SummerSlam 2016

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 265 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 2
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: October 10 2016

(To read a full event review of WWE SummerSlam 2016, click here.)

(Thanks to Fetch Publicity for arranging this review.)

SummerSlam 2016 had a bit of everything, really. There was a classic match, a controversial ending to the main event, a crowd which occasionally seemed more interested in hijacking the show, a let-down of a title match, some good mid-card matches, a few surprises and a couple of title changes. All of this applied to the 29th annual SummerSlam, and watching it back on DVD is therefore an intriguing and entertaining viewing experience.

The opener, between Enzo Amore and Big Cass and Jeri-KO, is a fun start to proceedings; in hindsight, it's amazing to think that just eight days after kicking off this PPV, Kevin Owens would win the Universal Championship (more on that later). Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte for the Women's Championship is good but inferior to their previous meeting on Raw, partly due to the baffling spot that saw Sasha's neck almost broken by Charlotte (calling her careless is incorrect if dropping her almost head-first was actually the plan, as daft as it sounds), with the shock outcome almost causing the Brooklyn crowd to turn on the show less than an hour in. A backstage segment involving The Club and Finn Balor keeps the audience positive; it sounds like the hardcore fans in attendance lose their minds at a potential full-on Bullet Club reunion in WWE, to the point where there may have been - ahem! - some discarded items after this skit ended within the audience, if you know what I mean. (If you don't, please don't ask me to explain that!)

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WWE SummerSlam 2016

Image Source: YouTube

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: August 21 2016
Location: Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Attendance: 15,974

Since I began writing reviews of major WWE events, they have been fairly easy to recap and to pass opinions on. With SummerSlam 2016, though, the task becomes a lot trickier, for the card pretty much had everything on the quality scale, as well as certain events being affected by factors beyond WWE's control. If nothing else, that gives us plenty to talk about, so let's get right to it!

Last year, SummerSlam expanded to a four-hour show, and this year the preceding Kick-Off Show was expanded to two, meaning a six-hour experience in total. On the Kick-off Show, we had three matches, the first of which was a 12-man tag team bout (which was actually a SmackDown rematch), pitting American Alpha, The Usos and The Hype Bros against The Vaudevillains, Breezango and The Ascension. It was a basic warm-up match, in front of a Brooklyn crowd which was probably no more than 30% full at this point, but it received a decent amount of time and gave most involved a chance to shine on some level. I do think that the sequence of everyone using their finisher in a multi-man scenario is getting tired, but that aside this was acceptable for what it was. The match ended with Jey Uso somewhat stealing the glory by sneaking in a blind tag on Chad Gable to hit a splash for the win. It was emphasised enough that this appeared to be step one of a much-need Usos heel turn and a likely feud with American Alpha, which definitely has potential. Assuming that's the case, then this match definitely served its purpose.

Next up on the KO portion was another tag bout, as Neville and Sami Zayn took on The Dudleyz. Some were dismayed that Zayn wasn't on the main card, but I'm confident that he'll be in the thick of things on Raw over the next few months. This was alright; nothing special, but it was enjoyable to watch, and once-NXT rivals Neville and Zayn formed a pretty good team. Bubba Ray inadvertently struck D-Von to set up the finish, which saw an unusually-hesitant Neville hit Bubba with the Red Arrow as Sami held D-Von away (D-Von was visible watching Neville hit his big move which was a slight botch). Neville and Zayn won; The Dudleyz had their third miscommunication problem in the last two weeks. I expect Bubba to turn heel on D-Von to split up the Dudleyz, possibly as soon as the post-SummerSlam episode of Raw.

Last up on the KO Show was Cesaro vs. Sheamus in the first match of a Best-Of-Seven series. It was a slow starter, and the crowd was very quiet considering that one of their heroes Cesaro was involved. But it soon picked up and turned into a pretty good bout, with the highlights coming on a double-jump into a splash by the Swiss Superman, making use of the new screen pillars that surrounded the ring post at this event, and Cesaro brilliantly reversing a Brogue Kick attempt directly into a Sharpshooter. But, as I expected given that Cesaro has recently pinned Sheamus twice, it would be the Celtic Warrior who got the nod here, as he drove Cesaro shoulder-first into one of the posts and followed it up with a match-winning Brogue Kick. Round 1 goes to Sheamus, with the series likely to be stretched out until the September Raw PPV Clash Of Champions, or perhaps Hell In A Cell in October. In something of a recurring theme, fans have blasted the BO7 concept, but given time this should hopefully be worthwhile. Incidentally, this won't be the last time I refer to wrestling fans in this article; consider that a precursor of things to come. Actually, I'll save it until I've covered all of the (many) matches, because it's a subject that needs addressing.

So, the main card began at this point, and we had a tag bout pitting Enzo and Big Cass against JeriKO. Enzo and Cass got a monstrous pop from the audience, and their pre-match promo went down a storm with references to Big E. Smalls (had they done one more, he might just have showed up at SummerSlam; South Park taught me that). The match was okay: like with Neville/Zayn vs. The Dudleyz, there was nothing exceptionally memorable about it, but it provided entertainment all the same. There was a nice moment when Chris Jericho cut off Enzo's attempt to tag in Cass at the last moment, but the finish was a little bit off: Kevin Owens threw Enzo up as if to taste a Pop-Up Powerbomb, except that he was sending Amore into a Codebreaker by Y2J; however, Enzo either slipped or didn't jump high enough because Jericho's knee just about grazed Enzo's face. Still, it was good enough to get the win for the villains.

Both teams are all about entertainment: besides Enzo and Cass' usual routine, JeriKO have been incredibly entertaining to watch and listen to since forming their partnership a few weeks back. Of note, their promo on Raw where they deliberately and repeatedly got interviewer Tom Phillips' name wrong without ever acknowledging the fact was priceless, and the banter between the two on the Kick-Off Show was hilarious too. These two make a great team, both in the ring and on the microphone, so hopefully JeriKO will be a semi-permanent thing. I was surprised to see Enzo and Cass lose, although it's hard to imagine that they won't win a rematch at some point. It was worrying to see a couple of moments, such as the finish, where Enzo was only just connecting on some fairly risky dive-style bumps. Given his scary-looking concussion at Payback and other close calls since then, someone needs to have a word with Enzo to make sure that the undeniably charismatic "Certified G" doesn't cripple himself before he and Cass can truly establish their careers.

Perhaps similar advice could go to Sasha Banks and Charlotte, whose Women's Title match had a gnarly moment early on as Charlotte positioned Sasha on the top ropes as if she was about to hit a backbreaker, but dropped her (albeit in such a fashion that it seemed part of the match lay-out) and Sasha landed sharply on the back of her head. The match was close to being stopped, but Sasha fought on, and the two recovered to deliver a very good match. Sasha' top rope hurricanrana reversal out of an attempted Razor's Edge was a highlight, even if it looked a bit overly-rehearsed (Charlotte seemed to be waiting for Sasha to reverse it, rather than trying to make it look like she wanted to hit the RE). There was some nice submission reversals as Sasha trapped Charlotte in the Bank Statement more than once, but on the second occasion, Charlotte (whose usual compadre Dana Brooke was banned from ringside) lent back and caught Sasha off-guard with a roll-up, picking up the win and her second Women's Championship to the shock of the crowd.

I had read online that there were heavy rumours of Sasha losing the title here, so it wasn't a big surprise to me. Match-wise, it was a strong effort, but a notch below their battle on Raw last month where Sasha won the gold originally. Sasha's defeat was quickly followed by her apparently being removed from upcoming events, leading many to wonder if her unexpected title loss, just a few weeks after finally becoming champion, was due to a suspension in the week that Alberto Del Rio, Paige and Eva Marie were shelved for the same reason. It looks like her time off will be to address nagging injuries (the slip-up in this match will add to her injury woes), so those ridiculously spreading #PrayForSasha on Twitter can rest a little easy for now. If she is having an absence, then her title loss was necessary. If not, then it's a questionable result. However, I suspect the former and, in that regard, it's hard to complain if you have a rational point of view.

We then had The Miz defending his Intercontinental Title against Apollo Crews. I won't spend too much time on this one because it was fairly short, the promotion of the bout wasn't very good (their key interaction came during a commercial break on the pre-SS edition of SmackDown, for some reason), and nobody besides the participants seemed to care that it was even happening. Apollo hit some decent offence, but unsurprisingly Miz came out on top after hitting the Skull-Crushing Finale. Apollo has potential, but the overall package isn't quite there yet for him to make a true impact on SmackDown. As for Miz, his IC Title reign continues on, and it's anybody's guess as to who he might face next.

By the way, Baron Corbin vs. Kalisto was at one point scheduled for the Kick-Off Show too (I know I covered the preview section earlier, but I've only just remembered this). For whatever reason, it didn't happen, and instead Corbin interrupted the KO panel with a simple yet effective series of threats to Kalisto, who he has been basically bullying in recent weeks on SD. They will meet at some point; it just wasn't on this show. Since the event as a whole already had 13 matches in total, it's probably a good thing that this will be saved for another evening.

Next up, we had John Cena vs. AJ Styles. This was, no pun intended, phenomenal: bettering their Money In The Bank collision, Cena vs. Styles II was a genuine classic, with almost 30 minutes of big moves, false finishes, dramatic submissions, crazy bumps and more. It was virtually a perfect match, and the best SummerSlam battle since CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar in 2013. It might seem like I'm skipping through this one, but I don't want to spoil the content of the bout for anybody who plans to watch it; consider this a direct recommendation to watch it, because you should. The likely winner for Match Of The Year (on the main roster, at least) ended with Cena expressing confusion and almost sadness that he couldn't put AJ away, which led him into a second Styles Clash and a second Phenomenal Forearm to give AJ the surprise clean pinfall win to the delight of the audience. Afterwards, Cena (who received his usual reception from a smarky crowd) was given a respectful ovation, which he had damn sure earned, and left behind his "Never Give Up" wristband in a telling manner.

As stated, this was superb: you couldn't have asked for any more from this encounter. Styles lived up to his reputation with his best WWE effort to date, and Cena put on a fantastic performance himself; this may have been the best pure wrestling performance of his life. That Cena left his wristband behind in such a fashion suggests that he's about to have more time off, hence why he lost cleanly to AJ in a rematch that most expected him to win. It's actually a little sad to realise that John Cena, the face of WWE for so many years, is clearly winding down his wrestling career. He'll obviously be back at some point, but he's clearly no longer The Man in WWE. As a matter of fact, whereas most have speculated that he will wrestle in WWE in some fashion for years to come, I am wondering whether he might take an extended leave (as in, a couple of years) in the manner of The Rock after either WrestleMania 33 or WrestleMania 34. That Michael Cole didn't include his match when running down the card's top battles on the Kick-Off Show was telling. To me, Cena is now in the same position that The Rock was in back in 2002-2003; a huge name who will be there for the major events, but won't be around throughout the whole year. We shall see what happens; but this perfectly sets up Styles as a contender to the WWE World Title. Outstanding match.

