WWE SummerSlam 2020: Reactions & Review

Here are my final thoughts on Raw and SmackDown Live’s WWE SummerSlam 2020!

Apollo Crews (c) vs. MVP (WWE United States Championship; Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin are Banned from Ringside)

Reactions: This was as basic as it comes, honestly. Apollo Crews and MVP pretty much went through the motions here and didn’t do anything that brought this match’s quality past a level of decent. The work here was clean, but it was far from memorable and any different from anything you’d watch on an average episode of RAW. MVP would be better off refocusing on his manager shtick and leave the in-ring competition to his two Hurt Locker comrades instead. Hopefully, we get something like Ricochet or Cedric Alexander vs. Crews in the near future.

Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars

Bayley (c) (with Sasha Banks) vs. Asuka (WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship)

Reactions: Bayley and Asuka kicked things off with a spirited affair full of action-packed spots that were never tripped up by bouts of slowdown. Asuka held her opponent down in the first half, then Bayley took aim at her rival’s leg for much of the second half. Bayley locked in all types of submission holds and found a way to make those spots come off as interesting as possible. There was never a lull in the action since both women didn’t stay down long enough to halt the excitement on hand here. That’s not to say that they neglected to sell the damage done to them – it’s just that they found clever ways to keep their match enticing all the while. This was a fun way to officially kick off the first-ever ThunderDome PPV for WWE.

Rating: 3 & a Half out of 5 Stars

The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) (c) vs. Andrade and Angel Garza (with Zelina Vega) (WWE Raw Tag Team Championship)

Reactions: I wanted so much more from this! As soon as this match was ready to get kicked up a notch, it came to an end. I wasn’t a fan of Zelina Vega being checked on by Andrade being the reason why Angel Garza took the pinfall loss here. If they pushed that moment to a further point during this match, it wouldn’t have irked me so much. But the fact that it cut something that was on the path of reaching very good status disappointed me. Everything that happened before that lame ending was quite entertaining. Both teams competed at a nice pace and kept it up throughout. I want to see this match again with at least 10 more minutes tacked onto it without any silly outside distractions. Payback rematch, perhaps?

Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

Mandy Rose vs. Sonya Deville (No Disqualification, Loser Leaves WWE Match)

Reactions: Yeah…this was no good. Mandy Rose being unable to put up a table was the earliest sign of this match being downright trash. Then both women proceeded to engage in some of the most boring strike exchanges I’ve ever seen and further put me to sleep. For such a great feud, this isn’t the type of match that should have brought it to an end. Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville certainly tried their best, but everything they did just look sloppy and wholly unconvincing. Otis and Mandy’s post-match celebration was cringeworthy as well, which is fitting considering how atrocious everything was that came before it. Didn’t think this year’s SummerSlam was going to serve up a Worst Match of the Year candidate, but them’s the breaks.

Rating: 1 out of 5 Stars

Dominik Mysterio (with Rey Mysterio) vs. Seth Rollins (with Murphy) (Street Fight)

Reactions: Shout out to Seth Rollins for the ultimate drip he displayed tonight with his attire. I SEE YOU, PASTOR ROLLINS! Definitely got Halloween Havoc 1997 vibes from his slick getup (look up Rey Mysterio’s gear from that WCW event to see what I’m alluding to). Dominik Mysterio’s costume was pretty fly, too. Plus Murphy’s black and gold gear was pretty easy on the eyes. Everyone looked extra clean tonight! This was a decent debut for Rey’s up and coming luchador son. It’s easy to look good when you’re pitted against someone as good as Rollins, but I still have to give credit to Dominik for holding up his end of the bargain here.

