{"id":13195,"date":"2019-08-12T04:08:50","date_gmt":"2019-08-12T03:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/?p=13195"},"modified":"2019-08-12T04:09:03","modified_gmt":"2019-08-12T03:09:03","slug":"summer-slam-2019-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/2019\/08\/12\/summer-slam-2019-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer Slam 2019 Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Kickoff Show<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I didn\u2019t care much for WWE just randomly adding\nthree matches to the kickoff show, but I\u2019m also glad that they realized they\ncouldn\u2019t have a two-hour kickoff show that was just talking. We also got some character\ndevelopment with the backstage segments. All in all, it was a pretty good\nkickoff show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Grade: B+<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Drew Gulak vs Oney Lorcan-Cruiserweight Championship<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Great choice for the first match of the night. As\nexpected of these two performers, it was a lot of mat-based wrestling. Lorcan\nshowed his trademark aggressive fighting style while Gulak maintained his technicality\nthroughout the bout, though he did take a shot at Lorcan\u2019s throat when the\nofficial\u2019s back was turned. I prefer Gulak winning by submission but that\nsneaky throat jab was a good win too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Winner: Drew Gulak<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Grade: B<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Apollo Crews vs Buddy Murphy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m upset that they changed Murphy\u2019s music. Also\nthis was Murphy\u2019s first official match since moving from 205 Live to Smackdown.\nIt was a fairly standard match. However, the interruption by Rowan was an\ninteresting twist along with Daniel Bryan watching from the back. Let\u2019s see\nwhere this goes. And Crews\u2026seems like Crews is the go-to for having an\ninterrupted match to advance a story line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Winner: No Contest<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Grade: C+<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Ladies and gentlemen, Elias&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Elias did his usual guitar playing and insulting the crowd. I have to admit I do find these segments entertaining. I wasn\u2019t ready for Edge to show up and spear him though. I definitely had a moment; I loved Edge so much when he was active! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Grade: A <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross vs the IIconics-Women&#8217;s Tag Team Championships<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Corey Graves\u2019 commentary on this match was quite\nannoying; he seemed irrationally angry about Bliss\u2019 Buzz Lightyear gear. Cross\nand Bliss had a good first title defense; Bliss wrestles in weird spurts since\nher concussions so it\u2019s always nice to actually see her wrestle. Billie Kay and\nPeyton Royce did their trademark meltdown and with how poorly they were booked\nas champions, I\u2019m glad Bliss and Cross were successful here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Winner: Nikki Cross and Alexa Bliss<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Grade: C+<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Becky Lynch vs Natalya-Submission Match for the Raw Women&#8217;s Championship<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Arguably one of the best match choices to open up the\nmain card. Interestingly enough, the crowd seemed to be behind both women,\nwhich was super cool. We got to see a more vicious side of Nattie here, a\nwelcome change from her general role of \u201csidekick\u201d that she\u2019s had for a while.\nBoth women also applied each other\u2019s finishers, giving us a few tense moments.\nThis match really brought the best out of them; Lynch has needed a credible\nopponent for a while and Nattie was perfect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Winner: Becky Lynch<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Grade: B+<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Kayla Braxton with Trish Stratus<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stratus gave us a passionate promo about being a\ntrailblazer and called herself the Queen of Queens. She said Charlotte Flair\ncouldn\u2019t walk a mile in her boots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Man, I sometimes wonder what the Divas Division\ncould\u2019ve been if management had actually let them wrestle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Not Graded<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Dolph Ziggler vs Goldberg<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Exactly what I thought it was going to be: pretty\nmuch a squash match. At least this time, Goldberg didn\u2019t straight up drop Ziggler\non his head and neck. And he gave us two more hellacious spears after the match\nsinze Ziggler doesn\u2019t know when to shut up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Winner: Goldberg<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Grade: C<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The New Day<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Xavier Woods (with a fresh set of braids) and Big E\njoined Kofi Kingston in his locker room and hyped up the upcoming title match.\nDrake Maverick popped up in his search for R-Truth. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I loved Woods\u2019 hair! And poor Drake Maverick; all he\nwants is the 24\/7 Championship and to consummate his marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Grade: B<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>AJ Styles vs Ricochet-United States Championship<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Luke Gallows brought the facepaint back. Watching\nthe OC come in reminded me of their NJPW days. This was an excellent match,\nespecially as a follow-up to the Goldberg squash. The early \u201cinjury\u201d to\nRicochet\u2019s knee took away some of his aerial maneuvers and forced him to slow\ndown. Because of this, we saw a lot of good back and forth between Styles and\nRicochet. I particularly liked the calf crusher into the anaconda vice sequence.