SummerSlam XXXVI - 8/5/2023

[Jamal]

 Very happy for Iyo. I was convinced they were going to have Bayley screw her out of her opportunity somehow.

I can understand what they were going for with Shayna/Ronda but that crowd wasn't here for it.

[EVA]

But….?

What an absolute dogshit main event.

Edited August 6, 2023 by EVA

[Peck]

If I have to see one more of these fucking stupid "Connecting People Through Wrestling" frames I'm going to lose it.

[Casey]

I can’t wait to see the justifications for that main event.

[Niners Fan in CT]

No reason for the show to be that long and I think they lost the plot on The Bloodline story.   It just doesn't make any sense now. 

[elizium]

Lord, save me from anymore 40 minute Roman Reigns things

Loved Gunther/Drew, 3-way, and Seth/Finn.

Favourite thing about the 3-way was that they worked it almost exclusively with all 3 wrestlers in the ring, rather than the usual 2 in, 1 out. It led to some awkward moments and timing as they tried to position 3 people for spots, but I appreciate it. Great finish, great cap with the cash in.

I liked, but was disappointed in Cody/Brock. Glad Cody Rhodes can move on.

The rest was varying levels of butt (e: I guess the battle royal was fine for a payday match, would have rather had Becky Lynch and Trish Stratus if we are dropping things)

Edited August 6, 2023 by elizium

[hammerva]

So where are all the "Cody cant win at WM because Roman vs Jey was the real goal" now

Seriously if they start bringing in fake family members in order to make sure Roman is champ for another 3 years it wouldn't shock me

[Eivion]

Paul/Ricochet was fun, somehow both less spotty than I expected but also pretty spotty. I liked the brass knucks finish.

Cody/Brock was shockingly good, probably the best Suplex City Brock match since Bryan. the pos tmatch respect was unexpected, makes me curious if Brock is finally on his way out.

The battle royal was fun, and it was nice to see Knight get a victory on a big show.

Shayna/Ronda was not good. The MMA route was a mistake. Should have been more physical with some hatred. Was good to see Ronda choked out, but this didn't feel like it achieved much for Shayna in the end.

Gunther/Drew built into something pretty good though it felt like it could have gone a bit further. I did like Gunther hitting a several of his finishers in one go to make sure Drew stayed down.

Seth/Finn was good, probably better than their last match. Still this felt like the time for Finn to win. 

The Women's 3-way had an uphill battle with the crowd I suspect due to burnout. Still, I thought they put on something good and dragged the crowd into it by the end with Bianca's injury angle. I liked that it stuck to being a 3-way fight with everyone truly trying to win on their own opposed to any team ups. Really dug the finish with mist and Bianca's victory. The post match cash in with Io was a welcome sight. As was Dakota coming out to celebrate with the rest of Damage Ctrl.

Thought Roman/Jey was pretty good-great up until the finish. With the way things built it just made zero sense. The Jimmy turn was just dumb and definitely something done to drag things out. Still enjoyed the match overall, but this was one of the few times it felt like Roman could lose and it would have worked well. I assume this occurred more than anything because they feel Roman needs to lose at Wrestlemania. I would have been fine with Roman retaining, just with a sensible finish.

Up until the finish I thought this was a generally good show even with Syana/Rousey match. Now I would probably still settle with solid though the disappointing end dragged it down a notch. 

Edited August 6, 2023 by Eivion

[Gonzo]

There's not a snowball's chance that Reigns drops the title before Wrestlemania 40.

It's just a matter of who they're going to try to build up to put over him and whether or not they'll actually pull the trigger on it. . .but they're pretty rapidly running out of people.

I'd say GUNTHER, but I don't think the E has the stones for it.

[EVA]

God bless Jey. He’s an all-time tag worker, and he’s been a great supporting actor throughout this story, but tonight proved that, despite the nickname, he’s not a main event-caliber singles guy. He brought absolutely nothing to the table (multitude of possible puns not intended).

 

[HumanChessgame]

Paul/Rick O'Shea was fine but probably Paul's least good match so far.

Cody/Brock was every Brock match we've seen for years now only he did the job this time around.

The battle royale got everyone a paycheck. LA Knight is following in the footsteps of Bobby Roode and Shawn Spears of having a catchphrase the fans like to chant and not much else.

Rhonda/Shayna was pretty meh

The IC title match was about the only thing on the show I was really looking forward to and it delivered big time. Happy Gunther won.

Both world title matches were solid with the women's being especially good. I thought Bianca getting the rollup while still being partially in the Figure 8 was a cool spot. Her short lived reign was kind of predictable.

I honestly thought the women's match was the main event and started watching Collision. After finishing the opening tag match I remembered the Bloodline match and it wasn't even half over. Anything Bloodline related has been skippable for me since after Jey's recent turn and this was one of the most boring main events I can recall.

