Summerslam 2011

[jman]

I gotta say.....i enjoyed summerslam a hell of alot more than i thought i would! I went in thinking it would be just a one match show. I enjoyed every match on this show.....some more than others but those guys went all out tonight. There were a few outcomes to matches i wasnt happy with like daniel bryan and beth losing but im not going to shit on the match for that. The divas even put on an ok match! The mark henry and sheamus match really surprised me. I was expecting it to be slow as hell. The barricade spot was awesome just for the front row reaction......one guy looked like he shit his pants. The christian and orton match was awesome! Really enjoyed this! I dont care if people are sick of the rivalry you cant deny these two have given us sooo many great matches! Some of their matches are match of the year quality in my opinion. This match wasnt as hardcore as i wanted but i still enjoyed every second. Before i mention the main event i want to bring up the stephanie and punk segment. That was brilliant! I was laughing for ages afterwards. For me the main event was another awesome match! Would probably give it four out of five stars. Not as good as mitb match but still really good! Im not 100% happy with the finish but i can live with it. I personally think its too soon for del rio. I wish they waited a bit longer. Wtf was kevin nash doing there?! I predict stephanie being the master behind that plan. Crowd was great tonight too...thank fuck! Crowds were very bad last few weeks. Wasnt happy with punk not being champ but at the end of the day raw tonight is now must see tv....again! Good stuff! Id give summerslam 8/10 to be honest. Really enjoyed it!

[DM]

Off of the heels of Summer Slam there were some good, some bad and some meh moments of the show. It appears people on youtube are stuck in the WWE being the greatest thing in the world mode and called me out on my review, so, here's a better review of it, lets see if I piss even more people off

Opener - We have Mysterio, Morrison and Kofi going up against Del Rio, R-Truth and Miz in a six man tag. While the match was alright, you didn't get a lot out of Mysterio in this match and sadly this had no real 'story' attached to it other than the fact that WWE somehow forgot to add these guys to the card and they're in the opening signature. Their match wasn't listed and this was a 'bounus' match, that's, kind of cruel if you think about it.

Shaemus/Henry - While this wasn't a bad match it wasn't a good one either. Henry dominated about 80 percent of this match as Shaemus got the hell beat out of him. This is a strongman match, they should only last about five minutes or put a little bit of flare to it and we had very little of that, especially since Shaemus is agile. Granted the payoff was pretty good taking out the barrier, it was a bit rough getting there.

WWE Divas (Not womens) Match - Kelly Kelly proved something tonight....that she can 'hang' with the wrestlers in the ring but she's by no means a great wrestling mind. While I would have loved to see Beth win the title, Kelly Kelly got the hell beat out of her and was able to counter the GlamSlam into a victory roll for the win. Can't take anything away though some of the spots were a bit obvious to detect but compared to the Bellas having the title, this was good.
Barrett/Bryan - The grudge match that sadly no one seemed to care about. This worked SO well for some reason, Bryan proved why he belongs as a Main Event and Barrett shows he's just as good (How sad they're midcard and last year they were main eventing). This for me was the match of the night, out of all the WRESTLING you had on this show, this was the best wrestling match bar none. My complaint, Barrett won. Now, from a 'creative' standpoint, that was the wrong decision, if Bryan is to be cashing in MITB at Mania, he needs to be credible and believeable. For me, he should be untouchable and be 'just that good' which builds him up as a god at Mania, which in turn, makes people want to watch, then again, what do I know about building a star, it's not like I'm a fan of 'believing' the product. Now for the 'wrestling' aspect of this match, the better man won and I have no problem with that.
World Title - Well...this was a No Holds Barred match that was..........alright. Both men put on an okay show even though I think the whole world knew Christian wasn't walking out with that title. From a 'creative' standpoint, they never EVER should have given Christian that belt because now he's portrayed as a 'fluke' and what's funny is people were 'behind' him winning the title. Sprinkle a little 'Orton' on him and they don't even care anymore, strange how that is. This was not as stellar as their first match on Smackdown and I personally don't think ANY of their matches have lived up to that match, most likely this fued will continue but lets face it, it's no Steamboat/Flair.
WWE Title - Now off the bat, this did NOT have the epic feel that I think it should have had, something fell flat and I know exactly where it is. First off, Cena wrestled, not getting my hopes that we're going to see 'that' again, but it was to shut everyone up about him, unfortunately, he won't be consistant about it. I grew up in an age where wrestling counted, that's what i grew up on, that's what I paid to see, I digress. While Punk and Cena did their job in the ring telling the story, I think the real story was on Triple H...that is a problem. We should care more about the wrestlers, not the ref. Now the match was good I will admit though Triple H did show his 'intelligence' by starting a count out and stopping just to push them back into the ring, could have, just not counted in retrospect. CM Punk wins the match even though Cena had his foot on the rope, Triple H see's nothing, Nash jumps Punk, Del Rio cashes in, fans walk out feeling indifferent. Now what could have worked better, was have Punk win legit. Nothing dodgy or 'questionable' just have him beat Cena clean because now, Punk looks like a fluke and that to me, sickens me that they just gave him the title just to screw him in the end. You could have had the exact same ending but with Cena's foot on that rope it really shows me they had no 'faith' in the match in the first place.
The Cons - The announce team gets my biggest complain of the night. Seriously, I'm done with announcing from those three, they were HORRIBLE. They spent more time telling a story when that should be left to the wrestlers to do, than call the moves that were being performed in the ring. It distracted me so much I literally had to ignore them and call the moves myself.
Cee Lo Brown - The fans didn't care, really, they did not care, you can see it and this shows why WWE doesn't need celebrities to sell their product. While the idea of a song at the event sounds nice, pick one song, do it, and get off the stage. Honestly, you have three hours to provide us with wrestling matches and you wasted 10 minutes of it with this garbage that no one in the crowd cared about.
Commercials on a PPV? Since when was this an extension of Raw? That was very off putting and actually made me think, something was going on with WWE. I never saw them promote a movie that wasn't theirs, or a product on a Paid Live Event which means, we paid 54.99 to see a Twix commercial...think about that for a moment. That was bad play by WWE and they easily could have done the commercials during the pre show. Now if they had a philosophy of 'we needed to fill time' all you do is add two minutes to the opening match and there's your time fill.
OVERALL, Summer Slam did NOT hit it out of the park. While the WRESTLING was good there were distractions along the way that brings it down, mainly the announce team. For me, I want to watch wrestling and suspend my belife, not hear a bunch of guys bickering back and forth about stuff that isn't even funny. It's a wrestling show, lets call the moves and be critical about it and trust me, it'll work. The ending to some of the matches were nothing we haven't seen before and the main event was like ice cream without the sprinkles, it was good but you wanted more, especially out of this event. I don't need the spectacle or the glitz or the glamour, just give me wrestling without distractions and convoluted endings. Sub Pay Per Views the gloves come off, but for an event that is slated as the 'biggest event in the summer' you want to walk out of there with a wow, and, just ask the fans in attendance that were...less then vocal, there was no real 'wow' this year. 3.5/5 Stars it will get mainly because I'm judging on the WRESTLING aspect of it and that's purely it.