Throwback Thursday: Looking back at WWE SummerSlam 2008

Each and every Thursday I will look back at a different pay-per-view event from the past via the WWE Network. Want to see a certain event covered? Send your suggestions to @VaughnMJohnson on Twitter.

Last time, I covered the WWE No Way Out 2000

WWE SummerSlam 2008

Date: Aug. 17, 2008

Venue: Conseco Fieldhouse (Bankers Life Fieldhouse), Indianapolis, Ind.

Some random notes

This was the 21st annual SummerSlam and the first to feature a Hell in a Cell match.

It was also the last two take place in a city not name Los Angeles or New York.

But before putting SummerSlam in the country's two largest media markets on an annual basis, the event took place in Indianapolis, which is known as Naptown.

The event was built as the biggest blockbuster of the summer, which gave WWE the opportunity to construct a pretty cool stage for the event that featured a marquee that would change for each match.

With WWE featuring three brands at this point, there were three different announce teams. Michael Cole and Jerry "The King" Lawler represented Raw, Jim Ross and Tazz called the matches for Smackdown, and Todd Grisham and Matt Striker were the voices of ECW.

After the Intercontinental/Women's title match, Shawn Michaels went to the ring with the expectation that he was going to announce his retirement.

In storyline, Michaels suffered a severe eye injury in a match against Chris Jericho at The Great American Bash. Michaels went to the ring with his wife, Rebecca, and said that he had his eye re-evaluated prior to SummerSlam.

Michaels said that the doctor recommended he hung up his boots due to the injury and all of the other injuries he suffered during his career. He said that the decision was left up to him and that he was actually going to listen to his doctor and indeed retire.

To her credit, Michaels' wife did a great job of getting emotional during Michaels' speech.

Michaels continued his heartfelt speech until Jericho interrupted him and said that he was not going to allow Michaels to go out on his own terms. Instead, Jericho wanted Michaels to admit that he was the reason he was retiring.

Michaels, with Rebecca standing behind him, said that he would admit that a vile person like Jericho did end his career. However, Michaels wanted Jericho to admit to his family that he would never, ever be Shawn Michaels.

Michaels then went to walk out of the ring when Jericho turned him around and attempted to punch him in the face. Michaels ducked the punch, but Jericho followed through right into Rebecca's face.

In storyline and in reality, Jericho had just punched Michaels' wife in the face in front of thousands of people. I say in reality because Jericho inadvertently laid that punch in on Michaels' wife and injured her jaw.

Her lip was legitimately swollen and you could even see a little bit of blood in her mouth. Jericho got her good. If this were 2016, someone would have shouted Worldstar.

There were no issues among either party in real life. If anything, Michaels was angry with himself for even putting his wife in a position to get punched in the face by a professional wrestler, but in storyline, Michaels was enraged and cut his brief retirement short to enact revenge on Jericho.

I recently covered the epic ladder match at No Mercy for Throwback Thursday.

Of course, Michaels went on two wrestle for nearly two more years before he actually retired at WrestleMania 26.

I usually don't advocate for shows to be longer, especially with WrestleMania and SummerSlam this year being at least four hours, but I thought that this should have been at least three given the enormity of it.

On the WWE Network, this show has a running time of two hours, 46 minutes and six seconds. That's shorter than Raw these days.

Because the event was so short, the matches were brief. Only one match lasted more than 15 minutes. That match was the main event between Edge and The Undertaker at a little more than 26 minutes.

The second-longest match was between John Cena and Batista, but it only lasted 13 minutes and 44 seconds. A matchup of the magnitude should have had at least 15 minutes, but the show was too short.

With that said, let's get to the matches.

MVP def. Jeff Hardy

This was Jeff Hardy's first SummerSlam appearance since 2001, when he lost to Rob Van Dam in a ladder match for the WWE Hardcore championship.

He didn't come away with a victory in his return, as Shelton Benjamin, the WWE United States champion at the time, distracted him while he was on the top rope, which gave MVP time to recover and hit the drive-by kick to pick up the victory.

After watching this match, it reminded me just how popular Jeff Hardy was before left the company after SummerSlam the next year and just how talented was and still is. It still puzzles me why WWE never really got behind him as main-event caliber talent.

