The Piledriver Report 08.26.09: Summer Slam Review

This past Sunday night, World Wrestling Entertainment presented the 22nd annual Summer Slam event from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. While I have been known for bashing Monday Night RAW for the past few months, I must say that I was very entertained by the WWE’s latest pay per view endeavor. Both the RAW and SmackDown! brands delivered a very watchable product.

Will Summer Slam 2009 go down in history as one of the greatest Summer Slam events in the company’s history? Most definitely not. However, that doesn’t make it a bad show. It was a very good show, and when it was over, I wasn’t wishing that I had my $40.00 back. In this day, when you feel that you got your money’s worth, that’s all you can ask for.

THE GOOD

To me, the best match of the night was the Tables, Ladders, and Chairs contest between CM Punk and the World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Hardy. While they didn’t overload the match with crazy spots, the two were able to use just enough gimmicks to tell a great story, without appearing to be anything more then a spot fest. That being said, Jeff Hardy did leave us with the “Holy shit! Remember kids, don’t try this at home” moment of the night. While I’m not a big Jeff Hardy fan, I give him the utmost respect. Every time his performs the swanton, I am afraid that he won’t flip on time and break his neck. Whenever he climbs up a ladder to perform this move, I get even more nervous. Major props go to the WWE’s ultimate risk taker. At the same time, if the day ever comes when something terrible happens to Jeff Hardy after performing one of these suicide dives, the WWE is going to have a lot of explaining to do.

I was glad to see CM Punk regain the belt. It’s not just because Jeff Hardy is taking time off. Ever since the WWE decided to slowly turn CM Punk heel, the former Ring of Honor star has been one of, if not the, most intriguing superstars in all of sports entertainment. Punk deserves to be the World Heavyweight champion. I must admit, it does seem strange seeing Punk close out pay per view telecasts. However, Punk has shown that he can handle the spotlight. His promos during his feud with Jeff Hardy have been nothing short of amazing. I have heard about what a great heel Punk made in Ring of Honor. Unfortunately, I wasn’t a RoH fan until after he left the promotion. If he was anything like he is now, then Ring of Honor had themselves one great heel.

I’m hoping that Punk isn’t just a one trick pony as a heel. Hopefully, Punk wasn’t great just because he is straight edge, and Jeff Hardy is the poster child of the Wellness Program gone bad. It should be very interesting to see what kind of heat Punk could draw in his next feud against the Undertaker. If Punk’s terrific facials, when he noticed the Undertaker and not Hardy was underneath him, at Summer Slam are any indication of the type of heel Punk will continue to be, then we should be in for a hell of a ride.

The opening contest between Dolph Ziggler and the WWE Intercontinental Champion Rey Mysterio, Jr. was one of the better opening matches in a long time. Like the crowd in LA, I was also pulling for Dolph Ziggler. Due to the WWE’s penchant for quick title switches, I wasn’t sure who would win this contest. After all, Rey has held the belt for two months already. That’s one of the reasons why this match was so great. With every near fall, you were on the edge of your seat wondering who would leave the ring as the Intercontinental Champion. The other thing I was disappointed in was, where the hell was Maria? Shouldn’t she be standing by her man? I was hoping for Maria to be in Dolph’s corner, and interfere in the match. Something tells me that she would make a great heel valet.

RAW finally gets on the board with the third best match of the evening as DX defeated Legacy. When Shawn Michaels returned to the WWE a week ago, he asked Chris Jericho, “Who did they build up while I was gone?” The answer, on the RAW side, was nobody. However, I think the WWE did a good job of trying to elevate someone at Summer Slam. I fully expected a Spirit Squad type of squash by Degeneration X. Instead, what we got was an evenly fought contest between the two teams. It wasn’t even the WWE choosing one member of Legacy to shine, and let the other wrestler look like a jabroni. No, they WWE allowed both Ted DiBiase, Jr. and Cody Rhodes look great in losing to Shawn Michaels and Triple H.

I thought the Unified World Tag Team title match between Chris Jericho/Big Show vs. Cryme Tyme was also a good match. This surprised me more then the DX/Legacy match. In the Michaels/Hunter vs. Rhodes/DiBiase, the four men in the match had the potential to give you a really good match. The only question was whether the WWE would allow Legacy to be anything more then fish food to DX. However, in the Unified World Tag Team title match, you had Chris Jericho, who could go, and all of the rest. It turns out that Shad, JTG, and the Big Show held their own to give us a solidly entertaining match.

THE BAD

Now we come to the bottom four matches, in terms of entertainment value.

I will give the MVP vs. Jack Swagger the award for best of the worst matches. It was a short match, that didn’t give us anything special. The one thing it did surprise us with was the winner. WOW! MVP won over Vince’s latest young pet. TO say I was surprised would be an understatement. This victory, combined with MVP’s tag team win the next night must mean that MVP is finally out of the doghouse. It’s about time.

Next on my list is the WWE World title match between the champion Randy Orton and John Cena. Is it just me, or are Randy Orton’s matches boring as hell? Maybe it’s because he works at a snails pace. Maybe it’s because he has horrible chemistry against his two main rivals, John Cena and Triple H. Either way, the WWE needs to do something different with Orton. Otherwise, people will start falling asleep during his matches.

On the positive note, whoever came up with that finish gets major props from me. I thought all of the stops and starts were annoying, and hurt the match as it did not allow the match to get a nice flow. That being said, when the “fan” laid on the referee, I thought it was the most awesome thing I saw in awhile. I couldn’t believe a fan was so pissed off that he actually tried to save Randy Orton, after Vince kept on screwing with him. However, once they showed the fan being dragged to the back, I knew it was a plant. That still didn’t stop me from enjoying that angle. Once I saw Orton win, I enjoyed the finish even more.

I never thought I would write this, but Christian and William Regal get the honor of being the next to last worst match on the show. Of course, this was of no fault of their own. That’s what happens when you are only given EIGHT SECONDS to perform. I was actually looking forward to this match. I even thought it may have been the show stealer if given enough time. Obviously, eight seconds was not enough time.

THE UGLY

The worst match of the night has to go to Kane versus the not-so Great Khali. When they were brawling, it was hideous. When they were on the mat, it was ridiculous. This match had dark match, or fast forward on Tivo written all over it.

Well, that does it for the 2009 Summer Slam review. I never thought that I would say this, especially after the awful build up, but I can’t wait until next year’s event. Of course, by then, I’ll probably be doing nothing but hating on the product. Only time will tell.