Summer Slam has always been billed as the “Biggest Party of the Summer,” & the WWE’s biggest PPV, second only to Wrestlemania, but when was the last time SummerSlam was THE PPV of the year? Sadly, the rise of gimmick PPVs (TLC, Extreme Rules) have watered down the entire PPV landscape.
This year’s SummerSlam had 3 storylines that could have (and should have) been wrapped up but sadly, will be drawn out until Night of Champions (Vengeance, for the post pubescent crowd).
Pre-Show: Yeah, apparently this is going a regular thing, go figure.
United States Champion Santino vs. Antonio Cesaro: To paraphrase George Costanza, “I say this with a staunch track record of heterosexuality,” Antonio Cesaro is one of the greatest physical specimens in the business today.
Indie wrestling fans, you know this already, so you’ll be happy to know that after seemingly forcing Santino into a series match. Cesaro was able to put him away without any real trouble. Thank the wrestling gods (not Flair, not JBL) Cesaro is your new U.S. Champ.
Dolph Ziggler was given the MITB briefcase & seemingly forgotten about. He was then handed over to Chris Jericho for safe-keeping and that turned into a pretty fun feud. With rumors swirling of Jericho taking leave to front his Iron Maiden karaoke band, one would think that Ziggler would get put over by one of the best in the game, nope. He tapped to the Walls of Jericho instead.
Strike One.
Even after the departing of Abraham Washington, it was obvious that the Prime Time Players were being groomed for a tag team title run. That, along with reports of HHH’s intentions of revamping the division got many people’s hopes up that PTP would leave with gold. Nope.
Strike Two.
Sheamus been champion since Wrestlemania. He’s had a good number of title defenses since then. One would think there’s be a few defining moments in there, but no. He’s still riding his 18second victory for all it’s worth…by the way, Daniel Bryan, the guy he beat, he’s been in arguably the best angles the WWE has produced in years since his ‘mania mishap.
Alberto Del Rio has been shoved down the viewers’ throats for what seems like an eternity, never going beyond his “destiny” to win the title (even though he DID have a title run last year, remember? No? That’s ok).
These two have made Fridays repetitive for weeks, but managed to create some nice hype on last Friday’s go-home show.
Did it materialize? Nope.
Strike Three.
The Miz and Rey Mysterio put on a great show & hopefully continue their feud. The IC Title run has rejuvenated Miz and makes him look like a real wrestler. The oft-injured Mysterio works great in a feud were he can help a young guy.
Punk, Show and Cena put on the match you knew they would. Nothing special though the double-victor thing really seemed silly in this situation. TNA did it fine last week. This just seemed forced for the “gee whizz” factor.
Brock Lesnar finally got the dominating & devastating win he should have had months ago. The man is a monster, in every sense of the word & needs to be shown as nothing less. He decimated one of the business’ best (& his kayfabe “boss”) with a smile on his face.
Well done.
The only way to describe Summer Slam is okay.
But when the best part of the night is a pre-show pseudo “dark match” broadcast on a poorly buffering YouTube channel, it’s not a good sign.
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