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Welcome back to the Excellence in Column Writing, coming to you for the 4th time in 1 week and also doing back-to-back show reviews on the WWE Network. In case you missed it, you can catch my NXT Takeover by Clicking Here. I gave it a positive review and I was really impressed by the Bayley vs. Sasha Banks match. Many on the internet were suggesting that "SummerSlam had a tough act to follow". Maybe the Divas match, but in my opinion, the NXT male wrestlers have a long way to go to eclipse the male wrestlers on the main WWE roster. Funny how Kevin Owens looked like a million bucks against John Cena and doesn't quite look the same against other wrestlers, including fellow NXT member Finn Balor. Yeah, I said it... Heading into the SummerSlam 2015, I had high expectations for the show... Lots of good potential matches. Will it live up to expectations in front of a hot New York City crowd? Find out below... Jon Stewart started off the show as the host... Silly New York fans and their trolling "What?!?" chants. Stewart eventually introduced Mick Foley, the "Hardcore Legend". Foley expressed confusion over Stewart telling him that the "Rock" would be there as opposed to "Brock". Foley wanted no part of Suplex City and Stewart says that he took the worst from the Undertaker at Hell in a Cell... How could he be scared of Brock? Foley said "that was 17 years ago!". Funny stuff. My buddies called it... Sheamus vs. Randy Orton was the "hot" opener. Sheamus immediately got on the microphone and yelled at the fans ahead of time for their "you look stupid chants". Good question... Would a potential WWE Champion have the need to seek heat from a HOT New York City crowd? His character is broken and his look does, indeed, look stupid. Both Orton and Sheamus, who are each very close to Triple H backstage, have had so many pushes and heel/face turns that they just aren't relevant. HOWEVER - Both are good in-ring wrestlers. Once again, for yet another Pay Per View this year, they put on a good match. Orton was busted open the hardway and the referee put on the rubber gloves to either sell it or it's a new health precaution in the WWE. The DDT through the ropes and setting up the RKO got the fans pumped, as it always does for Orton... Oh damn, RKO out of No Where when Sheamus jumped over the ropes! What a move! Eventually, Sheamus hit TWO Brogue Kicks on Randy Orton after reversing the RKO for a pretty nice win at SummerSlam. Nothing wrong with that match. [ ***1/4 ] Before the next match could get underway, the New Day arrived with microphones in hand... Nice new tights, by the way... They insisted that hip hop did not originate in New York City and that they would show New York how it's done. Awesome rendition of "Empire State of Mind" by the trio. Most entertaining thing that I've seen them do yet... Tag Team match Prime Time Players (c) vs. New Day vs. Los Matadors vs. Lucha Dragons was up next. Sick tag move by the Lucha Dragons early on that I probably shouldn't try explaining... Lots of good spots hit here. I'm not crazy about multiple tag team matches but at the very least, it creates lots of exciting moments. Much of the match was "face in peril" until Titus O'Neil got tagged in and then many, many spots were hit. Nice spear by Big E! CRAZY spot with Titus O'Neil sneaking in to slam the Los Dragons and one of hte Matadors. Titus hit his finisher but the New Day kicked him out of the ring to steal the win! New Day celebrated like they hit a last second shot in the NCAA Finals. Great stuff! [ ***1/2 ] Backstage, Jon Stewart was with Neville and Stephen Amell when the lights went dark... The Undertaker walks by with smoke that follows. Stewart wanted Amell to quickly sign his kid's shirt after that. Up next, Rusev vs. Dolph Ziggler... Both valets were smokin~! tonight... Lana in the denim and Summer Rae in the tightest red fabric that you could find. Several interesting power moves or counters to power moves in this match between the two. Dolph is such a crisp worker... It's a shame that he can't get it together politically backstage to be appreciated by WWE officials. Back and forth and Rusev had Ziggler locked in his submission but then Lana/Summer Rae got into it distract Rusev to break the move. Superkick to Rusev on the outside but Ziggler is worn out... Referee counts both wrestlers out for a RARE Double Countout in the modern era. Afterward, the two brawl in the ring and then the ladies get into it. CAT FIGHT! CAT FIGHT! Yep, we'll get a Mixed Tag Match at the next Pay Per View. Nothing wrong with that, actually... [ *** ] King Barrett/Stardust vs. Neville/Stephen Amell is up next... Non-wrestlers participating in matches has rarely helped the business. Period. "Arrow in peril" now with Stardust and Barrett tagging in and out to