Another SummerSlam is in the books, and you can read on below to see the results and reaction from the WWE's annual summer spectacular. Dean Ambrose defended the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Dolph Ziggler, Sasha Banks defended the WWE Women's Championship against former champ Charlotte, "The Beast" Brock Lesnar battled "The Viper" Randy Orton, and Finn Balor squared off against Seth Rollins to see who becomes the first ever WWE Universal Champion.
Plus, John Cena went one-on-one with AJ Styles again, Enzo and Cass faced the team of Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens, Rusev defended the U.S. title against Roman Reigns (well... almost), and The Miz defended his Intercontinental belt against Apollo Crews.
Even though this 12-man tag match felt overstuffed, and will only truly serve to create match fatigue for those in the crowd who are in this for the four (or more) hour haul, it was a better showcase for the SmackDown Live tag teams than Smackdown itself has been able to give them. Plus, it stirred up some tension between the Usos and Alpha, who are definitely the top tag dogs in the Blue Brand division. No, this doesn't necessarily mean a heel turn for the Usos, though the Brooklyn crowd most definitely sided with Jordan and Gable. An okay starter that hopefully helped SD's struggling team landscape.
Winners: The Uso, American Alpha, and The Hype Bros
Sami Zayn not being on the main SummerSlam card is a bitter pill, but I'm glad they found room for him somewhere. It was an unceremonious outing, featuring two former NXT champs vs. the most decorated tag team of all time, but you want Zayn out there for the Brooklyn crowd. And to that point, the Dudleys too. It could be though that the Dudleys have fallen a bit too far from grace these days as they're now not even a serious contender in the RAW tag division. The "miscommunication" angle is also still running, so are the Boyz about to split up? Zayn and Neville, who could easily join the RAW tag ranks to beef up the division, won this bout after Bubba accidentally clobbered D-Von and Neville nailed the Red Arrow.
Winners: Sami Zayn and Neville
You know what? I'm glad this match wound up on the kickoff show. It was one of the 5 SummerSlam Matches I was looking forward to the most, but I was worried about it getting squeezed onto the main show and not getting enough time. But here, before the official card, these two welt-delivering powerhouses were able to deliver a great one, and an impressive indicator as to how fun this "Best of Seven" will be. Sheamus got the win after an eye poke and a Brogue Kick, but Cesaro's hop from ring post-to-ring rope into a flying crossbody was a thing of beauty.
Winner: Sheamus
This match was exactly what it was supposed to be - a fun, mouthy outing that didn't wear fans out with an abundance of high spots. And with Zayn and Neville victorious earlier, you have to wonder how long Owens and Jericho will keep teaming up after they defeated the more established hometown favorites here, Enzo and Cass, after a "Pop Up Powerbomb set up into a Codebreaker" combo. Because I could get behind a RAW tag division with them as a running team.
Winners: Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens
Regardless of how bad you may have wanted Sasha to win (I, for one, wanted it VERY badly), this match was freakin' stiff and scary as hell - to Sasha and Charlotte's credit. They went out there and put on a wickedly violent match, determined to prove themselves and possibly even top Sasha vs. Bayley from last year. I loved it. A top rope Razor's Edge into a Hurracanrana, a Boston Crab on the top buckle, whatever that nasty looking botch was - this was a crazy bout. And Charlotte won by rolling Sasha onto her back while locked in the Bank Statement. It was similar to how Punk beat Daniel Bryan back at Over the Limit in 2012.
Winner, and new Women's Champion, Charlotte
Apollo Crews threw just about everything he had at Miz in this quick, somewhat flat, IC title match. No one was expecting much from it and - well - it served as the comedown bout following Sasha's big loss. All it took was for Miz to move out of the way of a corner splash and hit the Skull-Crushing Finale for him to retain against SmackDown's top IC title contender. The only notable element here was, as we were told, Miz beat the SummerSlam IC title "curse."
