WWE SummerSlam Review - August 5, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Logan Paul def. Ricochet

It was obvious that this was opening the show after Paul made it clear publicly that he wanted to fly out of SummerSlam as soon as possible to catch his brother Jake Paul's fight later in the night. This wasn't exactly the "viral" match they were promoting it as, but it was still a quality opener with some fun moments. The two men worked well together and Paul once again impressed. Ricochet being protected in defeat was interesting. Maybe the feud will continue. Either way, Paul needed this win.

Cody Rhodes def. Brock Lesnar

I was shocked this went on so early in the show, but I'm not complaining. It was smart to space out the four supposed "main events." They worked a slow pace with Rhodes being dominated for a majority of the match, but the crowd rallied behind him once he started to battle back. They went the methodical, storytelling route and although it was a bit boring at times, it ended up being a strong piece of business. Even better was Lesnar's post-match endorsement of Rhodes. Was WrestleMania 19 the last time he's done that? And even then, he beat Kurt Angle there and he lost here. Regardless, that was an awesome moment.

LA Knight Won the SummerSlam Battle Royal

For a Battle Royal with no stakes (other than serving as the spokesperson for Slim Jim, which was never announced), this was actually pretty entertaining. There was plenty of star power in there and the order of eliminations was logical. Feuds were furthered and the final stretch was great. Omos being a last-minute entrant had me worried, but he was taken out halfway through after scoring several eliminations. Knight winning was the only acceptable outcome and I'm happy he finally got his moment. Now let's get a real meaningful push for him going.

Shayna Baszler def. Ronda Rousey in a MMA Rules Match

As I've been saying since the storyline started, the biggest problem this match had going for it was that neither woman was firmly established as a babyface. Most fans don't like Rousey and will cheer for anyone who beats her up, but that didn't necessarily mean the crowd would be behind Baszler here and they weren't. As an MMA "fight," this was cool and I appreciated that they tried something different, but the crowd simply did not care. It was probably for the best that this didn't exceed the seven- or eight-minute mark. Baszler giving Rousey her first clean loss in WWE is a fitting end to Rousey's run (assuming it's actually over).

Intercontinental Champion Gunther def. Drew McIntyre

This wasn't the all-out barn burner I thought it could be, but it was still highly physical and a hell of a hard-hitting affair. The crowd didn't really get into until about halfway through, but this was as well wrestled as you'd expect. They're capable of better, so perhaps there's more matches to come. I genuinely thought McIntyre could/would win coming into the event (just because that's something WWE would do even with Gunther set to break the record next month), but the crowd didn't seem to share that same sentiment because they didn't react to most of his nearfalls. Gunther winning clean was a pleasant surprise, though.

World Heavyweight Champion Seth "Freakin" Rollins def. Finn Balor

It took some time for the crowd to come back alive after the mostly-tepid reactions to the previous two matches, but they picked up the ace once the rest of The Judgment Day coming down to ringside to (attempt to) aid Balor to victory. I loved all the attention to detail playing off their last SummerSlam encounter seven years ago and it really looked like Balor might win on a number of occasions. Rollins managed to outsmart them and retain the title. Priest either being ousted from Judgment Day by Balor or voluntarily breaking off on his own feels like the next step of the storyline. All in all, this was an excellent match.

Bianca Belair def. Asuka and Charlotte Flair in a Triple Threat Match to Win the WWE Women's Championship; IYO SKY def. Belair to Win the WWE Women's Championship (Money in the Bank Cash-In)

I haven't been the biggest fan of this feud, especially with Asuka feeling like an afterthought as champion, but they wound up delivering a terrific Triple Threat. Any woman could have realistically won, which the outcome proved because Belair was the least likely to win in my book. Nothing everything was super smooth (I'm looking at you, Charlotte), but they kept it interesting throughout and the Belair injury angle was well done (I thought she was legitimately hurt). That paved the way for SKY to cash in on Belair afterward and become champion. It's exactly what I wanted and it was executed perfectly, not to mention this show marked the one-year anniversary of Damage CTRL's debut. Needless to say, this is a step in the right direction for SmackDown's women's division, provided she isn't booked to be a weak champ.

Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns def. Jey Uso in a Tribal Combat Match

This didn't reach the same highs some of Reigns' other title defenses and it didn't help that it didn't get underway until very late in the show, but I largely enjoyed it despite a slow first half. Reigns retaining was predictable, especially with Jey already having pinned him last month at Money in the Bank, but there were some suspenseful nearfalls that the crowd bought into. The interference from Solo Sikoa was predictable, but I did like that they teased tension between Reigns and Sikoa. That split is clearly coming and has me intrigued, whereas I don't think Jimmy turning on Jey made much sense. It just feels like WWE's way of killing time for the rest of the year until Reigns returns again, either for the next Saudi Arabia show or maybe even the Royal Rumble. It was another deflating ending, but I maintain that Jey wasn't/isn't the guy to dethrone Reigns.

Overall Show

I criticize AEW for this constantly and WWE shouldn't suffer from the same issue: Most pay-per-views do not need to be over four hours long, and this one exceeded the four-hour mark. Being in the building, I can tell you that the crowd was exhausted by the end and it hurt the already-lengthy main event. On the whole, however, I did think this was a top-notch show. It started strong and died down a bit in the middle with the MMA Rules match, but I was happy with all of the outcomes and there were some really good matches. It wasn't on par with some of WWE's other pay-per-views this year but still a success.

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