The NeelDown Video Review: WWE SummerSlam 2007

Reviews, Wrestling DVDs

– I continue with posting a VR of last year’s PPV to come for an interesting perspective on how they stack up a year later, this month obviously with SummerSlam. Funny thing is, I’ll be at SummerSlam this year up in Indy at the Conseco, roughly a 2-hour commute from here in Cincinnati. It will be my first live event since WrestleMania 23, and before that 22 in Chicago, which if you remember correctly I did the VR of with the super special “duel point perspective” feature, don’t you just love my unique creativity? Anyway, maybe I’ll do the same for SummerSlam 08 once I get back and see it. Yay or nay? Shoot me an e-mail to let me know if you like the idea. Oh yeah, and speaking of Chicago AND Indianapolis, I’ll be there this weekend for Lollapalooza (Radiohead and Wilco headliners, you knew I was going to be there) and the latter on Sunday after Friday and Saturday at Lolla for the Radiohead solo show. Hence why I’m getting this review up earlier than normal because I’ll be out of town for the weekend and catching up on work when I get back. Okay then, enough about me, let’s get going!

– Don’t forget to check out 1990, 1999, 2003, and 2004 also.

_________________

The NeelDown Video Review: WWE SummerSlam 2007

– From East Rutherford, NJ

– Your hosts are the usual gang: JR, King, JBL, Cole, Tazz, & Styles

_________________

Kane v. Finlay

Kane pummels him to start and lays down the elbows and boots. A scoop slam and more pummeling, and he chokes him in the ropes. A blind charge meets boot and Finlay stupidly goes up top, where he gets tossed to the outside. Kane goes up top now, but Finlay punches the bruised abdomen and boots him to the floor. That allows him to go to work on the ribs and he locks in a half Boston Crab while keeping one foot on the ribs. Finlay is awesome. Kane ends up breaking it via his enziguiri and gets a pair of corner lariats, and then a side slam for two, which I believe is the first pin in the match. Kane kills him with the flying clothesline but yet another corner lariat attempt is dodged by Finlay, and he jumps on the INJURED RIBS for two. Finlay goes out to retrieve Hornswoggle from under the ring but Kane’s zombie sit-up scares and him and he runs out. That allows Kane to big boot the distracted Finlay and then go out and catch Hornswoggle. He tries a double Chokesham on them, but Finlay kicks away at the ribs until he drops to a knee, and Finlay DDTs him. He then tries undoing the turnbuckle pad, then gets the shelieleigh but Kane punches him down. However, Hornswoggle hands him another one when he wacks Kane with on his way out of the ring. Small package by Finlay gets a close two. He takes him to the corner but a blind charge misses and a Chokeslam ends it at 7:23. Okay opener, although a little too spotty with all of the midget stuff and so on just for Kane to end up pulling out the usual win. (**)

Winner: Kane

– Vince, Coach, MVP and co. have a professional meeting backstage.

Umaga v. Mr. Kennedy v. Carlito – Intercontinental Championship

Kennedy tries to reason with Umaga to go after Carlito, but he gets slapped down for his troubles, and so does Carlito. They scheme something up on the outside and come in to try to trick Umaga, to no avail. Umaga sets up for the ass splash on Carlito but Kennedy grabs him from the outside allowing Carlito to run up and dropkick him to the floor. Kennedy capitalizes by feeding him to the steps. Back in, Carlito tries rolling him up with rope-assistant which is scouted by the fine official. Springboard elbow gets two for Carly. Kennedy gets a front leg sweep, pretty much The Stroke while holding onto Carlito’s hair, but then gets tossed to the floor by Umaga. Now that was sure random Diving headbut connects but a blind charge misses because Kennedy pulls Carly out of the way, then uncovers an announce table. Kennedy wacks Umaga with a monitor but Carlito knocks him off the apron and pins himself for two. Kennedy comes back in and Carlito starts yelling how they need to “work together on him” which is really loud on the camera. Odd sequence, but they try it anyway, and get double suplexed for a double KO. They’re up and Umaga cleans house, ASS SPLASH connects on Carly, but Kennedy pulls down the ropes sending him to the floor. Kennedy hits his senton bomb on Carlito but Umaga comes in to break the pin and THUMBS HIM TO HELL for the pin to retain the title. (**) Not terrible, but a little too much Umaga domination for my liking.

Winner: Umaga

Rey Mysterio v. Chavo Guererro

This is Rey’s return after ten months out, he gets a super special pyro display and is wearing silver attire with his upper body also painted silver. I guess he might be going for another superhero look and going for Silver Surfer, but I would say that was a failed experiment. And really, he should have learned form the previous WrestleManias. The Daredevil get up? Wasn’t digging it. Maybe he needs to just stick to DC characters, as the Flash costume was actually pretty cool. Just to stress how many times we’ve seen this match, this was actually the OPENER at last year’s Summerslam. Chavo tries going right for the knee to start but Rey dodges it and they mat wrestle to start. JBL calls this match a rivalry thirty years in the making. Chavo gets sent to the floor where Mysterio follows him out with a senton and sends him to the steps. Mysterio gets a rana out of the corner then goes up top but Chavo knocks him down into the tree of woe where he continues to attack the knee.

