Well... time for a Summerslam roundup, review, and general recapping. Let me say this now. If you haven't watched Summerslam, maybe don't read this, because SPOILERS abound.
First general thoughts.. there were way too many ads in the first half of the pay per view.
6-man tag was a good way to get a lot of faces on the show, but didn't really serve any real purpose other than that.
Morrison didn't botch!
The musical guests bored me.
Ok onto the matches.
We open with an unscheduled 6-man tag match.
Miz cuts a promo and gets interrupted by R-Truth who cuts a promo and gets interrupted. This all feels really thrown together at the last minute. It's a shame that they couldn't have done a little more than this.
R-Truth's vest is now "Little Jimmy Proof".
I understand why they did the match, it gets these guys on the pay per view, even if there's nothing really going on with any of them at the moment. Maybe a better idea would have been take out 2 of them, take your pick really.. and add in Dolph, and Riley, and change it to a battle royal for the US title. Just for fun.
The match was pretty good however, and I definitely think the guys made the best of what they got. I'm pretty sure Rey's knee was troubling him though, he didn't get involved until the end of the match really.
Kofi Kingston is really talented, but it feels like he's stuck in this spot at the moment.. he needs to make something happen if he wants to rise up the ranks, so to speak. His crazy high clothesline/cross body thing at the end of the match was amazing though.
R-Truth is less of a joke tonight. Good to see.
Morrison is not as good as Morrison thinks he is.
I gotta stop talking about the match for a second though. The commentary from Booker T (and Cole at points) is awful. I can't believe that they went with Booker over Jim Ross. JR explained on twitter that Booker helps represent smackdown, but, I don't know, it feels like if you're going to bring him back, you'd want him commentating on your big events.
Ok back to the rest of the match.
Miz did something i've never seen before. It looks like a version of a Cutter, except that Miz dropped to his knees not his back. Kind of like a Cutter, mixed with a Stunner.. A... Stutter?
Not much else to say, the finish was fairly obvious, especially after 10 minutes and Rey Mysterio not being in the ring.. But what I did like is that having Del Rio in the opening match maybe took away a bit of the idea that he would cash in his money in the bank..... little did we know...
Was a good finish, and man... Rey kicked Truth in the head so hard! Morrison hit a great spinning plancha, and Kofi hit that huge clothesline. Rey with the 619 and splash for the win.
Solid opening match, especially given no prior notice for us. I give it... 6.5/10
Laurnintis is a tool. CM Punk needs to kick him in the head again.
Was really surprised to see Stephanie, but it definitely makes sense, seeing that CM Punk has brought her up in recent weeks. And it highlights the importance of the main event, that she would show up as a corprorate figure.
I love the crowd reaction to seeing Stephanie. Wooooaaaahhhhhh instead of the usual cheer.
One of the best lines of the night at the end of this segment. "I would, but uh.. i know where that hand's been". Hahaha. Punk delivers again. Damn he is on fire at the moment.
So Sheamus and Mark Henry is up next.
I gotta be honest, I wasn't looking forward to this match. I haven't watched a lot of Smackdown lately, and I'm not a believer that Mark Henry is talented enough to go higher than mid-card. I figured that out when he wrestled Undertaker at WM 22.
Sheamus, I hadn't really seen as a babyface yet, still wasn't sure how that would go.
I was pleasantly surprised on both fronts.
Mark Henry is doing really well with this push he's being given. It's believable. Just as Sheamus is, with the Irish warrior thing he's got going on.
From thinking about how this could go, it didn't make sense to have Sheamus win. If Sheamus beats Henry, Henry loses all momentum.
But if Sheamus loses, it doesn't do anything for Sheamus.
Absolute best line of the night was "Oh man... he just left a skidmark on that boy". Thankyou Booker T. Thankyou so much.
Sheamus is excellent as a babyface. The crowd seemed really into him every time he tried to make a comeback. And when he tied Henry up in the ropes and started pounding his chest, man.. Henry looked like he couldn't take it. Those shots sounded brutal.
The finish was great, and worked so well to keep both guys going. It put Henry over as a monster who can dominate anyone, and with Sheamus not being pinned, it didn't make him look weak either. If you get to watch a replay, check out the guy directly to the right of the impact in the front row, his reaction is priceless.
All in all, a much better match than I originally thought, Sheamus is going to go a long way. 7/10 (just for the finish!)
Cee Lo did some singing. I was hoping Mo and Mabel would come out and join him, we could have had a men on a mission reunion.
Divas joined him for whatever the second song was... and even that didn't make it more interesting for me.
