Summerslam 2016

[Jimmy Redman]

So I just caught up on the first hour since I slept in this morning, and wow, everyone is sleeping on Sasha vs Charlotte pretty fucking badly, I thought it was spectacular. I assume people were more worried about Sasha's near death experience, or the result, and got taken out of the match, so I think watching it after the fact helped me. I mean I'm worried about her too, but Sasha is basically Hokuto at this point and I'd be more surprised if she got through a match without trying to kill herself at least once.

 

Anyway I thought the match itself fucking rocked. I liked the early tension and the slaps. Charlotte is great at using her size to throw her weight around and just toss some bitches. Aside from the botches (and Jesus that first one was ugly and scary as hell) she looked great, laying shit in, and really selling the final stanza with her emoting and trash talking, which she's improved at remarkably for someone who was wooden as a plank in NXT. Sasha was all fired up and ready to die for our sins, and also went in hard and threw those really nice knee strikes and shit. She was super great selling the back all the way through.

 

I liked the cool stuff they went for like the crab through the ropes, or even just Charlotte kicking her leg out from her leg to send her into the corner. The girls seem to have this sense of freedom to look at certain moves and movements in the ring and come up with ways to do them or play off them that you might not expect. And that Super Mega Razor's Edge-Rana counter was fucking INSANE. I'm actually annoyed that people are or were too preoccupied with Sasha dying to really appreciate that spot because they fucking nailed it and it was NUTTY AS BALLS. The Natural Selection-Bank Statement counter was smooth as silk too, I loved that.

 

And the finish! I mean I'm pissed Sasha lost, but what a way to get there. Both girls throwing bombs. Sasha's back is fucked but Chsrlotte can't put her away and starts throwing her standard late-match tantrum. But this time, she has no Flair or Dana to turn to at this point, as she usually would. So the battle rages on. Sasha's back is still fucked but she has an ace left in the hole, the Bank Statement, which she finds yet ANOTHER way to transition into and it looks like she's survived this beating, only for Charlotte to use her biggest strength, the strength she's been using to best effect all night - her size advantage - to roll her up, and then all of that back work pays off as Sasha's back is just too fucked for her to be able to kick the bigger girl off her. Ball game. I mean, the back work lead directly to the finish! There is nothing more PWO than that, y'all should be dancing in the streets right now. Great match.

 

I also appreciated what I assumed was Sasha's newest Eddie cosplay outfit, this time from his days as a jacket-wearing babyface in WCW circa 1995. On another note, I also appreciated Enzo's attempt to set a record for Most New York Cliches Uttered in Under Two Minutes, if only because it lead an entire crowd to burst into the first verse of 'Juicy'.

[Strummer]

PWI reporting Balor might have been seriously injured last night. He left wearing a sling. Being re evaluated today. This company can absolutely not catch a break these days. WCW levels

[Migs]

I really need to go back and see why people didn't like Cena-Styles, but I was in the building and for what it's worth, the match had easily the most heat of the night. Crowd was very into the near falls, and AJ's win got the biggest reaction of the night. Masterful performance by Cena, too - he had a real sense of the room and played everything perfectly, did everything he could to build up the moment for AJ.

 

Hindsight possibly, but that should have been the main event. The crowd was fried after that and nothing got back up to that level. The biggest chants in the latter part of the show were about how ugly the Universal Title is.

[Migs]

Cena/Styles and Balor/Finn went on before the non-existent Rusev/Reigns match and the Lesnar/Orton stoppage. My problem with all of this (aside from everything already covered) is the match order. Cena/Styles works a Mania style main event match in the middle of the show and Rusev/Reigns are on the path to having a really good and heated brawl only for it to end with the heel coming off as a face and the face coming off as the biggest dick in the room. Lesnar/Orton was good, but would have worked better as the 2nd or 3rd match from the main event. If I was Vince and I had a vision that these matches HAD to end the way they did tonight and I booked it that way-- a re-arranging would have done magic.

 

Main Event: Balor vs. Rollins

 

Co-Main event: Orton vs. Lesnar

 

Cena vs. Styles

 

U.S. Title: Rusev vs. Reigns

 

 

I think that layout would have saved the crowd, again, if the booking MUST stay.

 

We all want new stars, but Cena still has the most heat. If that match is for a World title, it's a killer main event, with a similar feel to Cena-Bryan (although a step down in quality).

