Welcome to our live coverage of WWE's SummerSlam fromthe Staples
Center in Los Angeles. We're looking for your thoughts on tonight's
show so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle
along with a best and worst match to
dave@wrestlingobserver.com.
DEAN AMBROSE VS. ROB VAN DAM FOR THE U.S. TITLE
RVD won via DQ when Van Dam had the match won but Roman Reigns interfered with a spear. Average match with a poor finish. Earlier in the match when RVD was on the top rope, The Shield music played and Reigns and Seth Rollins came out to distract RVD. Big Show and Mark Henry came out. They were all at ringside the rest of the match but still did that finish. No challenges or anything after the match, they just went back to Vickie Guerrero, Shawn Michaels, Josh Matthews and Booker T at the desk.
It's really weird, they just signed off of the pregame show about 4:00 early and went to a blank screen. Before they did, they showed them setting up the ring of fire match and showed the flames as a tease to order the PPV which is the usual thing they're doing before they sign off. But weird to go to the blank screen.
JoJo Offerman sang the national anthem. She has a very good voice and poise as a singer. Crowd gave her a really big hand.
KANE VS. BRAY WYATT IN THE RING OF FIRE MATCH OPENS THE PPV SHOW
Wyatt won, of course. Luke Harper & Erick Rowan put a blanket over the flames on one side of the ring and they both beat down Kane after Kane had given Wyatt two choke slams. Rowan used a splash and then they handed Kane to Wyatt, who did the kiss and downward spiralfor he pin. After the match, supposedly smashed Kane's brain using the ring steps and Wyatt lit the lantern as Kane was left for dead. This looked to be the injury angle for Kane to be gone for a few months so he could do the "See No Evil" sequel. They dragged a lifeless Kane to the back. As far as the match itself went, maybe the worst match of the year. The ring surrounded by fire took too much away from what they could do and neither ended up doing much until the inteference.
Paul Heyman did an interview. Basically both sides have agreed that Lesnar vs. Punk is a no DQ match.
CODY RHODES VS. DAMIEN SANDOW
Rhodes won clean with Crossroads after a few minutes of near falls. Match had average reactions, work was about as good as you would expect given the time constraints the two had. Decent match overall. Win makes sense, since if Sandow wins the title, Rhodes is set up as a contender.
The black eye Del Rio wil come out with and all the bruises on his face were the result of a fight either last night or today. Apparently Del Rio and Drew McIntyre ended up a big fight, I think with other people, and as far as what happened I don't know other than both were all beaten up when they showed up back at the hotel.
ALBERTO DEL RIO VS. CHRISTIAN FOR THE WORLD TITLE
They just claimed the bruises were from the killswitch on Friday because they couldn't ignore them. Del Rio did real good considering he had to be messed up. During the match he started bleeding from the nose. Tons of near falls back and forth. The finish saw Christian hit the spear, but the shoulder that Del Rio worked on for several minutes went out. As Christian was selling, Del Rio got the armbar. Christian struggled but eventually tapped out. This was a lot better than anything so far.
Del Rio did an interview after the match talking about being a Latin hero. There were some people chanting "Si" during the match but there really weren't that many cheering for him.
They did a deal where they showed a clip of Natalya & Maria Menounos beating Brie Bella & Eva Marie from earlier today. Menounos did an intreview with Miz. Summer Rae and Fandango came out and danced and then Miz danced with Maria leaving Summer Rae and Fandango doing the facial like they were showed up.
BRIE BELLA VS. NATALYA
Nikki Bella and Eva Marie in one corner and Cameron and Naomi in the other.
Brie & Nikki came out wearing outfits that would be swimsuits out of the 40s. Match was decent but the crowd didn't care about it, chanting things like We Want Tables, Jerry, Michael Cole, JBL and one that got no momentum of We Want Ryder. Match was obviously taped for Total Divas with the women on the outside getting involved, but Natalya won clean with the sharpshooter.
A skit in catering. Ryback made fun of one of the guys working catering, saying the soup was cold and catering sucks. The guy said the soup was supposed to be cold. Ryback poured the soup down the guys shirt and laughed at him. he then poured more stuff over the guy's head and said "Feed Me Moron." So that's Ryback's contribution for the show.
