WWE Summerslam 2013
August 18, 2013
Los Angeles, CA

YES!

YES?

YES!

Daniel Bryan is finally getting his moment.

We’re a year and a half removed from Bryan getting kicked in the face and beaten by Sheamus in 18 seconds. Ever since then fans all over the world have chanted YES! Louder and louder for Bryan. When John Cena announced he picked Bryan to be his opponent at for Summerslam the Barclays Center came unglued (trust me, I was there). Bryan has a chance to truly break the glass ceiling and follow in the footsteps of CM Punk. It was a hot storyline and a huge win over Cena that took Punk from jobber to the stars to top level star. It could be Bryan’s turn now. It SHOULD be Bryan’s turn now.

Speaking of Punk, he wasn’t happy. Punk had burnt himself out over the last year as the top guy and felt he was screwed out of the Wrestlemania 27 main event (I agree). He looked to take some time off, only to be asked to come back early (he wanted to be off till Summerslam, but he came back at Payback). Worse yet, he was upset that he had to job to Brock Lesnar because Lesnar was a part time guy.

Still, Summerslam had two really hot main events here with Cena vs. Bryan and Punk vs. Lesnar.

The Card

The Miz is our host and he hypes out main events. Why are we hyping main events when the show already started? Not sure.

Fandango comes out and the Miz mocks his dancing. Unfortunately, this was a good representation of why face Miz sucked.

No idea why Fandango was out dancing though. It’s not like he had a match.

We get the National Anthem too. No problem with that, but it seems like we’re wasting time early on.

Ring of Fire
Kane vs. Bray Wyatt

The Wyatts had just debuted and of course WWE put Kane against them. The Wyatts were an exciting new addition though, especially Bray.
I guess lighting someone on fire isn’t PG, so even though there is fire around the ring, the match ends by pin or submission. Oddly, Kane would be on fire next May anyway.

As with all Inferno matches, the match gets a lot of easy pops because the flames expand on all the big moves.

While funny at some points, the story of the match seems to be “how will Harper and Rowan get by the flames”, which sucks to be honest.

Harper and Rowan find their way in and destroy Kane.

Bray Wyatt pins Kane in 7:49. Sister Abigal (although it wasn’t called that yet) for the win. The whole Ring of Fire deal seemed pointless. Match wasn’t much of anything either. Harper and Rowan slam the stairs on Kane’s head in a way where there’s no chance it actually hit him. This would be the last we’d see Kane until he returned as Corporate Kane. Interestingly enough, Bray Wyatt may be one of the worst booked characters in WWE history if going by wins and losses (and how those wins were earned). I mean Kane pretty much destroyed him here. Not a good way to start the show.

Even Paul Heyman can make the story of David vs. Goliath seem interesting. And it’s a revisionist history nonetheless!

Cody Rhodes vs. Damien Sandow

Team Rhodes Scholars broke up when Sandow stole the MITB match where Rhodes had it won, then declared Rhodes the “holder of the case”. This feud was great for both, and while Sandow was buried a few months later it allowed Rhodes to become one of the most popular stars on the roster…but he never got a big push out of it.

Sandow with a great line before the match: “I’m going to send Cody back to his family of carnival acts.” He’s not wrong there.

Cody Rhodes busts out a Muscle Buster. Take that Samoa Joe.

JBL on commentary states that statistically Sandow will be the next World Champion due to owning the MITB briefcase. Poor Sandow.

Cody Rhodes pins Damien Sandow in 6:40. Cross Rhodes for the win. Really fun and fast paced, but too short for sure. If this went double the time we would have had a great match here for sure. This should have been the opener.

World Heavyweight Championship
Alberto Del Rio© vs. Christian

For both Wrestlemania and Summerslam in 2013, the World Heavyweight Title basically held the role of a midcard title. The World Heavyweight Title soon was merged with the WWE Title, so at least WWE was recognizing it. Anyway, the World Heavyweight Title was pretty hot in the months between Mania and Summerslam, as a red hot Dolph Ziggler cashed in MITB and won the title from Del Rio, but injuries and strange booking ruined that. Any popularity Del Rio got from his face turn in late 2013 died in the Ziggler feud, and people were sick of him as a heel.

