wrestling / TV Reports
Tremendous Tirades: WWE Summerslam 2014
Introduction
As a reminder, this will not be another traditional recap, but instead it will be a mash up of the Rs, Instant Analysis and my usual Twitter ramblings I would do during the shows; completely uncensored and as the ideas flow unfiltered to the old keyboard. Remember, this is a review; and I am here to review the show. As always, I encourage discussion and even disagreement, just do so in a respectful manner. I will be doing the review for Raw and most PPVs and iPPVs going forward.
WWE SUMMERSLAM 2014
OFFICIAL RESULTS
WWE Intercontinental Title Match: The Miz © vs. Dolph Ziggler: The Miz came out with a spectacularly douchey Assassin’s Creed style jacket tonight. This is a great choice for the opener, the crowd hates Miz and loves Ziggler, they have worked well together in the past and teasing the possibility of a title change to the face in the opener should keep the crowd invested the entire time. I continue to hate the fact that Miz uses the figure four but almost NEVER sets it up with any work related to the knee. The crowd was way into Ziggler the entire time, biting on his near falls and his kick outs. Ziggler won clean with the zigzag, and is now your new champion. I am fine with this; Miz was booked like shit as the champion during his short run. Ziggler is in limbo, and this will give him direction and as mentioned above, gave the fans something to get invested into and react to. Not a “great” match, but the crowd involvement and reaction that they received was likely exactly what they hoped for, and that is a good thing. This came off very well, but if I do have one complaint, we’re kicking out of finishes in the opener, they have to be VERY careful booking the show if we’re doing that in match one. I have no faith that they will book Ziggler well as the champion, but we can hope. They need to make the secondary titles and champions something that we need to care about.
Match/Segment Rating: ***
WWE Divas Title Match: AJ Lee © vs. Paige: Once again, like MITB & Battleground, I am glad to see that the ladies were not placed into the PPV death spot. They are at least giving them a chance with the crowd instead of that next to last, nothing here matters spot. I have said that they are showing signs of the division going in a new and more serious direction, and that will take time, a lot of time, but it can be done. While some may think that the card position is not that important, in the case of the women, it is. I loved the serious start to the match, with AJ just wanting to get to work by biting Paige’s hand and simply attacking instead of grappling. AJ HATES HER so sometimes you have to skip regular stuff and make sure that the audience knows this. I thought that they both did a good job of showing this. Paige escaped the black widow and countered into the cradle spike DDT to score the victory and the title. It was shorter than expected, but they worked with a purpose and I liked what they did. I keep waiting for them to have a great match, and this wasn’t bad at all, but I think that they have a much better match in them. They certainly did the best that they could do with the short time frame afforded to them.
Match/Segment Rating: **¾
Flag Match: Jack Swagger vs. Rusev: The winner will have their flag flown post match. Lana spoke about dedicating the match to Vladimir Putin, and said Hollywood was everything wrong with America. An honor guard came out to lead Swagger and Zeb to the ring. Rusev attacked pre-match, and Swagger got the ankle lock applied and had to break. Lana tried to claim Swagger cheated to get her man out of the match, but it did not work. Swagger ran wild early and got the crowd behind him well. While he didn’t have the wrap on still, Swagger continued to sell the damage to the ribs well, which is appreciated. Rusev sold the leg well, and they did the superkick into the ankle lock spot, which got a good reaction once again. This was in play when he tried the accolade, and had issues due to the leg. He had to apply a modified version, which led to Swagger getting the ankle lock again. Rusev escaped, and then fired up to get the accolade. Swagger fought, but passed out in the hold, allowing Rusev to score the victory and Swagger to go out like “the hero”. Rusev then kicked Zeb in the face as he checked on Swagger, and celebrated with the Russian flag as the anthem played while the “heroes” were laid out. Overall a really well worked match from both guys, smart work, good selling and the crowd was involved; which led to them HATING Rusev winning. The stipulation made it rather clear that Rusev was winning, but the smart work and layout made you doubt that at times.
