10 Best Title Changes In WWE SummerSlam History

The history of a certain wrestling show is often intertwined with the momentous championship changes that took place there.

Money in the Bank is remembered for CM Punk beating John Cena in 2011 and there have been countless amazing WrestleMania belt swaps in the show’s long history. SummerSlam has also hosted its fair share of famous champion-crowning moments, and we’re here to lay out 10 of the very best.

Check out the 10 Best Title Changes in SummerSlam history below!

10. The Ultimate Warrior def. The Honky Tonk Man For The Intercontinental Championship - SummerSlam 1988

The oldest match on this list is also the shortest.

At the very first SummerSlam back in 1988, The Honky Tonk Man was supposed to defend his Intercontinental Championship against Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake.

The Beefster, however, was put out of commission thanks to Ron Bass and those dastardly spurs of his. Thinking he was in the clear, Honky Tonk Man and his manager Jimmy Hart appeared at the pay-per-view to gloat and offer up a challenge for the belt. The Elvis impersonator’s cockiness would prove to be his downfall, as The Ultimate Warrior came rushing down to the ring to accept the match.

Just 31 seconds later, Warrior defeated the champion with a flurry of offence to win the belt and end Mr. Tonk Man’s record-setting reign.

It may not have been an epic, but this short and sweet match gave SummerSlam its very first legendary moment.

It also gave Howard Finkel a whopper of a headache when Warrior accidentally knocked him off the apron.

9. Virgil def. Ted DiBiase for the Million Dollar Championship - SummerSlam 1991

The “manager/bodyguard turning on their evil boss” trope is one of the most tried and tested in all of pro wrestling.

Batista turning on Triple H, Wardlow turning on MJF, Damien Mizdow turning on The Miz.

In WWE’s Golden Age, the best example of this formula was when long-suffering manservant Virgil had finally had enough of Ted DiBiase.

After years of doing the rich man’s dirty work, Virgil stood up to the Million Dollar Man at the 1991 Royal Rumble.

After failing to wrest the Million Dollar Championship from his former employer at WrestleMania, Virgil defeated Ted at SummerSlam to win the match.

Whilst the belt itself was unsanctioned in storyline and Virgil wrestled with the grace of a horse riding a unicycle, watching him finally get his revenge on the man who had made his life a living hell for so long was beautifully cathartic.

By becoming champion, Virgil joined a legacy that would one day include LA Knight and Stone Cold Steve Austin. And that’s the only time you’ll ever hear those three names in the same sentence.

8. The Usos def. The New Day for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships - SummerSlam 2017

The SummerSlam 2017 main card featured Shinsuke Nakamura losing to Jinder Mahal, Randy Orton beating Rusev in 10 seconds, and a match between Big Show and Big Cass featuring Enzo Amore in his underpants.

Two of the best tag teams in the world, meanwhile, found themselves on the Kickoff Show as their feud over the SmackDown Tag Team Championships continued.

In spite of their place on the pre-show, The New Day and The Usos decided to wrestle like they were in the main event of WrestleMania.

2017 was a fantastic year for both of these teams and this match was a highlight of their excellent rivalry. They put it all on the line to entertain the fans who arrived at the arena early, eventually concluding nearly 20 minutes of action with a win for the Samoan twins.

New Day may have lost the SmackDown Tag Team Championships, but they and their opponents had just gained a whole new level of respect from wrestling fans all over the world.

7. Bret Hart def. The Undertaker for the WWE Championship - SummerSlam 1997

When exactly the Attitude Era began remains up for debate and some would argue it began at SummerSlam 1997, a show that was main evented by the WWE Title match between The Undertaker and Bret “Hitman” Hart with Shawn Michaels as special guest referee.

Unlike usual referees, Michaels resorted to violence as he accidentally clobbered ‘Taker over the head with a steel chair after Hart spat in Shawn’s face and the Heartbreak Kid swung for The Hitman. All this did was hand the title to Hart, who proceeded to pin The Undertaker as Michaels reluctantly counted the 1-2-3.

The errant chair shot led to a brief Michaels/Taker feud, which culminated with the first-ever Hell in a Cell match at Badd Blood. It also started the Hart title reign that would be ended by HBK at Survivor Series in the Montreal Screwjob.

Not only was the SummerSlam title change well worked, it was pretty damn important too.

6. Brock Lesnar def. John Cena for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship - SummerSlam 2014

Some people watch wrestling for the intricate in-ring displays achieved by two top performers working in sync to tell stories through pure physicality. Others, well, they just like to watch big dudes clobber the stuffing out of other dudes.

There was some uncertainty over whether or not WWE would put their top title on Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam 2014. On one hand, he was a special attraction who’d ended The Undertaker’s WrestleMania Streak earlier that year. On the other hand, he was a part-timer who wouldn’t be around every week to show off the belt.

