WWE SummerSlam 2015 Wilts and Slumps

Although the Royal Rumble remains for many fans the most enticing occasion of the year after WrestleMania – largely for the prospect of surprise entrants, which manages to sustain excitement levels across each iteration of the thirty-man battle royal – it is SummerSlam which WWE bills as its second biggest event. And with the WWE Network both allowing flexibility and demanding a ceaseless push for new subscribers, for 2015 SummerSlam was scheduled to match WrestleMania by running four hours long. After six years at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, on Sunday evening SummerSlam returned to the City of New York.

Four hours is already a lot of wrestling; and though it meant no matches on the Network-exclusive pre-show, just the night before within the same arena – the Barclays Center in Brooklyn – the latest edition of NXT TakeOver had taken place. A more concise offering, lasting two hours, NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn showcased the diverse skillset of a talented and hungry roster: high-flying, technically sound exploits from Japan; traditional tag-team action; brawling big men accomplished in the art of submission; an athletic debut; and a punishing and much-hyped main-event ladder match; with the highlight once again the story told by two exceptional women.

So the wrestlers and the writing staff putting together SummerSlam ought to have felt under pressure to perform. As with Battleground last month, Sheamus vs. Randy Orton opened the show. And again this made for a solid opening bout, with two good wrestlers who have plenty of chemistry in the ring, and sufficient name value to satisfy the audience regarding the calibre of the night ahead. But though Orton’s RKO keeps crowds interested, while Sheamus is aggravating enough to serve as a useful mid-card heel, neither wrestler is currently in a position to appeal towards the main event, and their feud feels like it is merely filling time. Sheamus avenged his loss at Battleground, pinning Orton after a couple of swift Brogue Kicks.

Remarkably The New Day are only becoming more entertaining: arguably the act of the year so far, Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods are revelling on the microphone, while refining their roles in the ring. They appeared next to challenge for the WWE Tag Team Championships, and took time before their match to sing a gloriously unique rendition of the Alicia Keys/Jay-Z hit ‘Empire State of Mind’.

This Fatal 4-Way, pitting The New Day against reigning champions The Prime Time Players, The Lucha Dragons, and Los Matadores, was fun from start to finish. After a hectic start with lots of reversals and quick pinfall attempts, The New Day dominated Darren Young, before he finally managed to hot-tag his partner Titus O’Neil. O’Neil clobbered Kofi and Big E and tossed the luchadores easily to one side, but he too lost control as the action spilled out to the floor.

There were some devastating moves on the ring apron, including a big splash from Big E; a few of the luchadores’ dives looked a little ragged; but the high tempo prevailed until finally, just as Titus thought he had the match won, a stiff kick to the head allowed The New Day to recover the belts. Their celebratory dance moves were a riot, Kofi convulsing in delight, and Big E rolling exuberantly all of the muscles in his upper body. With the Dudley Boyz returning to WWE on RAW yesterday night, there is the prospect for a momentous feud over the tag titles.

With an abundance of hard-hitting men’s singles bouts on the SummerSlam card, and more inviting takes on the format still to come, like the opening match Dolph Ziggler vs. Rusev floundered despite the best efforts of the wrestlers involved. The storyline here was misjudged from the outset. Coming off three losses in a row versus John Cena – the last of which saw him utter, in a roundabout way, the damning words ‘I quit’ – Rusev needed to reaffirm his status as a subtle but dominant brute. Instead a split with Lana developed into a love triangle of sorts: Lana winning the support of Dolph Ziggler, but with Ziggler out of action having to endure alone the bullying antics of a jilted Rusev and his new flame Summer Rae.

The romantic entanglements of the storyline have suited nobody: Ziggler feels like a spare part, Rusev has endured as a character but has lost some of his in-ring menace, and both Lana and Summer Rae are more suited to playing calculating valets, rather than emoting respectively over a bad breakup and an agitated new love. The splitting of Rusev and Lana was premature, WWE making a short-term grab owing to Lana’s surging popularity, when together the duo still had plenty to offer and were on the cusp of establishing themselves as a major heel package.

The match put on by Ziggler and Rusev was decent enough. It started slowly, with Rusev attempting to wear his opponent down, but the momentum built through high-impact moves and submissions, until the two women interrupted proceedings. As Lana and Summer Rae tussled on the outside, a big superkick on Rusev from an exhausted Ziggler saw the match end in a double countout: a novel finish, which effectively left the fans waiting for Rusev and Summer Rae to receive their comeuppance.

