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Views from the Hawke’s Nest: Summerslam 2016

August 22, 2016 | Posted by TJ Hawke
AJ Styles John Cena WWE SummerSlam Image Credit: WWE
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Views from the Hawke’s Nest: Summerslam 2016  

bootyos

Brooklyn, New York
August 21, 2016

Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton, Mauro Ranallo, JBL, & David Otunga

 

Enzo Amore & Big Cass vs. Kevin Owens & Chris Jericho
This seemed like a slam dunk of a choice for an opener. Enzo and Cass were hugely over as hometown boys. Owens and Jericho still seem pretty over in general. Unfortunately, they just worked a super dull match that was nearly impossible to get invested in and put the crowd to sleep.

If they did not go as long and started with a hot shine sequence, this probably would have worked better. Instead, Owens and Jericho jumped them and then the match seemingly went on forever.

Then Enzo and Big Cass inexplicably lost cleanly on a shitty assisted Codebreaker. Between the booking, the poor match layout, a number of awkward moments, and the mild (at best) crowd reaction, this would have to be considered a failure. (*¾)

 

Sasha Banks(c) vs. Charlotte [WWE Women’s Championship]
This was a very good match. Charlotte was able to use her strength advantage to get control early on. Sasha had to keep busting out big stuff to give herself a chance. Sasha continuously went for the Bank Statement to finish Charlotte off like she did to win the title. Charlotte eventually was able to reverse it into a fruit roll-up to take the title back.

This match had good storytelling, mostly good pacing (the final sequence could have been tighter), and featured some dangerous action. Sasha in particular probably shortens her career every time she has one of these big matches. At least she is doing it in great performances. (***¾)

 

The Miz(c) (w/ Maryse) vs. Apollo Crews [Intercontinental Championship]
This show is like Wrestlemania where they are continuously making booking decision that could only be designed to kill the crowd. Miz won cleanly here after an exceptionally dull and unexciting match. The issue was the layout of course. Miz dominated the majority of the match from the start, and there was nothing for the crowd to get invested in. Unsurprisingly, they did not really care much during Apollo’s comeback which made it come off quite flat. This was forgettable in virtually every way but not for a lack of physical effort. Who is agenting these matches though? (**)

 

AJ Styles vs. John Cena
This was a case of the right booking decision making all the difference in the quality of the match. After Bray Wyatt, Rusev, and Kevin Owens got ran over by the John Cena multi-PPV feud train, AJ Styles was able to actually cleanly win his extended feud with Cena in 2016. AJ Styles really needs to become the Smackdown world champ as soon as possible after this victory.

The match itself was more fun than actually interesting. They worked a ferocious pace, packed in a ton of action, and delivered a crowd-pleasing spectacle of a match. The second half was all about sitting in submissions and kicking out of finishers. That style has its limits, but at least the stage justified it more than usual.

The final moments were definitely really great though. AJ kicked out of the avalanche AA, and Cena was shocked. It looked like Cena was then going to have to do one more obligatory AA to pick up the win…but AJ reversed it into a Styles Clash and then finished Cena with the springboard forearm. This watch very satisfying and had an important finish. Good job. (***¾)

 

Jon Stewart came out. He said The New Day asked him to replace Big E for the night.

The New Day(c) (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) (w/ Jon Stewart) vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson
This was yet another very flat match. In their defense, following AJ vs. Cena would be a tall task for any match on this show. Going against them though was the casual tone in which they worked.
The finish did not help matters in the slightest. Jon Stewart got involved, and The Club went to ram his crotch into a ringpost. Big E showed up though and attacked to get The New Day disqualified. Meh. (**)

 

Dean Ambrose(c) vs. Dolph Ziggler [WWE Championship]

This was yet another flat title match on this show. Dolph was in no way over as a babyface challenger, and that made the structure of the match (methodical contest with Ambrose in control) a poor idea. It was also frustrating to see these two get into a pre-match scuffle only to engage in such a slowly paced match. It seems clear now that the only chance this match had was to work a fast-paced brawl with lots of smokes of mirrors. They essentially gave us the exact opposite. Ambrose won cleanly after reversing a top-rope facebuster into Dirty Deeds. (**)

 

Naomi, Carmella, & Becky Lynch vs. Natalya, Alexa Bliss, & Nikki Bella
The great-granddaughter of Mitsuharu Misawa has returned! Fearless Nicola Bella! Beyond that though, this match did not feel that notable. While the Raw brand got to display their women’s division with a big-time singles match presented very well, Smackdown got a meaningless trios match where no one got to stand out. Doing an Alexa Bliss vs. Becky Lynch match or something and then reintroduce Nikki afterwards may have been more effective. This match failed in pretty much every way beyond making Nikki look strong. Nikki won the match after giving Carmella the TKO. (*½)

 

The WWE product has now come off incredibly cold in three straight and five of the last seven matches despite all three matches theoretically getting enough time to tell a compelling story.

 

Seth Rollins(c) vs. Finn Balor [WWE Universal Championship]
If WWE is going to be doing tons of big singles matches going forward that get 15+ minutes on PPV, they are going to need to get more creative in regards to layout. Every match feels like it’s just about kicking out of finishers.

On the bright side, that only covered the Seth Rollins end of this match. Finn kicked out of all his big movez. Finn on the other hand kept teasing and missing the Coup de Grace which made it all the more satisfying when he finally connected to pick up the win.

This match was solid for sure. They worked a brisk pace and built to the finish well. Seth is just plain bad at being on top though and added nothing to the proceedings. They really need to think outside the box if there is going to be a rematch though. (***)

 

Rusev(c) (w/ Lana) vs. Roman Reigns [United States Championship]
This match never happened due to a (very good) pre-match brawl. Why Roman Reigns is supposed to be the babyface in this scenario is hard to fathom. What can you do though?

 

Brock Lesnar (w/ Paul Heyman) vs. Randy Orton
This was very formulaic and uninspired. Then Orton started bleeding buckets. Then the match was ruled over via TKO. Then a Brock/Shane McMahon match was teased. Everything is awful.

Brock and Orton really were not working with that sense of urgency or danger that makes the simple Brock matches stand out as something special. Instead, it felt like they were working a very controlled match and only pretending to do a brawl. In other words, the match felt phony.

The blood spot was potentially huge. It could have signaled a new beginning to the match and turned the intensity up hugely. Instead, in the context of an underwhelming main event, it felt like a cheap and unsatisfying finish. What a blah main event. (**1/4)

 

Watch some wrestling for free.

Brock Lesnar vs. Rob Van Dam

Randy Orton vs. Goldust

Finn Balor vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

Seth Rollins vs. Cesaro

Dean Ambrose vs. Drake Younger

Dolph Ziggler vs. Daniel Bryan

John Cena vs. CM Punk

AJ Styles & The Young Bucks vs. Team Fight Club Pro

4.0
The final score: review Poor
The 411
The truly frustrating aspect of this disappointing PPV was that the WWE clearly is operating with a better mentality when it comes to timing their PPV matches so that they all have the necessary time to be satisfying. Unfortunately, the booking, agenting, and overall position of several key talents led to a situation where just a bunch of wrestlers were not put in a position to succeed. It is simply too late to push Dolph Ziggler as a deserving babyface. We're going on a decade of knowing that Seth Rollins is a completely shitty heel. Multiple big singles matches featuring multiple finisher kickouts is stupid. Multiple matches starting with heel beatdowns instead of babyface shines is stupid. Recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of your talent and then putting them in a position to succeed is genuinely not that hard. There is a great example of that at the moment. It's called NXT.
legend

article topics :

Summerslam, WWE, TJ Hawke