THE PAYOFF
- Francesco Viola III
- Aug 20, 2017
- 6 min read
SummerSlam is Sunday, and the past two weeks have had some pretty damn big developments for both brands. Titles have changed, office chairs have been thrown and hearts have been broken. Without wasting anymore time, let’s get into it.
SD LIVE
Shinsuke Nakamura vs Jinder Mahal/Baron Corbin vs John Cena
I’m combining these two storylines together solely based on the major development that occurred on the 8/15 episode of Smackdown. Baron Corbin cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on Jinder Mahal, who had just finished a match against John Cena, but he failed to win the championship. He got rolled up in 6 bloody seconds. Sweet Jesus, I did not see this coming. I assumed that Baron Corbin was going to cash in his contract at Summerslam, and I definitely thought he was going to win the title, but I absolutely loved how things actually played out. Baron failing his cash in has made me much more interested in Smackdowns main event scene. Baron is ungodly boring, and I didn’t want him to be champion at all, but now I want to see how he will react to his failure.
I now want to see what angle his match with Cena will have on Sunday. I actually want to watch Jinder Mahal vs Shinsuke Nakamura because I no longer have to dread the idea of Corbin cashing in on Shinsuke if he were to win. This cash in has made me interested in watching a Jinder Mahal match and a Baron Corbin match, and I never thought either of those things would happen. While everything else about the build to these two matches has been crap (it’s been nothing but generic promos with no real heat or substance, Nakamura and Jinder for example have only been in one segment together), Smackdown managed to turn things around in 6 seconds. Well done.
AJ Styles vs Kevin Owens
I have to give this feud some credit. While it has definitely overstayed its welcome, they at least have tried to give it new legs by changing the focus of the story. First, it was about being the face of America, then it was about poor referee decisions, and now it is about whether or not Shane can be an impartial referee when he doesn’t like either guys. Another point of praise for this feud is that they have done a good job of making it seem like Shane dislikes both guys. Shane’s history with AJ has been played up and Owens has done a good job of being an asshole to everyone who gets in front of him. It has made the idea of Shane snapping at one of these two plausible.
All that being said, this feud is still far from perfect. The relationship between Owens and Styles doesn’t feel intense. Instead of this feeling like a bitter battle between two men who can’t stand each other, it feels like a twitter feud if it happened in real life. The matches between these two have been disappointing to me, so hopefully they can pull out all the stops to make something special, but I’ll just be thankful for this feud to finally end.
The Usos vs The New Day
The Usos and New Day continue to kill it. They have some of the most entertaining promos on the show, their matches have been great, and, most importantly, they leave me wanting more. I’m honestly not sure who I want to leave with the titles on Sunday. The New Day are always great, but the Usos have been awesome since they started this feud. Their promo on the New Day on the 8/8 episode was a good example of this. They are cocky jerks, but unlike some such as The Miz, they are still entertaining. So congrats to the Usos for upping their game.
Brief Notes on Everything Else
Rusev superkicked Randy Orton out of nowhere on the 8/8 show. Orton RKOd Rusev on the 8/15 show from out of nowhere. That’s about all the story there is to this feud.
I feel bad for Natalya. She’s one of the better wrestlers on the roster (male or female), but her feud with Naomi has her playing the fourth wheel to Naomi, Carmella and James Ellsworth. The Money in the Bank briefcase is all this feud has been focused on.
The Fashion Peaks segments are still funny, but not very interesting now that they don’t seem to be going anywhere. I hope this leads to something soon.
RAW
Universal Championship Scene
While the Universal Title scene on Raw has still been very good these past two weeks, it hasn’t upped the ante in any way. The two most recent episodes were certainly entertaining and they once again reminded me why Brock Lesnar, Braun Strowman, Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe are great, but they didn’t add on any new layers to the story that weren’t already there. Brock still intends to leave if he loses the title, Joe is still pissed at the world and Roman and Braun can’t stop beating the piss out of each other.
There were no new directions in the story and no new interesting character interactions. That being said, what they did provide was still entertaining. Brock and Paul Heyman still made the match feel like a supremely important affair, Joe still feels as intense as ever, and the feud between Roman and Braun is still fun as hell to watch. I burst out laughing when Braun hit Roman with an office chair, and I can’t wait to see what they do this Sunday. Even with stagnation, this is still the match I’m most excited to see at Summerslam.
Sheamus and Cesaro vs Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins
The storyline between Ambrose and Rollins had been some excellent stuff, but they took a bit of a step down these past two weeks. At the end of the 8/7 show, Ambrose offered Rollins a fist bump and Rollins denied it. This seemed like a contrived way to drag the story out. Unfortunately, the week after didn’t do much to change that perception. They tried to play things off as Rollins not trusting himself and not wanting to play games, but it felt like they were making up more conflict than was naturally there.
I get that they wanted the fist bump to be the closing shot of this feud going into Summerslam, but I feel that having Dean never offer it to Rollins until the go home show would have made it feel more powerful. Meanwhile, Sheamus and Cesaro are still nothing more than the common enemy for Rollins and Ambrose to face. Nothing more nothing less. While it’s not much of a rivalry, it has at least been a pretty good story. The match on Sunday should be good too.
Sasha Banks vs Alexa Bliss
It is obviously unfortunate that Bayley has been injured, but at least Sasha gets to have her rematch against Alexa. It’s simply the more natural story. Alexa never beat Sasha decisively, so it makes sense for Sasha to get a rematch. Having Alexa face Bayley felt like backtracking. I think they should have made Sasha the number 1 contender on the 8/7 show, since that would’ve given them some promo time on the 8/14 show, but I suppose it wouldn’t have made too much of a difference. Either way, the Raw women’s division should become more focused following Summerslam.
Big Cass vs Enzo Amore and Big Show
This feud became very slightly more interesting on the go home show, but not by much. Cass cut a decent promo, talking about how he is going to prove he is the best big man in the business currently, and actually had some conviction in his words. However, aside from that, this feud has all the same problems it’s had since the beginning. The faces still seem weak by double teaming Cass, Big Shows involvement still feels cheap, Enzo still looks like more of a loser each week by not fighting his own battle, etc. The shark cage stipulation doesn’t really add anything to the Big Show vs Cass match, but I suppose it doesn’t hurt it.
Brief Notes on Everything Else
Bray Wyatt beat Finn Balor, so now Finn is going to unleash the Demon at Summerslam. This should have been hyped since the beginning of this storyless feud, but what can you do?
Neville lost the Cruiserweight Title to Akira Tozawa. I would still be crying if I had any more tears left to shed.
They keep having Emma ask to be given an opportunity then have her lose in her matches. What did Emma do to deserve this? Did she accidently shoplift again or something?
The Miz and Jason Jordan are still mad at each other. I guess because Summerslam was so stacked they’re going to have a match at whatever the next PPV is instead.
At The Moment…
I’d honestly say both brands are pretty even at this point, and it is largely thanks to Corbin failing his cash-in. It’s weird that something so quick could result in so much intrigue, but it honestly helped a great deal. The Raw and Smackdown episodes post-Summerslam are going to be very interesting, and I can’t wait to see what happens.
Comments