Match/Segment Rating: ***¼
Lumberjack Match: Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose: They have hyped that the lumberjacks are victims of both men from their Shield days, so that technically they should hate both guys. Ambrose worked his crazy deal, which just fits him so well, and early on they tried their best to avoid the lumberjacks. That worked until Ambrose suplexed Rollins from the ring onto the lumberjacks. Rollins got tossed into the crowd, and when the lumberjacks tossed Ambrose into the ring, he hit a suicide dive onto them and then ran across the announce tables onto Rollins. This led to them brawling in the crowd. They brawled high into the arena, but Citizen Kane ordered the lumberjacks to retrieve the competitors. They grabbed Ambrose, and Rollins tried to run but was cut off and brought back. Ambrose took the opportunity to leap onto the pile that was carrying Rollins from the top rope. Ambrose looked to have things won after a curb stomp on Rollins, but Kane broke that up. The lumberjacks then all got involved and chaos occurred. Rollins used the briefcase in the confusion and was able to score the victory. For as much as I hate lumberjack matches, they really made it work early on. The crowd was into it the work was good, and Ambrose gets a great reaction from the crowds as the sympathetic/screwed over face character. It eventually went into the typical lumberjack formula, where they all get involved, which allowed Rollins to cheat and steal the victory. Credit to those guys for making a stipulation I hate work and provide a match I really enjoyed. When these guys get the chance to go one on one without the hindrance of a poor gimmick and get time, it is going to be great. This was way better than I thought it would be, and the crowd was great for it.
Match/Segment Rating: ***¾
Bray Wyatt vs. Chris Jericho (Luke Harper and Erick Rowan are banned from ringside): I was not a fan of their first PPV match, as I felt they did not mesh well. Also, the booking to this match has been backwards, since the goons didn’t cost Jericho a match, but he fought to keep them away like they had. The one thing that I liked here was that Wyatt was back to being really vicious in there, going back to the style that really set him apart from the average WWE performer. Ok, now I like Bray, but why in the hell would anyone be afraid of his wacky upside down pose he does? Jericho was magically scared to death and allowed Bray to monologue mid-match. Makes no sense to me, but it led to them going to the floor, and Bray hitting Sister Abigail into the barricade. He then hit it again in the ring and that was all. Bray sang after the match, because, yeah. It was certainly better than the Battleground match, but for some reason when these guys are together they are just lacking something for me. Part of that is that they are doing nothing to make me care, and also they clash a lot style wise. Again, this was better than last month and they had the crowd but it felt like, “just another match” to me.
Match/Segment Rating: ***
Brie Bella vs. Stephanie McMahon: This is such a super serious feud, based on hate, that they locked up and did a clean break in the early moments. Seriously, that is why people have issues connecting to the product, because the people involved use no real emotion or make you care a large majority of the time. Stephanie did perfectly fine for herself, especially since she hasn’t performed in such a long time. Much like Vince, she does the little things well, and it was enjoyable from that aspect. But the constant ass kissing from the announce team came off as pathetic. I know she’s your boss, but keep it a bit believable. Of course Triple H made an appearance, as did Nikki Bella. Triple H pulled out the ref as Brie had the “Maybe Lock” on; Brie took him out with the baseball slide and did the YES chants. And then Nikki turned on Brie. Stephanie got the pedigree, and that was all. Wrestling wise, this wasn’t bad, and the crowd was interested in what they did, so I will give them that. The booking was what it was, and I have no interest in seeing the Bellas feud. The match was fine, but they lost me on the story a few weeks ago after it started off with such promise.
Match/Segment Rating: **½
Roman Reigns vs. Randy Orton: Obviously this is a huge match for Roman Reigns, he’s on Summerslam against Orton and with rumors that he is in line for the huge push to WrestleMania. With that being the case, the man has to deliver here. This match in theory should have been simple to book. Reigns gets a quick shine, Orton gets the heat and makes it appear that his experience is too much for the young and emerging star, Reigns makes the big comeback, hits all of his signature shit and then gets the win. If you want the guy over, book to all of his strengths and let him learn and go long on the house shows. This felt like they had to go long because they were on PPV, like they had to do a lot more than they did, but I never felt the sense of urgency from either man for most of the early part of the match. I felt that they finally got rolling well as they headed down the stretch, some good counters and near falls including Reigns kicking out of the RKO. Reigns took the win, clean, with the spear, which is the right move if the plan is to strap the rocket to the guy. While it is fun to mock Orton these days, and as a character the guy does bore me, I do appreciate him as a worker and felt he did his best to make Reigns look good overall. At the end of the day I felt the match was good, but at the same time, not a breakthrough performance for Reigns. This was a step in the right direction, but there is work to be done with him. It’s a dangerous time in his development, I just hope that they have a great plan laid out and that Reigns starts to put it all together.