punish Amell. Neville gets in and he's a ball of fire. Amazing athletic performer but I like my wrestlers to actually sell pain every once and a while. Amell does a cross body on both Barrett and Stardust on the outside. King Barrett takes the pin after Neville hits a crazy flipping move. Match did nothing for me as Amell, a non-wrestler, should get butchered by 2 professional wrestlers. Barrett was made to look bad in particular but hey, if he could stay healthy for a longer period of time. [ ** ] Honestly, the 1 match that I had no interest in, ahead of time, was up next with Big Show vs. Miz vs. Ryback. At least this Title match gets it right by having the champion come out last. This match was actually worked well, all things considered... Ryback and Miz did everything they could to keep the action fast paced and each wrestler hit all of their big moves multiple times to keep it interesting. Many near falls... Ryback wins by knocking Big Show out of the ring and pinning the knocked out Miz. Fun match, to be honest. Beat my expectations. [ *** ] Backstage, Jon Stewart and Paul Heyman and Stewart railed on Heyman for Lesnar ending the Undertaker's streak. Stewart compared that to kids getting coal on Christmas morning. Ouch. Heyman responds with his Battle Hymn of the Republic Brock Lesnar rendition and then nails Stewart with the line "I guess we couldn't get David Letterman tonight". OUCH even worse. Stewart wanted to attack Heyman but quickly ran away when he heard Heyman chatting with Lesnar about what Stewart said. Hilarious segment! Bray Wyatt/Luke Harper vs. Dean Ambrose/Roman Reigns in a match that looks more like a street fight than a wrestling match. Everybody is wearing a shirt and not wearing wrestling tights. And Kevin Owens gets criticism for his "look"? WWE needs to be done with Kevin Dunn. Ambrose was getting worked over by Bray and Harper early on... Nice Suplex by Bray Wyatt where he tossed Ambrose across the ring. Reigns is selling an injury on the outside to allow Ambrose to take the majority of the beating. Reigns is back and he's added a T-Bone suplex to his offense. Harper gets back on offense and not only hits a good superkick, but a deadly sitdown powerbomb! Reigns rights back, Superman punches for both, and then a Doomsday Device by Ambrose/Reigns. Loved it! Reigns and Ambrose begin dominating and hit several signature moves on Bray Wyatt for the win. Good tag match. [ ***1/4 ] Looks like the Divas match will be used as the "piss break" tonight... John Cena vs. Seth Rollins for the WWE Title is up next. To continue the championship respect tonight, John Cena comes out first and Seth Rollins comes out second. Yay tradition! New York City crowd is hot on trolling Cena from the start. All white tights tonight for Rollins and it looks weird. Great back and forth action between the two. Nice spot in the corner where Cena was hanging and Rollins jumped down on him. Ugh... I HATE when finishing moves are repeatedly hit in Cena matches for 2 count only. Save the finisher for the end, guys... Worse yet, Cena practically no sells a Froggy Splash to muscle Rollins into an Attitude Adjustment. Nice reversal by Rollins, thankfully, and then Rollins muscled Cena up for a sweet Attitude Adjustment by himself. John Cena slaps on the Figure 4 and my friend says "the joke is on Cena, Ric Flair never won with the figure 4!". Badass Super Plex hit by Seth Rollins that saw an additional modified Suplex. REF BUMP and John Cena can't get the pin... Rollins drills Cena with the knee, same that broke his nose, and then Jon Stewart sneaks in with a chair and after hesitating many, many times (ugh), he helps Seth Rollins win retain the WWE Title. Goofy ending to an overall good match between the two. [ ***3/4 ] Good action but the psychology was whack at times and Jon Stewart may have arrived too early. Michael Cole: "Jon Stewart went form Daily Show host to SummerSlam criminal!". I'm quite THANKFUL that Sheamus didn't cash in the Money in the Bank briefcase. Team BAD vs. PCB vs. Team Bella was up next... Dead crowd to start, but hey, when you throw a bunch of bodies together in the ring, it will struggle to impress. Plus, these fans saw the BEST of what the women's division could offer and now they get Total Divas converging with NXT. Doesn't mix well... Bellas beat Team Bad after a lot of outside offense, pretty early into the match. So if you were expecting to see Sasha Banks wrestle tonight, you're out of luck... Surprised that she didn't get pinned to sell last night's hard fought match. But hey, that would mean psychology exists in the WWE. Alabama Slam on Paige on the outside which could hurt with scoliosis. Ouch. Paige becomes "face in peril" and Charlotte gets the hot tag. Nice double boot between Charlotte and Alicia Fox. Becky and Brie Bella battle and actually get