Following that effort was always going to be hard, but it's safe to say that the subsequent match was a disappointment. We had Jon Stewart (who had a key role in last year's SummerSlam, remember) seemingly joining The New Day members Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods as they defended their WWE Tag Team Titles against Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. The serious (well, semi-serious) tone of their feud (it revolved around G&A supposedly busting Big E's balls and making fun of said injury; that says it all) took a back seat as this Raw-style encounter was run of the mill and saw Stewart again intervene, with The Club members threatening to give him "Ringpostitis". At this point, Big E made his return (to a pretty loud cheer, it has to be said) and helped New Day take out their opponents.

So, the match which many envisioned would see New Day's year-long reign finally end ultimately became a forgettable scrap based on the attempted crushing of one or more gentleman's private parts. Okay. Gallows and Anderson won by disqualification, further giving this match a second-rate feel. I usually appreciate comedy in wrestling, but this feud isn't particularly funny (although I did laugh at Gallows and Anderson providing a tiny jar to represent Stewart's, erm, bits). Ideally, Luke and Karl will give New Day a genuinely vicious beatdown to set up a serious rematch at Clash Of Champions, where the result could go either way. And whilst New Day will be around for some time yet, evidenced by their long title reign and their wealth of merchandise in the works, their act definitely seems to have peaked, which suggests that a title change (which I half-expected to happen here) might be the best course of action when Gallows and Anderson get a second shot at the titles.

From there, we had Dean Ambrose defending the WWE Title against Dolph Ziggler. Ziggler emerged as a surprise contender for Ambrose's title after being largely irrelevant for years, but since earning the shot, he's delivered some great promos and intensity, and looked good during his televised bouts en route to SummerSlam. Dean has played more of a heelish role, openly doubting Ziggler and virtually dismissing him as a threat to his title. There remained that shred of doubt, though, as to whether Dolph could pull off the big upset. But it wasn't to be: the WWE Championship clash was well-worked, with Ambrose channelling his inner heel just enough to still omit cheers, but it still felt like something was missing. Dolph had some big moments to shine, including a top-rope X-Factor and a sudden Zig Zag, but few believed that Dean would lose the title; and in a smooth counter to an attempted top-rope suplex, Ambrose brought Ziggler down to ground level and drilled him with Dirty Deeds for the victory.

It was a shame to see Ziggler lose fairly convincingly, and unless he turns heel imminently, this represented his last potential chance to become a main eventer. Of greater note, though, was the match quality; it was enjoyable, and as stated the execution was of a high quality, but it still felt like a mid-card match; something to warm the fans up for a bigger attraction, rather than a top-level battle in its own right. And whilst Ambrose has a strong following, this was the third PPV match this year for him that resulted in disappointment, following his WrestleMania 32 fight with Brock Lesnar and his Asylum clash with Chris Jericho at Extreme Rules. Considering that Steve Austin called him out on this in a roundabout way on his Podcast show on the WWE Network (Austin advised Ambrose to "step it up", or words to that effect), I expected a lot more from the match, and Ambrose in particular. AJ Styles is likely to be Dean's next opponent and, as things stand, Styles ending Ambrose's title reign might be the way to go, because Ambrose has essentially been given the floor by WWE to shine, and yet he has yet to truly impress.

A six-women offering from SmackDown suffered from the news that Eva Marie, who has found increasingly funny ways to avoid actually competing (with her reasons now being explained by her deliberately OTT voiceover guy), was suspended and would thus miss the match, which pitted her, Natalya and Alexa Bliss against Becky Lynch, Carmella and Naomi (who is suddenly a babyface again). Hilariously, WWE chose to still give us Eva's entrance before explaining that she was tired and was holidaying in the British Isles. In her place was the surprise return of Nikki Bella to an admittedly-loud reaction. It's always good to see someone return from a serious injury, so I'm happy for Nikki that she has returned from what was once feared to be a career-ending injury. As long as she just wrestles and doesn't try to utilise her acting "skills", I'll be satisfied.

The match was just okay; it was filler, if we're being honest, but it still had its moments. Actually, I missed a few minutes of this due to an awful WWE Network feed. From what I did see, Naomi, in her new LED-surrounded attire, hit her impressive sequence of repeated kicks, and Becky drilled all three of her opponents with a turnbuckle elbow in a fluid motion. Nikki, as the returning Diva for lack of a better word (and John Cena's girl, don't forget), was chosen to get the victory with a variation of Marc Mero's old TKO move on Carmella. The Rack Attack is no more due to the severity of Nikki's neck injury, as is a full-time schedule for the Bella, apparently. Rumour has it that SmackDown is getting a Women's Championship, possibly as soon as Backlash, and I would hazard a guess that Becky vs. Nikki will decide said title.

Speaking of new titles: the Universal Championship was to be awarded to the winner of the following encounter, pitting Finn Balor against Seth Rollins. I've mentioned the crowd a few times, and this is the match where their "influence" had the most impact, so I'll focus instead on the combatants: Balor has had one hell of a start to his main roster career, almost immediately becoming Raw's top babyface. Rollins has had minimal ring time since the Draft, but he has clearly improved on promos, adding weight to his view that he is WWE's best wrestler. Balor is also great in the ring, so expectations were high for this one.

As you will soon read, the crowd greatly affected one's enjoyment of the match, but it was still a very good match, if slightly less than what fans will have hoped for. Balor may have been injured on an early ringside powerbomb, but Finn (dressed in full Demon regalia) fought back, and he and Rollins exchanged plenty of big moves towards the finish, such as the Coup De Grace by Balor, and a top-rope suplex into a Pedigree by Rollins. In the end, a second Coup De Grace by Finn earned him the Universal Championship, culminating what may be the greatest opening month on the main roster ever by someone without experience on WWE flagship television (I'm trying to acknowledge Balor's NXT and New Japan adventures, but it was only July 25 that Finn officially arrived on Raw). Hopefully, Finn isn't too hurt, if one is to believe rumours about his potential injury, and a rematch between him and Rollins at Clash Of Champions (where they will probably be awarded more time, and thus have an even better match) seems likely so long as Finn gets the medical all-clear.

That Roman Reigns pinned Rusev in a non-title match on Raw prior to SummerSlam, and that theoretically there was only half an hour for this and the main event match, strongly suggested some shenanigans, likely in the form of a very short match. As it turned out, Rusev vs. Roman for the United States Title never got started, with the Bulgarian Brute pounding Reigns at ringside before Roman fought back with a chairshot and a series of vicious strikes. With Rusev supposedly now unable to compete, Reigns left a lasting impression with a Spear; at this point, fans (who had been booing Reigns, as usual) were fully backing him and were even chanting "One more time!" If Roman had obliged, he might just have come across as a superstar babyface once more. Alas, he didn't.

For Reigns, who prior to Money In The Bank was essentially #1 in the eyes of WWE management, this reduced role has to be something of a let-down, albeit one triggered by his Wellness Policy violation in June. The non-match was not pleasing on a stage like SummerSlam, although their lengthy bout on Raw last week suggested that this wouldn't be any ordinary encounter. On the bright side, they will meet again at Clash Of Champions, no doubt, and since Reigns was enhanced and cheered as he completed his beatdown, it kind of actually worked. Okay, it was still a let-down, but it was far from a disaster.

And so we have our main event, pitting Brock Lesnar against Randy Orton. This was announced out of thin air prior to Orton's return, and prior to the Draft, where both men were separated. Therefore, building the match proved to be a challenge, and it basically demanded that each man invade the other's show to build momentum, although it hindered the concept of the Draft just a few weeks in. Add to that the news that Lesnar would not be suspended by WWE for failing a drug test in relation to his UFC 200 fight, and the revelation that Lesnar, as a part-time performer, has not been and will not be drug-tested by WWE in future, and this had the potential to be a train-wreck if the crowd responded negatively for the reasons listed above. Fortunately, they didn't - at least for the most part - but what we got in this match, over a decade in the making (the two men had never battled on a supershow before), was peculiar, intriguing, frustrating, shocking - look, let's delve through what happened and then decide.

Lesnar began, as he often does, by attacking Orton in the corner and drilling him with suplex after suplex after suplex. The brawl spilled to ringside where Lesnar violently flung Orton through an announcer's table, and prepared to slam him through a second desk before Orton countered with an RKO. The Viper dragged Lesnar into the ring and hit his draping DDT, followed by a second RKO which got a close two-count. Brock rebounded with an F5 for a near-fall, and at this point the match had been pretty damn good. Then, things turned ugly ...

Lesnar began pounding Orton on the mat ... hard ... like, really hard. Fists, elbows, forearms; Brock was genuinely whacking Orton, and it became clear quickly that Orton had been cut open really heavily. The doctors came in to help Randy (which was greeted with respectful silence rather than boos on this occasion; such a development is often frowned upon in the PG era), but Brock wouldn't allow it and carried on wellying Randy with genuinely stiff shots, making him bleed even more. Orton looked to be knocked out, in fact. And after the assault continued and Orton continued bleeding and not responding, the match was called off with Lesnar declared the winner by TKO. The dismay at the brevity of the match and the lack of offence by Orton was overshadowed by the severity of Brock's beatdown; even if the match script called for such an outcome (which I believe it did), did he really have to whack Orton for real so many times, and leave him lying in a pool of unscripted blood? I know we've seen blood in WWE matches involving Brock in recent times, but it never came across as brutal as this did. Afterwards, Shane McMahon tried to stop the mad beast, only to taste an F5. Lesnar walked away smirking to boos ... and that was it.

It's hard to judge this one. The match itself was incredibly realistic and compelling to watch; you couldn't take your eyes off what was happening, especially at the finish. And protecting Orton with a TKO defeat was smart, since he only returned from a long lay-off a few weeks ago. It was the stiffness of Lesnar's shots, and the genuine feeling (combined with his unscripted yet hilarious "I don't give a s--t about your kids" comment to Heath Slater on Raw) that Lesnar might be a little bit out of control, for real; had John Cena, Seth Rollins or even Orton himself carried out what Lesnar did here and on the microphone on Raw without authorisation, chances are that they would be reprimanded in some fashion (and who knows if it were a mid-carder; termination, perhaps?). Considering that fans have already soured on Lesnar due to his preference for UFC, his non-suspension by WWE, his probable laziness hinted at by Dean Ambrose on Austin's podcast and Brock's part-time status, plus how he has smashed almost every WWE main eventer to the point where no realistic challenger to "The Conqueror" seems likely, Brock is becoming a vilified figure; someone who the WWE fans have almost become sick of, rather than someone they want to see.

On the other hand, maybe that is the intention. Lesnar surely has to be a heel again after this display, and for all of the reasons listed above, Lesnar is a detestable figure in the world of WWE. And this brutal pummelling of Orton, which must have crossed some sort of line (hell, we know what Lesnar is capable of, so the stiff shots were unnecessary), gives people further reason to wish that Lesnar were not a part of WWE, and for somebody to finally defeat him. Who that is remains to be seen, but needless to say, one's opinion of this match depends on your opinion of Lesnar himself. If you like him, you'll have found this to be a gripping spectacle. If you dislike him, you'll have hated this. And, to be fair, WWE should have given Orton more offence and given the match another 5-10 minutes so that fans would be less disappointed at the final bell. Unless, of course, the TKO finish wasn't planned, and that the nastiness of Brock's assault and the consequences left no choice but to curtail the match early. (I personally don't think this is the case, although I doubt it was meant to be as bloody as it became.) Either way, fans won't forget this match in a hurry; it was memorable, if not for all of the right reasons.

