Summerslam 2010: A Retrospective Look

[Dagger Dias]

This summer I'll be looking back on each of the previous Summerslam events, one by one. Every few days I will submit a new topic until we reach 2014's edition of the 2nd biggest brand in WWE.

This thread will be for discussing.... Summerslam 2010!

Summerslam 2010 took place on August 15, 2010. It was held at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Here are the results of the matches from this show:




0. Evan Bourne defeated Zack Ryder in a singles match

1. Dolph Ziggler (c) (with Vickie Guerrero) faced Kofi Kingston in a singles match that ended in a no contest for the WWE Intercontinental Championship (07:05)

2. Melina defeated Alicia Fox (c) in a singles match for the WWE Divas Championship (05:20)

3. Big Show defeated The Straight Edge Society (CM Punk, Joseph Mercury, and Luke Gallows) (with Serena) in a three-on-one handicap match (06:45)

4. Randy Orton defeated Sheamus (c) by disqualification in a singles match for the WWE Championship; had anyone interfered in the match, they would have been suspended indefinitely and had Orton lost, he would not have been allowed a rematch. (18:55)

5. Kane (c) defeated Rey Mysterio in a singles match for the World Heavyweight Championship (13:31)

6. Team WWE (John Cena, Daniel Bryan, Edge, Chris Jericho, Bret Hart, R-Truth, and John Morrison) defeated The Nexus (Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, David Otunga, Skip Sheffield, Michael Tarver, and Darren Young) in a seven-on-seven elimination tag team match (35:18)







Now, here are some discussion questions concerning the event:

What was your favorite match on this show, and why did you like it the most? What about the worst match of this show, why did you like it the least?

If you could change a few things about Summerslam 2010, what would it be and why?

You may only use wrestlers who were available at the roster at that time or make changes that could have realistically taken place in August 2010. Please keep in mind the situations going into the show such as who could actually have been pushed into a title match, or what songs existed back then if you wanted to change the show's theme music, and so forth.

You may only discuss Summerslam 2010 in this thread. The remaining Summerslam events will be getting their own retrospective threads, any posts regarding other events will be considered spam and you risk getting an infraction.

Discuss!

 

[The Fabulous Rougeau's]

I remember really looking forward to this event and than being dissapointed that Nexus lost. Even though it wasn't the end of Nexus, I think losing this match at SummerSlam really hurt them moving forward. Not so much the bigger guys like Barrett and Bryan, but the other guys. It seemed to instantly make them lose credibility.

Would be really interesting to have a redo, have Nexus win the match, and see if things could have turned out differently for the group. There is no reason that with better booking they could have had the impact that The Shield had.

 

[The Brain]

Worst SummerSlam ever. This one was just bad. This had the most lackluster build of all the SummerSlam events. The Nexus angle was the big story that summer but a seven on seven match seemed like overkill, especially with both Bragging Rights and Survivor Series right around the corner. The Kane vs. Mysterio feud just seemed stupid in my opinion. Kane was trying to convince us that Mysterio had attacked the Undertaker and put him in a coma. No one was buying that and I'm sure that was the point but it just came of as lame to me. Kane vs. Mysterio in a world title match at SummerSlam just didn't excite me. I hated the handicapped match. I'm not a fan of them in general but having Big Show beat three people made Punk and company look pretty weak. Randy Orton vs. Sheamus was ok but these two never seemed to click for me. The matches were ok but I always had a hard time getting into their feuds.

My favorite match was the main event. I just mentioned seven on seven seemed like overkill. That's from a booking point of view. The match itself was good, and really what else is there for me to choose from on this card. My least favorite could be anything else but I'll pick the handicapped match for the reason I listed above.

As for the changes I guess I'd leave the main event alone since it was too soon to do Cena vs. Barrett one on one but I would have had Barrett win the match. He should have been the sole survivor to position him as a bigger threat and what in my opinion should have been an eventual title win. I would have also done Punk vs. Show one on one instead of the handicapped match. I'd like to come up with a better opponent than Show for Punk but I've got nothing here. On paper Punk and Kane switching opponents makes sense but both those matches had been overdone by that point. Oh well. This one was just destined to be a bad show and I think it was the worst SummerSlam.

