Douces Wild: Quick Thoughts Column (WWE Summerslam 2015, Sting, Jimmy Snuka)

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It’s been a wild past week for me. Late last week, I had three potential big jobs lined up for me but thanks to just my luck……I ended up with the lowest paying one but it is better than my last job so I guess that’s something, right? I also got to check out Summerslam, which I will talk about in a minute, saw some highlights of the Dudleyz returning and apparently, in a blatant act of “WE NEED RATINGS BECAUSE FOOTBALL IS COMING BACK”, Sting will be challenging for the WWE World Title at Night of Champions. I’m only going to do a Quick Thoughts today but rest assured, I have been thinking about taking this column and doing some fascinating things with it, including opening up some good debates and the like……I’ll reveal more below. So let’s get started!!!

 

Quick Summerslam Review: I have a confession to make: I don’t really watch too much RAW these days and I really haven’t for years. I follow RAW on sites, I check out good RAWs or great moments on Youtube and such but for just sitting down and watching the full 3 hours of RAW, I do not watch it and there are a few reasons for this. A) I don’t really use cable anymore (although I might get it for football season so I may start watching RAW, WHO KNOWS!), B) the product has been pretty mediocre for years and I don’t feel like I’m missing anything and C) I’m not sitting down and watching 3 hour RAWs every single Monday night……that sounds like a chore. So going into Summerslam, I knew this was going to be a big show and I liked how almost all of the matches going in were important in some way or all deserved to be on the show (some might not agree with that). I think they could have easily cut back on some matches and some could have been saved for maybe another show or something but I was pretty pumped to watch this show. Basically, I kind of liked the show!! Now, maybe this is because I don’t watch RAW often and I don’t have to sit through all of the sludge of the constant filler of RAWs……plus, all of the matches seem fresh to me because I personally haven’t seen them so I was looking forward to it. I don’t think there was a BAD match, per se, on the card at all……I enjoyed each match to a varying degree. The only one I can’t really comment on is the Triple Threat match for the IC Title because, honestly, I stepped out for a cigarette during their entrances and when I came back in, the match was almost over. However, the rest of the matches were all solid to good for the most part and I can’t complain too much about the quality in the ring.

Sheamus/Orton was solid for what it was (I actually think it was one of their better matches……at least better than the ones I’ve seen), the New Day are freakin’ awesome and I loved the fact that they won (although that match was both fun and sloppy), Ziggler/Rusev was fine but the ladies were obviously more important (Lana was gorgeous though), the celebrity tag team match was perfectly fine with Stephen Amell’s limitations (although who else gasped when he springboarded into the ring and hope he didn’t tear up his knee and breathed a sigh of relief to see that he was fine?) but God does it suck to be Wade Barrett and Cody Rhodes right now! I thought the Shield/Wyatts tag was fun but I must confess that near the end of the match, with Roman setting up for the Spear and Ambrose standing on the ropes behind him, I was literally calling out for the heel turn…..but it surprisingly never came so I give them credit for swerving me a bit. I thought the Divas Triple Threat Elimination match was, at times, sloppy and uncoordinated with the crowd either burnt out or not caring. The only female the fans wanted to see was Sasha Banks……who maybe had less than 30 seconds of in-ring time in a 15+ minute match which is just abysmal. Plus, I hate the Bellas and Brie is just a god awful worker…..Nikki has gotten better but I feel that Brie has regressed with time (her ode to her hubby kicks to the chest are so laughably weak that I believe she is doing them as a joke on Danielson). Owens/Cesaro was the third best match of the night and I know that a lot of people wanted to see this steal the show……..these two got fucked here but they made it work! They were in the death spot of the card, the crowd was burnt out, Owens had just wrestled a ladder match the night before and was probably banged up……instead of kicking the show off with Orton/Sheamus (AGAIN), they should have done Owens/Cesaro first to REALLY kick this show off big time……but the WWE would rather see Owens and Cesaro fail than put Orton and Sheamus in a position to fail.

