All in all, I thought SummerSlam was a very good show, surprisingly good in fact. I was expecting the show to just drag on forever but that wasn't the case at all as the layout of the show kept everything going at a smooth pace and I can honestly say that I wasn't bored the entire time. Personally, I'd have made a few changes but, all in all, I felt WWE delivered last night.
I didn't catch the first part of the kickoff show, though I didn't miss out on anything as far as the mixed tag team match was concerned.
Cedric Alexander vs. Drew Gulak was a good, 3.25 star bout that featured a nice mesh of styles and some good, physical action. Gulak's a good talker and has easily been the true heel presence of 205 Live, so I thought he'd pick up the win here but that wasn't the case. Still, it was a fun match all in all.
The B Team vs. The Revival was generally okay, about 2.25 stars, but ultimately nothing to write home about. I dig the B Team's schtick overall, but they're eventually going to have to come off as more serious in some ways, namely actually being able to win matches in ways that don't look like a fluke. I know that's part of the gimmick but it's something that I think has a relatively short shelf life.
The Intercontinental Championship match between Dolph Ziggler and Seth Rollins started the main card off and it was a great choice. It started out sort of slow, as is the usual case, with Ziggler & Rollins sort of feeling each other out a bit but once it got started, it never stopped. Both men worked their asses off to deliver a strong bout and the presence of Ambrose & McIntyre at ringside was just about presence as neither one really did anything to impede the match. I felt that it was a great 4 to 4.25 star bout with Rollins winning the title. I was kinda hoping this would be the end to their feud but what I'm really wanting to see is McIntyre moved out from being Ziggler's heavy.
The SD Tag Team Championship match between the Bludgeon Brothers and New Day was a fun 3.25 star, 10 minute bout. If given a good 10 to 15 minutes more, then you'd have seen an all time classic as I remember some of the matches they had when Harper & Rowan were part of the Wyatt Family and the ultimate potential these teams have with each other is right up there with the strength of the New Day & Uso matches. The DQ ending was okay as it made sense for a team to finally push the BBs to a limit where they have to resort of underhandedness or maybe react out of frustration.
Braun Strowman vs. Kevin Owens is something I probably wouldn't have even done. I dislike seeing anyone of Owens' ability reduced to such fodder for anybody, even Braun Strowman. However, since they did it, they did the very best thing they could do in that they kept it under 2 minutes.
The SD Women's Championship match between Carmella, Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch was, overall, quite fun and much better than I expected. I felt it was a very good 3.5 star bout that saw all three women work hard and gave Carmella her best outing to date. Lots of drama, good storytelling and a title change is what was needed and this match delivered all three. The problem, however, is that WWE has miscast Charlotte and Becky into the wrong roles, something that's becoming quite common on the main roster. Charlotte wins the match and the title, Becky congratulates her, then turns and starts beating the hell out of her. In my opinion, it should've been Becky to win and for Charlotte to turn heel because the fans want to cheer for Becky; when she beat down Charlotte, Becky got one of the biggest pops of the night and Charlotte is far, far better as a heel than as a babyface. It was easier to sympathize with Becky than Charlotte as, from a kayfabe perspective, Becky had her title shot before Charlotte bigfooted her way into the match. Charlotte has essentially become the John Cena of the women's division in that she's almost always on top and this makes her 7th title win, not to say that she isn't great or talented or any of that but Charlotte as a heel just works out, especially if the ultimate plan is for her to meet up with Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania next year.
AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe was a great 4.25 star bout that delivered upon what it needed to. Styles and Joe put on good matches, it's what they do, it's what was expected of them and they delivered. I'm fine with the DQ ending as it means we get them again, probably inside Hell in a Cell, and the last few minutes of the match saw that the feud is going to get more intense with Joe addressing Styles' wife and daughter at ringside. It made Styles even more of a sympathetic babyface because losing his temper and blasting Joe with a steel chair was perfectly understandable.
Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz was a lot of fun. The crowd wasn't as into it as I figured but I also figured that they, like me, expected some sort of cheat ending from the Miz due to Maryse being at ringside. I put the match at 3.75, maybe 4 stars as there was some great physical action from both men and I like the story that was told with Miz coming off like someone who was not only trying to show Bryan up but to do it in a way to make it seem like he was Bryan's superior. I also like that they gave this match a lot of time, about 23.5 minutes to be exact and it was the longest match on the card. The ending to the match was a classic heel ending with Maryse "comforting" her hubby at the barricade while slipping a foreign object into his hand. He punches Bryan with the loaded fist, quickly hands the object back to Maryse and gets the win. I still think Bryan will or already has re-signed with WWE, otherwise WWE wouldn't have felt the need to give him an out and protect him with the way the match ended. Besides, a brief backstage scene with Bryan in the trainer's room being iced down while voicing his frustration over what happened also suggests that Bryan isn't going anywhere and that the feud will go on.
Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin was something that didn't need to happen at all. Balor showed up as the "Demon King" and beat Corbin in about 90 seconds so, at least, they kept it very short. Corbin's a great heat magnet, but it just seems like a bit of a waste to pull out the Demon King on Corbin.
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Jeff Hardy for the United States Championship was a solid 3 star outing. It's something that I felt could've easily happened on SmackDown Live rather than SummerSlam, but it was a solid outing and had the right outcome with Nakamura retaining. I have to admit that I cringed when Hardy missed the Swanton Bomb spot on the apron; Hardy is said to have some nerve issues, so I think this was a spot he could have avoided doing but Hardy is one of those wrestlers who's more into the moment than anything else.
Alexa Bliss vs. Ronda Rousey for the Raw Women's Championship is something that's sort of hard to grade or rank as a whole. It only lasted for about 4 minutes but it did tell a good story in those 4 minutes with Rousey coming off as more confident than she's ever looked yet in WWE and Bliss being reluctant to even get into the ring with her. Ultimately though, how it played out is probably exactly the way it should have because nobody believed that Bliss was any sort of threat to Rousey and I'm so very, very glad that they didn't have some sort of screwjob ending with Mickie James running out or Nikki Bella, who was at ringside, interfering. The crowd really, really popped when Rousey started working on Bliss' arm and the fact that Alexa is double jointed allowed her to pop her arm out of place and that visual, coupled with the look on her face and the sound of her shrieking like a damned soul really sold the whole sequence. Rousey wins the Raw Women's Championship and that outcome plus the clean ending, plus the selling Alexa did makes this a good 3 star outing.
Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship is something else that's kind of hard to grade in some ways. I think it was very smart, however, of WWE to have Braun Strowman come out before the match and to declare his intentions of challenging the winner of the match immediately afterward. The overall match was the usual stuff: Superman Punches, Suplex City and Spars. The whole match only went a little over 6 minutes but the overall ending was clever; Lesnar dodges what looks like a spear attempt only for Reigns to fly through the to and middle ropes to accidentally crash into Strowman. Lesnar then attacks a downed Strowman by repeatedly hitting him with the MITB briefcase and steel chair shots before delivering an F5, indicating that there won't be a cash in attempt. Prior to all this, Lesnar had tossed Reigns back into the ring so Reigns had had some time to regain his faculties and catches Lesnar with the 4th spear of the night that stuns him enough for Reigns to get the 3 count and become new Universal Champion. I give the overall execution of it 3.25 stars as the way things were laid out helped the overall match succeed. Raw will finally have a main event champion show up regularly and I'm glad as I'm just tired of the Brock Lesnar show.
Overall, I give last night's show an A-. It was far and away better than I was expecting.
