Seth Rollins finally slays the Beast Brock Lesnar...again!
Goldberg is the gift that just keeps on spearing! And Bray Wyatt just used his own severed head
as a lantern Luke hold me, hold me tight I’m so scared right now.
I’m Oli Davis, press the thumbs up button, give us a subscribe and answer our question
of the day in the comments down below: What did you think of The Fiend’s in-ring debut?
Because I’ll be replying to people FROM OUTTA NOWHERE… look at me, I’m in Bray
Wyatt’s severed mouth. Also vote in the poll above my head to give
your rating for the show, where you can choose from: Best of Both Worlds, Great Per View,
Thumbs in the Middle, Meh Per View and Worst of Both Worlds. While Luke and I review WWE
SummerSlam 2019!
The pre-show featured the usual stuff that isn’t worth talking about - what do you
mean there was a tease of a Bullet Club reunion in WWE?! The O.C. approached Finn Balor backstage
and told him if he needs help, he just needs to say ‘when’. And going by his neck later
in the night, it’s time to say when, Finn.
There was some fun 24/7 stuff with Drake Maverick, Carmella and R-Truth, but it feels like this
trio jumped the shark a few weeks ago. Drew Gulak defended his Cruiserweight Championship
against Oney Lorcan in a decent match that no one really cared about, and Buddy Murphy
had his main roster debut match against Apollo Crews - which was shut down when Rowan attacked
Murphy for accusing him of attacking Roman Reigns - with Daniel Bryan watching backstage
still looking conflicted.
So yeah, there wasn’t a lot to talk about on this pre-show - what do you mean Edge returned
and hit a Spear on Elias?! The first wrestling move he’s done since his retirement announcement
in 2011! This was an awesome moment, and will no doubt spark rumours of a possible in-ring
return for Edge down the line.
And finally, Nikki Cross and Alexa Bliss defended their WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships
against The IIconics - with Bliss and Cross firmly set as babyfaces for no rhyme or reason,
and the commentators have now changed their minds that Cross and Bliss are best friends
- this storyline sucks. Bliss cosplayed as Buzz Lightyear for some reason, and won with
the Twisted Bliss - which none of the commentators called “falling with style”, and thanks
to Corey Graves’ nice jacket, I’d say that was “failing with style”.
The main card kicked off with another WWE legend returning - pyro! I just wish Edge
and pyro returned at the same time during his entrance.
And SummerSlam kept the pre-show’s excitement going by opening on the Raw Women’s title
match! In one corner, the beloved badass babyface Becky Lynch. And in the other, the recently
heelish Natalya, who came out in her home country draped in the Canadian flag. Gotta
love that really clear heel-face dynamic. The two had a terrific opening match, paced
perfectly around the submission stipulation and them trying to get to the ring apron not
because WWE just sometimes choses to ignore the NO ROPE BREAK RULE, but so they can use
that positioning as leverage to get out of holds. After trying each others submissions,
Becky eventually made Nattie tap in the Disarmher. WWE ingeniously followed the 12 minute submission-based
opener with Goldberg continuingly spearing Dolph Ziggler. Like over and over again. And
then some more when you thought it had all stopped, it was great.
Goldberg’s random return might’ve come more out of nowhere than a Randy Orton vs
Kofi Kingston countout finish - WWE title shade - but his special attraction match here
was booked perfectly. Goldberg shrugged off two superkicks to hit a spear and jackhammer
for a 1 minute 50 second win. But Dolph wasn’t done. He wanted another go. So Goldberg speared
him again. And then again. Ziggler was effectively the
Black Knight from Monty Pyton’s Holy Grail. Goldberg was brilliant, but massive credit
to Ziggler for selling the spear like he’s Shawn Michaels covered in Flubber from the
1997 Robin Williams comedy movie Flubber.
Summerslam was already off to a hot start, and it only got hotter with the excellent
United States Championship match between Ricochet and AJ Styles. Ricochet cosplayed as Nightwing
- and channeled his inner Flying Graysons to step across Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson
like they were floats in a swimming pool to hit a hurricanrana on Styles. Ricochet brilliantly
sold his leg throughout this match - certainly better than Seth Rollins did with his ribs
- but couldn’t overcome the numbers game - trying to hit a Phoenix Splash but was caught
by an AJ Styles Clash for the retention. This was great from start to end, and only cemented
The O.C. as one of the best acts in the company when AJ set his dogs on the defenseless Ricochet
after the match.
Still the NXT Tag Team Champions Street Profits were backstage to do cut another fabulous
promo, and were joined by Ric Flair for some funny shenanigans.
But sadly it appeared that all the fun of Goldberg, Flair, and Ricochet and AJ Styles
tearing it up meant that the Toronto crowd did not care about the Bayley vs. Ember Moon
match for the Smackdown Women’s Championships. That, or Ember Moon being beaten up for the
two weeks leading into the PPV somehow made people not take her seriously as a title contender.