[TheVileOne]

Did Jimmy literally gaslight his own brother into turning on Roman?

[EVA]

They seemed to be going for a lesser version of Ricochet/Ospreay and definitely achieved a lesser version of Ricochet/Ospreay, so…Nice job?

[Phantom Lord]

Pretty good show for the most part. The first two matches were amazing. I hate admitting that Logan Paul is good, but damn he is good. It was a good match with Ricochet and I liked the finished.

Brock vs. Cody was good. Typical Brock match where he kills someone for most of it only for the guy to rally at the end.

Ronda vs. Shayna fell flat. For an MMA fight it was pretty bad.

The battle royal was fun. Glad that LA Knight won. LA Knight needs to win the Royal Rumble in January if they can keep his hot streak going till then.

GUNTHER vs. Drew was fun. 

I honestly was not interested in Seth vs. Finn. I feared Finn wouldn't win and of course he didn't.

The women's triple threat started off slow but it picked up at the end. And I was glad Iyo cashed in and won. But I knew Bianca was winning the triple threat when she posed with that C4 Drink in her entrance. At least Charlotte lost...which is most important here.

The main event I thought could have been way more violent. Why were they doing regular wrestling to start. It should have been a fight from the get go. It picked up at times, but I suspected the turn with Jimmy was happening. Can't wait to see the bullshit they spin for him to justify turning on his own brother like that.

[TheVileOne]

In no universe did Reigns vs. Jey need to go 36 minutes. Could've shaved it off by half and given that time to Trish Stratus vs. Becky Lynch.

Triple H is addicted to overly long drawn-out main events that go way longer than they need to be. Case in point, his 50-minute Hell in a Cell snoozefest against Shawn Michaels.

[mystman]

Good to see one of the best storylines since the NWO has suffered the same fate as the NWO. Nice symmetry there.

[Eivion]

Maybe its because i was eating at the time, but the main event surprisingly didn't feel that long to me.  I was surprised to learn it went over 20 when I checked.

[TheVileOne]

Time will tell if this is the moment that kills the Bloodline storyline, but it does sort of feel like they could've simply had Cody win at WrestleMania. Win the rematch, then have Owens and Zayn beat Reigns and Solo to cement their title run and vanquish Bloodline to finally pay all that off. 

The problem is, what does WWE replace The Bloodline with? They don't have that next angle ready to go.

[Raziel]

Yeah, I think we're at the point of diminishing returns for Roman's formula and the Bloodline.

[EVA]

I know it goes against every promoter’s natural instincts to move on before you’ve squeezed every last dollar out of something (and judging by WWE’s business over the last 6 months, there was still much to be squeezed from Roman as champ), but at the same time, I think there can be equal value in taking the right off-ramp.

And I think we’ve officially hit the point where we can safely say they missed the right off-ramp. With this Jimmy turn, we’re venturing nearer to self-parody.

[NoFistsJustFlips]

25 minutes ago, Gonzo said:

There's not a snowball's chance that Reigns drops the title before May 28th, 2028

Fixed that for ya. Everyone needs to get on board with the breaking Bruno's record deal like I've been saying for ages now. They print money out their ass these days. The bottom line is safe no matter what they do. Might as well break the all time record, crown Reigns the biggest WWE mega star of all time, and try your best to make the next guy off of beating an eight year reign.

Sami was red hot, they didn't do it. Cody was red hot, they didn't do it. Jey Uso was red hot (and made the most story sense), they didn't do it. The goal post moving and explanations as to why never make any sense. Except for one.

[EVA]

Definitely laying head to pillow feeling like a sucker for opening myself up to the possibility that we would see some meaningful progression in this story tonight.

Wont happen again.

[John from Cincinnati]

Sounds like the AMPTP need to get their shit together so Roman can start booking some gigs.

Like, a lot of gigs. 

[mystman]

At this point, the thing that would make the most sense is if it turns out Jey is actually still a member of The Bloodline as well, and this whole thing has been an orchestrated ruse cooked up by Heyman and Roman so no other contenders for the title would want to get involved with the family drama.

[Niners Fan in CT]

43 minutes ago, hammerva said:

So where are all the "Cody cant win at WM because Roman vs Jey was the real goal" now

I remember these discussions.  It wasn't so much that I and others thought Jey would win,  it was that we thought The Bloodline would come to a head because it all started with Jey Uso and that is where they went with it.  

I just don't think they have many ideas left to get all the way back to WrestleMania.  Sure they can play up the "jealous brother" angle or whatever with The Usos but Jimmy shouldn't be aligning with the people who just nearly crippled him so we'll see where it goes but it feels like it's going in circles now.