Kevin’s WWE SummerSlam 2020 Review

WWE SummerSlam

August 23rd, 2020 | Amway Center in Orlando, Florida

WWE United States Championship: Apollo Crews [c] vs. MVP

It’s a Kickoff rematch from a few weeks ago on Raw. The new United States Title looks great. The Thunderdome? Not so much. The Hurt Business have shirts and a new theme. I am here for it because they’ve been a highlight of Raw. This was a completely average match that you’d expect on an episode of Raw or something. MVP held serve for the most part with heel work before Apollo Crews made a short comeback and won with the spin-out powerbomb in 6:34. Inoffensive and fine. It feels like this should’ve been Apollo/Lashley. [**¼]

Onto the main show!

WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship: Bayley [c] vs. Asuka

Commentary actually brought up their NXT history, which was appreciated. These are literally the two most accomplished women on the roster. Asuka has won everything, while Bayley is only missing a Royal Rumble victory. Asuka came out with fire and Bayley favored her right shoulder in the early stages. Asuka remained in control though a surprise Bayley to Belly got her a near fall. Bayley got a true opening when Asuka hurt her knee on the steel steps, setting up a story for her later match as well. A good spot saw Asuka catching a Bayley elbow into an armbar. Asuka charged at Bayley who moved and Sasha got on the apron to take the brunt of it. That was enough of a distraction for Bayley to pull her into an inside cradle to steal this in 11:35. Good stuff. The work on the shoulder and leg from both women were good and the finish made sense to keep Asuka strong while setting up a story for later. [***¼]

WWE Raw Tag Team Championship: The Street Profits [c] vs. Andrade and Angel Garza

Kevin Owens joined commentary in a Street Profits shirt. The Profits had a bunch of Solo cups fall from the rafters. The champs started hot but a Montez Ford somersault outside was caught and he was powerbombed. That made Ford the face in peril for a while and set up the always fun Angelo Dawkins hot tag. Unfortunately, I missed the finish as a wrong button was hit on my TV and the feed got cut. I returned to see that Ford won with a twisting frog splash in about 8:00. From what I saw, this was quality tag team wrestling but nothing to write home about. Judging by the arguing Andrade and Angel, it seems like Zelina Vega was involved in the finish. [**¾]

No Disqualifications Loser Leaves WWE Match: Mandy Rose vs. Sonya Deville

Nobody is going to boo Sonya Deville after everything that happened last week. They came face to face after the bell and went right at. Mandy hit a suplex on the ramp in the first two minutes, showing that this would be vicious. They kept up the intensity with Mandy hitting a clothesline off the announce table and Sonya wrapping her up in submissions. The biggest problem I had with this was that it kind of ended flat. Mandy hit a handful of pump knees inside and one of them was enough to keep Sonya down at the 10:03 mark. It felt like there was more story to tell and the table brought in never got used. [***¼]

Street Fight: Dominik Mysterio vs. Seth Rollins

Seth rocked gear inspired by Rey’s Halloween Havoc 1997 attire. It looked awesome. Dominik looked good early on, hitting arm drags and fast offense. Seth used his experience to slow the pace and made sure to talk trash to both Rey and Dominik. Dominik got going after Seth missed the Curb Stomp and nearly pulled off an upset. Then, he started using the kendo stick and broke it over Seth’s back. At no point was Dominik booked to be better than Seth. He’d get openings due to Seth stopping to showboat or talk smack. The biggest spot was a Dominik White Russian leg sweep through a table. He also busted out an Eddie Guerrero frog splash. With Dominik in trouble, Mama Mysterio came out and Rey pleaded with her to go back. That allowed Murphy to get involved. He tried to do the eye/steps gimmick on Dominik but Rey made the save. Seth tied up Rey for a kendo stick attack but then walked over to Angie. Dominik stopped him but his efforts went by the wayside as Seth bested him with the Curb Stomp in front of a tied Rey at 22:34. That was really good. Dominik looked great in his first WWE match and they told a wonderful story that played off of Seth’s great character work. [***¾]

WWE Raw Women’s Championship: Sasha Banks [c] vs. Asuka

I’ve given their two big singles matches at least ****. Sasha went right after the knee but Asuka did the same when they spilled outside. Asuka took a SICKENING bump on a sunset flip bomb to the outside. It sounded horrible. Sasha held serve after that until Asuka made a bit of a comeback. Their trading of Asuka Locks and Bank Statements was something to behold. They’re so good at it. We almost got a repeat of the earlier finish. However, Bayley didn’t take the hit that Sasha did earlier. That allowed Asuka to roll Sasha into the Asuka Lock and win in 11:30. Very good stuff here as these two can’t do any wrong. It featured great action and while I don’t like Sasha losing in her first defense again, it made sense and further built towards Sasha/Bayley. [***½]

WWE Championship: Drew McIntyre [c] vs. Randy Orton

This should be the main event. Orton spent the early portions of this playing mind games with Drew. He’d head outside whenever Drew got close. It worked to anger the champion and throw him off his game. That’s when Orton struck, doing things like dropping him on his back on the announce table several times. My feed froze for some of this so I missed stuff. I saw Drew apply the Figure Four, which was a great call considering Flair’s involvement in the story. They went back and forth down the stretch and each guy kept avoiding each other’s finisher. The finish played into the “never see it coming” gimmick as Drew pulled him into a backslide to win in 20:39. Great piece of business here. The match was technically very good, they kept building, and I loved the finish. I fully expected Orton to win and the fashion in which this happened showed that any move could finish a match. [***½]

Keith Lee debuts on Raw tomorrow.

WWE Universal Championship Falls Count Anywhere Match: Braun Strowman [c] vs. Bray Wyatt

A lot of this was typical Fiend fare. He seemed impervious to pain arly and hit a bunch of his own stuff. He got put through the guardrail and Braun did everything possible to him but The Fiend kept getting up. A frustrated Braun even ripped up the ring mat and exposed the wood under it, only to turn around and see Bray standing again. Bray slammed him onto it and then hit two Sister Abigails onto the wood to win the title in 11:59. It wasn’t any good and I didn’t get into it at all. [*½]

BUT WAIT! Bray’s celebration was cut short when he got hit by a Spear. That’s right, baby! ROMAN REIGNS IS BACK! The Big Dog is here to save WWE. He beat up Bray and then shouted at Braun, “I MADE YOU! YOU AIN’T A MONSTER WITHOUT ME HERE!” Ain’t that the truth? He took out Bray and picked up the Universal Title to end the show.

6.5

The final score: review Average

The 411

An above average show that didn’t really have any major “lows” until that main event, though even that was saved by the arrival of Roman Reigns. There weren’t any MOTY candidates but the show moved along nicely, had entertainment from start to finish, and saw a handful of good matches.