Monday, August 16, 2010

8/15/10 SummerSlam

Dolph Ziggler vs. Kofi Kingston (IC Title): Match had a bunch of slow moments. Pace predictably picked up a little after that. Nexus interfering just left me with a sour taste in my mouth. *1/2

Melina vs. Alicia Fox (Divas Title): My God, Melina must have killed Big Bird with that ring attire. Rookie mistake by Alicia to not target Melina's knee; experienced wrestlers would have targeted the injured area in some manner immediately. Anticlimactic win. 1/2*

The Big Show vs. CM Punk, Luke Gallows, & Joseph Mercury: Oh, just kill me. Three-on-one matches generally aren't too good in my book, especially when you have one giant against three others. Pace was very slow and moves were too basic. Big Show looked too strong here, in my book. Punk needs to heal fast and have some real matches. On the plus side, Big Show's slaps are agonizingly awesome. *

Randy Orton vs. Sheamus (WWE Title): This was very good, but far from excellent, in my book. Pace was again very slow. I understand the whole deal with Sheamus never beating Orton, but seriously, DQ wins are stupid. **3/4

Kane vs. Rey Mysterio (World Title): Very good match. Good physicality and excellent storytelling. Looks like Rey goes to the back of the line, and we apparently have a Kane/Taker feud again. ***

John Cena, Bret Hart, Edge, Chris Jericho, John Morrison, R-Truth, & Daniel Bryan vs. Wade Barrett, David Otunga, Michael Tarver, Skip Sheffield, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, & Darren Young (Elimination): Come on, you marked when Daniel Bryan was announced and came out to replace Miz. And I'm sure that when Bryan was announced, pretty much everyone knew Nexus was losing.

I thought it was very wise to eliminate the two "weakest" Nexus members (Young and Tarver) early to get the WWE Universe in this. Another great move to have the biggest Nexus member (Sheffield) come in to eliminate two WWE guys to even the match. Furthermore, they kept the Cena vs. Jericho/Edge storyline going. In short here, the back-and-forth eliminations -- and the order people were eliminated -- was top-notch and made sense.

Heel Cole was going full-bore on Daniel Bryan -- another plus because Cole sucks as a regular play-by-play guy. They made Nexus look very good by having Cena get beat down significantly. Daniel Bryan -- with his legion of followers -- got the hot tag...a pleasant sight in my book. Daniel Bryan looked outstanding in this one, and it looks like the Miz/Bryan feud will happen.

Cena came back again. What a surprise. Did not care for the way he came back at all, but I guess, under the circumstances, it works. ****
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MVPs: Daniel Bryan. I marked big time when he came out, and anyone who makes me mark likely will be my MVP.

Overall Rating: The only match that really caught my eye tonight was the 7-on-7 main event, but WWE delivered in a big way. Not only did they shock a lot of people with the Daniel Bryan return, but they managed to make Nexus look decent despite the loss. I still would have preferred Nexus to win here, but I think the secondary point was to make Bryan look great. That was accomplished and then some. Not a mind-blowing PPV by any means, but at least the main event lived up to expectations. **3/4

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