[2016-08-21-WWE-Summerslam] Brock Lesnar vs Randy Orton

[GOTNW]

Opening was pretty boring, I have zero use for Lesnar spamming German Suplexes that end in weird flat back bumps, looks completely unnatural. Match was fun once they moved away from that as we got to see some actual violence with the table bumps. I can accept finishers being used the way they were here much easier when you actually establish every match is going to be like that and it doesn't feel like it's just a cheap way of getting hit for a bigger match and that's what they've done with Lesnar, you get the feel you'd have to hit him with a shotgun to actually beat him. What makes this match really special is the absolutely brutal finish-absolutely unreal violence creating an epic visual. ***1/4

[goc]

Where is your anger about selfish Brock Lesnar refusing to put over young up and comer, and totally fresh act, Randy Orton!?

[WingedEagle]

Opening was pretty boring, I have zero use for Lesnar spamming German Suplexes that end in weird flat back bumps, looks completely unnatural. Match was fun once they moved away from that as we got to see some actual violence with the table bumps. I can accept finishers being used the way they were here much easier when you actually establish every match is going to be like that and it doesn't feel like it's just a cheap way of getting hit for a bigger match and that's what they've done with Lesnar, you get the feel you'd have to hit him with a shotgun to actually beat him. What makes this match really special is the absolutely brutal finish-absolutely unreal violence creating an epic visual. ***1/4

I shudder to think what would happen if WWE catered to this.

[GOTNW]

They already had generations of wrestlers die prematurely and a wrestler commit murder/suicide, Battlarts alumnis fare pretty well in comparison. And the Raw GM almost killed himself taking stupid bumps several times.

 

Plenty of moves look good without dropping someone on their head. Not sure German Suplex is one of them. Lesnar's Vertical and Belly To Belly look great but he doesn't use those as much unfortunately.

[WingedEagle]

They already had generations of wrestlers die prematurely and a wrestler commit murder/suicide, Battlarts alumnis fare pretty well in comparison. And the Raw GM almost killed himself taking stupid bumps several times.

 

Plenty of moves look good without dropping someone on their head. Not sure German Suplex is one of them. Lesnar's Vertical and Belly To Belly look great but he doesn't use those as much unfortunately.

 

I'm not their parent. Not my job to look out for wrestlers' well being, even if I wish them all the best. But if every match looked like Battlarts or older Japanese shoot style promotions I wouldn't be long for the show. Its one thing to mix that in as part of the overall package being presented. I know what channel UFC is on and can turn there whenever I wish.

[Microstatistics]

 

They already had generations of wrestlers die prematurely and a wrestler commit murder/suicide, Battlarts alumnis fare pretty well in comparison. And the Raw GM almost killed himself taking stupid bumps several times.

 

Plenty of moves look good without dropping someone on their head. Not sure German Suplex is one of them. Lesnar's Vertical and Belly To Belly look great but he doesn't use those as much unfortunately.

 

I'm not their parent. Not my job to look out for wrestlers' well being, even if I wish them all the best. But if every match looked like Battlarts or older Japanese shoot style promotions I wouldn't be long for the show. Its one thing to mix that in as part of the overall package being presented. I know what channel UFC is on and can turn there whenever I wish.

 

 

Not sure if you're talking from a match quality point of view or safety point of view. For the former it's much better than the million finisher kickout stuff while for the latter it's no worse than the high spot/huge bump stuff that's getting people injured.

 

Anyways it was probably a one time thing and it's extremely unlikely it becomes the the norm.

[El-P]

Battlarts and older shoot style promotion had cards how often ? Once a month ? And really, shoot-style had never been about busting each other hardway with elbows anyway.

 

Anyway, this match was terrible and the finish was dumb as fuck. Just fucking blade a good one instead of this shitty pseudo MMA nonsense that can go nowhere anyway and doesn't do anything for Brock at this point, he's all gimmicked up and his matches suck now, thanks to Suplex City^tm.

 

(on the other hand, the *übersafe German suplex* that has been the norm in WWE since Kurt Angle, whose suplexes looked like shit compared to any japanese rookie's, are indeed not doing Brock any favors. And the WWE stance is totally hypocritical since guys are killing themselves doing really dangerous spots while the freaking piledriver is forbidden. It's not like Jerry Lawler maimed a lot of guys with it...)

[GOTNW]

 

They already had generations of wrestlers die prematurely and a wrestler commit murder/suicide, Battlarts alumnis fare pretty well in comparison. And the Raw GM almost killed himself taking stupid bumps several times.

 

Plenty of moves look good without dropping someone on their head. Not sure German Suplex is one of them. Lesnar's Vertical and Belly To Belly look great but he doesn't use those as much unfortunately.

 

I'm not their parent. Not my job to look out for wrestlers' well being, even if I wish them all the best. But if every match looked like Battlarts or older Japanese shoot style promotions I wouldn't be long for the show. Its one thing to mix that in as part of the overall package being presented. I know what channel UFC is on and can turn there whenever I wish.

 

Don't really see why you felt the need to act so condescending here, maybe it's self-loathing due to how notoriously the All Japan crew ended up. Yeah, it's probably stupid to do skull cracking shoot headbutts if you're wrestling 300 times a year, but then so is taking stupid apron and tope rope bumps that happen all the time now. And both are dangerous enough even without the insane schedule.

