WWE SUMMERSLAM

 

Las Vegas

BIG E vs. BARON CORBIN (6:35): This was a big weekend of wrestling. Ring of Honor had two shows at the ECW Arena. CM Punk returned to AEW on Friday night in Chicago. And now Summerslam at Las Vegas' new football stadium with 50,000 people. There's also a NXT: Takeover show on Sunday night. And no, I have no idea why Summerslam was on a Saturday night instead of the usual Sunday night. There was also a Pacquiao boxing PPV in Las Vegas on Saturday night. Months ago, the WWE announced that the show would be ending at 8PM Vegas time so that the two events wouldn't go on at the same time. Even then I knew that wasn't going to happen. While the Pacman fight did, in fact, not start until Summerslam was over, Summerslam didn't end until 9:05 Vegas time. Of course it did. The show was five hours with the pre-show. It definitely felt it. There were 11 matches but most of them were around 10 minutes or less so it's still kind of shocking that the show went so long. With a huge crowd and some big matches the show was at least entertaining for the most part. There was only one great match, though. And while the last PPV with fans, last month's Money in the Bank, was a great show, this show just highlighted all of the writing/creative problems that the WWE has had for years. This match was the pre-show match. Big E has the MITB briefcase but Baron Corbin stole it for no reason so they had a match. I've said this before, but it's obvious that Vince McMahon loves stupid comedy and also loves Baron Corbin so Corbin is always involved in stupid comedy. Corbin's latest storyline has him broke and disheveled. His hair and beard are grown out and uncombed. His outfits are sloppy. In interviews he begs for money. I guess this is hilarious to Vince McMahon, who knows? I can't figure out the point, but whatever. The match was forgettable. The rumor going around is that Big E will cash in his briefcase on RAW and win the title. I guess because the RAW after a big show should be, well, big. 1/2*

RK-BRO vs. AJ STYLES & OMOS (7:05): I'm very surprised how over Matt Riddle is. The crowds seem to love him more than anyone on the roster. Considering he's a stupid comedy guy in the WWE's eyes, though, I kind of doubt he'll be winning a title in a main event any time soon as a solo wrestler. He did win the tag titles here with Randy Orton. It's a little sad that they stuck two great wrestlers like AJ and Riddle in tag teams. This match was just okay. **

ALEXA BLISS vs. EVA MARIE (3:50): The WWE fired Bray Wyatt but Alexa Bliss is still doing his devil schtick. Yawn. The crowd did pop when she came out, though the match was a short bore. Doudrop, Eva's sidekick, seemed to turn on her after the match though they could have made a bigger deal out of it since that's what her and Eva's storyline is all about. 1/2*

DAMIAN PRIEST vs. SHEAMUS (13:50): There were some good near falls in this match. Priest did his top rope flip to the floor and landed hard on his back and head when Sheamus didn't do a good job of catching him. After that, Priest looked groggy and out of it so the match kind of seemed to fall apart a bit. The crowds aren't fully behind Priest yet, probably because the WWE hasn't done a good job of promoting him. Priest won the U.S. title. **1/2

THE USO'S vs. REY MYSTERIO & DOMINIK MYSTERIO (10:50): These two teams had a really good, exciting match at the MITB PPV. This was about half as good. I'm not sure why. I do know that for whatever reason, the crowd noise is always a lot louder and better at smaller arenas than a giant dome. This stadium did have a roof, but I guess just a lot of empty air space for noise to dissipate into. Which meant the crowd helped better visually than audibly during this show for the most part. I honestly don't even remember half of what happened in this match. It was that good! **

BECKY LYNCH vs. BIANCA BELAIR (0:27): This was kind of the peak of the show in terms of when you realize how bad the WWE's creative is these days. Belair was supposed to have a title match against Sasha Banks. They announced that Sasha wasn't there. No, I don't know why. Either she has Covid or it's storyline. Or a death in the family or something. Who knows? So they announced her replacement would be Carmella. The crowd booed. Carmella just wrestled Belair on Smackdown, too. When the ref was ready to ring the bell, Becky Lynch's music hit and she came out. She had been gone for a year because she had a baby (Seth Rollins is the father by the way). The crowd went nuts. So far, so good. Lynch challenged Belair for the title. They had a match. Lynch hit one move and won the title. Ugh. Really? How fucking pathetic is that? Lynch just got back. Why not, like, build to a match with Belair? Why not, like, dramatically take time to build up her winning the title? And why not have an actual match and not a 27 second squash? First off, it makes Belair look stupid. This was just the dumbest thing I've ever seen. I guess they did it to just please the fans. It was still horrible booking. -No Stars-