I’ll let you be the judge. Bayley won with a second rope Bayley to Belly in a “meh”
encounter.
Shane McMahon brought out Elias as the special guest enforcer for his match against Kevin
Owens next to avoid any shenanigans. But who’s there to stop the Shane-anigins? It’s been
a long night. KO was confounded again and again by Elias,
getting a visual pin, having the ref pulled out for a fantastic near fall, and in a great
character spot, where Owens nearly used a chair on Shane - risking the DQ loss.
The finish was a wicked piece of sports entertainment, with ref bumps, a kick to the dick and a Stone
Cold Stunner. So the Attitude Era. And KO stood tall, for the Shane feud to presumably
continue on Tuesday nights. Trish Stratus and Charlotte went over 16 minutes
in their match. They had the second shortest match on the card by just five seconds. This
didn’t need to be so long and could’ve easily been cut in half.
That said, the wrestlers really got the crowd into it, mainly thanks to Charlotte just wrestling
herself, while Trish did athletic flips in her general proximity. That’s not what this
about though. The scene afterwards, of an extended standing ovation for Trish - having
a damn good showing in front of her hometown in what’s likely her last match - was a
deeply heartwarming moment.
I’ve been rather critical of the build to Randy Orton vs. Kofi Kingston - mostly because
there was so much left on the table in terms of storytelling. The final two weeks of build
to the match were just solo promos. And if felt like Randy and Kofi knew this going into
the match, and so started off hot to make it feel like this was a real blood feud that’s
been building for a decade. And it worked… for a bit. The crowd were split for both guys
at the start, but the match did drag somewhat towards the end of their 16 and a half minutes
of wrestling, which didn’t help the crowd enjoy the double countout finish which they
chanted Bull-s-word at. And it was bull-s-word. Kofi then freaked out after the match and
laid out Orton with kendo stick shots to a mostly apathetic crowd. So, it was basically
the finish to AJ vs. Samoa Joe from last year.
But then came what a lot of people were hotly anticipating for this show - the debut of
Bray Wyatt’s new character The Fiend. I tend to not use this word too much when reviewing
anything, but this was as close to perfection as you could come with a re-debut of a character.
In fact, it was perfect. Everything about this was flawless. From the terrifyingly creepy
entrance with a dark version of Bray Wyatt’s old theme - to The Fiend even carrying a lantern
made of a severed head of Wyatt himself - to the new in-ring style and character work of
The Fiend battling his inner personalities - to the finish of Fiend catching Balor’s
Coup de Grace with the Mandible Claw for the win. This was flawless, and the single greatest
re-debut of a character in the history of wrestling. I don’t want to sound hyperbolic,
but The Fiend is the best thing in wrestling right now. And if you think I’m over-reacting
to all of this, check out these highlights of me and Oli watching The Fiend’s debut
from our livestream.
Even though The Fiend’s in-ring debut will go down as the spiritual main event, the actual
final slot went to Seth Rollins and Brock Lesnar - who made up for their weak go-home
angle and Seth just generally being on Twitter with some great in-ring drama.
Right out the gate, Seth backflipped out of a German suplex and hit the Stomp for an amazing
early near fall, hooking the crowd in from the start. But Brock soon got on top, awesomely
and effortlessly swinging Seth around by the tape on his torso.
But because good psychology and selling gets in the way of fun stuff, Rollins ignored that
particular injury and hit a huge Frog Splash off the top of the ring post on Brock through
the Spanish commentary desk outside - a SummerSlam main event worthy highspot - and then hit
two more Stomps back in the ring for the win. We can now happily say that the Universal
Champion is once again… Becky Lynch’s boyfriend Seth Rollins!
SummerSlam 2019 was an excellent show, and such a fun experience to watch live. The Fiend’s
debut will go down as an all-time great WWE moment. Goldberg’s destruction of Dolph
was the perfect mixture of badass and comedy. Seth finally got rid of Brock Lesnar as Universal
Champion, again. Trish had a lovely sendoff. And oh my God I keep forgetting Edge returned
and actually hit an in-ring move for the first time since his retirement! The only real negative
was the screwy finish of Kofi vs Orton. It’s been a really great few weeks of WWE
TV, which oddly coincides with reports that Paul Heyman has more control backstage, and
this pay-per-view terrifically continued that momentum. I’m very happy to say, SummerSlam
2019 is Best of Both Worlds.
But what about that crazy Adam Cole vs Johnny Gargano match from NXT TakeOver: Toronto the
previous night? Watch our review by clicking the video on the right to also find out which
top indy star looks set on their way to WWE! I’ve been Oli Davis, and that was wrestling.