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And here we are, the Mr. Tito WWE SummerSlam 2014 Review. I've reviewed many SummerSlams in my almost 16 year timespan as Mr. Tito and it's nice to see that the WWE takes the show seriously again. There was a dry spell during the late 2000's when the show was becoming just another Pay Per View. Now, it has become Wrestlemania Jr. again and I'm fine with that. WWE is booking it seriously again and now, they might be booking the venues seriously. WWE announced tonight that next year's event will be in the New York/New Jersey area, which announcing 1 year in advance is only done for Wrestlemanias. Plus, maybe this one is outdoors... I watched the event at my friend's house on his WWE Network. He runs the network on his Playstation 4 with the highest speed Comcast broadband connection. Even then, I was noticing many glitches from the WWE Network throughout the night. Often, it would jump from High Definiton to Standard Definition (its back-up), but there were periods of time when the video lagged and would then speed up to catch up to the audio. I guess when you brag that $9.99 is a great deal, you get what you pay for. If the WWE servers are overwhelmed with international markets, then tonight was not a good start. I've watched Wrestlemania 30, Money in the Bank, and SummerSlam on the WWE Network and so far, SummerSlam was the worst stream out of the 3. Not good... Heading into the show, I thought this was a well booked SummerSlam 2014 show... I liked the undercard but felt that only John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar could hit "Match of the Year" potential for the WWE. My front-runner for "Match of the Year" remains to be Daniel Bryan vs. Bray Wyatt at Royal Rumble 2014 and needless to say, that was not topped by any matches tonight. Lesnar vs. Cena was all German Suplexes while the other matches were good but not trending towards 5-star level. But overall, I thought SummerSlam 2014 was a good show... However, the WWE may have painted itself into a big corner UNLESS they have signed Brock Lesnar to an extension and intend to let him be WWE Champion for the next 2-3 years. Seriously, who can legitimately beat that guy right now? Let's just do a rundown of the show and I'll get deeper into the John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar match as part of my grand finale... MR. TITO's PHAT WWE SUMMERSLAM 2014 REVIEW Missed the pre-game show... Thus, no Rob Van Dam vs. Cesaro review. Funny how RVD won the match, though. I guess Cesaro's big Andre the Giant Battle Royal win in which he lifted the Big Show and tossed him over the rope was for not... First match was Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler. Not sure what the WWE's motivation on the Miz push has been, but I'm glad it's over. Dolph Ziggler is the NEW Intercontinental Champion and I'm happy about that. Sorry, but the Miz doesn't cut it. He's unable to shake his 2010-2011 failure as WWE Champion and he's forever tainted. Match was OK and felt more like something you'd see on an undercard of RAW. I probably would have went with Jericho vs. Bray Wyatt as my opener to get the crowd pumped, but that's just me. Ziggler could be just a babyface to keep the title warm until "Bad News" Barrett returns or for someone like Rusev to capture. [ **1/2 ] By the way, in addition to the American and Spanish announce teams, we had a German one as well? What, were they there to count German Suplexes? I thought Paige vs. AJ Lee for the Divas Title was good... Too short, but both represented the ladies well and the finish was excellent with Paige reversing out of AJ's submission and giving AJ a devastating DDT to win the Divas Title. Nice work... Now, give Paige the proper World Champion push and let her dominate the division for a while. Enough of this "underdog as champion" bullshit which ruined the last title reign. [ *** ] I really enjoyed Jack Swagger vs. Rusev, although we never had any idea what a "Flag Match" would be until after the match was over. This is disorganized WWE Creative in a nutshell. However, the match was damn good because Rusev was injecting some psychology into the match. Early on, Jack Swagger locked in the Anklelock and Rusev sold the injury for the entire match. Rusev struggled to get the submission locked in properly, even doing it from one leg at one point. Then, to the finish, Rusev locked the submission hold in with both legs but sold the pain in his face when applying the hold. I thought that was excellent. Swagger passed out which I thought was a good ending... These guys deserve to have a longer feud, especially to see if Jack Swagger can grow his babyface momentum. [ ***1/2 ] Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose was probably the match of the night... The two have great chemistry together and the crowd was hot for the match the entire time. The only thing holding the match back was