 

Also pretty ridiculous you're atttacking me for this when my favourite WWE wrestlers are Braun Strowman, Rusev and The Miz, the safety and health of WWE wrestlers would probably be better off if I was running it instead of people fascinated with PWG Meltzer reddit meme wrestling.

 

And if more people knew how to actually WRESTLE like the shoot guys did maybe they could work the mat a little instead of doing something stupid every two minutes to get a reaction.

[WingedEagle]

Always a pleasure. Not much to add where reading comp is disregarded. Hope you've got a comfy saddle atop that high horse you love to watch from.

[GOTNW]

Always a pleasure. Not much to add where reading comp is disregarded. Hope you've got a comfy saddle atop that high horse you love to watch from.

I'm sure running away from an argument you started by adding even more condescending nonsense (lol kek you can't read) is much easier than actually responding to the points I made. Maybe if you knew how to argue you wouldn't feel the need to resort to such cheap baiting.

[DMJ]

Hated this one.

 

Boring Suplex City stuff out of Brock.

 

More finisher kickouts (just in case you hadn't had your full with Styles/Cena).

 

Nothing new or fresh out of Orton, just signature stuff, which may make sense psychology-wise, but certainly didn't make for any suspense or drama.

 

Non-finish "finish."

 

Possible lead-up to a Shane/Brock match because he can't help himself. Taker/Shane at Mania was probably my least favorite match of the decade, but Shane/Brock may end up topping it.

 

Gave it 1 star on my blog.

[WingedEagle]

When was the last great Randy Orton match? Anything since Bryan presumably carried him on TV at some point during his run? Kudos to him for taking the abuse he did here, but I couldn't point to anything else he did to make this match interesting.

[Jimmy Redman]

I'm not really up with my 2014-15 so there may be a more recent example, but the last I can think of is the Mania XXX main event.

 

Also, just before that was Orton's gauntlet run through all of the EC participants, that lead to great TV matches with Bryan, Cena, Cesaro, etc. So early 2014 may have been his last run of great work.

 

There's also the Evolution/Shield tags that came just after Mania XXX.

[WingedEagle]

I don't recall those TV matches but was thinking of straight singles matches rather than giving credit for Mania XXX or the Evolution/Shield tags. No doubt some Bryan singles affairs in that period were solid.

[Mrzfn]

When was the last great Randy Orton match? Anything since Bryan presumably carried him on TV at some point during his run? Kudos to him for taking the abuse he did here, but I couldn't point to anything else he did to make this match interesting.

 

Honestly you might have to push it back to the Christian feud.

 

In a pinch, depending on your mileage, you could argue:

 

vs. Bryan 6/24/13

vs. Bryan 12/16/13

vs. Bryan 2/3/14

vs. Cesaro 2/11/14

vs. Rollins WM31

 

But I think Christian is the last generally agreed upon one.

[Microstatistics]

When was the last great Randy Orton match? Anything since Bryan presumably carried him on TV at some point during his run? Kudos to him for taking the abuse he did here, but I couldn't point to anything else he did to make this match interesting.

 

The Cesaro match from 2/2014 is great, even better than Cesaro's match with Cena that month. Also I thought his selling in this match was really good.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Brock Lesnar vs Randy Orton - Summerslam 2016

The least special Brock match from both the booking and the match quality up until this point. Orton had crowd Heat with the Authority and some residual heat from Rollins  feud in first half of 2015. I was struggling to think of what he did after that turns out he got injured. Guess they were banking on return heat. This feels like a stopgap measure for Goldberg right down to the fans chanting Goldberg twice at the end of the match. With Cena and Taker done and dusted, Ambrose done, it didnt make sense to throw Rollins or Roman out there. Orton is the sacrificial lamb. The whole card is weird and I’ll get more into that when I do a deep dive on 2016 WWE but everything looks so midcard. This is a pretty heatless main event. 
 

The whole Crux of the match is how much weight you put on the RKO. They built the entire match around Randy Orton having a puncher’s chance because of the RKO. The RKO near fall that whole match is built around got crickets. No one gave a fuck. No on believed Orton had a snowballs chance in hell of winning. The booking of the match as the Summerslam main event started them in a hole.

The actual match is good but standard. It lacks the uniqueness of other Brock matches. It is not bad. It is just good, which is weird because Brock matches are usually special. Brock overwhelmed him early as he is wont to do. Orton fought free from the first suplex good dropkick. Goes for the RKO which makes sense because the whole match is built around it. Brock throws him off. I wish Orton made the choice to register here, scramble and continue the fight. But he goes for the BIG sell and the match really grinds from there. Lots of duplexes I appreciate Orton throwing a couple knees and elbows to make sure the crowd knows he is still alive. Also it forces Brock to varies his offense, those Brock knees were sick more of that please. 
 

The Brock biel from the barricade to the table was absolutely sick and the best spot of the match. The RKO on the table was perfectly timed you go the distinct impression Brock was playing with his food. Orton made him pay for letting him linger. RKO was his big punchers chance and Brock sold it like a millions bucks. The Orton DDT another great bump and sell by the best seller in WWE of the 21st Century, Brock Lesnar. Second RKO gets no heat but is well timed. Kick out so he goes for the Punt which is great logical progression. We get the F-5 kick out.

Thankfully we are spared a bajillion F-5s and RKOs but instead we get a very Inokiist finish which WWE was wont to do for Brock. He slices Orton hard way using his elbows.