The Saturday edition of Summer Slam was somewhat of a mixed bag, but overall it was solid and progressed narratives within the landscape of the promotion in a meaningful fashion. It’s often said that pro wrestling is about the moments, and there’s no doubt that night one of the Summer Slam weekend in Minneapolis delivered some memorable moments. Still, particularly with how underwhelming the 30-minute WWE title match was between Cody Rhodes and CM Punk, it seemed like night two had to pick up some of the slack in terms of the complete package of Summer Slam.
The show opened with what was scheduled to be Sami Zayn vs. Finn Balor to determine the number one contender that will challenge CM Punk for the WWE title. However, Nick Aldis interrupted and then added both Gunter and the returning Kevin Owens to the contest. There was chatter online about the impending returns of Randy Orton, who showed up in the main event of night one to cost Cody Rhodes the championship, and Kevin Owens, but given the seriousness of his injury, I’m not sure if fans immediately expected Owens to be in a match on night two. If anything, it might’ve been more realistic to expect him to return on Raw since the episode after signature PPVs often has something major take place to put new pieces of the puzzle in place. Still, this was very well done, and this type of surprise adds a fun aspect of spontaneity to the presentation. The match itself was all action and was only given about seven or eight minutes, which was probably the right decision because it finished up before it had the chance to get clunky with four participants. Owens got the victory, setting the table of Owens/Punk at some point, and taking into account that they had real-life animosity in the past from Owens’ original matches in Ring Of Honor before Punk signed to the WWE, it allows there to be a basis for the feud. No, I don’t think either of them are carrying a real-life grudge around from 2005, but the point is, it can be referenced to blur the line of reality. After the snooze fest between Cody and Punk on night one, I’d be skeptical of the match quality of Punk vs. Owens, but the promos alone will sell the bout to the audience.
Baron Corbin beat Trick Williams to win the US title, but for whatever reason, this segment didn’t get over with the crowd at all. While I understand that Corbin has always been safe in the ring, some of his strikes against Trick were so light that they looked blatantly phony. The audience didn’t buy the ground and pound spots with the punches, and this match never got into second gear. Don’t get me wrong, I think Corbin is much better than how he was portrayed in his previous run in WWE, and clearly, the office does too since he went over for the championship, but this was a very lackluster title switch. If I had to guess, I’d say it just wasn’t their night and things didn’t fall into place as management would’ve hoped. Credit to Yachty for being willing to take the table bump, but it added nothing to the match, and the task to shoehorn it into the segment with the set up hindered an already lagging presentation. It will be interesting to see if the total lack of reaction will affect how long Corbin keeps the title. I wouldn’t be surprised if he loses the belt back to Williams at the next pay-per-view.
The ladder match for the WWE Women’s championship was sloppy and overly choreographed, even for a ladder match. The set up for different spots looked blatantly contrived, specifically when Charlotte had more than enough time to get the title, but held onto the equipment that the belt was secured to so that they could do the spot where the heels took the ladder out from under her. Yes, there was obviously the visual of Charlotte holding on as she was stuck there, but I’d argue that the risk/reward ratio, particularly for someone that suffered a knee injury a few years ago wasn’t worth it. Don’t get me wrong, the effort was there, but these type of matches have a fine line of where they can be thrilling or blatantly staged. That being said, the moment where Chelsea Green made the comeback to get up the ladder to capture the championship was tremendous and that’s what this segment will be remembered for.
Danhausen vs. Dominik Mysterio was only about five minutes and was basically the comic relief to pace the show. Would it have made a major difference if this match wasn’t on the card? No, not at all, but taking into account the amount of merchandise that Danhausen moves, it made sense to showcase him somewhere on the PPV because the merchandise revenue is a difference maker. Danhausen got the win.
Penta vs. Chad Gable for the Intercontinental title was entertaining, but I have to be honest, with the amount of time that was left in the show, I expected a lot more from this bout. What they did was solid, but the match was only 10 minutes so they didn’t get the chance to build any major drama before the finish. Furthermore, after Gable won the belt, it seemed very hokey and almost as if management tried to force the emotional narrative rather than allow it to unfold organically. Gable bringing his family in the ring was a carbon copy of what Nick Aldis did the night before, and despite the legitimate emotional from Gable, it came across as pandering rather than a genuine moment. It should also be noted that we already saw a similar segment when he brought his family in the ring two months ago after the mask vs. mask match at the AAA event.
As much as I would’ve thought that night two would deliver the in-ring aspect of the product based on the card to compliment the sizzle of sports entertainment that night one was focused on, that simply wasn’t the case. Sunday had an almost identical format as Saturday, with the 30-minute main event being three times as long as anything on the rest of the show. I almost can’t believe that I’m saying this, but while Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins was marginally better than Cody/Punk, it was still a very slow and at certain points, boring main event. The pace was so deliberate and the attempts at over-the-top drama when they were talking to each other at several points fell flat because the camera didn’t pick it up. I understand what they were going for, but it completely missed the mark. It boiled down to them standing around a lot and moving at a snail’s pace for most of the segment. The reason I say that is, why would Roman Reigns stand there and look around before he decides to slowly walk over to pick up the chair? The title is on the line, why would there be any delays?
Eventually, Roman retained the title, and posed with Seth, which didn’t make any sense since this was supposed to be a heated feud. Each night had its moments, but the argument could be made that both main events were duds so it brings up an interesting dichotomy between the two major leagues in the industry. All Elite Wrestling is overkill on almost every aspect of the product. Too much, too often for too long. It becomes so disjointed and unorganized that it becomes a chore to watch the same car crashes for five hours on pay-per-view. On the flip side, the WWE’s approach, which seems to lean into an attempted at manufactured drama because TKO is probably looking for an Emmy nomination that there’s not enough meat on the bone for it not to be a tedious viewing experience. It might be too simplistic, but a happy medium would be wonderful. Nobody wants to see two hours of commercials, but that doesn’t mean that syringes to the face and cinder blocks are a good idea either. Maybe I’m too jaded or maybe I’m missing something with Summer Slam, but overall, it was an underwhelming pay-per-view.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
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