So I watched this pay per view over the course of the week. I'm just getting around to putting up my comments now. This was another fun show, although I have to say that I don't think it's as good as it seems on paper.
Beginning of ShowI thought the introduction to Summerslam was pretty weak. First of all, we started out with America the Spangled Banner or whatever, just to alienate the international fans right from the start. This stuff always kinda bugs me, but I guess I'm not the target audience anyway. The hype video was really bad for the show too though, which is unusual as this is one of the things WWE has always been so good at. I like the song by Seether, but the video didn't really go with it at all and the wrestler quotes that we heard over the music sounded cheesy and completely out of sync with the music. It was a bit of a sloppy job.
WWE United States Championship Match
Chris Benoit vs Orlando JordanThis match was a waste of time. Not much time on pay per view, obviously. It didn't last very long on the pay per view at all. But time was spent on the weekly shows building up this match. So brushing it aside this quickly wasn't a good decision in my mind. If they didn't have enough faith in Jordan to let him participate in a pay per view match, they shouldn't have booked him in one. It would have freed up Benoit for something more worthwhile too. Honestly, I reckon they just made a decision close to the show that they'd rather use that time for one of the other matches. Still, I don't like to see stuff like this on pay per view.
Edge vs Matt HardyPeople were definitely pumped to watch this confrontation and there was a great buzz about it, but the match itself ended up being a little underwhelming. They didn't quite have the chemistry you might have hoped for in their first confrontation. And the match was quite short and ended abruptly. The decision to have Edge win, and therefore postpone Matt Hardy's revenge was a good one, I thought. It made sense for the story, and it's something they'd never do today - where the babyface always wins the first and last match of the feud. The match itself left me a little cold though, and I remember fans being a bit underwhelmed after watching it. But the rematch they had inside the cage was pretty great, if I recall correctly.
WWE Father of the Year Match
Rey Mysterio vs Eddie GuerreroI was actually surprised by how little I liked this match. I remembered the stipulation being stupid, but the match itself being very good. Which is what you'd expect from two guys like Eddie and Rey. But the match didn't really grab me at all. I think the problem is that the angle was so out there that they couldn't just brush it aside until the finish. It was constantly woven in through the match. The commentators constantly referred to the stipulation, they kept showing shots of the kid, there were silly spots written in specifically around the families of both men. And as a result there wasn't that much action either and what action they did have was quite broken up. A ladder match between these two guys should have been much better. But the story severely limited them here.
Kurt Angle vs EugeneHere's an unpopular opinion - I probably enjoyed this one as much as the ladder match. Not quite as much but it's close. Much like with the ladder match, the story was stupid (and Eugene was just such a terrible idea for a character). But like the Mysterio vs Guerrero match there was a small amount of decent action. Watching Kurt Angle when he was on form is just fascinating. He was such a machine back in 2005. Some of those suplexes towards the end looked great. Still a stupid story though. Angle should have been above doing this on such a big pay per view.
Randy Orton vs The UndertakerThis is easily my match of the night. Undertaker was sharp in the ring and Orton was wrestling with a lot more fire back then. These two had great chemistry and a lot of nice back and forth in their matches. This was no exception. The finish was unfortunately quite goofy, but that was an unfortunate quality of a lot of Undertaker matches where he had to somehow lose to a heel opponent. But other than that I can't complain about this one. It was thoroughly entertaining to watch.
WWE Championship Match
Chris Jericho vs John CenaThis was exactly what you'd expect it to be: proficient and not much more. Jericho is able to put on a great match when he wants to, and he tried to get something out of a much greener John Cena in this match. But ultimately it ended up being completely forgettable.
WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match
Batista vs John "Bradshaw" LayfieldThis was short enough and not particularly impressive, but entertaining nonetheless. Batista was being looked after back at this point. They were putting him in matches that hid his flaws as a performer - letting him just be beastly in violent brawls rather than getting lost in technical wrestling affairs. I remember watching this match back in 2005, I felt underwhelmed by it. Probably it was a bit of a let down after the series of quite good matches Triple H guided Batista to earlier that year. But watching it now, having been more thoroughly exposed to what kind of performer Batista really is, it holds up well. There are some cool spots in it and a lot of physicality from both men. It was pretty cool.
Shawn Michaels vs Hulk HoganI was expecting to hate this one when I watched it back. The problem with modern Hogan matches for me is that they only seem to appeal to people on a nostalgia level, because he's not actually a good wrestler. And I don't have any nostalgia for that version of Hogan: what little of him I saw as a child I wasn't impressed by. The Hogan that I grew up with was Hollywood Hogan. The red and yellow doesn't inspire any nostalgia in me.
That being said, this match ended up being really enjoyable, and that's for a few reasons. First of all the crowd response was awesome. Second of all, Michaels put on a great (if slightly ridiculous) performance. And third of all, Hogan really was good at playing to the crowd. He didn't have many other skills in the ring, but that's a good one to have. Michaels oversold the shit out of everything, and that's something I've always disliked a little about his performances, but here it was so over the top I found it kinda funny.
