The extra hour was worth it.
SummerSlam 2015 lived up the majority of hype. The undercard was solid, title matches delivered some great results, John Stewart might have become the greatest guest host in WWE history, and the main event wound up confusing everyone, including the creative staff.
The show began with an awesome intro by John Stewart, bashing politicians while putting over WWE. Genius. He then brought out Mick Foley, and they just had a fun time entertaining the audience. Great opened.
The opening match sadly was a very boring slugfest, with Sheamus defeating Randy Orton clean following two consecutive Brough Kicks. I like Sheamus, but this feud did no favors. Orton is going to be back in the main event at some point, it is as if he can never be knocked down too far. Sheamus still has to work hard to keep fans interested.
In what was a very entertaining Tag Team Championship match, The New Day regained the titles, defeating Los Matadores, Lucha Dragons, and the Prime Time Players. Titus O’Neil was a beast in the ring, and the spots were dead-on, except for one which left one of the Matadores left for dead. No kidding. The Lucha Dragons had Fernando and suddenly, he just fell right off and splattered onto the floor. You knew right away is was a major botch when both Sin Cara and Kalisto had the “aw crap” look on their faces. Big props to Big E. and Darren Young with a spear from the ring to the floor. The best parts might have been the crazy ranting from a cheerleading Xavier Woods and the ridiculous dancing by New Day. Hysterical.
Dolph Ziggler vs. Rusev went to a double count out. Guess this one will become a mixed tag match at the next pay-per-view, Night of Champions. Meh. It was a decent match, but I think fizzled out part way through.
Stephen Amell & Neville defeated Stardust and “Cosmic King” Wade Barrett. This was a straight-up fun match to watch. Stardust kept calling Amell as “Oliver” throughout the match, and damn Mr. Arrow took a few hard shots and bumps. He hit a wicked enziguri, then hot tagged to Neville who cleaned house, hitting a corkscrew 450 and the Red Arrow on Wade Barrett for the victory. A lot of credit to Amell, he really took what he did seriously, and did not flake out at all. Hell, he sold more than Orton.
In a shamefully fast match, Ryback retained the Intercontinental Championship against Big Show and The Miz. Simply put, Big Show KO’d the Miz, Ryback then dumps out Show and pins Miz. Game over.
The asylum was open for business as Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns defeated Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper, cleanly. Great back and forth, Ambrose easily the MVP with the most ring time. What really bothered me, is after Ambrose single-handedly took out both Wyatt and Harper, spiking the cult leader with Dirty Deeds, he tags in Reigns to pick up the easy win. I know, I know, Roman Reigns always has to look strong.
In a major shocker, Seth Rollins defeated John Cena to retain the WWE Championship and win the United States Championship. Despite what we saw or what you might have already read online, this was a clean win. Rollins had the match won, despite interference from a chair-wielding John Stewart. Yes, with a referee down, John Stewart ran in and hit Cena with a chair. Not that he needed to, Cena was down, and this just made certain he would not get up. The match was damn awesome, Rollins put on the show we have been waiting for.
What goes really well now, is someone like Cesaro can step up and challenge Rollins for the title, but Rollins can sacrifice the U.S. Championship instead of the WWE Championship.
Team PCB defeated Team BAD and Team Bella. Decent match. Tamina sucked. Not sure what happened there, but in a surprise, it was Becky Lynch who earned the pinfall victory. Long match too, with all women getting a chance to impress the crowd.
Easily a contender for show-stealer, the other being the fatal-four way tag team title match, Kevin Owens pinned Cesaro following a Pop-Up Powerbomb. Owens, running on little rest as he competed in an intense and insane ladder match on NXT the night before. Damn impressive. He and Cesaro put on one hell of a performance. An awesome finish saw Owens hit a twisting cradle Suplex off the top turnbuckle, followed by the powerbomb for the win. Cesaro moved with a fast pace, and it was incredible to watch moments where Owens followed and even out-paced Cesaro, at one point hitting a twisting splash off the second rope. Cesaro blasted Owens in and out of the ring with those vicious uppercuts. Thing of beauty.
So… The Undertaker defeated Brock Lesnar by submission… or did he? The ref counted Brock’s shoulders, while the timekeeper saw the Deadman tap out and took it upon himself to ring the bell. Taker looked decent, taking some serious German Suplex bumps. Fantastic moment where they both go down, but Brock sits up laughing. Undertaker does his creepy sit up, and starts cackling as well. It was funny, and damn creepy at the same time. I have never seen Undertaker do that. Ever.
— WrestlinGifs (@WrestlinGifs) August 24, 2015
Brock and Taker had some bizarre moments. The most bizarre, as I explained earlier, the bell rang prematurely, confusing everyone. The match seemed to restart, with no official word, and Undertaker, for the third time, nailed a Low Blow on Lesnar, then locked him in the Hell’s Gate submission. But before Brock could pass out, he flipped the middle finger. Yes. No joke. Post match, Paul Heyman rejoiced as a reply showed the Deadman tap out earlier in the match, but the ref did not see it. He proclaimed Brock as the real winner. So, once again, we are force fed the fact the Deadman had to resort to a heel tactic in order to gain advantage over Brock. The way it came off seemed more confusing and sloppy. There must have been a better way to have handled that.
All in all, a really good pay-per-view. Rollins having two championships, very similar to Shawn Michaels, Ultimate Warrior, and I am sure a few others in WCW or the NWA who held the main championship along with a mid-card title.