WWE Intercontinental and Women's championship – Santino Marella & Beth Phoenix def. Kofi Kingston & Mickie James

Marella and Phoenix was a very entertaining pair during this period. As Lawler said on commentary, Marella may have worn the pants during the relationship, but Phoenix told him which pair to wear.

Proof was when Marella had no idea where he was when Phoenix won the match. He was the carried out of the arena on Phoenix's shoulders.

It was almost strange to see Kingston without Xavier Woods and Big E by his side, but there was indeed a time when Kingston was on his own and was Jamaican.

If only James and Phoenix came along in today's WWE instead of during a time when WWE put very little to no focus on its women's division. Fortunately, James is coming back to WWE to face Asuka at NXT Takeover: Toronto.

ECW championship – Matt Hardy def. Mark Henry via disqualification

This match was pretty much a waste of time, but I guess it accomplished its goal.

The match was barely a minute old when Matt Hardy hit Henry with the twist of fate. Matt Hardy then went for a cover when Henry's manager Tony Atlas pulled him out of the ring and attacked him, causing a disqualification.

I guess the finish was only to show that Matt Hardy could indeed Henry if it wasn't for Atlas.

Jeff Hardy eventually came out to help his brother even the odds. I'm not sure this entire segment lasted five minutes and that included the entrances.

Matt Hardy eventually won the ECW championship the next month at Unforgiven.

World Heavyweight championship – CM Punk def. John "Bradshaw" Layfield

It was weird to hear CM Punk being referred to as an underdog given how his career turned out in WWE.

CM Punk eventually went on to be on to become one of the top stars in WWE and the longest reigning WWE champion in more than a decade, but at point he was the plucky underdog that no one, mainly Vince McMahon, thought would make it to the world title level — sort of like how WWE portrays Sami Zayn today.

At one point of the match, CM Punk landed a running kick on JBL. When JBL fell to the mat he fell right on top of CM Punk. As a result, the back of JBL's head crashed into the back of CM Punk's. CM Punk began bleeding from the back of his head.

CM Punk shook off the injury and hit the GTS to retain his championship.

WWE championship – Triple H def. The Great Khali

Vince McMahon loves large men. A prime example is The Great Khali. Khali seemed like a nice guy in real life, but he was not a good wrestler. He was sure enough was big, but didn't do much else besides stand very tall.

That was enough for McMahon to push him straight to the top of WWE. He even beat The Undertaker and won the World Heavyweight title. The notion of Khali being world champion today is almost laughable.

After that experiment failed, McMahon was steadfast in promoting Khali as a monster. This time around, he was the monster that posed as Triple H's greatest challenge.

Triple H was never a tremendous babyface. He was serviceable, but not great as a babyface. He was always much better as a heel. Triple H isn't even a serviceable babyface when he has opponents that can't even have a decent match like Khali.

Triple H did what he could in this match, but like many others on this show, it was too short. I guess this one should have been short given Khali was in the ring.

With that said, it felt rushed, like a lot of other matches on the show.

Triple H eventually found a way to lock Khali in the pedigree and deliver it to continue his title reign and end Khali's run in the main event.

Triple H eventually moved on to another thrilling opponent in Vladimir Kozlov. At least Kozlov could move.

Batista def. John Cena

This was big-money match for WWE at the time because it pitted the company's two biggest stars against each other.

In 2016, WWE typically pulls out a star of the past to put on a major match. A prime example is Brock Lesnar versus Bill Goldberg. WWE was fortunate enough at this time to have built up two major stars simultaneously in Cena and Batista.

Back in 2005, WWE made it clear that it was moving in a new direction behind Cena and Batista. Cena became the face of Raw as WWE champion while Batista assumed the top position on Smackdown as World Heavyweight champion.

One of the benefits of the brand split was that it could keep two top babyfaces like Cena and Batista away from each other by being on separate brands and saving their eventual confrontation for major events like this.

By 2008, both men wound up on the same brand, finally making the match possible.

Heading into this event, Cena and Batista were the World Tag Team champions, as WWE did the old odd couple tag team thing … again.

