WWE Summerslam 8/19/18 Safely Behind Live Blog

ER: This show is going to be long, right? I should be in for the long haul. The card has potential for a lot of matches to deliver.

Andrade "Cien" Almas/Zelina Vega vs. Rusev/Lana

ER: It's nice that we got this match on Summerslam, but my god they wouldn't have had to do that many things differently to get to this match as one of the main matches on the card. If they had just tried a little bit harder with both of these acts (and not actively chose to take the legs out of Rusev/Lana) this could be a big deal. So, I'm glad we got it at all, but we both know what this group is capable of. And I don't think this ruins either act, just think this could easily be a bigger deal. Lana and Vega aren't great, but they're great within their act, and that's arguably more important. So yeah you're gonna get some ugly ponytail bulldogs from Lana, but there's a chemistry between both teams' partners that doesn't always work this well. Almas takes a couple big bumps to the floor, and Almas and Vega are each great at interfering from the apron, but the match doesn't really go anywhere interesting. The match ending roll-up is a lazy finish and wasn't executed great, so with the overall card placement and the allotted match time, this was a big disappointment for me.

Drew Gulak vs. Cedric Alexander

ER: Gulak is wearing the stars and stripes trunks and Alexander has the Warriors royal blue and gold, and this is another match that makes me feel in line with the pre-show. And Gulak is a total beast here, hitting a stiff boot to Alexander's chest, doing a weird but effective inverted bulldog to his own knee (from the apron to the floor), cranks a cravat and yanks on Alexander's chin in cool ways, hits a brutal Hase uranage, really looking like a guy that should be 205 champ. Gulak is great at selling and taking Alexander's offense, but his offense isn't always 100. But it's a treat seeing Gulak take a flip dive like he was taking a Blockbuster, lean into elbows and somewhat silly spin kicks, and go over fast on a Spanish Fly, and my god was I in love when he grabbed Alexander by the beard and just slapped the hell out of him. The end run was hot with some unexpected reversals and tight pinfalls, and while I wanted Gulak to get the belt I really liked a lot of what they did. This was constructed as a cool Gulak control match, getting beat by leverage instead of match dominance. It made Gulak still look strong, but Alexander didn't seem lucky, just smart. Really fun.

The Revival vs. Curtis Axel/Bo Dallas

ER: Killer tag match, could have gone a lot longer, but I liked all of this. The Revival are really awesome, Dawson is one of my absolute favorite people to watch in wrestling. He's got a lot of ideas and executes them all really well, and I like how they work these cut off the ring tag matches. WWE has rarely been about cut off the ring and when it shows up it's always a treat. This was different right out of the gate as they get Axel out of the way quick with a Shatter Machine. That's uncommon in WWE tags and it worked great here, with Revival taking apart Dallas' leg, taking turns throwing dropkicks to it and generally teeing off. They built to Bo's rope draped swinging neckbreaker well, as I buy Wilder wanting to hit an exclamation point suplex to the floor enough to get caught. The finish was super well done, with Axel coming back but getting pinned effectively by Wilder, only to have Dallas get knocked into them and roll the pin over in favor of Axel. It could have easily looked terrible, needed all the moving parts to work, and they did. Revival are really good, and this tag was a blast.

Seth Rollins vs. Dolph Ziggler

ER: Oh that's right. This. I'm gonna have to work hard to remain positive on this one. I like Ambrose's haircut, looks sharp. My god does it make him look almost exactly like Santino. There's a little Timothy Thatcher mixed in, but major parts Santino. Also, Ziggler's IC belt tights are really great. No matter how good or terrible this match is, he'll have those, at least. I decide I am not liking the match when Ziggler misses a chop that was supposed to miss, but would have missed any man no matter if that man was ducking. Ziggler threw this chop almost straight into the air. After that all my brain could process was running and falling. They ran a lot, and they also fell a lot. We saw Rollins get his leg work a lot. Nobody expected that to go anywhere, and it didn't. Rollins looks like he brains himself doing a wild reverse suplex off the top, but you know he rolls right through it even though he landed harder than Ziggler. I like how they do tired 90s indy exchanges but add their own tired 2010s indy exchanges to stale up some stale spots, like doing a Malenko/Guerrero roll-up sequence into a buckle bomb. These two feel like humanoids replicating moves they've seen.

