Top 10 SummerSlams : Number 8 – SummerSlam 2001

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Continuing on our journey to review the top 10 SummerSlams in WWE history, today we come down to number 8. For that, we go back to 2001, as the Invasion angle kick started in the then WWF, as stars from ECW and WCW joined the WWF in an attempt to take over the company. The background of the story was that Steve Austin turned on the WWF and aligned himself with The Alliance. Kurt Angle then challenged Austin for a match at SummerSlam which Austin accepted. Meanwhile, Booker T was the WCW Heavyweight champion, and challenged The Rock for a match at SummerSlam. The event took place at the Compaq Enter in San Jose, California. So without further ado, let us get down to business.

Under card:

Edge defeated Lance Storm to win the WWF Intercontinental championship

The opening bout saw the two Canadians squaring off against each other, as Storm was a member of The Alliance while Edge was the WWF guy. It was a good opener which got the San Jose crowd buzzing with anticipation. The end saw Christian run down and hit Edge by mistake, but Edge recovered and drilled Storm with the Edgecution DDT for the win. Post match, Christian celebrated with Edge. This was the beginning of the split between the two former tag team partners, and the rest is history.

Rating: ***

Backstage promo by Test, who explained why he joined The Alliance. Test was on a roll here, and it’s sad that he went nowhere after this.

Lillian interviewed Jericho next, and Jericho did his usual Stephanie bashing to end the segment.

The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley) and Test defeated The APA (Faarooq and Bradshaw) and Spike Dudley (With Molly Holly)

A decent match with good back and forth action. The Alliance got their win back on the PPV when Shane McMahon interfered and cost the WWF the match, when he hit Bradshaw with a chair for Test to pick up the victory. It’s sad how Alliance were made to look so weak. Nothing too special about this bout, but the crowd enjoyed it.

Rating: ** ¼

Backstage segment with Edge and Christian. Everyone congratulated Edge, and Christian came in and revealed that he got a match against Matt for the European title. They called their grandma who only wanted to talk to Edge. Good comedy stuff, which also gave mileage to the Christian heel turn.

Backstage, Stasiak went into Austin’s locker room, but found Debra. He asked her how to impress Steve. She told him to go out and kick some butt.

X-Pac defeated Tajiri to unify the WWF Light Heavyweight championship and the WCW Cruiserweight championship

It’s funny how almost every match has a WWF guy as a part of The Alliance, which is why it didn’t work. Vince didn’t want them to get over even in an angle, although most of them were WWF guys. X-Pac didn’t get much crowd support, and he put on a good match with Tajiri. The end saw Albert distracting Tajiri and enabling X-Pac to pick up the victory.

Rating: ** ½

Another segment backstage with Stephanie and Rhyno. Too bad Triple H wasn’t there.