Summerslam was awesome!
- I though that pre-ad break/horribly booked finish, RVD and Ambrose were having a really solid match. I'd love to see them have a rematch with 15+ minutes and a no interference stiupulation.
- Ring of Fire match SUCKED. glad the flames were so high because they obscured how horribly mistimed the moves were. so many moves didn't even connect, and it was a typical big man squash, like WCW in 1998. just awful. the ring steps spot was TERRIBLE, no-one has ever believed there is any contact, not even in 1992. 'follow the buzzards' and a t-shirt? Bray Wyatt DOESN'T NEED A CATCHPHRASE, nor a tertiary nickname. on Smackdown I thought it was symbolic that the Shield were in-ring as they replayed the Wyatt assault on Kane from the first segment, but if they are HHH's new pet project then I guess we can look forward to generic promos and WWE branded sheep masks. bleh.
- Cody/Sandow was fine. I wish Sandow wouldn't do the job in every match. he's one of, if not the most hated heel on the roster. I can't see him really going far with his current gimmick, it's a little kitschy. they should have kept the 'stache on Cody and used this as a springboard for a beard vs moustache match with the briefcase on the line. solid midcard match though, loved Sandow doing the bottom half of TOTAL ELIMINATION, Cody took a pretty rough apron bump.
- Christian/ADR was actually much better than I anticipated. they won me over towards the end of their recent TV matches, but this one was pretty good throughout. told a nice story, nice to see some proper heat for Alberto, and the heel tactics showed some real character, which he has missed outside of savaging Ziggler and Ricardo. was a thousand percent sure his weird promo would queue up a Rey Misterio run in. I find ADR and Christian both pretty predictable and thus, boring, but I feel like they did a lot of fresh, unexpected stuff here. on a side note, the dude is a legit fighter, if he got beat up that badly in a bar I'd expect he was pretty heavily outnumbered. hopefully we'll find out from the dirtsheets what happened. not sure what part of Ayrshire Drew McIntyre is from but a lot of it is rough as shit, I've love to know what kind of guys could mess those two up.
- Divas match was a Divas match. call up Paige and Emma, put Natty back in with the wrestlers and keep the reality TV girls to Sunday night. Eva Marie is UN BE LIEV A BLE. so hoochy. smoking hot.
- Punk/Bork. just brilliant. I didn't hate on HHH/Bork's wrestlemania match as much as everyone else, but this was a zillion times better. no point talking about because it's been done to death already, which is a testament to how good it was. I had zero problem with the logic during the Heyman interference, I was 100% sucked into kayfabe mode for this match. snapping the wood from the announce table on Punks back was brutal, I was so sure there would be a chairshot to the head during it, instead they just amped up the back chairshots. 5 stars!
- crowd was zapped for the mixed tag match. no-one cares about Kaitlyn or Big E. AJ is over, Dolph is over, but they can't be in the ring together. that the crowd was so hot for the ending is a testament to how much Dolph and Big E were trying in this match. Dolph was jumping higher and running faster than usual, but he was really laying the moves in tight, sometimes I feel like he tries so hard things end up sloppy, like when he lands 5 feet away from the other guy after a Zigzag. this was as good as I could be I guess, just please let it die now. Big E is so charismatic, let him loose on a new programme and give him the mic/backstage skits.
- Bryan/Cena. John Cena is a nice guy. he works hard, he loves his company, and he does more than his fair share of charity stuff, whether for sick kids or the armed forces. and, it's not his fault persay that he's been pushed to the moon for so long, but this match (as good as it was) really pissed me off. the payoff for Bryan's 'elevation' is that they designed this match to put Cena over as a good wrestler. HE. IS. NOT. A. GOOD. WRESTLER. and the dumb thing is, he doesn't need to be!! did the crowd chant 'you can't wrestle' at Stone Cold Steve Austin? no they did not. the most technical thing he did was a Lou Thesz press! they cheered because a) they liked him and b) he didn't try to do stuff he can't do! they chant that at Cena because they just want to slate the guy because of how he's booked! and the moron feeds them by doing dumb shit like CM Punks Shining Wizard in the corner, or a Hurricanrana, or that abomination people are referring to as a Styles Clash which, personally, I thought it was stupid and reckless - Bryan nearly broke his back trying to avoid breaking his neck. John Cena does not need to prove he's a good wrestler because he cannot prove it, the whole story behind the match is pointless, do they think fans won't realise that he only has matches like this against dudes like CM Punk and Daniel Bryan? this whole programme stopped being about Daniel Bryan during RAW and became about John Cena, and the reason he could take the clean pinfall as that he's been 'redeemed' as a technical wrestler, as good as anyone in the indies or Japan AS WELL as being the big Hollywood superstar.
this match, booking aside, was good. not as good as Punk/Brock, but a different kind of match. I liked how obvious it was that Bryan was calling it, and he came out looking like a real pro who is able to carry a match at the highest level. Cena will be out, and the E finally has a main event heel after months of weird tweener promos and heatless, confusing TV. like seriously, the next biggest heel before Orton's cashin was Ryback, and his Summerslam involvement amounted to pouring soup down a guys shirt. I'm looking forward to seeing Orton's newfound workrate with his natural heel behaviour being allowed to shine, but HHH/Vince will probably turn the whole thing into a clusterfuck. still, as long as the madness happens before and after 25 minute 4star matches then no complaints from me. great show overall.
side note, the commentary put the end of the show over perfectly, they did a great job selling the emotional win, and the dastardly heel turn even though the crowd popped for the Pedigree. co-incidentally, Bryan kicks out of Cena's finisher and finishes his match looking pretty fresh, but a Pedigree puts him down for like a full minute so that Orton doesn't even need to RKO him for a 3-count? get over yourself Paul.