 

[Pedigree1]

Yah this summerslam was just bad... The whole buildup especially Mysterio being billed as the one who put Taker in a Coma.. Are you fucking kidding me or what? Taker back then was what 310 pounds and Myterio is 175? Uh Huh sure sure.. No one in their right mind was buying it,and that just killed any momentum going into that match..

The match itself no surprise that Kane won,no one expected Rey to win.. The ME match,was just overkill.. No way Team WWE should have won,they got this completely backwards.. When the Nexus lost,that killed them as a group.. They were done as any kind of threat.. They should have had the Nexus go over,not saying they should have had completely buried the WWE,but at the end Wade should have stand Alone,and Tall..

What would have been wrong with the SES going over the Big show. The SES was CM Punks,best work ever IMO.. His Promos,everything were just spot on.. No way should Big show have gone over.. Maybe on a one on one match with Punk like at BR or something,but not at summerslam

 

[Cub McCallister]

This was a pretty bad Summerslam IMO, the card looked decent but the matches were pretty bad themselves. I didn't like how they tried to have Mysterio be the culprit to trying to knock off Taker and also it should of been a triple threat match for the world title with Swagger, Mysterio & Kane. Those are the only three I could think personally so it would only be beneficial for all three to be involved and possibly have SWagger be suspected as the culprit, Summerslam is supposed to be the biggest blockbuster of the year tbh and they even say this themslves, I would make a fair few changes to the show:

Dark Match
Joseph Mercury & Luke Gallows Vs Mark Henry & Evan Bourne
These two could of done well as a tag team.

1) Dolph Ziggler (c) (with Vickie Guerrero) vs. Kofi Kingston
WWE Intercontinental Championship. This stays the same tbh and have the same finish it shows that Nexus are trying to make a statement BUT have more time for the match.

2) The Hart Dynasty (C) Vs The Uso
Tag Team Title Match. Have this one added to the card and have the Hart Dynasty go over.

3) Alicia Fox (C) Vs Melina
Stays the same.

4) The Big Show Vs Cm Punk
Make this a singles match and have Big Show win by DQ because Punk can't put him away so he has to cheat, they will then have a return match at Night of Champions in a last man standing match where Punk wins.

5) Kane (C) Vs Rey Mysterio Vs Jack Swagger
World Heavyweight Title Triple Threat Match. This match should of happened tbh and have Kane retain the title and have Taker take him out after.

6) Sheamus (C) Vs Randy Ortan
Stay the same.

7) Team WWE (John Cena, Daniel Bryan, Edge, Chris Jericho, Bret Hart, R-Truth, and John Morrison) Vs Team Nexus (Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, David Otunga, Skip Sheffield, Michael Tarver, and Darren Young)
The teams stay the same EXCEPT you have Barrett go over as the sole survivor after Miz hits Cena with the briefcase and Barrett will cheat to win and assert his dominance.

That's my card, it's not all that better with the addition of one new match but it would be better then the old card.

 

[Wolf Pac]

Oh boy, what a terrible show that would lead to even more terrible crap - the Taker vs. Kane feud (What the hell happened to these two? They had great feuds back in the day), Cena joining the Nexus, the boring Orton vs. Barrett main events etc. Did anyone even care about anything else going into this show besides the main event? On a list of all the Summerslam's in history, this would go down as one of the lowest alongside 2003. The main event was good, although the result is questionable, but I think what happened to The Nexus probably turned out for the best. Nexus was all about Wade Barrett, the other members didn't even matter, and I thought Barrett wasn't ready to be a main eventer just yet judging from his matches with Orton. Bad News Barrett is far more entertaining than anything the Nexus has ever done besides their debut. I like Heath Slater more now as the One Man Rock Band than when he was in the Nexus. He's a comedy jobber, yeah, but he's a fun character. Even though Ryback is teaming with Curtis Axel now, Skip Sheffield at least got himself a better character and a push for the WWE Title at one time. I'm not counting Daniel Bryan as part of Nexus but look at what he became now, the hottest superstar on the roster and a former WWE Champion. And no one cares for Otunga, Gabriel, and Tarver just like they didn't back then.

