For the fourth consecutive year, the “biggest party of the Summer” comes to Brooklyn, New York. Summerslam 2018 featured one of the most STACKED cards in recent memory, and we got a lot to dig into, folks, so let’s just dive right in.
Kickoff Show
Andrade “Cien” Almas and Zelina Vega def. Rusev and Lana – Fun little match to get the show started. Kinda surprised that this literally opened the entire show, but hey – here we are. Good stuff between Almas and Rusev, but not enough to make up for a clunky finish. Vega pins Lana, and I wouldn’t call this anything other than ordinary. Rating: 5/10.
Cruiserweight Championship: Cedric Alexander def. Drew Gulak – Really pumped to see Gulak get this opportunity. Dude has sort of been the conscience of the 205 Live brand, always proving to a valuable member of the roster, but never really getting the showcasing of some of the top Cruiserweights. Pretty nice display of psychology here with a clashing of styles. Gulak does a masterful job of keeping Alexander from hitting his high risk offense and keeping him grounded. And, might I add, Nigel McGuinness on commentary just brings out the ‘sport’ of it all. Insane and frenetic series of reversals and pinfalls leads to Alexander’s victory. It was so quick that it was sort of hard to follow, but man – what an excellent showing. Rating: 7/10.
Raw Tag Team Championship: The B Team def. The Revival – I still think The Revival is one of the best tag teams on the planet, and I’m happy they got this slot. A quick Shatter Machine to Curtis Axel makes this a lopsided affair early. Scott Dawson working Bo Dallas’ injured leg is what Poppa Bear and myself would call SMART WRESTLING. The Revival dominated this match until Axel recovered and got back in the ring. Very fortuitous decision as Dash Wilder drops Dallas over the top rope, and Dallas falls back into a Dawson pin attempt. The momentum carries Dawson over onto his shoulders, and Axel capitalizes by holding form. 1-2-3…I know…it was weird…should probably just find it yourself to understand how it really happened. #Journalism. Largely inconsequential match here that did little more than show how lucky The B Team is. Rating: 5.5/10.
Summerslam 2018 Main Show
Intercontinental Championship: Seth Rollins (with Dean Ambrose) def. Dolph Ziggler (with Drew McIntyre) – Rollins comes out dressed as Thanos and that instantly makes him the best wrestler on the planet, hands down. To the surprise of no one, this was good stuff. The perfect way to open the show. A lot of cringeworthy maneuvers in this one – particularly Rollins going for a suplex out of the ring, only for Ziggler to tumble over the rope and pull Rollins over by the head.
They did really well to sell the guys in each of Rollins and Ziggler’s corner, slowly building up to conflict between Dean Ambrose and Drew McIntyre. Crowd is HOT for this one. Rollins hooks an other worldly inverted superplex off the top rope that sent Ziggler crashing down to the mat face-first. Ambrose hits McIntyre with Dirty Deeds on the outside, then Rollins knocks Ziggler’s face out of the park with a superkick leading to the curb stomp and subsequent 1-2-3. Phenomenal stuff. Rating: 8/10.
SmackDown Tag Team Championship: New Day def. The Bludgeon Brothers (DQ) – I’m a big fan of Harper and Rowan, but even I am growing impatient with the lack of murdering people with giant mallets that we’ve endured. I mean, what’s the point anymore? WELL FUCK – the power went out in the middle of this match. Didn’t catch a single bit past the first 30 seconds. Soooooo, I’m not going to review it because of that.
Braun Strowman def. Kevin Owens – I’m not going to lie – I would watch Owens throw his body all over the arena every night of the week. People will hate it, but I loved this quick squash. Owens took a nasty chokeslam on the entrance ramp, and ate a powerslam and that was all she wrote. Strowman finally got to enact justice on Owens. Rating: 7/10.
Smackdown Women’s Championship: Charlotte Flair def. Carmella and Becky Lynch – nice orchestration of the dissension between Lynch and Flair by Carmella, getting them to turn on each other pretty early on. Carmella actually looked pretty strong for a bit – dominating both women. Pretty surprised by that. Lynch delivers a knee to Flair, and I guess we’re now officially over the whole “friends” things. This is for the gold, baby – all’s fair.
Wild spot where Flair hooks the Figure Four on Carmella, but Lynch flies off the top rope and connects with a leg drop before Flair can bridge into the Figure Eight. Carmella breaks up the subsequent pin attempt. Carmella hits a wild suicide dive. Flair hits a wild corkscrew moonsault that Lynch played The Miz on. Several near falls as this thing heats up. Lynch hooks the Disarm-her on Carmella, but it’s broken up. Flair hits Natural Selection on Lynch and it’s ball game, folks. Not too bad, but a little clunky and awkward at times. Absolutely LOVED Lynch’s heel turn at the end. Rating: 6.5/10.
