Mike Reviews Shows Considered To Be Stinkers: WWE SummerSlam 2010

Happy Stinky Saturday Everyone!

Today we’re looking at another show with a stinky reputation to see if that reputation is deserved in the form of SummerSlam 2010. This version of SummerSlam was built around a Nexus Vs WWE angle, that actually worked rather well, but the rest of the card doesn’t inspire much optimism in me.

I was actually so uninterested in the rest of the card, save for the Nexus stuff, that I didn’t actually buy SummerSlam 2010 back in the day, although I did pick up the DVD from Silver Vision for about £3 when they had a sale on just so I could see the Main Event.

Maybe the rest of SummerSlam is decent and the show doesn’t deserve the poor reputation it often gets? Let’s watch on and find out! You can view the SummerSlam card below;

SummerSlam 2010 Card

SummerSlam is emanating from Los Santos, San Andreas on the 15th of August 2010

Calling the action are Heel Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler and Matt Striker

The opening video package is all very dramatic and serious, which succeeds in making the event seem important.

Opening Match
WWE Intercontinental Title
Champ: Dolph Ziggler w/ Vicky Guerrero Vs Kofi Kingston

These two had many bouts together and the matches were usually good. Vicky ended up costing Kofi the most recent match prior to this one by distracting both Kofi and the ref so that Ziggler could hit the Zig-Zag for three. Vicky cuts her usual ear scratching promo prior to the bout, and as usual it’s turn the channel heat for me. Thankfully Kofi’s music hits before she can screech for too long and the match is on.

Vicky immediately plays dividend in this match as well, as she pulls Ziggler out of the way of a Kofi TOPE SUICIDA, which leads to Kofi selling out on the floor for a bit before crawling back into the ring for some Ziggler heat. They’re trying to push on commentary that Kofi is more intense than usual here, although it doesn’t really come across. His selling is good whilst he’s on the defensive though and the crowd gets behind him.

Kofi eventually makes the comeback and the crowd is into it, with Ziggler selling it all nicely. This hasn’t really felt like a big pay per view opener but it’s been a nice little wrestling match that you could easily put in a featured slot on Raw or Smackdown. The crowd being into Kofi has helped elevate it into something more than the sum of its parts. Sadly it has an all-time WCW-like finish, as Heel fact The Nexus runs in to kill both guys for the no contest, not unlike how the New World Order would do on Nitro.

nWo Finish
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was fine until the lame finish, although it didn’t feel like the opener you would have on a “Big Four” pay per view like SummerSlam

Wade Barrett cuts a Heel promo saying that Team WWE is down a team member, and even if it wasn’t, the folks on the team can’t get along anyway. Meanwhile, Nexus are a well oiled machine and that’s why they’ll win. Decent enough promo from Barrett, although it would have been nice if we could have got a proper finish to the opener first before he cut it.

Edge and Chris Jericho are trying to get The Miz to be the seventh member of the team, whilst he decides to play coy for now, happy with the attention he’s receiving.

Match Two
WWE Divas Title
Champ: Alicia Fox Vs Melina Perez

Ah yes, the match that Naomi’s former tag team partner, Cameron, said was her favourite match ever, leading to this reaction…

In defence of Cameron, she probably hadn’t even WATCHED wrestling before joining WWE and she was at least trying to make someone who already worked for the company look good by shouting out their match. I’m not sure she picked the right match to use exactly, but I can appreciate her trying to be on brand with it. I would have been in a tricky spot in that situation because my legitimate favourite match ever is Bret Hart Vs Stone Cold, but there’s no way I could have said that without it coming across like I was brown nosing. Perez as the smiling babyface always felt odd seeing as she’d been booked as a Heel bitch for so long prior to this, although when you see her interviewed in real life she does come across as a nice person so I guess it wasn’t a massive jump for her to portray that character on TV.