And that sums up SummerSlam: a genuine Match Of The Year contender, a few very good matches, a handful of good ones, and some disappointments, either due to booking or a lack of time, along with some filler too. As I mentioned earlier, this covered the entire quality spectrum. It didn't live up to the potential that it had from an in-ring standpoint; we got one classic match, but fans were expecting three or four based on the line-up. So, yes, in several respects it was a let-down, but judged overall, it was still an entertaining card, despite the perception of the show that you may have gotten from the fans.

Oh, yes, finally ... the fans.

The Brooklyn crowd basically ruined one major match, hindered the enjoyment of more than one other bout, and overreacted to certain results as if somebody had died. Rollins vs. Balor was largely greeted by negative chants towards the visual look of the Universal Championship. Seriously. Regardless of your opinion about the look of the title (and I personally think it could have looked better, but I don't have alternative suggestions so I'm not going to complain), the chants were not only trivial and pointless, but they were deeply disrespectful to the two men fighting for it (Rollins himself noted on Twitter that the crowd disappointed him here), and it prevented one from enjoying what was potentially the most exciting match of the entire show. It's clear that fans were going to rant regardless of what the title looked like solely because of its name. The UEFA Cup was renamed the Europa League in 2009/10 to negative feedback. But did fans of the finalists Fulham and Atletico Madrid concentrate on the trophy instead of the football on display? Of course not! It would have been totally stupid, which applies here as well. I could have accepted one chant or initial boos, but not to the level that it overshadowed the entire match.

Ambrose vs. Ziggler was greeted with near-silence, as were several other matches (the huge running time may have contributed to this, admittedly, but Cesaro vs. Sheamus was one such victim to the lack of reaction, and this was very early on in the night). And whilst Sasha Banks is a favourite of the hardcore fans, meaning that her defeat wouldn't be greeted warmly, you would think that someone had ran into the ring and tried to shoot her based on the way in which people were reacting to that loss. (Assuming that Sasha is taking time off, they had to get the title off her, which only makes said fans look idiotic.) Admittedly, the atmosphere for Cena vs. Styles was topnotch, and they could have ruined Lesnar vs. Orton had they so chosen but did not; however, the prevailing thought is that this super-smarky crowd (which reacted to Finn Balor approaching The Club backstage as if Jesus Christ himself had turned up at the Barclays Center, and visibly roared "No!" when Balor walked away from them, as if Jesus had refused to help a dying man) wanted to make themselves the basis of the show, and wanted every last detail to suit them.

And it wasn't just the live crowd; certain portions of the fans watching on PPV or the Network greatly overreacted to developments on the card. I don't want to intimate that all fans are of this mindset, but here are the complaints that fans had about SummerSlam: American Alpha were wasted, The Usos shouldn't have won, Sami Zayn and Neville are presently being wasted, so is Cesaro, Cesaro should have won, Enzo and Cass should have won, the grey ring mats looked ugly (seriously), the Women's Title match shouldn't have been so early on the show, Sasha definitely shouldn't have been beaten, Miz sucks, Apollo possibly sucks too, Cena vs. Styles wasn't a five-star epic (some even said the match wasn't very good which is actually a lie rather than a misguided thought), New Day vs. Gallows and Anderson was a let-down (fair comment), Ambrose is dull, Ziggler shouldn't have been near the WWE Title match, Nikki Bella shouldn't have come back from injury, the Network feed was terrible (which is a good point), the Universal Championship is the most hideous-looking thing ever devised and thus the name and look of the belt tarnishes all who attempt to interact with it, Rollins vs. Balor was also a let-down (perhaps it would have been better had the chants not overshadowed it), Rusev vs. Roman not happening was a rip-off (again a fair comment), the event lasted too long (an understandable criticism), Lesnar shouldn't have won, the main event was too short, Orton was buried, the ending to the main event was a disgrace, Daniel Bryan (who had a severe and career-ending neck issue) should have taken some blows from Lesnar alongside Shane, and Goldberg should have returned with his non-appearance apparently sending the fanbase into meltdown (hell, Goldberg had to apologise for not appearing at a show where he was never even scheduled to turn up!).

Of all those knocks, around six or seven are genuinely good points, and a few others have merit. But the majority feel like nitpicking, and it raises the question: if wrestling frustrates you so much that all of these issues can affect you during one (admittedly very long) wrestling show, then why the hell do you watch it? Do you watch Coronation Street and constantly rip everything about it? How about the elements of the Olympic Games closing ceremony? Seriously, it's one thing to have an opinion on wrestling, and I am definitely not suggesting that fans should shut up and accept whatever we're given. But that list (which doesn't even include a KFC commercial filmed at SmackDown last week where Dolph Ziggler was dressed as The Colonel and The Miz was dressed as a giant chicken) seems incredibly long for what is supposed to be a show where you can just sit back and relax, appreciating and enjoying what is on offer.

SummerSlam was far from flawless, and I mentioned that I personally expected more from the event. But really, the "armchair booker" concept, whereby the fan on his couch or in front of his computer thinks that he can promote a show better than Vince McMahon himself, has gone too far now. During Rollins vs. Balor, I seriously considered watching it on mute so I could just enjoy the action rather than hearing the most critical of fans pay more attention to what a title belt looks like. Seriously, imagine if back in the Attitude Era, fans would have ignored Austin vs. Rock because they didn't like how the Smoking Skull belt looked. Just ridiculous.

I hope this didn't come across as an attack on all fans, because it wasn't intended to be that way. It's just to point out that criticisms of the wrestling product have now reached an intolerable level, where it genuinely seems that wrestling companies can do no right. I will actually be writing a separate article on how wrestling fans have changed where I will refer back to this situation, but needless to say the Brooklyn crowd had a detrimental effect on much of the SummerSlam content, and so I come away with the show with a negative feeling towards the Brooklyn fans, rather than my first reaction being what I thought of the show.

Let's end on a lighter note, shall we? If nothing else, SummerSlam was memorable, and set up or laid the foundations for some intriguing developments going forward. It will be fascinating to see what happens with Brock Lesnar, as well as what awaits John Cena, and Finn Balor and AJ Styles will definitely be two to watch over the next few months. Was it the classic show that I hoped for? No. Did it have disappointing or frustrating moments? Absolutely. Did it deliver enough good wrestling to satisfy me? Yes, if not as much as I'd hoped for. But regardless of what certain people will say, on the whole SummerSlam was worth watching, and the Cena vs. Styles classic is what you should track down immediately after you finish reading this review. Hopefully there will be positive decisions made stemming from what went down at SummerSlam, and it has to be hoped that we don't get such an overly critical audience like the one we had in Brooklyn. Sadly, that seems like a long shot right now. Still, Cena vs. Styles was awesome!

Overall Rating: 7.5/10 - Good

WWE SummerSlam 2013

Image Source: Bleacher Report

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: August 18 2013
Location: Staples Center, Los Angeles, California, USA
Attendance: 14,166

SummerSlam 2013 had a lot of potential beforehand, with a double main event which promised a lot of action as well as some intriguing under-card matches. As it turned out, the show (WWE's biggest of the summer) ended up exceeding expectations, with several contenders for Match Of The Night, and at least one if not two of those bouts were even Match Of The Year contenders. And as if that wasn't enough, a major angle took place at the end of the card which will have a huge impact on the state of WWE in the coming months. All of which ensured that this was a very memorable and entertaining event; now, let's delve into exactly how it all went down.

On the pre-show, we had a United States Title match between Dean Ambrose and Rob Van Dam. This kept up the recent tradition of noteworthy pre-show matches, at least from an in-ring standpoint, but the bout was marred by a disqualification ending, as Roman Reigns ran in to Spear RVD as he had Ambrose beat. Seth Rollins also tried to intervene, but Big Show and Mark Henry (both of whom have recently turned babyface; in Show's case, for possibly the millionth time, and in Henry's case, this time for real after his tease the night after Payback) helped to fend off the Shield interference. This will presumably lead to a rematch. While this was enjoyable, I felt this should have been on the main show (it was RVD's first singles match at a WWE PPV since 2007, after all) with a proper ending, and why not have Rollins and Reigns vs. Show and Henry for the Tag Team Titles on the proper card too? Otherwise, a fairly good if slightly frustrating preview match for SummerSlam.

After JoJo sang the American national anthem (and did a good job, actually) and The Miz, who was hosting SummerSlam, was interrupted by Fandango and Summer Rae (which led to a massive Fandangoing session inside the Staples Center), the PPV extravaganza kicked off with a Ring Of Fire match between Bray Wyatt and Kane. To recap: after weeks of very effective hype videos, The Wyatt Family (previously seen on NXT) arrived on Raw and attacked Kane to the extent that he missed the All-Stars Money In The Bank Ladder match. But the Big Red Machine came back with a vengeance, and vowed revenge on Bray here at SummerSlam in the first ever Ring Of Fire match. Well, it wasn't quite the first of its kind, since the Inferno match (Kane's longtime specialty) has been seen on numerous occasions since its first appearance at Unforgiven 1998 (where Kane fell to The Undertaker; Kane has actually only ever won one of those bouts, against MVP at Armageddon 2006). The difference between the Inferno match and the ROF bout (by the way, who else thought of the Johnny Cash song Ring Of Fire, which just happens to be a crowd favourite at the world's greatest football team - well, mine - Liverpool FC?) would be that, due to the PG rating, the previous Inferno clash would result in a man being set on fire, whereas this one had to end by pinfall or submission.

That being said, the Ring Of Fire match still provided an element of danger; after all, you're surrounded by flames. This also meant that there were also restrictions on the talent from a working standpoint, since they couldn't run the ropes, use the turnbuckles or do anything other than scrap in the centre of the ring. Therefore, while this was a decent opener, and a fun spectacle to watch, it wasn't exactly the greatest option to open the show. It was okay for what it was, but the stipulation in a PG environment meant that it was largely a kick-and-punch brawl. The dangers of the fiery surroundings were slightly hindered when Bray's partners in crime, Erick Rowan and Luke Harper, used a fire retardant cover to fan the flames and interfere, leading to a 3-on-1 assault that led to Bray pinning Kane. Afterwards, the three men slammed the edges of a level of steel stairs onto the other layer upon which Kane's head lay, and carried him off (I didn't want to say that they hit him with the stairs because, well, they didn't). It remains to be seen what happens from here. Overall, just an okay PPV start for Wyatt, although in his and Kane's defence, the Ring Of Fire/Inferno borders provide severe restrictions on what can be done. Incidentally, anyone disappointed because somebody wasn't set ablaze should remind themselves of the new name and stipulation for this contest, and wonder whether in the modern PG version of WWE, would you honestly expect someone to be set on fire?

