WWE SummerSlam 2016 PPV Review

Introduction: Going into this year’s SummerSlam it was looking like it could be a potential show for the ages with the way the card was stacking up. But I have to admit I was disappointed by this show, other than Cena versus Styles none of the main events were quite as good as I hoped for one reason or another. The undercard was fairly average and really dragged on because including the kickoff this was six hours we had to sit through and that’s a lot even for WrestleMania let alone SummerSlam which was why when we got to Rusev versus Reigns I was quite relieved it didn’t get started, I guess what’s why they gave the match away on Raw. Like I said Cena and Styles had an absolute classic, they tore the house down and completely stole the show, if you see just one thing from this PPV it must be that match. Both world title bouts were a little disappointing, Ambrose versus Ziggler more so than Bálor versus Rollins, at least we got the great moment of the Demon King becoming

Dean & Bálor Leave With The Gold And Brock Defeats Orton In Violent Fashion

champion. Brock and Orton had a pretty good main event with a very interesting finish but I must admit I did come away from this show pretty underwhelmed.

Kickoff: 12-Man Tag Team Match: American Alpha, The Usos & The Hype Bros vs. The Vaudevillains, The Ascension & Breezango: The first of three kickoff matches was this twelve-

man tag involving the SmackDown tag team division. Obviously this match was only on here to kill time since we’d seen it already on the go-home SmackDown but this was a fairly decent kickoff match. There was nothing to really ride home about since it was the exact same match from SmackDown and the same team won about but the action was good stuff for the most part. Usos claimed the win stealing it from American Alpha, really I’d turn Jimmy and Jey heel considering they seem to get booed pretty heavily these days, they and Alpha could have a really good feud over the new SmackDown tag titles. Nevertheless a good little filler match here on the kickoff show.

Match Rating: **1/2

Kickoff: Sami Zayn & Neville vs. The Dudley Boyz: The next tag match on the kickoff show pitted Sami and Neville against the Dudleys. Again this was a fine bit of filler on the needlessly long kickoff show. I’m not sure how I feel about Sami and Neville tagging more from here on out, don’t get me wrong it is a cool team but I think both guys have great potential as singles babyfaces and I fear putting them in a tag team is wasting them and a sign they don’t have any plans for them as singles. Nevertheless Zayn and Neville pulled out some cool stuff here to get the win, I thought they would do the Dudleys break up here but that wasn’t the case but surely that isn’t far off with how often they have been losing, decent match.

Match Rating: **1/4

Kickoff: Best of 7 Series – Match One: Cesaro vs. Sheamus: In the final kickoff match we got the best of seven series opener between Cesaro and Sheamus. This was a good

match and for kickoff show standard it was a great match.

You normally just get bog-standard TV matches on the kickoff show but this match was better than that. Cesaro and Sheamus have always had really good matches together and I think their styles mesh really well. And we’ve got another six rounds of this series to come so this best of seven is shaping up to be very awesome. There were some nice spots in here particularly Cesaro balancing on the LED ring post before spring boarding off the ropes onto Sheamus. But as I expected it was Sheamus picking up the win and I was actually happy with that because after losing two matches to Cesaro already Sheamus needed to win this to make it seem like he has a chance in this series. So nothing to complain about here, very good stuff.

Match Rating: ***1/4

Enzo Amore & Big Cass vs. Chris Jericho & Kevin Owens: To open the show we got Enzo and Cass facing the team known as ‘Jeri-KO’. This was a decent opener, the match was fine for what it was. Enzo and Cass got the crowd going with their promo before the match and we got some great bits of comedy in here too from Owens and Jericho. As I said as a match it was fine but pretty forgettable at the same time, I was surprised to see Owens and Jericho take away the victory. It’s Enzo and Cass’ backyard and they’re the team with the

momentum since coming up from NXT so I was pretty confident they would win as Jericho and Owens were just thrown together. But maybe they’ve seen something in this Jericho and Owens team, they’re both wonderfully entertaining heels that make for a great tag team so maybe they’ve got legs as a duo.

