Heels often get their comeuppance in major title bouts at SummerSlam, but some heels managed to hang onto their title at The Biggest Party of The Summer.
Since its inception in 1988, SummerSlam is one of the events that fans look forward to on a yearly basis. It's arguably the second biggest event on the WWE calendar and there have been a plethora of iconic World Title matches. However, babyfaces and new champions usually reign supreme but on several occasions, there have been some villains who did not follow the trend and retained.
Especially in the New Generation Era and Attitude Era, fans gravitated towards the babyface, but from the Ruthless Aggression onwards, some fans preferred to cheer for the heels. Yokozuna, Stone Cold Steve Austin, King Booker, The Great Khali, and Sheamus were heels who retained their World Titles at SummerSlam although they lost by disqualification. It wasn't until 2006, that a heel retained the WWE Championship by pinfall. In 2017, there was the rare occasion of both heel World Champions walking in and out as champion.
11 Ivory - 1999
The original WWE Women's Championship was sparsely defended at SummerSlam, with the gold being on the line just four times. Ivory finally brought some prestige to the Women's Championship as a trained wrestler, but she defended the Women's Title against the inexperienced Tori at SummerSlam 1999.
This was one of the worst women's matches in the history of SummerSlam, with Tori not on Ivory's level. Ivory successfully defended the title with little trouble and became the first heel to retain the Women's Championship at SummerSlam.
10 Jinder Mahal - 2017
Jinder Mahal's WWE Championship reign certainly wasn't popular, but he did an exceptional job to get heat. He took on the perennial favorite Shinsuke Nakamura at the 2017 iteration of the event. Fans were desperately hoping that this was when The Modern Day Maharaja's WWE Title reign would finally come to an end.
Unfortunately, this match completely missed the mark and it was one of the worst WWE Title bouts in the history of SummerSlam. Nakamura wasn't at his best but Mahal continued his run as WWE Champion with a botched Khallas.
9 John Bradshaw Layfield - 2004
Once again the WWE Championship didn't close out SummerSlam, but it was the penultimate match on the card in 2004. John Bradshaw Layfield had a tough test as The Undertaker was looking to become WWE Champion for the fifth time.
It wasn't the greatest of WWE Title matches as it was more of a hard-hitting brawl. JBL worked on The Phenom's leg throughout the match and his Chief of Staff Orlando Jordan was at ringside. Nevertheless, JBL retained the WWE Title by disqualification as Undertaker nailed JBL with the WWE Title belt.
8 Alberto Del Rio - 2013
The World Heavyweight Championship was defended at SummerSlam for the final time in 2013. Alberto Del Rio reverted as a heel, facing off with two-time former champion Christian. The Mexican Aristocrat had a black eye, but that did not hamper his performance in any way, shape, or form.
Del Rio and Christian knocked it out of the park in a decent match with fans cheering Christian on. Ultimately, Del Rio cinched in the Cross Armbreaker to retain the gold with Christian tapping out.
7 Triple H - 2003
Triple H had the honor of becoming the first man to walk into SummerSlam as the reigning World Heavyweight Champion in 2003. The Game was nursing a groin injury, but he was protected in the Elimination Chamber match. His challengers were Goldberg, Randy Orton, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, and Kevin Nash.
This had to be one of the easiest World Title defenses in The Cerebral Assassin's career. Michaels nailed Triple H with a Sweet Chin Music in his pod and he sold it. Goldberg did most of the hard work by eliminating three competitors. When it boiled down to Triple H and Goldberg, Goldberg was on top until Ric Flair handed The Game a sledgehammer, who nailed Goldberg with it to continue his reign of terror for another month.
6 Bayley - 2020
The SmackDown Women's Championship was up for grabs when Bayley defended the title against Asuka. The Role Model was in another league as she was in the midst of a record-breaking reign as SmackDown Women's Champion. Bayley was also in possession of the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship along with Raw Women's Champion Sasha Banks.
They opened up the show at the 2020 iteration of SummerSlam inside WWE's ThunderDome. Bayley and Asuka put on a great match which went back and forth. Nevertheless, albeit with some help from Sasha Banks, Bayley ensured that she was still a double champion.
5 Brock Lesnar - 2017
15 years after he stunned The Rock to win the WWE Championship, Brock Lesnar became the first man to defend the Universal Championship at SummerSlam. However, it was a tough assignment as Lesnar had three determined challengers in Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman, and Samoa Joe.
Lesnar usually dominates his opponents with ease, but he was temporarily taken out of the match as he was put through the announce table by Strowman. Ultimately, Lesnar was not going down without a fight, ensuring that he retained the Universal Title which he did successfully.
4 CM Punk - 2012
CM Punk has a tremendous record at SummerSlam, but one of his toughest matches was against two former WWE Champions in John Cena and Big Show in a triple threat match at SummerSlam 2012. The Voice of the Voiceless was back to being a villain again and he was still a dominant champion.
The match had to be restarted as Show submitted when Punk applied the Koji Clutch and Cena had Show in the STF simultaneously. Nevertheless, Punk was an opportunist as he took advantage of Cena planting Show with the AA. Punk pushed Cena out of the ring and he pinned Show to retain.
3 Randy Orton - 2009
For the second time in three years, Randy Orton and John Cena collided in a WWE Championship match at SummerSlam. The 2009 iteration saw them lock horns again but fans became sick and tired of their matches as they became repetitive.
The flow of the match was hampered as Mr. McMahon restarted the match each time Orton got himself intentionally disqualified or counted out. Nevertheless, Orton continued his love affair with The Biggest Party of The Summer as an RKO sealed the deal.
2 Edge - 2006
The rivalry between Edge and John Cena dominated large portions of 2006 with the coveted WWE Championship at stake. The Rated-R Superstar collided with Cena in Big Match John's hometown state of Massachusetts.
There was a caveat in Cena's favor as Edge would lose the WWE Championship if he got disqualified. This wasn't their best outing together, but it was another solid match between the pair. Ultimately, The Ultimate Opportunist retained the WWE Title and incredibly it took 18 years for a heel to retain the WWE Championship at SummerSlam by pinfall.
1 Seth Rollins - 2015
History was guaranteed to be made at SummerSlam 2015 when either WWE Champion Seth Rollins or the United States Champion John Cena would become the first man to hold those two prestigious titles simultaneously Both held their respective championships since WrestleMania 31 so something had to give in a barnburner of a Winner Takes All contest.
Rollins and Cena put on an instant classic which went back and forth. However, Jon Stewart attacked Cena with a steel chair in a shocking SummerSlam moment. The Architect added the United States Title to his cabinet and retained the WWE Championship in a match that was worthy of closing out the show.