WWE SummerSlam 2014

WWE SummerSlam 2014WWE SummerSlam 2014

By Big Red Machine
From August 17, 2014
Discussion

WWE SummerSlam 2014 (8/17/2014)- Los Angeles, CA

PRE-SHOW:
When I turned the pre-show on, Booker T was talking, and they have actually created a graphic for the phrase “shucky ducky quack quack.”

PRE-SHOW MATCH: Rob Van Dam vs. Cesaro- 6/10
Now more than ever, the commercial in the middle of the pre-show match is REALLY annoying me. The pre-show is already supposed to be selling the PPV (the match does that by demonstrating the great action you will get on PPV), so what they are really doing is interrupting their own commercial with another commercial of their own. Nowadays that the pre-show is pretty much exclusively on the WWE Network, it mean that everyone who is watching the pre-show has ALREADY BOUGHT THE PPV, so it’s really an entirely pointless commercial interrupting a wrestling match!
The match was good, but I hated the result. RVD is an old guy. Cesaro is a (relatively) young guy. What does it do for you to put RVD over? He doesn’t need the win. He’ll be over regardless. Cesaro is in the middle of a cold streak that could severely damage his drawing power in the future (as has happened with Ziggler, Swagger, and others in the past few years).

HOGAN WASTES TIME- GAHHHHHHHHHH! They plugged the Network. On a show that it is entirely exclusive to the WWE Network. I don’t care if it only took four minutes. It still pissed me off. When there is a match on this show that could have reached the next level if it had only gotten three or four more minutes, remember what they did with those three or four minutes.

WWE INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: The Miz(c) vs. Dolph Ziggler- 6.5/10
Miz cut a promo on his way down to the ring. His face looks no worse for wear after being punched in the face a few times by Roman Reigns two nights ago on Smackdown. Let’s just assume he got lucky.
Miz worked on Dolph’s knee, Dolph tried to hit Miz in the face. Dolph won!

BRIE BELLA INTERVIEW- GREAT!

WWE DIVAS TITLE MATCH: AJ Lee(c) vs. Paige- 5.5/10
They did a great job giving this a very different feel from almost every other divas match I can remember. This wasn’t a wrestling match. This was a fight! I think Paige needed to win here, and she did, and the fact that we have now had two titles change hands could play into the way the announcers sell the main event (because Cena ALWAYS defies the odds, and they know that we know this, so this will put that doubt in your mind that Brock might lose)

FLAG MATCH: Alexander Rusev (w/Lana) vs. Jack Swagger (w/Zeb Coulter)- 7/10
The rules here were just standard rules, with the winner’s flag being raised. I thought Capture the Flag rules would have been better because it lets you give Swagger (and the USA) the win here without actually beating Rusev, so that you can come back and have Rusev win a blow-off at Night of Champions. Oh well.
Lana cut an AWESOME promo before the match. Swagger and Zeb had a military color guard come out with them.
Rusev jumped Swagger while he was waving the American flag in the ring, and they started fighting, but for some reason this didn’t indicate a start to the match, so they made Swagger break the Patriot Lock he had on (with the announcers saying that Swagger had Rusev beat right then and there). Rusev tried to say that he couldn’t go because his ankle was now hurt, but the ref ordered them to start the match anyway… so what was the point of that whole thing? All it did was hurt the match. Yes, it was the heel who started it, but it was also the heel who was wrestling from behind all match. They played up Swagger’s injured ribs during the match, so why not just have Rusev jump Swagger and work over his ribs? You still give the babyface an out for losing, but this way it is the babyface who has to come from behind, and you DON’T BEAT THE HEEL.
That all being said, they did a FANTASTIC job of telling their story. GREAT selling by both guys, and from Rusev in particular. With the way he fought through the pain to lock in the Accolade the whole way at the finish, I could see exactly the scene that JBL had described earlier: Russian wrestling fans sitting in their living rooms, proudly cheering on their countryman as he fights through the pain for national pride.
Swagger loses by ref stoppage when he passes out in the Accolade, because a Real American would never willingly give up in a match with so much national pride on the line! To cement his heelishess despite his previously described bravery and fortitude, Rusev kicks Zeb in the head after the match.

LUMBERJACK MATCH: Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins- 7/10
I guess the referee is making an exception to the DQ and countouts rules to let the lumberjacks actually serve their purpose. I really liked the way they made use of the lumberjacks, and aside from there being no DQ when Kane attacked Ambrose, I loved all of the overbooking (though I can totally understand if someone really dislikes it and hates this match as much because of it)

BRAY WYATT vs. CHRIS JERICHO- 6.75/10
Great match, and a much-needed change of pace from the previous match. I particularly enjoyed the way they used the finish of last month’s match as a false finish in this one.

STEPHANIE MCMAHON vs. BRIE BELLA- 5.25/10
Wow. Steph looks f*cking HUGE. Her arms looked like they were about twice the size of Brie’s, and she just totally overpowered her. It really doesn’t seem that implausible that Steph could snap Brie in half with a good backbreaker.
“YOU’VE STILL GOT IT!” chants for Steph (and well deserved ones at that)!
Steph dominated. Brie made her comeback using all of Dragon’s signature spots, but the announcers failed to pick up on it.
We got the expected overbooking with Hunter sticking his nose in the match, and after he got what he deserved, we got the other widely-theorized piece of overbooking, which was Nikki turning on Brie. I thought they did the turn very well. Cole came off like a crazy person for assuming that the Authority was somehow behind this turn.

A note to the fan who brought the big “Stardust!” sign: DON’T ENCOURAGE THEM!

RANDY ORTON vs. ROMAN REIGNS- 7/10
The first two thirds of the match were very slow and plodding, but they got me back into it with the Super Samoan Drop. Things were great after that, but I was really expecting more from this match. It’s a big win for Reigns, but he didn’t prove what he needed to in terms of being able to deliver a big performance.

They then wasted some more time plugging the Network that everyone seeing the plug has already ordered. Then they wasted some time showing us a Tweet from Jessica Alba asking everyone watching SummerSlam to let us know what we think of the trailer for Sin City: A Dame To Kill For. What did WWE get out of this?

WWE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: John Cena(c) vs. Brock Lesnar (w/Paul Heyman)- no rating.
I don’t even know how to rate this. It was more of a segment than a match, but it was certainly a match. A squash with some hope spots. They certainly their story well, but the story was that this was more of a massacre than a match. John Cena was a great babyface who fought as hard as he could and never gave up, but unfortunately for Cena, Brock was bigger, badder, and, most importantly, better. By a lot.
What they did here was make clear what the new status quo would be going forward. BROCK LESNAR is the man to beat… but beating him might well be all but impossible.

A very good show from WWE. Pretty much everything was great, but some matches- particularly the top two) under-delivered from what I was expecting.

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