WWE Summerslam results

[fafhrd]

Just saw the ppv, and I have to say that I was very much dissapointed, for many reasons.

Firstly, they had alot of high profile matches that went nowhere. They were too short, and you can clearly tell they were on the verge of being really great matches....had they been longer.

Matt Hardy vs. Kane was good, but it felt very rushed. The ending came out of nowhere, and there wasn't really much to it.

Booker T vs. John Cena was good, but with Booker on offense for most of the match, how does Cena get up and do the FU out of nowhere? Again, that was a rushed ending.

Jericho/Edge/Battista was ok, and the ending made sense, but after the Raw matchup between Jericho and Edge, this match really deserved more airtime. At least it sets up a Jericho/Edge feud.

Angle/Eddie was criminally short. This was a feud that everyone was waiting for, ever since WM XX. That matchup was great, and the fans wanted MORE. That match needed at least 10 more minutes of back and forth action...the ankle lock after ankle lock setup they went for just seemed too weak. Eddie should have done more than that.

Eugene/HHH was great, but that match should have been alot more violent. The way Hunter set that match up, I really expected to see Hunter explode on Eugene, not be the "Ric Flair" heel. I wanted to see Eugene go toe to toe with the same Hunter who went toe to toe with Foley and Austin....But at least they're hinting that the feud's not over yet. Which is cool.

The other problem was that there was some really BAD booking on the ppv. NO ONE wanted to see JBL/Undertaker get the time it got. The fans were so out of the match they were doing the goddamn WAVE. The more UT wrestled in the match, the more I wished it was Angle or Eddie he was up against. Then I'd care. But JBL did NOTHING, once again, to prove he belonged with the title. And the ending was cheap, and it had backstage politics written all over it. Stop insulting the fans, Vince.

The Diva Dodgeball was just lame. 'Nuff Said.

Benoit/Orton was a good match, but after the fiasco that was UT/JBL, the crowd was dead. Personally, I think it's too early for Orton to have the title, but they could have done worse. After the sick bump that Benoit did, I hope he's not hurt. My biggest problem with Orton is that he doesn't show pain well. He's far too cartoonish in the ring to really be effective. The way he sold Benoit's Sharpshooter was really off, for instance. The ending was nice, though, with Orton and Benoit shaking hands. Maybe a sign of Orton turning face?

Btw, the Orton/Cena stuff was hilarious. Do more of that!

Fafhrd

[B1ade Runner]

My review:

Rey Mysterio, Billy Kidman, & Paul London vs. The Dudley Boyz
Good opener. Glad to see this was made into six-man-tag instead of just another tag title or cruiserweight match. This was about as good as I thought it would be.

Till Death Do Us Part Match: Kane vs. Matt Hardy
The first of many criminally short matches. Their hardcore match at Vengeance was very good, but the ending was really rushed. I had hoped that they would include the wedding ceremony and have a run-in from Shawn Michaels. That would have been a great surprise.

U.S. Championship: John Cena vs. Booker T
Another rush job. These two could have a lot of great matches, but this is not one of them. The FU came out of nowhere and had almost no impact.

Intercontinental Championship: Edge vs. Batista vs. Chris Jericho
Batista looked really out of place here. It should have been just him and Edge.

Kurt Angle vs. Eddie Guerrero
It had been five months since one of the greatest matches in WrestleMania history and the rematch was one of the most anticipated of the year. Unlike the Lesnar/Angle feud which always led to their matches being better and better, the Guerrero/Angle feud has taken a major step back. The only difference between their feud before WM and their feud now is that the WWE championship is out of the picture. You could really tell that Guerrero and Angle had some injuries to work through, because they spent most of their time on the mat pulling off counters that we have already seen. A lot of the "big" moments already happened at WM, including Guerrero countering the Angle slam with a ddt. And am I to understand that this was really only fifteen minutes long? Are they serious? My advice is to have another rematch on Smackdown! and make up for the joke that fans like me paid for.

Triple H vs. Eugene
On a more metrosexual side of things, I like to see HHH is back in the black boots and he is letting his hair grow out. The white boots and short pseudo-mushroom cut were too goofy for me to handle. He should stick with black trunks and long hair, no matter how soft he gets.

On to the match: I agree with you again, faf. Hunter was doing a seriously bad Flair impression with his sporadic falling down and hand-pleading. This was especially a disappointment considering that they were building him up again as the classically vicious cerebral assassin. A little more bloodletting could have made this a fantastic match. But I still enjoyed it the most.

WWE Championship: The Undertaker vs. John "Bradshaw" Layfield
Did The Undertaker just go on first? Did I actually see that? I can see him going on first in the old-school days, or even when he was the "American badass," but not as the newly resurrected "deadman." His arrival has no impact if he goes on before that chippy Texan music.

