Tha Biggest Shocker Of Tha Summer

The entire Internet, or most of it either verbally stated they wanted, or secretly wanted Bryan Danielson/Daniel Bryan as the seventh member of Team WWE. We got what we asked for. Aside from the finish to the seven on seven elimination match the entire SummerSlam event was well above average.

The card seemed a little rushed at times to give adequate time for the main event, but it played out nicely. I wasn't incredibly pleased with Nexus interrupting and ruining the Dolph Ziggler/Kofi Kingston Intercontinental Championship match, but I can look over that as it put immediate focus on the main event.

Ziggler and Kingston had a damn good match going, and while the popular thing to do is hate Vickie Guerrero I have to say that I love her character. She generates heat, she plays her part nicely and she gets it. She isn't just a token valet she gets involved at the right spots and draws her heat at the right spots.

I doubt Ziggler will be a future World Heavyweight/WWE Champion, but I don't see why he couldn't pull it off. At the same time he could be one of the guys to run with and work some prestige back to the Intercontinental Championship. That may be a long shot due to WWE booking, but it could happen.

I also want to hammer home the fact that Melina and Alicia Fox put on a damn good match. I'm not even going to classify it as a womens match. It was simply a more than solid match by the two best (healthy) female workers in the company. Melina looked great, and I don't mean that in a Jerry Lawler perverted way.

LayCool interrupting Melina's celebration played out quite well. It got them some screen time, and a SummerSlam paycheck, so it worked great for McCool and Layla, and it built them heat as heels and made Melina a bigger babyface. When Alicia Fox went back after Melina, LayCool throwing her outside showed their dominance.

I honestly don't understand why Big Show needed to go over against the S.E.S clean. Punk hasn't been booked to look even somewhat strong on a PPV this year. His closest to saving face was the Fatal Four Way for the World Heavyweight Championship. He's over. He's one of the best promo guys period. I understand Big Show winning, but not pinning Joseph Mercury and Gallows. Joseph Mercury?

The segment between Kane and Sheamus backstage was better than I thought it would be. Kane came out looking strong and Sheamus didn't come out looking weak. Which would be a theme for the show. I think for this upcoming Taker/Kane feud the mask should come back, but I'll get back to that later.

Sheamus and Orton gave me a pleasant surprise as well. I figured the match would be decent, and it wasn't a five star classic, but it surpassed decent. Enough back and forth to not bury anyone and through the backdoor they kept the door open for more matches. Orton won the match but Sheamus kept the championship.

If Sheamus had lost the title he wouldn't get another shot while Orton had it. Conversely if Orton had lost the match he wouldn't get another shot while Sheamus was champion. Both men did what they needed to do. Orton won, Sheamus retained. I don't see them not wrestling at Night of Champions.

I didn't want to see Kane and Mysterio. I'm so sick of Rey Mysterio it's hard to watch "SmackDown." The two put on an incredibly competitive match. All credit goes to Kane for making Rey look good and somewhat believable. I did pop for Rey's flip to his feet when Kane slid him out of the ring to the floor. It's the small things that make you still love it.

The casket was incredibly shallow, and there were several people staring at the ring apron near the finish. "Did it move?" It was almost funny. It was actually nice to keep guessing since the casket opened a few times without Taker in it. The only possible thing I would have changed was to make the match itself a casket match.

Though making a casket match would have either meant Rey regained the World Heavyweight Championship, or Kane beat down both Rey and Taker. They could have pulled a Taker/Rey switcharoo in the casket but that would have been a little too much, so I understand why it wasn't.

Taker did a hell of a job selling his weakness after his time in a vegetative state. He literally looked worse. While the angle came off great on TV I wonder how well his conversation with Rey came off in the arena. I'm guessing the live audience only saw them in the corner and didn't hear their conversation.

I was honestly dreading the return of Undertaker because an Undertaker/Kane feud isn't new. It isn't fresh, and it isn't something that a whole lot could be done with that hasn't been done before. Or so I thought. I could still be right, but SummerSlam shocked me.

Letting Kane beat Mysterio clean and then leave Taker laying is going farther to build, or actually re-build him as a monster heel. Opening up the return of the mask in some way, shape, form or fashion. He can run with this for quite a while. Let him get his run in with the World Heavyweight Championship. If they booked this correctly he could carry it until WrestleMania and drop the belt to Taker then.

Continuing with shockers, I was sorely disappointed when Miz agreed to be the seventh member of Team WWE. It didn't make sense. The only reason to have that happen would be to turn him face. He's the hottest singles heel they have. He's got Nexus level heat, and his in-ring segment where he told the crowd to raise their hands because they can't say his catchphrase was great.

When Miz made his way to the top of the ramp and Cena cut that promo I didn't expect Bryan Danielson the way Cena built it up. It was Daniel Bryan though and he had a great showing. Michael Cole's best work of the night was his Bryan bashing. There is something there, and there is something there with Miz/Danielson.

When I saw Daniel Bryan lock in the crossface (though a variation) on Darren Young it got a verbal O. The next big discussion will of course be was it a work all along, or did the WWE decide he didn't need to be gone for the full 90 days? It actually doesn't matter. I do think however some type of build to him being #7 would have garnered more buys for SummerSlam.

On a humorous WWE screwed up note, they put up a Daniel Bryan returns to WWE topic, but removed shortly thereafter, as it is currently gone. Bryan's return opens the door for his feud with The Miz to continue, as evidenced by him replacing Miz, and by Miz getting him eliminated. It also opens the door for Bryan to be a champion in WWE relatively soon.

The elimination main event went off well and everybody got some time to shine. We also saw "vintage Chris Jericho." Bret Hart looked nothing like he used to, but he looked much better than I expected and I was happy to see The Hitman spend some time with the new members of the WWE.

His elimination was the only possible way it could have went down. Taking a huge bump was out of the question. Count out, disqualification or heel turn would have been the only way for him to be taken out of the match with minimum risk. I know there are some around here who aren't fond of Hart, but seeing him back in the ring is far from horrible.

My only solid NO of the night was the finish. I loved the way Miz got Bryan out. It just made sense. It set up for a few different conclusions. Instead of any of those we got Cena's superman shtick. On the night many thought would be the death of John Cena the babyface he became "stronger."

When Cena came down the ramp in a new t-shirt, hat and sweetband combination I said aloud he's staying babyface. No way they'd debut new gear for him and turn him heel that night. I didn't even mind the quick pin after Gabriel missed the 450. That worked well, and set up for Wade Barrett to get his moment alone.

Instead though, after Cena got beat down by two of his teammates and took a DDT on the concrete he springs up and locks in an STFU on a basically fresh Barrett who just couldn't fight out. Guys have fought to the ropes before, but Cena was apparently still too strong to let that happen.

WWE dropped the ball on the finish of the match and consequently on the finish of the pay-per-view. But the rest of the show made up for it. While it isn't totally forgivable, it wasn't something to make the show be considered bad. Nexus is far from dead, or at least it should be. It remains to be seen how the WWE runs with them now.

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