Match two on the main show pitted Damien Sandow against Cody Rhodes. Since Sandow's underhanded yet fair MITB win at the expense of Rhodes, the Team Rhodes Scholars combo has split up. Cody has officially gone babyface, and cemented this turn when he kidnapped Sandow's MITB briefcase and tossed it into the river, leading Sandow to jump right in after it, despite struggling to swim, and apparently failing to retrieve it (he also swam by some suspiciously brown floating objects in the water). But the Intellectual Saviour Of The Masses returned with a more appropriate case for his character, a smart-looking brown briefcase (which looks like a big bar of Cadbury's chocolate to me; if it was, I'd eat it because it would look delicious!), and swore revenge on Cody, despite Rhodes' hijinks all being retribution for what Sandow did to him at Money In The Bank. All of which led us to this match here at SummerSlam.

Arguably the biggest story of the match presentation was the revelation when he came down to the ring that Cody Rhodes has shaved off his now-famous moustache! Sure, it looked silly, but it was part of his gimmick dammit! I suppose the face turn necessitates that people do not shout "Cody's moustache!" in a condescending way. It's actually weird to see Cody clean-shaved now, even though he had no facial hair for the first five or so years of his WWE run. But back to the match: this was an adequate bout, nothing special, but sufficient for a rivalry of this (mid-card) nature. After some nice near-falls before an interested crowd, Cody picked up the pinfall win with Cross Rhodes to exact full (well, near-full) revenge on Damien. I thought that Sandow would get the victory to build some momentum for his character before he cashes in Money In The Bank (this one is for the World Heavyweight Championship, by the way; Randy Orton has the one for the WWE Championship, or had it I perhaps should say ... is that a spoiler? Hmmm ...), but instead this moment went to Rhodes. It is assumed (and hoped) that Sandow will get some important wins from now until he cashes in his prize, because it was a surprise that he even won the case at MITB, so he'll need booking support to turn him into a genuine contender and a potential World Heavyweight Champion, even if it doesn't happen until 2014.

We then got Alberto Del Rio defending that same World Heavyweight Championship against Christian. ADR appears to have ended his feud with Dolph Ziggler, judging by the booking since MITB, so he got Captain Charisma here instead. Christian recently returned from a long injury lay-off, and has picked up some significant momentum and big wins (he even beat RVD and Orton in a 3-way to earn this shot by cleanly pinning Orton, amazingly). This hasn't been mentioned enough in recent weeks, but it bears repeating because Christian was often seen as the guy who WWE simply wouldn't push, or if they did, it was a case of start-stop as opposed to giving him a true winning streak (his 2005 and 2011 main event adventures are suitable evidence). Therefore, at this stage of his career, it's a surprise that WWE would go all-out to push Christian in this fashion, so Peeps should have been more than satisfied by the preparation given to Christian for this big title opportunity at Del Rio (by the way, I wonder if Sheamus would have been given this title shot had he not been shelved himself shortly after Money In The Bank, or Chris Jericho had he not quietly departed WWE shortly after MITB?).

As it turned out, this wasn't to be Christian's night to regain the WHC, but he and Alberto still managed to deliver a very, very good match - they're both talented, but this was still better than I expected, and it was definitely their best match against each other to date. Del Rio concentrated on striking tactics with hard kicks and weakening Christian's arm (with the intention of polishing him off later with the Cross-Armbreaker) by ramming Christian's arm into the barricade (which the CLB did a great job of selling; if you don't know what "CLB" means, Google it). Christian attempted comebacks, but Del Rio would keep cutting him off and would keep going back to that arm. Captain Charisma did eventually mount a real fight-back, and this led to some big moves by both men, such as a top rope crossbody by CC, a Backstabber by ADR, a major hurricanrana off the ropes by Christian and seemingly match-winning kick to the head by Del Rio to no avail. As the fans chanted "This is awesome!" (and it wouldn't be the last time we heard this chant on the night), Christian attempted a Spear and nailed it, but his arm prevented the decisive and timely cover. This gave ADR sufficient time to rebound with a Cross-Armbreaker and to give him the win by tap out. This was fantastic; the first of the really good matches on this show. ADR followed the bout with a delusional promo where he called himself a hero to the Mexican people, to the expected boos by the fans.

Miz was back on-screen with Maria Menounos (who was heckled to what had to be an upsetting degree by the MSG crowd back at the 2013 Hall Of Fame induction ceremony), as Fandango and Summer again tried to steal the spotlight, only for Miz and Maria to provide some dance moves of their own to upset, erm, the dancing duo. Next!

Okay, maybe "next" again, because we had a tribute to Total Divas now as Natalya faced Brie Bella. Natalya is good enough in the ring that her matches are better than the standard diva offering (well, besides AJ vs. Kaitlyn, which has greatly exceeded expectations over the summer), but this match purely existed to promote the E! show which, at present, is only on in the United States (making it irrelevant to UK viewers of SummerSlam), and which has female wrestlers on it, but apparently has no real focus whatsoever on wrestling. Therefore, while using PPV time to promote Total Divas makes sense from a business perspective, it was actually something less than filler from an entertainment standpoint. With the other cast members at ringside (Nikki Bella, Naomi, Cameron, JoJo again and Eva Marie; and who is Eva Marie, anyway?), the match was fortunately kept fairly short, and Natalya won by submission with the Sharpshooter. To summarise this bout, fans began chanting irrelevant things in a repeat of what the Raw crowd in New Jersey famously did the night after WrestleMania 29. The subsequent scene, where Ryback was bullying someone backstage, was actually more entertaining than this match, as wrong as that sounds.

Fortunately, things took another up-turn with the following encounter, as CM Punk battled Brock Lesnar in what Paul Heyman announced on the pre-show would be a No Disqualification match (that should have been made clear on television weeks ago to make the match a more enticing prospect for potential PPV buyers). After Lesnar F5'd Punk on the post-Payback Raw, and Heyman backstabbed Punk at Money In The Bank, there was only ever going to be one outcome, and that was Punk vs. Lesnar here at SummerSlam. This had the potential to be really good, and it ended up being even better: it was either the first or second best match of 2013, depending where you rank Punk vs. The Undertaker from WM 29 compared to this match. This was a fast-paced and furiously-fought brawl, all to huge crowd heat all the way (which was a good sign after the Staples Center crowd almost ignored Lesnar's match with Triple H at SummerSlam last year). The story of this match was that Lesnar was much bigger, stronger and therefore tougher than Punk, but CM's hard strikes, technical wrestling skills and never-say-die attitude kept him in the fight throughout. It all made for an entirely believable and extremely entertaining fight.

Lesnar pummelled Punk in the early going, as Punk would occasionally respond with some wicked strikes but to no avail against the hulking-great beast. A tope by Punk took Lesnar down, but Brock repelled an attempted steel stairs attack. They brawled by the announcer's table, and when Punk targeted Heyman, that same table was where Lesnar threw Punk as if he were a piece of garbage. After a ringside belly-to-belly by Brock, Lesnar added pressure with a bearhug, which with the support of the Los Angeles crowd, Punk managed to fight out of the hold with a bite and followed that up with repeated knees. Lesnar tried to brush them off, but Punk used them to eventually put Brock down for a Big Elbow, leading to a close two-count. Finisher attempts by both were countered, and Lesnar even reversed an attempted GTS into a Kimura Lock, which Punk would counter himself into a triangle choke. Brock broke it with two powerbombs, but that still wasn't enough, and Punk then had another near-fall of his own with a frog splash, again to no avail.

A steel chair then entered proceedings, with both men blocking shots, but Heyman looked worried when Punk seized control of the weapon, as he had evened up the playing field somewhat. Heyman broke up the cover after a chair-assisted Big Elbow and a GTS, but even when Lesnar attempted an F5 again, Punk countered it into a DDT (in another tribute to Eddie Guerrero if you remember No Way Out 2004). Punk trapped Lesnar in the Anaconda Vice, but Heyman again interfered; this time, Punk struck Heyman and then locked the manager in the Anaconda Vice to a huge pop. But this allowed Lesnar to get the chair and begin belting Punk hard with it to break the AV, and the monster Lesnar followed that up by dropping Punk with an F5 onto the chair to get the pinfall win. What a match that was; tremendous stuff. Thanks to the red-hot crowd, Lesnar achieved what he and HHH largely couldn't here, and this was Brock's best all-round match since his April 2012 WWE return (the Cena brawl at Extreme Rules was great, but Punk provided far more offence and still looked strong in defeat). For Punk, it was another feather in his cap as he once again stole the show on a major stage. It's hard to figure what happens now, because while Lesnar will inevitably be taking a break (and he has appeared on at least one episode of Raw a month all year so far, as unimpressive as that might read), Punk surely won't lose his feud with Lesnar/Heyman that easily, will he? I foresee further Punk-Heyman squabbles in the near future, before a probable Punk-Lesnar rematch at some point (which may be saved until WrestleMania XXX).

Two feuds merged into one next with a mixed tag team match, as Dolph Ziggler and Kaitlyn battled Big E Langston and AJ Lee. Since AJ inadvertently cost Dolph the World Heavyweight Championship at Money In The Bank, Ziggler has officially cut ties with AJ and Big E, thus cementing his babyface turn. Since the Kaitlyn-AJ feud remains ongoing, it led us to this doubles match, which would allow Ziggler to get revenge on both of the heels who wronged him (even though the chances of him attacking AJ were very slim, and unsurprisingly didn't happen), and Kaitlyn would get another chance to fight AJ. It was an adequate match; AJ and Kaitlyn had some fine exchanges for the third consecutive PPV, and the Dolph-Langston action was good too. Since AJ had beaten Kaitlyn twice and Ziggler hadn't won on PPV since Elimination Chamber, the logical ending was for the babyfaces to win, and that came to pass as Ziggler pinned Big E with the Zig Zag.

A sensible result, then, which probably draws a line under Dolph's quarrels with AJ and Big E (by the way, why didn't anyone ever called their group "A-B-D"? You know, for "AJ", "Big E" and "Dolph"? Oh, never mind.), although the AJ-Kaitlyn feud could continue; they deserve at least one more Divas Title match, perhaps at Night Of Champions. The only downside is for Ziggler who, unless he refocuses on Del Rio, appears to have been kicked out of the World Title picture having worked so hard to get there, having elicited an enormous reaction when he cashed in MITB and won the WHC in April, and having seen his title reign cut short at Payback following a serious concussion. Hopefully, Ziggler can rebound; it would be a shame if he wasn't given a chance to at least challenge for the prize which he may still be holding today, had he not been sidelined. Oh, and after this match, one more Miz-Fandango segment led to Miz cracking the ballroom dancer with a right hand.

The main event was up next, pitting John Cena against Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship, with Triple H as special guest referee. The set-up for this one was a bit unusual: the new General Manager of Raw, Brad Maddox (who Vince McMahon gave the job to as a punishment to the fans for tormenting previous GM Vickie Guerrero when she was fired by public vote in an amusing segment), gave Cena the chance to pick his own opponent for SummerSlam, and he picked Daniel Bryan, whose popularity has gradually reached new heights in recent months. But Vince McMahon has made it clear that he did not approve, and even tried to get Wade Barrett to shave off Bryan's beard to make him look more like a potential champion. Stephanie McMahon played it neutral, whilst Triple H (the babyface COO of the last two years, remember) strongly praised Bryan as a title contender. In the meantime, Vince's attempts to install Maddox as the referee here were repelled by HHH, who announced that he would be the official for this contest. That he also refereed Cena vs. CM Punk at SummerSlam 2011 was in my mind, which made me think that HHH might have a hand in the finish. Also, Cena and Bryan's largely sportsman-like approach to this bout (Cena helped Bryan after he was attacked at the climax of a gauntlet series, during which Bryan had an outstanding bout with Antonio Cesaro) turned sour when both men exchanged some heated comments in a really good Miz TV segment on Raw the previous Monday, where Bryan told Cena that he was a parody of pro wrestling. This all set the table nicely for what had the potential to be a pretty memorable main event match.