The match itself was ok but what I thought it would be: a sloppy brawl. JBL has nothing to work with. He needs to lose the title fast or Smackdown is going to get cancelled.

World Heavyweight Championship: Chris Benoit vs. Randy Orton
The second I realized this was the last match of the night was when I knew Orton would win. You could just feel that he was going to pull an RKO out of nowhere, much like Brock Lesnar pulled an F5 out of nowhere on The Rock at Summerslam two years ago. And he did. The match itself was pretty good, but no classic. The ending was great, because it showed Benoit giving the "props" to the heel, who won clean. With Orton returning the handshake, so much is left to anticipate.

Orton will not turn face immediately, but I could see him as an in-between face/heel (is Tweener the phrase?), kind of like John Cena in the weeks leading up to Survivor Series: you know he's going to be face at some point, but you still boo him until then. Orton will probably become face a little at a time, and the crowds will want to follow him. I say that by the time he loses the title at Survivor Series or Armageddon, the crowds will be behind him. The title will be switched again to HHH, and that can set up HHH/Orton for WrestleMania 21. If you want to know exactly what I mean, look at what happened with Lesnar from Summerslam '02 to 'Survivor Series '02.

I really wonder if they will start planting the seeds for the HHH/Orton feud tonight on RAW.

The event itself was pretty good, but a little disappointing. The matches were rushed and there was a very awkward environment in the air. What I did like was that time for both brands was distributed evenly: Smackdown, Raw, Smackdown, Raw, etc. This is the way the double-brand events are supposed to be done.

[B1ade Runner]

Originally posted by B1ade Runner
I really wonder if they will start planting the seeds for the HHH/Orton feud tonight on RAW.http://raw.wwe.com/results/081604/images/081604.jpg

I guess that answers my question.

[fafhrd]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by B1ade Runner

Rey Mysterio, Billy Kidman, & Paul London vs. The Dudley Boyz
Good opener. Glad to see this was made into six-man-tag instead of just another tag title or cruiserweight match. This was about as good as I thought it would be.

yeah, it was suprisingly well done. The more I see of these guys, the more I like these feuds. Nice to see Spike as a heel, and the leader of the Dudleys.

Till Death Do Us Part Match: Kane vs. Matt Hardy
The first of many criminally short matches. Their hardcore match at Vengeance was very good, but the ending was really rushed. I had hoped that they would include the wedding ceremony and have a run-in from Shawn Michaels. That would have been a great surprise.

From what I've heard, this match at least had an excuse for being short: Matt needs surgery on one of his knees, which is really in bad shape (bone spurs). The match was short only because Matt just couldn't wrestle more than that. HBK will be on Raw next week, so they'll do his run-in then, during the wedding.

U.S. Championship: John Cena vs. Booker T
Another rush job. These two could have a lot of great matches, but this is not one of them. The FU came out of nowhere and had almost no impact.

Did you realize that Booker had dominated most of the match and then Cena just pulled that FU off? It made no sense.

Intercontinental Championship: Edge vs. Batista vs. Chris Jericho
Batista looked really out of place here. It should have been just him and Edge.

Battista's just overbuilt with his body stature. He needs to lose some of it if he really wants to be a sucessful wrestler. And it looks like they'll do an extended Edge/Jericho feud now, which is something that I'm looking forwards to.

Kurt Angle vs. Eddie Guerrero
It had been five months since one of the greatest matches in WrestleMania history and the rematch was one of the most anticipated of the year. Unlike the Lesnar/Angle feud which always led to their matches being better and better, the Guerrero/Angle feud has taken a major step back. The only difference between their feud before WM and their feud now is that the WWE championship is out of the picture. You could really tell that Guerrero and Angle had some injuries to work through, because they spent most of their time on the mat pulling off counters that we have already seen. A lot of the "big" moments already happened at WM, including Guerrero countering the Angle slam with a ddt. And am I to understand that this was really only fifteen minutes long? Are they serious? My advice is to have another rematch on Smackdown! and make up for the joke that fans like me paid for.

Totally agree. Angle and Eddie coulda had a longer match- just add a few minutes here and there- and I'd have had no problem with it. I think Luther Reigns was just NOT needed there. These two guys could light the place up, and Angle's got a stupid crony out there? That's bull. I don't mind Reigns, he's a good wrestler, but keep him away from Angle on ppvs.

Triple H vs. Eugene
On a more metrosexual side of things, I like to see HHH is back in the black boots and he is letting his hair grow out. The white boots and short pseudo-mushroom cut were too goofy for me to handle. He should stick with black trunks and long hair, no matter how soft he gets.

Don't forget THE BEARD. Hunter is badass whenever he grows the beard.