Nuff said.
So the Diva's title match is up next.
This was a match I was looking forward to, not because it was going to be a classic or anything, mainly because I, like a lot of people, wanted to see Beth Phoenix knock the crap out of Kelly Kelly.
I don't buy Kelly as a tough wrestling type girl. Not in the slightest.
So there's not a lot to say about this match either, Beth had new ring gear.. I'm not sure about it, kinda liked the old stuff, but it's not bad by any stretch.
I didn't like the ending at first, with Kelly getting the quick pin, but thinking about it, it does make more sense to keep her (kelly) the champion, maybe next month's pay per view will be the changing of the times. Let them build Beth and Natalya up a bit more, have them destroy the Bellas (please) or something.
One other thing, Kelly Kelly needs to learn how to hit the ropes. It annoys me every single time i see it. The point of hitting the ropes is to get extra speed right? She turns, stops, and just touches them. It's ridiculous.
Anyway, Beth was great, Kelly wasn't. I hope we have a new Women's champion soon. 5/10
Stephanie on camera again, coming out of Cena's dressing room. I love what they're doing with this angle.
Great to see Jimmy Hart too. Although you could see the Little Jimmy coming miles away.
Wade Barrett vs Daniel Bryan.
I was looking forward to this one. Bryan is great, and i'm really starting to love what Barrett is doing. He comes across legitametly tough, reminds me of William Regal.
What i was NOT looking forward to was Michael Cole talking. Enough with the nerd crap Cole, you were a damn cheerleader!
Anyway, as I said I was really looking forward to this match. And i wasn't disappointed.
Lots of great back and forth action, Bryan showing a lot of submissions and locks and stuff you don't usually see in WWE matches.
Oh and his kicks look amazingly brutal.
Barrett hit some awesome moves too. that swinging sidewalk slam, and springboard backbreaker were two highlights for me.
Other highlights, Daniel Bryan's knee into Barrett's head. Owch.
The clothesline when Bryan was straddling the top rope.
Anyway, Barrett is awesome, Bryan is awesome. Let's hope we see more of these two in matches. 8/10
Orton and Christian ... I was hoping this would be good, but i wasn't expecting it to be.
Man was I wrong.
I think like everyone, knowing that this was going to be the 4th time in a row it would be Orton vs Christian for the WHC, I was kind of at that point of "again?..."
Again was worth it.
And we got the added surprise of Edge.
Now that was good, I got a little excited when he came out. But then I started thinking, Edge retired as a face, and the crowd are cheering him now... why would he side with the heel in this match?
So I was glad when he called Christian a bitch and left.
And the match was amazing. Orton was bleeding from 3 or 4 different places at the end of it, you could tell it was really brutal.
I loved the use of the table, leaving it flat on the ring mat instead of setting it up and then hitting the superplex on it. That was really different, and great. I guess it helped make it easier to put christian through it when Orton powerslammed him through it.
Orton still looks like Giant Gonzales to me, but with a lot more talent.
I was thinking for a while we'd see Edge again towards the end of this match, especially when Christian began to set up the Con-chair-to. The setup reminded me of the spot at the Royal Rumble a couple of years ago when Matt turned on Jeff Hardy. Sort of, I don't know, I just remembered that when he went for the chair. But I think it was right that we didn't see Edge, it was more like he said his piece and that was enough.
Also this is just a personal thing, but spitting on someone else is disgusting. I'm glad Orton beat the snot out of Christian after that.
So many brutal spots in this match, though the two that stand out for me were the RKO through the announce table, and the DDT onto the trash can.
Randy seemed like the obvious choice to have win this match, hopefully this is the finish of this feud, and we can move on to something new going forward.
Overall .. easily the 2nd best match of the night. 8.5/10.
One other thing, it's amazing how much of a reaction Orton could get, just by putting Christian's head on those steps and then placing his foot on top.. really, watch that part back again if you can. Sometimes it's what you don't do that leaves more of an impression. Sometimes you leave someone's face impression on a garbage can too.
And now we have the main event.
I love CM Punk's thing of sitting cross legged in the ring. just sayin.
I'm trying to understand the relevance of Cena saying to the camera "This is where i started. I used to walk the concourse of this place.. in gimmick".. I guess he just wanted to say it. Weird.
This match had so much hype to live up to, not just from Money in The Bank, but all of the promos on RAW. CM Punk was going to have to back up what he said, and Cena was going to have to prove he is who he said he was.
And HHH added into the mix just added to the expectations.