Now we get to the big guns and let me be 100% clear: on a night where John Cena, the Undertaker and Brock Lesnar wrestled…….Seth Rollins outshined ALL of them! I know, Taker moved very well for his old age, Brock is Brock and some people think John Cena is the greatest thing in the world (and yes that is a shot at the supposedly legendary Mr. Tito) but Seth Rollins was second to nobody on this night. I was seriously getting Shawn Michaels flashbacks from Rollins on this night and I think they may have stumbled onto how to present this guy in the ring: make him like Shawn Michaels!! Hell……I don’t know WHY they haven’t been booking Rollins more in the vein of HBK (although….to be fair……they kind of have……just Shawn was able to say and do more things while Rollins is hamstrung by a script). Rollins was the SHOW STOPPA on this night and I loved how everything Cena did, Rollins did better. I did literally LOATHE one spot of the match and that was when Cena no sold Rollins’ BEAUTIFUL Frog Splash just so he could power Rollins up for the AA……there is no way that should make any sense whatsoever and it’s unforgivable of a supposed legend in the business making a stupid Indy mistake like that. The finish, I agree, was not pulled off too well (either someone told John Stewart to go out there way too early or Stewart just let the nerves take hold of him and he was just way too excited) but Stewart costing Cena the title would have been better had the explanation been better I guess. Stewart costing Cena the title to make sure that Cena doesn’t surpass Flair’s record isn’t exactly a heelish thing at all……in fact, Stewart got CHEERED when he did it…..so they should have just have him say that he found new respect for Rollins or something and just wanted to help him out. But I really enjoyed the match, Match of the Night for me, and Seth Rollins was the MVP of the night.

That leaves us with the main event. I will say this: Taker/Brock was better than I expected and it was better than their Mania match. I thought the finish was a stupid cop out way of the WWE saying “WE DON’T WANT EITHER GUY TO LOOK WEAK WHATSOEVER!!!” I think they should have just brought back Kane and have him cost Brock the match…….it would have been much better than this stupid BS cop out that we got because we all knew nobody was winning clean in this match. But I thought the match was really good, maybe a little overrated by some people, but I thought the energy was there, Taker moved very well and he did take some nasty bumps (that 4th German suplex, in particular, was one where I was worried Taker might end up with a concussion) and Brock was awesome. The ending visual of Brock flipping Taker off was great but I don’t understand what the WWE is doing with this feud. Am I supposed to hate Brock because he ended the Streak and cheer on Taker for doing whatever possible to get his win back? Am I supposed to boo Taker for cheating and cheer on Brock for not tapping out like a little bitch? I think what the WWE is trying to do is to throw the face/heel dynamic out the window with these two (knowing they will both get cheered) and just running with it to tell their story……it’s just kind of odd really. But it was the second best match of the night so I will give it that and yes, the finish sucked but I can’t fault both guys for the booking department’s fucking stupidity after they just beat the crap out of each other for over 20 minutes so yes, highly recommended.

I enjoyed the show overall and had fun watching it. I was never bored, I was always entertained, I really liked what I watched and it kind of goes to show that if you don’t watch the WWE all the time and you decide to pop in a PPV, you might be pleasantly surprised. By the way, I should also point out how HORRIBLE I was when it came to making predictions. I literally only got the celebrity tag team match and the Triple Threat match correct…….everything else was WRONG and I’m kind of happy about that actually! I went in expecting a cut and dry PPV and the WWE kind of surprised me with some of their decisions……I didn’t see Sheamus winning nor did I see Kevin Owens winning but they did! Team B.A.D was a horrible pick on my part along with Rusev because I should have known that the WWE wanted to extend this stupid feud to the next show. However, I told the WWE to prove me wrong…….they did…..and I’m satisfied!!

Jimmy Snuka being a murderer: It’s been 32 years and they are just NOW finally wanting to arrest this guy?!! Talk about a shit year for the top stars of the 80s! Dusty and Piper sadly passed away, Hogan’s ran his mouth a little too much and is on the outs with the company (although that interview with him crying as garnered him some nice sympathy) and Snuka is finally being charged with murder. Now, obviously, Snuka wouldn’t last long in jail due to his age and failing health and I hate to be THAT guy but I seriously believe that if Snuka survives into 2016, I’ll be surprised…..this whole murder trial thing is something that could just end up killing him faster and we just might have to bury another 80s legend this year, people. The same thing happened with Joe Paterno so basically, I’m not waiting to hear about Snuka and the trial or whatever……I’m waiting for the news of Snuka’s passing because I know that something like this could potentially end him. He’s in his 70s, he has cancer of some kind, he’s been in failing health for years…….this could be that one thing where he finally says “I give up” and leaves us. It’s the sad reality.

