Yeah, I know that Dan used the same title to describe the 2006 installment, but oh well. How's it feel to have your shit stolen, bredren? The White Devil is at it again!The show wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. It was, much like Donnie said, a card with some great matches and a few bathroom breaks. The booking, the matches, the way the card was laid out-all had their good sides and their bad sides.
MVP and Jeff Hardy was the curtain jerker, which I think was a smart move. As anticipated, this was one of the better matches of the night. I question the run-in by Benjamin, though. Hardy and MVP had more than enough backstory invested into this match to be able to develop an extended feud. Both guys are potential main eventers, as well, so feuding with each other could help to elevate both men. Run-in by Benjamin aside, this was a great match to kick off the night.
Santino and Beth went over, as largely predicted. Good title switches in both instances, and I don't say that just because I'm a fan of the funny Ontarian and the hometown girl. Both titles have been devalued in recent years, and conseuqently, not much emphasis is placed on them. This title switch seems to be a one-off, which means that Santino and Beth will be in new storylines, hopefully involving their titles. Wishful thinking on my part, I know, but if you're going to try and put a title over, why not put it on a guy who knows a lot about putting over?
A detached retina. I know that at this point, this isn't supposed to be the sticking point (now it's just an "eye injury"), so I'm going to hound on it. I said in my Great American Bash review that there was no conceivable way that they could explain someone coming back from a detached retina (not even John Cena's doctor could hook that shit up), so now apparently they want to move away from the specific term "detached retina", using the term "eye injury" more frequently. That being said, punching a man's wife is a great way to get heat, and will help to build towards the eventual payoff match between those two.
Mark Henry won by DQ when his manager interfered. Now Matt Hardy, the superover babyface, is chasing the champion, and consequently, the belt that lies around his waist. Can you get any better old-school angle than that? Maybe ECW's doing the basics to drive their storylines, but it's working, let me tell you. I've alluded to this for weeks now, and since DJB has already said it, I'm going to go ahead and say it as well. ECW is the A show right now. If you don't believe me, watch Tuesday night and then disagree.
Will someone please get Brian Gerwitz a dictionary so he can look up the word "underdog"? I can dig wanting to position your babyface champion as an underdog. Sympathy is often times a driving factor in a babyface; they have to be able to sell adversity in order for people to buy them overcoming it. Facing almost no adversity and languishing in the midcard does not make you an underdog, it makes you a midcarder. I said that "Raw" needed JBL to win this match, but since Punk won clean, I may soon change my mind. But for the love of God, make him a main event underdog, not a fucking midcarder!Two years ago, The Great Khali was held off of SummerSlam because the general feeling was that he couldn't wrestle. Well, he still can't, honestly. This match made no sense during the buildup, and it still makes no sense. "SmackDown!" is short on main eventers at the moment (I'll touch on that more later), but Khali was still a poor choice for what's considered the second biggest show of the year.
Batista VS. John Cena will never be described as a five-star classic. If these guys have any more matches, they'll still suck, and there probably will be no spots they perform to top Batista's counter of a leg drop into the Batista Bomb. I O'd for that spot and thought that would have been the perfect way to end the match. Having Cena kick out only to receive a regular, sloppily-executed Batista Bomb was bad booking. I actually had kinda hoped this match would have been the main event, so that I could have stopped watching.
The actual main event, however, was Edge vs. Undertaker. Now, I'm an Undertaker mark. Always have been, always will be. And I get that he's a special event guy, and that he equals interest and ratings. That being said, he dominated a large percentage of this match, and I don't agree with that. Undertaker is going to be over no matter what. What does it hurt him to eat the pinfall to Edge, who was being positoned as a ruthless heel until he got punked out by Taker.
It doesn't hurt Undertaker in the least to lose this match last night. He'll come out on "SmackDown!" and nobody would even care that he lost. Not to mention, a win by Edge lines him up as the heel for an extended feud with Triple H, which would be a great focal point for a show that is about to move to a new network and potentially garner new audiences. Besides, even if Edge won, they still could have done the spot after the match in which Edge got chokeslammed off of a ladder through the ring, with the ring then catching fire. By the way, that spot was fucking sick, and I got a chuckle out of the ref who was blatantly holding both ladders.
Overall, I do recommend watching this show if you haven't yet. Some people will invariably say that this review is negative, and that WWE shouldn't be listening to people like me (I wasn't aware they were listening to me, but if they are, hi Vince!), but slight personal suggestions for improvement are in no way condemnation of the whole show. Go check out the show, it won't win pay-per-view of the year but it was no December To Dismember.
Tha Results:
*MVP def. Jeff Hardy
*Santino Marella and Beth Phoenix def. Kofi Kingston and Mickie James
*Matt Hardy def. Mark Henry by DQ
*CM Punk def. JBL
*Triple H def. The Great Khali
*Batista def. John Cena
*Undertaker def. Edge
2 comments: on "So-So SummerSlam"
Pretty much have to agree with you on this one, Batista V Cena aside. I thought those two done a hell of a lot better than what was expected of them and then some. Did they not sell the right way?
No mention of Rebecca "Michaels"' swollen lip? My biggest O of the night! Jericho stiffed HBK's old lady pretty good (I'm sure there was much apologies goin on), I mean did you see her buckle?
JBL and Punk put on what I think was the most compelling match of the night.
The Henry Hardy match confused me. Not the ending so much as the time allotted and Jeff's run-in. Where does it lead? That's two ECW PPV title matches that didn't last over a minute this year. Odd
A little disappointed with the main event, and not because they didn't go to the top. The spots were tight, but the flow just didn't seem to be there. It'll look better in the montage on Raw tonight.
I think the PPV was a let down considering all the build up for it. There were decent matches, matches that if they happen on RAW or SD, it would be a good part of the show. But for a PPV, they're a letdown. I think PPV's should be levels above the regular shows, and almost every match on this PPV wasn't anything that you can't get out of a RAW, ECW, or SD match. It's not even just this one, WWE consistently (in my opinion) just doesn't do a PPV as good as other promotions. Maybe they beat everyone in production, but once the bell rings, they drop down the hierarchy.
Each match felt like they just wanted to get to the next match, rather than each match trying to be the best match.
The HIAC didn't feel like HIAC to me. It felt no different than many other hardcore matches that Edge has done. Like when they stacked the tables on the side, I was thinking, "man, are they gonna do a superplex through that?!", but Taker just did a chokeslam, if you can call it that sense he just pushes them by the throat. And then the to top it off, the "holy shit" moment was Edge going through the ring...haven't we seen that like 3 times already in the WWE? The match just felt like no one had any good ideas for the match, and they just ended up repeating signature or finishing moves over and over.
Congratulations to those who did enjoy it though, I guess I just had higher expectations, considering it's a PPV.
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