I'll skip right to my changes here cause I don't have a favourite match from this PPV, not that they would make a difference anyway cause like The Brain said, it seemed like it was destined to be a bad show.

CM Punk and Big Show should've went one-on-one. I'm not a fan of 3-on-1 Handicap matches, I didn't like it when Show faced Angle, Mark Jindrak & Luther Reigns at Armageddon 2004 and I didn't like it here. And yeah, Show beating them did make em look weak. What was wrong with a singles match between Punk and Show?

Kofi and Ziggler were capable of a better opening match but it was clear that the opening contest was nothing more than an angle as The Nexus would run out and cause a DQ, beating down Kofi. If they needed The Nexus to disrupt a match and show off their dominance, they should've put Evan Bourne vs. Zack Ryder, two irrelevant guys, somewhere on the PPV for Nexus to squash like bugs.

 

[Tyrant25]

Not my favorite show, not by a long shot.

The main event was very intriguing. The Nexus' first true challenge, the return of Daniel Bryan, the inclusion of Bret Hart, the joining of former enemies Edge and Chris Jericho... all of it boiled down into something great. The match was good, though the wrong team won. I wasn't a fan of The Nexus, but if the point of the team was to turn Wade Barrett into gold, he should've been the sole survivor. The feud continued however, Barrett and Cena had a great match at Survivor Series the same year, Cena joined the Nexus (which I highly enjoyed) and then, well... everything went to shit. The Nexus helped Kane beat The Undertaker in their Buried Alive Match, which to this day hasn't been addressed...

Nonetheless, that was my favorite match.

The Kane vs. Rey Mysterio feud wasn't great, but why are people saying Rey Mysterio couldn't have put The Undertaker in a coma? What happened to "wrestling isn't all about big guys anymore"? What happened to Daniel Bryan? I didn't hear anyone complaining when he beat Triple H, Randy Orton and Batista at Wrestlemania with one bad arm. Plus, the feud was meant to lead into Bearer's return and Kane's series of (really bad) matches with The Undertaker. THAT was the stain of this feud - Kane and The Undertaker losing all chemistry. I mean, literally every match they had was terrible. The feud was great, but the matches... not so much.

I would change the result of the main event and I would've added Serena to the 3-on-1 Handicap Match, that way Big Show couldn't touch her and the guys could've taken advantage of that. Probably could've made for a good storyline.

Rating: 5.5/10

P.S: Cameron's favorite match is on here too

 

[HBKistheHOF]

Worst SummerSlam ever.

I think this might be a little bit of an overstatement but it's definitely up there as one of the the worst Summerslams.

I've been to fortunate enough to attend every Summerslam held at the Staples Center (2009 - Present) & the only one I can honestly say I was even slightly disappointed by so far was Summerslam 2010.

0.) Evan Bourne def. Zack Ryder - It was a decent dark match but Evan Bourne should have gotten a spot on the main event team instead of Bret Hart & I would have had a different dark match.

1.) WWE Intercontinental Championship: Dolph Ziggler(c) w/Vickie Guerrero vs. Kofi Kingston went to a no contest - This is where the night started taking a turn for the worst. Kofi versus Ziggler was a fine match for the PPV, actually it was the match I was looking forward to the most prior to the show that night but it was cut super short after an attack by The Nexus. The attack would have been fine in almost any other match that night but it started off the night in a weird way IMO & ruined what could have easily been the match of the night.

2.) Divas Championship: Melina def. Alicia Fox(c) - I'm shocked seeing that this match only clocked in around the 5 min. mark because it felt much longer in person. I would have had this match be the dark match or just move it to a TV taping all together.

