SUMMERSLAM
My head is about to explode from tiredness, so forgive me (it's nearly 05:30 AM).
As a wrestling show, it was not nearly as strong as NXT, you could argue that all 5 matches on NXT were more technically skilled than every match on Summerslam. But Summerslam was a very enjoyable event otherwise.
Big Ups:
* Ronda Rousey obliterating Bliss - this is kind of what I wanted to see out of her from the beginning. Making her a monster among women... even though I really like Bliss as well, Ronda is the IT wrestler right now.
* Roman Reigns vs. Lesnar - by far the best match of their series. The crowd actually turned around and cheered Roman at the end. It was a lot faster paced than past matches. Too bad Strowman is all Braun and no brains.
* Demon Balor surprising everyone and eating Corbin alive in a very over-the-top performance.
* Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch vs. Carmella, especially Becky's berserker rage at the end of the match.
Moderate ups:
* Rollins vs. Ziggler was surprisingly decent after they kind of stunk up the last PPV's main event.
* Jeff vs. Shinsuke had some fun moments, and they managed to get some cheers out of a crowd that was otherwise completely unexcited this match was even happening. If that bump at the end was a sell, then easily the best sell of the night - otherwise OUCH! Painful to watch.
* B-Team vs. The Revival accidental... again! The victory came after Bo Dallas trips over a rollup and reverses the pin
* Rusev & Lana vs. Andrade Almas & Zelina Vega - was WAAAAY too short to really tell any story, but still had some interesting moments. Lana has improved a lot.
Average:
* The Miz vs Daniel Bryan disappointed, too much striking, not enough spots or story. It wasn't terrible; like AJ vs Shinsuka Nakamura, a lot more was expected.
Moderate downs:
* Joe vs. AJ, was like 20 minutes of headlocks followed by a 5-minute spot match, but I fell asleep during it and needed to down an energy drink after. I like it when matches get a lot of time, but only if they tell a story, and this one did NOT; EDIT - after reading some reviews, it seemed a lot of people liked this match, my opinion on it was probably swayed by the fact that I fell asleep during it, maybe if I watched it at a decent time.
* Cederick Alexander vs. Drew Gulak kind of underwhelming for a cruiserweight match - this was a match I was hoping to see some technical brilliance on, but it fell short.
Big Downs:
* Kevin Owens getting stomped, the best part of the match was his over-the-top selling getting whipped by Strowman. People speculated that he is injured, but this was just depressing to watch.
* The New Day, great match spoiled by a terrible DQ ending.
Overall: The show was good! While I gave it 5 negatives and 8 positives, that's not the full story considering the bad stuff was mostly during parts of the show that didn't matter as much: Summerslam opened up strong and ended stronger. All of the weak/slow stuff was in the midcard; BUT, Charlotte/Becky/Carmella was directly in the middle of all of that, and it was one of the best parts of the night.
Here's some pictures that sum up the biggest takeaways for me:
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