They work some holds in the early going and try to get across the idea that this is a serious wrestling match, and that’s very welcome considering that these “Diva” matches were often treated as afterthoughts. Perez catches Fox with some knees in the corner, which leads to Fox feigning injury in order to try and catch Perez unawares, but Perez manages to fend that off. However, the fight spills to the apron and Perez takes a trip into the ring post to give us the cut off. The crowd gets behind Perez whilst Fox works her over, and Perez does a decent job of selling everything. Perez is soon quickly making the comeback, working in a primal scream before hitting a wacky face first neck breaker move for the three count.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: MELINA PEREZ
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: This wasn’t terrible, although Fox was presented as kind of an afterthought here in the way the match was put together. Perez got a shine, Fox worked a little bit of heat, Perez shrugged that off, hit a couple of moves and just won. There was no real finishing stretch and the ending felt like it came out of nowhere. I suppose there’s nothing wrong with the babyface just hitting their move and winning without any additional bells and whistles, but on pay per view you kind of expect a bit more from what is supposed to be a big Title match. It almost felt like they had more match to do and they had to take it home early, as the patient start didn’t seem to sync up with the abrupt ending

Perez seems genuinely moved to have won the Title again, which is nice to see. You can say that the Divas belt didn’t have much prestige at the time, but at least the wrestlers fighting for it seemed to actually care about being Champion. Co-Women’s Champs Michelle McCool and Layla El come out to be annoying and beat up Perez, thus setting up an eventual unification bout for the belts that would last up till 2016 when they killed the Divas belt off and then brought in separate belts for both Raw and Smackdown. I was never really a big proponent of Lay-Cool as an act, as they very rarely got comeuppance because of McCool’s political connections and watching Heels consistently come out on top just tends to bore me.

Trace Adkinsis at ringside, as well as Marlon Wayans. I recognise the latter but not the former.

We get clips of what set up the next match. CM Punk and his goons tried to break Big Show’s hand on a recent episode of Smackdown in an effort to heat the issue up.

Match Three
Three on One Handicap Bout
The Straight Edge Society (CM Punk, Joseph Mercury and Luke Gallows) w/ Serena Deeb Vs The Big Show

This came about because Punk had his hair cut by Rey Mysterio Jr and started wearing a mask to hide it, but Big Show removed the mask, hence feud starting up. Punk pays homage to Greg Valentine by wearing a shirt bragging about injuring Big Show, the same way The Hammer did when he injured Wahoo McDaniel back in the day. Big Show quickly reveals that his hand is fine though, which kind of defeats the point of doing the heavy heat angle on Smackdown. Big Show easily manages to hold his own in the early going, with the idea being that Punk is letting the goons do all of the wrestling whilst he hides on the apron. Standard Heel cult leader stuff really. Big Show does finally manage to grab hold of Punk, but Punk manages to dodge a chop and that leads to Big Show hitting the steps by accident. All three Heels swarm Big Show following that and that appears to be the cut off.

Big Show does at least get some chants from the crowd when the bad guys all jump him, although it doesn’t sustain. Big Show’s selling is fine whilst he gets worked over and the Heels all look solid enough on offence, so it’s not a bad heat segment from a purely in-ring perspective, although the match itself does feel kind of flat. I wonder why they couldn’t have just given Big Show some partners and made this a six man tag match. You get two extra people a payday and the match as a whole would have probably been better. Big Show does eventually make the comeback, shrugging off the lackeys with reasonable ease. Punk fares better though and gets some knee strikes to put Big Show on shaky legs, leading to Mercury coming in for a double bulldog for two for the Heels. Punk ends up taking a spill to the floor and leaves his goons high and dry, leading to Big Show clobbering both Mercury and Gallows for the three count.

WINNER: BIG SHOW
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was okay, but it was yet another match tonight where it didn’t feel like we got something pay per view worthy. The work was fine and everyone performed their respective role properly, but this felt like something you’d get on an episode of SmackDown and not something you’d expect on what it supposed to be the second biggest show of the year. Big Show’s win didn’t even settle anything, as Punk and Show do the dramatic stare down post-match in order to set up another chapter in the feud

Kane w/ dramatic music monologues backstage in front of a casket until Sheamus interrupts him for a stare down. Sheamus asks to borrow the casket so that he put Randy Orton in it next. Kane doesn’t want to share his casket though and laughs off Sheamus’ bravado, although he does like his guts…especially if he can make them adorn the backstage area. This was a very silly segment, but it wasn’t boring at least.

Miz joins us to cut a promo on this wrestling pay per view we bought to watch wrestling on. The point of the segment is for Miz to confirm one way or another whether he will be on Team WWE against The Nexus later. Miz drones on, talking about how all of the WWE guys begged him to join the team (although we’re not supposed to think he’s telling the truth). The crowd more groans than boos for the majority of it. After much tedium; Miz finally agrees to be on the team. I’m just glad that we can move on with the show.

We get a dramatic hype package for the next match, complete with Gladiator-like music playing over it. I half expected Russel Crowe to show up at some point and start narrating things in his trademark gravelly voice, before then starting a fight with a stagehand for asking him to wrap it up.

