WWE – SummerSlam 2009 – DVD Review

Reviews

summerslam

Every summer comes to an end with kids going back to school, the weather just beginning to change, and people getting ready for the holidays. Well the WWE always likes to end their “time off” with a bang and the end of the heated months’ spectacular SummerSlam. Rivalries and feuds are supposedly to come to an end here as combatants have been duking it out for months now and this could be the big blow off for a title or just to settle that grudge. It should be the PPV event that lets us see some of the greatest matches considering this is one of the big four along with Survivor Series, Royal Rumble, and WrestleMania. Sadly this was not the huge missile firework I was hoping it would be and it ended up just being a snapping pop.

The Staples Center in Los Angeles, California welcomed superstars from RAW, SmackDown!, and ECW on August 23, 2009 for this summer “spectacle” to take place. It really is hard here for me to get excited about much because the matches that I would hope to see deliver are those that didn’t or simply didn’t get enough time to even attempt. Watching Christian take down William Regal in less then a minute was just bothersome and totally pointless. There was no need to even include that match on the PPV if you’re going to have your number one contender lose before even getting his robe off. Sorry ECW, we think not much of you and that is blatantly obvious. Same kind of goes for MVP and Jack Swagger. Even though they were given time to show their stuff, I’m not sure why Swagger was made to look so weak by having him destroy MVP and then lose in what seemed like just one move. Bah!

John Cena going up against Randy Orton turned into one huge mess that was never really able to get going. By the time it built up any speed at all, there was nothing but stupid false finishes making me not care whatsoever. DX versus Legacy was a decent enough tag team match lead by a really sweet entrance by Triple H and Shawn Michaels that makes me rather nostalgic for their days of old when they were “true” degenerates. You can tell though that the crowd died out during the fifteen or twenty minute entrance because they were almost silent during the match. Luckily the night ended with a huge bang because Hardy and Punk delivered in one of the better TLC matches I’ve seen in quite some time. It was great seeing Undertaker return as the show concluded but he really didn’t need to immediately make us forget about such a classic match.

Disappointment isn’t really a proper word here because there was a decent amount of good stuff that happened throughout SummerSlam to keep me happy but they dropped the ball a lot too. Sure we’ve seen Regal/Christian before, but they didn’t need to make the ECW Title seem so useless on such a big PPV. Hell, Orton and Cena have been battling it out for literally months yet I’ll bet you’ll never see one of their matches become a veritable squash.

~ Intercontinental Championship Match: Rey Mysterio (c) Vs. Dolph Ziggler
~ MVP Vs. Jack Swagger
~ Unified WWE Tag Title Championship Match: Big Show Vs. Cryme Tyme
~ Great Khali Vs. Kane
~ D-Generation X Vs. Legacy
~ ECW Championship Match: Christian (c) Vs. William Regal
~ WWE Championship Match: Randy Orton (c) Vs. John Cena
~ Tables, Ladders, & Chairs Match for the World Heavyweight Championship: Jeff Hardy (c) Vs. CM Punk

The event is shown in 1.33:1 Full Screen format with no problems to be found. Everything comes through clearly and perfectly.

The event is heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and it sounds awesome. The entrance themes, pyro, and crowd noise will surround you through every speaker while your main center speaker gives us all the commentary loud and clear.

15-Diva Battle Royal – Divas from all three brands took place in an off-camera dark match battle royal that was guest officiated by Chavo Guerrero. Sadly the entire match isn’t even featured here but just clips from it followed by Hornswoggle showing up afterwards for hijinks. (2:23)

TrailersThe Best Of SmackDown: 10th Anniversary and The Marine II

While SummerSlam is an improvement over the previous month’s PPV, that’s not saying a whole hell of a lot considering how much Night of Champions sucked. There were a few good matches for this event including the TLC match, the Mysterio/Ziggler match, and even the DX/Legacy match was even pretty good after DX finally got to the ring. But there was just too much going on with Cena and Orton to make me care while Regal/Christian was criminally short making my good thoughts about this PPV die a slow death. My confusion continues with the WWE’s choice of special features on their DVD releases because it almost seems entirely pointless to put an extra “match” on there when they don’t even show the whole thing. Why? Not sure what to advise you with here, but maybe pick up a copy if you can get it on the cheap because there is nothing overly epic you’re missing if you bypass.




WWE Home Video presents SummerSlam 2009. Featuring: John Cena, Randy Orton, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, MVP, Jack Swagger, Chris Jericho, Big Show, Christian, William Regal, and many more. Running time: 180 minutes. Rating: PG. Released on DVD: September 22, 2009. Available at Amazon.com