Neville and Stephen Amell vs. Stardust and King Barrett was fine for what it was. Amell – the star of the television series Arrow – proved a willing participant with a nice dive to the outside, Neville picked up the win for his team with the ever-impressive Red Arrow, and WWE got its celebrity fix while softly enhancing three talented members of the roster.

Still by this point in the show, only the tag title match had truly captured the crowd’s imagination. And the Intercontinental Championship encounter between Ryback, Big Show, and The Miz was never likely to change things in this regard. It is easy to see why WWE gave the Intercontinental belt to Ryback in Daniel Bryan’s absence: he has remained moderately over with the fans, most of whom will happily chant ‘Feed me more’ without engaging with the character on a deeper level; and WWE seemed to desire babyfaces for the planned revitalisation of the two secondary titles, with Seth Rollins reigning as a heel world champion. Yet injuries and a lack of direction have made Ryback’s title run stagnant.

The Miz ought to have won this match. He was heavily backed by the New York audience, and remains one of WWE’s most distinguished heel figures. His heel work on the microphone is exceptional, while few superstars in the history of sports entertainment have made such careful use of fashion to enhance character. But as a wrestler outdated notions of toughness mean he is never given his due: always portrayed, when push comes to shove, as a worthless whimpering coward.

So although The Miz briefly entertained in trying repeatedly to snatch a pinfall, Ryback held on to his belt. But now the crowd were restless, and they took out their indifference upon Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper, as we reverted to February and the fans quickly got on Roman’s back. For the four men involved, this was a decidedly mediocre encounter, and ended on the wrong note as Reigns hit Wyatt with a spear for the straightforward victory. A variation upon this feud seems set to continue, with a new Wyatt Family member emerging on RAW: so far unnamed, but previously known in developmental as Braun Strowman, and standing at six feet and eight inches.

Seth Rollins vs. John Cena, in a match where both the World Heavyweight and United States championships were on the line, appeared in a peculiar spot: surprisingly early, seemingly timed to open the third hour of SummerSlam, from 9 pm Eastern. Apparently this slot on Sunday night saw the series premiere of AMC’s Fear of the Walking Dead, so WWE were probably looking to ward off the competition (failing in so far as the show achieved 10.1 million viewers, making this the biggest premiere in US cable television history).

Rollins was immense throughout this title match. Wearing new attire, all-white aside from the gold outlines marking off the familiar shield pattern, he was at his athletic and innovative best. There were three dives through the ropes in quick succession, a standing moonsault, a frogsplash, and several remarkable displays of agility, Rollins countering throws by landing cat-like on his feet on the mat and on the top turnbuckle. He carried Cena, who was as awkward as ever: failing to sell adequately, running through a couple of near-fall Attitude Adjustments, and performing in his springboard stunner the most ungainly and obviously unsuccessful move ever repeated by a major superstar.

There was the odd spot of eloquence. Cena was looking to equal Ric Flair’s record of sixteen world titles, and at one point locked Rollins in a figure-four leglock, which the world champion managed to reverse. After a darting top-rope superplex, a third Attitude Adjustment seemed to have Rollins beaten, but the referee had been inadvertently knocked to the ground and there was nobody to make the count as Cena covered.

Jon Stewart, in his first role since departing The Daily Show, was serving as SummerSlam’s special guest host, and he had welcomed Brooklyn at the start of the evening alongside his own special guest, a returning Mick Foley. With the match official out of action, Stewart now ran down to the ring, and he was brandishing a steel chair. A native New Yorker, though Stewart teased, there was never much doubt as to what was about to happen – despite Stewart’s previous well-publicised issues with Rollins. The New York crowd has a reputation for boasting an insider’s perspective, and they tend to favour heels: so Stewart obliged by striking Cena in the gut, allowing Rollins to pick up the victory.

The ending to the match was pleasant as a bit of fun, and the option of a cheap win for Rollins after a fairly dominant performance was better than the alternatives: we know based on past experience that Rollins is unlikely to win clean without a drawn out response from Cena; while the prospect of Cena taking both belts was abhorrent. Still however enjoyable in the moment, the placement of this match on the card and the nature of its conclusion did seem to lessen what – with these two titles at stake together for the first time – could have been a significant juncture in WWE history. And the screwy ending here wasn’t helped in retrospect by the ending to the main event later in the show.

Whatever, RAW utterly reset the world title picture. Sting shocked Rollins as the champion sought to unveil a statue in his own name; thereby setting up a tantalising clash of eras and personalities.

