WWE SummerSlam 2012 is in the books, and for the second straight year, I was thoroughly disappointed with the results. In fact, one can make a case that Money In The Bank has now officially surpassed SummerSlam as a better PPV offering, even if Sunday night’s proceedings is supposed to be WWE’s biggest night of the summer. Why did SummerSlam disappoint? Let me tell you why…
Two title matches, two weird / sloppy finishes
Alberto Del Rio and Sheamus wrestled a pretty good match for the World Heavyweight Championship, and then the ending instantly took away all of the good will they built up before it. Sheamus pinned Del Rio but Alberto’s foot was on the ropes … and that was it. No Booker T interjection to restart the match (because they didn’t want to steal the thunder from the WWE title match, which was booked with its own controversial situation), no Alberto Del Rio beat-down on Sheamus, and no Money In The Bank cash-in by Dolph Ziggler.
Even worse, Sheamus was actually getting cheered during the match, and yet he then resorted to heel tactics to win, first using the boot that Ricardo Rodriguez introduced to clobber Del Rio, and then to take the tainted win even though he knew Del Rio’s foot was on the ropes. So much for cheering that guy, as after all that Alberto actually seemed like the more sympathetic of the two.
As for the Triple Threat WWE Championship match between Cena, Punk and Big Show, did we really need a stop and start finish to this? Show was going to eat the pin anyway, and all the restart did was give AJ an excuse to skip down to the ring to do say that. It was bizarre, it killed all the momentum, and if they were going to do that, then Big Show shouldn’t have been allowed to continue in the match. This all just ended very awkwardly, and it didn’t really do anything to advance any kind of storyline.
Remember, this is SUMMER Freakin’ SLAM, not Raw or SmackDown!
Dolph Ziggler loses to an exiting Y2J, and then doesn’t get a chance to cash in…
This adds to the disappointment I already felt with the Del Rio – Sheamus finish. Logically, it made sense for Chris Jericho to win one big match on his way out before the Fozzy tour, if for no other reason than so he can come back at some point and remain a credible threat. However, that outcome didn’t really do all that much for Ziggler, and SummerSlam would have been the perfect forum for Dolph to be set up to cash in and win the Big Gold Belt. Del Rio could have taken out Sheamus after losing the way he did, and Dolph could have capitalized. Instead, Ziggler is left holding the bag … and the briefcase … with zero dividends from SummerSlam.
Kevin Rudolf sucks, and Justin Roberts can’t dance
This was BRUTAL to watch. You’re telling me that Damien Sandow vs. Brodus Clay and/or Cody Rhodes vs. Sin Cara was worth canceling for this PATHETIC performance from a guy who is not even that popular. Let’s face it, Kevin Rudolf isn’t lighting the pop music world on fire — he’s no Rihanna, after all — and he did such a terrible job here that I would have rather seen a Khali Kiss Cam instead.
And poor WWE Divas, being forced to dance on stage to this crap. Hasn’t Rosa Mendes been through enough this month? My heart goes out to them here.
Decent mid-card matches … but nothing earth-shattering
If you’re going to have two horribly booked finishes for the two title matches, you better fill in the mid-card blanks with something GREAT. Now, the mid-card matches were OK, but when the biggest storyline development comes from the PRE-SHOW (congratulations Antonio Cesaro), you know it was a long and uneventful night.
No investment in the main event
Was anyone really all that invested in the Brock Lesnar – Triple H brawl? I certainly wasn’t, and there was just no reason for me to really care about the result. Granted, Lesnar needed a huge win, but the match just had no buzz and because Brock needed the win, the outcome was pretty inevitable. The post-match was pretty pointless too, especially for the top slot of the so-called flagship PPV of the summer.
And besides, would we really care at this point if Triple H never wrestled again? It’s not like he has any real unfinished business unless he wrestles Undertaker every year at WrestleMania, but that chapter has closed in my book.
At the end of the day, SummerSlam 2012 is right up there with WrestleMania 2011 as one of the worst big PPVs in history. If you don’t agree with me, just ask yourself this one question:
Knowing everything that transpired, would you want to watch this again? And if you would, how much of it would you skip?
That’s all from me — CB.
