Full disclosure: this post should’ve been up last night. Hell, I should’ve been at SummerSlam New Jersey last night, but my plans got flipped, turned upside down, and I was basically down for the count before CM Punk won—then lost—the WWE World Heavyweight Championship to Seth Rollins after what WWE is calling “the Ruse of the Century.” Rollins was thought to have been injured after his match with L.A. Knight on Saturday Night’s Main Event back in July. Word on road was that Rollins—the current Mr. Money in the Bank—was going to be out for a while, but many (including the Podfather illfam79) quickly realized that Rollins was indeed going to swoop on and steal that title, which is exactly what he did.
At the time of this writing, it’s hard to tell who knew what heading into SummerSlam Saturday, but after surviving SummerSlam Saturday and the chills, I know two things about SummerSlam New Jersey, so far:
- that main event was the best thing about SummerSlam Saturday, and
- SummerSlam Sunday has to be better than SummerSlam Saturday.
Now that I’m finally out of the 12-hour coma that I’ve been in (on and off), I wanted to give a #NoCapRecap on SummerSlam Saturday, in my humble opinion. I will also preface this by saying: no, I’m not mad I couldn’t be there, lol. It may sound like I’m upset because I’m not there IRL, but just hear me out.
Why did those tag team matches feel so similar?
When they announced during the pre-show that Roman Reigns and Jey Uso vs. Bronson Reed and Bron Breakker1 would be opening the show, I wasn’t surprised, primarily because SummerSlam Saturday had that “big” Heavyweight Championship title match to run; we were at least going to get something. That said, the opening bout was solid—including the Spizike Thief Bronson Reed rocking the “Shoe-la Falala” to the ring—and played right into the conversation we’d had on BRP the other day.
That being said, I really don’t understand why they put the Women’s Tag Team Championship match immediately following that opening bout, especially when it ran the exact same babyface-in-peril story as the first match, nor was I expecting the Jelly Roll and Logan Paul tag bout to be so similar.
I can’t front, though: as much as I was not into that match, the splash Logan gave Jelly Roll deserves a watch. Maybe just watch this part.
Anyways, back to what I was saying: that Women’s Tag Championship match was saved by the impressive wrestling and the clear storyline between Flair and Bliss, with their current (don’t call it a) friendship expected to turn into a feud in the near future. That said, my current theory on the number of (title) matches on this two-day SummerSlam event is that, because WWE/TKO wanted to have a two-day SummerSlam in New Jersey (shout out!), so many of those titles matches that you may have seen on the SmackDown and/or Raw before or after SummerSlam are happening right now. Why else would the Sunday night card consist solely of title matches?
Jade Cargill comes up short
I had Jade Cargill on my predictions as winning the title from Tiffany Stratton, but her loss wasn’t a surprise. The match was a short and clean, but that’ may be’s where I’m stuck. Are they waiting to develop more of a story before crowning Jade with a world title? She feels like she’s on the cusp, and even if commentary may mention that she’s not as skilled as other Superstars are skills wise, one has to wonder when they will pull the trigger… or why they haven’t done so (yet).
Do we need to talk about Sami Zayn vs. Karrion Kross?
If you’re interested in this storyline, then more power to you. I’m not sure if I care about someone having to say they were right or wrong about someone else. It felt like this was more about the ongoing story of Zayn being pushed closer to the edge of…I don’t know, going heel? Actually being interesting? I know you all love Sami Zayn, and I understand why…I just don’t see why anyone is still supposed to care.
The match before the “Ruse of the Century”
I completely missed the update on Gunther’s “nose issue” on Friday, but that didn’t stop me from believing that CM Punk was going to win the World Heavyweight Championship in the main event of SummerSlam Saturday. I didn’t consider Rollins actually pulling off what WWE is calling “the Ruse of the Century” this weekend during our Predictions, but as SummerSlam Saturday progressed, I had a feeling that WWE was saving their best for last.
That said, the match between Punk and Gunther is one you should revisit. Punk was really David to Gunther’s Goliath, attempting to break down Gunther’s limb-like legs and arms with holds and locks. Gunther would overpower Punk, take him to Chop-per City, and they’d repeat the cycle, but it highlights what’s great about Gunther: he puts on quality, straightforward wrestling matches, each and every time. I don;t think about it until he steps into the squared circle and chop a mf to bits. Gunther really is that guy, and his need for nose surgery (or whatever is going on) will allow Superstars like Rollins and Punk to shine…until Gunther returns to set things right.
Seth’s cash-in
According to the sheets, WWE has filed for a trademark for “The Vision” as the name of Seth’s faction. I hope this works; I haven’t been a fan of Seth as the leader of a faction during his Monday Night Messiah days or the J&J Security era. Seth is one of my favorite performers in-ring, and is arguably one of the best wrestler in the world right now (yeah, I said it).
However, I’m not a fan of the, ahem, vision for this faction. Sure, on the one hand it’s the vehicle to get Bron Breakker to superstar status fr, but like my brother matth said to me after SummerSlam Saturday, Reed and Breakker shined while Seth has been away. I hope we can continue to see them grow while Seth wreaks havoc on the Raw roster.
Other notes
- Are they going to feature Cardi B more? I dead forgot she was hosting the show until I saw this tweet SummerSlam Saturday morning. Cardi being a WWE fan and hosting the event but not getting to truly mix it up with the wrestlers feels like a gigantic missed opportunity. Hopefully, they can fix that on SummerSlam Sunday.
- Shout out the folks at Met Life booing during the video package of Triple H at the White House. Like I said on Twitter, I think that was more of a New Jersey thing than a WWE Universe thing, and even then that all changes when they get into the voting booth.
- Brother Matth is currently in the Predictions lead. We will see what happens this week on the pod!
- I forgot to mention that I saw a clip of Breakker limping a bit after the match. The latest I’ve read is that his right knee was “a bit swollen” and needs to be evaluated. Hope he’s not down fr. ↩︎
I was crying laughing at the Seth Steal.
yeah it was funny. everyone “told you so.” i want to see what’s next! (no goldberg)