The ‘Divas’ tag elimination match showed the ‘Divas revolution’ already in a faltering state. While I don’t quite subscribe to the notion that much of the pre-existing roster now needs to be scrapped, following the arrival of Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, and Charlotte from NXT, there are undeniably too many bodies in this current three-team feud, and still too little time devoted to the women’s division. Sasha Banks will hopefully one day headline a major WWE PPV; but here after her NXT title match with Bayley the previous night, her team was the first to be eliminated.

Inevitably with so many participants and a fairly loose storyline, this match was a little slapdash, but it at least rose to a sensible climax. After a hot tag released Charlotte, Becky Lynch achieved the victory for PCB courtesy of her pumphandle side slam. The three ladies are going by their initials after their proposed group name, the ‘Submission Sorority’, was found to link to a porn website.

Cesaro vs. Kevin Owens was another strong singles bout, perhaps just falling short of high expectations, and resulting in the wrong winner. Cesaro has enjoyed waves of enormous popularity with WWE audiences since the beginning of 2014, but senior figures are notoriously reluctant to commit to the outstanding Swiss athlete with a warm and winning personality. He needs a consistent push and a few significant victories to consolidate himself towards the main event. On the other hand WWE seem to view the capable but relatively drab Kevin Owens as a safer bet; and introducing him to the main roster via a losing feud with John Cena, they sketched themselves into a corner, leaving Owens desperate for a victory – the night after his second NXT Championship failure versus Finn Balor – to halt a descent into mid-card oblivion.

Faced with a tired crowd, this was still an engaging match, with plenty of vigorous back-and-forth action, and something of an overabundance of signature moves. The ending was muddy, with Cesaro crotched on the top rope after attempting some hard-to-decipher offense. Owens briskly took advantage, winning thanks to his pop-up powerbomb. Nothing lost for these two men, but nothing really gained.

So finally on to the main event, and Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker. While remaining unconvinced by the build – the RAW after Battleground allowed for a memorable brawl between the two, but otherwise it still seems somewhat arbitrary for The Undertaker, almost a year and a half after the fact, to be taking such exception to Heyman and Lesnar’s understandable and legitimate boasting – this match was markedly better than expected, a vast improvement upon their WrestleMania XXX bout.

Where owing to Taker’s age, ‘Suplex City’ could have conceivably taken the night off – German suplexes teased but not landed – instead Lesnar rounded upon his willing opponent, throwing several German suplexes and a couple of belly-to-belly variants. In the early going, Lesnar converted an Old School into an F5 attempt, and though he couldn’t quite pull it off, and The Undertaker briefly recovered with a big leg drop onto the ring apron, Lesnar persevered and remained on top of Taker until he managed an F5 through the announce table. The Undertaker just made it back into the ring before the ten count, and far from done, he turned the match around, hitting a Tombstone piledriver for a near fall.

As the match drew to a close, there was some hokey acting as both men sat up on the canvas and laughed maniacally. They traded F5s and Last Rides, and repeatedly locked in their finishing submissions, the Kimura Lock and the Hell’s Gate. Then suddenly without any prompting from the referee, the bell rang, with the implication that The Undertaker, who was struggling against the Kimura Lock, had tapped out – and had therefore lost the match, as a confused audience looked on, possibly believing they had witnessed some sort of screwjob. Instead it turned out that the timekeeper had simply overstepped his bounds: the referee ordered the match to be restarted, but behind his back The Undertaker struck Lesnar with a low blow, and Lesnar passed out in the Hell’s Gate to hand Taker the victory.

After the match, an irate Paul Heyman called upon the video evidence, which showed that The Undertaker had in fact tapped first – only the referee, poorly positioned, had failed to notice. In all this ending was inane rubbish, spoiling yet again the climax of a WWE PPV. There is no established history within the company of timekeepers taking matters into their own hands, so the timekeeper here taking such decisive action unguided seemed insensible, unnecessary and difficult to comprehend as a simple error. More, the timekeeper himself appeared in the wrong position to make any call, with The Undertaker tapping with his arm on the opposite side of the ring.

As a viewer, the sequence of events presented a crude insult to the intelligence. They also made of The Undertaker a cowardly cheat, who tapped out, hid the fact, and won only via a low-blow delivered out of the sight of the match official. If the narrative is that The Undertaker, personally offended by Lesnar, wanted to win at all costs, this hardly seems consistent with the long development of his character, and it makes for a peculiarly undignified closing phase of his career. While the conclusion of SummerSlam seems to inevitably lead towards a rubber-match, which will presumably take place at WrestleMania 32 in Texas, WWE risk overplaying their hand and tarnishing their grandest legacy.