Tag Archives: SummerSlam

WWE SummerSlam preview and predictions

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WWE presents SummerSlam this Sunday night, once again from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The card shapes up to be a pretty impressive one on paper as WWE has abandoned their strategy of just randomly throwing matches together at the last minute and only announced a few matches in advance.

WWE Championship Match
John Cena v. Big Show v. CM Punk (c)
While they’ve eased up a bit on “CM Punk is a heel,” I think this Sunday he turns all the way. Somehow he cheats to win and then attacks John Cena after the match, allowing this version of the Cena-Punk feud to continue into the next few pay-per-views. I think Punk holds on to the title until Royal Rumble, drops it to The Rock, and Cena challenges Rock for the title at WrestleMania, avenging his loss a year earlier.
Winner and STILL WWE Champion: CM Punk

World Heavyweight Championship Match
Alberto Del Rio v. Sheamus (c)
Sheamus probably retains, although I wouldn’t be shocked to see the suddenly more ruthless Del Rio walk out with the strap. If Sheamus retains, there’s a chance Dolph Ziggler cashes in his MITB briefcase and wins the belt. The placement of this match on the card will tell a lot about if Ziggler will cash in, too. If this one goes on before the Jericho-Ziggler match, it wouldn’t make much sense for Dolph to cash in from a storytelling standpoint.
Winner and STILL World Heavyweight Champion: Sheamus

Triple H v. Brock Lesnar
It would make all the sense in the world for Lesnar to win, solidifying his monster presence and portraying him as the badass that they keep saying he is. But in this WWE, you just know Triple H will win because he’s Triple H. I’m sure it will be a hard hitting and entertaining match, though.
Winner: Triple H

Intercontinental Championship Match
Rey Mysterio v. The Miz (c)
This match is more of a toss-up than the rest to me. While The Miz seems to be in a better place than before his hiatus, he still doesn’t feel special at all. Since he’s returned The Miz has lost pretty much every match he’s been in other than the Intercontinental Title match. The smart move would be to keep the belt on him for a while because the quick changes don’t do anyone any favors.
Winner and STILL Intercontinental Champion: The Miz

Tag Team Championship Match
The Prime Time Players v. Kofi Kingston and R-Truth (c)
Titus O’Neil and Darren Young have been featured quite a bit lately and it certainly seemed like they were being groomed for the titles. Then AW got fired. I still think they have a good shot at winning but it doesn’t make as much sense as it did a few weeks ago.
Winners and STILL WWE Tag Team Champions: R-Truth and Kofi Kingston

Chris Jericho v. Dolph Ziggler
It makes all the sense in the world for Dolph Ziggler to defeat Chris Jericho, who doesn’t need victories anymore at this stage of his career. The other scenario I could see is if Ziggler does lose (and depending on this match’s place on the card, as I mentioned before) he might cash in his MITB briefcase.
Winner: Dolph Ziggler

Kane v. Daniel Bryan
Daniel Bryan suddenly seems to need a win. For the last few weeks he’s been used as the extra guy in a lot of scenarios, or the guy to take the loss so someone else doesn’t have to. I think he comes out of that funk at SummerSlam and defeats Kane.
Winner: Daniel Bryan

Pre-Show: United States Championship Match
Antonio Cesaro v. Santino Marella
WWE NEEDS to get the belt off of Santino Marella in the worst way. This being on the pre-show makes me think he retains, though. Because if you were going to crown a new champion, wouldn’t you want it on the PPV? Then again, WWE obviously doesn’t care about the US Title. I’ll go with my heart a little bit here.
Winner and NEW United States Champion: Antonio Cesaro

WWE SummerSlam Recap and Review

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Image courtesy of WWE

The “biggest event of the summer” may not have felt like that tagline would suggest but it was a pretty good show that featured good wrestling and a surprise ending. I already gave you my thoughts on that, so this post will focus on the remainder of the show from last night.

In some ways the pay-per-view felt more like an extended episode of Raw, especially with the commercials from sponsors and backstage skits. It was all kept to a minimum, though, and they were necessary since SummerSlam only had five advertised matches. Furthering the Raw feeling was the opening match of the night, a hastily thrown together six man tag team match that began with mic time from The Miz and R-Truth.

The match itself – which featured Miz, Truth and Alberto Del Rio against John Morrison, Rey Mysterio and Kofi Kingston – was very good and got the crowd going. Mysterio scoring the winning pinfall was necessary for him to have some build heading into his WWE Championship match on Raw.

The Sheamus v. Mark Henry matchup was better than I had expected and Henry is really thriving in his role as a monstrous big man. I thought they would go with a double countout ending, but Sheamus losing by countout still allows this feud to continue.

You know a PPV is good when even the Divas Championship match is passable. As much as I think Beth Phoenix should be the champ and the focus needs to be on women who can wrestle, I think Kelly Kelly retaining the title with a rollup pin was the smart call. It allows the program to continue and Phoenix looked very strong throughout the match. K2 showed she can have a decent match when put in the ring with a good worker.

The Wade Barrett v. Daniel Bryan match was my pick for Snoozer of the Night. I don’t mean that to seem as bad as it sounds, because the match was still good enough, it just lost the crowd. And I’ll probably catch hell for saying this on the internet, but Daniel Bryan just doesn’t seem as entertaining as I remember him in ROH and the other independents. His matches lately seem to be all kicks and a few moves and then a submission. Him losing doesn’t hurt too much and Barrett needed a good win to get some momentum back following what has been an awful year for him.

Randy Orton and Christian had the match of the night. Edge got a huge reaction when he was introduced before the match and WWE made the right call by not having him stay at ringside to support Christian. I thought it was a little too soon to take the belt off Christian and they instead should have had him score a decisive win, but the match was great. The crowd was hot for all of it and these two guys have great chemistry in the ring. Sadly, I think it’s the end of Christian’s time at the top of the card for the moment.

John Cena v. CM Punk wasn’t close to their Money in the Bank contest but that surely was not to be expected. I didn’t like the finish of CM Punk winning with Cena’s leg on the rope but the aftermath of Nash attacking and ADR cashing in made it make a little more sense. We’ll see how it all plays out on Raw.

Thoughts on the SummerSlam ending

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I don’t love or hate the way WWE SummerSlam ended. I’m willing to let it play out a little further before I pass too much judgment.

On one hand, I’m not sure I want to see another retread of the same old “McMahon family drama” storyline, even though it seems we’re headed that way. Kevin Nash’s appearance at the end of the show, powerbombing newly crowned undisputed WWE Champion CM Punk, and then Alberto Del Rio cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase leaves open a lot of possibilities.

Was Kevin Nash instructed to take out the champ by Triple H, his longtime friend and former Kliq companion? Or did Stephanie McMahon, who appeared on the show several times, have a hand in the matter? Perhaps Alberto Del Rio paid off Big Sexy to do the hit?

The likely scenario is that Stephanie and the old regime do not want CM Punk to have the title and are behind the whole thing. If it’s done right, the story could be very interesting and continue to build CM Punk as a huge star in the eyes of the casual fans.

If not done right, and we know how WWE can drop the ball with a good story, it could lead us right back to the same old status quo.

But I’m willing to see how it plays out and I’m certainly interested to see what happens on tonight’s Raw. Building a continued investment in the storyline and the product, after all, is the point.