Thumbs Down
Best Match - Jericho vs Ziggler
Worst Match - Kane vs Daniel Bryan
Just wanted to give my thoughts on each match on this rather disappointing PPV.
Chris Jericho vs Dolph Ziggler - Good match, although nowhere near as good as it could have been. I missed the storyline where Jericho got hurt, but it really took away from the match. Ziggler should have won, which goes without saying. ***1/4
Kane vs Daniel Bryan - Match just wasn't any good. Again, I know these two could do better. Bryan winning was a great choice though, because at this point he needed it. *1/2
Miz vs Rey Mysterio - Boring match. It was at this point that I started thinking that management has told the wrestlers to take it easy tonight, for some unknown reason. It just feels that way. Glad Miz won clean, though. **
Sheamus vs Alberto Del Rio - Blah match. That finish sucked. This feud should not continue and the WWE should know better than this. The old Vince would never have kept this cold feud continue. Sad. **1/2
Kingston/Truth vs Prime Time Playas - I like both these teams but the tag division just screams lower midcard and the fans could care less. Decent match, though. **1/4
John Cena vs Big Show vs CM Punk - It was entertaining at points, but nothing major at all. Hated the halt for the double submission and AJ's useless skipping to the ring. Very predictable ending. ***
Triple H vs Brock Lesnar - Major disappointment. I expected a huge brawl, blood and all. I think most fans did. It was a methodical, prodding affair. Most people will say that the story was fine, but it was the wrong story. Two men who hate each other, trying to only punch and kick and armbar each other. How about a chair shot or something, to actually show you hate the son of a bitch? Ugh. I really can't believe they ended the show like this. **1/2
I see a trend these days of many long-time fans giving the WWE and TNA a pass on some god-awful booking, even more so than in years past. They will cheer the mediocre and try to paint it as good, the good as great, the great as best of the year. Just because those fans do it, does not change the very fact that wrestling is stale. The U.S. wrestling industry is in a holding pattern until the next great booker finds the next great, transcendent superstar and books them into memorable and legendary situations and matches. Today, the WWE, TNA, and ROH cannot do that, even remotely, and I'd rather not sit here and lie about the WWE's efforts tonight. SummerSlam just plain sucked.
Sorry for rambling, Dave. Thanks to you and Bryan for all the great work you do for all wrestling fans.
Joe Serrano
Thumbs Up.
Best Match: HHH-Lesnar
Worst Match: Tag Team Championship.
Good show overall, good to very good matches top to bottom. The triple threat was a little underwhelming I thought, but glad Punk retained. I'm a fan of long title reigns and hopefully he holds it until the Rumble. Triple H and Brock put on a helluva match and they both took a beating. The right man won and in the right fashion. Looking forward to Brock's match at Mania with the Undertaker, if they go that route. Thanks.
Randy Zeidan
Burlingame, CA
Thumbs up show !
A Speedy one that is......
SummerSlam 2012
Going in, with the big focus the past couple of months on the 1000th RAW and continuing saga of strange Lesnar booking I wasnt sure what to expect as far as how good the show would be.
Jericho vs Dolph : Very good match . Not exceptional but Y2J seemed to work better with Ziggler than any of his Punk matches besides the Mania match . They set a tone which wouldnt be followed by everyone on the card but it was none stop.. I guess Jericho wants a chapter in his next book to be about how on this "run" he didnt win a ppv match untill the last one and is still over as anyone outside of the main events.
Some people complain Ziggler should lose because of the briefcase. I agree to some extent but Daniel Bryan lost ALOT of matches till he cashed his in and hes possibly the most over guy.
***
Kane vs Daniel Bryan : The Charlie sheen debacle with standing these guys had a OK short match. Kane should take the nick name " The Phenom" over given his age and the miles on his body with still a decent ability to keep up with a guy like Bryan.
Post match Kane destroying things..... I dunno what its leading too but his character should destroy some backstage stuff, noone else does anymore.
** 1/4
Miz vs Rey Misterio : Very awkward. Lots of Jack Doan pressing the ear piece in and talking to them on the mat. Thought Rey got hurt at one point and wonder if he did if hes going to get another "dressdown" from HHH. But given its in LA i thought he would win with a movie coming out. Rey doesnt need to win anyhow. But the Batman outfit was terrible.
*1/2
Sheamus vs Del Rio : I thought this could be the showstealer..... Given their MITB match i expected a physical match. It was that early on almost to the point i think they both got blown up slightly. The MITB match Del Rio seemed to push Sheamus but Sheamus seemed to stay with Del Rio every step tonight.
Strange how the finish was so rushed. After this point the entire card seemed rushed. This finish itself went off perfect i suppose but it was in fast foward almost. I wish these guys could get a Hell in a Cell and get some juice..... Of course that wont happen. They dont need juice but i like their in ring stuff.
***3/4
Slim Jim commercial in here somewhere. I thought the ginger guy was going to eat the slim jim and turn into Sheamus. Wrong.....
Kofi R Truth vs PTP's : Uh after the AW firing im surprised this wasnt scratched. Kofi and Truth win #DUH. Im sure PTP's will break up tomorrow. Darren Young is solid and should do will if given the chance. O'Neil has something to give abiet hes 35......