Cena had not yet gone on his run of colorful t-shirts. He still occasionally wore jerseys and he wore one on this night. By the next year, Cena began wearing an orange shirt, then a purple one, then a red one, then a green one and so on and so forth.

Batista pulled out a figure four during the match. I don't think I've ever seen Batista attempt a submission move and I'm including when he returned in 2014 with a bunch of Brazilian jiu-jitsu training under his belt.

Cena jumped from the top rope at one point to do a big leg drop, but Batista caught him out of mid air and hit him with a power bomb. Cena somehow kicked out.

Batista then hit him with another power bomb, which was finally enough to put Cena away. Cena getting pinned at this point or any other point is still a rare sight to behold.

Unfortunately, both men suffered injuries coming out of this match.

Cena suffered a serious neck injury that should have kept him out of the ring for about a year. However, he was able to return three months later at Survivor Series and won the World Heavyweight title from Jericho in his first match back.

Batista suffered a serious hamstring injury. It was obvious after he could barely walk out of the ring after the match. With that said, he didn't time off until later in the year. He eventually underwent surgery, which kept him out of action until after WrestleMania.

Hell in a Cell – The Undertaker def. Edge

I believe this was the first time WWE began using a Hell in a Cell that was 20-feet high. Before then, the Hell in a Cell was only 16-feet high. It was raised to discourage wrestlers from climbing to the top.

That sort of went out of the window at WrestleMania earlier this year.

This match came about after a very long feud between Edge and The Undertaker. They were in tables, ladders and chairs matches, the main event of WrestleMania and now this.

This particular chapter came about after Edge had drawn the ire of his own wife and Smackdown general manager Vickie Guerrero. As punishment, Guerrero put him in a Hell in a Cell match.

The Undertaker dominated the early portion of the match and introduced the first weapon, the steel steps. The Undertaker was able to inflict damage with the steps, but Edge was able to turn the proverbial tables and use the steps against The Undertaker.

Edge then brought a real table into play by grabbing it from under the ring. He then stacked two tables on top of each other outside of the ring. Edge then brought a steel chair into play.

After bringing a table and a chair into the match, it was only fitting that Edge pulled out a ladder.

He then placed The Undertaker on top of a table, climbed a ladder with a steel chair in tow and jumped off, driving the steel chair through the chest of his opponent.

The Undertaker eventually fought his way back into the match, but was eventually speared through one of the side panels through the Cell, allowing each man to escape. This was inevitable.

Edge and The Undertaker then fought their way to the announce tables, which allowed Edge to run across them and spear The Undertaker through the ECW one.

When they found their way back into the Cell, Edge hit The Undertaker with a camera. The Undertaker didn't stay down for too long, as he hit Edge with a choke slam, but Edge found a way to kick out.

Edge mustered up enough energy to deliver another spear, but The Undertaker kicked out as well. The Undertaker turned the tables yet again and delivered the last ride power bomb, but yet again, Edge kicked out.

Edge attempted to do The Undertaker's old school move, but The Undertaker thwarted him by wrapping his hand around Edge's throat and tossing him off the top turnbuckle and through the two tables Edge had stacked up earlier.

Once Edge made it back to his feet, The Undertaker used the spear on Edge. He then picked up the same camera Edge used on him earlier in the match and swatted him with it.

The Undertaker even used a pair of chairs to smash Edge's head, just like Edge and Christian used to do.

The Undertaker then picked up Edge and delivered the tombstone to secure the victory and end the storied rivalry.

After the win, The Undertaker celebrated and left the Cell. He then saw Edge slowly moving in the ring, which meant he had more punishment to inflict. Just beating Edge wasn't good enough for The Undertaker.

The Undertaker went back to the ring and set up a ladder in the ring. He grabbed Edge and propped him up on top of the ladder. The Undertaker then grabbed another ladder and sat it next to the one Edge was lying on.

The Undertaker climbed the ladder, wrapped his hand around Edge's throat again and choke slammed him off it, sending Edge straight through the ring.

The Undertaker climbed down the ladder and turned the hole in the ring into a pit fire, symbolically sending Edge straight to Hell.

This was Edge's last match until November, as he took time off to heal his body. He eventually came back at Survivor Series and won the WWE championship.