The Dudley Boyz return: I’m glad to have the Dudley Boyz back but I hope the WWE doesn’t build the division around them like they wanted to do with the Outlaws in 2014……just use them as a veteran team to put new teams over……the Dudleyz are in their mid-40s, they shouldn’t be out there dominating teams left and right and if the New Age Outlaws run of 2014 is any indication, fans can only take so much nostalgia before they start rejecting it. Plus, I am TEAM NEW DAY ALL THE WAY, BABY!!!!

Sting getting WWE World Title shot: It’s a ratings grab. This is not something that the WWE is doing to “honor” Sting (if they wanted to do that, he would have beat Triple H at WM), this is a ratings grab, pure and simple. Now……would I rather Sting as WWE champion over, say, John Cena? Yes because I’m sick and tired of Cena as champion……he’s been the champion 15 times, it is time for other people to have their run on top instead of the company ALWAYS relying on Cena……I don’t care what some hack writer on another great wrestling website says (I really hate Mr. Tito). However, it’s kind of hard to take the belt off of Rollins at this point…….and at a secondary PPV like Night of Champions too! If this were, say, Survivor Series, Sting is winning, hands down but at Night of Champions? There is a possibility that Rollins retains the belt……BUT……they might just have Sting win here to set up Rollins/Triple H at Survivor Series because you just know that is where they are headed with this! I, at the very least, want Rollins to beat either John Cena or Sting on this night……..if Seth Rollins, the guy you have been pushing since Wrestlemania despite low RAW ratings (which are NOT his fault), loses to BOTH Cena and Sting……Rollins might as well pack his bags and head back to the mid-card because that’s where he’s staying. He needs to walk out with at least ONE of his belts, meaning he needs a clean victory over Cena or Sting…….I believe the lesser of two evils is Rollins beating Cena and losing the title to Sting. If Rollins loses to Cena and beats Sting……that doesn’t make anybody look good but if Rollins beats Cena in a great match then loses the title to Sting (which will not happen clean, I guarantee that), Rollins, at the very least, looks like a bad ass for wrestling twice and Sting had to beat a guy who wrestled earlier in the night to win the title. So I’m not 100% against Sting winning the belt, I just hope that the WWE doesn’t kill all of Rollins’ momentum just so they can try and FORCE a sympathetic babyface turn by having him lose BOTH belts (this honestly might be the way they end up going).

Side Note: if Rollins REALLY wants to help himself out, I would say bang Zahra Schreiber one more time and then break up with her right before Night of Champions because if Rollins loses both belts because he’s banging this chick……I will seriously get pissed off. He might need to seriously think about dumping her…….like Drew McIntyre needs to get on the phone, call Rollins up and tell him it’s not worth it.

New Column Ideas: I’ve been toying around with some potential ideas to spice things up on the column front. My first idea was sort of like Throwback Thursday……but Brittany Soban already beat me to it on this site! However……..since I love to dig deep into the art form known as professional wrestling, I was thinking of maybe of doing kind of a analysis/retrospective of past feuds, matches and maybe PPVs. There’s so many awesome feuds and angles to talk about in depth and I would like to explore that! Another idea I had was every month, I would watch one (maybe two) WWE PPVs from that month, review and critique it to give my opinion on whether this is a show to check out on the Network, have some nice feedback and discussions and see what the general opinions of the show are. So, for example, we are in September, I would pick any September PPV from 1995 to 2014 to watch, review and critique and that’s how I can do it! Sure, I’ll still keep writing columns about the stuff about today but I think it is fun sometimes to go back and watch shows from the past, discuss angles, feuds and matches and get everybody’s different opinion on them. Or even just do kind of a column in highlighting favorite superstars I enjoyed watching, do a career analysis, maybe do a column of reviewing matches from particular wrestlers to put them over, THE WORKS! I’ve been very lazy with this column and I want to start getting my name out there for all to see so once I can truly get a schedule with work settled down, I will start on a project……maybe my next column will be one of these things!!

Well, that’s about it for now. Please, leave me a comment below if you enjoyed what you read and I would love to hear feedback, complaints, or even ideas for some of my column ideas in either the comments section, my Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/jared.doucet.3) or even my email (crater044@gmail.com)…….plus , I pop into Slack every now and then to make some random thoughts! I hope everybody has a great day and keep up with the faith of wrestling!!

sybeow

Wrestling fan for over 15 years........and I'm ok with that. Currently tinkering with wrestling reviews website.