Wow what a show. WWE really delivered from top to bottom for Summerslam 2013. WWE will be hard pressed to have a better PPV this year. The company was red hot going into the night, but now they are blue flame on fire. Raw has been setup to be huge tomorrow. Here are my thoughts on the matches.
The pre-show Ambrose RVD match was a let down. I would have thought we get more from these two. RVD has been great since coming back. He didn't need a win here, but he just needed to put on a good match. Sadly we were robbed of that to help setup the inevitable six man tag down the road with Big Show and suddenly friendly Mark Henry.
The Ring of Fire match is a way of putting some mystery around two guys that would be hard pressed to put on a good match straight up. I think Bray Wyatt can go from what I have seen of him in NXT, but Kane is not a good match for him. The match was short for safety reasons. Bray seemed to have pant issues and it was also a bit hard to believe that he would wear his own shirt. Remember he is a back woods nut.
The scripting was not very good at all. Bray has to look stronger. We didn't need the family getting in the ring. Defeats the whole purpose of the match. I know this is needed to line Bray up against Taker, but he has to look more dominate. Good after match stuff, but I'm not happy WWE couldn't do this better.
Cody and Sandow under delivered. I realize you don't want to have a lot of false finishes considering what happened later, but you have to have a more dramatic ending. Cody gets over and Sandow will rebuild. The right ending all things considered.
The Divas match was ok. Brie is really good in the ring. The ending was a bit anti climatic, but the whole match had no real purpose other than to push their show. I think they need to do more with Brie.
Del Rio won a great match against Christian. I thought this one was going to steal the show. It was awkward interviewing Del Rio post match with so much hype on Christian's last chance. I don't know where they are going to go with this, but maybe a Christian heel turn is in order.
CM Punk and Lesnar should have been match of the night. Really well done considering we all kind of new Punk had to lose. Give Lesnar a lot of credit. He can put on a great match. CM Punk moved up to a new level. I don't exactly know where they will go with Punk now, but I would imagine Lesnar drops off the scene for a while.
Bad move having AJ and Big E lose to Ziggler and that is all there is to say about that. Although I do not know if Ziggler could take another lose.
The main event with Cena and Bryan was one of the best Cena matches I've ever scene. Bryan actually didn't have his best match messing up a few spots and nearly knocking out Cena with that kick from the ground. The whole thing really works because your expecting HHH to screw somebody or Vince to interject himself. Yet, that never happened. You also couldn't figure on Cena losing clean. Yet, the WWE pulled it off because they knew they could play out the post match so well.
Cena could be viewed as hurt, but not use it as an excuse. Now he can go off for surgery. Bryan looks like the ultimate nice guy and Cena shares a moment of respect with him. HHH gets over with Orton in a crazy way. That was very well done. Raw will be must see.
Here's the one thing that I would say. This was almost revisionist history. Remember two years ago when CM Punk was the guy the company was against and kind of Cena too? HHH was the special guest referee when they met at Summerslam? WWE could have executed the same exact ending, but they went fancy with Kevin Nash and HHH staying face. This was a major mistake and would quickly kill of Punk's heat with HHH bumbling up the whole thing.
I think Orton and HHH will play this right and make the most of it, but it's crazy how the WWE got a chance to do it right. I don't necessarily know if Evolution is back and I'm sure we will find out tomorrow. I think they could just have the McMahon's back Orton as the corporate champion and rub it in Bryan's face. This is really good heat and the WWE can cash in for months on this. I need a few days to think on where the piece may fall. Until then, follow the buzzards.
