The next match on the card was a grudge match between the legendary “Nature Boy” Ric Flair and the self-proclaimed “King of the World” Chris Jericho. Flair kicked off 2002 as the co-owner of the WWE, then fully in charge of Raw to eventually become an active member of the Raw roster. Jericho was the WWE Undisputed Champion as the year began but lost the title belts at WrestleMania X8. He originally got drafted to SmackDown initially, but soon returned to Raw as he couldn’t personally work under Stephanie. Coming into this match, Flair was the beloved babyface while Jericho was the despised heel.

This match was decent and competitive, but never really entered a higher gear to take it to that next level of quality. Flair was dealing with confidence issues in 2002, which resulted in him feeling insecure about his status in wrestling and his overall in-ring prowess. The original finish called for Flair to win with a small cradle – however, “Naitch” defeated Jericho with his trademark Figure Four Leglock submission hold.

In one of his autobiographies, Jericho told the story about how he wanted to tap out to Flair to hopefully boost his confidence (which should clue you into how much respect Jericho had and still has for Flair). This bout might not have been that great. But considering who the participants were and it being at SummerSlam, it’s still a pretty cool in-ring contest.

The fourth match on the card was contested for the WWE Tag Team Championship. Booker T and Goldust were the fan-favorite odd couple that started teaming together in 2002 while Booker T was still part of the now-defunct nWo. The Un-Americans formed when Lance Storm pointed out that the WWE had a long history of discriminating against Canadian wrestlers. Soon after, Christian and Test joined the group.

This match was a solid tag team encounter, but I have to admit – it just isn’t something I was ever too invested in, even way back in 2002. All four guys are incredibly talented individuals and they clearly were working hard during this match. Goldust took most of the heat from this match by getting beat up the most by the heels until he could get that hot tag to Booker. Booker came in like a house of fire when he finally got tagged in, only for there to be a ref bump to bring it to a disappointing end. Test came out to the ring to interfere by hitting Booker with a nasty big boot while the ref was down and allowing the Un-Americans to capitalize to retain their tag team titles.

I feel like if the titles had changed hands here, this match might have been way more memorable. Sadly, Christian and Storm were able to retain due to the numbers game advantage. This match only ran a total of roughly ten minutes.

The next match was another clash between two of WWE’s most memorable workhorses (which was a common thread during this show). Ans this time, it featured Raw’s Rob Van Dam and SmackDown’s Chris Benoit going head-to-head over WWE’s lauded midcard title. This match had plenty of high stakes attached to it because this was prior to Raw and Smackdown having their own definitive championship titles. The WWE Intercontinental Championship was the only midcard title for both shows until the United States Championship was introduced to SmackDown following this event. This meant whoever won this match would have the honor of bringing the IC Championship to their respective brand. Benoit was a heel during this period, while RVD was an immensely popular fan favorite.

This was the first match to go over 15 minutes on the card. The first part of the show felt like it flew by and I think that’s partially what made SummerSlam 2002 so enjoyable. These two began this match with a furious pace but slowed it down midway through for a more methodical approach. Both men worked different styles but similar to Mysterio/Angle, they complimented each other perfectly. Benoit was on the offensive for most of the match and would cut off RVD anytime he would catch some steam. It was the perfect way to get the fans more strongly behind Van Dam once he finally made his triumphant comeback.

The finish to this match came when RVD countered a top rope suplex from Benoit, which left an opening for him to land a huge Five Star Frog Splash to claim the IC championship. The psychology and selling by both men were great – those factors helped push this match to a strong level of overall quality.

This was the match that most of us were looking forward to the most on this show.  The anticipation was off the charts for this one as it was Shawn Michaels’ triumphant return to the ring after four years since retiring in 1998 due to a back injury. Michaels had returned to the WWE on Raw in a full-time capacity as a member of the re-booted nWo. However, the group would disband pretty soon after “HBK’s” shocking return. Triple H left SmackDown and returned to Raw once his ex-wife Stephanie became the GM of SmackDown. This roster change resulted in the reuniting of the two old friends from back in the day.