Oddly, this match is being promoted as possibly Christian’s last big match. I actually don’t know when Christian retired as that was never made clear. While Christian’s 2011 run was fun, and he was still over in 2013, it was a little too late for fans to really believe he could be a top guy with a top belt.

This is when Del Rio and Ricardo Rodriguez were on the outs, which was the end of Ricardo (although there was a terrible feud with RVD involving him after this).

Pretty good so far. Del Rio has controlled, but he takes a huge bump to the outside that turns the tide.

Christian comes flying off the top and takes out Del Rio on the floor!

Backstabber off the turnbuckles! Really fun match so far.

Top rope hurricanrana from Christian! Fans really want Christian to win the title here.

We get a “This is Awesome” chant and the fans are right. This is awesome.

Huge pop for a spear from Christian, but he sells the injured shoulder!

Alberto Del Rio retains via submission in 12:30. Del Rio takes advantage of Christian’s injury and locks in the Cross Armbreaker (and put his hand on Christian’s eyes/face to lock it in which was a great touch). Really good match. I wish it was longer! Del Rio needs more opponents like Christian these days.

We get a Del Rio promo about Mexican fans needing a hero. Since we’re in LA, the fans get behind him. This was odd considering he was a heel at this point.

Brie Bella vs. Natayla

Basically a Total Divas commercial.

We get a JBL chant which tells you how much the crowd cares here. A Michael Cole chant follows…then a Jerry chant!

Brie Bella broke the Sharpshooter! There’s a spot I didn’t expect.

Natayla wins via submission in 5:19. Sharpshooter wins. Fans didn’t care for this obviously. No worse than any other Diva matches. Maybe a bit long.

Ryback bullies some cook in the back. There was an ill-advised heel turn.

No DQ
CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar

Story is this: Paul Heyman believes that the Best in the World was him and Punk, and that Punk ruined that by losing the WWE Title and losing to The Undertaker at Wrestlemania. Punk meanwhile tried to distance himself from Heyman. Heyman betrayed Punk at Money in the Bank and the next night brought out Brock Lesnar to punish Punk.

Off to a great start highlighted with a suicide dive by Punk! Crowd is clearly pro-Punk here.

Punk is hitting Lesnar at all angles with flying clotheslines. Great booking to allow Punk to get tons of offense in early on and not just get killed.

Lesnar is now destroying Punk. He puts a piece of table on Punk and jumps on it! Then a belly to belly on the floor. Great match so far.

Lesnar beats the crap out of Punk for about 5 minutes and it’s awesome. What a match.

Punk comeback time…although Lesnar almost gets an F5 out of Punk high knee. That was a creative spot.

Lesnar counters the Go 2 Sleep with the Kimora Lock! Great reversal!

Punk counters into a Triangle Chock! Great wrestling!

Lesnar counters with a running powerbomb and both men are down. What a match!

Top rope elbow drop with a chair from Punk…and Brock still survives!

One of the most creative counters to the F5 ever…Punk holds onto Heyman’s tie!

GTS…but Heyman breaks it up!

Punk nails the F5 into a DDT counter perfectly! Lesnar still kicks out!

Brock Lesnar pins CM Punk in 25:17. Punk knocks Heyman out and locks him in the Vise, but Lesnar beats the living crap out of Punk with a chair and hits the F5 for the win. There was only one thing I didn’t like about this match, which was that Punk kept turning his back on Lesnar to deal with Heyman. Other than that, this is a Match of the Year contender for sure. This was CM Punk’s last great match and it’s a shame WWE decided to waste him on Curtis Axel and Ryback after this.

Dolph Ziggler and Kaitlyn vs. AJ Lee and Big E. Langston

Somehow Ziggler went from hottest young guy in the company to midcard fodder in the span of a few months. Worst part is Ziggler never would recover. This feud began when Ziggler broke up with AJ Lee.

