No matter what WWE tells you on television, this year’s SummerSlam has one true main event.
No, it is not the World Heavyweight title match between Seth Rollins and Finn Balor, nor is it the grudge match between Cody Rhodes and Brock Lesnar.
It’s undoubtedly, no, unequivocally, Tribal Combat between Roman Reigns and Jey Uso. That’s it, end of discussion, debate whomever you hold dear.
Although I believe Tribal Combat is the biggest WWE match of the year so far, does it have the chance to sit among the classic main events in SummerSlam history? Before we answer that question, we have to answer another question: What are the classic main events in SummerSlam history? And to that end, where do the other ones rank?
That is where I step in to help provide an answer … my answer, at least. I attempt to answer these questions with a tiered list of the main events throughout the event’s 35-year history.
I broke down every SummerSlam main event into four tiers: The Classics, The Hall of Very Good, “It was fine, I guess”, and “Feel free to skip.”
The only matches that qualify are the ones that closed the show, so no double main event nonsense here. However, there is one exception in 2013, which I will explain when it comes up.
Each match is listed in each tier based on chronological order, so don’t take anything away from the order that they are listed.