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Richard Reacts To WWE SummerSlam

Date Added: August 18, 2008
Story By: Richard Gray

WWE SummerSlam was last night from the Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. WWE's conclusion of the summer featured the return of the Undertaker after a two and a half month hiatus, the first time ever meeting between John Cena and Batista, Shawn Michaels' announcement, as well as four title matches. How did the company deliver? I thought that it was a good show; however, the event was not flawless. To keep my blog from getting monotonous I have decided to do this in a hits and misses format. Below are my thoughts with the hits (good things) going first.

The Hits:

The Opener: The first hit was the Jeff Hardy vs. MVP opener. This is exactly how an opening match is supposed to be - fast paced and action packed. The match accomplished this by getting the hot Indianapolis crowd into things early by limiting the amount of mat wrestling with both workers remaining on their feet. The mat wrestling that was used was very well done with MVP even utilizing a variation of the cross face. I was fine with the outside interference from Shelton Benjamin because it gave Hardy an excuse to execute another high risk spot to the outside. MVP went over but Hardy did not look weak because of the interference.

Shawn Michaels' Announcement: Shawn Michaels came out to the ring with his wife to make his announcement regarding the future of his career. Michaels cut such a good promo that the crowd ate it up as legitimate. Chris Jericho came out and became the biggest heel in WWE with some of the best mic work that I have seen in years. Jericho has had a hard time transitioning as a heel based on the way WWE built his return last fall, however, he became a monster heel with what he did last night. The spot where Michaels got out of the way and Jericho connected on his wife should lead to some very good wrestling matches. This segment was brilliantly written and executed to perfection.

CM Punk Proves Himself: CM Punk retaining the World Heavyweight Championship against JBL was another hit. JBL surprised me as his physical brawling style complimented Punk's fast paced martial arts influenced style nicely. They had an entertaining match that had the correct outcome with Punk hitting GTS and pinning JBL clean. Punk is now a legitimate World Heavyweight Champion after getting a clean win in a title defense on a big four show. Punk is a true testament of hard work really does pay off. I am also eating my words today when I said before the show that JBL could not keep up with Punk. You can tell that JBL has really put in some extra time at improving his in-ring work.

For The First Time Ever: Batista beat John Cena clean after a spot where Batista caught Cena off the top turnbuckle and hit a sitdown powerbomb followed by the Batista Bomb. The match was really good but it was not a classic. My biggest complaint with the bout was the numerous FU attempts as it seemed like Cena was taunting his finisher from the word go. Nonetheless it was a fun bout for the first time ever but the match certainly needed more drama with a title involved. WWE probably should have held off on this one but they didn't and it provided some very good wrestling for the show. The crowd seemed pretty pro-Batista and pretty anti-Cena.

The Show Stealer: The Undertaker and Edge did it yet again in what was an outstanding "Hell in a Cell" match. Traditionally I am against gimmick matches but cage matches are usually exceptions and under the circumstances of this match I thought that a gimmick match was the only way to settle the score. This was not so much a wrestling match as it was a brawl that turned out to be a spot fest. Edge hit a phenomenal spear on Undertaker on the ECW announce table after the HIAC structure had collapsed. Undertaker was not outdone by throwing Edge outside of the ring through the two tables. The most phenomenal thing to me about Edge vs. Undertaker is how the match was not the slightest bit stale despite the number of times that they have headlined pay-per-view matches. They have been able to manipulate their own styles and innovate new material so that it is fresh and exciting. Jim Ross said it best in that the Undertaker is the yard stick in which others are measured up against and Edge is proving that he is on his way to becoming a WWE Hall of Famer himself. Some people have said that the match needed color (blood) but I didn't think that it was needed based on all of the high risk spots that were executed. My only complaint with the match was when Undertaker chokeslammed Edge through the ring and it caught on fire. That was a little too gimmicky for my liking but the match itself was outstanding.

The Misses:

Glamarella: Beth Phoenix pinned Mickie James to become the new WWE Women's Champion and making Santino Marella the new Intercontinental Champion. The match wasn't bad but I have a problem with Kofi Kingston losing the strap without getting pinned. The right thing to do would be for Kofi to beat Santino in a rematch tonight on Raw but with the push of the Beth/Santino storyline that may not happen. Beth Phoenix deserves to be Women's Champion and even though I am very high up on Mickie James, it is time for someone new to hold the belt. I did like Santino's new ring gear and the celebration afterwards with Santino getting on Beth's shoulders was hilarious. Santino is so much fun to watch because he plays a great character. He doesn't have bad in-ring work but he is one of the few workers that it really doesn't matter what he looks like in the ring.

Was That Even A Match?: Mark Henry vs. Matt Hardy was the joke of the night. Henry was disqualified right off the bat after interference from Tony Atlas. Why spend TV time building a match that isn't going to happen? I'll admit that it was fun when Jeff Hardy came out to make the save for Matt but I strongly disagree with promoting a match and building it only to fail to deliver. The match didn't do Henry or Hardy any good as it was basically a bridge to continue their feud. If you are a regular reader of my work then you know that I am very much opposed to PPV time being utilized to promote TV feuds. With the rematch being announced for ECW tomorrow night it looks like that is what happened.

The Great Waste: The Great Khali is terrible and either needs to be repackaged or released. One of my friends that is well connected in the industry told me that they felt that Khali should work as a comedy babyface. That would certainly be better than this heel gimmick where WWE insults everyone's intelligence by trying to pass him off as dominate. Khali has no move set, he can't take moves from his opponents, and he does a very bad job of selling. Triple H could not make him look good like some in WWE had thought and the match got the crowd going with loud "you can't wrestle" chants directed at Khali. The chants were so loud atone point I had a hard time hearing the commentary.

WWE SummerSlam 2008 was a very solid effort and I would recommend watching. The show featured some great wrestling and some very memorable moments. The Shawn Michaels announcement featured mic work that you are not going to see very often as Michaels and Jericho proved just how talented they can be if given the opportunity by WWE creative. Khali vs. Triple H was a waste but I think that everyone knew going in that it was going to be a disaster. WWE dropped the ball with the ECW Championship match but they did the same thing at WrestleMania. The title doesn't mean much and the company does not care to make that rather obvious in their booking. Two titles changed hands in the Women's Title and Intercontinental Title while CM Punk earned his title as World Heavyweight Champion. John Cena and Batista worked a very fun match but not a match of the year candidate as some had expected. The Undertaker and Edge stole the show once again with an epic "Hell in a Cell" match that should be remembered forever by WWE fans.

Richard can be contacted at richard [at] grayinternet.com

Richard Gray is a professional wrestling journalist and frequent contributor to ProWrestling.com. He has been covering the world of professional wrestling since 1999 and has had the opportunity to cover ground breaking stories such as the demise of ECW, the WCW buyout, the Benoit tragedy, Bobby Lashley leaving WWE, and more. For more on Richard check out his web site, Wrestling News World.

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