At the end of this match, there was no uncertainty at all. Lesnar demolished Cena, absolutely battering him from pillar to post. This was the most in peril fans had ever seen Cena, as the once-mighty champion failed to hit any sort of meaningful offence on his opponent.

This title change not only ushered in a new era, but it was also thoroughly entertaining for anyone who had cursed Johnny boy's name over the past decade.

5. Daniel Bryan def. John Cena for the WWE Championship - SummerSlam 2013

One year before John Cena lost his world title to Lesnar, he lost another top prize to a very different kind of athlete.

Daniel Bryan had slowly been getting over with the mainstream crowd since his debut in 2010. Thanks to his great work as part of Team Hell No, The American Dragon was hand-picked by Big Match John to face him for the WWE title at the Biggest Party of the Summer.

D-Bry’s incredible in-ring skill meant that he and Cena were able to have one of the best pure wrestling matches the show had ever seen. Not only did Bryan win the match and the title, but he did so clean as a sheet thanks to his debuting Busaiku Knee finisher.

This was Bryan’s coming out party as a WWE main eventer, proof that he could hang with the big boys and still look like a million bucks. Fans couldn’t wait to see what this lengthy title reign would look like but Randy Orton cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on Bryan only minutes later, with Triple H turning heel in the process.

4. Triple H def. The Rock for the Intercontinental Championship - SummerSlam 1998

Whilst Stone Cold Steve Austin may be the obvious answer to who the Rock’s greatest career rival was, you could also make the case for a certain Cerebral Assassin.

Triple H and The Brahma Bull spent the first half of 2000 trading the WWE title back and forth and had clashed a few times prior to the turn of the millennium.

Arguably their most famous lower card clash took place at SummerSlam 1998 - a ladder match with Rocky’s Intercontinental Championship suspended above the ring.

Dwayne and Hunter’s chemistry together was off the charts, as shown in this fantastic display of in-ring narrative-building. For over 25 minutes, the two men fought with and without the assistance of the hardware, getting help from their various stablemates along the way.

In the end, a shot to the Great One’s great ones from Chyna gave The Game enough of a window to reach the top of the ladder and claim the workhorse belt for the second time.

The action was great and the story was great - what’s not to love about this excellent ladder match?

3. CM Punk def. Jeff Hardy for the World Heavyweight Championship - SummerSlam 2009

Let’s stick with ladders for now, as we talk about another match that served as the blow-off to a stunning feud.

After CM Punk cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on Jeff Hardy at Extreme Rules, the two heavily tattooed rivals faced each other pretty much non-stop until SummerSlam came around.

Hardy, who had recaptured the belt since then, wanted to put Punk away once and for all in a match that he was a specialist in - TLC, despite the fact he’s never won a TLC Match.

True to form, Hardy didn’t win this match either, but he sure did put on one hell of an entertaining show.

These two men hit each other with everything that wasn’t fastened down and a few things that were. The most famous spot in this match has to be when Jeff jumped down from what was essentially the upper stratosphere to hit Punk with one of the wildest Swanton Bombs of all time. And that’s saying something.

2. Brock Lesnar def. The Rock for the WWE Undisputed Championship - SummerSlam 2002

SummerSlam 2002 is widely considered to be the best iteration of the Big Four staple.

With matches like Kurt Angle versus Rey Mysterio, Edge versus Eddie Guerrero, and the in-ring comeback of Shawn Michaels against Triple H, it’s kinda hard to argue against that.

Another tick in this show’s plus column is its main event - a torch-passing present-meets-future match for the WWE Championship.

The Rock was the titleholder going into the show and was defending against that year’s King of the Ring, Brock Lesnar. As you can imagine, the pair of studs put on a great show. Rock used all of his Academy Award-winning acting skills to put over how powerful Lesnar was, whilst still having plenty of veteran counters for the Next Big Thing.

After a wild brawl that saw Paul Heyman get put through a table, Brock beat Rock to become the youngest WWE Champion of all time, launching his career in the process.

1. The British Bulldog def. Bret Hart for the Intercontinental Championship - SummerSlam 1992

It comes up all the time in lists about SummerSlam, but only because it’s that damn good. SummerSlam 1992, Wembley Stadium in London, England.

After realising that American fans weren’t as interested in their product, WWE held their second biggest show of the year on British shores and gave the country a main event for the ages.

In one corner was Intercontinental Champion Bret Hart, one of the finest grapplers ever to grace the Earth. In the other was the United Kingdom’s favourite wrestling son, The British Bulldog.

These brothers-in-law put on one of the greatest in-ring wrestling displays in the history of WWE. Hart carried his foe to what was easily his greatest ever match, until Davey Boy sat on an attempted sunset flip to pin The Hitman and capture the title.

Very rarely in wrestling does everything come together perfectly, but this was one of those times. The right wrestlers in the right setting in the right spot on the card, SummerSlam 1992 will always be remembered as the night that Davey brought it home for old Blighty.