C.M. PUNK VS. BROCK LESNAR NO DQ
This was pretty damn great. Lesnar looked to be close to 320 pounds but he didn't blow up or anythingin a long match. Lesnar used a Kimura but Punk got out into an armbar and then a triangle. Lesnar with a running power bomb. Both guys used chairs on each other Punk used a low blow at one point when Lesnar teased a chair shot. Lesnar tried an F-5 but Punk grabbed Paul Heyman's tie so he couldn't do it. Punk tried the GTS but Heyman interfered since it was no DQ. Punk went after Heyman but Lesnar went for an F-5, which was turned into a DDT by Punk. Anaconda Vise but Heyman came in with a chair. Punk blocked him. Punk put Heyman in the Anaconda vise but Lesnar cracked Punk with a chair and used a series of chair shots and an F-5 on a chair for the pin. The crowd chanted Punk's name after it was over.
They showed a guy from Portland sitting in ront of the announcers for a match for agreeing to take Mark Henry's splash and getting 3 tickets to SummerSlam.
The wrestlers gave Punk and Lesnar a standing O when they came through the curtain.
DOLPH ZIGGLER & KAITLYN VS. BIG E LANGSTON & A.J. LEE
So-so match ending when Ziggler slipped out of the Big Ending and hit the Zig Zag for the pin. It wasn't much when the women were in, better when the guys were in but it was in many ways positioned as the buffer match, so given what it was following, they had a tough time getting too much reaction. Better than the majority of buffer matches.
JOHN CENA VS. DANIEL BRYAN FOR THE WWE TITLE WITH HHH AS REFEREE
The Bryan vs. Cena match went 27:00 and was excellent. I don't know that the match was better than Punk vs. Lesnar, but the crowd was hotter because in Punk vs. Lesnar, they were watching a fight but in Bryan vs. Cena, the people badly wanted Bryan to win so the win was a lot more important. They did all the near falls and near submissions with their regular moves as well as Bryan using the STF on Cena at one point. Bryan, at another point, got out of Cena's STF and had him in the Yes lock. Cena started powering out of moves late.
Bryan won the title in a tremendous match. The crowd was super into Bryan, booing when Randy Orton came out and teased cashing in. He then walked away and did all kind of heel facials. HHH hit the pedigree on Bryan and Orton came in and handed him the briefcase. Orton pinned him in seven seconds. I'll give them credit for not changing the finish even when it seemed like a lot of people were expecting it.
The execution of this was tremendous as they gave Bryan a huge celebration with the confetti long enough to where it sunk in. HHH and Orton are both heels on top and it looks like a united McMahon family, for now.
In the end, this was a two match show and both matches delivered in a big way. The end leaves Bryan vs. Orton as a main event title program and Punk vs. Orton if need be until Cena returns.
DEAN AMBROSE VS. ROB VAN DAM FOR THE U.S. TITLE
RVD won via DQ when Van Dam had the match won but Roman Reigns interfered with a spear. Average match with a poor finish. Earlier in the match when RVD was on the top rope, The Shield music played and Reigns and Seth Rollins came out to distract RVD. Big Show and Mark Henry came out. They were all at ringside the rest of the match but still did that finish. No challenges or anything after the match, they just went back to Vickie Guerrero, Shawn Michaels, Josh Matthews and Booker T at the desk.
It's really weird, they just signed off of the pregame show about 4:00 early and went to a blank screen. Before they did, they showed them setting up the ring of fire match and showed the flames as a tease to order the PPV which is the usual thing they're doing before they sign off. But weird to go to the blank screen.
JoJo Offerman sang the national anthem. She has a very good voice and poise as a singer. Crowd gave her a really big hand.
KANE VS. BRAY WYATT IN THE RING OF FIRE MATCH OPENS THE PPV SHOW
Wyatt won, of course. Luke Harper & Erick Rowan put a blanket over the flames on one side of the ring and they both beat down Kane after Kane had given Wyatt two choke slams. Rowan used a splash and then they handed Kane to Wyatt, who did the kiss and downward spiralfor he pin. After the match, supposedly smashed Kane's brain using the ring steps and Wyatt lit the lantern as Kane was left for dead. This looked to be the injury angle for Kane to be gone for a few months so he could do the "See No Evil" sequel. They dragged a lifeless Kane to the back. As far as the match itself went, maybe the worst match of the year. The ring surrounded by fire took too much away from what they could do and neither ended up doing much until the inteference.
Paul Heyman did an interview. Basically both sides have agreed that Lesnar vs. Punk is a no DQ match.
CODY RHODES VS. DAMIEN SANDOW
Rhodes won clean with Crossroads after a few minutes of near falls. Match had average reactions, work was about as good as you would expect given the time constraints the two had. Decent match overall. Win makes sense, since if Sandow wins the title, Rhodes is set up as a contender.
