It's Summerslam 2010. It's been a long time since I've watched a WWE Pay Per View on my own dime. So I guess tonight marks a personal return to glory of sorts. Something like that. Either way, I'm stoked.
Kofi Kingston vs. Dolph Ziggler for the Intercontinental Championship is our opening bout for the show.
The match starts off with a bang. Kingston quickly dives through the middle rope to go after Ziggler, but Vickie Guerrero pulls Ziggler out of the way. How is it that Vickie Guerrero, for as much heat as she gets is nothing more than an older, fatter, uglier version of Lita? She hoes around with whoever the WWE wants to push for the time being. Every time they push her into more of a lead role (such as RAW GM) she flames out after a week. Now granted it may be her personal choice. I know her first resignation from the WWE was due to her desire to spend more time with her children. But still. Let's give the whole GM without hooking up with one of the wrestler's angle a shot. I think we'll all be pleasantly surprised. The match itself ends with Nexus interference. I don't quite get the point of Nexus interfering in the opening bout. I mean I understand having them interfere in something tonight. It sets the stage for the "epicness" of the main event tonight, but I don't know if I'm inserting them into the opening match.
Next we see Chris Jericho and Edge trying to convince Miz to be a part of team WWE. The only reason I bring this up is because Edge is eating a Slim Jim in the corner and I find that to be absolutely awesome seeing as he's been doing the commercials for it lately. It's just so goofy that it works somehow with Edge's crazy persona.
Melina vs. Alicia Fox is up next, and let me tell you - I'm a fan of Melina. A big fan. But what in the world is she wearing tonight? She reminded me of Big Bird walking out to the ring in that headdress. It was a little much, even for wrestling standards. The match ends with a Melina victory and that makes me happy. I found the segment after the match to be interesting too. Michelle McCool and Layla are okay on Smackdown (even though their gimmick is a complete and total rip off of TNA's "The Beautiful People"), but I've always felt the WWE has focused their women's division almost solely on RAW. I only bring this up because McCool and Layla have easily been the most pushed women on the roster over the last 6-12 months and now they are interacting with the diva that is essentially the face of the RAW women's division. It makes me think we are going to see the end of the Diva's title or the end of the Women's title. I hope so, because the talent pool is diluted and there's no need for both.
Another thing I've noticed tonight (and in the past two to three months). Michael Cole seems to have found a niche as a douchebag commentator. He's always been somewhat of a stooge, but the past few months he's been more obnoxious, openly supporting heels, and it's come off great. I hope they continue this with him and find a true babyface announcer to compliment him. It works. The only other time Cole was this tolerable was when he was paired with JBL (who I'd give me left kidney to see back in the WWE).
Straight Edge Society vs. Big Show is up next and can I just say this is how you do a mid-card feud. One of the things I don't like about the WWE is that they just do a terrible job of making mid-card feuds relevant. I actually find TNA does a much better job of this. TNA takes time and energy (admittedly at times to a fault) to develop a feud between Brother Ray Dudley and Jesse Neal. WWE gives us no build up and a couple of mid-card guys thrown together. Now maybe this feud works because realistically both CM Punk and Big Show are main event caliber wrestler's, but right now they're both filling a hole on Smackdown. That hole happens to be the mid-card. Either way, this feud has worked because we've had a few weeks of build up between the Straight Edge Society and Show. They're playing off that the SES injured Show's biggest weapon (his hand), and Punk has been his usual self on the microphone. It's just well rounded, it works, and I hope we see more of this.
The match itself I found entertaining (I missed parts of it because I was trying to keep my dog under control). I particularly found the use of Tornado rules early on to be fun when Punk ran out to the ring apron and grabbed the tag rope after Joey Mercury and Luke Gallows were tossed from the ring. That's a classic heel move and actually made me laugh. I'm hoping this leads to better things for both Punk and Big Show. Punk is particularly interesting seeing as he left the SES for Bit Show. I'm starting to wonder, with Punk's attitude lately, and how he treats Gallows, if we're seeing the end of the SES in coming weeks. I hope not, unless of course we see the birth of the Second City Saints.