When it seemed as if we were going to get a D-Generation X reunion in 2002, HHH crushed everyone’s dreams by turning on “HBK” and thus becoming a heel. Things would get extra personal between the two when HHH viciously attacked Michaels in the parking lot. Michaels eventually returned to challenge “The Game” to an Unsanctioned Fight since he wasn’t sure if he could still go like he used to. Michaels clearly wanted the freedom of anything goes rules to get revenge on his former best friend.

This match definitely lived up to all the hype! It also proved to everyone around the world that Michaels was still in the argument for the greatest overall in-ring performer of all time. HHH was the perfect first opponent for HBK after his four-year retirement since both men trusted each other and Triple H was willing to do anything to make HBK feel as comfortable as possible. This fight started off with a bang and quickly evolved into a hardcore brawl. HHH beat down Michaels by focusing on his back, which scared most fans since they knew he was returning from having back surgery. Both men got busted open as the match wore on. HHH played the part of the methodical assassin by targeting the injured back of Michaels. HBK soon made a comeback and even ended up performing a top rope flying splash onto HHH through a table set up outside the ring.

Michaels eventually brought a ladder into play, which he chose to climb to the very top of to drop a flying elbow onto HHH. All these high spots got a huge ovation from the crowd and helped the match crescendo to its finest moments. HBK earned the ultimate victory after HHH tried to counter his Sweet Chin Music finisher into a Pedigree, only for Michaels to counter it for a pinfall victory. After all the drama, near falls, and overall storyline going into this match, it made sense to have the finish come off as if Michales emerged victorious with an out-of-nowhere pin rather than a definitive win in his first match back.

In his first match back in four years, HBK went nearly thirty minutes (which says a lot about his level of self-confidence at the time, even if he was a bit concerned about his level of in-ring rust). After the match, HHH did the unthinkable by using a sledgehammer to further injure HBK’s back – this further cemented Hunter’s positioning as the villain of all villains. This post-match attack was also a smart way to get Michales off TV for a while after experiencing such a joyous moment, as he got stretchered out by EMTs soon after. Nobody knew for sure if this was a one-time situation for Michaels or if we’d ever see him wrestle again.

Fortunately, “The Showstopper” caught the wrestling bug again and popped back up on WWE TV to enjoy a second run with the company as an active wrestler before retiring in 2010. This is one of my favorite matches of all time that I remember being super excited for at the time and I still remember the feeling of joy watching it for the first time. I was a fan of both guys but was mainly a huge Michaels fan since he was one of the first wrestlers I remember watching live on TV rather than on old wrestling tapes. This match featured violent high spots due to its nature of being a hardcore brawl, but both men employed a ton of psychology in order to tell the fans a logical story in the ring. Michaels returned as if he had never left!

SummerSlam 2002 is my personal favorite Summerslam and arguably the greatest Summerslam of all time. I literally watched it back as I wrote this retrospective. The crowd was hot, the card was stacked, and there were no dud matches to speak of. Thankfully, the worst matches on this show were decent at best.

Only two matches went over 15 minutes and only one of them went nearly 30 minutes. The show flowed effortlessly because of it! There wasn’t a match that felt like it overstayed its welcome. I know other fans might say Angle vs. Rey could have used a few more minutes, but I think it was perfect because it wrapped up at just the right time. The match lengths are something this event and arguably the greatest WrestleMania of all time, WrestleMania X-Seven, have in common. Not all matches need to be a marathon to be great. A longer match duration doesn’t guarantee it will be a bonafide classic.

That being said, Michaels’ return match against HHH will always be special to me. Lesnar defeating Rocky for the WWE Undisputed Championship to usher in a new era for the company will always be a significant moment in WWE history. This was just an overall great SummerSlam that I don’t think has been topped yet in the 14 years of SummerSlam that came before it and the 21 years of SummerSlam that followed it.

All the SummerSlam’s have had their own great moments and some have even gotten close to the top quality of this one, but none have just had that perfect balance that SummerSlam 2002 had.