SummerSlam Top 10 Countdown – By Michael Owen
No.4 (33 Points) Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels (August 25th, 2002)
1,609.
That is the amount of days that Shawn Michaels spent between his match with Steve Austin at WrestleMania 14 and his eventual return against Triple H at SummerSlam ’02 in an unsanctioned street fight. Many people thought that Shawn would never return after a back injury he sustained at the Royal Rumble in ’98.
These two were the original members of D-Generation X and were also best friends behind the curtain. They were like inseparable brothers for the best part of their WWF/E careers until the dynamic of each mans career changed. Shawn had been out of the limelight for a long time, during which Triple H had become one of the biggest active stars on the roster. Things had changed and Hunter wanted Shawn to know damn sure about it.
The build-up to this match was incredible from the beginning. Triple H had been given the opportunity to decide if he wanted to wrestle on RAW or SmackDown and Shawn persuaded him to join RAW and reform D-Generation X. The return did not go quite as planned for HBK though, due to the fact that Triple H turned on him and pedigreed him in the middle of the ring.
Things heated up even more on the July 29th edition of RAW when Shawn was found in the parking lot in a pool of blood after having his head smashed through a car window. Triple H feigned concern for Michaels and vowed to find out who had attacked him. However it was revealed on the following weeks RAW that Triple H was the man behind the attack and that Shawn would be fit and able to go by the time that SummerSlam rolled around.
The match between the two was made on the August 19th edition of Raw and had a stipulation to absolve Eric Bischoff of any blame in the event that Shawn Michaels reinjured his back again…it was to be an unsanctioned street fight. During the main event of RAW between The Rock and Triple H, Brock Lesnar was sat at ringside and would get involved in the action towards the end of the bout. Michaels would also get involved and hit Lesnar with Sweet Chin Music and then leapt over the top rope onto Hunter to end the broadcast.
The match itself was perfect, Shawn’s back injury was the main focus throughout the contest and it had everybody asking if it would hold up through such an intense encounter between the two former friends. Hunter would attack it with every part of his body and also with any weapon he could find around ringside. It was hard to believe that it had been four years since Michael’s last outing; he was still one of the pound for pound best performers that the wrestling business had ever seen even after the injuries and years of inactivity.
Although this was the night when Brock Lesnar would be crowned the youngest WWE Champion in history, the match between Shawn and Hunter was considered by many to be the real main event of SummerSlam ’02. I can now say that having spent many weeks compiling this list and writing about how amazing each match is that this is my favourite SummerSlam match of all time. It is also ranked No.4 overall on our SummerSlam Top 10 Countdown by all the staff here at TWM.
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