Randy Orton vs. Sheamus is scheduled next but before we got to that, we were given a promo by the Miz. There's a couple of things from this segment I loved. First of all, Miz refers to John Morrison as Marty Jannetty. We all were thinking it. I give the WWE credit for having the stones to say it. Then Miz stops mid-catchphrase to tell the fans in the audience that the WWE Universe isn't allowed to use his catchphrase, and instead needs to raise their hand and ask for permission before they can speak. That is classic heel stuff, and why Miz is going to be a World Champion some day. All the while Michael Cole is praising Miz as the second coming of Jesus to the point where it would not be a surprise if he got into the ring and serviced Miz in front of the live crowd.
Finally we moved on to Randy Orton vs. Sheamus. Admittely I missed parts of this match as I was trying to cancel my subscription to the Wall Street Journal. But overall I liked how this match was booked. Sheamus looked strong, but not quite as strong as Randy Orton. It's an odd way of booking. Sheamus takes the cheap out with a DQ, but during the match still does some things that make him look credible - he counters the RKO and Orton's middle rope DDT which are two of the biggest moves in his arsenal (with the RKO being his finisher). I like the way this match turned out overall and it sets up a rematch at the next PPV.
Kane and Rey Mysterio finished up the undercard. I went into this match thinking that we'd see Kane retain and The Undertaker return, and that's what we got. The match itself was nothing special in my opinion. But it was enjoyable. Afterwards when Kane tried to stuff Rey into a casket the Undertaker magically appeared, just like I assumed he would, and let me tell you. Taker's put on a few LB's, and looks old. Older than normal. I wonder how much time he's got left. But this ultimately sets up Taker vs. Kane as The Undertaker indirectly let's us know Kane was the one who took him out of action by trying to chokeslam him instead of Rey Mysterio. That's a typical response and really how I expected the segment to play out.
I know people are always talking about how Undertaker is supposed to retire (and understandably so), but what if this Taker/Kane feud is really a way to retire Kane? Kane came into the WWE as a monster who was going to take out The Undertaker, and he never did. What if we get the feud one more time, and Kane can't finish off Taker, so he disappears from the WWE and this is creative's way of retiring the Kane character? I'm not saying it will happen, but I think it is a possibility and would be interesting.
So we've finally come to the main event and John Cena reveals that The Miz will not be the 7th member of team WWE, but another mystery superstar will - and that mystery superstar is the previously fired Daniel Bryan. I found this to be somewhat surprising, probably due to the fact I haven't been paying attention to the wrestling media lately. If you think about how his firing unfolded and how he was written out of the storyline it makes perfect sense. I like it. The main event match between Nexus and the WWE guys was good. Jericho played the role of traffic director by making sure everyone was where they needed to be. I thought the way this match was structured really worked. You had team WWE come out and eliminate a couple of Nexus guys right off the bat. It was kind of like a football game where the underdog comes out and punches the favored team right in the face with one or two touchdowns right away. That was team WWE. Nexus recovered and we went back and forth the rest of the match until Jericho and Edge imploded, and Cena was by himself and eeked out a victory. I liked the booking. I didn't think it made Cena look too strong. I thought he looked cunning by avoiding Justin Gabriel's 450 splash and then pinning him, and then finally using Wade Barrett's arrogance against him to counter into an STF for the submission victory. Nexus's own strengths worked against them at the end of this match.
Where the WWE goes from here is up in the air. I think there's a lot of flexibility post-Summerslam though on RAW in terms of where to go with the Nexus storyline. They didn't dominate the main event, but Nexus wasn't dominated either. So I expect creative to continue booking Nexus as a dominate force with a few kinks in the armor. I imagine we'll see more of a breakdown of the group as well. For example we might see Skip Sheffield and Darren Young work as a tag team against Jericho and Edge. Barrett will focus on Cena, and then we will see a guy like David Otunga feud with Morrison. At least that's how I'd book it.
WWE programming is usually slow in the fall. I'm hoping the Nexus angle keeps things going through the fall and into winter. It would be a nice change of pace. One I am keeping my fingers crossed on.
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