Winner, and still Intercontinental Champion, The Miz
Holy crap! An epic CLEAN win for AJ Styles over John Cena. No wonder AJ recently told me that this was going to be an "all or nothing" match. These guys delivered in a huge way. Counters upon counters. Command performances from both men. And after AJ kicked out of the Avalanche AA, Cena even looked on in extreme disbelief. It was as close as we'll ever get in this day and age to Ultimate Warrior questioning the gods after Macho Man kicked out his finisher at 'Mania 7. This was amazing. Even the anti-Cena crowd cheered Cena afterwards. Cena went for an AA, it was countered into a Styles Clash and then a Phenomenal Forearm.
Winner: AJ Styles
There were a lot of elements here that prevented this from just being a straight-up tag title match. Big E was down thanks to a comedy angle involving his nuts. Jon Stewart came in as an honorary New Day member for this bout. Would Big E return and save the titles or would Kofi and Xavier's lack of power cost them the belts? And how would Jon Stewart play into it? Would he screw New Day to stop them from beating Demolition's record?
So, Stewart basically stopped Gallows and Anderson from getting the win and then, as Stewart was about to get his balls busted, Big E ran in and attacked. It was fine, though the goofy "Doctor/Jars of Pickled Testicles (of all sizes)" has kind of overshadowed the actual battle for the titles.
Winners: Gallows and Anderson (by DQ)
Feelings were split going into this one. Some weren't impressed with Ziggler being Dean's SummerSlam challenger while others thought this one had the potential of being a stealth show-stealer. And, well, it fell somewhere in-between the pros and cons. Firstly, having the WWE title match be a mid card affair (there are still four matches left) really deflated it right out of the gate. Then, after the bell rang, it just never quite rose to the occasion. It just sort of gave into what it felt like it was going to be all along. The most interesting aspect of this match involved Dean getting slightly heel-ish in his contempt, his disdain, for Dolph, mocking him with Chin Music taunts and gyrations. In the end, it was a Dirty Deeds that did the deed.
Winner, and still WWE World Heavyweight Champion, Dean Ambrose
Like the crowded tag match from the kickoff show, this was another SmackDown Live full division match, featuring all the women from the brand. The only news here was Eva Marie's suspension (comically announced as anxiety due to hostile fans causing her to take a vacation in the British Isles) paving the way for Nikki Bella's big return. And Nikki got a HUGE reaction too. Altogether, not a bad match, though it ultimately didn't mean anything. Crowd's dying at this point though. This is a long show.
Winners: Nikki Bella, Natalya, and Alexa Bliss
Okay, putting aside the fact that the Universal title belt looks like it's made out of fruit rollups and seems to be universally hated on twitter (it is rather awful), this was a great freakin' match. And with a big clean pin and win for Demon King Finn Balor who gets the honor of being the first champ and toppling the mighty Seth Rollins.
And thank goodness the crowd came back alive for this one. Despite these two never having faced one another before, the "fantasy booking" element to this match was too much to resist. I would have been fine with either guy winning, but Balor's victory seems to really signal a push for a whole new crop of "New Era" guys.
Winner, and new WWE Universal Champion, Finn Balor
The fact that Roman beat Rusev clean on the last RAW seemed to indicate he wouldn't be capturing the U.S. title tonight, but I had no idea there wouldn't even be an official match. Mercifully though, given the length of this card, it was the right call to have these guys come out and brutalize each other on the outside, never letting the bell ring. And the "We Want Slater!" chant signaled that it was the right call too. In the end, the ringside doctor would "not allow Rusev to continue" so nothing ever started. For what it's worth, the crowd was loving Roman during this.
No winner, match never started
So. This one was interesting, but not interesting enough. It's been a long show and this just wasn't the match, or the finish, to send everyone home. Not at all. It may have set us up for a Shane/Brock cross-brand feud, but with most everyone expecting Goldberg, who was in NY for Thursdays WWE 2K17 party, to show up, this just fizzled. After trying to sell us on the fact that ONE RKO could topple Brock, possibly, Brock kicked out after two of them - with the first being on an announce table. Then, after Orton kicked out of an F-5 Brock elbowed Randy open the hard way and blood poured everywhere.
Shane came down to look after his SmackDown star and got an F-5 for his troubles and - welp - that was it. Less than ideal. Especially after such a long-ass card. Even if this starts up a new story somehow, it's dull.
Winner: Brock Lesnar, after match called due to blood. "By TKO" was the announcement.
Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association (TCA). Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at http://ift.tt/2aJ67FB.
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