I wasn’t a fan of all the moments where Seth and Murphy diverted their attention to Rey and his wife, however – it brought the match to a screeching halt as we were forced to deal with a whole lot of passionate screaming from Rey. I get why it was done, but it took away from the match for me. The Kendo Stick-assisted Russian Leg Sweep through the table was a dope spot, but the repeated Kendo Stick shots easily annoyed me. I enjoyed parts of this match, but it was hampered by some over the top drama and repetitive action. At least everyone looked great when it came to their attire, though. Plus Dominik looked pretty promising, so that’s another plus.

Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

Sasha Banks (c) (with Bayley) vs. Asuka (WWE Raw Women’s Championship)

Reactions: This was miles ahead of the match we got between these two ladies at Extreme Rules. The action we got here came off a lot better since there were hardly any botches, plus Bayley’s interference made far more sense this time around. Sasha Banks and Asuka’s strong chemistry was readily apparent as everything they did looked crisp.

Sasha sold her ass off here as Asuka laid into her with stiff kicks and submissions, while Asuka also sold her pain efficiently as Sasha worked on her weakened leg at certain intervals of the match. The middle to closing stretch of this bout was full of intense submission exchanges and impactful moves (that top-rope DDT from Asuka to Sasha and that double knee drop counter from Sasha to Asuka were both pretty hype). Sasha and Asuka worked one of their better-contested matches here. Kudos to them for that.

Rating: 3 & a Half out of 5 Stars

Drew McIntyre (c) vs. Randy Orton (WWE Championship)

Reactions: I definitely enjoyed this. Not only did this match feature some pretty brutal action, but it also featured some cool callbacks to Randy Orton’s past transgressions against WWE legends. Orton’s desperate attempts to land an RKO played into the beginning of this title match and it ended up leading to a shocking outcome when all was said and done. The in-between action that transpired between both men built up quite well to produce an exciting closing half full of smart counters.

Orton’s slow-paced dissection of Drew McIntyre wasn’t incredibly exciting but Drew managed to wake me up once he got control of his slithery foe. And as expected, Orton pulled out his far more interesting offensive maneuvers when the time was right. Judging by the shocking manner in which Drew attained victory here, it’s pretty clear that a Payback rematch is in order. Slap a special stipulation onto it and I’m sure we’ll get something close to (or even better) than what we got here. Fine work from both men tonight.

Rating: 3 & a Half out of 5 Stars

Braun Strowman (c) vs. “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt (Falls Count Anywhere Match for the WWE Universal Championship)

Reactions: I haven’t enjoyed this feud at all. It’s been run into the ground and the matches we’ve gotten from both men have ranged from mediocre to downright terrible. This one fell right into the mediocre category for me. This was obviously the best match they’ve had thus far, but that’s not really saying much. We got a whole bunch of powerslams from Bruan Strowman and plenty of uninspired brawling mixed in.

I’ve been over “The Fiend” act ever since he got demolished by Goldberg, so you can see why I didn’t really care for this main event. The exposed wooden ring boards playing into the finish didn’t even excite me one bit. I see why this got the main event spot – Roman Reigns’ post-match beatdown of both men had to close the show. And I actually got a kick out of seeing him onscreen again, so at least there’s that. The match as a whole didn’t do a whole lot for me, though.

Rating: 2 & a Half out of 5 Stars

Match of the Night

Sasha Banks vs. Asuka!

Final Verdict

I definitely appreciated the change in scenery for this year’s SummerSlam – the ThunderDome arena looks awesome and should give the WWE roster an extra pep in their step for the coming months. As for the event itself, its quality was all over the place.

The Kickoff Show match was completely by the numbers, both women’s title matches were fun affairs, Mandy/Sonya was dumpster truck juice bad, the tag team match ended right before it started getting really good, Dominik’s first WWE match was okay, Drew/Orton was a good time, and the main event was pretty much a bore. WWE used the tagline “you’ll never see it coming,” which got me excited about the shocking debuts and run-ins that could have occurred here. While all we got was the return of Roman Reigns, it came off well at least. SummerSlam 2020 was a solid show, but its sore spots were especially hard to overlook.

Final Score: 3 out of 5 Stars

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