Really…how did Ziggler at this point of his career end up in the death slot between Lesnar-Punk and Cena-Bryan? Baffling. Crowd is dead for this obviously.

Kaitlyn did have a great spear, that’s for sure and she levels AJ with it.

Dolph Ziggler and Kaitlyn win when Ziggler pinned Langston in 6:45. Zig Zag wins it. Nothing really notable here. Crowd’s just waiting for the main event here.

I admit Fandango interrupting Miz all night is a bit funny…but Miz disappointingly knocks him out.

WWE Championship-Triple H is the Special Referee
John Cena© vs. Daniel Bryan

After being pretty much the most entertaining performer in WWE since Wrestlemania 28 a year and a half earlier, WWE listened and finally gave Bryan the shot. The rest of the story after Cena announced Bryan as his opponent, Vince McMahon thought Bryan had to change his look to be a major star. This was the start of the B+ player angle.

Awesome monkey flip sequence early on.

Cena counters the surfboard by using his strength, which I’m not sure I’ve ever seen before actually.

Cena suplexes Bryan off the top of the steel steps, also an original spot.

Cena’s subtly heeling it up here, which only adds to the story that Bryan is the underdog.

We get some rolling German Suplexes, but Cena again uses his strength to get out of it.

Bryan begins to bust out the moveset with a front choke. While I thought the match did get a bit slow, it’s really picking up here.

Bryan superplexs Cena off the top rope, but hooks his legs so he doesn’t crash to the mat, which is brilliant. Flying headbutt follows up! Cena kicks out.

Cena hits his flying legdrop on a standing Bryan. That was awesome.

Another example of Cena’s strength, as Bryan goes for a top rope hurricanrana but Cena just blocks it and jumps down…then locks Bryan in the STF. Good storyline with Cena’s strength vs. Bryan’s wrestling here.

AWESOME clothesline from Cena that Bryan sells by spinning in the air. Wow!

Bryan goes for his top rope flip again, but Cena catches him for a AA…but Bryan counters that into a DDT!

Daniel Bryan wins the title by pin in 26:55. Bryan nails a flying dropkick (Shining Wizard) to win the title. Crowd was a little surprised there as this was the first time Bryan used it, but the fans are happy enough. Cena puts Bryan over clean. Another great match tonight…it would be match of the night probably any other PPV except this one because of Lesnar-Punk. Cena and Bryan shake hands and really Bryan couldn’t have been more put over.

During the celebration…MITB holder Randy Orton shows up…and referee HHH suddenly turns on Bryan! HHH pedigrees Bryan, and Orton cashes in!

Randy Orton wins the WWE Title by pin in :08. Pin is academic and Orton wins the title to close the show.

We had two or three great matches (depending on how you feel about Del Rio-Christian) and another really good one in Rhodes vs. Sandow. All the main events hit their marks for sure. There were some tough parts too…the Diva’s match was meh, Kane vs. Wyatt was meh and Ziggler was wasted. And then there’s this, despite how great the main events were nothing changed in WWE. In fact, historically this card practically meant nothing. WWE almost didn’t give Bryan his run on top…somehow we almost got Orton vs.Batista at Wrestlemania until the fans forced their hand. Despite the fact that Bryan had crazy momentum here they let Orton win their feud and moved Bryan down to a feud with the Wyatts. Punk feuded with Ryback and Axel, Heyman’s guys, which honestly was a huge step down from where Punk was. Lesnar should have been Punk’s end boss and instead Punk was just there to put Lesnar over. Unfortunately, that didn’t matter either since Lesnar’s feud with HHH killed his star power a bit…and Lesnar had to cheat in this one anyway (Lesnar would have to break Taker’s streak to get that star power back). Del Rio-Christian meant nothing as Del Rio dropped the World Title to Cena a couple months later, leading to Cena vs. Orton again. The only thing that seemed to matter was that HHH turned heel. What a waste.

Still a great show. Too bad WWE failed to capitalize.

Final Grade: A-