Match Four
If someone runs in to help Sheamus, they’ll be suspended
If Orton loses, then he doesn’t get a rematch
Raw World Title
Champ: “The Celtic Warrior” Sheamus Vs “The Viper” Randy Orton

Sheamus had won the belt in a Fatal Four Way for the second time, with Orton being a natural challenger for SummerSlam due to his impressive overness with the fans. Nexus had helped Sheamus win the belt, hence why the match has the stipulation it does. They mostly keep things simple when it comes to offence here, focusing on brawling for the most part. Both wrestlers execute what offence they deliver well and the selling of both combatants is on point as well. Combined with an invested crowd, the elements come together in order to make this a solid World Title match with a decent steady build. I could see some finding it a bit too deliberate at points, but that’s a case of horses for courses and doesn’t reflect badly on the wrestlers themselves. Orton gets the better of things in the early going, mostly focusing on clotheslines, punches and stomps.

Sheamus eventually manages to fling Orton into the steps during one of the many forays to the ringside area though, and that appears to be the cut off, with Sheamus taking it to Orton back inside with his own punch and kick offence. The crowd stays with Orton whilst he sells, with Orton doing a good job of registering and selling all of Sheamus’ offence whilst showing that he’s still in the contest so that the crowd doesn’t have a reason to lose faith in him. Sheamus does some decent character work too, showing frustration that he can’t keep Orton down and also making sure to rile the crowd up when the situation allows for it. Orton eventually manages to catch Sheamus with a desperation suplex and that takes us to the comeback, with Orton hitting all the usual moves (back breaker, powerslam etc) in order to restore parity in the bout. The crowd remains very into Orton and it gives the match a good atmosphere.

We head into the closing stretch following Orton’s big comeback, with Orton busting out a nice Superplex for two in a good near fall. Sheamus replies with his own signature back breaker for a two count, as the momentum ebbs and flows as the bout travels to it’s conclusion. Orton actually gets to kick out of the Brogue Kick at one stage, which leads to a monster pop from the crowd and allows Sheamus to act all shocked and worried that one of his biggest weapons didn’t get the job done. Sadly the bout doesn’t get to have a pin fall or submission finish, as Sheamus shoves down the ref in his frustration at Orton’s kick out. Thus we’ll have to do this again sometime.

WINNER BY DQ: RANDY ORTON (SHEAMUS RETAINS)
RATING: ***

Thoughts: This was a solidly worked match that the crowd enjoyed, with the lame finish dragging things down a bit. It probably was a bit too soon to switch the belt and they had kind of booked themselves into a corner with the stipulation, so Orton winning in a screwy manner was probably the only finish they could do. Both wrestlers showed up to work for this one, with good intensity shown from both. It felt like an important pay per view level match, which was something this show had been missing thus far. It’s just a shame that they had to tack on such a disappointing finish.

Sheamus tries to beat down Orton following the match, but Orton fends the Champion off and delivers an RKO onto the announce table in order to get a measure of revenge for getting cheated out of the belt. These two would go on to feud for a couple more of pay per views until Orton moved on to feuds with Wade Barrett and CM Punk.

Match Five
Smackdown World Title
Champ: Kane Vs Rey Mysterio Jr

The story here was that The Undertaker had been laid out and put into a vegetative state, with Kane thinking for some reason that Rey Jr did it, hence a feud. Kane had also cashed in Money in the Bank on Rey in order to win the belt in the first place. Kane has a casket with him here, and he intends to stick Rey in there if he wins tonight. This is what you’d expect in the early going, with Rey using his speed to keep Kane on the backfoot whilst Kane tries to get his hands on the challenger. Both of these two know how to work the Big Vs Small formula, so it’s a perfectly watchable match as a result. Kane eventually manages to attack Rey before Rey can hit a high flying move, and that’s our cut off, with Kane destroying Rey with big power moves for the heat segment. Rey of course sells all of that really well, so the match continues to be well worked, even though some of the crowd reactions are a little bit flat at points.