WWE Championship: Samoa Joe def. A.J. Styles (DQ) – Here we go. Pre-match smack talk as Samoa Joe tells Styles’ daughter (sitting at ringside) that “daddy’s comin’ home tonight.” BRUTAL. Joe is such a damn good striker. Little bit of back and forth to start before they settle in. Joe sinks in a headlock and keeps Styles on the ground. Styles hits a beautiful splash over the top rope to the outside. Styles is striking aggressively well into the match – nice indication of how personal this match is. Joe hits a heavy knee off the top rope, and keeps striking Styles.
Styles hits an iffy Styles Clash on Joe that had me wondering if we were about to see somebody die on live television. Joe kicks out and we get a brutal slugfest as these guys deck the shit out of each other. This match is awesome. Joe grabs the mic and tells Styles’ wife he’ll be her new daddy and holy shit that was SAVAGE. Styles tackles Joe through the barricade and proceeds to hit him with a chair approximately 200 times. Obviously, it’s a DQ, but man, what a match! Rating: 8/10.
**Weird Elias segment that sucked**
The Miz def. Daniel Bryan – Nearly a decade in the making, it’s one of the greatest rivalries in WWE today, and it’s a match we didn’t know we’d ever actually get. And, boy did it deliver. Some pretty stiff stuff. Submissions and technical wrestling and just the right amount of shenanigans! Honestly, I believe that to be one of the best matches The Miz has ever worked. Really good classic pro wrestling, folks. Miz fell victim to a brutal back drop off the top rope, his chest looked like hamburger meat from chops – I mean, how many times can you remember Miz laying it all out in the ring like that? I don’t know – definitely the most enjoyable match of the night so far BY FAR. The dastardly Miz gets the win after hitting Bryan in the head with some brass knuckles. Rating: 8.5/10.
Finn Balor def. Constable Corbin – Still ready for this ‘Constable Corbin’ run to be a thing of the past, but here we are. The Demon showed back up for some reason, but I’m not going to complain about it. It’s cool as shit. Corbin argues with the ref before the match starts, saying “this isn’t what we agreed on,” but the bell rings anyway. From then on, it’s all Balor in a quick squash essentially. Nice little surprise, but completely inconsequential match. Rating: 5/10.
United States Championship: Shinsuke Nakamura def. Jeff Hardy – Of all the matches on this card, I was probably looking forward to this one the least. But, I’ll give it credit – it was a delightful surprise. Hardy made me cringe doing that Swanton Bomb onto the ring apron. LOVE Nakamura’s facial expressions as a heel, too. Nakamura gets the win with a Kinsasha. A lot of positives out of this one, and I was thankful to see that Randy Orton didn’t get involved until after the match. Still, it’s 2018 and I don’t really need to see Orton at all anymore… Rating: 7/10.
Raw Women’s Championship: Ronda Rousey def. Alexa Bliss – (I actually typed that match result before the match started) – Welp. They made a nice showing of it, folks….but, that’s our third squash match of the night so far. This one was inevitable, but it wasn’t so bad. Rousey hits all her signature moves and cinches in a disgusting looking arm bar. Bliss taps immediately, and we have a new champ. Rating: 6/10.
Universal Championship: – Holy shit what an incredibly way to start this match. Braun Strowman comes out and informs both dudes that whoever wins is going to get cashed in on afterwards. Then, we get a flurry of Superman Punches and Spears with Reigns looking like he’s about to squash Lesnar. But, Lesnar hooks in a guillotine choke and we settle in. Pretty amazing pro wrestling stuff, folks. Reigns dives through the ropes and hits Strowman. Lesnar gets out there and hits the F5 on Strowman and beats the holy hell out of him with a chair. He gets back in the ring and eats a Spear. That’s all she wrote, folks – Reigns gets the win. Strowman is incapacitated and can’t cash in. Big time gimmicky pro wrestling at its best. I loved it. Rating: 8/10.
Overall: 7/10. That was a solid wrestling show. Bryan-Miz was easily the match of the night, but Joe-Styles and Lesnar-Reigns was awesome as well. These shows are just so damn long. Sometimes, it makes it hard to stay engaged. But, tonight was one of those nights where six hours only felt like five hours, so I guess that’s good.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Alabama Crimson Tide football, the WWE, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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