Drew McIntyre versus Randy Orton headlines.
WWE
The second biggest wrestling show of the year gives us an enormous main event to look forward to: Drew McIntyre defends his WWE Championship against Randy Orton. Since winning the title at WrestleMania, McIntyre has no hand especially major threats against his government. But with Orton came from his enormous win against Edge at Backlash, the veteran could conceivably put an end to McIntyre’s championship run.
And more good news: Asuka is challenging for not one, but two titles. She will take over Sasha Banks for the Raw Women’s Championship, and then Bayley for the SmackDown Women’s Championship. One of these will probably be great – and if we are lucky, both will be.
The show takes place in the WWE ThunderDome, an arena without physical fans but thousands of virtual fans tuned in via LED boards everywhere. Piped-in crowd noise replicates audience cheers – or at least try. The ThunderDome got a warm-up on SmackDown, but gets its first big show at SummerSlam.
Check back this page from when SummerSlam started (4 pm ET / 7 pm PT) because we will update with live results and analysis.
Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton
The WWE Championship game is next.
Asuka wins Raw Women’s Championship
Asuka outscored Sasha Banks to win the Raw Women’s Championship in by far the best game of the night so far.
The match followed the story from the opening match. Asuka’s leg was injured, so Banks went away for that. Just a moment in, Banks dropped a flashing solar-powered powerbomb at Asuka from the fork to the ground. However, the highlight of the match came when Banks and Asuka kept trading submissions – from Asuka Lock to Banks Statement, back and forth – leading to some astonishingly false finishes.
The actual finish came when Bayley tried to intervene, but grabbed a spinning forearm from Asuka. Banks tried to work the distraction, a mirror of the finish of the Bayley game, but Asuka serves in the Asuka Lock for submission.
Rating: 3.75 stars. Great start to end, if only it were longer.
Seth Rollins Pins Dominik Mysterio
As for the first matches, this was an excellent one for Dominik Mysterio. But as for the SummerSlam matches, this was too long, and had a little too much smoke and mirrors. With that said, the finish was stunning: Rey Mysterio was caught with the shackles on the ropes (some of the smoke and mirrors I mentioned), and watched as Rollins stoop knocked Dominik for the three counts.
Unlike Rey who was in handcuffs, this street fight also saw a comedy by Rey’s wife, Murphy’s interference, the widespread use of kendo sticks, and a place where both Dominik and Rollins were dragged through a table.
But the wrestling itself was average. It had to be: this was Dominik’s first match. Rollins is great, and Dominik did it super well, that was certainly not it min. It felt like a lot of filler between spots. It would have been stronger with a third of its length cut. That said, Dominik Mysterio will clearly be awesome.
Rating: 3 stars. Would have been better short, and certainly responded with a live audience to Dominik’s debut.
Mandy Rose defeats Sonya Deville
The WWE ThunderDome has introduced audio to replicate the sounds of a live audience. This match benefited greatly from that, because I’m sure it would have died for a lot of people. Mandy Rose got the win after hitting three running knuckles on Sonya Deville and then planting Deville with a family tree-face buster.
These two women worked hard, but it ended up being sloppy and a little boring. It was a no disqualification match, which ultimately meant breaking a lot of roundabouts, but not much in the way of spectacle. After the attack, Michael Cole bledingly states that Deville should not leave WWE, and struggles to care.
One side: It felt like this game was designed to show a tough side to Mandy Rose. That is a legitimate redemptive quality here, because it serves the purpose of the bolt. It was not exciting to watch, but it did succeed eat.
Rating: 1.5 stars.
Street wins hold Raw Tag Team Championships
Kevin Owens was out for comment for this match. Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins got the W after Ford hit a cruel Frog Splash on Angel Garza, who was with Andrade.
This match was a bit disjointed at points, but it was a solid tag match. Dawkins is a freak of an athlete, which makes it fun to see how he basically does everything. Andrade is an underrated performer, and was another highlight.
It started with Ford gaining the upper hand over Garza, but the bad guys quickly turned things around by doubling down and defeating Ford. Things picked up when Dawkins got the hottag and cleared the house. He had a strong – but too short – exchange with Andrade. Eventually, Andrade would be distracted when Zelina Vega was hit from the lead, allowing the Street Profits to get the pin on Andrade.
Rating: 2.5 stars. A simple but decent game.
Bayley beats Asuka
The main show began with Asuka’s first championship chance when she took Bayley to the SmackDown Women’s Championship. Bayley would eventually be saved by securing a rollup following Sasha Banks’ interference.
It was not a particularly good match. The story is that Bayley, towards the end, put the hurt to Asuka’s knee. This started with Bayley first throwing Asuka with the knee in the disc. They then followed up with some leg-based proposals. After the game, Banks and Bayley continued to beat Asuka.
In other words, this match was a warm-up for the Asuka versus Sasha Banks for the Raw Women’s Championship. That will probably be the better bolt. Bayley and Asuka do not really click here. There’s also the problem of Bayley’s misdeeds, which are often unconvincing. This was noticed here, where she applied some weak-minded “subject attitudes” that poor Corey Graves had to try to explain (“it’s a knuckle, sort of, but she doesn’t have it all …”)
Rating: 2.5 stars.
Apollo Crews holds championship in the United States
Crews defeated MVP in a short contest to retain his U.S. title. He punched MVP after a spinning powerbomb.