Rey does keep trying to fight back once in a while, so it isn’t just Kane walloping him over and over, but the heat might perhaps go on a little bit too long at points, especially when you take into account the slightly flatter-than-usual crowd. Rey getting a move in here or there at least livens things up a bit. Rey eventually makes the comeback, getting some big high flying moves in order to get some near falls, although they aren’t quite getting the reaction you’d like them to. This could possibly be because the fans don’t really believe that Rey is capable of winning so they aren’t engaging with the near falls as much as you’d like them to. Kane eventually blocks the 619 and shoves Rey into the casket, but Rey fights his way out and goes for it again. Rey eventually connects with the 619, but he still can’t put Kane away. Kane decides he’s had enough of this mother freaking luchador on this Monday to Friday SummerSlam event, and swiftly boots Rey down before following up with the Choke Slam for three.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: KANE
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: Both of these two know how to play their respective roles efficiently, so this worked perfectly fine as a match. However, they never really kicked it into a higher gear and the crowd was pretty flat for it. You never really got the feeling that Rey was going to win and I think that bled into the crowd’s consciousness too, thus hampering the atmosphere

Kane tries to stick Rey in the dreaded casket following the match, but it turns out that Undertaker is in there. Taker looks like he’s going to beat up Rey, but instead he reveals that he believes that Rey wasn’t the assailant, and he instead goes after Kane. However, Taker has been weakened due to being in a vegetative state for so long, which means that Kane easily lays him out, beginning a run of Kane battering Taker on something like 3-4 pay per views.

SummerSlam Axxess is a thing. Cool!

Video package for the Main Event.

Main Event
Seven Vs Seven Elimination Match
Nexus (Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, Skip Sheffield, Michael Tarver and Darren Young) Vs Team WWE (John Cena, Daniel Bryan, Edge, Chris Jericho, Bret Hart, R-Truth and John Morrison)

Following the first series of NXT they decided to turn all of the rookies into a Heel stable and had them batter John Cena in a strong angle. Sadly for Daniel Bryan he attacked Justin Roberts and choked him with a tie, which WWE found to be going too far and thus he was sacked for it. The fans obviously thought this was exceptionally unfair and spent plenty of shows chanting for him, so WWE decided to bring him back here as a replacement for the injured Great Khali to give Team WWE a full quotient of seven guys to take on the rookies. There was also an additional storyline where Heel Jericho and Edge didn’t like Cena, with it being teased that it might end up leading to tension. The match itself was built up really well and they did a good job of making Nexus look like a threat whilst hiding some of their greener members.

Miz comes out before the match starts to be the seventh man, but Cena shoots him down and says it will be Bryan instead, which is an extra slap in Miz’s face considering that Bryan was his rookie on NXT. As a big Miz fan, Cole is of course furious at Bryan’s inclusion. They quickly establish Bryan as a threat as he taps out Young with the LeBell Lock to eliminate him for a pop.

Darren Young Eliminated by Daniel Bryan (1) – LeBell Lock

Team WWE keeps doing well in the early going, with Morrison eliminating Tarver (One of the weaker guys in the match) with the Starship Pain.

Michael Tarver Eliminated by John Morrison (1) – Starship Pain

This is all done so that Sheffield (The Ryback) can come in and look like a monster for a bit. He does well in that role due to his size and he has some decent poise too. Morrison sells Skip’s offence well and it leads to crowd getting behind him as it looks like he’ll make a comeback, only for Gabriel to cheap shot him so that Sheffield can eliminate him with a clothesline. R-Truth goes almost straight after too, in order to make Sheffield look like an absolute tank.

John Morrison Eliminated by Skip Sheffield (1) – Clothesline

R-Truth Eliminated by Skip Sheffield (2) – Clothesline

This has been worked well for the most part, with them keeping the greener Nexus guys limited to what they can do and allowing Sheffield to look strong without needing him to do anything overly taxing or difficult. Bret finally gets tagged in and he tees off on Slater with punches. Slater sells all of that well and doesn’t really get to respond due to Bret not really being allowed to take bumps because of his previous health issues. Bret actually looks a bit like John Zandig here with his slapdash wrestling gear. They work a way of getting him out of the match without having to take any bumps, as the Nexus bring in a chair and he takes control of it before attacking Sheffield for the DQ.

Bret Hart Eliminated by DQ

The crowd are annoyed at that, but they really didn’t have much choice when it came to ways for Bret to get eliminated and it at least gives Sheffield an out for his upcoming elimination, as Edge and Jericho hit him with their finishing moves to send him to the showers.

Skip Sheffield Eliminated by Edge (1) – Spear after a Chris Jericho Codebreaker

This has been a well-structured match thus far and it’s told a good story too. Slater, Gabriel and Barrett are the three most competent Nexus guys in the ring, so it makes sense that you’d want them in the final four and they should be good enough to carry the rubbish Otunga. They’ve protected Sheffield well with his segment, as they gave him two pins before using a chair shot and two finishers to get rid of him, whilst they were smart to limit the likes of Tarver to spots in the early going so that he couldn’t drag it down when it reached the business end. Edge takes some heat, which the Heel side do a good job with, but he manages to DDT Otunga and then tag in Jericho, who momentarily switches back to his old babyface persona to run wild and tap out Otunga for a big pop.

