Decisively Ranked

Brock Lesnar returned to WWE at SummerSlam 2025. Many people thought The Beast would never return to the company due to the Janel Grant lawsuit, but there he is… back in the spotlight, delivering a huge F5 to John Cena to close the event. Love him or hate him, everyone is talking about Brock Lesnar’s return. And we all know that’s all that matters to WWE at the end of the day.

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But while the headlines focus on the controversy, in this article I’ll focus on Brock Lesnar’s incredible rivalry with John Cena over the years. They’ve wrestled countless times over the years, and it seems like there will be another meeting in the fall. So, without any further ado, here is every major singles match between Brock Lesnar and John Cena on a WWE PPV/PLE, decisively ranked. Enjoy!

The first SummerSlam event took place all the way back in 1988. Ever since then, ‘The Biggest Party of the Summer’ has stood tall as one of WWE’s marquee events. Alongside WrestleMania, Royal Rumble and Survivor Series, the show has helped define what a ‘big four PPV’ should look and feel like – big money matches, red-hot crowds and feuds that lead to a satisfying finale in the main event.

RELATED: WWE SummerSlam: The Full History

But, as with everything in life, there’ve been a few exceptions over the years. Whether due to poor booking, feuds dragging way too long or matches that simply had no business closing one of WWE’s biggest shows of the entire year. In this article, I’ll look back at 10 times the company got the main event of SummerSlam wrong and offer an alternative. Enjoy!

On July 24, 2025, professional wrestling lost one of its biggest icons. Hulk Hogan was a larger-than-life figure whose presence transcended the squared circle and helped turn pro wrestling into a global phenomenon. From headlining the first WWF WrestleMania to launching the New World Order in WCW, Hogan is more than just part of wrestling history. For many casual fans, Hogan was pro wrestling! While he was never the greatest in-ring wrestler from a technical standpoint, nobody could deliver a spectacle quite like The Hulkster.

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With Hogan’s success came a lot of controversy, sure. Hogan’s career was often marked by backstage politics and personal scandals, many of which rightfully sparked heated discussion. But his influence inside the ring, drawing massive crowds, selling out arenas and breaking all kinds of records, remains undeniable. This list focuses on that side of the story. This is about Hulk Hogan as a wrestler. With that said, here are Hogan’s 5 greatest singles matches in WWF/E and his 5 greatest in WCW, decisively ranked and reviewed. Enjoy!

On July 12, at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event, Goldberg competed in his retirement match when he unsuccessfully challenged Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship. Goldberg might be “pissed” about a lot of things from his final WWE match, as we found out in his recent interview with Ariel Helwani:

But if there’s one thing that Da Man should be proud of is the actual match itself. I mean, the action wasn’t bad at all from bell to bell, especially considering some of the other terrible matches that Goldberg had during his second wrestling run (2016-2025).

During that time, Goldberg developed a bad reputation as an awful in-ring worker, someone who’s always been incapable of delivering the goods under any circumstances. But, as I always ask, can one become that successful without having any kind of skill? We can credit every single opponent Goldberg’s had in his career, but it does take two to tango after all… or is it just in some convenient cases!?

Now, with this, I’m not saying Bill Goldberg is the greatest wrestler of all time. He’s not even close. But Goldberg has had good matches over the years, both in WCW and WWE. In this article – written by a massive Bret Hart fan, believe it or not(!) – we’ll be covering a number of Goldberg matches that were actually good… at least for his standards!

Note: singles matches only; short squashes won’t be included (not even great glorified squashes such as Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series 2016 or Goldberg vs Dolph Ziggler at SummerSlam 2019)

The WWE Ruthless Aggression Era is often remembered for its weird transitional vibes – post-Attitude but pre-PG, full of talent yet once again trying to find its voice. But if you strip away the marketing fluff and 2000s awkwardness (Diva Search, anyone!?), what you’re left with is one of WWE’s most stacked eras for bell-to-bell quality. From 2002 through 2008, WWE leaned heavily on ring work to carry the product, and the WWE Championship scene was almost always the centerpiece. Whether it was defended in gritty classics, chaotic multi-man matches, or weird booking experiments, the big title anchored the company through a time of major change – and it delivered far more often than it didn’t.

RELATED ARTICLE: Attitude Era: Every WWF Championship On A Big Five PPV, Decisively Ranked

So we’re diving in and ranking every WWE Championship match that took place on a Big Four PPV (Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series) throughout the era. We’re following the same criteria of the previous articles, ranking the matches based on in-ring quality, crowd reaction, in-ring psychology and storytelling. As always, some were incredible bouts that fans still talk about today, while others are… well, sh-t! All of them matter in painting the full picture of an era that quietly built the foundation for WWE’s modern style – and gave us a few all-timers along the way.

Note: for the purpose of this series, we already included King of the Ring 2002 in the Attitude Era article, since that was the last edition of the King of the Ring PPV so I decided to get it out of the way already. I know it was already part of the Ruthless Aggression Era, but whatever… it’s not that serious! Anyway, with that said, this will go from SummerSlam 2002 until WrestleMania 24, as WWE would turn PG in July 2008.

Another note: the World Heavyweight Championship was introduced in September 2002 in WWE, but the series will continue to be exclusively about the WWE Championship. We can do something similar about other titles in the future if you’re interested!

The WWF Championship was never more central to the product than it was during the Attitude Era. Whether contested in chaotic multi-man matches, bloody street fights, or overbooked main events filled with McMahons and wild run-ins, the World Wrestling Federation Championship was the axis around which the entire company spun. It wasn’t always pretty, and it certainly wasn’t always clean, but the stakes felt sky-high and fans went bananas every single time.

WWF‘s Golden Era may have been the age of larger-than-life characters, but the New Generation Era was where the WWF Championship truly started to feel like a wrestling title again. From 1993 through 1997, a new crop of stars stepped up – leaner, faster and more technically skilled – and ushered in a seismic shift in how main events were worked, perceived, and remembered. Out went the roided-up cartoon characters, in came wrestlers who could put on a show… and a few exceptions! The presentation changed. The pacing changed. And more often than not, the matches got better.

The WWF Golden Era, roughly spanning from 1984 until 1993, was a memorable time dominated by larger-than-life characters. WWE, then known as the World Wrestling Federation, experienced an explosive boom with the quick rise of pay-per-views, the dominance of Hulkamania and the birth of WrestleMania (just to name a couple of factors) making the WWF a pop culture juggernaut. While many fans remember the promos, the entrances, and the Saturday morning cartoons, the WWF Title scene was the heart of it all.

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These matches defined the era – sometimes spectacularly, sometimes… not so much. Today, we’re diving deep into the history books to rank every single WWF Championship match on pay-per-view during the glorious Golden Era, factoring in match quality, crowd reaction, psychology and storytelling. So dust off your VHS tapes and let’s find out which title bouts truly stood the test of time… and which ones you’re better off skipping.
Note: The beginning and the end of a WWF/E era are always arguable. In this particular list, we’ll start off at The Wrestling Classic 1985 (the first WWF PPV to feature a world title bout) and finish at King of the Ring 1993.