Worst Booking Decisions in Recent WWE SummerSlam History

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To say that booking trends from the past decade of SummerSlam events are indicative of WWE’s larger issues would be an understatement the size of a Brock Lesnar fist to the face.

The event has become the perfect representation of the ailments Vince McMahon’s promotion has faced on a larger scale for the better part of a decade, a breeding ground for abandoned title reigns and pushes that failed before they started.

The inability or, in some instances, unwillingness to push fresh faces has been on full display too.

As we prepare for this year’s pay-per-view August 23, facing issues ranging from inconsistent booking to dwindling television ratings, relive the 10 worst booking decisions from the past decade of SummerSlam.

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Shinsuke Nakamura was as hot as he was ever going to be on the main roster in the summer of 2017. He was riding a wave of momentum from his post-WrestleMania 33 arrival on SmackDown when he entered SummerSlam for a WWE Championship match against the much-maligned Jinder Mahal.

As nice a story as Mahal’s sudden rise to the main event was, and as welcome as it was for a fresh face to penetrate the main event scene, it was clear three months into his run that he was not working in that particular role.

SummerSlam was the perfect opportunity for WWE to pay off the excitement surrounding The Artist’s debut by putting him over an old-school heel for the title.

Instead, it stubbornly opted to continue the Mahal experiment, booking him to win after interference from The Singh Brothers.

That booking decision frustrated fans and ended whatever momentum Nakamura had at that point. A further loss to The Maharaja two months later at Hell in a Cell didn’t help matters.

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The Samoa Joe we got heading into SummerSlam 2018 had the best chance of any version of his character to win the WWE Championship. And he should have.

The Samoan Submission Machine was a cerebral antagonist, hitting champion AJ Styles where it hurt: his family. Taunting Styles with inappropriate comments about his wife, Joe had the mental edge as he entered the showdown with The Phenomenal One.

And with Styles’ wife and daughter watching from ringside, it looked like the heel may complete his dastardly plan and win the one prize that has eluded him throughout his career.

Then he didn’t.

Styles snapped, unloading on Joe with a barrage of steel chair shots. He punished him for weeks of verbal assaults and drew a disqualification.

Their best match to date was wasted on a disqualification finish, and Joe never really recovered.

They would meet three more times in the months that followed (Hell in a Cell, Super ShowDown and Crown Jewel), but none of those matches lived up to the hype and quality of their SummerSlam encounter.

With plans for the feud to continue as it did, Joe should have won the gold and gotten a three- or four-month title reign out of it at least. As it is, he has settled into a commentary position on Raw.

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Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton was a dream match for fans of the Ruthless Aggression Era.

Two of the biggest stars of that period in time squared off as future Hall of Famers in the main event of SummerSlam in 2016.

A high-profile match between former world champions, it was the most anticipated bout of the show.

But it ended with Lesnar bludgeoning Orton with a barrage of elbows to the side of the head, busting him open and leading to the referee declaring a TKO victory for The Beast Incarnate.

The fans in Brooklyn, New York, booed the finish, unappreciative of the more realistic UFC approach to a pro wrestling match they spent a great deal of money to watch play out.

Chris Jericho did not appreciate it, either, and got into a confrontation with Lesnar after the match, unaware that it was the planned finish.

Lesnar had beaten so many other legendary figures, including ending The Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania, that it is still curious WWE opted to protect Orton to the extent it did with the finish rather than having The Beast go over clean if a Lesnar win was the outcome it sought.

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The most memorable moment in Talking Smack history saw The Miz lash out at Daniel Bryan with an emotional, anger-fueled rant that elevated his star and gave way to years of intense back-and-forth between the two.

Upon Bryan’s return to the the squared circle after a three-year layoff in 2018, it made sense that The A-Lister and Leader of the YES! Movement would clash in a titanic battle, presumably with the bearded babyface silencing his greatest critic once and for all.

That did not happen.

Instead, Miz defeated Bryan with assistance from wife Maryse.

The finish set up a Mixed Tag Team match pitting Miz and Maryse against Bryan and Brie Bella at Hell in a Cell, which was also won by the heels.

Bryan never did get his revenge on Miz, becoming a heel that November and embarking on a WWE Championship reign as The Planet’s Champion.

While that may have been an even bigger deal than getting one over on Miz, the outcome was symptomatic of a bigger problem in WWE: overthinking things.

The creative team booked a longer program than it needed to. Bryan should have rolled into SummerSlam, kicked Miz’s ass and moved on. Instead, WWE tried to steal a few more months out of it, and the result was a messy program that never gave the audience the desired outcome, rendering the whole thing pointless.

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If there were any question that Baron Corbin was in the doghouse after he failed to capitalize on his Money in the Bank cash-in in embarrassing fashion against Jinder Mahal on SmackDown, all doubt was erased by John Cena’s squash of the young heel in the opener of SummerSlam 2017.

In 10 minutes, all momentum and credibility The Lone Wolf had built over his first year on the main roster was erased, leaving his prospects unclear.

It took Corbin quite a while to dig himself out of the hole he found himself in. He eventually did, becoming the Raw general manager before winning the 2019 King of the Ring tournament and enjoying a considerable push working alongside Roman Reigns.

Still, the former Arizona Cardinal easily could have been done for after the unapologetic burial.

Then, as has been the case numerous times throughout the company’s long history, McMahon and the creative team would have been stuck with another promising star whose future was irreparably damaged by short-sighted booking.

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After months of clawing her way to the Raw Women’s Championship, Sasha Banks realized her childhood dream by defeating Charlotte Flair on the July 25, 2016, episode of Raw.