The New Day vs. The Bludgeon Brothers

ER: Super fun spotfest tag, though we could have used a little breathing room and the finish was...well, pretty dumb. There was a lot of great moments, and Big E going against these two huge dudes is always fun. Big E doesn't hold back anything and always seems excited to work his power spots against bigger guys. And him still breaking out the spear to the floor is total insanity, but he also kills Harper like the whole match. Harper might slap the hell out of him backstage for almost ending him with a suplex. Woods ate a lot of big moves, and that assisted sitout powerbomb feels like something that would be a finisher. But the moves train on the floor was fun, big guys crashing into each other, and I loved things like Rowan going over to grab Kingston on the floor to muscle him into a backdrop, and Woods hitting a bonkers elbow off the top rope to the floor (quite far away too). But Rowan coming in with a sledgehammer? That's what we get? Cahmannnn.

Kevin Owens vs. Braun Strowman

ER: Oh wow was anybody expecting a squash match? Owens got completely steamrolled. Braun hit some big avalanches, Owens flopped great on his stomach for a lariat on the floor, Owens got big height and landed hard off a chokeslam on the rampway, all nasty stuff that looks like it belongs in a squash match. I don't really mind Owens getting squashed. I like Braun looking unstoppable, so I was fine with this.

Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch vs. Carmella

ER: Boy they really shoehorned Charlotte into this thing, huh? I was looking forward to Carmella/Lynch but we can't let people forget that Charlotte has a famous dad. Carmella has been so fun during this run, and she's good here. She's really been the only person on this entire show who has actively worked to engage the crowd. Over 20 people, and she's the only one, and she's good at it.  She also doesn't act like she's taking a rehearsed sequence when she's taking Lynch's rehearsed sequences. How about that. She is so funny talking trash and acting smug, but then barely being able to lift Carmella onto the top rope. Carmella's dive is great and she becomes the first person I've ever seen get ALL of her available limbs on the ropes during a pinfall. More people need to give credit to this: She had Becky pinned, and had both legs and her free arm pushing off the ropes. That's heel genius. Charlotte sure does half ass most of her execution. She hits an ugly yakuza kick, a corkscrew moonsault that seems impossible to catch and always sends her plummeting straight to the floor, and then of course wins the title with her rolling neck snap that she lets go of halfway through. I am so tired of Charlotte. And, it's a shame that Becky Lynch's Fury Road eye makeup just kind of made her look like she had a unibrow. BUT I'm glad that she unloaded on Charlotte. I assume they will make her the ungrateful best friend who was jealous of her blonde popular friend's success, and that will be unbearable, but really Charlotte was the shitty friend in this scenario. Lynch busted ass and worked hard to get a singles title match with Carmella, and then a couple weeks in Charlotte sticks her nose into things. Face Charlotte/Heel Becky just feels incredibly stupid and way against type.

Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles

ER: I don't know what they're going for as right when the match is about to start Joe grabs a mic and points out AJ Styles' wife in the crowd, even says "How you doin'?" and Styles says that his family is there to watch him kick Joe's ass, and then they start a match with a bunch of go behinds and floatovers. What the hell? Is this like a Kurt Angle TNA feud where all his responses were "We're going to have a match of the year contender!" This just doesn't really feel like that match I was expecting, or the match I wanted. That opening was such a disconnect that it makes me wonder what the hell their whole plan even was, or if they were even paying attention to any of their own build up. Getting over that, the match is fine, if slow. They really take their time with stuff, which I am a fan of at times, but there needs to be a defined purpose to it. The purpose here only seemed to be that Joe was gassed as hell. There were things I liked, Joe hit a helluva powerslam, but Styles almost killed him on a sloppy as hell Styles Clash. The match really gets good when they roll to the floor and basically get DQ'd. Joe calling out Styles' wife and daughter is a little hack and obvious, and not really an interesting use of them. "I'll be your daddy" would sound a lot cooler and believable on a 2000s IWA-MS show; here is sounds like something written to be offensive. But the passion afterwards by both guys was good, and they almost snap the ankle of a ring crew guy when Styles vaults off an announce table to tackle Joe. Styles finally reacted the way he should have at the beginning of this whole match. These guys hit hard throughout so there was a higher floor, and this was a first match in what's clearly going to be a series, and the final stretch leading to the finish was very well done and exciting. I'm curious where they go from here.

Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz

ER: I'm not as big a Miz fan as many online, but I am looking forward to what they bring. We've talked about it before, but Bryan has built in vulnerability now, and it adds to his matches. This thing really hits a new gear when Miz lariats Bryan off the top rope and Bryan just gets turned inside out as he crashes to the mat. This truly may have been the greatest lariat ever thrown by Mike Mizanin. Miz works some nice stuff in after that, some knees while holding Bryan in a cravate, throwing nice punches to a grounded Bryan, stuff that made you want to see Bryan snap and unleash. And unleashed Bryan was really fun, Miz getting turned over and over in the corner from hard running dropkicks, and Bryan hits his great flying elbow as mean as he's ever hit it. But I think this went from being good, to being a bit too long. This didn't totally feel like a feud ender, or a feud starter, it kind of felt like some guys doing their big moves. Down the stretch this changes when Bryan starts working almost like an asshole heel. That moment where Bryan is working the Yes Lock and just starts punching Bryan in the back of the head? That was awesome, and a glimpse of some of the things I'd rather see from Bryan. He also missed a kick on the apron and hit the LED post, and that weirdly felt like a heel thing as well. When that happens to a guy who has been kicking someone's ass, it doesn't feel super sympathetic. Then he's slamming Miz into the barricade in front of Maryse, dropkicking him in the back of the head, and Maryse feeds him a hidden weapon. Bryan starting to work unprofessional, with Miz almost actually drawing babyface sympathy, only for the crime family to quietly cheat and knock Bryan out cold. The match was good, though I don't think Miz usually brings enough violence for his gimmick. And Bryan outright beat the shit out of Miz. Miz was covered in bruises and scrapes by the end of this. When was the last match where a like-sized babyface just bruise and welt up the heel? Something was missing here, although I liked it, I didn't love it.

Baron Corbin vs. Finn Balor

ER: Oh. Great. That evil demon who does a lot of light offense like some sort of small Irish guy. Baron at least earns his paycheck by acting completely scared of a little kid trying to be spooky. And they must have really been out for my own interests, as we end so, so, mercifully early. Thank you both. Thank you, demon. I did not want to watch this, but I will have a little lady impatiently waiting to watch Sharp Objects so this going 2 minutes was manna from Brooklyn.

Jeff Hardy vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

ER: Not two guys I look forward to seeing these days. But this actually totally worked for me. Both guys are goofballs and two goofballs making fun of each other for looking like goofballs is great, like a Dragon Quest guy and a Final Fantasy guy making fun of the other's cosplay costume. There's tons to like here, the length was just the right amount, Nakamura winged several kicks that landed nicely on Hardy's cheek, Jeff missed an absolutely crazy swanton onto the ring apron, but Jeff also dodges Nakamura's big uppercut ball attack, and I loved Nak's reaction after his fist doesn't connect with balls. They ended up matching up wonderfully, two floppy limbed goofs flopping their limbs at each other, with an actual satisfying finish. This over-delivered for me.

Ronda Rousey vs. Alexa Bliss

ER: Ronda is all done up like Mantaur and I don't know if I love it or hate it. I think I hate it. And yet, Carmella's lacquer thick safety pink eyelid glue with matching scrunchie just felt right. And I was kind of expecting this to be an outright squash, since the program has now established those things as possible, but I've loved the ways they've worked little chinks into Ronda's armor so far. This was an outright annihilation though, replete with woman empowering woman after the match and childhood dreams fulfilled and Travis getting hugged and it all came off predictably forced. Ronda had some awesome throws and you just knew Bliss' creepy double jointed elbows were going to come into play. Ronda grabbed that arm and started bending, and with the wrist getting bent her arm was sitting in three different positions. Still this was my least favorite of the big PPV Ronda matches.

Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar

ER: Every part of this fucking ruled. Braun comes out before the match and says he's a large noble monster who will be forthcoming about when he opts to cash in his cartoonishly green briefcase, and Lesnar looks at him as if Braun is telling an unsolicited story about what sandwich he had for lunch. And I loved Roman pouncing into action, throwing all the Superman punches and hitting all the spears. Brock is great at selling flurries of offense, always acting like he's being swarmed by a bunch of bees on a picnic. Brock is staggering around and his face was already beet red before the bell, and I flipped when he grabbed a guillotine out of another spear. Reigns hits Braun with a big dive after missing Brock, and Brock kicks Braun's ass around ringside. I laughed as Brock beat him with a briefcase and then threw that briefcase as far as he possibly could, then beating him with a chair. And then, not long after, Reigns speared Brock for the win before Brock could fire off a chair shot (and then the chair bounced off the ropes and landed on Brock's face). The crowd was cool as hell throughout the match, showing how cool they are by spending far more American dollars than I did to watch this show, and also chant "You Both Suck". You know who they think doesn't suck? No professional wrestlers you would ever want to watch. This whole thing felt like anything could happen, which isn't a vibe that happens with anybody else. All of it worked for me.

ER: This was a better show than I expected, despite having anything blowaway great on it. I think that's what happens when matches I don't care about overdeliver (Hardy/Nakamura) or just barely happen, and everything else is just fine. I really loved the Gulak match, thought Revival/B Team was a blast, enjoyed Bryan dishing out a real asskicking (even if the tone felt a little off to me), and really the only thing that drove me bonkers was the never-ending Rollins/Ziggler feud, that for the love of Pete just needs to fucking end fucking now. Still, I had fun.