As Summerslam went on Sunday night, I kept waiting for the
show to get better.
And waiting. And waiting.
Most of the night shaped up like an above-average Raw (at
best), but I figured Triple H versus Brock Lesnar would make it all worth
while.
It didn’t.
Lesnar has ONE MOVE, the arm grab, which he did over and
over and over. It reminded me of why I didn’t enjoy Lesnar last time he was in
WWE, culminating with his horrible bust of a match with Goldberg at
WrestleMania. If Steve Austin hadn’t been there to stun both of them, it would
have been a total loss.
There were a few jarring shots, but it had the feel of a
match that neither competitor was buying into, possibly in part due to Lesnar
having difficulties with WWE. Lesnar ended up winning – as someone had to –
with HHH taking the roll as he has in so many big matches to make someone else
look good. Maybe that was the only way it was going to go down, as Lesnar didn’t
come back to lose every match.
But the action was not that great, and in many ways it was a
poor effort for what is supposed to be the second-biggest PPV of the year.
The night started with Chris Jericho taking on Dolph
Ziggler, and Y2J finally got the big win he had been seeking since returning to
the WWE.
The match was average and not all that inspiring for the
potential of these two, but perhaps they are saving something for a future
encounter.
Daniel Bryan – who now is one of the top superstars in terms
of crowd reaction – then pulled an upset over Kane. The fans were going wild
chanting “Yes!” as Bryan kicked Kane repeatedly, while Bryan himself was
yelling “No!” It is amazing how Bryan has built himself into such a popular
star after starting as one of the dullest guys from the Nexus.
The Miz successfully defended his Intercontinental title
with a win over Rey Mysterio, but while it is good to see a charismatic
superstar like The Miz hold onto the gold, he has to do something about that
used-car salesman beard.
The world heavyweight title match was also mediocre, as
Sheamus cheated to retain to the belt.
Wait, what? I thought Sheamus was the face of this matchup.
First he hit Del Rio with a shoe, and then he won with Del Rio’s foot on the
rope. This is another example of the blurring of the line lately between faces
and heels in WWE, with CM Punk as another who is a little of both.
(Side note: Going back to Bryan vs. Kane, who was the face
and who was the heel in that one? I’m still not sure.)
The tag team title match was next, with the AW-less Prime
Time Players – Titus O’Neal and Union Township native Darren Young – taking on
Kofi Kingston and R-Truth.
(Side note No. 2: AW was in fact fired for his comment that
the team he managed was “unstoppable, like Kobe Bryant in a Colorado hotel
room.” Yeah, nice job, moron.)
Back to the match. It was interesting because it was one of
the rare tag team championship matches involving four black competitors. The
previous world tag team champions who were both black prior to Kofi and R-Truth
was the pairing of legends Rocky Johnson and Tony Atlas in 1983. My records do
not show whether they ever defended the belts against another all-black team.
As for the present, the match was decent, but R-Truth
retained the gold for his team, denying Titus O’Neal (former Florida Gator
football player as Thad Bullard) to join the other members of the Sunshine
State’s Big 3 teams (Miami, The Rock; FSU, Ron Simmons) to hold WWE gold.
The WWE championship match did not feel like a big PPV
match. It felt like another match on RAW, and it had to be restarted when John
Cena and CM Punk both had submission holds locked onto the Big Show, who tapped
out to both. AJ came out and had them restart the match. That gave us, the
viewers, some hope that this match could have a decent ending, but it was not
to be. After about a minute, Cena hit the AA on Show, but Punk dumped Cena and
retained the belt, meaning that every champion kept their belt at Summerslam,
which was something of a disappointment.
This match was boring enough that I was doing the WWE
Hardcore Champions quiz on Sporcle.com. If you knew that each member of the
Mean Street Posse – Joey Abs, Pete Gas and Rodney – all were Hardcore champ at
one time, you did better on this quiz than I did.
Overall, though, it was a pretty disappointing Summerslam.
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