I used to love this time of year growing up. School was disbanded for six weeks and England was graced with wonderful 25 degree days which signaled summer and therefore, scantly clad females, sun bathing and of course – Summerslam. Nowadays, I reside in Australia and over the past 8 years, I’ve acclimatized to the Australian weather, so whilst the days are still 25 degrees, rather then having scantly clad individuals and sun bathing on my mind, I tend to think more along the lines of woolens and thick blankets. Regardless of it being winter however, I still look forward to the summer spectacle that is WWE’s Summerslam.
First and foremost, I want to let you all know that I enjoyed this years summer PPV. Whilst it seemed to lack that magical moment, I thought all in all the event played out well. I was watching the event and during the first encounter, I was curious as to why Dolph and Kofi were going at it once again for the strap, but in saying that – I felt the same in regards to all of the under card matches. I thought Dolph and Kofi delivered in the opening bout and I was expecting the match to develop into a show stealer. However, their presence on the card was soon explained as Nexus attacked the two stars. It has been said by numerous columnists that this set the tone perfectly for the evening and I completely agree -this event was all about one angle and by getting the stable involved early, my mouth started to water in anticipation that something big was going to happen tonight so ultimately, the 7 minutes with Dolph and Kofi and the Nexus really had my blood circulating.
Moving onto the match that disappointed me the most on Sunday and no, I’m not talking about the handicap match. I shouldn’t be surprised that I was disappointed with the diva encounter but what bothered me was not that the match was bad but rather that it could have been great. Fox and Melina were given a good five minutes to showcase themselves and the diva division and with the home town support for Melina, I believe the crowd could have gotten into this match if the two competitors actually put some effort into it. For me, it was an average match (by Diva standards that is) but it could have been something much more memorable so for me, that’s why it disappointed. Also, I am going to just out right say that I hate the fact that Melina has won the title because if anything, we’re back to where we were; in that Melina is champ and no one is good enough to beat her. Rumours are suggesting that the two female titles will be combined at the next PPV and if only for competition, I hope that is true. I hope WWE do combine the belts and Laycool are champions and furthermore, I hope Melina chases this new belt for a long time. I could go on for a while on this topic but I’ll stop it there and announce that my next column will address all the issues I have with this situation.
Now, before you start commenting and saying…’you said Fox/Melina was the worse and then you said the handicap was the worse – make your mind up’, pay attention to what I am saying. I said the diva match was the most disappointing; the handicap match however was the most pointless. There is a difference between the words used and I am sorry to those of you who can actually read and are in fact intelligent but I’m covering myself against the morons of the online wrestling community – although I do highly expect that they tune out after the first paragraph as I used words that consist of more then 4 letters.
Anyway, now I’ve had my rant (which I have been wanting to do for a while), I’ll move on to discussing the handicap match. Quite simply, I couldn’t understand why this was on the PPV as it was lower card Smackdown material at best and honestly, my friends and I were more interested in a discussion about whether Serena had in fact enlarged her breasts. I have to say though, it was nice to see Serena as she was looking good this past Sunday. It was just a shame that Punk had so little to actually do, considering that he and Jeff Hardy blew the roof off last year.
Now before I move onto my thoughts regarding the main events of the evening, I just wanted to quickly discuss the promos of the evening. Whilst I wasn’t a fan of the Laycool and Melina interaction, I could warm to a feud between the top divas of each brand – my reasoning was somewhat touched upon previously. The other promos of the evening however were near perfect – Miz sitting back whilst Edge and Jericho tried to recruit him was fun to watch and Edge shined as per usual, and from something as simple as eating a Slim Jim. The next promo I wanted to mention was between the two champion. I remember Kane questioning Sheamus a couple of months ago regarding the Undertaker attack and I remember thinking that the two had a great chemistry and complimented each other nicely. On Sunday, the two delivered once again and yet again, I’m left thinking that based on the promos alone, I would love to see the two go at it
We were then treated to the incredible Miz promo where he answered the question of would he join Team WWE – I got quite a few throw backs to Rock in this promo but I didn’t mind it at all because Miz was on point – everything from his delay to answering the question to him shouting at the crowd to be quiet whilst he talks was perfect and possibly the best promo the star has ever delivered.
Finally, the main events. First up was the Raw title match pitting Orton against Sheamus. Although I highly expect to see a much better encounter from these two in the future, I thought the match delivered for the most part and moved along at a fine pace. Sadly, like most of the main events, this one had a bitter ending and whilst I understand that ending the match in this manner enables the WWE to continue the Orton and Sheamus program, I expected something a tad more substantial to happen – another issue that plagued the main events.
The second main event came from the blue brand and saw Kane defend his title against Rey Mysterio. For what it is worth, I actually enjoyed this match. It was nothing new but both stars played the David and Goliath roles well and the added element of Rey being freaked out by the present casket was a nice touch. We all expected Undertaker to come up through the casket towards the end and I liked how the WWE kept holding the point off until he eventually did. I particularly liked how Taker went for Rey in the corner and whilst I know that mind control angles have never really worked in the world of wrestling, I was hoping that Taker would turn into a monster and mess Rey up. Taker wasn’t being controlled by anyone sadly and he turned away after an ackward moment with Mysterio and to his brother. The weakened Taker was a nice touch and a nice way to start the feud off and I’m hoping it continues for a while with Kane completely dominating his brother of destruction. We have seen this feud numerous times but who cares. The two haven’t feuded in over six years, they always perform exceptionally well together and let’s all be honest, everyone loves to see the two go at it because there’s the chance that another twisted match may take place.