DREW McINTYRE vs. JINDER MAHAL (4:40): What the fuck is this? This is like a WWE Superstars match that should be on Saturday morning at 10AM. Jinder Mahal vs. McIntyre? Really? I feel really bad for McIntyre. He was the champ at the top but it was during the pandemic when nobody saw it live or cared. At least they only went 4 minutes. Afterwards, Drew swung his sword at Mahal's two cronies. What, McIntyre is going to murder people? What the hell is even going on? 1/2*

CHARLOTTE FLAIR vs. NIKKI A.S.H. vs. RHEA RIPLEY (13:05): The Nikki A.S.H. push is probably officially over. She'll probably be fired like her husband was in the spring. The only reason they gave the title to her was probably just so Charlotte could lose and then win the title in a short period so the # of title reigns she has will creep up to her father's #. Even the crowds were kind of always half cheering and half booing Nikki, and in this match it was mostly boo's. They had a fairly entertaining match. Charlotte did a top rope moonsault twist to the floor. I guess she added the "twist" because this was a bigger show than usual. **1/2

EDGE vs. SETH ROLLINS (21:15): Finally we got the night's best match and the night's only really good one. This was fantastic. Near-falls. Back and forth action. Big moves. A hot crowd. These two probably just have good chemistry together...but I also think Edge is just a better wrestler than most of the WWE roster thanks mostly to his many years of experience. Edge knows what to do and when to do it and what'll get over and what'll work. This was so good it was kind of a shame it was just a meaningless, non-title match. ***1/2

BOBBY LASHLEY vs. GOLDBERG (7:10): At these big, fly-in shows, the hardcore fans always show up and tend to boo or cheer people that are normally not booed or cheered at. But this was really the only match that it happened in. The crowd booed Goldberg and cheered Lashley even though Lashley was supposed to be this big, bad, evil heel. The crowd even cheered when Lashley beat up Goldberg's son, who jumped into the ring after the match to attack Lashley. That was kind of cruel, actually, booing a teenager trying to help his dad but getting beat up by a huge, muscled thug. As for the match...it was pretty awful. There were no terrible botches, though Goldberg didn't look too steady on his feet for most of it, even before Lashley worked on his legs. The one thing this show proved is that the WWE has no faith whatsoever in their current stars. Both title challengers in the top two matches were stars not in the company anymore (Goldberg and Cena). Would it kill this company to build up their stars to be in these title matches? Like...Matt Riddle, Keith Lee, Ricochet, Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano? They definitely have the talent to do it...they just don't for whatever reason. * 

ROMAN REIGNS vs. JOHN CENA (23:00): The crowd was at least really hot and into this match, which was good since it was just an average match. They did a bunch of dramatic near falls which were great. Cena put Reigns through the announce table. Reigns did a bunch of those stupid looking Superman punches. Cena did his AA on Reigns from the top rope but Reigns kicked out. That got a big reaction. Cena lost and then Brock Lesnar's music hit and the crowd went nuts. Lesnar just got in the ring and stood there and then Reigns left. I guess they wanted to "protect" Reigns and not have Lesnar lay him out. Unfortunately, the ending was kind of flat with neither guy doing anything. The one thing the WWE has done a phenomenal job with is building two powerful, strong, unbeatable champions over the last year with Lashley and Reigns. The problem is they haven't developed and pushed anyone to face them. Now they're just bringing back old stars again with Lesnar. Supposedly the big Wrestlemania main event next year will be Reigns vs. The Rock. AEW is guilty of this, too, as they just signed CM Punk and will probably have him main event PPV's instead of guys like Adam Page or Jungle Boy. But the creative rot in the WWE seems to just be getting worse and worse with no end in sight. These 50,000 fans have to see this, right? Or are they just oblivious, lost in the spectacle? **