3.) The Big Show def. The Straight Edge Society in a 3-on-1 Handicap Match - Surprisingly one of the better matches of the entire PPV even though at the time this was one of the matches I was anticipating the least. But I would have rebooked this feud to intertwine with the Rey/Kane storyline, had a Fatal Four Way for the World Heavyweight Championship (Rey vs. Kane vs. Punk vs. Show) & used the few mintues this match took up to have a match with Sheamus (maybe Sheamus vs. The Great Khali or Mark Henry just to look more impressive) & have Sheamus look dominant to continue his heel push, I just wouldn't have given Sheamus the strap yet.

4.) WWE Championship: Randy Orton def. Sheamus(c) via DQ - Just a long, drawn out, boring, convoluted, mess of a match with a pretty stupid Orton babyface ending. Sheamus wasn't ready to hold the title the 1st time IMO, let alone a 2nd reign heading into the 2nd biggest show of the year. I would have completely rebooked Sheamus on this show as I previously stated & would have had Orton face Edge & Jericho in a triple threat for the WWE Title.

5.) World Heavyweight Championship: Kane(c) def. Rey Mysterio - A decent match but I think Rey was somewhat injured for this one (big surprise right?) & The Undertaker's appearance at the end was pretty pathetic. Not just because Taker only returned to get owned by Kane but Taker himself was already starting to look in pretty poor shape at that time, not to mention if you watch it back you can clearly see Taker has some kind of yellow mustard stain or something on his mouth & a little on his singlet. Just sad really. I would have had a fatal four way as previously stated & had Taker return but instead to clean house & only if he was truly healthy at the time.

6.) Team WWE (John Cena, Daniel Bryan, Edge, Chris Jericho, Bret Hart, R-Truth, and John Morrison) def. The Nexus (Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, David Otunga, Skip Sheffield, Michael Tarver, and Darren Young) - Well as I said in the beginning I would have replaced Bret Hart with Evan Bourne & had Hart just play some kind of referee, special enforcer, etc. kind of role. Also I would have replaced & made better use of Y2J & Edge before they left & had to retire respectively & had them involved in the title match instead. Besides that I think the only real thing that should have changed was that The Nexus should have won. The whole speculation stuff with The Miz & who the final guy would be was great & the Daniel Bryan reveal was pretty much about as solid of a surprise as the fans could have asked for considering there weren't a whole lot of guys it realistically could have been at the time & Bryan has since gone on to become a huge superstar.

All in all, I think combined with losing a few huge superstars just months prior (Shawn Michaels, Batista, Triple H hadn't returned yet, etc.) & WWE pushing a couple superstars too much at the time (Sheamus, Melina, etc.), probably because of the previously mentioned loses, it was mostly a common case of classic last minute WWE booking ruining what originally seemed like solid plans. Even Jericho & Edge have said in multiple interviews how they talked to Vince, Cena, etc. & tried to get the outcome of the main event switched & what not but Cena thought he should win in the end so that's happened. Just poor/sloppy booking for what could have actually been a pretty solid Summerslam under the right circumstances.

 

[A11oftheLights]

I'd have Barrett winning the main event with Daniel Bryan or maybe Edge/ Chris Jericho turning on Cena after the match seemed basically over with Cena and whoever in a 2-on-1 advantage.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Really? Am I the only one who liked this show?

I think some of these comments are a bit harsh. Could this show have been better? Absolutely. It was a one-match show where only the Team WWE VS Nexus match truly mattered. That did not stop me from enjoying the show at all. There are a couple of things I definitely would change though. The useless divas match comes to mind first. If only Beth Phoenix would have been able to return in time to have a match here, I would have put her in Melina's place to defeat Alicia Fox. Melina was horrible and should never have won either the Womens or Divas Championships. Alicia should have retained until the unification match with Michelle McCool the following month. I'd also have replaced Rey Mysterio with Jack Swagger or even had Undertaker return earlier to face Kane in the World Heavyweight Championship match. Anybody would have been better than Rey honestly.

