BY MIKEY MIGO
A lot of people are quick to say that Summerslam is the WWE’s second biggest show. For some reason I’ve always felt Survivor Series was a bigger event. I think it’s because I grew up more so in the Bret Hart/Shawn Michaels/New Generation era. They had some great matches at Survivor Series. It’s “half way mark” to Wrestlemania and when they start pushing towards their biggest show. I suppose my perception is just a little off, but you should have figured that by now. To me Summerslam was always the sign that summer was almost over and it was almost time to go back to school. I think what makes it special is the type of content they go with during the summer months. They always so things a little off-kilter during the summer. In the past was Matt Hardy/Edge/Lita, then was Daniel Bryan’s release and comeback on top of Nexus, and this year it’s the whole CM Punk “shoot” stuff. It’s exciting to see people excited about wrestling. Of course nothing is a “shoot”. The term “worked-shoot” is an oxymoron. If it’s worked… it’s worked. Never the less, I was still excited for this show.
The opener was awesome. People complained about how there were so few matches and how the mid card wasn’t being used. Here! It doesn’t have a big story behind it, but it has some history to go along with what was purely a solid match up. The match was almost ten minutes and when you tack on entrances, they gave these guys a decent about of time. Thankfully, they used their time right. This was what an opening match should be. It got the crowd on their feet, it was action packed, and I really have no complaints. Would I have rather have seen more of a one on one scenario, but there’s only so much time on the show.
Then Sheamus and Mark Henry rocked too, which is crazy to say. On paper this match sounds like just another lame big guy match, but they’ve done a great job pushing their story, pushing Mark Henry as a monster, and getting Sheamus over in a blooming face turn. The finish of this match came out of nowhere. Sheamus was splashed so hard the barricade broke and he flew into the crowd. The crowd reaction of the people around him was awesome. The security guy ran for his life and the guy right next to it was flipping out. Good stuff and hopefully just the start of something bigger.
Cee-lo’s performance was bland and boring. Nothing special at all, but at least it wasn’t THAT long. People will always complain “that time could have been given to a match!” I agree, but complaining about it will get us nowhere. I think the best we can do is hope for music that’s tolerable or heaven forbid something that’d match our personal tastes. It anything, it gave us a chance to go to the bathroom before the next match. I hope you didn’t get it all out of your system because you’d have more time for the bathroom. Yep, the Divas championship match. I personally took this as my chance to stretch my legs, get a fresh tea, and talk to human beings. I don’t want to come off as a “Divas always suck” guy, but they do about 95% of the time. I’m interested in where the Beth/Natalya thing is going, but Kelly Kelly isn’t entertaining. Then somewhere in here we see Steph leaving Cena’s dressing room. Yeesh, that’s not going to play into the storylines at all… nope… not at all. Ugh. Then a segment with R-Truth and Jimmy Hart. That was fun. It’s like they decided to put all the filler in one chunk of programming. It’d be really nice of them if they’d announce “For the next twenty minutes, the WWE will be presenting… Crap! Your regularly scheduled show will return in twenty minutes! Smoke’em if you got’em!”
Did I really hear “boring chants” during the Daniel Bryan/Wade Barrett match? This is why LA doesn’t get a NFL Team and the Clippers exist. This was the best match on the show. It was a bad ass mid card match. I don’t get how people aren’t behind Wade Barrett. He reminds me of Scott Hall so much. By that I mean a more than powermove big guy, not druggie. If you ask me, I think he has more upswing than Sheamus. I seriously can’t remember ANY time I’ve see Daniel Bryan wrestle where it wasn’t a pleasure. Be it a tag match, a Superstars match, or a PPV, the dude is awesome. So when he’s in there with someone half decent then it’s a bigger deal. Wade Barrett is plenty awesome. Wade Barrett and Daniel Bryan work good together, but as solid as the match was neither did anything character wise to make me emotionally invested. They both need to work on that aspect, but the wrestling part is A-Ok.
Next up was Orton and Christian. I look forward to Smackdown every week. Their undercard is solid and I am really enjoying Mark Henry at the moment, but this main event storyline is stupid. I just can’t get behind Christian. He’s a talented wrestling, talented on the mic, and he can get a reaction but there’s just something about him that holds me back from caring. I think he was way cooler before he left for TNA and since he came back he hasn’t been as electric as before. Orton CAN be okay, but when it’s fresh and he’s got something new to do. It rarely happens though. This was an okay “No Holds Barred Match”. I wish I had used this time to get another glass of tea, go pee, and make a phone call. The highlight of this match was Edge appearing and talking.
The main event match was solid. I think everyone was worried that the crowd wasn’t going to be as electric or as “hot” as the Chicago crowd from last month. All credit to the LA crowd, but they kept it up. The dualing chants, the enthusiasim, and the Punk love was really cool. The match itself wasn’t as awesome. Cena attempting to sloppily wrestling is hard to take seriously. Then Triple H, the referee, being bigger than both wrestlers made it hard to take seriously. It was a very basic match for the most part, but the crowd was still chanting so who cares right? Then after a lot of boredom they start doing bigger spots and doing near falls to make the match seem “suspenseful” and good. It’s how Cena’s matches ALWAYS play out. It’s just its CM Punk in there against him so it’s being valued in a higher regard. Punk wins with Cena’s foot on the rope and then Kevin Nash jackknifes him… then Del Rio cashes in and wins. Amazing... ly overbooked! Too much of a shmozzy finish for my liking, but it got me interesting for sure.
Overall, the show wasn’t as good as Money In The Bank 2011. Did anyone expect it to be? That said, it wasn’t a total waste of time. There were a few solid matches, some storyline development, and hopefully some closure on other stuff. Something just didn’t feel right. I don’t want to saw “it felt like a three hour RAW” because that’s a stupid statement. RAW at least let’s you know when the commercial breaks are. If you missed this show check out the opener, the Daniel Bryan/Wade Barrett match, the Mark Henry/Sheamus match, and if you want to see a long match with an interesting storyline finish then go for it. Hell, I’d say just go with those matches and skip the rest. It’s not insultingly bad, just underwhelming and not worth going out of your way for. B
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