This might sound silly, but I am looking forward to Stephen Amell and Adrian Neville going up against Wade Barrett and Stardust. This match is going to be fun and very entertaining to watch at SummerSlam. I love the comicesque build for this one, with Neville being branded as “The Red Arrow.” I hope DC is on board with that call.
The setup has been fantastic. What began as a venomous glare from Stardust towards the Arrow actor during a show, then exploded onto social media, in which both Amell and Stardust traded verbal barbs on a daily basis. The hype simmered for a while, but then resurfaced as Stardust and Neville began their feud, which became a comic book tale for Stardust, implying he needs a “hero” to save him.
Stephen Amell is a big wrestling fan, and getting involved in a major event such as SummerSlam is probably a dream come true for the fanboy in him. Sure he is an actor, a television star, but he is still a fan, making him one of the people.
The altercation this past Monday night was very entertaining. After weeks of Stardust openly mocking Amell, the Arrow star is then smacked, prompting him to leap over the barrier, then jump onto the apron, and clear the top rope, delivering a Gore-like takedown and setting off the spark for what I believe will be a fun match. The backstage segment following the brawl, was humorous as all hell. Amell and Triple H staring each other down, with the Game trying to put “the actor” in his place while Amell no-sells Triple H and challenges his own business sense to make the match. Instead of “get the tables” we got “get the lawyers” all while Neville’s head is barely on screen. Geez, I never realized how damn short the guy is.
Last time I was this excited to see a celebrity on WWE programming, might have been Bob Barker confronting Chris Jericho. Or perhaps Hugh Jackman decking Dolph Ziggler and legit injuring him. Or, one which should have been made into a pay-per-view match right then-and-there, was Big Show and Shaquille O’Neal. I remember that one, the crowd went bat-nut-crazy as Big Show went to chokeslam the retired basketball star, when suddenly, Shaq grabs show for a chokeslam of his own. The way Shaq came across on television was awesome, and I still believe it was a missed opportunity to have Show go up against a celebrity, but this time in a scenario which fans would have supported, rather than the bullcrap confrontation with Floyd Mayweather, which no one wanted to see at all, and even Big Show had to lower himself, both mentally and physically to endure an embarrassing performance from the arrogant boxer.
Is Amell/Stardust the match I am looking forward to most at SummerSlam? No, but it is up there in my top three. The other two are the Fatal-Four Way Tag Team Championship match and Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro.
