Unsolicited Reviews: Summerslam ’09

PPVs, Reviews

Because no one demanded it, I return to PPV reviews. Was Summerfestslam the right spot, or should I just stick to link blogging? Let’s find out!

A note on star ratings: I don’t generally take them very seriously. The only reason I use them is for a basis of comparison with other reviewers, and to give an idea of how much I enjoyed a match on a five point system. So if you want to haggle over 1/4 of an asterisk, you’ll just be wasting your time.

Rey Mysterio over Dolph Ziggler with a Super Rana (holy crap!) to defend the Intercontinental Championship ***1/2

Hot opener, and in the ball park with last year’s match between MVP and Jeff Hardy. I liked it much better than last month’s match, but that probably has a lot to do with the placement on the card and the pacing (which are pretty well intertwined). Also, I’m a sucker for near falls, and this match had more than I remember from last month’s. I also appreciate that they built of Ziggler’s best spot from the first match (and worked in the move Rey used to finish Eddie with in the best match of his career). It’s no Jericho vs. Mysterio, but it’s something. Oh, and that camera angle when Rey hit the senton dive on the outside was rad.

I am suprised they kept the belt on Rey, because it seems like Ziggler has more challengers than he does (Morrison, R-Truth, Matt Hardy, and Finlay all come to mind) and Rey seemed like a prime candidate to move in to main events with Punk. Of course, the big suprise return at the end of the show changes things up a bit on the latter point. I’d say that it’s a testament to this match that I now accept Ziggler as a good choice to be I.C. Champion, too, because he’s underwhelmed me pretty consistently before now. That said, I probably should have known he was jobbing when I saw he was wearing man sized versions of Maria’s gloves.

And it took me so long to finish this that I have to acknowledge that Rey Mysterio has been suspended. That’s a bummer. It does probably mean we’ll get John Morrison vs. Ziggler over the belt, so I can live with that.

A very good interview from MVP set up:

MVP over Jack Swagger with the Playmaker, **

I thought this match was solid, even if the crowd was indifferent to everything but MVP’s signature spots, and even that reaction was lukewarm. They were kind of dead from the end of Rey’s match until DX showed up, really.

That said, I appreciated the psychology (which is one of Swagger’s strong suits), it was nice to see MVP finally pin Swagger, and that’s really all I can bring myself to ask from a match shoehorned on to the card like this one was. And hey, Lawler wasn’t nearly as annoying in talking about MVP’s criminal record as he was when they did the same basic angle with Booker and Triple H (of course, he was a heel then). That was nice too.

Chris Jericho and the Big Show defeated Cryme Tyme when Show sucker punched JTG to retain the Unified/Undisputed Tag Titles, **

This was a solid match with a finish that looks like it will be a recurring one for JeriShow. Works for me, as it fits with the dynamic of Jericho having Show around to bail him out. It never felt like Cryme Tyme had a serious chance of winning, but they weren’t totally jobbed out, either. JeriShow’s moving on to MVP and Mark Henry, but you have to imagine they’ll be feuding with DX soon.

Big Show punched JTG so hard the feed cut out on the show for about five minutes. When it came back Punk’s promo was over, but I did get all of:

Kane over the Great Khali via DDT, *1/2

I would have preferred a trade off there. That said, this match was pretty okay given the competitors and its filler status on the card. I liked Kane having to resort to cowardly heel stuff to pun Khali. Also, Kane kicking out of the chop when Undertaker didn’t finally gives him one up on his occasional brother!

DX defeated Legacy when Shawn hit a desperation Sweet Chin Music on Cody, ****

Well, that was a shockingly awesome match, given that I expected Rhodes and Dibiase to be playing the same role the Spirit Squad did in this spot in 2006. I shouldn’t have, since WWE has greater plans for them than they ever did for the male cheerleaders. Still, DX made them look great (a rare act from them), as the storyline saw Legacy stay one step ahead of them the entire match, exploiting the tag formula to almost win.

That said, I’m always annoyed when Triple H gets an elaborate entrance and his opponents limp out second. And all the military stuff just reminded me that those soldiers would have been strippers in 1998. So those were sour points. They were outweighed by things like Triple H tossing Dibiase in to the crowd to finally keep him from stopping tags, though.

Christian retained the ECW Championship with a Killswitch before Regal can get his coat off, N/R

I expected the match to go about this long, but I figured Christian would get a flash pin while selling the beatdown from Kozlov and Jackson. The feud’s still going, and they will most likely get a real match at Breaking Point. It would have been cool if some of the ECW babyfaces had tried to help Christian during the post match beatdown, but I guess you can’t really have the Hurricane or Tyler Reks making saves when you’re trying to get two guys over as monsters.

Randy Orton defeated John Cena with an RKO off a hot shot to retain the WWE Championship after Vince McMahon cockblocked his attempts at taking short cuts via DQ, count out, a Flair pin, and interference

That sure was overbooked. And a rip off of the classic Austin/Dude Love match at Over the Edge ’98. But they haven’t done that in so long that it felt fresh again.

I bought the Flair Pin as a finish, so that was a nice bit of misdirection, even if they really screw with suspension of disbelief when they do the “one ref sees the feet on the ropes and tells the other one” finish. It makes me think a cool rule for an indie like ROH (or hell, ECW) to adopt would be two refs; one on the outside to catch that, making the heels have to cheat harder to win. Has anyone ever done that?

Another aside; I really liked Scott Armstrong’s facial expression when he finally had to raise Orton’s hand decisively at the end of the match. Great touch.

I have no beef with these two continuing to feud, as there’s at least always heat whenever they lock up, and it hasn’t been done to death as a singles match over the years.

CM Punk defeated Jeff Hardy in a TLC match to win the World Heavyweight Championship, ****1/2

And here’s the match that convinced me to buy this show after sitting out months worth of PPVs (well, I watched Night of Champions in a bar, but that’s not the same). It delivered. There were some great spots, iconic images (Jeff atop the ladder before diving on to Punk on the announce table is something we’ll probably see in montages for years), and a good storyline amidst the chaos, with Jeff’s daredevil spots finally taking their toll. A definite MOTYC, for sure, and on par with last year’s Jericho vs. Shawn Ladder Match.

And then the Undertaker made his surprise return, stealing Punk and Hardy’s thunder. While it sets up a feud I want to see and was a cool moment (especially because I didn’t see that Undertaker had replaced Hardy on the first viewing), I was kind of bummed out that Punk’s big win was immediately dropped for another Undertaker return. That said, Paul Heyman has explained why this was a good idea, so I’m over it. (Also, that gives me some symmetry, as that ending reminded me a lot of how Dreamer finally defeating Raven led to his feud with Jerry Lawler immediately in the original ECW).

Overall, this was a damn fine PPV with good wrestling from Raw and Smackdown and some smart booking. Definitely worth a watch if you missed it.