Match Rating: **3/4

WWE Women’s Championship Match: Sasha Banks © vs. Charlotte: Up next and going on early was Sasha defending the Women’s Title against Charlotte. I thought this

match was very good like most matches these two put on together are but it wasn’t without its faults. Firstly Charlotte nearly killed Sasha, horribly dropping her when attempting a spot on the second rope causing Sasha to land on her neck. Thankfully she recovered and they went on to have another really good match, the frankensteiner off the top rope was a real highlight. But I think everyone was pretty shocked and disappointed at the ending when Charlotte reversed the Banks Statement into a pin to win back the title. I thought Sasha retaining was the banker of this entire card but after almost a full year of Charlotte as champion I really don’t want to see her with the belt. It has transpired the title change took place with Sasha needing time off to

recover from nagging injuries and that’s not going to do her a lot of good as there’s already an asterisk against her name backstage for being injury prone. But if she had to drop the belt I would’ve much prefer they put it on someone else other than Charlotte, it’s not that I dislike Charlotte but she’s been champ for far too long. So a really good match but it left a bit of a sour taste in the mouth.

Match Rating: ***1/4

Intercontinental Championship Match: The Miz © vs. Apollo Crews: Next up Miz defended the IC Title against Apollo Crews. This match was fairly decent for what it was but almost instantly forgettable. It was a victim of time constraints so it was a short match and the build did nothing to get any of us interested in this contest. So I guess Miz and Crews did the best with what they had but they were feeding off the tiniest scraps. Miz retained which I was actually pleased about because although I like Crews they’ve done nothing to really make me want to see him win the title so I was glad to move on from this.

Match Rating: **

John Cena vs. AJ Styles: Wow, what a match! Up next was the second instalment of Cena versus Styles and this match was everything a dream match should be. I said that at

Money in the Bank I felt they were holding a little something back and I think I was right because these two went all out in this match and had the absolute classic we all knew they could put on. It was a brilliantly structured match with fantastic high drama that had me going crazy as we entered the final stretch. The near falls were brilliant with each one making me believe the match was over. None more so than when Cena hit the AA off the second rope, I don’t actually think I’ve seen anyone kick-out of that and I was fully expecting it to be over. So when AJ kicked out at two I leaped up off my couch and the reaction shot they held on Cena afterwards was fantastic storytelling. AJ then managed to plant Cena with one more Styles Clash to pick up the three count and beat Cena in the middle of the ring as clean as a whistle. It was a great match and was booked perfectly, AJ going over totally clean is what needed to happen and him winning in the blow off to this feud now establishes him as a top, top guy. It seems Cena is set for some more time off to film outside projects, it almost felt like his retirement as he left the never give up armband in the ring. But this was a brilliant match, it rivals Nakamura

versus Zayn from TakeOver: Dallas for WWE’s match of the year so far and absolutely the right guy went over in the right way.

Match Rating: ****1/2

WWE Tag Team Championship Match: The New Day © vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson: Up next the New Day defended the tag team titles against Gallows and Anderson. First off they had Jon Stewart go out there in the New Day’s corner, I guess they had to find something for Stewart to do but I could’ve cared less for it. It was a bit of a nothing match to be honest, Stewart tried to get involved and it was all very uninteresting. The expected return of Big E took place and in attacking Gallows and Anderson New Day were disqualified but kept the belts. It was all a bit flat despite the pop for Big E, I know people wanted Gallows and Anderson to win the belts but I think they came up with this so New Day make it past a full year as tag champions, I would expect Gallows and Anderson to win the titles at Clash of Champions in a rematch and hopefully it will be a lot better than this.

Match Rating: **

WWE World Championship Match: Dean Ambrose © vs. Dolph Ziggler: Up next was the WWE World Title match with Ambrose defending against Ziggler. I must admit I was really

disappointed and underwhelmed by this match. I was so looking forward to it, I thought the build they had done going into the match was some of the best I’ve seen in a long time and the promo package to hype this match was fantastic as well. But this match was just so flat and had didn’t have the intensity and drama the build had at all. People will blame the crowd for being pretty much silent throughout but what did Ambrose and Ziggler do to get them out their seats? There was nowhere near the drama of the Cena and Styles match, no kicking out of finishers, in fact Dolph hit one Zig Zag and that was it, Dean pinned Dolph off his first Dirty Deeds unless I’m mistaken. Dolph didn’t get a great deal of offence in here at all, I didn’t expect him to win the title but I hoped they would have a great high drama match here and he’d come inches away on a number of occasions and hopefully come away from the match looking like a million bucks. But this match will do nothing to kick-start Dolph’s career again and I think it’s clear now this was just a filler title defence for Ambrose. He’ll go on to defend it against AJ now most probably which

will be great but I was so disappointed by this, it could’ve been so much more.

