I think I’ll leave the previews and predictions for WWE Summerslam to my peers and contemporaries. Therefore, seeing as the writing behind the WWE product has come under criticism of late, I thought I would address how the individual matches on the card have been built up and see if they have been afforded the appropriate care attention required for the WWE’s second most important PPV of the year.
Hulk Hogan v HBK Shawn Michaels
‘Dream’ matches are always perceived as being hard draws to screw up considering that so many people would want to see them, regardless of what effort has gone into the preparation. Almost all of the build up to this match has been done by Michaels, either in Hogan’s absence or despite his presence, and it is because of this that the encounter has gone from being a ‘veteran’s’ rehash to an eagerly-awaited contest. The portents didn’t look good in the beginning with an expectedly flimsy excuse for HBK’s turn and some tired old clichés thrown back and forth for no good reason but the real fun started when Hogan vanished to peddle his bullshit version of reality and Michaels was left to entertain us on his own. Taking the piss out of Hogan (a job normally left to the bag stapled to his hip), verbally dominating their ‘face-off’ and working an enthusiastic Canadian crowd created an air of freshness and energy that had previously been flat and, from fan reaction alone, it looks like this match will now take its rightful place at the finale of the PPV. As some of you know (and as you can see) I’m not the biggest Hulk Hogan fan in the world but the drawing power of this event would be far less without him and it’s to the WWE’s credit that they have gauged mainstream public opinion so accurately and booked this contest accordingly.
John Cena v Y2J Chris Jericho
Just like Hogan/HBK, this feud did not start well. Whilst in the early stages of an ‘apathy’ gimmick, Jericho was thrust into the number one contender’s position but always seemed to be playing second fiddle to Eric Bischoff in his disagreement with Cena about his lack of respect for the Raw General Manager. When they added Carlito into the mix to keep Cena and Jericho apart in a physical sense it appeared as though they would be content with insults and petty one-upmanship to advance the feud, something which gave the feeling that the belt was secondary in importance to childish bragging rights. But unlike HBK’s solo salvage effort, this build up was saved by one match. The handicap match last week on Raw was the final in a series of bouts that presented Cena as the underdog whilst promoting the idea that Jericho believed he was a shoe-in for the title victory at Summerslam. And it was a damn good match. It contained all of the fire and life that had been missing from the preceding ‘loaded’ encounters but kept enough in the locker to make this Sunday’s match a hard one to miss.
Batista v JBL (No holds barred)
It’s difficult to judge the strategic twists and turns of a build up that was never supposed to happen. Once Hassan had dodged the title picture before reaching it, it was left up to the champion and the former challenger to extend their feud out to another match and I’m not sure enough was done to create a disparate contest the second time around. The ‘no holds barred’ element will enable Batista and JBL to use chairs and brawling to paper over the obvious shortfalls in their previous bout but, apart from a few sneak attacks and some protracted banter, I can’t remember any genuine standout moments over the last month between these two. JBL can still deliver a good promo and Batista is as over as anyone else on Smackdown and I dare say some cracked skulls and bloody faces will erase any doubts about whether this match should have taken place or not.
Matt Hardy v Edge
Forget all the ‘work/shoot’ conflict issues, the only thing to take into account when rating a feud is how much you want to see the PPV match. The WWE would have been mad not to cash in on the genuine rumblings across the Internet caused by this story and despite several glaring missed opportunities (Matt shaking Vince’s hand, wasting his in-ring return on Snitsky) it was handled well once Hardy stopped running in on Raw. Both Matt and Edge have given passionate promos and they’ve been kept apart sufficiently that it will be interesting to see them lock up, though you will be disappointed if you expect to see one of them going into business for themselves and breaking script on the other. My only concern is that with a ladder match and a ‘no holds barred’ match elsewhere on the card, this contest might not be allowed to degenerate into the all-out brawl it so desperately needs to be and it would then become detached and incompatible with the build up it was given. Let’s hope they kick the crap out of eachother.
Rey Mysterio v Eddie Guerrero (Ladder match for the custody of Dominick)
Despite having the most concentrated build up of all the Summerslam contests, the ‘Dominick on a pole’ match between Mysterio and Guerrero is the hardest one to figure out. I would be dead set against the ‘custody’ storyline if this was their first encounter in this feud, because the talent on show wouldn’t need much embellishment, but this is their fourth or fifth match in this run and fan appreciation for their previous contests has ranged from ‘could do better’ to ‘not them again?’ I’m not going to join in with the accusative assumptions that Dominick hasn’t been looked after during his ‘acting’ spots and I don’t agree that too much melodrama is automatically a bad thing but if the match falls flat (which is less likely now thanks to the ladder) then the bait would be much harder to swallow in retrospect for a poor pay-off. Personally, I would have stuffed Dominick full of sweets, dangled him from the ceiling like a piñata and the first one to smash out his spleen with a rolled up newspaper gets to keep him. Just a thought.
Randy Orton v Undertaker
As a rematch from Wrestlemania and Orton’s PPV return, I don’t think this match needed much build up and that’s fortunate because that’s exactly what it got. More video-package venom in the dead man’s absence with only a fleeting interaction at the end of this week’s Smackdown means that the Summerslam contest will be fresh when the bell rings. It should be a good match though.
Eugene v Kurt Angle
The build up to this match relies very heavily on two moments. Eugene’s Raw return and victory over Kurt to win his coveted Olympic gold medal and Angle’s spit-fuelled bullying last week. I’m glad that Kurt has turned psychopath since losing the Angle Invitational because, as demonstrated by his previous feud with Evolution, Eugene’s character works best when the world stops being fair and wants to get him at all costs. Eugene and Christy’s optimism is nicely offset by Angle’s humiliated revenge-seeking and based on recent writing I expect this match to be booked just right to squeeze as much maternal feeling out of Eugene’s predicament as possible.
Orlando Jordan v Chris Benoit
Build up? I must have blinked. Erm, maybe Benoit’s jealous of Orlando’s fro?
Anyway, I think the main reason for the complaints about the Raw and Smackdown writing and content is that too many good matches and good wrestlers have been sacrificed to protect the PPV. Whilst this has recently left us with two tv shows that have fallen short of previous expectations and utilised too many lower/mid-card performers, it has to be noted that the Summerslam card has benefited greatly from seeming like a superstar-laden event and it should be a cracker. I hope that with the pressure of the WWE’s second most important PPV of the year gone by the time Raw rolls around on Monday, the WWE can forget about protecting a PPV and concentrate on putting as much into Raw and Smackdown as they can. If not, you’ll only see this smiling face again in the weekend before Survivor Series. And that’s a long time in between to stay a miserable git.
To whom it may concern, I have asked Linda Robin (of the excellent ‘Linda’s thoughts’ column) to join me for a chat in a few days about how Summerslam went down and I will post this conversation as a column next week sometime. It’s not often I get to mingle with the girls so I’m off to comb my hair and steal some flowers from next door. Wish me luck.
Lee