Chavo keeps wearing him down inside and tweaks away at the knee. He locks in a modified ankle lock but Rey fights out with an enziguiri that sets Chavo in the ropes. JBL calls Rey the tin man. His knee gives out on a 619 attempt and Chavo immediately capitalizes with a Boston Crab. Bradshaw immediately calls “ballgame” so it’s obviously not over, and Mysterio gets the ropes. Now Chavo gets hung in the corner and Rey goes after his knee. Rey sends him to the floor and follows off the apron with a seated senton. Another one inside but the knee is wearing out again. Mysterio gets caught on a moonsault attempt, but he turns it into a DDT instead for two. Gory Bomb only gets two. Chavo ducks the 619 and goes for the rolling verticals, but Rey counters the third and sends him to the ropes where the 619 finally connects, and he springs in with a splash for the pin at 12:05. It had its fair share of good stuff, but was pretty much built around Chavo going after the injured knee, and it was painfully obvious that Rey was going to come back with the hot win in that fashion. (**1/2)

Winner: Rey Mysterio

– King Booker WILL make HHH bow tonight.

Interpromotional Diva Battle Royal

From RAW you have Beth Phoenix, Mickie James, Melina, and Maria, SmackDown has Torrie, Michelle McCool, Victoria and Krystal, ECW has all three of Kelly, Layla and Brooke. The SD divas are so important that they’re half way down the ramp when Lilian announces them. You know the drill, huge brawl to start. Looks like Brooke is the first one to go. Jillian takes out Maria. Lawler comments that Jilian sings like a bird, a vulture, but still a bird. Layla’s gone. Michelle eliminates Krystal even though they’re from SmackDown, which I guess just kind of shows what importance brands are in this. Kelly gets eliminated, eliminating ECW for good, as Lawler and JR discuss how many wives they’ve had. Anyway, it ends up coming down to Beth, Torrie and McCool, and Beth quickly gets rid of Torrie. I guess this is not an “over the top” battle royal because they’re eliminating each other just be tossing them through the ropes. That leaves your final two as Beth and Michelle and Beth quickly dumps her over for the win at about 7:05. This went on WAY too long considering 3/4 of them have no business trying to do wrestling moves. (1/4*)

Winner: Beth Phoenix

– MVP comes out to announce that he’s going to lower his standards to the “common man” and engage in a beer drinking contest with Matt Hardy. He says no matter how much beauty they put in one ring, everyone paid to see the US champion. Matt comes out and said just like when MVP got Evander Holyfield to replace him in their boxing match a few weeks ago, Matt has a substitute for him for the beer drinking. Yep, it’s Steve Austin. He comes out and does some push-up to start. He hands MVP some beers to start but then Stunners him instead. The crowd still eats up his token PPV appearance of the year, so whatever. JBL’s announcing was of course gold throughout this, as it typically always is if it involved Porter.

John Morrison v. CM Punk – ECW Championship

Just a little note on the originality here, this is the third straight PPV featuring this match. Now, that’s not say that the matches aren’t usually solid, because they are, despite the usual time constraints. I also think this is the highest they’ve ever put the ECW title match on a card as usually it would be second or third. They go back and fourth on the mat to start and Punk gets a hip toss and scoop slam. Punk hangs him over the ropes and follows with a springboard dropkick, then tries to suplex him in from the apron, but Morrison blocks it and skins the cat to send him to the floor. Inside, Morrison slugs away and applies a rear choke. Punk fights out but a side kick puts him back down and it’s back to the choke. Morrison catapults him to the corner but he lands on his feet and gets a crossbody for two. Morrison blocks the corner bulldog but eats an enziguiri for two.

Neckbreaker by Morrison gets two but Punk pulls off a moonsault out of nowhere for two. Morrison gets crotched on the top rope and Punk clotheslines him off for a brief double KO spot. Small package by Punk gets a close two. He sets him up top and tries a rana but Morrison hangs on, then pins him with the feet on the ropes (barely) for the pin to retain the title. This whole series of matches were kind of built around Morrison being one step ahead of Punk even though it was never revealed at that, and all of them had pretty weird finishes. I guess the point for this one was to not to make Punk look bad even though he was beaten cleanly the last two times and they probably should have just done this one cleanly as well. And now, of course that wacky WWE booking has the loser as WWE Champion with the winner as another tag champ. End rant, another decent match from these two but way too short. (**3/4)