On to the match: I agree with you again, faf. Hunter was doing a seriously bad Flair impression with his sporadic falling down and hand-pleading. This was especially a disappointment considering that they were building him up again as the classically vicious cerebral assassin. A little more bloodletting could have made this a fantastic match. But I still enjoyed it the most.

The match was entertaining, but I really wanted to see Eugene and Hunter just tear into each other. The best I could reference to would be to make this match akin to the Undertaker/HHH match at WM X7, which was one giant brawl from end to end. It's established that Hunter and Eugene don't like each other; why, then, would they bother wrestling each other?

WWE Championship: The Undertaker vs. John "Bradshaw" Layfield
Did The Undertaker just go on first? Did I actually see that? I can see him going on first in the old-school days, or even when he was the "American badass," but not as the newly resurrected "deadman." His arrival has no impact if he goes on before that chippy Texan music.

The match itself was ok but what I thought it would be: a sloppy brawl. JBL has nothing to work with. He needs to lose the title fast or Smackdown is going to get cancelled.

Smackdown won't get cancelled, they'll be getting the title off of JBL SOON. I just hope they wise up and just have JBL "too injured to defend the title" and declare it vacant. And then have Angle, Eddie, and 'Taker go after it. Funny thing is, is that Undertaker basically did alot of mat wrestling against JBL in the match, which was totally out of character for him.

World Heavyweight Championship: Chris Benoit vs. Randy Orton
The second I realized this was the last match of the night was when I knew Orton would win. You could just feel that he was going to pull an RKO out of nowhere, much like Brock Lesnar pulled an F5 out of nowhere on The Rock at Summerslam two years ago. And he did. The match itself was pretty good, but no classic. The ending was great, because it showed Benoit giving the "props" to the heel, who won clean. With Orton returning the handshake, so much is left to anticipate.

The match was good, but the ending was a letdown simply because there was no real buildup to Orton's RKO and pinfall. However, the rematch on Raw was far better, if only because it didn't feel rushed. I also loved the handshake at the end of the match, which basically shows that Orton will eventually side with Benoit.

Orton will not turn face immediately, but I could see him as an in-between face/heel (is Tweener the phrase?), kind of like John Cena in the weeks leading up to Survivor Series: you know he's going to be face at some point, but you still boo him until then. Orton will probably become face a little at a time, and the crowds will want to follow him. I say that by the time he loses the title at Survivor Series or Armageddon, the crowds will be behind him. The title will be switched again to HHH, and that can set up HHH/Orton for WrestleMania 21. If you want to know exactly what I mean, look at what happened with Lesnar from Summerslam '02 to 'Survivor Series '02.

Orton's prob going to stay a Tweener for now, even after the HHH beatdown on Raw. I can't see him being buddy buddy with Benoit or Jericho just yet. I forsee a HHH/Orton/Benoit extended feud for the forseable future. I think he'll only become a full time face once he loses the title. Now, who does Evolution replace Orton with- Edge? Christian? Shelton?

Or do they scare the crap out of everyone and add Benoit to the group?

Btw, it's pretty clear they're going to keep Benoit somehow in the title mix. Now that I've said that, I want a WWE title match next year at WM 21 between Angle and Benoit. Please.

The event itself was pretty good, but a little disappointing. The matches were rushed and there was a very awkward environment in the air. What I did like was that time for both brands was distributed evenly: Smackdown, Raw, Smackdown, Raw, etc. This is the way the double-brand events are supposed to be done.

I agree that they split the event down properly. The Toronto fans were very awkward, just messing around with the matches with their off base responses. Booing Eugene doesn't really work for me, and that affects how the matches play out. They really should have cut out Diva Dodgeball and shortened the JBL/UT match and added some of that to the IC title and Eddie/Angle matches.

Fafhrd

[B1ade Runner]

Originally posted by fafhrd
Now that I've said that, I want a WWE title match next year at WM 21 between Angle and Benoit. Please.Again? That feud has been beaten to death. Angle/Benoit is not a feud strong enough to dictate another match at WrestleMania.

[fafhrd]

Originally posted by B1ade Runner
Again? That feud has been beaten to death. Angle/Benoit is not a feud strong enough to dictate another match at WrestleMania.

Oh yes it is. It's the best technical matchup you could ever get, and they've never ENDED it, either. It'd be a great way to give both of them a proper matchup at WM, and it'd be worthy of the title. And they spent years doing the HHH/Rocky feud, HHH/Foley, Flair/Steamboat, Tajiri/Super Crazy, RVD/Lynn, Hardyz/Edge & Christian/Dudleys, etc, etc..... Great feuds never get stale. Angle/Benoit hasn't. And they haven't fought each other in a while now, so it'd be doubly fresh.

Fafhrd