WWE Summerslam PPV Results
August 19, 2012
Location: Los Angeles, California
OFFICIAL LINE-UP:
Antonio Cesaro w/ Aksana defeated Santino Marella (Pre-Show United States Title Match)
Chris Jericho defeated Dolph Ziggler w/ Vickie Guerrero
Daniel Bryan defeated Kane
The Miz defeated Rey Mysterio (Intercontinental Title Match)
Sheamus defeated Alberto Del Rio w/ Ricardo Rodriguez (World Heavyweight Title Match)
R-Boom (Kofi Kingston & R-Truth) defeated The Prime Time Players (Darren Young & Titus O’Neill)
(WWE Tag Team Title Match)
CM Punk defeated Big Show and John Cena (WWE Title Match)
Kevin Rudolf music performance w/ WWE Divas
Brock Lesnar defeated Triple H
Hello everyone and welcome to the all-new Pay-Per-View Point of View, (or PPV POV), here on Online World of Wrestling.com. I’m Jack White and I write the Women’s Wrestling Write-Up here on OWW on a weekly basis and now I’m also your man when it comes to WWE PPVs. What a way to start this new role with none other than the ‘Biggest Party of the Summer’, SummerSlam! I was quite sceptical about the show going into it, yet I can safely say that my expectations were surpassed. Without further ado, here’s what I thought of SummerSlam match-by-match and we’re kicking things off with the United States Title match pitting Santino Marella against Antonio Cesaro.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7dqPw–ZcE
My Thoughts: This was a nice opening contest with a cool story running through the match; with Santino trying to grab the Cobra after Antonio dumped it to the side of the ring. Even though Cesaro ended up ripping the Cobra, Santino found another round the back of his singlet, which he grossly decided to sniff! Wonder if it stunk more than his US Title reign? Yes that’s right I said stunk as in the past tense, as Aksana distracted the Milan Miracle for long enough so that the multi-lingual menace could hit the Neutraliser to win his first United States Title!
I am beyond elated to see Santino’s US Title reign finally come to an end. Prestige needs to be re-instated to the US Title and whilst I think Antonio Cesaro needs more work, at least he’ll be used on TV much more to enhance his character now that a belt has been put on him. I’m also very pleased to see Aksana be an integral part to the match and actually do something as opposed to standing there. It’s a major pet hate of mine when a manager, especially a Heel one, doesn’t do anything and get involved – that’s what you’re for! To wrap the pre-show up, I’d like to say well done to WWE! You made a Santino match not that goofy and more serious, you let Aksana play to her strengths and you gave Antonio Cesaro the US Title! Bravo!
After this match, the 25th anniversary of SummerSlam got under way and surprisingly, the World Heavyweight Title match didn’t kick things off. Instead, the crowd decided to showcase one of the most anticipated matches as the opener but would Ziggler vs. Jericho live up to the hype?
My Thoughts: The answer was yes. Jericho and Ziggler practically stole the show in just the first match of the night. The crowd were really behind both men and that really helped make this match feel even more special. Dolph could have based his attack more on Jericho’s stomach, yet he didn’t ignore it completely so that didn’t take away from the match too much. Jericho hit a superb Frankensteiner from the top rope and even though Y2J hasn’t been a Babyface, he definitely hasn’t lost his touch when it comes to the high-flying moves. Ziggler sells moves better than Richard Branson can sell his brand and it showed yet again last night. The first of many Wrestlemania-esque near falls happened towards the end of this match (a trend that continued through many matches on the card) and I honestly thought it was over twice; once when Ziggler hit the ZigZag and another when Vickie interfered.
Like Aksana in the pre-show match, Vickie didn’t just stand there like a sack of potatoes doing nothing; she got involved and nearly won her client the match. Her involvement made for another mark out moment in Jericho kicking out, which definitely added to the match as opposed to ruining the pace of it.
The match ended with a sick and rather classic Liontamer looking, Walls of Jericho and the Ayatollah of Rock n’ Rolla proved that he should never, EEEEVEEEERR, be doubted again! *Reminds self to get my own catchphrase*
The second bout of the night saw another crowd favourite in Daniel Bryan square off against the Big Red Machine Kane. Summer has been more or less non-existent here in the UK and that sort of sums up reasons as to why this feud should continue, there aren’t any. Regardless, Kane and Bryan are solid workers and if anyone two people can make something out of practically nothing, it’s one of the best ever big men, Kane and the G.O.A.T Yes man, Daniel Bryan.