David Otunga Eliminated by Chris Jericho (1) – Walls of Jericho

Jericho seems to be enjoying the fact he can be a Face again and the crowd is into it too. However, babyface miscommunication between him and Cena leads to Slater catching him with a neck breaker to eliminate him.

Chris Jericho Eliminated by Heath Slater (1) – Neckbreaker

Edge and Cena argue following that, which leads to Slater rolling Edge up to eliminate him too, causing Edge and Jericho to put the boots to Cena before leaving in disgust.

Edge Eliminated by Heath Slater (2) – School Boy

So Cena is now hurt and Team WWE is two on three. This is another example of how well-structured this match is, as they keep upping the ante and building the drama. It’s been booked and paced perfectly so far. Cena gets to sell for a bit, which is all building to a big Bryan hot tag segment, as they’ve made him look like a star with the booking here. He eventually gets it and runs wild with some nice stuff on Slater. Slater has been a bumping and selling machine throughout this match and has done a fantastic job. Bryan once again looks like a star and the crowd his behind him. The LeBell Lock follows on Slater and The One Man Band uncles, but whilst the ref is getting Slater out of the ring, a bitter Miz comes down and attacks Bryan with his Money in the Bank briefcase, which allows Barrett to pick the bones for three.

Heath Slater Eliminated by Daniel Bryan (2) – LeBell Lock

Daniel Bryan Eliminated by Wade Barrett (1) – Miz attack

Barrett and Gabriel get some more heat on Cena now, with Barrett even giving him a DDT on the concrete outside the ring. Sadly this is where the match comes undone, as they decide to go with the heroic last gasp win for Cena, whereas a finish of Cena bravely fighting, on only to be eventually defeated, would have been the better end to this particular chapter and would have created more interesting storyline directions. Gabriel misses a 450 splash attempt and Cena is able to nab a pin on him, which would be absolutely fine if Barrett still went on to beat the exhausted and beaten down Cena like Andre The Giant did to Bam Bam Bigelow at Survivor Series 87. It would be a miserable flat ending, but it would have put heat on the Nexus and also allowed Cena to be gutsy with the last gasp Gabriel elimination. However, Cena instead counters whatever attack Barrett has planned into the STFU and Barrett taps to give Team WWE the win.

Justin Gabriel Eliminated by John Cena (1) – missed 450 Splash

Wade Barrett Eliminated by John Cena (2) – STFU

WINNERS: TEAM WWE
MOST ELIMINATIONS: JOHN CENA, SKIP SHEFFIELD, HEATH SLATER AND DANIEL BRYAN (2)
RATING: ***3/4

Thoughts: I know I regularly complain about the “LolNwoWins” finish WCW used to do all the time, but even I’ll concede that it was essential in the early stages of the storyline for the nWo to win a lot so as to establish them as a credible Heel threat. The problem was that, after WCW established them as that credible Heel threat, they then continued to have the nWo beat on the WCW guys like a drum until they were no longer credible babyfaces. Nexus needed to win here and they lost a lot of steam with the defeat, especially considering they had the two on one advantage in the closing stages. As a match; it was structured perfectly all the way up to it being Barrett and Gabriel Vs Cena, which is when it went off the cliff. Up to that stage though they did a fantastic job here, with Bryan and Sheffield looking like stars, Bret getting to do some of his trademark spots to pop the crowd and the Edge/Jericho situation getting paid off logically. It’s just such a shame about the finish.

Is It Really A Stinker?

No I wouldn’t say SummerSlam 2010 is a stinker. Overall it’s just a very flat show, with a lot of the undercard feeling like something you’d see on Raw or SmackDown. SummerSlam is supposed to be one of WWE’s biggest shows, but this version of the event was sorely lacking in grandeur. Sheamus/Orton was a well-worked match that felt like it was pay per view quality (even though it had a rubbish finish) and the Main Event was suitably exciting and dramatic. With nothing on the show really being actively bad and two matches being good-to-great, that’s enough for a thumbs in the middle I think.

Final Rating – Odourless
(Ratings done on a scale of Stinker/Stinky/Odourless/Pleasant/Fragrant)