Just finished watching SummerSlam myself earlier on today, ordered a replay on PPV and watched it round a mate's house with six other mates. Good atmosphere. Here's my take on things:
Jeff Hardy vs MVP
The right man went over, which is the main thing, and it wasn't a bad match either. Far better than their encounter at Judgement Day earlier this year. The involvement of Shelton is very intriguing, for reasons I'll explain later on. Oh, and Shelton's choice of T-shirt was a mistake.
Kofi Kingston (c) & Mickie James (c) vs Santino Marella & Beth Phoenix, Winners Take All Intergender Tag Team Match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship and the WWE Women's Championship
Decent match here as well, some enjoyable spots including Kofi hitting his trademark ridiculously-high crossbody, and doing his fake suicide dive which resulted in Santino leaping into Beth's arms. I love how Santino is playing the woman's role in this angle, and I also love that they didn't pull the trigger on the ridiculous idea of Santino becoming Women's Champion. Good match, and the right people went over, as this Santino/Beth angle is hilarious.
HBK's announcement about his future
Yet another awesome promo from these two guys. This feud is going to result in one hell of an epic blow-off. Credit to Michaels' wife, Rebecca, for being willing to take a stiff punch in the face from Jericho, and you can imagine Jericho felt horrible about having to do that as well. You could see her lip swell up afterwards. On such a gorgeous woman, an image like that really makes an impact. Another brilliant advancement of this angle.
Mark Henry (c) vs Matt Hardy, ECW Championship Match
Now, a lot of people have a problem with this match, and with good reason - the fact that Matt Striker said the Twist of Fate would be an impossibility on Henry, and then Hardy pulled it off about a minute later was fairly ridiculous, plus the fact that it effectively buried Henry - however, a friend of mine made a brilliant call at the end of the match, on seeing the save by Jeff. This could very well be the start of the "New Nation of Domination" stable that has been rumoured, in a feud against the Hardys. The MVP-Jeff angle can easily be crossed over and worked into the Henry-Matt angle, plus there had to be a reason for Shelton's involvement. A stable featuring MVP as the mouthpiece, Shelton as the talent, Atlas as the manager and Henry as the muscle? Yes, please. Oh, and if you're pissed about the fact that the match itself was an irrelevance, which match could they have taken time from to flesh it out? The fact that the match was virtually non-existent was for the best, it wouldn't have been much good anyway.
CM Punk (c) vs JBL, World Heavyweight Championship Match
A solid match, with the right winner in a clean fashion. Can't ask for more than that. The clash of heads that resulted in Punk being busted open threatened to ruin the ending if Punk had been knocked out, but thankfully it did nothing but add to the intrigue of what was a surprisingly stiff encounter, even by JBL's standards.
Triple H (c) vs The Great Khali, WWE Championship Match
Easily Khali's best-ever match. Thought Khali might be going over here, but in the end Triple H won out in what was a far longer and more entertaining match than anyone expected. Probably the right result, but with Khali having been defeated cleanly, who challenges Triple H next? It'll be an interesting one.
John Cena vs Batista
Good match, with the wrong winner. If there was ever going to be a clean winner here, it should have been Cena. He needed the win far more than Batista did, and Batista has had two title shots against Punk recently and lost, so what's to gain by elevating him? I have no idea how the RAW writers are going to get themselves out of this booking mess. Amusing incident at my mate's house during the match, though:
Michael Cole: ...Batista, who was trained by Ric Flair, the man who taught him everything he needed to become one of the biggest stars in sports entertainment...
Me (to the room): Yeah, Flair taught him everything he needed, except how to do Flair's most important and best move, the one that was pretty much the first thing he ever taught Triple H...
*Batista locks in Figure-Four Leg Lock*
Me: Ah...
Edge vs The Undertaker, Hell In A Cell Match
Wow. Just...wow. Match of the Year by a distance, IMO. Forget Flair's retirement,
this was the best thing you'll see in wrestling this year. I agree to a certain extent that there wasn't enough wrestling, but there's been enough of that in the previous matches between the two. This was a blood feud, and the match didn't disappoint. From the spear through the Cell, to the spear through the announce table, to the biggest regular chokeslam anyone's ever seen, to the huge Last Ride, to the chokeslam through two tables, the breaking of the TV camera over Edge's head, the con-chair-to
on Edge...and then the final, earth-shatteringly awesome chokeslam off a ladder, through the ring, straight to Hell - complete with ten-foot jets of fire shooting out of the ring. I did worry that before 'Taker came back to the ring to finish Edge off, the match didn't have that "OMFG" moment that every great gimmick match of this kind needs - but I needn't have worried. Both men delivered big-time, and if further proof was needed that Edge deserves a spot alongside 'Taker as one of the greatest of all time, here we have it.
Overall
Fantastic PPV. Every match bar Cena-Batista had the right winner, and if Cena wins the rematch and the rubber match at WrestleMania then that'll be rectified anyway. Edge-Undertaker stole the show, predictably, but every match that was given any time was solid or better, and the one that wasn't given time was done to advance an angle. WWE have really turned it on this year, and I can't wait to see how things progress towards Unforgiven after another stellar effort from Vince.
