WWE SummerSlam 2017 Review

Announcers: Michael Cole, Tom Phillips, Vic Joseph, Corey Graves,

JBL, Booker T & Byron Saxton

Location: Brooklyn, NY

Venue: Barclays Centre

I don't usually talk about the Kick Off shows but quite a bit happened on this one so I'll do a quick recap. The Miz & The Miztourage beat The Hardy Boyz & Jason Jordan is a match that was an almost carbon copy of their match from Raw except the Heels won this time. Neville regained the Cruiserweight title from Akira Tozawa he lost just 6 nights ago. It was a good match but why the short title reign? Elias did a little concert in the ring where he managed to get in two songs without any interference. Figured after Monday R-Truth would show up but I guess not! Then we had an INCREDIBLE tag team title match between The New Day & The Usos with a surprise win for The Usos entering their 4th reign as tag champions in WWE. Another instant classic from these two teams much like we got at the last two Smackdown PPVs. They deserve alot of praise for putting on such a good match but they must have been highly motivated being on the Kick Off show. Both teams come out looking really strong as The Usos had to hit 4 superkicks and 2 splashes on Big E to win.

The main show begins with John Cena taking on Baron Crobin. Cena got his usual mixed reaction and Corbin was on the end of alot of "Where's your Briefcase?' chants. This was an average match and Cena didn't seem too into it as he spent more time clowning around. Corbin did his run out of the ring, around the ring post and back in again spot 3 times and the third time he was clotheslined by Cena, given the AA and lost. The match went for about 10 minutes. Apparently Corbin was being a dick to someone in the troops and he is being punished for it by failing his MITB cash-in and then losing so decisively to Cena. If that's the case that is a really terrible and petty way for WWE to essentially kill the push of one of their rising stars.

Smackdown Women's Championship match is next. Natalya comes out sporting an awesome Hart Foundation style jacket. The announcers mention the Hart's rich history at SummerSlam and that Natalya is now tied with Trish Stratus for most PPV appearances for a female superstar. Naomi comes out with an awesome jacket of her own to go with her entrance. I thought this was a really good match with a finish I wasn't expecting. Natalya was the aggressive heel throughout working over Naomi's body setting up for the sharpshooter. Naomi played the role well of babyface in peril using her striking ability and athleticism to get back in the match. In the end Natalya was relentless with the sharpshooter and Naomi had no choice but to tap. Natalya is the new Smackdown Women's Champion! Its only her second reign as champion in WWE and the last one was 7 years ago which is pretty shocking. Natalya has always been a hard reliable worker and has deserved another title reign for a while. Naomi was a good champion and has really improved as a worker and character this year I wouldn't be surprised if another title reign is in her near future.

The least interesting match of the night is up next. Enzo Amore gave a promo that as per the norm recently went WAAAAY too long and made little sense. Big Cass came out and Enzo was put in the shark cage and it raised up. Big Show came out with a heavily taped right hand selling the injury from last weeks Raw. This was just a really boring match. Big Show did a good job of selling the hand injury like a true vet. The only real highlight of the match for me was Enzo managing to escape the cage by stripping down to his boxer shorts and oiling himself up only to immediately eat a big boot from Cass when he landed on the mat. I thought that was pretty funny! Cass got the win after a second big boot on Show followed by an Empire Elbow. Hopefully this feud is done now and Cass can move on to better opponents.

GMs Kurt Angle and Daniel Bryan had an amusing segment backstage where they were talking backstage and it ended in a shouting match. After that Randy Orton came out for his match with Rusev but was jumped by the Bulgarian Brute while Orton was posing. Rusev beat Orton down slamming into the barricade. They get back in the ring and the match starts and Rusev charges in, missed and is dropped HARD on his face with an RKO from Orton for the win. Orton has lost quite a few PPV matches this year so he was due a win. Just wasn't expecting it to be so quick!

Like Charlotte and Sienna before her, Sasha Banks makes her way to the ring with an outstanding looking feather garment. Seems to be a new trend! Alexa Bliss got a great reaction for a heel champion but such is wrestling these days. The match was OK considering it was thrown together with Bayleys recent injury. It was really fast paced early on and Bliss spent much of the match working over Banks arm to try and prevent the Bank Statement. It wasn't enough though as Bliss failed a Twisted Bliss attempt and eventually tapped out to the Bank Statement. Sasha is now a 4 time Raw Women's Champion and will be interesting to see how long this reign lasts!

Bray Wyatt makes his usual cool entrance to the ring with all the fireflies out. Then we saw the return of  'The Demon King' persona of Finn Balor which is as awesome as always. The announcers really hyped up the stronger force that Balor is with this persona and it showed as he seemed more vicious. This was any enjoyable match not too different to the match they had on Raw except with more mind games as they tried to out-do each other with psychological warfare. Balor got the expected win with the Coupe De Grace making up for his loss on Raw. I expect them to have a third match probably at the next PPV No Mercy where they might even have some kind of stipulation. Either way expect lots of spooky stuff!