The moment was everything fans had hoped it would be, and her celebration in the crowd seemed to cement her status as the new face of women’s wrestling in WWE.

As we have learned in the years since, though, it’s best never to assume Flair is out of the title picture.

At SummerSlam, just 27 days after she won the title, Banks lost it to The Queen in another stellar match between the two.

Less than a month after Banks’ emotional championship victory, she dropped the gold to Flair for no plausible reason other than WWE’s desire to set up rematches.

And therein lies the problem.

WWE has a tendency to sacrifice credibility and championship legitimacy in the name of advancing storylines because it does not know any better way to propel a program without going overboard (for example, An Eye for an Eye).

Banks should have reigned as champion all the way through the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view, where she could have dropped it back to Flair in the main event. It would have had more meaning, and the match could have doubled as The Queen’s last-gasp effort to regain the title.

Those in power did not see it that way, beginning the padding of Flair’s resume far earlier in her career than most remember.

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WWE never understood that Bray Wyatt’s Eater of Worlds character was not a supernatural entity like Kane or The Undertaker. It was based in reality, an enigmatic man preaching his own gospel to the wayward and tortured souls looking for a leader.

He was equal parts Max Cady from the 1991 version of Cape Fear and David Koresh, the leader of the Branch Davidians.

Instead of emphasizing that element of the character, WWE immediately booked him against The Big Red Monster in a Ring of Fire match. What is such a match, you ask? It’s an Inferno match, minus the stipulation that one must set alight their opponent to win.

With his in-ring work handcuffed by the circumstances surrounding the match, Wyatt failed to impress and delivered the worst match on one of the best PPV cards of the decade.

It was an inauspicious start to a career filled with poor, head-scratching booking decisions that ultimately led Wyatt to undergo a complete character transformation in 2019.

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If ever there were a more apropos example of CM Punk’s disenfranchisement with WWE and its creative practices, it is his involvement in SummerSlam 2010.

He was rolling as the leader of The Straight Edge Society, arguably the hottest heel act in the company. His ability to incite riotous reactions from fans was impressive—as was his willingness to find the limit and push beyond it.

Punk should have been the biggest heel the industry had seen, but WWE had other plans. Plans that involved Big Show.

The Giant had spent weeks feuding with the faction, and after suffering a broken hand, he was at a serious disadvantage. That he would battle Punk, Luke Gallows and Joseph Mercury in a Three-on-One Handicap match, with disciple Serena watching from ringside, only put him at a greater disadvantage.

Or so one would think.

After all, no matter how big and bad you might be, entering a match with a physical ailment against three Superstar-caliber wrestlers is a tall task for anyone not named John Cena.

Something must have been in the water that night in Los Angeles, though (more on that in a moment). Big Show channeled his inner Cena and beat all three opponents—in six minutes.

Six. Minutes.

Everything Punk had spent months intricately putting together was unraveled by a booker’s pencil and the illogical decision to put over an already popular Big Show ahead of the hottest faction in the company.

It was the latest indictment against the writing team and another frustrating development in the career of one of WWE’s greatest assets. Luckily, things would be much better for Punk the following year. Or, maybe not.

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The Summer of Punk gripped WWE in 2011, catapulting the outspoken antihero to the top of the company and giving Vince McMahon’s empire its first breakthrough star since John Cena five years earlier.

Punk’s infamous pipebomb promo struck a chord with fans to such an extent that the company had no choice but to elevate him to the top of the card.

At SummerSlam, he battled John Cena for the right to be called undisputed WWE champion.

After beating the lead babyface in WWE’s morality play, Punk should have ended the show on top of the wrestling world. He should have stood tall, with the top prize in the industry high overhead, an announcement to sports-entertainment fans everywhere that he was the new face of a company in desperate need of one.

As we have learned over the course of this list, though, what should have happened and what did are two wholly different things.

Instead, Kevin Nash returned from out of nowhere and dropped Punk with a Jackknife Powerbomb, setting up some convoluted soap-opera storyline with special guest referee Triple H that benefited no one.

From there, Alberto Del Rio rushed to the ring with Money in the Bank briefcase in hand. He cashed in, pinned Punk and escaped the show with the gold. He was the star the company had desperately wanted to push from the moment he debuted, the performer with a few solid years in the company and not nearly the legacy Punk forged for himself.

The Summer of Punk died that night in Los Angeles. Yes, he was WWE champion for more than a year and arguably the most popular star on the roster (even as a heel), but the momentum that made him a mainstream success for a few weeks was gone—for reasons that still don’t make sense.

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The single worst booking decision in SummerSlam history—and one of the worst WWE has executed in the past decade—was John Cena’s win in the main event in 2010.

At the show, the top star in the industry teamed with R-Truth, John Morrison, Bret Hart, Edge, Chris Jericho and Daniel Bryan to battle The Nexus, a renegade troupe of young invaders fresh from NXT. Embarrassed and humiliated on that competition-based show, they set out to prove they were anything but jokes.

Except, you know, they lost—badly.

Cena overcame a numbers disadvantage, defeating Justin Gabriel and Wade Barrett to win and drive the nail into the Nexus coffin. Also involved in the group and suffering devastating losses were Skip Sheffield (Ryback), Michael Tarver, David Otunga, Heath Slater and Darren Young.

Even bookers with half a brain recognized that beating the young group so early in their run would halt any momentum they had. It dealt a major blow to their credibility, particularly because they were beaten by a team comprising Superstars who could barely get along in the weeks leading into the show.

Nothing about the layout of the match or the outcome made any sense, and it doomed the heels to failure.

At the time of publication, none of the seven men who competed for The Nexus on that night are under contract with WWE.