WWE SummerSlam: Power Ranking Every Show

2003

The Elimination Chamber made its first and thus far sole appearance at SummerSlam in 2003, which was also only the second time it was ever employed. Triple H defended his World Heavyweight Championship against five hungry competitors, and whilst it didn’t surpass the standard set by the original, it was still an entertaining main event. This was mainly due to the chemistry of Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho as the opening pair, and the wrecking ball that was Goldberg in the closing stages. Yet, it was hurt by Triple H suffering from a thigh injury, limiting his time in the ring, and the finish which saw the red-hot Goldberg pinned by the Game following a sledgehammer strike.

The pick of the matches was Kurt Angle’s defense of the WWE Championship against one of his greatest rivals Brock Lesnar, forcing him to tap out for the first time in his short career at the time. It was a superb technical encounter that was a great follow-up to their WrestleMania 19 clash. But, this SummerSlam also contained numerous forgettable and mediocre clashes in the undercard. Undertaker vs A-Train was boringly predictable, whilst having Shane McMahon take on Eric Bischoff was the diametric opposite of Angle/Lesnar with regards to technique. The other matches weren’t necessarily bad, like Kane defeating Rob Van Dam or the US Championship fatal four-way, but they don’t stick out in the memory.