on to have some great matches following this.

The ECW Championship Match wasn’t great, as Mark Henry got disqualified in his bout with Matt Hardy after about 30 seconds and served as one big setup for a Hardy Boyz reunion. At least that was fun, because the match certainly wasn’t.

The World Heavyweight Championship Match between CM Punk and JBL was up next and this was a good outing from both. There were times when JBL matches were an absolute bore, but this wasn’t one of them. He dominated Punk for a big portion of the match and Punk made the comeback for the win. It’s a classic formula that made both guys look good.

Oh no, it’s a Great Khali match. Luckily, he was in there with WWE Champion Triple H, who was actually able to get through this. He made Khali look good at points, at least as good as you can make Khali look. Triple H kept his title as he was able to chop down the monster and hit the Pedigree.

I’m usually not a fan of the World title matches going on before grudge matches but the grudge matches on this card were so big that it actually made sense. The first was the huge match between John Cena and Batista, who had never had a big pay-per-view match with one another. It was worth the wait. This was an action-packed bout that could have gone either way. There were many good near-falls and the ending was fantastic. Batista got a clean win in what was one of the best matches he had in WWE.

While that match was great, the main event was even better, as Edge and The Undertaker concluded their long feud that had gone on for months. I was actually in attendance for their underrated match at WrestleMania XXIV and this one was even better. The Hell in a Cell structure certainly helped.

The World Heavyweight Championship had been on the line in their previous matches but that was out of the picture now, and this was just about their hatred for one another. With this now being the PG era, they were told by Vince that there couldn’t be any blood in the match and that didn’t matter one bit. It was full of violence and weapons, a mix of TLC and Hell in a Cell, which was so much fun. ‘Taker got the win in a great match to end a great night in Indianapolis.