The biggest party of the summer was more like a Bingo night at the local retirement community. A bloated card with ups and downs and a convoluted main event was what we got. Away we go, with match grades and recap courtesy of SN's Joe Rivera and Andreas Hale. MORE: Full WWE SummerSlam results, recap and more WWE SummerSlam 2018 Kickoff Show grades Rusev and Lana vs. Andrade 'Cien' Almas and Zelina Vega Hale: I’m still baffled about Lana deciding to be a B-girl and dropping the accent. But, whatever. This match was fine, I suppose. Rusev and "Cien" deserve better than a pre-show match but at least they are getting a check. The built was a lot more fun than the actual match that saw Lana get an extended heat check on Vega. The ending was clumsy as Vega — who got in next to no offense — rolled up Lana after being distracted by Almas. Vega was supposed to get her feet on the ropes for extra leverage but was a little too far and ended up getting a (relatively) clean pin. Meh. Grade: F+ Cedric Alexander vs. Drew Gulak Rivera: It pains me — pains me — to see the Cruiserweights stuck on a pre-show after delivering week-in and week-out over the last seven months or so. Two of the division's best, in Alexander and Gulak, play off each other very well. Gulak, one of the more brutal mat-based wrestlers in the WWE today, has played his role so well since the "205 Live" rebirth, while Alexander's booking as the fighting champion who takes on all-comers is very refreshing. The match itself was more of the same of what "205 Live" has delivered — good pace, good storytelling and good action. A bit of a sloppy finish dampened an otherwise good match, but it well wrestled. The Cruiserweights have put on such great matches without having to do ridiculous spots, and if you're not watching "205 Live" now, then what are you even doing? Side note: Do we really need freakin' commercials during matches on PPV events? It's ridiculous. Grade: B Hale: The exhilarating rebirth of "205 Live" desperately needed a great match to bring interest back to the brand. In a nutshell, this was the worst cruiserweight title match in months, as Cedric Alexander got the pinfall after a sloppy transition sequence. Honestly, this should have been Mustafa Ali taking on Cedric Alexander, but we ended up with Drew Gulak. It’s not that Gulak is a bad wrestler, but the catch-submission style does little to help "205 Live" demonstrate the high flying action they’ve perfected over the past several months. The story of the match was Gulak taking advantage of Alexander’s injured neck and trying to find a way to lock in his Gu-Lock submission. It was just starting to heat up as Gulak countered Alexander’s high-flying attempts with submission holds and then it ended. This match definitely won’t win over fans who were lukewarm to the brand. Grade: C- What's next: A continued feud between Gulak and Alexander should serve well while other credible threats within the Cruiserweight division are built. The Revival vs. The B-Team Rivera: While I'm kind of OK with Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas as a team, I'm not sure I'm buying them as "RAW" Tag champs. They're not bad workers, they're just kind of there. They're probably more of an indictment on the state of the WWE Tag Team division as a whole. Meanwhile, The Revival's nosedive is a true all-timer. The loss — a blooper which saw Dallas falling into Axel and Scott Dawson, reversing a small package for the pinfall — is a low of lows for Dawson and teammate Dash Wilder. To be fair, no one is really buying The Revival right now as tag champs or contenders considering how cold they are as an act. It's no doing of theirs, though — the booking remains awful. The Revival — and the WWE tag scene as a whole — needs a serious re-energizing. I'm not sure how anyone in WWE creative can see the work that's being done in the tag division in NXT and not see the dollar signs. Grade: D Hale: The B-Team are officially the Heath Slater and Rhyno of 2018. The underdogs once again found themselves in trouble during the early portion of the match. An early Shatter Machine sent Axel out and effectively turned it into a handicap match with The Revival putting Dallas in the babyface-in-peril role. As expected, The B-Team found a way to escape with a victory, with an abrupt finish before either team got anything going. Dawson rolled up Axel but the referee was distracted, which led to Wilder knocking Dallas into Axel for yet another rollup victory. Three pre-show matches, three rollup victories. Grade: D What's next: Who knows, or cares? The tag division isn't a priority and fans just aren't invested. Seemingly gone are the days of killer tag teams and great feuds. After all, it wasn't long ago where the Usos and the New Day were putting on classics that tore the house down. The potential is there. Why not? WWE SummerSlam 2018 main card grades Seth Rollins vs. Dolph Ziggler Rivera: I don't understand what WWE is doing with Drew McIntyre. Is he still "The Chosen One"? Because it certainly feels that way. There's no real reason why he's been in this spot since his call up. I'm not sure he adds much to Ziggler, anyway. In