[NotJayTabb]

I got as far as the end of the women's title match last night (due to the time difference, I'd decided to stay up until the first match I didn't care about, and thankfully Apollo Crews turned up to get me to go to sleep), and it felt kind of odd. It was incredibly sloppy, yet also really exciting. The drop from the corner has already been discussed, but Sasha almost landing on her head during the splash mountain reversal was equally dicey (to the extent that Will Ospreay tweeted her advice on how to do it safely out of legitimate concern. At the same time, it felt like a really fun match to watch, really felt like they were both laying it on the line for the title.

 

I also liked the pre-match panel dropping hints that Sasha might lose, wondering if she was a bit too cocky in the build up to the match. It also suggested as possible heel turn for Sasha, especially if Bayley goes to Raw. Sasha is much better as a heel than face, and Bayley should be over enough for a heel turn to stick. The only issue is that the face side of the Raw women is pretty lacking, with Charlotte, Jax, Summer, Lana and Dana all heels, with Alicia Fox pretty much a tweener. Actually feels like the balance and depth is greater with the Smackdown women

[Grimmas]

Can we declare having two main champions a failure yet, because it sure as hell feels like it already.

[NotJayTabb]

Between putting it on Smackdown, putting the title match in the middle of the card at Summerslam and having a loser like Zigger as #1 contender, they've managed to make the world title seem pretty unimportant.

[Grimmas]

Between putting it on Smackdown, putting the title match in the middle of the card at Summerslam and having a loser like Zigger as #1 contender, they've managed to make the world title seem pretty unimportant.

It's not like the Universal title felt big either. Clearly Cena-AJ and Brock-Orton, and probably the women's title were all more important.

[PhilTLL]

So I just caught up on the first hour since I slept in this morning, and wow, everyone is sleeping on Sasha vs Charlotte pretty fucking badly, I thought it was spectacular.

Generally agree, except the Splash Mtn/rana spot is so famous (amusingly, Sasha played Rey this time) and high-degree-of-diff that it sticks out instantly when it isn't perfect. Which it wasn't quite.

[Strummer]

Meltz was spot on in his analysis of Dolph/Ambrose on WOR. He said Vince thought Dolph winning the six way match was enough to give him credibility. It didn't work. AT all. No one last night thought he had a shot at winning the title. Sometimes it just comes down to that no matter how good the promo work in the buildup

[El-P]

And that Super Mega Razor's Edge-Rana counter was fucking INSANE. I'm actually annoyed that people are or were too preoccupied with Sasha dying to really appreciate that spot because they fucking nailed it and it was NUTTY AS BALLS.

 

It was also obvious as fuck, you could see while Charlotte setting up the move very carefully that it was gonna be a counter. Kid Kash was doing it like on every PPV in ECW in 00. So no, didn't care about that spot especially since yes, I was more concerned about them, especially Charlotte, not fucking it up and killing Sasha for good.

 

Then again, I agree that the match as a whole may be better than I gave it credit the first time around since the botch really took me out of the match completely. Charlotte showing frustration at the end was pretty awful overracting though. If that's her her thing, just don't have her do it.

[C.S.]

Since I ignited a Dudleys discussion earlier in this thread, I thought this was worth posting in here.

 

The Dudley Boyz to ‘say goodbye’ tonight (WWE.com)

[FMKK]

Bound to be an angle. I hope they don't have a long feud.

[C.S.]

If it means the return of a Bully Ray-like character and D-Von stretching his own character muscles and mic skills, I'm all for it. It certainly can't be worse than the stale and irrelevant nostalgia act they've allowed themselves to become.

[tlk23]

Jericho and Lesnar got into a backstage scuffle after the main event.

 

http://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/brock-lesnar-chris-jericho-heated-altercation-summerslam-219211

[El-P]

 

Jericho and Lesnar got into a backstage scuffle after the main event.

 

http://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/brock-lesnar-chris-jericho-heated-altercation-summerslam-219211

 

 

The meta conspirationnist in me sees this as a reenactment of the infamous Jericho/Goldy backstage scuffle in 1998. Since we're talking about Lesnar vs Goldy at next Mania already (which is pretty much an awful idea).

[Cap]

I watched half of the show last night and had to do some work before bed so I finished it today after work. Just my highpoint thoughts.

 

I am sad to see the way some people seem sort of lost or used in ways that don't really excite me. Steen and Zayne had a fantastic match last month and now they both seem to wandering into the tag division in a way that probably wont amount to much. That said, I actually enoyed JerichKO vs Enzo/Cass. I thought it was a fun opener. I wish the finish was different, but eh, not a big deal to me right now.