There were so many ideas floating around for the finish. HHH screws Punk, ADR cashes in his money in the bank.
HHH screws Cena.
Cena turns heel. (not going to happen)
I don't think most people were expecting that kind of finish though. I mean, apart from the foot on the rope, it was basically a clean finish. As i said in my previous blog what I thought might've happened is HHH ended up screwing Cena.. So i guess in a way I was right. But it was "accidental".
Oh yeah.. Why the hell is Michael Cole telling us which wrestler is which? First of all, even if someone hadn't watched before tonight, they've just seen a promo package of the events leading up to this match, they've both made their entrances with their names on the tron, and they've just been introduced by the ring announcer. WE KNOW WHO THEY ARE! Where's JR... seriously!
Ok onto the actual match.
Cena pulled out a lot of different moves in this match, I was really impressed with him. More so than usual. Because he's always consistent, he's always good at what he does, but there was a lot of new stuff. Maybe he's trying to show he can be more than the 5 moves of doom, not for the people who hate him, but for himself. I believe that's the only reason he'd change. Cena is not going to bow to pressure just to get people to like him. Best example, he hit a rolling sideslam/rock bottom looking thing.
Having said that, I loved the "Fruity Pebbles" chants.
Another thing i loved about this match was they went out there trying to do something different than Money in the Bank. There was a deliberate pace, lots of headlocks, lots of submission type moves, they didn't just go out there and try to recreate what they did a month ago. Punk even pulled out the Koji-Clutch.
So like i said, lots of different moves, lots of originality. Also, the way that Punk and Cena broke up each other's standard "routines" was great. Makes it feel different.
And man, Punk hit his head hard on that dive through the ropes onto Cena/the barricade. Sure, it's padded.. but so are boxing gloves. But it did lead to that awesome little spot of Triple H throwing them both back into the ring to stop the double count-out.
Favourite part of the match was CM Punk hitting the Macho Man elbow and the crowd going nuts chanting "Randy Savage".
I was really surprised at the finish, it seemed to happen very quickly, at a different pace to the rest of the match. Maybe they were running low on time or something. Not anything hugely different or anything, just we had Cena looking like he was making a comeback, but then within 10 seconds Punk hit his finisher and Cena's foot was on the rope.
Now, after thinking about this for a few hours.. I love this ending. Neither guy looks bad, because of the shady finish.
I was almost sure HHH was going to pedigree CM Punk when he raised his hand as the winner.. But as i've said before, it's all the little things that they're doing that make this feud, this storyline so great. Punk didn't take his eyes off of HHH so that there would be no way he could surprise him.
And then Holy SHIT... it's Kevin Nash! (with a sweet goatee by the way) That was the best moment of the whole show. Sure, he left Punk laying on the mat, but it's Kevin Nash!
And then... Alberto cashes his money in the bank. I've seen a few people talking about how in the past there's been rules like "the champ must be able to defend himself" but I think that goes against the whole idea of the briefcase. Remember the first time it was cashed in.. Edge on John Cena? Cena was bloodied, and had just gone through an elimination chamber match. That's what the briefcase is for.. for a guy to take advantage of a situation. I have no problem with that part of it.
Here's why Kevin Nash being the guy to attack Punk is brilliant. Kevin Nash, is Triple H's friend. We know this. Kevin Nash talked about coming back on the road full time, mentioning Cm Punk on twitter. Kevin Nash has been a bodyguard before. So the question now is why? Why did he do it?
CM Punk is going to think it was HHH's plan all along. Cena is going to be pissed with HHH for missing the foot on the rope. See where it's headed? It elevates this story even further.
So why did Nash do it? Well.. I have a feeling we didn't see Stephanie McMahon for no reason. Nash has said for years, that he's about money. Hopefully we get some answers on RAW this week. And Rey gets his championship match this week too, against Del Rio. That should be interesting.. But what will be even more interesting is how HHH sorts all of this out. The way he played the end of Summerslam was great, looking confused, and worried, and like he knew this was all going to come back to him because he was the special guest ref.
So for the last match, overall.. I think it lived up to the hype, it was easily as good as money in the bank, wrestling wise. 9/10
So overall, I really enjoyed Summerslam, and still i'm really excited for RAW this week. I can't wait to see where this is heading.. will Nash be back for a while, was it a one time deal with someone? How will Triple H try to solve all the problems that were caused?.. Who gets a rematch for the title?
What do you all think? Leave me a comment, or follow me on twitter at @TheACMouthpiece and tell me.
And if you don't like what i've said, go suck a lemon.
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