The black eye Del Rio wil come out with and all the bruises on his face were the result of a fight either last night or today. Apparently Del Rio and Drew McIntyre ended up a big fight, I think with other people, and as far as what happened I don't know other than both were all beaten up when they showed up back at the hotel.
ALBERTO DEL RIO VS. CHRISTIAN FOR THE WORLD TITLE
They just claimed the bruises were from the killswitch on Friday because they couldn't ignore them. Del Rio did real good considering he had to be messed up. During the match he started bleeding from the nose. Tons of near falls back and forth. The finish saw Christian hit the spear, but the shoulder that Del Rio worked on for several minutes went out. As Christian was selling, Del Rio got the armbar. Christian struggled but eventually tapped out. This was a lot better than anything so far.
Del Rio did an interview after the match talking about being a Latin hero. There were some people chanting "Si" during the match but there really weren't that many cheering for him.
They did a deal where they showed a clip of Natalya & Maria Menounos beating Brie Bella & Eva Marie from earlier today. Menounos did an intreview with Miz. Summer Rae and Fandango came out and danced and then Miz danced with Maria leaving Summer Rae and Fandango doing the facial like they were showed up.
BRIE BELLA VS. NATALYA
Nikki Bella and Eva Marie in one corner and Cameron and Naomi in the other.
Brie & Nikki came out wearing outfits that would be swimsuits out of the 40s. Match was decent but the crowd didn't care about it, chanting things like We Want Tables, Jerry, Michael Cole, JBL and one that got no momentum of We Want Ryder. Match was obviously taped for Total Divas with the women on the outside getting involved, but Natalya won clean with the sharpshooter.
A skit in catering. Ryback made fun of one of the guys working catering, saying the soup was cold and catering sucks. The guy said the soup was supposed to be cold. Ryback poured the soup down the guys shirt and laughed at him. he then poured more stuff over the guy's head and said "Feed Me Moron." So that's Ryback's contribution for the show.
C.M. PUNK VS. BROCK LESNAR NO DQ
This was pretty damn great. Lesnar looked to be close to 320 pounds but he didn't blow up or anythingin a long match. Lesnar used a Kimura but Punk got out into an armbar and then a triangle. Lesnar with a running power bomb. Both guys used chairs on each other Punk used a low blow at one point when Lesnar teased a chair shot. Lesnar tried an F-5 but Punk grabbed Paul Heyman's tie so he couldn't do it. Punk tried the GTS but Heyman interfered since it was no DQ. Punk went after Heyman but Lesnar went for an F-5, which was turned into a DDT by Punk. Anaconda Vise but Heyman came in with a chair. Punk blocked him. Punk put Heyman in the Anaconda vise but Lesnar cracked Punk with a chair and used a series of chair shots and an F-5 on a chair for the pin. The crowd chanted Punk's name after it was over.
They showed a guy from Portland sitting in ront of the announcers for a match for agreeing to take Mark Henry's splash and getting 3 tickets to SummerSlam.
The wrestlers gave Punk and Lesnar a standing O when they came through the curtain.
DOLPH ZIGGLER & KAITLYN VS. BIG E LANGSTON & A.J. LEE
So-so match ending when Ziggler slipped out of the Big Ending and hit the Zig Zag for the pin. It wasn't much when the women were in, better when the guys were in but it was in many ways positioned as the buffer match, so given what it was following, they had a tough time getting too much reaction. Better than the majority of buffer matches.
JOHN CENA VS. DANIEL BRYAN FOR THE WWE TITLE WITH HHH AS REFEREE
The Bryan vs. Cena match went 27:00 and was excellent. I don't know that the match was better than Punk vs. Lesnar, but the crowd was hotter because in Punk vs. Lesnar, they were watching a fight but in Bryan vs. Cena, the people badly wanted Bryan to win so the win was a lot more important. They did all the near falls and near submissions with their regular moves as well as Bryan using the STF on Cena at one point. Bryan, at another point, got out of Cena's STF and had him in the Yes lock. Cena started powering out of moves late.
Bryan won the title in a tremendous match. The crowd was super into Bryan, booing when Randy Orton came out and teased cashing in. He then walked away and did all kind of heel facials. HHH hit the pedigree on Bryan and Orton came in and handed him the briefcase. Orton pinned him in seven seconds. I'll give them credit for not changing the finish even when it seemed like a lot of people were expecting it.
The execution of this was tremendous as they gave Bryan a huge celebration with the confetti long enough to where it sunk in. HHH and Orton are both heels on top and it looks like a united McMahon family, for now.
In the end, this was a two match show and both matches delivered in a big way. The end leaves Bryan vs. Orton as a main event title program and Punk vs. Orton if need be until Cena returns.
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