 

I sort of agree with Jimmy Red about the women's title match. It was better than I think people are giving it credit for. The mistake was there and the execution wasn't quite as tight as it could have been, but that is what you get sometimes, especially with Sasha, who clearly watched a bunch of Joshi and requires a "holy shit she might be dead" moment in every one of her big matches. The more I think about it, the more I think the result is ok. I think Sasha should climb the ladder again and work to go full heel. Her ring work gets a lot better when she is a heel. I think she is just better at it. It will take some time and some doing, but I think it will be worth it long term. A true heel champ is probably what is best for the division to stay more well rounded and exciting, at least right now.

 

I thought Cena vs Styles was the match of the night. It was a little heavy on the big time wwe style for me personally, but it was really good and it delivered. I don't think it is 4.75 or 5 (but I am going to rewatch it and rate it tomorrow I think), but it was good. I think they did well to tell the story of two elite guys on a collision course and both men having to pull out all stops to win. Sometimes that is the story. Sometimes that story makes sense to tell. I think it made sense here. I would have loved another layer or two, sure. There were things that bothered me, sure. They should probably tone down the finishers and build more around people avoiding them and working harder to get them, yes.... but I still think this was a good match with some rewatch value to it.

 

I liked the world title match a little more than most too. I wasn't under the impression Ziggler was going to win, but those two work pretty well together and it served its purpose. They were debuting another title, of course the WWE World Title had to take a back seat this time. Personally, I am not bothered by the two titles just yet. I don't think they have failed misserably at it or anything. it is way too early to tell. This match did what it was supposed to do, kept Ambrose looking good, gave him a good match, and let the other belt get some momentum.

 

Balor vs Rollins was really pretty fun. I was pretty low on Balor for a while, but I think he really stepped up in the Nak match and since his debut. He looked to wrestle with a lot more urgency here. The demon thing felt significant (where it lost that for a while). I think this match was really pretty good and I anticipate it holding up better on rewatch. Sure, the title is ugly, but who the fuck cares right now. I don't mind the branding really. I at least think the backlash has gone too far. They have done much worse when it comes to titles. They can change the title's look if they want, tweak it.

 

The main was interesting. It was obviously a work to me. At worst, it was an accident that happened in the moment and Brock ran with it to the moment over. I tend to think this is what they wanted. They let the camera sit on that blood for a while. Randy was defending himself and then puts his hands down for a minute and THAT is when Brock throws the sharp elbow, an elbow designed to cut, not KO. I think they planned or planned something like it and it might have gotten out of hand a little. The match itself was solid. I thought it was on its way to being pretty damn good. Planned or not, it ended prematurely and could have wound up being something really good. I tend to think they might be setting up a rematch for either the Survivor Series or Rumble... Maybe even Mania.

[BBscout]

Hopefully Orton goes 2010 mode on Lesnar tonight.

 

Guy like him gives up his body like that and they do a finish that doesn't do shit for him. Being a veteran star and doing a comeback match with that result hurts. I will say him beating Lesnar in a rematch does more for him and is more believable now than if he were to have last night. Looking forward to see where it goes.

[goc]

 

Jericho and Lesnar got into a backstage scuffle after the main event.

 

http://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/brock-lesnar-chris-jericho-heated-altercation-summerslam-219211

 

If this is true Jericho is incredibly stupid. Not just for getting worked by a planned finish but to think getting into a fight with Lesnar would lead to anything but him getting his ass kicked.

[...TG]

 

 

Jericho and Lesnar got into a backstage scuffle after the main event.

 

http://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/brock-lesnar-chris-jericho-heated-altercation-summerslam-219211

 

If this is true Jericho is incredibly stupid. Not just for getting worked by a planned finish but to think getting into a fight with Lesnar would lead to anything but him getting his ass kicked.

 

He's been backstage enough to know it would have been broken up quickly, and maybe he's lucky and gets a shot in. Zero risk for Jericho.

[NotJayTabb]

I've been critical of Dean Ambrose before, but I give him all the credit possible for making the world title match somewhat watchable. Thought he heeled it up nicely, and was actually convincing as the champion who knows he's better than his challenger, but is sometimes caught offguard. Loved his condescending slaps to the face and his mock Sweet Chin Music warm up (followed by a poke to the eye). For his part, Ziggler did have one nice moment (the headbutt used to set up a superkick), but that aside...wretched. Really awkward looking roll-ups, the "hold me up until I slap your back" DDT, some utterly terrible elbows where he was clearly just punching the floor, his corner headbutts where he was just flinging wet hair at Ambrose....just abysmal.