The Raw Tag Team champions Sheamus & Cesaro came out first for their title defence. Seth Rollins came out next and the 'BURN IT DOWN' part of his entrance is becoming very popular! Dean Ambrose made his way out and got a good ovation. No surprise from the four men involved but this was a really good match and the best match of the night so far. Sheamus & Cesaro have become an excellent unit and spent most of the match isolating Seth and preventing him from tagging in Dean. At one point in the match it becomes clear that a beach ball has appeared in the crowd like many post Wrestlemania crowds in the past. Cesaro spots this and rushes into the crowd and rips it up which gets one of the pops of the night! Brilliant! Seth eventually got the hot tag to Dean and this turned the tide for the Shield brothers. Classic Shield stuff with both men doing suicide dives to the outside on their opponents. Great double team work when Ambrose held Cesaro and Rollins hit him with the Slingblade. Lots of double team moves, near falls and last ditch saves made for a very exciting finish. Cesaro has Dean set up for White Noise double team move but instead Rollins gave Cesaro a Hurricanrana on Cesaro into Sheamus! SICK! A flurry of offence by Rollins and then a Dirty Deeds from Dean for the pin. New Champs!! 5 title matches and all titles have changed hands so far! I look forward to the rematch between these two teams. Another tag title reign for Rollins and a first for Ambrose which also makes him a Grand Slam champion, the 8th man in the current era of WWE.

Shane McMahon made his way to the ring with a cool referee shirt. Kevin Owens made his way out no longer with his face on the ramp and was followed by AJ Styles who made his way to the ring to a huge ovation. A great match as per the norm with these two probably the best so far. It was never going to be quite next level great with Shane being involved in stuff way too much. He was breaking up stuff or 'accidently' getting hit all over the place. He was out of place for a sure 3 count for Owens and he missed Styles making Owens tap out to the Calf Crusher. The action like I said though was really good and Owens busted out the spinning suplex off the top rope he does that I enjoy. They exchange punches and kicks in the middle of the ring with Owens ducking the Pele kick and hit a superkick. Styles managed to get a Styles Clash in only for a two count. Styles goes for the Phenomenal Forearm but misses and instead takes a Pop-Up Powerbomb. Shane counts the three but then notices Styles foot on the rope and waves off the decision. This drives Owens nuts and he gets into a shoving match with Shane. Styles tries to take advantage with a sneaky roll-up but only gets two followed up by a pele kick. Styles hits the Phenomenal Forearm but then picks Owens up for a second Styles Clash to put the result beyond doubt. Styles is the first champion of the night to retain and I'm interested to see who his next challenger will be. Owens now has a major gripe with Shane and they will feud now til at least Hell in a Cell in October.

A really great promo package played for the WWE Championship match talking about the journey both men have made to this match and how they are hero's in their native countries. Shinsuke Nakamura is played to the ring by violinist Lee England, Jr much like he has a few times now. The Singh Brothers introduce the WWE Champion Jinder Mahal who made his epic entrance. Greg Hamilton did the pre-match introductions and is my favourite ring announcer in WWE at the moment. The promo package, entrances and pre-match introductions unfortunately couldn't hide the fact that the match was pretty average. It was a slow build up and Mahal grounded Shinsuke until he used his superior striking ability to take over. Shinsuke was setting up for the finish but The Singh Brothers caused the distraction and both ate Kinshaasa's. Mahal took advantage of the distraction and won with The Khallas. I won't lie as a fan of Shinsuke I was disappointed he didn't win but I was more annoyed at the way Jinder won. It was the exact same way he won at Backlash and MITB. He could have won in so many different ways but it was just lazy copy and paste booking. I have faith in Shinsuke and hope they are saving his title win for a PPV or Smackdown Main Event.

MAIN EVENT TIME! Braun Strowman made his way out first to a nice ovation. Samoa Joe made his way out with fans chanting 'Joe' repeatedly. Roman Reigns got the biggest boos of the night before he even come out and got worse as he sauntered to the ring. Universal Champion Brock Lesnar came out with his advocate Paul Heyman to a big ovation. I miss the pyro on his entrance! Jojo introduced the 3 challengers and Paul Heyman did his awesome introduction for Brock. This match was crazy, brutal, chaotic and fun! Four big dudes who just really like beating people up going hell for leather for a championship. The stare down in the ring between Brock and Braun drew a huge reaction from the crowd and that feels like the next big money match! Braun was the absolute MVP of the match. Not only did he dominate Reigns and Joe early on but he completely decimated Brock like no single man I've seen in quite some time. Powerslamming Brock through two announce tables and then dropping a third on him. Brock had also already taken a spear from Reigns through the barricade and had to be stretchered out. This wasn't enough to end Brock's night thought and he came back because OF COURSE HE DID!! Brock dished out suplexes to Reigns and Joe but couldn't get it on Braun. Reigns was dishing out Superman Punches and Spears all over the place and Joe kept trying to sneak in with the Coquina Clutch which is being booked as such a deadly submission move. The match was so frantic and manic that it was so hard to guess who was going to get the eventual win! In the end Reigns hits 3 superman punches on Brock and sets up for the Spear but its countered into an F5 for the win. I was surprised that Reigns took the pin as I was fairly sure it would be Joe taking the pin. I wouldn't mind if Joe and Reigns feuded some more after this because they always have good matches. Brock and Braun has to be the match they book next for the title though whether its at No Mercy or they save it for Survivor Series. Braun has been absolutely killing it this year and he absolutely should be the one to take the title from Brock and then hold it forever!

And that was SummerSlam 2017! Overall I thought it was a really good show. Four matches were really good. The Universal title match was crazy fun. Both tag title matches were exceptional and fair play to the Usos and New Day for showing they should have been on the main card. Styles and Owens delivered their best match to date. Both Women's matches were decent and I was pleasantly surprised Natalya winning. Will be interesting to see Raw and Smackdown this week to see all the fallout from a very eventful show!

Thank you all so much for reading! Let me know what you thought of the show in the comments below or on my twitter @chris_dons