My Thoughts: This was another solid match that I enjoyed more or less as much as the opener. Kane brought some awesome offence to the match and highlights of his momentum include a brilliant Choke Toss style move to Bryan that knocked him to the outside and his Big Boot looked great too. Kane managed to take punishment as well as dished it out too as he withstood A LOT of physicality from Bryan. D-Bry’s NO flurry of kicks looked so brutal and Daniel’s major bitchslap (which proved to be the turning point of the match) was hilarious. The “OMG DID HE JUST KICK OUT” moments from the last match returned here too with The Big Red Monster being unable to put away Daniel after a Chokeslam; which was epic itself as it started as a counter to a Diving Headbutt!
All in all, this was another very good match to continue the momentum that the first one created. The crowd was right behind Bryan and after the match; Kane assaulted Josh Mathews and trashed the backstage area. Looks like this one isn’t over.. and if it’s not, it needs to have a bit more of a personal edge for it to continue, or if WWE creative can’t think of anything like usual, chuck these two in a Fatal-4-Way Intercontinental Title match with Miz and Mysterio at Night of Champions.
Speaking of those two, the master of the 619 and the man everyone is envious of (because he’s dating Maryse, not because he’s champ) squared off against one-another next, with the IC Belt on the line. Regardless of the lack of build to this match, both men are capable of putting of great matches, even if you’re not a fan of any of them (I never will be on Rey Mysterio bandwagon).
My Thoughts: As much as I dislike Rey Mysterio, this was a great match. I was worried at the start that the dime dropper was going to win as he had a new random Batman attire (remember he beat JBL at Wrestlemania dressed as the Joker) but thankfully tonight, taking into account what Rey was wearing, the nice guy finished last, a.k.a., he lost. Rey Mysterio is at the point in his career where he needs to be putting everyone else over. I can see him maybe getting a Tag Title reign with Sin Cara to draw more attention to the tag division, but other than that, he should be losing major matches like this.
Miz brought some new moves to his arsenal tonight which included a sit-out powerbomb and a dangerous looking backbreaker that reminded me of that one time in TNA where Awesome Kong made Christy Hemme’s feet touch her head (hooray for ancient Knockouts references!)
Rey proved he knows a thing or two aswell and I must say, Rey is the god of the DDT reversal. However, one thing is REALLY grating on me about Rey; why is he wearing a tanktop? And what’s with the random question mark on it? It makes sense and it makes him look like a fat child about to go swimming. Sort it out Rey-Rey!
I’d also like to see Miz make some changes too. I’d firstly like to see him get a new finisher move as the Skull Crushing Finale looks horrible, and it looks even worse when done on a small person like a Mysterio or an Evan Bourne. He’s no Jeff Jarrett so please Miz, find a new finisher. Secondly, as much as Miz has more charisma than 100000000 Audrey Marie’s (hooray for modern day NXT Diva references!), I’d love to see The Miz with a woman on his arm. Miz is someone who I believe could help pass on heat to others and someone who looks great on camera, so why not bring back Maryse and have her on his arm? I doubt it will happen due to Maryse’s new jewellery business yet it something I would love to see. Get Maryse to be a hot mess speaking a load of foreign and everyone will hate her instantly, and Miz may be booed more as opposed to him receiving cheers.
The World Heavyweight Title match was up next and it was very refreshing to see it moved up the card. I think the tag title match should have been before it, but a step in the right direction is better than nothing.
My Thoughts: I 1000% detest Alberto Del Rio and I do not see the appeal in him whatsoever. Although, saying that, this was perhaps his best showing in my eyes. The build-up to this match was lacklustre at first but in recent weeks, the storyline has stepped up and I was very glad to see that. The physical nature of the storyline transcended on this match as well and I was pleasantly surprised by it. The rough feeling was put over well by a serious of hard-hitting moves from both, side-splitting kicks and some steel step action.
The ending, which saw Sheamus hit Del Rio with Ricardo’s shoe and then Albie had his foot on the rope, means that we’ll no doubt see yet ANOTHER match between these two (I expect Randy Orton to be involved too) yet after tonight, I’m not as bothered as I normally would be about an Alberto Del Rio feud. I don’t see how clocking someone with a shoe is so game-changing considering wrestlers were even harder boots to kick one another with, yet that didn’t detract from the action too much.
Following the World Title match was the Tag Team Title match and this is where I started to get bored with the PPV.
My Thoughts: AW is what made this rivalry even remotely interesting and as much as I didn’t like him at all, what he did next at ringside was what made the PTPs matches stand-out. There was nothing horrible about the action yet nothing ground-breaking either, but at least the tag team division is being spotlighted, more than we can say for the Divas division.
