Who is Mr. SummerSlam? A Big Vinny V countdown: Introduction

If Shawn Michaels is Mr. WrestleMania, then who is Mr. SummerSlam?

Michaels earned his nickname by having the best match on wrestling’s biggest show year after year after year. It had nothing to do with ticket sales or buyrates or merchandise. People called him Mr. WrestleMania because he consistently put on a better performance than any of his peers could match. 

But while Michaels has stolen the SummerSlam spotlight on more than one occasion, his name isn’t as associated with that event as it is with Mania. Is that fair? Is his SummerSlam resume as strong as his Mania credentials? And if not, then who deserves the title of Mr. SummerSlam in his place? In plain English: which wrestler has had the best match at SummerSlam more often than anyone else?

This is not a simple question to answer. “Best match” is a subjective term, and with nearly four decades of SummerSlam events, we’re going fairly deep into the historical archives in search of our answer. 

What to do?

Methodology

Fortunately, we have three distinct measurements of historical SummerSlam match quality:

• Our own Dave Meltzer has done star ratings for every SummerSlam since the inaugural event back in 1988.
• Meltzer has also polled the readers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter for their opinions of the best match at SummerSlam every year.
• Finally, we have the user ratings at Cagematch.net. 

Each of these categories has its own strengths and weaknesses. Meltzer has seen and critiqued more wrestling matches than almost anyone else, and if we’re going to take the opinion of just one viewer, it should probably be his—but that’s still just one man’s opinion. His readers’ reactions give us more of a “wisdom of the crowds” viewpoint. The Cagematch ratings, meanwhile, are often based on voters looking back at the past and grading matches with the benefit of hindsight—that site wasn’t even founded until 2001, after all. By looking at all three sets of evaluations, we should get a broad look at the best match on each show, from a variety of perspectives.

It may also be overkill. As it turns out, the best match in a given year is usually pretty obvious. In the 39 SummerSlam events so far (one each year from 1988 to 2024, then two in 2025), we have only seen disagreements in the best match six times:

• In 1989, Meltzer had two matches tied for best of the night: Rick Martel & The Fabulous Rougeaus vs. The Rockers & Tito Santana, and The Ultimate Warrior’s Intercontinental Championship match against Rick Rude. Cagematch users preferred the Hart Foundation vs. the Brainbusters to either of those two.
• In 1993, while Meltzer’s top match was Bret Hart vs. Jerry Lawler, Observer readers and Cagematch users both preferred the Heavenly Bodies vs. the Steiner Brothers.
• In 2006, Meltzer and Observer readers both chose Edge vs. John Cena as best match, while the Cagematch users went with Mick Foley vs. Ric Flair.
• In 2012, Observer readers named Brock Lesner vs. Triple H as the best match, while Cagematch voters went with Chris Jericho vs. Dolph Ziggler. Meltzer? He had those two matches tied.
• In 2020, Meltzer and his readers both named Randy Orton vs. Drew McIntyre as the best match. Cagematch users preferred Asuka vs. Sasha Banks. (Technically, women are eligible for the title of Mr. SummerSlam, but this is the only instance of a women’s match being named the best on the show.)
• In 2023, Cagematch users ranked Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor as the best match, while Observer readers went with Cody Rhodes vs. Brock Lesnar. Meltzer, again, had the two matches tied.

If you got all the way through that list of bullet points, you may have noticed another complication in these ratings: Meltzer often had two matches tied for the best in his ratings. In addition to the 1989, 2012, and 2023 shows, these shows also finished with two matches tied for the best in Meltzer’s eyes:

• 2013: Brock Lesnar vs. CM Punk; Daniel Bryan vs. John Cena
• 2021: Edge vs. Seth Rollins; Roman Reigns vs. John Cena
• 2023: Cody Rhodes vs. Brock Lesnar; Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor

So we have three different selections for the best match in a given year, and one of those selections is occasionally split between two matches. Compiling all of that into one ranking can be a little tricky, so let’s make this as simple as possible:

The title of Mr. SummerSlam will go to the wrestler with the most matches named as the best on that show by any one of Dave Meltzer, Observer readers, and/or Cagematch voters. In case of a tie, we will then go to total selections for each wrestler, from one to three in a given year. 

We’re going to reveal the top five one per day next week, starting with No. 5 on Monday and counting down to No. 1 on Friday, the day before SummerSlam. Tomorrow, we’ll look at some honorable mentions—starting, conveniently, with the wrestler whose name opened this story.