any case, Rollins and Ziggler can still go, though this feud hasn't taken off yet. Some of that is because of Ziggler's lack of steam heading into it. It was a pretty solid match, probably the best in their feud to this point. Rollins recapturing the Intercontinental strap is a great thing, and the outside forces in the match not playing directly into the decision is a good booking move. This match was excellent by any stretch. The crowd — either fatigued because the PPV started at 1 p.m. ET or peeved with parking prices for the Barclays — wasn't into it at first, but were off their feet as it neared its end. Bravo, Seth. Keep it going. A little surprised a Dean Ambrose heel turn didn't happen, but he probably still needs a little time to marinate as a face. Grade: B+ Hale: Although it took a minute for this match to hit a second gear, it was a perfectly fine opener that saw Rollins regain the IC title. The early going was a bit slow with great spots here and there. There was a wicked spill to the outside after Rollins reversed a flying cross body and attempted to hit the Falcon Arrow. Ziggler nailed Rollins with a jumping DDT on the edge of the ring apron and a great near fall when Ziggler rolled up Rollins on a frog splash attempt. If I can digress for a moment, how much longer will Rollins' knee be a factor in his matches? It's only an issue when somebody's attacking but not a problem when he's flying around the ring like a madman. Things kicked up a notch when Rollins hit a surreal inverted superplex into an inverted Falcon Arrow. For the most part, the presence of Drew McIntyre and Dean Ambrose didn’t affect the in-ring action, but it certainly played a factor in the final moments. The end was fast-paced with a great near fall when Ziggler caught Rollins – who was distracted by McIntyre attacking Ambrose -- with a Zig Zag. The end came when Ambrose got his payback by hitting a Dirty Deeds on McIntyre and Rollins picked off Ziggler’s superkick with one of his own. One curb stomp later and that was all she wrote. Perfect opening match for a long night of action. Grade: B What's next: We're heading toward a tag-team blow-off between these two units. Unsure who's next to challenge for the IC Title, but there are plenty of challengers lined up. The New Day vs. The Bludgeon Brothers Rivera: Goodness gracious are the Bludgeon Brothers ice cold as an act.<doc-sep>The 2018 WWE SummerSlam pay-per-view took place in Brooklyn, New York on Sunday. Thirteen matches were on the stacked card, including Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns (Universal Championship), AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe (WWE Championship), Dolph Ziggler vs. Seth Rollins (Intercontinental Championship) and Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz. Both women’s divisions were also represented, with Ronda Rousey challenging Alexa Bliss (Raw Women’s Championship) and Carmella competing in a Triple Threat match against Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair (SmackDown Women’s Championship). Elsewhere on the card, Shinsuke Nakamura faced Jeff Hardy (United States Championship), Kevin Owens challenged Braun Strowman (Money In The Bank briefcase), The Bludgeon Brothers took on The New Day (SmackDown Tag Team Championships), and Finn Balor went one-on-one with Baron Corbin. Three matches were on the event’s kickoff show: Cedric Alexander vs. Drew Gulak (Cruiserweight Championship), The B-Team vs. The Revival (Raw Tag Team Championships), and Andrade “Cien” Almas & Zelina Vega vs. Rusev & Lana. In this article, let’s break down every match and take a look at what was good and bad about this year’s SummerSlam. Follow Sportskeeda for the latest WWE news, rumors and all other wrestling news. #1 Kickoff show: Andrade “Cien” Almas & Zelina Vega def. Rusev & Lana Aiden English stayed away from ringside for the match Match: The early stages of this match were contested by Andrade “Cien” Almas and Rusev, then Lana finally got her hands on Zelina Vega when Rusev tagged her in. After a distraction on the apron from Almas, Lana slapped “El Idolo” in the face before being rolled up for the 1-2-3, with some help from the middle rope, by Vega. Verdict: The big surprise here was that the unreliable Aiden English actually obeyed Rusev’s pre-match orders and stayed away from ringside. The match itself was fairly entertaining for a kickoff show encounter, with the Brooklyn crowd interested and getting involved in chants from start to finish. Overall, a positive way to start the event. Grade: C #2 Kickoff show: Cedric Alexander def. Drew Gulak (Cruiserweight Championship) Cedric Alexander's reign continues Match: Drew Gulak was dominant for most of this match, inflicting lots of damage to Cedric Alexander’s neck and left arm. The match turned around when Cedric elbowed Drew in the face after a battle on the apron, leading to an incredible Spanish Fly from the champ. Then, after several near-falls in succession, Cedric got the 1-2-3 with a roll-up. Verdict: This match has split fans on social media, with some saying the final sequence looked botched (Cedric essentially pulled Drew on top of him