Unsurprisingly, Bryan was the overwhelming crowd favourite against Cena, who often divided crowds at the best of times. There were some technical wrestling exchanges in the early going, as the match was being slowly built up in an expert manner. Bryan teased Cena with a test of strength that he turned into a bridge to try and flip Cena into a quick-fire cover. More closely-fought wrestling led to several submission attempts, notably a Bryan surfboard stretch, before Cena fought back with a suplex from the steel stairs to the ringside mats and a sit-down powerbomb back in the ring. Bryan made a comeback with his flip off the top rope and a running clothesline followed by his signature stiff kicks, but Cena avoided the sequence-ending big kick to the head and set up his own comeback (beginning the so-called "Five Moves Of Doom") with the shoulder tackles and his turnaround slam. Bryan countered a Five-Knuckle Shuffle when he kicked Cena during his "You Can't See Me!" bit, but Cena would hit the, erm, Shuffle shortly afterwards.

Bryan avoided an attempted Attitude Adjustment, and followed that with his painful-to-land flying dropkick off the ropes, but it only got a two count. In a cool moment, after Cena tried to lock on the STF, Daniel countered by trapping Cena in the STF himself to a major pop (it couldn't have escaped people's attention that Bryan's version was executed far better than Cena's is), but the WWE Champion got to the ropes to break the hold. Two German suplexes by Bryan were followed by the Yes Lock, but Cena found a way out of it and replied with an Attitude Adjustment for an extremely close near-fall. Daniel hit a really big move next as he suplexed Cena off the top rope, but in such a manner that Bryan remained on the top turnbuckle and followed with a flying headbutt, again for something only slightly below a three-count. Cena blocked a Bryan tope with a hard right-hand and hit his top rope legdrop, once more without getting the victory. With the LA audience (and me) completely enthralled by the action, Cena trapped Bryan in the STF but, once more, it was broken when Bryan made the ropes this time. A series of running dropkicks by Daniel were stopped by a wicked Cena clothesline, and then after a big back-and-forth exchange of punches and slaps, Cena tried to hit another AA, but Bryan expertly countered the attempt on two occasions, and followed that up with a hard running knee, which amazingly won the match and the WWE Title for Daniel Bryan! Yes! Yes! Yes!

It was surprising enough that Bryan had won the title, but the fact that he - as an underdog, smallish babyface, don't forget - had managed to cleanly pin Cena (who never loses cleanly, unless it's to a mega-star like The Rock) was a major achievement, and it came at the end of an outstanding match, definitely the best that either has had so far this year (although for Bryan, his aforementioned clash with Cesaro comes close). Afterwards, with the fans loving that Bryan had unexpectedly won WWE's top prize, both HHH and Cena officially endorsed the new WWE Champion, as fireworks went off and confetti fell from the ceiling of the Staples Center. On commentary, Michael Cole (once Bryan's biggest critic) conveyed the significance of the moment and was signing the show off the air, when ...

"I hear voices in my head, they counsel me, they understand, they talk to me ..."

Randy Orton came out with his Money In The Bank briefcase for the WWE Title shot. Orton was booed, despite him having not turned heel at any point; apparently this appearance alone signified a heel turn. The Viper had let the SummerSlam main eventers know with his presence alone that he was considering cashing in here, and it looked like he was about to do so as Bryan and HHH looked surprised. Surprise turned to adrenaline for Bryan as he called for Orton to do it if he was so inclined, only for Triple H to stun everybody by turning Bryan around and dropping him with a Pedigree! OMG! This unpredictable heel swerve led to Orton pinning Bryan without another move being hit as HHH crowned Randy Orton the new WWE Champion. What an unbelievable end to an awesome supercard.

On Raw the next night, the battle lines were further drawn as it came to light that Vince, HHH and Stephanie were all backing Orton as the so-called "Face of WWE", whilst diminishing Bryan as being a good hand but nothing more than, in Stephanie's words, "a B+". The Shield also seem to be backing up the modern-day Corporation by helping to beat Bryan down. This storyline has a lot of potential, as it looks like Bryan will have a slow title chase and a real fight on his hands against the McMahons and Orton, which is guaranteed to get the crowd backing him. As for John Cena? Well, Cena revealed on Raw that he had suffered a nasty-looking arm injury, and thus he would be undergoing surgery and would be out of action for some time. This leaves Bryan as the new top babyface in WWE for the time being (unless you count CM Punk, whose feud with Paul Heyman rolls on), and it will be very interesting to see how this major new storyline develops over the coming weeks and months.

To conclude, then, SummerSlam 2013 was superb; the best SummerSlam in years, perhaps since the phenomenal 2002 edition of SummerSlam (which saw Shawn Michaels return to fight Triple H, Kurt Angle vs. Rey Mysterio, The Rock vs. Brock Lesnar and more). The top three matches were all excellent, and Punk vs. Lesnar and Cena vs. Bryan were genuine Match Of The Year contenders. Add to that the big, shocking angle which ended the show and some good action further down the card, and you have a classic PPV event. As good as WrestleMania 29 was (and I attended it, remember), SummerSlam was probably the best WWE show of the year, and it could be a while before we get another supershow which matches it, because this was exceptional.

Overall Rating: 9/10 - Outstanding

SummerSlam 2015

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 231 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 2
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: October 12 2015

(To read a full event review of WWE SummerSlam 2015, click here.)

The DVD release of SummerSlam 2015 is a strange one. The '15 SS was a four-hour presentation, in an attempt to make it feel like a massive supershow. This means that the show would be, erm, shown across two discs, which can contain three hours of material. So, surely this DVD would include two hours of exclusive extras, right?

Nope. Besides the usual bonus interviews, there are no DVD extras, a terrible decision which leaves you with a very short second disc, and further enhances the thought that WWE DVDs will soon be a thing of the past, a point I will discuss in a future article. (This may have been done to ensure that the Blu-ray version remains a one-disc release, but it still makes the DVD seem unimportant.)

With that complaint out of the way, the card itself is pretty good. After a frankly bizarre opening segment involving host Jon Stewart and Mick Foley, we get an engaging clash between Randy Orton and Sheamus, which is an example of a match which is more enjoyable upon second viewing (watching a match cold on DVD means you could be watching it anytime, which in this case fortunately means that you probably aren't watching a bout at a time when we've seen it far too many times to culminate a feud with no real storyline behind it).

The four-way for the Tag Team Titles is fun, but the DVD version is spoiled by the exclusion of The New Day's tribute to Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' tune Empire State Of Mind. Dolph Ziggler vs. Rusev features some cool spots but has a disappointing finish and occurred at the height of the cringe-worthy love quadrangle plotline also involving Lana and Summer Rae; meanwhile, Neville and Stephen Amell vs. Stardust and King Barrett is acceptable and sees the celebrity Amell look to prove himself as being worthy of starring in a major wrestling match.

The Intercontinental Title three-way doesn't last very long, whilst Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper is alright, but isn't a match unlike any others that you will see involving these participants. Of note is the "Roman's sleeping!" chant which occurs whilst Reigns is supposedly knocked out at ringside.

I enjoyed Seth Rollins vs. John Cena far more than I did at the time, despite the weird ending, although it still feels like Rollins did most of the work here. The Divas 3-way trios bout gets a surprising amount of time and is worth watching, although it happened around the time that people started to see the "Divas Revolution" as being somewhat mishandled (to put it mildly). The penultimate clash between Cesaro and Kevin Owens is a great little match, a hidden gem which fans of both wrestlers (of which there are many) should definitely revisit. Since this opens disc two, it could be argued, ironically, that the rather brief second disc is the better of the two.

The main event between Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker was hugely anticipated and, unlike their WrestleMania XXX match, this lives up to expectations by delivering a hugely dramatic, brutal and at times bloody battle. The visual of Brock laughing at Taker to be met with a truly evil cackle in response never gets old. The finish seemed strange at the time but it did allow both men to save face and set up the feud-ending bout at Hell In A Cell; unfortunately, though, the WWE editing team strikes again by censoring Lesnar's middle finger to Taker at the end, making the moment pointless (surely a five-second "Up Yours" wouldn't have prevented this being a PG-rated DVD in the States?).

So, whilst SummerSlam 2015 was a fairly memorable show, the DVD release is something of a let-down. Unless you're an avid collector or a big fan of Undertaker or Lesnar, you may want to wait until this one is available at a discounted price. Alternatively, you could save your money and watch the show back on the WWE Network instead.

Overall Rating: 6.5/10 - Okay

WWE SummerSlam 2014

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: August 17 2014
Location: Staples Center, Los Angeles, California, USA
Attendance: 14,079

The 27th annual SummerSlam had a big-fight feel to it in the build-up, largely because the main event was a big fight. John Cena would be defending the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Brock Lesnar, who in his last match brought The Undertaker's undefeated Streak at WrestleMania to a shocking end at WM XXX. The vast majority of fans were predicting a Lesnar victory, simply because ending The Streak would have been a waste otherwise. And that's exactly what happened. However, the manner in which Brock became the WWE Champ for the first time in over a decade did raise eyebrows, and proved to be the most memorable aspect of an entertaining SummerSlam card.

After a Kick-Off Show match which saw Rob Van Dam pin Cesaro in the battle of the former Paul Heyman Guys (RVD back in the days of ECW; Cesaro, erm, a few weeks ago), the PPV began with a short speech by Hulk Hogan, who promoted the show that we were about to see and plugged the WWE Network. A bit strange and slightly disappointing compared to his opening segment at WrestleMania, but it's always cool to see the Hulkster, brother! Also, this would be the last WWE show to use the "old" logo (2002-2014) on the turnbuckles and the on-screen watermarks, and the first to use the "new" Network logo on almost everything else. Look out for it going forward and you'll know what I mean.

SummerSlam began proper with The Miz defending the Intercontinental Title against Dolph Ziggler. Miz captured the gold at Battleground, the previous PPV, whereas Ziggler has largely had an uneventful if demeaning 2014, so the smart money was on the Hollywood wannabe Miz to retain here, especially given the Hollywood (well, Los Angeles) location. But that wasn't to be the case: after a fun yet slightly short back-and-forth effort, in which Dolph was by far the crowd favourite and Miz received the boos which had to be music to his ears (even though he was cheered in the same venue against Rey Mysterio two SummerSlams ago), Ziggler escaped two Figure-Four Leglocks and kicked out of a Skull-Crushing Finale, and hit the Zig Zag for the pinfall win and the title.