Match Rating: **3/4

Six-Woman Tag Team Match: Becky Lynch, Carmella & Naomi vs. Nikki Bella, Natalya & Alexa Bliss: To provide some filler between the world title matches we got the six-woman tag. The major thing to take away from this match was Nikki Bella’s return, I found the tease they did before the return with Eva pretty hilarious. But it was great to see Nikki return from an injury that could’ve well ended her career and she’ll boost the SmackDown women’s division. And it was no surprise to see her pick up the win for her team, a filler match but good to see Nikki back.

Match Rating: **

WWE Universal Championship Match: Finn Bálor vs. Seth Rollins: Up next we crowned the first Universal Champion with Bálor taking on Rollins. Now this match was really good

but not the classic I hoped for and if you can believe it a lot

of that was down to the Universal Title belt. They unveiled it before the match and the crowd hated it, I must admit it’s not a great belt, red is a very strange colour for the strap but my biggest gripe is that the design is exactly the same as the WWE World and Women’s Titles, very lazy. But I have to give Brooklyn a lot of criticism for seeming to care about that more than the match itself. They were chanting about the belt, booing every time it appeared on screen, I get it the belt isn’t great and no one really likes it but what’s more important here, the design of the belt or the fact that it is the new world title and two supremely talented guys in Bálor and Rollins are fighting over it. The crowd should’ve gotten over what the belt looked like and paid all their attention to the match and Bálor and Rollins had a tough time getting the crowd into the match because they were so concerned about the new title. I mean we go on and on about how guys like Bálor and Rollins should be in the main event and then when they are all people can talk about is the god damn title? Come on. As I said the match was good stuff, not the classic I had hoped for and hopefully we’ll get a better match between the two down the road. But there was some nice stuff in here with Rollins and Bálor doing their best to take the attention off the title belt and on them with some really nice moves. It was Bálor in the end who picked up the victory after a number of dropkicks and a Coup de Grace to become the first Universal Champion. One thing everyone seemed to agree on was that Bálor deserved it, they’ve put a rocket launcher on him since coming to the main roster, he debuts four weeks ago and now wins a

world title at SummerSlam, it’s quite incredible. I look forward to Raw with Bálor as the face of the brand, it was great to see him win but Brooklyn did their best to ruin this.

Match Rating: ***1/4

Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton: In the main event the beast took on the viper as Lesnar battled Orton. This match was pretty standard stuff for Brock with him dominating the most part. It is fun to see Brock just dominate someone and hit suplex after suplex but this was another match that wasn’t as good as I hoped it would bd. Orton hit an RKO on the table and then another in the ring but apart from that he spent the majority of this match getting beat up. The match was fun but wasn’t up there with Brock’s best matches since returning. It was the finish that really got everyone talking when Brock cut Orton with a straight elbow and eventually won via TKO when the referee called the match as blood gushed from the skull of Orton. It was such a nasty looking elbow and there was a lot of blood, I imagine a lot more than intended. I was actually a fan of the finish, Brock could’ve won with the standard F5 and pinfall but this was something very different and I think it did more for Brock, it made him look like a completely unmerciful, bloodthirsty monster. After the match Shane McMahon hit the ring but got an F5 for his troubles so it makes you

wonder where they’re going with this and if anything will come of it as I’m not sure when we’ll see Brock again but as I said fun match if not as good as I hoped it would be and a finish I actually was a fan of.

Match Rating: ***1/4

Overall Thoughts: Overall this SummerSlam wasn’t terrible but it really dragged on, most of the major matches were in one way or another a bit disappointing and if it weren’t for Cena versus Styles I wouldn’t really recommend this show.

Overall Score: 7/10