the outside chaos among the lumberjacks and Ambrose/Rollins fighting through the crowd. However, the involvement of the lumberjacks made for some exciting spots. Once again, Kane is the thorn in the side for the babyfaces... He got involved with the match and it prompted all of the lumberjacks to storm the ring. That was enough of a distraction for Seth to hit Ambrose with the "Money in the Bank" briefcase. Should be interesting to see what these guys could do with a regular wrestling match or better yet, a "Falls Count Anywhere" battle. [ ****1/4 ] Chris Jericho vs. Bray Wyatt was good, but it felt a bit short and for the latter half of the match, very one sided with Wyatt dominating Jericho. Jericho just beat him at the last Pay Per View yet he was getting owned in the rematch. Other than that, a decent match and Bray went over 100% clean. [ **3/4 ] Yeah, the Nikki Bella heel turn was easy to call... Stephanie vs. Brie Bella was messed up to me, aside from the amazing uniform that Stephanie McMahon was wearing. Holy cow... My usual issue is this: Brie Bella is a pro wrestler. Stephanie is not and hasn't been for over 10 years. However, Stephanie dominated the match... Psychology was way off! However, it's not like Stephanie looked bad in the ring in executing moves. In fact, she was pretty decent. She kept things basic and relatively knows how to work a match. HHH got involved to distract the referee and that of course created opportunity for Nikki Bella to turn on her sister. Congrats to Triple H... Just this year, he broke up reunited and broke up Evolution, ended the Shield, and split the Bella Twins. Money talks... [ **1/4 ] In my opinion, Randy Orton had to carry Roman Reigns and that's BAD for future main event opportunities for Reigns. He just looks lifeless in the ring at times and the crowd knew it too, hence the silence for much of the match. There's just a lack of offense by Reigns. He might have the Superman Punch and Spear as big impact moves, but he has no offense to get to that spot. I really don't know how he could even look credible against Brock Lesnar. I really don't. He gets the win tonight and Michael Cole called it a "Statement Win". Yep, Reigns is about to be pushed to the moon despite being unable to carry a wrestling match. [ **1/2 ] And now, the Main Event... I personally thought that John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar was an utter disaster. THIS was the big match that the WWE was selling to the general public to pay JUST $9.99 per month to see. Yet, what was it? Brock Lesnar dominating the match and hitting as many German Suplexes as possible. Seriously... That's what it was. If I were John Cena, I would be pissed. The booking of the match (a) made Cena look really bad and (b) could have put Cena at serious injury risk with the German Suplexes taken. Vince McMahon must be high on Lesnar right now to let him not only destroy WWE's top babyface in John Cena but to also end the streak at Wrestlemania 30 with the Undertaker. Hopefully, Vince has just signed Lesnar to an extension that will keep him around for another 2-3 years. BAD match... But in addition to the bad match, the WWE just painted themselves into a corner by making Brock Lesnar TOO strong as a heel. After destroying John Cena, who is credible on the current WWE roster to beat him? Cena has been booked for the past decade as "Superman" and Brock just destroyed him. I don't see a single person with a chance in hell to beat him other than Randy Orton who has the credible looking offense that might hurt Lesnar (DDT on the ropes and RKO). Other than that, the WWE would have to enlist in the Rock to return as a Lesnar opponent. They just booked Lesnar to look way too strong. That's why 2002-2004 RAW brand WWE is terrible... Triple H booked himself too strong as the heel and thus made the entire roster look like chumps in the process. But the match was bad and didn't even come close to expectations. It was just Lesnar beating on Cena, standing there watching... Then, Brock would hit German Supluxes, standing there watching. Lots of downtime between each Cena beatdown. Not a good match. At the very least, Cena should have had some fighting effort. Instead, we saw an extensive jobbing by the WWE's top superstar for the last 10 years. Yeah, he's just the guy who is #1 in merchandise sales by a mile... LET'S SQUASH HIM, says the idiotic WWE Creative Team. [ ** ] LAST WORD: Overall, a good show that had a disappointing Main Event. Now, the WWE has the ridiculous task of building someone up to seriously defeat Brock Lesnar and make it look convincing. Good luck with that... I'll go "B" for the overall show grade. SO JUST CHILL... 'TIL THE NEXT EPISODE! Comments and feedback are welcome. Follow and Tweet me @titowrestling or login in below to post comments. © Mr. Tito and LordsofPain.net/WrestlingHeadlines.com - 1998-2014
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