*
Big Show vs John Cena vs CM Punk : Most im sure found it boring but after the 4 or 5 minutes of Big Show dominating i thought it was done well. The double submission was unique...... Whether or not Show is eliminated by AJ it should of gone another 5-10 minutes. Actual finish with the F U made prefect sense !
But if they put the belt back on Cena at some howdy doodie B PPV to set up Rock Cena at RR then i give up.
***1/4
Fred Durst middle finger..... WWE favorite band in the world !!!!!!!
Kevin Rudoplh live performance........... well if they have to suck up time with nothing then better this than a Diva match.
Trish Stratus and Lita arent walking through that door and Mickey James is too heavy to fit through i guess.
Brock Lesnar vs HHH : They got it right on this one for the most part. Only thing was Brock's stomach issues werent mentioned (onWWE tv) untill he hit the announce table from what i remember. He played a cowardly heel in the build up. I get using that to help HHH make him seem vulnerable. Great match . Better than HHH/Taker this year, not as good as Cena/Lesnar from Ex Rules. If Brock doesnt love pro wrestling then he seems to put that aside to have good matches.
****
Only bad note, once again in an HHH story we expect a run in ( Wrestlemania 25with Orton) or some sort of screwy HBK involvment (mania this year) and it doesnt come to fruition..... Which is fine But why constantly involve the McMahons and HBK in ur story if they dont EVER make a difference on the outcome. I dont want Russo finishes but geeze why have Stephanie involved at all in the build up ?
2nd best WWE show this year behind Extreme Rules.
Pink tights are in .
Samuel Adams
Thumbs Down Best Match: Triple H vs Lesnar Worst Match Sheamus vs Alberto. Nothing on this show was bad per se, but nothing on it was great or compelling either. No major title changes, no big storylines or angles, and everything just kind of felt like another episode of Raw or Smackdown. It also didn't help that the crowd was totally dead throughout the whole show. Sheamus vs Alberto gets my pick for the worst match only because of the nonsense finish which even the crowd didn't buy. It's not a good sign when your babyface champion is getting booed out of the building in the second biggest show of the year. I have no idea whose idea it was to put the concert in there right before the main event, but that did absolutely nothing to revive the already dead crowd, in fact it made it worse, and you could tell when nothing in the Triple H vs Lesnar match got much of a reaction at all. Overall this just fell way short as far as PPVs go, despite not being outright bad, and that is why it gets a thumbs down.
--
-Geoffrey Gillott
Summer Slam: Thumbs Up
Best Match: Lesnar vs. Triple H
Worst Match: Tag Titles (by default since I didn't really find anything that stood out as bad).
I attended the show live at Staples. Somebody with a big sign was told they couldn't bring it in because of size. The content of the sign was nothing special, it had support for Heath Slater on it First time in a long time I have been at a live show. The t-shirts were $5 more than they were the day before at Axxess. Looked like a full house. Opening You Tube match was good for what it was. Good to see Cesaro win and hopefully gets a continued push upward. Jericho vs. Ziggler was a good opener. Big Y2J chants, but there was a good amount of Ziggler fans as well. Lots of people into Daniel Bryan at the show. Good to see him finally get a victory as it seems he loses every match on TV. Rey vs. Miz was another good match. There was a Miz support group in the lower section of the floor. Big face reaction for Alberto Del Rio when he came out. I thought Del Rio was going to win, but obviously this feud continues since his foot was on the rope. Tag Title match was also pretty good. Basically everything on the show was decent or good and nothing bad even if there really were no surprises. Pretty negative reaction to Cena and super pro Punk. Glad Punk retained. I saw Steve Lombardi off to the side acting as sort of security/greeter for some of the WWE's guests including Piers Morgan. Floyd Mayweather was watching the main event from the side with his bodyguards. When they showed the other celebs in the crowd David Arquette got a groan since he had the WCW Title. Lesnar vs. Triple H was very good despite lack of crowd reaction for most of it. Was actually surprised that Triple H tapped. Didn't even think he would lose even though Lesnar winning was the right thing to do. There was a big you tapped out chant at the Game, but by the very end they were mostly cheering for him. Nothing happened after he left. That was it and they said thank you for attending and also announced the return date of January 18 for a Raw house show.
Robb Block
Hey Dave,
Thumbs up from a live perspective.
Best Match: Ziggler vs. Jericho
Worst Match: Tag Team Title (thought not even bad)
This was a very fun show live, but I must say, the main event fell very flat live. People were into a few false finishes, but the match didn't really seem to hit its climax, it just ended. The body shots didn't really go anywhere either. The live crowd was very quiet and confused for the post-match angle, and for most of the match actually. "You Tapped Out" chant was loud and you could tell what they were going for, but it just didn't play well at all. I am not sure if anything else should have ended it, but the way the PPV ended was not fulfilling. The match was much more tame than HHH's promo made it out to be. The right guy won, but a good ending doesn't make up for a bad story.
And Punk was over HUGE.
Best,
Jason Alvidrez