\nGallows and Anderson were only minimally involved so it didn\u2019t seem like Styles\nneeded too much help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Winner: AJ Styles<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Grade: A-<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Street Profits<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Angelo Dawkins made some passes at Nikki Cross and\nRic Flair showed up to party with the Street Profits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Does Dawkins know that Nikki Cross is married\u2026to Killian Dain of all people? And Ric Flair was in a rap video; now you can\u2019t tell him nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Not Graded<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Bayley vs Ember Moon-Smackdown Women&#8217;s Championship<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The crowd was cold for this match, which was\nunfortunate. It was the dark horse of the pay-per-view. And despite the crowd\u2019s\nlack of interest, the in-ring action was very good. I liked that this was a\nfresh match-up and both women are great workers. However, I do feel like this\nmatch never quite got into high gear. The Bayley-to-Belly from the top rope was\ncool, but I don\u2019t think it should\u2019ve put Moon away. This match probably would\u2019ve\nbeen bananas in NXT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Winner: Bayley<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Grade: B-<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Shane McMahon vs Kevin Owens-Owen&#8217;s Career on the Line<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Probably the best hyped and most developed match on\nthe card. And just to add in a twist, we had Elias as the special guest\nenforcer. I feel like this match was more cathartic than anything, both for\nOwens and for us as fans. I\u2019m so tired of Elias and\/or Drew McIntyre\ninterfering to help Shane. The match was actually kind of short, but a lot\nhappened. Owens absolutely battered McMahon and Elias, rightfully so. The crowd\nwas hot for this match too, adding to the atmosphere. I did feel like there was\na huge missed opportunity here for a falls-count-anywhere match or a street\nfight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Winner: Kevin Owens<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Grade: B<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Charlotte Flair vs Trish Stratus<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Flair\u2019s character work in this match was top notch.\nStratus is a legend, yes, but I think Flair out-wrestled her completely. Stratus\ncan definitely sell though; it was always one of her strong suits. She held on\nand gave it to Flair much more than I was expecting though. It wasn\u2019t the most\ncompetitive of matches, but it was a true clash of eras. Flair\u2019s work here\nshowed just how much more physical the women have gotten since the revolution.\nAlso this is totally going to give Flair even more heel heat, which I\u2019m sure\nshe\u2019ll relish. Bow down to the Queen of All Eras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Winner: Charlotte Flair<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Grade: B+<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Kofi Kingston vs Randy Orton-WWE Championship<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A match ten years in the making\u2026.who knew that\nsomeone else\u2019s injury would lead to this moment? This was the other best-built\nmatch on the card. Orton controlled the match for a little bit, making it go at\na slower pace. But that slow match pace is Orton\u2019s comfort zone and he used it\nto punish Kingston. The crowd was split for this match, with a dueling chant of\n\u201cKofi\u2019s stupid\u201d\/\u201dRandy sucks\u201d. You could tell that the crowd was running out of\ngas as well and the slow pace didn\u2019t help that. However, Kingston\u2019s post-match\nmeltdown was a thing of beauty. It really drove his feelings home. And it was\njustifiable since Orton tried to humiliate him in front of his family. I\u2019m not\na huge fan of the championship match ending in a no-contest though; they\u2019re\nprobably going to continue this feud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Winner: No Contest<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Grade: B<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Finn Balor vs Bray Wyatt<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bray Wyatt\u2019s entrance was on some psychopath stuff\nand I\u2019m totally here for it. Wyatt really sold the Fiend character in this\nmatch with his erratic movements and seeming to have an internal struggle about\nwhat to do. The match here was pretty much to establish the Fiend and as such,\nthere wasn\u2019t much to it. I feel like they may be trying to push Bray Wyatt into\nthe new Undertaker role, which they failed to do the first time around. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Winner: Bray Wyatt<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Grade: B<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Brock Lesnar vs Seth Rollins-Universal Championship<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I don\u2019t think this should\u2019ve been the main event;\nthe crowd was almost dead. They were doing their best to make the crowd\nsympathetic to Rollins by bringing up the beatings he\u2019s gotten over the past\ncouple of weeks as well as taping his ribs up. Rollins took some serious abuse\nhere but Lesnar also sold for him, which means that there must be at least a\nlittle bit of respect here. Okay now it\u2019s time to move on and give Rollins a\nnew feud and do better by his title reign this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Winner: Seth Rollins<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Grade: C+<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Final Thoughts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the up and down build, I think Summer Slam\nwas fairly solid. None of the matches really knocked it out of the park, but\nnothing was abjectly horrible either. Only one title change out of the two\nnights was interesting though. By mid-way through the show, I was expecting all\nchampions to retain. It\u2019ll be interesting to see what, if any, ripples this\nwill make to Clash of Champions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Overall Grade: B-<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kickoff Show I didn\u2019t care much for WWE just randomly adding three matches to the kickoff show, but I\u2019m also glad that they realized they couldn\u2019t have a two-hour kickoff [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":13196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[888,2,194,22,193,185,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-205-live","category-featured","category-raw","category-reviews","category-smackdown-live","category-wwe","category-wwe-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jnWd-3qP","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/summerslam-696x392.jpg?fit=696%2C392&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13197,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13195\/revisions\/13197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}