OverallThis was a show that didn't really live up to its promise for me. On paper it looks strong, but watching it back it ended up being a little disappointing. I found Vengeance 2003 quite a bit more entertaining. Edge vs Hardy and Mysterio vs Guerrero didn't scratch the surface of their potential. The two championship matches were both enjoyable, but forgettable. They would have been a valuable addition to a stronger show, but weren't highlights in their own right. Really it was the unique main event and the underrated Orton vs Undertaker match that made this show for me. It ended up being a good show with nothing on the card that was really boring or bad, but so much of it ended up being underwhelming compared to my expectations.
Where I agree with The Legend 100% though, is how refreshing to go back and watch one of these pay per views and see that every match had a proper build up and a story behind it. Even the 25 second US championship match had an actual build, whereas nowadays there's probably 25 minutes on each pay per view (at least) dedicated to matches that haven't been built up at all. In many cases, they won't have even been announced before the show.
Some of the stories were silly (Angle/Eugene, Mysterio/Guerrero), but at least they were trying. I'd rather see the company making an effort but missing the mark than just throw stuff out there with no real effort. And while I didn't enjoy the pay per view as much as I might have, the build up to the show back in 2005 was a lot of fun to watch. This is a pay per view that I would have been a lot more likely to buy than most of the shows today, because there was a reason to invest in all of the matches. We need more of that today.
Random Thoughts- As I mentioned before, it was cool that they had the balls to have Edge go over Hardy in their first match. And in the Mysterio vs Guerrero feud, Rey picked up six victories in a row over Eddie and the story specifically revolved around Guerrero's fear that he couldn't beat Rey. That showed a willingness to play with the formula of a feud which made things a lot more interesting. These days lengthy grudge feuds always happen the same way: Face win, heel win, face win, the end.
- Edge went on to win the grudge feud with Matt and the heels almost never win in grudge feuds. Maybe they should more often though: that win basically pushed Edge right to the top. He won his first world championship very soon afterwards and ended up being performer of the year that year. Shaking up the formula is good sometimes. So is keeping your heels strong.
- Eugene was such a terrible character. How the fuck did they convince themselves that people would like this? I thought I remembered people liking Eugene back in the day, even though he made me uncomfortable as fuck. So I was pretty delighted to see the crowd booing him in his match with Angle. If PG means no more gimmicks like this, I hope it sticks around forever.
- Orton was on fire back in 2005. He's always been a great wrestler, but he had a lot more fire back then. He's still talented now, but has been worn down by years of bad and repetitive feuds and stop/start pushes. When you look at where he was in 2005 and how much of his career he had left, this guy should have become one of the greatest wrestlers/champions of all time. But a combination of a bad attitude, weak booking and John Cena stood in his way. A big part of the problem is that Orton works best as a heel and the company always makes their heels look like pussies and eventually the fans stop buying into them as much.
- Undertaker was a lot more entertaining back in 2005 too, even though he had the same dumb zombie gimmick. At least he was selling properly for Orton and made the match into a proper story.
- In general the good stuff Undertaker has been involved in over the last 10 years, in my mind, have been the feuds and matches he fought against good heel opponents. I find his feuds with Michaels, Triple H and Batista are vastly overrated over the far more entertaining stories he took part in against Orton and Edge.
- Even back in 2005, Jericho was pretty irritating. Although maybe that's be carrying my modern day dislike of the guy into this show. Still, I'm building a theory that the more normal his hair is, the less entertaining he is to watch.
- It was funny listening to John Cena getting booed in the title match. This was the period when the Cena hate started. It's now officially been going for 9 fucking years. Anyone who still refers to the Cena hate as a "fad" needs to reexamine the definition of the word. Hopefully after an even 10 years of listening to their biggest face getting booed by the fans, the company might actually decide to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
- JBL has never been a great wrestler, but I love the physicality he brings to a match. A lot of the time I'd rather watch a clothesline from JBL than a suplex or a flip from a more technically inclined performer. It looks brutal and is just as capable of sucking me into a match.
- Michaels should have stretched out his heel run for a lot longer. After the Hogan match he turned face again and he was boring from then until his retirement. That was the best his character had been since he made his return in 2002 and they shouldn't have thrown it away so quickly. It never again felt like the guy had personality.
- This should have been Hogan's retirement match. It was something people genuinely wanted to see, he was still able to move around a bit, and it gave him one last great main event. When he faced Orton a year or two later, nobody really gave a shit. It wasn't as big a deal. Then he had some matches in TNA, where he never really worked. TNA and Hulk Hogan never really meshed well. Maybe because Hogan was already old hat when TNA was founded. He should have been smart enough to bow out here before he became a laughing stock.
This was fun, guys. Looking forward to the next one!
Michaels v Hogan, Guerrero v Mysterio and Angle v Eugene are all infamous for the wrong reasons.
