 Women's World Champion Rhea Ripley def. Liv MorganThese two have proven in the past that they work really well together (both as partners and as opponents) and this was another top-notch match from them. The element of Dominik Mysterio at ringside added to the unpredictability, but the matchup itself was on par with their other encounters. I'm glad Mysterio actually betrayed Ripley, cementing Ripley as a babyface in the process. I thought they might leave people guessing again, but that would have been underwhelming. This was a big win for Morgan and the finish keeps the feud alive. Bron Breakker def. Sami Zayn to Win the Intercontinental ChampionshipMore so than any title change, one of the biggest shockers on this show was that this match only went five minutes. They got more than twice that amount of time at Money in the Bank, so it may have been better for this to happen on Raw instead and keep the card at only six matches. Despite that, this was good while it lasted. Breakker becoming champ was the right call as he continues climbing the card. It also frees up Zayn to ideally do more with Jey Uso and potentially The Bloodline. LA Knight def. Logan Paul to Win the United States ChampionshipPaul was my pick to win as recently as a few days ago, not because I wanted to but because I thought WWE might want to drag out the feud even longer. I wonder if Paul's controversial comments on social media from Thursday had anything to do with Knight winning here? Regardless of the reason, I'm happy he did because this was long overdue. The match was entertaining and the crowd was behind Knight the entire time. Nia Jax def. Bayley to Win the WWE Women's ChampionshipWhile this was arguably the "weakest" match of the night, it was far from bad. Jax has been doing the best in-ring work of her career during this run and she had a solid match with Bayley here, someone she has a ton of history with dating back almost a decade. Tiffany Stratton getting a new Money in the Bank briefcase on Friday's SmackDown made her lack of cash-in predictable, but Jax winning the title was a nice moment for her. WWE didn't do as much with Bayley during her reign as she should have, but hopefully she can rebound while in chase mode. Drew McIntyre def. CM Punk (Seth "Freakin" Rollins Served as Special Guest Referee)I've seen and heard plenty of polarizing reactions to this match from people and I fall in the camp of those who liked it. Was it the knock-down, drag-out brawl it should have been? No, but I wasn't disappointed because I assume that's being saved for the next match and/or the blow-off. Instead, this had an emphasis on the storytelling and I thought everyone excelled in their respective roles. McIntyre winning was the right result and the seeds were planted for Punk vs. Rollins down the road. Gunther def. Damian Priest to Win the World Heavyweight ChampionshipSummerSlam was a strong show on the whole, but it lacked Match of the Year candidates in my opinion, except for this. Gunther and Priest beat the holy hell out of each other and delivered an excellent hard-hitting affair. Finn Balor interfering and costing Priest the win was logical, but it still felt like a major moment considering how close they've been in The Judgment Day for the past two years. Priest is going to be very over as a babyface, and Gunther's World Heavyweight title run has the potential to be as fantastic as his record-setting Intercontinental Championship run. This was awesome all around. Awesome Truth and Jelly Roll Attacked A-Town Down UnderI totally forgot The Miz was the host for the event. Did they even show him in a backstage segment before this? Thankfully, I missed the entire segment while walking from the press box to the floor seating arena, but I've since gone back and watched it. Needless to say, I didn't miss much. It got Miz on the show and I'm sure Jelly Roll loved getting physical, but this was total throwaway otherwise. Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes def. Solo Sikoa in a Bloodline Rules MatchTo state the obvious, this wasn't nearly as great as the Bloodline Rules match from WrestleMania 40. It's tough to top that type of electricity, and these were simply different circumstances. With that said, I thought this main event was enjoyable and it certainly benefited from the stipulation. As a standard singles match, it probably would have been a lot more boring. All of the interference was expected yet well done, and the Roman Reigns return received a thunderous reaction as we all knew it would. I wasn't too fond of Rhodes needing his help to win, but I am excited to see where they go with the Bloodline saga from here and Rhodes finally moving on from it (or at least that's the hope). Overall ShowTop to bottom, this may have been the best installment of SummerSlam in about a decade. SummerSlam is very much a mixed bag most years, but there's very little for me to complain about from this card. Sure, the segment with Awesome Truth and Jelly Roll was whatever, but it was quick and harmless. Everything else held my interest and lived up to the hype. The four title changes, Reigns' return and all of the major storyline developments made this a very newsworthy night and left me looking forward to the fallout on Raw and SmackDown.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
May 2025
|
RSS Feed