My favorite match was obviously the main event. I am fine with the result. Yes, you heard me correct. That match had everything you could possibly want. Legends of the past (Bret Hart), top stars of this generation (Cena/Jericho/Edge), and future stars (Bryan/Barrett) getting featured in the same match. Bryan's return was great. The elimination style made it all the more exciting. People have been whining about how Nexus should have won. Then what? If a team of WWE Legends could not defeat them, then who realistically would? Had the entire Team WWE lineup survived, I could understand the rantings. Only Cena did. Barrett made it all the way to the final elimination and Nexus still looked like legitimate threats until the CM Punk version of the group ruined all their momentum. That's on the creative team though, not on Punk.

The point is.... this show does not deserve the hate it is getting. Sure it COULD have been a lot better, but to call it the worst Summerslam ever or ranking it as bad as 2003's edition is just not fair. The main event delivered, saving the show. I am very shocked by the overwhelming negative response in this thread. Hey, you guys are entitled to your opinion so I will not tell you what to like or not. That's your own decision. If you didn't like it, that's your opinion. I loved this show.

 

[Aquaman6686]

Hated this show. Hated it hated it hated it hated it HATED IT. This is one of the worst SummerSlams in history, possibly THE worst. Not only was the card weak, but the show was headlined by a 14-Man tag match where (at the time) 8 of the participants were absolute nobodies. I had zero interest in the Nexus storyline from day one, and I was happy to see them lose, because it cut the angle short by several months and got most of those guys out of the main event scene, which none of them besides Bryan and Barrett have any right to be close to.

And in response to this event being called "as bad as 2003", I've never understood the hate for that event. The 2003 SummerSlam is one of my favorite events in the PPV's history. It wasn't as good as 2002 or 1998 (or maybe 99, whichever one was in MSG), but it was a damn good show, and a heel-heavy one, which is rare.

 

[The Brain]

My favorite match was obviously the main event. I am fine with the result. Yes, you heard me correct. That match had everything you could possibly want. Legends of the past (Bret Hart), top stars of this generation (Cena/Jericho/Edge), and future stars (Bryan/Barrett) getting featured in the same match. Bryan's return was great. The elimination style made it all the more exciting. People have been whining about how Nexus should have won. Then what? If a team of WWE Legends could not defeat them, then who realistically would? Had the entire Team WWE lineup survived, I could understand the rantings. Only Cena did. Barrett made it all the way to the final elimination and Nexus still looked like legitimate threats until the CM Punk version of the group ruined all their momentum. That's on the creative team though, not on Punk.

The point is.... this show does not deserve the hate it is getting. Sure it COULD have been a lot better, but to call it the worst Summerslam ever or ranking it as bad as 2003's edition is just not fair. The main event delivered, saving the show. I am very shocked by the overwhelming negative response in this thread. Hey, you guys are entitled to your opinion so I will not tell you what to like or not. That's your own decision. If you didn't like it, that's your opinion. I loved this show.

To each his own. I'm glad you enjoyed the show. I'm not going to try to talk you out of liking something you liked. First of all that would be impossible, but also that would be kind of a jerk thing to do. Keep your fond memories.

I stand by my statement that this was the worst SummerSlam. I agree that the main event did save the show and it's a good thing because the show really needed to be saved. As I mentioned a seven on seven elimination seemed like overkill because both Bragging Rights and Survivor Series were coming up which featured the same kinds of matches.