The audience loved this title change, especially for the at-times under-appreciated Ziggler, who will hopefully begin rising up the ranks again after 12 months of virtual inactivity. For Miz, the title loss was a setback: besides the obvious reason, his new, Hollywood-inspired persona (which bears a resemblance to The Rock circa 2003, but nowhere near as entertaining as Rock was) only debuted on June 30, and his IC Championship win came just three weeks after that. Considering that Miz himself had a WWE career plunge prior to his transformation, it had to be a disappointment for him to lose here. Unless this is the start of a back-and-forth series between the two Cleveland natives, this may prove to be the peak of Miz's current gimmick. Still, an entertaining if unspectacular opener, and a popular title change can't be a bad thing.

Match two pitted AJ Lee against Paige for the Divas Title. The back-story for this was that both Paige and AJ captured the Divas crown from each other in out-of-nowhere scenarios, leading to their first PPV clash at Battleground where Paige lost to AJ. With a rematch booked here, and since Paige is meant to be the future of the Divas division, I felt that the Norwich-born challenger had to win here, otherwise the feud was over, and so probably was Paige's momentum, at least for a while. And so it proved, but as with the main event, the circumstances by which the title changed hands were a slight surprise.

After some slick exchanges between the two ladies, AJ locked in the Black Widow, which Paige countered into the RamPaige to pin AJ and win the title. That the championship changed hands, as stated, wasn't a surprise, but for the now-heel Paige to cleanly pin the once-unbeatable AJ was unexpected. It also went over fairly well with the LA crowd, who (like me) are probably wondering why Paige has already been turned heel. Whether this is the title reign that will solidify Paige as the dominant Diva in WWE remains to be seen, but it certainly feels like the AJ-Paige feud will continue, which given their bouts so far is a good thing. If anything, they've been a slight disappointment; in summer 2013, AJ vs. Kaitlyn delivered much better matches than expected, so AJ vs. Paige, whilst of a good quality, is now taken for granted rather than being seen as a huge step up from what we've seen for most of the last decade from the WWE Divas.

Patriotism was high for match number three, which saw Rusev take on Jack Swagger. Rusev is the unstoppable foreign menace, whereas Swagger has proven surprisingly popular since turning babyface on June 30. Here, the pride of America was at stake in a Flag Match, with the Russian and American flags hoisted high on separate poles (Rusev is a Russian sympathiser, don't forget; that he's Bulgarian doesn't matter, at least not now in the storyline). If you can remember pushes for previous monster characters, a good example being Umaga (or UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUmaga, to quote Armando Alejandro Estrada, or Arrrrrrmandoooo Alejandrooooooo Estrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrada), you probably realised that this was not the night for the unbeaten brute to lose. If WWE builds up characters the way they are promoting Rusev, it's for him to eventually lose in a big fight. And whilst this was his most important match to date, this didn't come under the category "big fight".

Therefore, Swagger's resurgence had to be halted, as he lost this Flag Match to Rusev via referee stoppage (even though this was a Flag Match, the flags themselves were not captured, nor were they supposed to be strangely), with Jack passing out to the Accolade. John Bradshaw Layfield rather harshly said on commentary that Swagger had let "318 million Americans" down by losing here to Rusev, which I thought was harsh; JBL is a heel, sure, but at least Swagger didn't tap out, and it's not like JBL is gonna step up and face Rusev. Where Swagger goes from here is unknown, but Rusev should continue a march up the ranks, before somebody finally puts a stop to his domination and denigration of Americans (cough cough John Cena cough).

Prior to SummerSlam, many fans expressed disappointment that the long-awaited showdown between Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose would be a Lumberjack match. Lumberjack matches can be fun if hilariously silly, but for two of WWE's best performers to square off, it's not exactly the first stipulation one would go for. Interaction with the Lumberjacks is inevitable, usually disrupting the flow of a good match, and probably seeing unnecessary side-feuds develop. Fortunately, Rollins and Ambrose appear to have realised this, and between the frantic action and wild scenes whereby the other Lumberjacks got involved, this probably ended up being the best Lumberjack match ever on a major event, and the bout of the night thus far.

Ambrose chased Rollins in the ring, out of the ring, through the Lumberjacks and into the crowd. Unlike previous LJ bouts where those stationed at ringside throw them right back in, the crazy nature of this battle meant that we saw chaotic scenes like Dean suplexing Rollins off the top rope onto a dozen Lumberjacks, and a group of wrestlers being taken out by an Ambrose elbow, who then ran across tables and barriers to launch himself at Seth in the audience, and battled him through the stands with plenty of wrestlers giving chase (someone in the Staples Center could make a mint on close-up photos from that). Back in the ring they went and both ex-Shield members exchanged big moves as the crowd chanted "This is awesome!" Dean even hit Seth with a Curb Stomp, but Kane (who's now Corporate Kane again, by the way) broke up the pin. Ambrose fought him away, but then got whacked by Rollins and his Money In The Bank briefcase for Seth to steal the win. No doubt this rivalry will continue and, if it delivers more frenetic wars like this, then Ambrose vs. Rollins will end up going down as a classic rivalry.

Bray Wyatt vs. Chris Jericho was the next match on this stacked card. With Jericho surprisingly pinning Wyatt at Battleground (to the horror of "smart fans", whose name and general existence can be quite annoying), the chances of Bray winning this were as high as those of Lesnar defeating Cena in the headline attraction. The good thing about Chris Jericho, whatever your opinion of him and his part-time status, is that he knows how to consistently put on a good match, and we got another example of that here as he and Bray took the fight to each other and took turns in executing some pretty nifty moves. And whilst fans have come to expect Wyatt's Spider Walk, it's always cool to see it, especially when the opponent (in this case Y2J) sells it with the required shock/horror (which he did).

After Bray survived the Walls Of Jericho, Wyatt took the fight back out to ringside and slammed Jericho's head into the crowd barrier with Sister Abigail. He then rolled Chris back into the ring and hit a second Sister Abigail for the win, and afterwards led the crowd into a chant of "He's got the whole world in his hands". Wyatt has proven to be a great all-around performer, impressive for his size and his at-times confusing gimmick, and if this match spells the end of the Jericho feud, Y2J can definitely say that via the performances in both matches and in Raw segments, Wyatt has been enhanced by the feud, even if those on the Internet claim otherwise based on what happened at Battleground.

Then we got Stephanie McMahon vs. Brie Bella. Sigh ... Whilst Stephanie has been believable the whole way in this feud, and the match had several months of build-up and therefore felt like a match worth watching, Brie's acting is just awful. We all know that WWE is scripted entertainment, but you don't want someone constantly reminding you of that while you're watching the show, yet that's what Brie does with her poor acting. Her wrestling isn't too bad, though, as she and Stephanie combined to deliver a pretty good match under the circumstances (a credit to Steph since she hadn't wrestled since 2003, and was never a full-time wrestler before that).

Triple H tried to interfere on his wife's behalf (how weird is it to have a major PPV where HHH doesn't wrestle and interferes for Stephanie, rather than the other way around?), but Brie dropkicked her away. After a referee bump, Stephanie tried to escape, but was surrounded by both Brie and Nikki Bella, who have both suffered (in the storylines) by the tyrannical Stephanie. Which made the next moment a shock: out of nowhere, Nikki clubbed Brie in the face, supposedly knocking her out, and left the ring to a chorus of boos, having apparently joined The Authority. A smiling Steph picked up the apparently-unconscious Brie and Pedigreed her for the pinfall win, and she and HHH celebrated with big smiles in the aftermath. A good effort, and a surprise twist prevented the predicted ending of Brie getting revenge on Stephanie. A Bellas feud obviously awaits now, although it's hoped that Nikki's acting skills are better than those of her sister. Hey, maybe that's why she betrayed her!

The semi-final pitted Roman Reigns against Randy Orton. Unlike Steph vs. Brie (had McMahon fought Beth Phoenix, that line would have been sounded much better), this didn't really have a story to it. On the July 21 Raw, Roman Reigns stopped Randy Orton from being named the number one contender for Cena's title at this event, for no real reason, and so Orton later RKO'd Reigns through an announcer's table on Raw. That was the extent of the story here. The real reason why it was booked was probably to give Roman a high-profile victory as WWE begins to try and push him, with the company hoping that Reigns might be ready to main event WrestleMania one day, possibly as soon as next year.

Whilst Reigns is nowhere near ready for a WrestleMania main event (both in terms of ability and fan acceptance of such a situation), he can definitely hold his own in a straight-up fight, as we saw here. Orton is very good at making his opponents look strong without one even realising the effort he has put into creating such an illusion, and he did that here by slowing the pace and allowing Roman to make a big comeback, before throwing obstacles in his way to try and stop Reigns getting the win. The most notable one (and the move of the match, if not the show) saw Reigns look to hit a Spear, only to be struck with a huge RKO. But that didn't stop the ex-Shield powerhouse, who soon connected with the Spear for the win. Reigns is enhanced and looked good doing so, and Orton looked good in making Reigns look good (that's a mouthful). Job well done, as far as WWE is concerned then, although it is a comedown for Orton after the last twelve months that he has had.

Lastly, we come to the main event: John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar. Apparently, the original plan was for Daniel Bryan to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Title which he won at WrestleMania up until this match where he would lose the gold to Lesnar. A neck injury and an additional shoulder injury prevented that, so WWE had to crown a new titleholder, and picked John Cena at Money In The Bank. This outraged some, and more were disappointed by the deep predictability of Cena retaining at Battleground. However, let's be honest: whoever won the title was going down to Lesnar, so why not pick someone whose status and legacy would be unaffected, rather than wasting a first title reign for someone like, erm, Reigns? It did annoy me that the SummerSlam poster promoting Cena vs. Lesnar was leaked before Cena even won the title, but that aside the choice made sense. And after the way in which Cena lost, those who hoped they would get the role opposite Brock were probably relieved (if anything, Bryan dodged a bullet with his injuries, as strange as it may sound).

It was 99% likely that Lesnar would beat Cena here after his aforementioned victory over The Undertaker at WrestleMania (which Paul Heyman has done a tremendous job of emphasising, and he did an even better job of promoting this SummerSlam showdown), but since Cena unexpectedly (and illogically) beat Brock in his WWE comeback match at Extreme Rules 2012, the result wasn't 100% certain. But when the bell rang and Lesnar almost immediately hit Cena with an F5, that perception changed. Not only was Lesnar here to win, he was here to destroy.

And so it proved as he hit Cena with a suplex. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And ... well, in total, Cena took a whopping 16 suplexes from the Beast Incarnate and, besides a desperation Attitude Adjustment, Brock wasn't having any of it. He almost became a cyborg or a Terminator or something; while Lesnar has been dominant in the past, he was full-on ruthless here. Oh, and he's not above peeing off the hardcore fans, as at one point he sat up Undertaker-style and smirked, tongue out and all, which was both hilarious and frightening.

It should come as no surprise that Lesnar did indeed win the match after another F5, to a big ovation, funnily enough. As Michael Cole noted on commentary, "it wasn't even close!" It was promoted as a meeting of two mega-stars and a battle of the titans but, while the former was true, the latter proved false: this was a one-sided beating from start to finish, particularly unexpected because Cena, of course, has been WWE's biggest star for the last 9-10 years. That he would be taken apart so decisively here was a shocker. Lesnar is the champion now, and it remains to be seen how long he will hold the title or how often he will defend the title, but after ending The Streak and mauling Cena here, one has to believe that it will take something special for Brock to drop the title. Although there wasn't much to speak of in the way of competitive action, the sheer intensity and realism of the match and its unpredictable format had to make this one of the year's most memorable matches, although it still couldn't come close to topping the nuclear bomb-level shock of Lesnar making Undertaker 21-1 at WrestleMania.