Match/Segment Rating: ***
WWE World Heavyweight Title Match: John Cena © vs. Brock Lesnar: Paul Heyman’s work to sell this match has been near perfection, as he is one of the few men that can not only sell matches, but deliver money promos. In all honesty, I was really looking forward to this match due to Heyman’s work and due to the fact that they had the great match at Extreme Rules. I appreciated Cena’s serious entrance, because he actually sold concern over the beast he was about to face. The opening portion was great, with Brock getting the near fall super early with the F5, and then just destroying Cena with suplexes and knee strikes. The match had an entirely different feel than the average WWE match, which is such a good thing. Lesnar giving no fucks and rag-dolling Cena around the ring with suplexes was awesome. Cena fired up and made a comeback with the AA, but Lesnar kicked out and then sat up Undertaker style and laughed at Cena. I love this man. Lesnar just brutalized Cena, and constantly asked the ref to see if Cena would quit. Cena got a hope spot with the STF, but Lesnar powered out and hit the F5, and that was it. This was an extended squash match in the very best way possible. If you wanted Lesnar over as the complete monster, to follow up off the ending of the streak, this is how you had to do it. Also, the MMA-centric booking was evident. Like in a title fight, when someone gets caught early (the F5 in this case) and that person never recovers. And now, if booked right, the man that ends Lesnar will be made. I didn’t think that they would do it, but they did and they deserve the credit for doing so. The match was outstanding, it was fresh, it felt real, there was no bullshit, no run-ins and on some levels, master level work by both men. This was an outstanding main event, and certainly a memorable one and I cannot ever remember a heel looking as strong as Lesnar did here. Credit to both men and for whoever laid this out.
Match/Segment Rating: ****½
The Tirade
Overall I felt that this was a strong show, with no bad matches, which is always a good thing. Ziggler and Miz had a good opener, and I felt they made he right choice to make it the opener and to change the title. Paige and AJ did very well in the limited time frame given, and love that they are getting chances early in the card. The flag match was also good, with Rusev showing that he can sell as the monster and not lose any steam. He has a lot of potential. Ambrose and Rollins took a horrible and limiting stipulation and made it work, and the best part is that with them, we know that there is more to come. Wyatt vs. Jericho was an improvement and while I am not a huge fan of the feud, I want them to be able to do better. Stephanie and Brie was a fine match, but the story lacks for me personally. Reigns passed a big test with Orton, and while he still has work to do, he appears to be on the right track. I felt that they did exactly the right thing with the main event, and it capped off an overall very good show. While there wasn’t a lot of blow away action on the undercard, there was nothing bad and as an entire package, a huge rebound from Battleground.What You Need to See: : Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose, John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar
Show Rating: 8.0
As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale…
0 – 0.9: Torture
1 – 1.9: Extremely Horrendous
2 – 2.9: Very Bad
3 – 3.9: Bad
4 – 4.9: Poor
5 – 5.9: Not So Good
6 – 6.9: Average
7 – 7.9: Good
8 – 8.9:Very Good
9 – 9.9: Amazing
10: Virtually PerfectAs a reminder, this is not a basic “how good was the show” number like a TV show, as I have always felt that a PPV is very different from a regular show. I have always judged PPV on how they built to a match, the match quality, crowd reactions to matches and angles, the overall booking, how the PPV leads into the future, PPV price and so on and so forth. I have added this in here for an explanation since so many have asked, and I have previously discussed it on podcasts. I understand that this may seem different, but that is how I grade. Obviously your criteria may be different.
Larry Csonka is a Pisces and enjoys rolling at jiu jitsu class with Hotty McBrownbelt, cooking, long walks on the beach, Slingo and the occasional trip to Jack in the Box. He is married to a soulless ginger and has two beautiful daughters who are thankfully not soulless gingers; and is legally allowed to marry people in 35 states. He has been a wrestling fan since 1982 and has been writing for 411 since May 24th, 2004; contributing over 3,000 columns, TV reports and video reviews to the site.
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