I am amazed just how terrific Summer Slam was. I’m very lucky because the last three pay per views that I have ordered have all been worth the money and I’m talking about ECW’s One Night Stand, Vengeance and last night’s Summer Slam. And there was one match earlier in the show that won me over so much that I could have turned off the rest of the show and felt I got my money’s worth. But I loved just about the whole show and I didn’t want to put this with my Raw thoughts. That’s because I feel Summer Slam deserves its own column. By the way two things, first I got 6 out of 8 right, so I do feel a little better about myself than I did last month at this time. Second I’m going to skip the Heat match between Chris Masters vs. Hurricane Helms. If you saw the match I think you know why. Okay I’ll sum it up, again the Master-lock won. Enough said.
I want to dedicate this column to all those fans that attended the show live last night. There’s nothing better than having a full house especially at a pay per view so into just about everything that his handed to them. This group did so many neat things that I can’t say enough about them. So to the Washington, D.C. crowd thank you so much for entertaining me almost as much as the WWE superstars did. The crowd got started right from the start when Chris Benoit came out to face Orlando Jordan. My God his reaction was outstanding and as I said this was just the start of what was to come with the D.C. fans. Okay now this match threw me. Chris Benoit beat Orlando for the U.S. title in about what, 30 seconds. My thing is this. While that’s fine because it shows just what the Crippler Crossface can do, I can think of a few on both rosters that should lose as fast as Jordan did last night. While Jordan isn’t the wrestler of the year, at least the man can wrestle, unlike a guy that shall remain nameless. Anyway this surprised me, but the ending was the way it should be. Benoit won, he looked so emotional holding up that U.S. title belt and hopefully this is just the beginning of Chris being put in top matches.
If the quick opening match surprised me, let me tell you Edge beating Matt Hardy due to the referee calling it since Matt seemed too “injured” was just plain weird. One of my friends Butch called it perfectly. This was the Washington, D.C. screw job. I saw Matt’s demise as nothing more than punishment for all the pain and sorrow he caused Vince and his company. This was Vince’s way of saying, don’t F with me. While the punches were all real, it’s sad that they couldn’t have had a longer match and maybe a more sensible ending. Does this ending mean a rematch? If not what exactly does it mean for Matt? I wish I knew, I guess we will find out what Vince has in store for Matt tonight on Raw.
The next match is the match that satisfied me so much that had the show ended right after this match I would have said “that’s okay; I got my money’s worth.” And yes I’m talking about the ladder match with Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio. First before this match took place I would like to compliment Vicki Guerrero during her backstage segment with Eddie. I felt she was natural as she could be trying hard to reason with Eddie about taking Dominick from Rey. I’m sitting there trying to imagine me acting, and believe I wouldn’t be able to pull it off. I felt this segment was good and it made me think that she would get involved with this match and I’ll get to that in a little bit. But the match? My God it was one of the best and most dangerous matches that I can remember. There were times at least for me that my heart was in my mouth, watching each guy take some really sick bumps. I knew Rey and Eddie would perform well so actually I wasn’t surprised. I talked about Vicki being natural; well I have to also give Dominick props for the way he acted last night. He had me in the palm of his hands with those big sad eyes. And his mini interference while Eddie was on the ladder was done perfectly. This whole thing was booked so well. When Vicki came out and stopped Eddie which in turn helped Rey win, I expected it but again it was done perfectly, not overdone. This was THE match of the night and a super way to finally end this feud.
The next match was a bizzarro match. This is where the fans totally and I mean totally popped for Kurt Angle and booed the hell out of Eugene. Does anyone else wonder if Eugene’s character is coming to an end? It seems like it’s the “in” thing to do is boo him and give him nothing but heat. I did like the match however, it was short and it did what it needed to do, it made Kurt the guy who is not going to put up with Eugene’s crap, and it gets Kurt ready for his title shot against John Cena. A quick match but because of the fans cheering Kurt and booing Eugene it was also a very entertaining match. My second favorite match of the night and trust me it’s very close to being the number one match of the night was Chris Jericho vs. John Cena. I knew that this match would be all Jericho and that’s exactly what we saw. Jericho was amazing last night, he bumped like crazy and made Cena look like a champion. Week after week Jericho did nothing for me being Eric Bischoff’s sidekick but he proved why he is one the THE best in that ring. This match was fantastic and again, the fans played a big part in it. John Cena seemed to get a lot of boos, and Jericho was getting tons of cheers. But it was when half the fans were chanting “come on Jericho, and then the response from the other half would be “come on Cena,” that’s when things were really off the charts. I was so happy that Chris had so many fans behind him, because he deserves to be the WWE champion. I’m happy that so many fans realize what a talent this man is.
Okay the next two matches kind of did nothing for me. Undertaker vs. Randy Orton was good, but for me it was way too slow, I caught myself checking my watch every now and then. Don’t get me wrong Taker and Orton worked hard out there, but I enjoyed their Wrestlemania match better than last night’s. This was still good and I noticed that Taker wasn’t going to lose cleanly, so that’s why Bob Orton came out to interfere and that gave Randy a not so clean victory. Also I was very disappointed by the crowd reaction to Batista. I figured with him being the home town hero the place would be going nuts, but I didn’t get that. I can’t compare this match to their match at GAB, but many of you have told me that this was a lot better. I felt that this was way too short and for being a No Holds Barred match there were no weapons used, it just wasn’t brutal enough for me. But like Taker and Orton, JBL took some major bumps and worked his ass off and Batista looked okay. I have to be honest with you, the chemistry that Triple H and Batista had was definitely missing between JBL and Batista. So an okay match but I expected better.
I will end this with what I thought was a great main event. Yes Shawn totally carried this match. In fact Shawn was the MVP of this one. But I will give Hogan nothing but compliments for taking some good bumps and not slacking off. This wasn’t a short match, and he stayed with it and it all just gelled so beautifully. I was floored by this match, maybe because I didn’t know what to expect, but this main event capped off a very HOT show. The only thing I feel bad about is Shawn shaking Hogan’s hand. I say that because it now seems to mark the end of Shawn being a heel. And I would have loved to have seen him remain a heel for a while, but other than that, just a fabulous match.
If you didn’t order the show, think about getting the encore, it was that damn good. I’m now so hyped from this one that in two hours Raw will be on, and they are advertising the return of Ric Flair. Could it be a Flair/Shawn feud, another legend vs. icon match? Well maybe not, but I’m looking forward to the show. I’ll be back tomorrow with my Raw thoughts, and believe me I hope they will be as positive as this Summer Slam column was.
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