So, that was SummerSlam 2014. Last year's card delivered two classic matches and a third great match, and a shocking outcome. This year's SummerSlam didn't deliver a classic, but we still got a great match in Rollins-Ambrose, some very good matches elsewhere on the card from top to bottom, and a very compelling main event which had an unforeseen layout and a victory so one-sided that it will go down as being historic. WWE has done what it had to do after terminating The Streak, and that's make Lesnar the Champ, but his destruction of Cena means that WWE will have to go to some lengths to find and promote someone who has what it takes to dethrone Lesnar, which now appears to be the greatest challenge that a WWE wrestler can face. On the whole, a very entertaining SummerSlam, and one which will not soon be forgotten in a year of some pretty memorable WWE moments.

Overall Rating; 8/10 - Very Good

WWE SummerSlam 2015

Image Source: Twitter

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: August 23 2015
Location: Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Attendance: 15,702

The 28th annual SummerSlam seemed beforehand to be one of the biggest in the event's history, partly due to the four-hour running time (a first for a non-WrestleMania PPV in WWE), and partly due to a stacked line-up which included ten matches, and with the top two bouts being a WWE World Title vs. United States Title winner-take-all clash between Seth Rollins and John Cena, and the rematch "too big for WrestleMania" between Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker, stemming of course from Lesnar ending Undertaker's undefeated record at Mania back at WM 30. Did the event live up to its lofty hype? Let's see ...

The show began with a short exchange between SummerSlam host Jon Stewart and Mick Foley (and apparently Foley genuinely was there at Stewart's request), further hyping what was to come on the PPV event. By the way, in something that I noticed last year but people only picked up on this year, the generic WWE set was used as the aisle for SummerSlam, with the screens showing SSlam graphics. This has been the case with all non-WM supershows for a while now (I think TLC 2013 or Royal Rumble 2014 was the last non-Mania PPV which didn't use the usual titantron), but some commented on it at this show, partly due to the bigger-than-usual hype that made SummerSlam 2015 seem like a truly colossal card.

The opening contest pitted Randy Orton against Sheamus. The second PPV meeting of a feud which has lasted for several months with no real reason for it to exist, this was also the second time that these two have actually met at SummerSlam; they collided at this event five years ago for the WWE Title. Here, ironically, they probably had their best regular match yet, as the two exchanged many big moves before a hot crowd. It wasn't a standout match that one will be desirous of seeing on a future DVD compilation, but it was a nice start to the show.

I expected Sheamus to win and he did, but I was surprised that he did so cleanly following a Brogue Kick which knocked Orton onto the ropes, forcing the Viper to be rebounded into a second match-winning Brogue Kick. This hopefully brings an end to this conflict, and seems to set Sheamus up for a future cash-in of his Money In The Bank briefcase (whether that would be successful remains to be seen). As for Orton, I can see him going on another of his little breaks as there's nothing obvious for him right now going forward, and a heel turn is unlikely given that he only turned face again last November.

Next up was the WWE Tag Team Title four-way match. The New Day proved prior to the bell that they are an extremely entertaining and talented trio, and not just because they had the Brooklyn crowd chanting their names. Think about it: when this faction was formed at the tail end of last year, the act felt as dated and tired as anything WWE has put out. This meant that the three babyfaces were booed when they should have been cheered. After WrestleMania, WWE capitalised on this, and so The New Day turned heel, began parodying the negative chants to make it sound like they were actually being greeted warmly (they said "New Day rocks!" while fans said "New Day sucks!"). Over the last few months, they have hammed it up massively from the chants to the claps to the facials to the victory celebrations, and now? The New Day have arguably become very popular fan favourites, as was hoped to be the case nine months ago, and it's all down to their own great work as opposed to storylines or directives from WWE. How great is that?

Anyway, The New Day delivered their best performances to date here on several levels. Their modified version of Empire State Of Mind by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys could have been an embarrassment, but ended up being what Americans would describe as a "Home Run", something which was very entertaining and actually showcased some singing talent within the group. Onto the match (no, I didn't forget about that), the squad along with The Prime Time Players, Los Matadores and The Lucha Dragons delivered a rather good match, highlighted by Big E's insane spear through the ropes sending Darren Young to ringside and a stacked up double powerbomb in the corner by Titus O'Neil. During that move, Kofi Kingston sneaked in a tag which allowed him to pin Diego (or Fernando?) to bring the Tag Titles back to The New Day. Cue huge cheers from the hardcore fans (who loathed the ND gimmick a few months back) and a ridiculous yet hilarious post-match celebration by Kofi, Xavier Woods and especially Big E, who has shown more charisma than ever in the heel role. Oh, and Kofi and Big E tried to pin each other to become Champs early on in the match, a la The New Age Outlaws back in the Attitude Era. Overall, a terrific night for The New Day. On this occasion, New Day rocked!

Match three was Dolph Ziggler w/ Lana vs. Rusev w/ Summer Rae. In a nutshell, Rusev blamed his losses to John Cena on Lana, and the two divorced. Lana went with Dolph Ziggler, and after a Rusev foot injury, Ziggler himself was injured in the storyline by the Bulgarian Brute. In the meantime, Rusev introduced Summer Rae as his new bit on the side, but as one who dressed and at times spoke exactly like Lana. Summer began attacking Lana, with revenge coming in the form of a Ziggler comeback on Raw as he took out Rusev and even Lana hit an amazingly high kick on Rae. And so this match was an inevitability.

It was alright (Rusev's standing senton was unexpected and Ziggler's top rope X-Factor on Rusev looked good), but nothing too memorable. Interference from the two ladies was guaranteed, and so it proved. However, the finish being a double countout was not a popular outcome in the Barclays Center. I felt Dolph would win since I didn't think he would lose just six days after a fairly anticipated return. But WWE obviously felt that Rusev couldn't lose yet again on PPV, so we got a draw instead. A post-match fracas between Lana and Summer Rae indicated that the feud will continue, undoubtedly leading to a mixed tag bout at some point (probably at Night Of Champions). Once the match has happened, though, I'm not sure what will happen because Rusev will become nothing more than a mid-card heel if he loses the feud-ending match, but at the same time Dolph is unlikely to progress further if he doesn't win this conflict. And can you really see Lana staying at Ziggler's side for months or years on end?

The next match was the celebrity involvement showdown (which everybody thought going in would be the only bout with celebrity involvement; how wrong people were on that front), as Stephen Amell, who plays The Green Arrow on the US TV show, erm, Arrow, teamed up with Neville (whose finisher is the Red Arrow) to take on Stardust and King Barrett. The real story was Amell vs. Stardust, as Barrett was only a bit-part player until the moment when Amell finally got his hands on Stardust a fortnight ago on Raw. Neville has held things together in Raw and SmackDown matches with Stardust, but while it was important for him to be involved in this match, everyone was waiting to see what would happen when Amell locked horns with Stardust.

As it turned out, he did very, very well. Never once looking out of his league, the actor turned in a great performance. His moves were basic but well-executed, and he even hit a top rope dive on the bad guys. This was quickly followed by Neville hitting Barrett with the match-winning Red Arrow. The faces triumphing wasn't a surprise, but it was unexpected that Stardust didn't drop the fall. It's possible that this feud isn't over yet, and that Amell will face Stardust one-on-one in the near future. Whatever the case, I can't see the Stardust persona lasting too much longer (even though he is playing the bizarre whack-job better than ever right now), with a return of his alter ego Cody Rhodes to come shortly thereafter.

Considering that SummerSlam was heavily hyped as a four-hour show, it was expected that the matches would be longer than usual for this particular event, so it was surprising that the Intercontinental Title Triple Threat match only lasted slightly more than five minutes, more so when you take into account that the feud between defending titleholder Ryback, Big Show and The Miz began way back on the June 1 episode of Raw, nearly three months ago. This rivalry has been fairly entertaining (Miz's promo at Battleground was genuinely awesome, to quote Miz himself), but it has felt almost as stale as the Orton-Sheamus conflict. Ryback is arguably more popular now than he ever has (he was main eventing in 2012/3 but being greeted with "Goldberg!" chants every week; that doesn't happen nowadays), so he is adding prestige to the IC belt, but Miz's character hasn't advanced enough to make this feud must-see, to once again quote Miz himself. Meanwhile, it's anyone's guess as to whether Show is meant to be a face or a heel (not for the first time), and his character is the stalest in WWE by far. That he doesn't really have a character is part of the problem.

Still, the three-way match was perfectly acceptable for what it was. In hindsight, it perhaps benefited from being kept short on this show; had it exceeded ten minutes, I suspect that the three combatants would have been pelted with "Boring!" chants. Ryback's Shell Shock on Big Show was a big moment (not the first time he's done it, I know) and, as the biggest move of the match, it should have been the match-winner. Instead, Ryback pinned Show after Miz had nailed the big man, which tells me that Ryback isn't quite finished with Miz yet. I see no reason for Show to continue pursuing either man. At this point, I think it'd benefit Show to take extended time off TV to refresh him, and have him return as a surprise entrant at Royal Rumble. Something tells me he won't, however.

Match six seemed to have only one possible outcome beforehand. Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper, to me, seemed to set up only one ending: Ambrose turning heel on Reigns and costing his team the match, leading to a Reigns vs. Ambrose feud. The reasons are that Ambrose has gone as far as he realistically can as a babyface as of right now (not a knock on him, but having had WWE Title bouts with Seth Rollins, and faced many different heels, what else can he do as a face?), an Ambrose vs. Reigns feud would be fresh, and the Shield members' "brotherhood" had been played up so much on WWE TV recently that it seemed inevitable that their "family" would fall apart at SummerSlam.

The only problem would have been that such an outcome would see the once-overpushed Roman lose yet again on PPV, and for the third supershow running, it would have been due to an attack by a third party (even if, here, it would have been his partner). Plus, I probably wasn't the only one expecting such a development because nearly everywhere I looked online beforehand, most were anticipating an Ambrose heel turn. Therefore, it was understandable that WWE decided not to pull this trigger and instead the Shield boys beat the Wyatts in a match that was okay but lacking in real heat. It felt like a TV match on PPV, not a PPV match. It ended the feud, presumably, and it's possible that Dean will still turn on Reigns, but for all intents and purposes the storyline ended with this match on a somewhat flat note. Also, Roman was heavily booed here, and I wasn't sure why. Look, I know Roman was booed every week earlier this week, but since Reigns' Last Man Standing win over Big Show at Extreme Rules (in a match that was far better than expected), Reigns has nearly always been greeted positively, and has grafted in his major matches. Presumably, the Brooklyn fans simply didn't like Reigns (a hint of this was from the fans chanting "Roman's sleeping!" while he was down selling a beating during the tag match with Dean getting pummelled by The Wyatts). As for the Wyatts, their future looks bleak. Had Erick Rowan not been injured, the group would have had more vibrancy but, as things stand, I can't see them progressing much further. Might a face turn and a tag feud with The New Day be the answer? (Yes, I know I said earlier that The New Day are getting cheered now, but they're still heels.)