Winner: John Morrison

HHH v. King Booker

Slugfest to start and Booker gets clotheslined to the floor. Back in a blind charge meets elbow, but then Booker gets clotheslined out again. HHH hauls him back in and gets the facebuster for two. Sharmell trips up HHH and Booker low dropkicks the knee, which is probably a wise move for anyone who is ever facing Trips. HHH slips out of a slam and chop blocks Booker down, then locks in the Figure Four, but the queen rakes the eyes to break it up. Booker capitalizes with a side kick for two. They slug it out and HHH tosses him to the floor yet again and then feeds him to the steps. Back in Booker runs straight into the spinebuster but fights out of the Pedigree. Scissor kick misses, but the Book End does not, and that gets two. Booker pulls out all the stops and tries a leg drop from the top, but it misses and HHH retries the Pedigree, Booker gets out, but he nails a second one for the pin at. Just a short filler to showcase HHH’s triumphant return, really. (**)

Winner: HHH

The Great Khali v. Batista – World Heavyweight Championship

Khali pummels and tosses him around to start and boots him to the floor. Batista comes back in and tries some clotheslines that Khali no sells and then Khali sends him to the post. Khali gets the nerve hold already, just what this match needed. Dave eventually gets out but he runs into a big boot. Batista is able to muster a spinebuster and the channels the POWER OF THE ANIMALS, but Khali blocks the Demon Bomb and catches him coming off the top with his chokeslam thing. That only gets two, so Khali wacks him with a chair for the DQ about six minutes in. Simply awful, not just the match but the fact that THIS is how they showcase one of the two world titles at what’s supposed to be one of the biggest shows of the year. It also just really shows their faith in Khali’s ability as champ, I guess. Embarrassing. (-**)

Winner: Batista (DQ

John Cena v. Randy Orton – WWE Championship

This is without a doubt a dream match that the company as well as fans have been anticipating pretty much since each guy started getting pushed, which of course wasn’t very long after debuting. The crowd is split down the middle as they lock up, but it’s predominantly boos as Cena grabs the headlock and shoulders him down. He tries a grounded headlock but Orton gets up and grabs his own, then shoulders him down and gets his own grounded headlock in a back to back sequence. Cena tries an early STFU but Orton quickly gets the ropes and levels him with a right. Orton works him over in the corner but Cena comes back with a bulldog for two. Orton, well, clubs him from behind for two.

Cena stumbles up so slowly as if he’s just been hit with a chair, and Orton steers clear of a shoulder attempt and sends him to the floor where he takes an announce table bump. That gets two inside and Orton tries a standing rear choke, but Cena ends up fighting out of it via back suplex. Blind charge misses and Orton stomps on the knee. He drops dropping his own knee but Cena rolls out of the way, however then runs right into a snap slam for two and it’s back to the rear choke. Cena fights out but runs into the TEXTBOOK DROPKICK for two. Now Orton tries a sleeper. This is going slow as molasses, where Orton gets the resthold for a while until Cena eventually fights out only to run into another move by Orton before we go back to the rest hold. Cena FINALLY gets out of the sleeper by ramming him into the corner and comes back with the five moves of death, but Orton counters the FU and nails the inverted backbreaker, and follows up with a rope-assisted DDT for two. RKO is blocked but Orton pulls down the ropes to send Cena to the floor, where Orton capitalizes by feeding him to the steps and hauls him in for two.

Cena fights back with one of his various bulldog/neckbreakers, and then tries going up top (???) to no avail as he gets crotched. If he’s not going to do the leg drop, which it didn’t look like, I guess the equivlent of Cena going up top is equal to Flair doing the same. Orton goes up and tries a superplex, but he gets shoved off and the leg drop connects. Orton grabs the ropes to block another FU and skins the cat. Another RKO misses and Cena grabs the STFU but Orton makes the ropes and nails the RKO out of nowhere but only for two. He stalks him for another but, surprise surprise, that ends up being an FU by Cena for the pin to retain the title. This was disappointing in every sense of the word, starting with the first half when the first 10 minutes were based around exchanging headlocks, then they switched to ever so slow rear chokes and sleepers as well while this was the BEGINNING of the match, all the while repeating the same pattern of Cena finally escaping only to run into another “high impact” move by Orton. The second half was as anticipated, a high quality exchange of close falls, even though I don’t think the sudden FU out of nowhere finishes really surprise anyone anymore, and both finishers are two of the most easily counterable of anybody’s. My initial thought was actually about **3/4 but I decided the second half was enough to bring it to the three star mark, even though I thought for sure this would be ****+ without a doubt coming in. Unarguably a huge disappointment at any rate. (***)

Winner: John Cena

End of show.

The NeelDown – In my eyes not only was this a disappointing SummerSlam but one of the worst in years. It seemed like it was serving as a bottom rate PPV building up to the next, bigger show, which didn’t bode well considering this is supposed to be one of the biggest shows of the year. The World Heavyweight title match, while no one was expecting a MOTYC, was pretty embarrassing for a show of this caliber, and the main event while not realistically bad, almost seemed so compared to what it could have been. Not recommended.