So…onto the big event of the evening. I just want to quickly say that for someone who is arguably one of the best talkers in the industry today – John Cena gave Daniel Bryan an awful introduction, in comparison to him talking Bryan up Monday for example. Anyway, apart from the awful intro from Cena, there wasn’t much to complain about in regards to this match as it was full of excitement from the very explosive start – thanks in part to Bryan who was the star of the match. Every time he stepped into the ring, the match quality increased instantly and he showed more in the few minutes then any other star did all night.
Luckily, the weak links of the match were disposed of quickly – namely Tarver and Otunga who both looked out of their depth once they entered the fray. Skip was dominant and his presence was well placed. Fortunately, his input was kept short as the weaknesses in his arsenal started to show reasonably quickly. None of the three looked overly great the next night on Raw either, but I can understand why they are still members of Nexus – just cause they make the group look a little more bad ass, especially Tarver and his mouth piece. Unlike Darren Young who doesn’t really fit the bad boy image of Nexus with his joke of a haircut – I wonder why he didn’t follow Justin Gabriel and change his hair for a more serious look. Anyway, Young didn’t particularly prove to be that great on Sunday but he did take his beating well and on Monday, he has one of the better matches, on that basis alone it’s a shame he is no longer a member of the group and I think Justin really should feel ashamed now for not recommending that hair cut.
If anything, from the Nexus perspective, the match relied solely on the work of Justin and Heath Slater, who both had a great match – particularly Gabriel who proved to be the strongest of the seven competitors. Sadly, he was squashed in a bad way the next night by Orton and was made to look inferior to the top dog of Raw which isn’t exactly the method I would recommend taking, especially since Nexus members are supposed to look like a reasonable threat rather then jobbers to the current roster. Heath must have impressed the correct person however because after his fine performance on Sunday, he had a good outing against Edge the next night in a match I actually enjoyed, regardless of weird ending.
Barrett also had a good showing Sunday and he followed it up with a good match on Monday, thanks in part to Chris Jericho but nonetheless, he did look good in between the ropes.
Speaking of Jericho – aside from Bryan, Jericho was the other highlight of the Summerslam match and between himself and Edge, carried most of the match and gave us the more memorable moments – I especially liked how Jericho kept shouting down at Cena and calling him a stupid man. After the reaction Jericho received on Sunday and Monday, I wonder whether the WWE will toy with the idea of turning him face once again. For me, I hope he doesn’t because Jericho has developed into arguably the best heel in wrestling today, even if he isn’t used as we all hope.
Whilst Edge and Jericho carried most of the match, I should give props to all Team WWE for good performances – Morrison worked well, Truth did his job and treated us to an awesome variation of a stunner and even Bret made up for the terrible match he had at Wrestlemania.
So…..now I’ve quickly discussed what I thought of each wrestlers input, I guess I should move onto my thoughts regarding the controversial ending. OK, I understand that it has been a rumour that Nexus would align with a bigger star who would end up as their leader and it seems now that the rumour was misled and the common purpose was in fact, take over the WWE with Wade at the helm. Which confuses me because if the leader of the group is Wade, then why have him lose to Cena? By doing so, the NXT breakout star is automatically beneath John Cena and surely, that isn’t the way to build up a young stars career.
Also, John Cena is the biggest star within the company and if Nexus are unable to compete with the star – in particular, if the leader of Nexus is unable to compete with Cena then what’s the point? If anything, Nexus need a leader now who can be regarded as the best in the company because after Wade tapped out to Cena, it did nothing but announce that whilst the star could be champion, it wouldn’t matter because once he faces Cena, he’ll be beat once again. Wade could beat Cena down the line but what sort of build up would that be for the upcoming match?
I’m confused as to the purpose of Nexus now. Are the stable serving as another obstacle that Supercena conquered? Are they simply serving as a launch pad for the career of Daniel Bryan? I’d ask the same regarding the career of Barrett but he’d have to move to Smackdown now, because no one there has yet to beat him and therefore he isn’t the weaker link beneath the might of Supercena (which by the way, even Lawler refered to on Raw). If I seem hard to understand through my rant then I apologize but I just can’t see any point in having Nexus lose on Sunday, unless of course it was so Cena could simply conquer and then proceed into making them jokes rather then threats – SEE Heath Slater being referred to as Wendy.
I won’t even mention how Cena conquered because it was a joke but after assuming that matters cannot get worse, the next night on Raw, Cena was supposedly out cold but then suddenly, on the count of nine, he jumped into the ring and beat the count and then proceeded to layeth the smackdown on Darren Young’s candy ass, which was absolutely terrible and by far more condescending then what happened on Sunday after the DDT. I mean, I know wrestling is fake, but this takes the fucking piss – at least try and give us some realism within your matches.
Anyway, I will say that at least WWE are trying to make up for Summerslam by having Nexus dominate on Raw but for me, WWE have lost my interest in what could have been the most important point in a new era of wrestling and whilst I’ll wait and hope that they can turn things around, I expect it to only get worse – possibly starting with another loss, possibly to Triple H who will likely treat them as he did the Spirit Squad.
So there are my Summerslam thoughts, mixed in with several rants and some brief thoughts on Raw. Hope you enjoyed and please, if you have anything to say, I like to hear your feedback.
Until NXT Time…..