a tad physical. Brie missed a missile dropkick (Becky simply moved out of the way) and Becky finished her off to let PCB be victorious. OK match but in my opinion with these multiple person and team tag matches, LESS IS MORE. [ **3/4 ] LOVE the Arnold commercial for the new WWE 2K game which parodies Terminator 2. Much better use of the Terminator franchise by the WWE as compared to the Wrestlemania promotion with the Triple H entrance. I still cringe when I think about that. Thankfully, Cesaro vs. Kevin Owens didn't get cut due to time restrictions. For both of these guys, it's PUT UP or SHUT UP time. They should do everything in their power to "steal the show". New York fans will be with you, but can you deliver for them? From the early part of the match, I would say "no". Fans are invested but both guys seem to be stalling between moves. You always know when the WWE Production Truck gets bored with the match when they run the Twitter ticker. Owens looks tired and probably because he wrestled a freakin' Ladder Match the night before. I say that and then Owens hits a nice Tornado DDT and a springboard Moonsault. Then a nice superkick that Cesaro sold like a champ. Cesaro swings Owens around and then slaps in the Sharpshooter. DEVASTATING suplex off the top by Kevin Owens and then the pop-up powerbomb to finish. Owens won a match?!? Match started off slow and improved with time. Did not steal the show, however, but good none the less. [ ***1/2 ] THE MAIN EVENT was Brock Lesnar vs. the Undertaker... Heading into this match, it was my opinion that Brock Lesnar has to do whatever it takes to carry the older and battered Undertaker. There is legitimate money in a 3rd bout if all goes well... Brock Lesnar attacked Undertaker as soon as he got in the ring! Nobody ever attacks Undertaker during that long entrance. Great question posed by my buddies... Why won't Brock Lesnar wear a cup? Undertaker fights him off and we have a brawl here. "Suplex City" and "Undertaker" chants break out against each other. Beautiful stuff with Lesnar reversing the "Old School" into an F5 attempt. Oh no, Suplex City time... German #1 hit by Lesnar. Tried for another but Undertaker pulled Lesnar into the turnbuckle. Lesnar bladejob? Lesnar looks to be selling a lot more here and that's good for business. Chokeslam reversed and German #2 and then #3. "Suplex City Bitch!" On the outside and Lesnar reverses a Tombstone to F5 the Undertaker through the table! Landed on his side, which I hope didn't result in broken rib. Lesnar may have hit his head off the table during that move as well... Bleeding like a stuck pig! Taker gets back up and gets back at the Taker to eventually hit a Tombstone Piledriver for a close 2 count only. Hilarious moment when both Undertaker and Lesnar sit up and start laughing at each other. Lesnar locks in the arm bar in the corner and the referee breaks it up but it allows Undertaker hit the Last Ride Powerbomb for 2 count only. Lesnar regains, hits the F5, but only gets 2. Another F5, another 2 count only... Come on with these finishing moves! Hell's Gate submission on Lesnar and Lesnar escapes to lock in his armbar submission. THIS IS THE MATCH THAT WE SHOULD HAVE SEEN AT WRESTLEMANIA 30, damn it! Oh wait... The bell rings after Charles Robinson counted the shoulders down and the person in charge of the bell thought that Lesnar tapped out... Lesnar thought he won the match and while distracted, nutshot to Lesnar and then Undertaker slaps in the Hell's Gate. Brock Lesnar passed out for the Undertaker to win. Brock flipped the Undertaker off on the way to passing out, too. [ ****1/2 ]. Great match, but a strange finish... THEN AGAIN, do you really believe that the older Undertaker can beat Brock Lesnar in a match? The psychology is that a controversial finish is what's needed to help the Undertaker win and thus set up a 3rd match. I'm OK with that, I guess... UPON video review, Undertaker did in fact tap out and that's what the timekeeper saw... However, referee Charles Robinson didn't see it. When did the timekeeper ever have the power to ring that bell without the referee? What the hell? LAST WORD: Lots of good, solid matches tonight within this 4 hour marathon of an event. Thankfully, the Undertaker vs. Lesnar match was damn good and delivered. Strange ending, but as I said above, do you really believe that the Undertaker should win a match against Brock Lesnar? It takes controversy to make it happen and we'll get a 3rd match to settle the score. And why not? Good business done tonight and I'm a satisfied customer. Overall solid SummerSlam that did NOT get upstaged by the NXT show the night before, particularly on Taker/Lesnar delivering. A for this show as well. 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 - 1998-2015
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