When I first got into Professional Wrestling in the summer of 2004, you couldn’t go far without someone on WWE programming bringing up that year’s SummerSlam! As I was a complete newbie to the world of Pro-Wrestling, I had no idea what they were talking about. I guessed it was another show, at that time I was only able to watch Smackdown (as Raw was on Sky Sports, which we didn’t have), plus the highlight shows Afterburn for Smackdown, and Bottom Line for Raw. One thing that did help to inform me of what SummerSlam was however, was a cool collection of Promos for the event.
Unlike the more traditional style of promos for one of WWE’s big pay-per-views which highlighted feuds and matches, the 2004 SummerSlam promos decided to do something else. With SummerSlam happening the same year as the 2004 Olympics in Athens, WWE decided to do a comical series of promos featuring major WWE superstars competing in Olympic Events. These vides, were not the cases of these wrestlers actually competing, more of how they would react if they competed in the Olympics as per their character’s traits.
The collection of promos, are a mixed bag, but many of them are pretty funny, and very memorable, so I thought I would share with you my Top 5 favourites. So here are my Top 5 Favourite SummerSlam 2004 Promo’s; Enjoy!
5. Kurt Angle and Batista Long Jump – The first of two appearances by Batista on this list (it was clear WWE knew they had a major superstar on the roster, and this was about nine months before he won the World Title). This was the most widely used of the Promos on television. It features Kurt Angle in a wheel chair, sitting next to the Long Jump. The narrator begins the video, introducing the great sporting event, followed by a quick piece by Angle. Then, a long jump athlete runs into the sandpit, where he is greeted by Batista who throws him to the ground. This is then followed by Angle stating that the event is of course SummerSlam, not the Olympics…of course!
4. Booker T Fencing – A pretty simple delivery, but very violent in it’s approach. This time we see Booker T attempt fencing. At first it does not go well for him; so he takes out a much bigger sword, and chops the other athletes arm off off-screen. We are then left with images of the arm, the athlete bleeding out, and of course Booker T’s main catchphrase!
3. Eddie Guerrero 100m – When i first started to watch Wrestling, one of the standout stars on Smackdown at that time was of course Eddie Guerrero, who was well known for his catchphrase and antics, being along the lines of ‘Lying, Cheating and Stealing!‘. In this case here, he’s up to it again, by gluing the other runners to their starting blocks, to take an easy victory!
2. Triple H Hammer Throw – Triple H takes the term ‘Hammer Throw’ a bit too literally, taking his trusty sledge hammer to the event. Rather annoyed though at the last competitors performance, he takes his frustrations out on the officials (with a pretty shocking right hand to one of them), followed by then using his water spitting prowess to extinguish the Olympic flame!
1. Batista Freestyle Floor Exercise – Batista returns to our list with a very interesting take in the Gymnastics. This time around, he once again removes a competitor from the games, followed by a breakdancing routine, backed up with some cool music. Now I would have thought that if anyone would do any breakdancing it would be Booker T; but no matter, Batista puts on a great show, and raises the all important question, why isn’t breakdancing an Olympic Event?
Things I Like 
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