Up next, surprisingly, was the double title match between John Cena and Seth Rollins. Rollins looked odd when he came out in a white version of his costume (he looked like a skinny snowman), but he looked phenomenal during the match itself. He truly performed like a champion and hit a number of brilliant moves. A triple tope to ringside, a top rope suplex into a standing suplex, a standing Shooting Star Press, a number of Phoenix Splash attempts - Rollins showed here why he is in the major spot that he's in, regardless of whether fans feel he's getting special treatment for real by Triple H and WWE. The Brooklyn crowd loved Rollins, but otherwise his heel work has been so good that he's booed every week regardless of his abilities, a triumph for a villain in the modern era. I see Rollins in the mould of several wrestlers: Edge (for his opportunist nature), Shawn Michaels (for his high-flying antics), CM Punk (for his rebellious attitude/arrogance), Randy Orton (for his youth and "future" tagline), Triple H (for, well, the Pedigree and his association with HHH), Chris Jericho (for his willingness to win at all costs, or avoid losing the title regardless of how screwy it might be) and even Ric Flair (for elevating his opponents by making them look like they're within a whisker of dethroning him). His promos have improved greatly this year; a little more improvement, and I can see Rollins going down as a classic heel champion, enhanced by brilliant performances like this one.

Cena, on the other hand, did what was to be hoped that he wouldn't. Whereas Seth launched eye-catching and innovative offence, Cena hit his usual moves and little more, and bungled his springboard stunner (since this move hasn't directly won one match for Cena, and he has messed it up a few times, it might be time for him to stop doing that). To no surprise, the crowd shredded him; even some kids were booing Cena (to be fair, they were booing him beforehand as well). That's a shame because Cena has delivered a number of truly great matches this year, and going in I felt this would be another one. It WAS a great match, but almost in no way because of John Cena. (Some say that Cena hasn't fully recovered from his broken nose, which may explain Cena's worse than usual performance). I did like how he attempted to win his 16th World Title with the finisher of 16-time champ Ric Flair, the Figure-Four Leglock. I had a feeling that Seth would win, since I couldn't see Cena beating Rollins again here, and I suspected that it would be a win achieved by devious minds. I didn't expect it to be because of Jon Stewart of all people hitting Cena with a steel chair, leading to Rollins Pedigreeing Cena on a chair to win. Rollins is now WWE Champ and United States Champ; the man has had an amazing run in WWE. Seth's star will only continue to rise, but I believe that his feud with Cena has only just started. Where Jon Stewart figures into the equation, I don't know (HHH would have been more appropriate, to protect his hero Flair's record, and because everyone knows that Cena-HHH is more likely in future than Cena-Stewart). Whatever the case, Rollins and Cena will meet again, probably at Night Of Champions. A double-pin there might see Cena become US Champ again, since I don't see this spelling the end for that particular title (I think it should, but that's another story), and a Hell In A Cell score-settler might be the catalyst for Sheamus to cash in MITB on a beaten-down WWE Champ, whomever that might be.

The Divas Revolution took over the show next with a three-way elimination match between the teams of three. This was pretty good, and it's telling that on the second biggest event of the year, one of the most hyped and anticipated matches was a Divas match. Last year, Stephanie McMahon vs. Brie Bella was a major match because it was pushed as such, not because fans truly wanted to see it. This year, the Divas earned their spot as a major PPV match. A good sign of how far the WWE women have come, and also a good sign of what is to come.

That being said, while it was enjoyable, it was a little bit less than what some were expecting, magnified by the terrific NXT Women's Title match between Sasha Banks and Bayley 24 hours earlier at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn. That Team BAD were eliminated out of the blue didn't help, as the Bellas are starting to become a real annoyance for fans (and not in a desired way). Fortunately, Team PCB triumphed (Becky Lynch surprisingly got the winning fall), which should finally lead to some matches with the Divas Title at stake (there hasn't been one on TV since the Divas Revolution began in mid-July. It's obvious that WWE is forcing fans to accept that Nikki Bella will surpass AJ's Divas Title record in terms of days as champ (which is more annoying because it's done out of spite against CM Punk's wife AJ for leaving WWE, not because Nikki has shown the talent to prove that she deserves such a long reign). You'll know for sure if this time next eyar, we're noting how Rollins surpassed Punk's 434-day reign as WWE Champ. Ironically, if he does, Seth will have earned that accomplishment, unlike Nikki. Prediction: Nikki surpasses AJ's reign, then loses the Title to Charlotte.

The semi-final was Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro. This was a fairly anticipated match beforehand, but it was in a tough spot here. Not only was it the last match before the main event, but with this being a four-hour show, and with several matches having already been presented in the same way as this was, fans were clearly tired; they were into it, but would have been more energised had it happened an hour or two earlier. That Owens was coming off a gruelling Ladder match with Finn Balor for the NXT Title the previous night at Takeover meant that he was likely going into this match at less than 100%, but you would never have known it from his performance.

Indeed, this was a fun match; it wasn't a match of the year candidate but it wasn't a blatant card-filler either. Owens won with the Pop-Up Powerbomb, but I see a rematch on Raw, and I'd like to see the two of them face off on PPV again, with a bit more time and earlier on the show. Many were anticipating a great match here (Paul Heyman even suggested that this could make the careers of both wrestlers beforehand); under the right circumstances, hopefully they can deliver such a contest at Night Of Champions.

Finally, we come to the main event. The Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar, with Taker avenging the loss of his Streak at WrestleMania 30 and the subsequent gibes by Paul Heyman and, to a lesser extent actually, Lesnar. I was excited when Taker returned at Battleground to confront Brock for the first time since April 6 2014, and their pull-apart brawl the next night on Raw was the best I've ever seen in WWE. On the other hand, as big as this was, there were big question marks about the whole thing beforehand. Why did Taker confront Brock now, and not in the run-up to WM 31? Why was Taker acting like a heel even though fans wee devastated that Brock ended the Streak? (I know Brock's a face now too, but face vs. face matches are still possible.) Who would win, considering that Undertaker surely wouldn't lose again, but Lesnar has been too dominant to potentially look weak here? And given his physical state, could Taker even handle a brutal match with a beast like Brock? Some questions were not answered, and on-screen at least they never will be.

The big questions were the match quality and the outcome, and the bout itself was brilliant. As a mega-brawl under regular rules in the PG era, there couldn't have been a better presentation than what we got here. Massive crowd heat from the start was matched by very physical, stiff and brutal blows, strikes, moves and everything else. Brock was cut open several times; Taker really laid the punches and boots in, and Lesnar retailiated with his trademark full-on offence (he even attacked Taker as he was removing his coat before the match, something that nobody has ever done). Suplex City was visited several times during the match, but Taker took Brock to Tombstone City, Chokeslam City (the chokeslam Brock took was awesome) and other move-related locations within a place close to New York City. Brock's biggest move was an F5 through an announcer's table, where Taker's ribs hit the table edge hard. Fans chanted "This is awesome!" several times, and they were right; this was incredible to watch. One unexpected treat was when both men sat up, with Lesnar shooting Taker a sarcastic laugh, only to be met by a positively EVIL laugh by the Phenom. It was hilarious, compelling and scary all at once, and while only a quick glance, added a lot to a phenomenal and super-charged brawl. Had this match took plave at WrestleMania XXX, nobody would have complained, even if Taker still went 21-1 that night.

However, the ending of this match wasn't without controversy. Lesnar revived the Kimura Lock in this match (not seen since the night that the Streak ended) and had it locked on Undertaker several times. At one point, Taker seemed trapped, but Lesnar was almost being pinned, so referee Charles Robinson concentrated on spotting whether the hold was forcing Brock to pin himself. Then, inexplicably, the bell rang. Was it a distraction by an interfering party? Had Lesnar won? No. An odd suggestion of miscommunication led to Taker low blowing Brock behind the ref's back and locking on Hell's Gate. Brock definantly flipped Taker off (a surprise in the PG era; and can we now show middle finger gestures going forward if it's okay for Brock to do it here? I hope so.) before being passed out, leading to Undertaker winning the match. Post-match, Taker didn't celebrate in Dead Man fashion, but instead like a desperate man escaping a gang fight. Afterwards, we discovered that Taker had actually tapped out to the Kimura, which is why the timekeeper rang the bell, but the referee didn't see it. This allowed Taker to cheat and obtain a win, which in itself wasn't by submission since Lesnar passed out and didn't tap out.

Many were displeased at the way this mega match ended. I was confused at first, but it made sense in hindsight: neither man was going to lose convincingly, since Taker wasn't going to lose twice to Brock (this decade) without winning at some point, and Lesnar has looked too devastating to lose cleanly, especially in a babyface role. And a draw would have been offensive in this encounter. A screwy finish was the only outcome, in retrospect. Was it executed well? More could have been made of Undertaker's predicament in the Kimura, because nobody would have anticipated Taker losing to this hold before the match began. Overall, it kind of made sense, but it did feel like a strange ending (especially with Heyman post-match announcing that Brock was the real winner, and both Heyman and Lesnar seemingly accepting their own ruling). I see one of two things happening: either the two men square off once more, either at a future PPV with Lesnar triumphing and the two shaking hands or at WM 32 with the same thing but Taker retiring as a result, or with Undertaker now saying he has nothing left to prove, only to be confronted by Sting ahead of a double retirement match at Mania 32 (since fans are more inclined to cheer Taker over Sting unless he acted slightly heelish). That being said, I hope WWE established Undertaker as being "still" a babyface, because fans do not want to boo Undertaker at this stage of his career. They might like Brock, but they love Undertaker, so hopefully if we do get one more match in this feud, it'll end with mutual respect and fans being able to truly back Undertaker again. One thing is for sure: this was a terrific match and while the ending was a bit of a head-scratcher, it'll be accepted once we see what path the combatants take from here. It's easier to take than the end of the Streak was, that's for sure.

And so that was SummerSlam 2015. It definitely felt like a major show, more for the line-up than for the developments, but it still largely delivered in the ring and helped to set up the autumn season in WWE. I liked the four-hour running time for this show, and hope that we get four hours for Survivor Series and Royal Rumble too. And it actually links to something I have previously thought of: WrestleMania should be five hours so that everybody of consequence gets their chance to shine, and so that we don't have to see super-short matches on the biggest show of the year.

The best matches were a shade below being match of the year contenders, but the two main events were still very entertaining, and a couple of the supporting bouts were rather good too. It wasn't a classic in-ring show, and it won't challenge WrestleMania 31 for being the card of the year, but it was a really enjoyable event which will be memorable for some time. Most memorable of all was Lesnar-Taker, which lived up to the hype in my opinion, and Rollins-Cena seems like a precursor to what will hopefully be a great WWE Title series over the next few months. Whether we get Lesnar-Taker III, Sting-Taker, Rollins-Cena II (on PPV) or Rollins-Sheamus (or even Cena-Sheamus) will soon be answered, but on the whole I give SummerSlam 2015 a thumbs-up. Not the best SummerSlam ever, but one that will be remembered for some time to come.

Overall Rating: 8/10 - Very Good