The penultimate contest last night saw the WWE Champion CM Punk defend his belt in a Triple Threat match against Big Show and John Cena. Can Punk make me like a match between him and two of the most stale characters ever?
My Thoughts: The quote Daniel Bryan and answer the above question, NO! This was by far the worst match of the night. The match just didn’t seem to get going at all. Big Show’s work made watching paint dry seem like a good idea and Punk and Cena did nothing remarkable. The initial finish, which saw Show tap out to two different submissions was utterly horrendous. Big Show was made to look weak and ok, it took two men for him to submit but this is the man that has decimated the entire tag team division and the finish just didn’t sit right with me. Not only that, as you can see from the above picture, the submissions were sloppier than diarrhoea (excuse the graphic choice of simile!)
AJ Lee then came out and restarted the match and Big Show looked even worse after both Cena and Punk kicked out of a double chokeslam. The match picked up in pace from after this, but it was at the expense of the Big Show, who was ultimately pinned following an AA from Cena. However, it was Punk who scored the win after heelishly dumping Cena out of the ring after he had just displayed major strength. Whilst major, we’ve seen it 93034035 times before so thank god that we got something refreshing with Punk being a great tweener.
Before the Main Event, the man responsible for making the rain fall on the Divas of NXT Season 3, Kevin Rudolf, performed his new song that I can’t even remember the name of because it was that bad. It sounds like it was wrote for WWE themselves with the line “Be A Star” in it but was it just a normal performance?
My Thoughts: Well as you can see from the Funkadactyls above, the Divas were out in force… to dance to the awful song. The music performances would be good if the artists were decent, but when a man shows up looking 56 years old when he is in fact only 29, things aren’t going to be good. The Divas dancing was very awkward although some exceptions a.k.a. Rosa looked brilliant! You shimmy that freakin’ Costa Rican body Rosa! The highlight however was still to come when Online World of Wrestling’s David was spotted dancing in the crowd and pointing to the camera. My life has been made! [Editor’s note – you’re welcome! *Taking a bow*]
Finally, it was Main Event time and Brock Lesnar and Triple H’s rivalry culminated last night to finish off the ‘Biggest Part of the Summer’. Nothing screams party more than a good old fashioned fight! I hadn’t seen Brock Lesnar’s Extreme Rules match against John Cena so I didn’t know what to expect from this encounter but judging from what they did in limited time over the last few months, I knew this should have been good.
My Thoughts: And it didn’t disappoint. Lesnar was immediately vicious wrapping his legs around HHH as he clutched the arm of The Game. The story of the match saw Lesnar constantly going for the Kimura Lock and whilst the arm-breaking shtick has been pushed to high heaven, it made for a great story in the match and it’s cemented the Kimura Lock as the most dangerous move in all of wrestling.
As for the rest of the match, it was raw brutality. Lesnar sold being thrown into the table stomach first excellently and I honestly thought he was legit injured. Other than a stunning German Suplex from Brock to Hunter, there was nothing else flashy about the match and I’m glad that considerable chain wrestling wasn’t present in the match, as it made for an incredibly realistic bout.
Paul Heyman didn’t get involved physically and that makes Lesnar more dominant that he could do this on his own, yet at one point, Lesnar low-blowed HHH and that’s where Heyman’s magic happened. The match wasn’t NO-DQ and the ref could have stopped the match then, but HHH said he wanted the match to end via pinfall or submission and Heyman went off on one at the referee at this point to ensure the match kept going – the perfect brains and brawn combo on show here.
The ending saw the WWE’s COO tap out after Lesnar ‘broke’ his arm. Michael Cole blasphemed like a good un’ at his shock at what he saw following this and HHH teased his retirement. I doubt the Game will be finished for good but I’m sure we’ll find out where this is going next as Lesnar and Heyman are opening RAW later on tonight. Will Lesnar meet his next opponent? Or perhaps HHH will keep this story going? Only time will tell.
Thanks for joining me and looking back at last night’s SummerSlam. The best match of the night for me was Ziggler/Jericho due the excellent amount of exciting near falls and by far the worst match was the WWE Title Triple Threat Match. Big Show needs to stay well clear of the title picture. Overall, I will grade SummerSlam a B-.
I’m away this weekend so there won’t be a WWW but join me next week to look at the latest Divas and Knockouts action and then join me the day after Night of Champions when I will bring you another PPV POV. Until then, have a good few weeks!