As for the result, I see your point but I still think Barrett should have won. Only Barrett. This way the rookies in Nexus wouldn't have dominated the WWE stars but Barrett would have established himself as someone that belongs. Also I didn't really by the Nexus vs. WWE story. It seemed more like Nexus vs. Cena. I didn't care for the notoriously selfish and long time Cena rivals, Jericho and Edge suddenly teaming with him because the felt threatened by some rookies. Even if you didn't want Barrett to get a clean win there were so many ways it could have happened. Jericho and Edge are untrustworthy so they could have cost Cena the match. It goes without saying Bret was past his prime so any one of the rookies could have eliminated him. Bryan was in the same position as anyone in Nexus so Barrett could take him out anytime. Truth and Morrison were the mid card guys that take the fall to make the new guys look good. Meanwhile along the way six of the seven Nexus members fall to the vets so the rookies would be far from dominant but still get the needed win.

The rest of the card had an awful build and the action didn't do anything to save it. I don't mean to dump on a show you liked. Like I said, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I think you can see where the rest of us are coming from though.

By the way, when was the last time I gave you rep? I've tried to do it during this series but I haven't spread enough even though I feel like I haven't given you rep in forever. Guess I've kind of forgotten about rep over the years. I probably owe a lot of people.

 

[Judah's Lion]

i'm gonna go with the majority on this one and simply state that this show was very rough. i won't be too harsh and call it the worst SummerSlam in history, but it definitely ranks in the lower 5-10 for me.

there are so many changes that i would make, i'm not even sure where to begin.

Kofi vs. Ziggler for the IC Title should have had a finish that didn't involve the Nexus attack. these two are so amazing in the ring and always have such good chemistry together. why spoil what could potentially be a show stealer? so there's my first change.

i'd add the Hart Dynasty vs. the Uso's for the Tag Team Titles. doesn't have to be a long match but the tag belts should be defended on these big stages.

scrap the Women's Title Match all together. maybe put it on the pre-show or as the dark match.

then do Sheamus vs. CM Punk. not sure what story they would tell, but both these guys are really great inside the ropes, so i trust that they could make something work. i'd have the Nexus interfere in this finish anyways to set up some continuity with CM Punk and the New Nexus. plus, as stated above, it'd give that Kofi/Ziggler match a real finish.

here come the serious changes...

Kane vs. Taker vs. Big Show for the World Title. just have these three big men slug it out for the title and let anyone win. really, anything would have been better than the impossible-to-believe Kane/Mysterio feud and build.

i absolutely love Sheamus NOW. i didn't like him at all at this time though. so i'd do Orton vs. Edge for the World Title. maybe throw in Jericho as well? do two Triple Threat Matches for the World Titles? it has happened before, such as at Survivor Series. yeah, i'll go with that. Orton vs. Edge vs. Jericho for the World Title.

that leaves my mega main event. like Brain said, and i remember thinking this at the time, the 14 Man Elimination Tag Match was overkill if only cuz the exact same match was gonna happen at the next two ppv events in Bragging Rights and Survivor Series. still, the Team Nexus vs. Team WWE was the biggest storyline at the time and it needed this kind of match to protect the rookies.

i'd have Team Nexus stay the same, obviously, but switch up the Team WWE members a bit. instead of Cena, Edge, Jericho, Morrison, R-Truth, Bret Hart and Daniel Bryan, i'd mix it up. Edge and Jericho are in my Triple Threat World Title Match, so they're out. and i'd have Bret Hart as the referee or guest enforcer instead of an active participant, so he's out. Team WWE then looks like this: Cena, Evan Bourne, Rey Mysterio, John Morrison, R-Truth and Miz to continue his build as the main event level player and world champion that he would become in the coming months.

and yes, i'd have Wade Barrett win the match as the sole survivor.

 

[klunderbunker]

This is more or less a one match show as the other matches might have meant something but they all pale in comparison to the big main event. The problem here is in the ending. I'm not sure what the benefit is in having Cena's team win as it continues to crush anything the Nexus had going for it. Between this and Barrett never winning the title, the team was Wade Barrett and a bunch of jobbers beating up various top stars. Daniel Bryan returning was great, but just being a member of CEna's team didn't mean all that much.

The rest of the show was nothing to remember, but at least there were some fresh faces in the company to make up for the dullness of the previous show. The main event is good, but the wrong team won, plain and simple.