SummerSlam 2023 was largely another excellent show from WWE, but it suffered from a problem I first discovered watching the Monday Night Wars in the 1990s.
You had two major national promotions, WWF and WCW, that both ran pay-per-views once per month. WCW had a far deeper roster of talent, but its crutch—which helped lead to its demise—was relying on the same aging superstars in the main event, month after month, year after year. WWF had a thinner roster, but it had a great main event scene with excellent workers and personalities like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, The Rock, Mick Foley, the Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart and numerous others. As a result, WWF would run totally lackluster PPVs, but would have awesome main events. WCW would run shows with great undercards, but have horrible main events. So what happened was, even though in totality the WCW shows were better, the last thing you remembered from WCW was a horrible main event and the last thing you remembered from WWF was an awesome main event. So, ultimately, the WWF shows were remembered far more fondly.
SummerSlam 2023 was, for probably 85% of the show, excellent. Great matches on the undercard, good stories, hard-hitting, the whole shebang. But then the main event took the show from being a hearty thumbs up to merely a solid thumbs in the middle.
