Hello readers and welcome to another WWE Blu-Ray review, this time it is the turn of WWE SummerSlam 2016, known as one of the ‘big four’ in the year for me at least it is one of the only PPV’s I watch live in a year and this is mainly due to the fact I hardly ever have Mondays off and with it being on in the early hours, I never feel justified staying up but fair dues to those who do!
I would like to apologise for not getting this up on release date, this was due to 2 interviews which were a few days late being put up so I put it off until today (Wednesday)!
But enough about that, onto the matches and my thoughts on them followed by the usual rating where I give it /10 as well as whether I recommend it or not!
The first match we get is Big Cass and Enzo Amore vs Chris Jericho & Kevin Owens, you get two of the most entertaining talents in the WWE right now in my opinion vs a bonafide WWE legend and also one of the best wrestlers to come from NXT to the main roster if not the best. This match was a good match to start things off which is always a concern on a PPV as if you have a terrible match opening up it can start things on a real sour note but I am glad with their placement of matches recently as this match got the crowd into the PPV. It followed the usual Enzo and Cass template with Enzo starting off and a hot tag to Big Cass but I and many others were surprised that Jericho and Owens went over not talent wise but the fact they are not a permanent tag team but if it builds to something either singles between the two or tag team it makes sense for them to go over, still though an entertaining start to proceedings.
Next up is Charlotte vs Sasha Banks, I think I have said before that I have changed my view on Charlotte that at one point I never used to like her but now am a big fan especially when her dad got involved on the main roster, Sasha on the other hand like Rollins I have never particularly been fond of but they get massively coveted by wrestling fans but each to their own. Charlotte ended up winning back the Women’s title in a really good match between two of the best female wrestlers in the WWE and also it showed how good she is the fact she still won without Dana at ringside. This was a surprise to many that she won it back so soon and in my opinion this will lead to both of them exchanging the title in a storyline as they are of course the two main faces of RAW now women’s wise now that Becky Lynch has left to go to SmackDown through the draft. We had some great spots for a women’s match which did surprise me and could show how much they value these two women that they can let them go out and put on a great match which lasts more than 5 minutes.
We got the announce team switched due to it being a SmackDown match and that match is for the IC title between The Miz and Apollo Crews. This was a stark contrast to the past two where The Miz’s dominance as Intercontinental Champion was yet portrayed against a guy struggling to get over. The match ended in around 5 minutes with The Miz trying to walk away from the match, Maryse distracting Crews, Crews went for a corner splash and was hit with a Skull Crushing Finale for the victory. I would say I have grown to like The Miz again like I did in his WWE title run, this is due to Maryse in my opinion who never should of left and adds an extra string to The Miz’s bow so to say and makes him even better. Would love to see Maryse back in the ring though in the future please WWE!!
Next up was AJ Styles and John Cena and Jesus this was a great match, it had such a cracking build up with lots of near falls which made you think the match was going to end, some cracking spots including the middle ropes AA which surprised Cena in terms of him not winning from that and the fact that AJ kicked out many times shows how good he is and that he can match and in this case better Cena, it is up there as one of my favourite matches this year. AJ in my opinion had to go over as Cena is off filming a new TV series soon after this Pay-Per-View so it was never going to be a long term feud but what we got was a cracking match like Owens vs Cena’s from last year that leaves you wanting more from the two wrestlers. I salute you WWE!
Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson followed which compared to the previous match sucked. It was set up for Big E to return which was the only reason as well as a potential feud in the future between the two teams for this match to take place. It was a good moment when he came out but past that it annoyed me that we didn’t really get a proper match after the thriller previously! I think The New Day will hold the titles till their characters get stale which will probably get passed to Gallows and Anderson eventually but I don’t expect for now at least that TND will lose the belts.
Dean Ambrose vs Dolph Ziggler followed next, this was an alright match considering I am not a massive Ziggler fan, as you can tell I don’t like many wrestlers on the current roster haha but seriously Ziggler got some great moves in and put on a good performance even though no one was expecting him to win the title but in my opinion this match seriously suffered from the crowd having a thriller between Styles and Cena and having a rubbish match following it between TND and Gallows and Anderson and if they swapped Styles and Cena and Ambrose vs Ziggler it would have made this more talked about but of course with Ambrose as champion he has to be higher up the card which is understandable. Overall an alright match but nothing to call home about
Natalya, Alexa Bliss and Nikki Bella vs Naomi, Becky Lynch and Carmella followed this, of course the main story behind this was that Nikki returned earlier than expected I believe due to Eva Marie failing a wellness policy test and I was really happy when she returned as due to Total Divas which I am a big fan of her on as well as really liking her last title reign especially towards the end where she was touting the fact she was going to be the longest reigning champion in history and put in some good matches throughout. This was a decent match and this is a surprise mainly due to the fact that normally when we get a 6 woman tag match on a pay-per-view it is usually only used to give everyone a spot on the card and is usually short and doesn’t give certain woman wrestlers a chance to showcase themselves. This was a good 11 minutes and of course was all about Nikki with the crowd loving the fact she has returned. The talent on show really helped as well and I am glad that Eva Marie in a way got suspended when she did!
Finn Balor vs Seth Rollins was next for the newly christened WWE Universal title, as previously alluded to in the review I am not a massive Rollins fan but have always really like Finn from the Independent scene to now. To be honest I was scared this wasn’t going to deliver as it was Finn’s PPV debut and usually when matches are hyped up they usually majorly deliver or don’t. This was a very solid match with Balor coming out on top and grabbing his first probably of many main roster titles, this of course foreshadowed Finn’s injury which meant he had to give up the title but I remember watching this and marking out when he won it live as I have followed him for years. Rollins would have been a good pick to win the match but Balor winning and clean at that meant that it elevated him to upper mid-card/main event status as he can beat the best on RAW. Not as good as Cena vs Styles but definitely worth the watch!!
Rusev vs Roman Reigns was meant to take place but it never did due to the fact that Reigns injured him before it could take place. This of course is a pre-cursor to a future match between the pair which makes it good and also means it can transition into the main event which was…
Randy Orton vs Brock Lesnar
Lesnar ended up winning with a TKO in a superbly dominating performance. I have always been a big Lesnar fan due to his MMA style and how he literally batters his opponent as well as the fact he only wrestles a few times a year meaning the match is always big when he wrestles and I cannot wait to see where this angle with Goldberg goes next week on RAW but that’s different. Lesnar took hold of the match in the opening few minutes before Orton hit an RKO but when it looked like he was mounting a charge to victory Lesnar cutted him open with his elbows effectively ending the match and also leading to a post match battering including an F5 when Shane came down to prove his point to the fullest.
Not a great match of course but it always great to see a dominating Lesnar performance if only a few times a year and also we will get Orton’s name mentioned in Heyman speeches for months to come like when he beat Taker!
Rating – 7/10 – Not a bad pay-per-view by any stretch of the imagination but not what I think of in terms of a big four standard pay-per-view considering Battleground I believe got higher than this. Some really good matches but also a lot of mediocre in there which drags it down, worth a watch for certain matches but would I bother to watch the whole thing if you don’t have to, no, I’d stick to Styles vs Cena, Charlotte vs Sasha Banks, Balor vs Rollins and if you want to see Nikki’s return that tag match.
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