Summerslam Predictions

[Sedition: Gladiator]

I have posted mine in the Gladiator Rants section. Feel free to read and comment here. Also feel free to post some predictions of your own.

sedition.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=rant&thread=1004

[Sedition: The Rev]

I didn't have time to do up predictions, but before the show I was completely in agreement with yours. I do have a review for the show.

First off, I've only been a casual WWE viewer for years. I can't remember the last time I spent back to back weeks checking out either Raw or Smackdown. Ever since CM Punk's star making promo, I've been glued to both shows. Summerslam is by far the most excited I've been for any PPV in a long time. My comments on each match also reflect my opinion on what has been (for the most part) the best 2 months of TV WWE has produced in years. Anyone who hasn't seen the show yet, don't read ahead.

6 MAN TAG
Del Rio, R-Truth and Mix vs Kingson, Mysterio and Morrison. Every one of these guys could have been in a major match and stolen the show. Instead they're all thrown into a 6-Man tag. I would have rather done without all the music performances and had at least 1 singles match from any combo of these guys, but on the plus side the match was given a decent time limit and they all put on a good show. Dumping them all in a meaningless 6-Man also means there's room for the Miz/Mysterio and R-Truth/Morrison feuds to run for longer, so that's a bonus.

MARK HENRY vs SHEAMUS
I never thought I would say this, but next to CM Punk, right now Mark Henry is my favourite thing going in WWE. It's taken them 15 years to realize that the world's strongest man should be used a monster heel. Henry has not only beat guys like Kane and Big Show, but literally leaving them on the verge of tears. I'm SO thankful they didn't give Sheamus the win here. The match itself was justas mediocre as you'd expect from Sheamus and Henry, but the final moment where Henry put Sheamus straight through the barricade made my jaw drop. That's all they need to do with Henry. Keep giving him that one jaw dropping moment to put in the promos, and he'll continue to get over big. Mark Henry is in the position to be the biggest heel in the company. Guaranteed in a few months he'll be headlining a PPV. Unfortunately I have a feeling they'll jump the gun and book him for the title at the next PPV. In my opinion, the best idea would be to have Henry run for a few months destroying everyone in his path, them put him up against an underdog "giant killer" like Daniel Bryan.

KELLY KELLY vs PHOENIX
I usually make a point of skipping the Divas matches, but I kept hearing how strong it had become. The Phoenix/Natalya duo has potential to completely legitimize this division, especially if they keep allowing for actual wrestling matches like this one, but it's never going to really take off when they keep giving Kelly Kelly clean victories over their legitimate stars. Impressive feud ends with a bad finish.

DANIEL BRYAN vs BARRETT
Daniel Bryan is right at the top of my favourite list. I agree that he lacks the charisma and mic skill to be a top Face, but years ago people said the same thing about Bret Hart. What Bryan can do that nobody else can is put on outstanding matches every night. I loved the feud these two had developed, but it seems the crowd couldn't have cared less when the match started. The quality of the match shows when you consider how the crowd turned aorund. These guys were getting huge pops by the end of the match. In my opinion, this was the second best match of the night. I'm a slightly bigger fan of Bryan, but I think Barrett will benefit the most from the win. Originally I thought having Bryan lose so soon after winning the MITB would have been a colossal mistake, but the best thing for Bryan is to build him as an underdog, where even his biggest supporters doubt his ability to win the title. If that is the direction they go, then this is one of the few matches where the finish benefits both guys equally.

CHRISTIAN vs ORTON
This was match of the night BY FAR. These two guys were born to be booked together in a match like this. What Orton brings to the table is a realistic intensity that's seriously lacking in most hardcore competitors. What Christian brings to the table is the ability to keep a match like this going. Orton's one flaw is that he competes in hardcore like HHH or Undertaker, which seems to be by the rule of 60 seconds of heavy breathing and boredom followed by a 5 second high spot. Christian's greatest talent has always been filling in the blank spots and keeping the pace exciting between the high spots. I loved every moment of this match, including the finish, which would have been so much better had they waited another month or two before changing champs.

I agree that Orton needs to be bumped from the main event already. Smackdown has so many guys to take his place. I also agree that how Christian has been handled as Champion has weakened him and the title, but I think the real fault lies with Orton. Having him stuck in the main event spot, and AGAIN putting the title on a guy who's bigger than the title when there are so many other potential stars on the roster is what's making Smackdown look weak. They urgently need to take the title off of Orton and run with ANYONE for a minimum of 3 months to make Smackdown seem even close to Raw caliber. The one area I will disagree is that this has hurt Christian. While his run as champ has made him look weak, the cowardly story has strengthened him as a character. I love a politician heel. It's just a shame they aren't going to give him a real run as champ.

CM PUNK vs CENA
This has been the feud of the year. I unfortunately missed their Money in the Bank match, but everyone seems to agree it may have been match of the year. I will agree that the build up to Summerslam has been weaker than MITB, but I'm still thrilled that BOTH of these guys have brought something new to WWE. During the whole show, the commentators kept calling this the biggest match in Summerslam history. Considering the praise their last match had, I expected a whole lot more from this. This should have been match of the night, and I actually thought it may have been one of the weakest. The pace was slow, there were no high spots, and the finish was pathetic and weak. I was happy that Punk was given the win, but with months of building this fed, we could have been given something better than a 2nd try finisher followed by a missed leg on the ropes.

MITB CASH IN
Del Rio is one of the best things going, and I've been 100% on board with him being given a run as champion, but not like this. WWE needs to pick one guy and just run with him. Punk is more over than anyone else in the company. I'd argue that he's more over than anyone the company has had in at least 5 years. When a guy is on that kind of a roll, you don't give him a 2 month main event run and then have him drop the title. The biggest problem is that the WWE Championship has now been held by 4 guys in about 6 weeks. Even Vince Russo doesn't change title holders that much. On one hand I was glad to see Kevin Nash and Del Rio come out to spice up an otherwise lame finish to a great show, but this story should have conclude at least a month or two down the road.