for one of the near-falls) and others praising its creativity. While the finish did look clumsy, the story of the match was very good. A win for Gulak would have been nice, but his time will come! Grade: B- 1 / 7 NEXT<doc-sep>13 of 13 Credit: WWE.com After a year of frustrations and professional disappointments, Roman Reigns entered Barclays Center for one last shot at dethroning Brock Lesnar as universal champion and ascending the WWE mountain as its true Big Dog. Before the match could get underway, Braun Strowman marched to the squared circle, his Money in the Bank briefcase in hand. He announced that he would be waiting for the winner after the match because he does things face-to-face. Reigns exploded with three Superman Punches and two spears before being trapped in a choke. He powered out and delivered a big spinebuster. Lesnar reapplied the hold, hoping to choke out Reigns and retain his title. Reigns again picked him up and slammed him down, breaking the hold. Lesnar removed the gloves and answered a Superman Punch attempt with a suplex. A second followed as the commentators welcomed fans to Suplex City. Reigns fought out of an F-5 and charged at Lesnar. Brock moved and Reigns wiped out Strowman at ringside with a suicide dive. Lesnar dropped Strowman with an F-5, threw the briefcase up the ramp and blasted him with a chair. As he returned to the squared circle, Reigns caught him with the spear and scored the championship. Result Reigns defeated Lesnar to win the title Grade A Analysis WWE masterfully booked this thing. What better way to keep fans from relentlessly booing the match than by bringing Strowman down to announce a Money in the Bank cash-in. Hatred for Reigns tempered by the fact that Strowman would ruin his title win, The Big Dog and Lesnar had the match they wanted to have until Lesnar dispatched of Strowman. Reigns wins by spear, fans pop for the title win and the show fades to black as quickly as possible. It was gloriously handled, and the result was the most well-received of Reigns' big-match wins since his title victory in Philadelphia in 2015. Suddenly, Reigns has a feud waiting for him in the form of Strowman, while Lesnar's next program may also be with The Monster Among Men. Considering the intertwining stories of the three men involved, those bouts should be fun and entertaining. As for Reigns' win, it needed to happen. The story has pointed to it for months, and booking something different for the sake of booking something different would have done a disservice to Reigns, who has continuously busted his ass to pay off this thing. You do not have to like him or the fact that he is champion, but WWE Creative made the right call Sunday night. If only to get it over with so all involved can move on.<doc-sep>
The Barclays Center in Brooklyn once again hosts WWE SummerSlam 2018 this Sunday. With a stacked card, including Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey vs. Alexa Bliss, it’s sure to be a wild night. Follow along with our live review for all the results and highlights. WWE SummerSlam 2018 (Photo Source: WWE.com) For the fourth consecutive year, Brooklyn’s Barclays Center plays host to the Biggest Party of the Summer. WWE SummerSlam 2018 features a massive card — thirteen matches, including the three on the Kickoff Show. Nine of the thirteen matches that make up the show are championship matches. So every title in WWE will be contested at SummerSlam. The biggest of these title matches is probably the Universal Championship match, pitting champion Brock Lesnar against challenger Roman Reigns. The Big Dog is getting his third chance to knock of Lesnar at SummerSlam. But thus far, The Beast has had Roman’s number. Will the third time be the charm? Or will Brock once again leave the building as Universal Champion? More importantly, will the fans in Brooklyn turn on the match yet again? Another featured match sees Ronda Rousey challenging for the Raw Women’s Championship, held by Alexa Bliss. Rousey had the title in her grasps back at Money in the Bank, but Bliss cashed in her briefcase to win the title from Nia Jax. Alexa was just confirmed as the opponent for Trish Stratus for WWE Evolution in October — will that take her focus away from Rousey at WWE SummerSlam 2018? But enough about Raw: What about the SmackDown Live side of things? The WWE Championship is on the line in a deeply personal conflict between champ AJ Styles and challenger Samoa Joe. Styles is the longest reigning world champion in SmackDown history, but Joe has brought family into the feud. Can AJ stay focused enough to retain the title? And Daniel Bryan faces his longtime rival The Miz, after years of animosity. This is a feud that goes back to 2010, and it’s just as fierce now as it was then. There’s no championship on the line here — just the satisfaction of getting the upper hand, and possibly inflicting severe punishment on a hated foe. But that’s all just a sampling of what’s on the card for WWE SummerSlam 2018. There’s plenty more to capture the attention of fans across the globe during the show. It all gets underway at 5 p.m. ET for the Kickoff Show, so be sure to follow our live review!