Ranking every WWE SummerSlam PPV in history

24. WWE SummerSlam 2006

• Chavo Guerrero def. Rey Mysterio
• Big Show def. Sabu to retain the ECW Championship (Extreme Rules Match)
• Hulk Hogan def. Randy Orton
• Ric Flair def. Mick Foley (“I Quit” Match)
• Batista def. World Heavyweight Champion King Booker by DQ
• DX def. Mr. McMahon & Shane McMahon
• Edge def. John Cena to retain the WWE Championship

There weren’t a ton of matches on the main card at the 2006 edition of SummerSlam but it did feature a lot of big-name WWE Superstars, even if a few were way past their prime.

The night began with a nostalgia act, even if it had nothing to do with the aging Superstars on this card. Chavo Guerrero and Rey Mysterio went one-on-one and it essentially turned into a tribute to Eddie Guerrero, who had passed away the previous November, and a lot of the Boston crowd didn’t seem to like that. The match was decent (certainly not their best with one another) but just played off the Eddie thing too much.

Sabu showed his age in Extreme Rules Match for the ECW Championship with Big Show that was really just extremely boring. There were a couple of decent spots in there but it was so short of a match that nothing ever really got going. Fifty-three-year-old Hulk Hogan took on 26-year-old Randy Orton in the “Legend vs. Legend Killer” matchup next and it was easy to see that Hogan was 53. He had a lot of trouble keeping up with Orton and this was a very basic match. Orton was just getting through it knowing he was taking the loss and the RKO spot with the false pinfall (Hogan’s leg was under the rope) was very awkward.

Hogan did his thing and finished off his SummerSlam career with a 6-0 record. This wasn’t just Hogan’s last SummerSlam match, but it turned out to be the final match of his WWE career as well. Another fun piece of trivia.

Next up was 56-year-old Ric Flair taking on 41-year-old Mick Foley in an “I Quit” Match, and while this was certainly way better than it should have been, it became evident after a while that these two guys probably shouldn’t be doing things like this at their age. I sometimes forget that this match exists but after going back and watching it, it really is quite brutal at times. Foley shouted “I Quit” in order to keep Flair from attacking Melina (that was a weird storyline), which meant The Nature Boy got the win.

Batista and Booker T never got things moving in their World Heavyweight Championship Match and we were then served up D-X vs. Vince and Shane McMahon, and, of course, everyone else who wanted to get involved before the bell. As you’d expect, Triple H and Shawn Michaels got the win in somewhat of an entertaining match. The Sweet Chin Music from HBK to Shane coming off the ropes was very good.

The main event was for the WWE Championship as Edge defended his title against John Cena. This wasn’t their best match of the year — that goes to their TLC match the next month at Unforgiven — but this was good. The stipulation was that Edge could lose the strap if he got disqualified, which led to some good storytelling with Lita at ringside. The two went back and forth with some fantastic sequences but it was Edge who came out on top in the end after using brass knuckles with the ref distracted. Overall, this wasn’t a terrible show but it just relied a little too heavily on older Superstars.