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Archive for the ‘SummerSlam’ Category

The WWE announce team situation has improved dramatically since Triple H “reinstated” Ross a couple weeks ago. But he was AWOL at SummerSlam, meaning we had to endure an three-person color commentary crew of Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler and Booker T. At a PPV this big, you need the biggest voice in pro wrestling today. You need Jim Ross.

Folks itching to acquire HTC buy online to get a smartphone to figure all this out, but honestly, all it takes is common sense. And it took me no time at all.

It’s just sad.

Another sign that “same old, same old” is ruling the day in WWE despite Vince McMahon’s storyline dismissal? Look at what they’re doing to Money In the Bank – Smackdown Brand briefcase holder Daniel Bryan. A couple weeks ago, Bryan announced he’d cash in his MITB briefcase at next year’s WrestleMania.

Okay, fine, that’s been done only once before. By Mr. Anderson, I believe, who “got tricked” by Edge into putting the briefcase on the line, after which Edge held the briefcase and used it almost immediately to regain his title belt.

Flash forward to present. If WWE wants to build Bryan into a credible WrestleMania main event challenger next year, they need to put him over as a winner… a lot. Perhaps an underdog winner, but a nice undefeated in X matches streak would be a great way to build him over the next several months.

Instead, they jobbed him out to the going-nowhere-fast Wade Barrett, who’s been struggling ever since being shifted over to Smackdown. This guy’s your main event challenger in next year’s WrestleMania, taking on whoever holds the World Title at that time, be it Randy Orton or someone else, and you job Bryan out at SummerSlam?

Not a great, inspiring way to start building toward WrestleMania. So expect someone like Barrett to run the “put your briefcase on the line” scam against Bryan soon, because it’s clear WWE has no interest in building Bryan into a legit WrestleMania main event attraction. Don’t bank on Bryan making it that far, not for all the macadamia oil you can find!

SummerSlam is WWE’s second-biggest PPV event of the year, and while it contained so many twists and turns you’d need a Dokmee document management system to track them all, it would be had to call what went down an improvement.

In fact, I call it a return to a tired, familiar formula.

Yes, the main event showed some promise. Instead of the predictable Cena win, Punk won as special referee Triple H missed the fact of Cena’s foot being on the ropes. The crooked ref angle is tired and overused in WWE.

Then Kevin Nash showed up to soften up Punk. A “Nash invasion” angle is so old, it wasn’t even that fresh when it was used in WCW/nWo.

Then, predictably, out comes Money In the Bank – Raw Brand winner Alberto Del Rio to cash in his Money In the Bank briefcase and take the title away from the WWE’s hottest property right now, C.M. Punk. Del Rio is completely uninspiring as a title holder and the thought of either a short run with the title ending up back around Cena’s waist, or enduring a long Del Rio run, is heart-rending.

So, yeah. Despite the last couple months of riveting WWE programming building up audience expectations for something fresh and new, revolving perhaps around Punk holding the title for a while, we get the same old, same old. Thanks, Vince. Not.

Tonight at SummerSlam, one of the biggest and most long-delayed returns in WWE history happened. “Daddy’s Little Girl,” Stephanie McMahon, returned to an onscreen role with WWE.

In honor of her return, it got me to thinking what the perfect congratulatory gift might be for the pro wrestling princess. Now, most folks would go with a nice floral arrangement. That’s traditional. But Queen Stephanie is special. (Just ask her.)

So the real question is, what sort of floral arrangement would get the job done. Roses? That’s for lovers. Lilies? That’s for funerals … and, tempting as it may be, that’s not quite right for Mrs. WWE.

No, I think there’s a much better choice for the woman we all love to hate. Something that shows how special she is to us and what she really means. Are you ready?

The best floral arrangement to celebrate the return of Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley to the WWE screen is: Blue roses.

Why? Because blue symbolizes the unattainable, the impossible.

And Stephanie’s return to WWE on-screen being seen as a good thing? Well, that’s both unattainable and impossible.

So, blue roses for Steffie.

But not for the folks you actually like in your life. For that, there are many more options.

Adam Copeland, better known as Edge to WWE fans, is taking the advice of fellow pro wrestling retiree Stone Cold Steve Austin. The Texas Rattlesnake has advised Edge to ease into retirement, rather than going off the grid completely.

While he was still selling plenty of funny tee shirts right up through his retirement, Edge was forced to retire when he found out further trauma to his neck could prove fatal. Yet after his post-Wrestlemania tour, Edge stayed busy by becoming a regular cast member of SyFy’s Stephen King-inspired horror series, HAVEN.

Now pressure is on Edge to return to WWE to promote his role on the show, as a RAW guest host or some similar non-wrestling capacity. Apparently, he’s not quite ready for that, but will appear off-screen at Summerslam’s Axxess fan appreciation event.

I love TLC matches; especially when anyone named Hardy is involved.

Jeff Hardy helped define what makes a good Tables, Ladders and Chairs match during his tag team days, so it’s only apropos that this kind of match is what sends Hardy onto a hiatus from in-ring action. The action was fast, furious, dramatic and edge-of-your-seat solid.

While giving Punk the win was nice, if a bit predictable because of Hardy’s hiatus, the cherry on top was the appearance of Undertaker at the end to begin a fresh storyline. Taker-Punk, anyone? Time to send out the Christmas invitations now!

Exciting, but way overbooked. That’s how the match felt as John Cena met a rejuvenated Randy Orton and persevered through three false finishes – including apparent interference by a fan (who may have been a WWE plant) – to win and retain the WWE title.

This major PPV win should put Orton on the map as a legit title-holder since he’s often been pegged with the “transitional champ” label – unfairly so. Orton has evolved into one of the top heel champs in recent WWE history, probably the best since Triple H’s title runs of the late 90s and early 2000s. (Some folks will rely on their online backup to remember that far back, I’ll bet.)

Anyway, it was a great match if a bit overplayed.

William Regal has always struck me as a person who could use the help of the best weight loss pills, but even he didn’t deserve the seven seconds match treatment dished out to him by WWE at SummerSlam tonight. Christian’s a better wrestler, capable of sustaining long and entertaining matches, and while Regal’s a lifelong midcarder at best, this ECW title match simply wasn’t worth the announcements one had to go through to get to it.

Seven seconds and it’s over? Show the ECW title more respect, please.

It took until the fifth match to find one that really really made me care, but this one did the trick. I really look forward to the future of Legacy, since Ted DiBiase Jr. and Cody Rhodes both come from great traditions and seem to be younger versions of Randy Orton.

That’s not to say that DX is exactly in need of new life insurance rates, but they’re simply far more long-in-the-tooth than Legacy. So this match was a risk, pitting ring vets against ring newbies.

And yet it worked. DiBiase and Rhodes looked tremendous, but you could tell it was Michaels and Triple-H who were leading them through it all the way. Whether this remains my favorite match of the night remains to be seen. But it’s off to a good start.

It was an opening match, sure, but the Jeff Hardy-MVP match that kicked off this year’s edition of SummerSlam was enjoyable and full of action, especially for a 10-minute match. Jeff Hardy is a longtime favorite of ProWestlingViews.com and MVP has been a hot prospect in our books since his Inferno match with Kane over a year ago.

While part of me was hoping the match would push Hardy’s quest for a title match, it’s difficult to feel too bad after the way MVP put on a show in the match; MVP’s approaching the level of being ready to main event, also, and tonight’s match certainly helped. These two guys are among the hardest workers in WWE and put on one of the better 10-minute matches in recent memory.