This felt like an old school MSG show without the fun of nostalgia. It was a showcase of the WWE roster and the fun stuff they do but nothing high-end outside of Usos/New Day and the main event. About 40 minutes of good wrestling in six ungodly hours is not great.
A lot of matches got crazy time, and I am all for long matches in theory but nobody really pulled it off well outside of the two mentioned above. Most of these matches had a couple minutes of “THIS RULES!” and then a lot of “ffffuuuucccckkkkk…”
Just not a very well-paced show. The four (actually, SIX!!) hour gimmick sounds neat and it’s nice to try and get everybody on the show but when you have to send Enzo Amore out there to kill 10 minutes maybe you should re-think some things.
I loved some parts of this show, liked some other parts, but it just wasn’t very interesting, especially for how lengthy it was. Nothing outside of the main felt unique and a lot of the matches just blended together. Plus, a lot of these solid pro wrestlers don’t have much momentum, which kills the buzz a bit.
Anyways. I watched this with a few pals so there’s going to be very little analysis, just general feeling and reaction. Kind of think that can be a better indicator of what was actually really really good – some of these matches I just have nothing to say about, and that probably says something.
The mass of people being let into the building late made for a very awkward start to the show, just like WrestleMania 32 where Kalisto and Ryback tried to kill it in front of 45 screaming fans. C’mon guys, you spend a whole weekend gushing over what a global multimedia enterprise you are and you still can’t get the folks in on time.
0. The Hardy Boyz & Jason Jordan vs. The Miz & The Miztourage w/ Maryse
Just a sad start for all these fellas, with like 10% of the occupants in the building. Kind of loved watching them work a 6-man for a big arena while nobody was there though. It was interesting, at least. But, felt bad – a superstar like THE MIZ playing to nobody, The Hardy Boyz doing their nostalgia spots to crippling silence. Work was solid but no good due to outside circumstances. Highly enjoyed Miz going after the lone guy in the sea of chairs post-match though. *3/4
0. WWE Cruiserweight Title: Akira Tozawa [c] w/ Titus O’Neil vs. Neville
A solid match and a good showcase for these two with some impressive spots and fun work but it all just felt off. These two are a couple of my favorite guys to watch right now but this was the first of many matches on the card where the work was fun and they got their shit in but it rarely connected as an interesting match. A lot of Bobby Roode vs. Drew McIntyre-type matches on this card, so to speak. The King Lives. ***
Jerry Lawler getting serious for the first time in forever to straight-up shoot on Peter Rosenberg’s Bobby Heenan jacket was something else. Incredible.
Elias KILLED IT. Amazing performance, real heat-seeking stuff. Guy is such a wonderful turd. His promo getting way over felt like the true beginning of SummerSlam.
0. SmackDown Tag Team Title: The New Day (Big E & Xavier Woods) w/ Kofi Kingston [c] vs. The Usos
Love a New Day in Brooklyn promo, always wonderful stuff. This was a fantastic tag team wrestling match – any match that can get a bunch of friends gathered together BSing to shut up and freak out over the professional wrestling is something special. Big E and Xavier Woods are two guys who don’t get credit as fellas who are capable of epic tags. And The Usos have been awesome FOREVER, it’s getting ridiculous. They’ve got a formula down but it’s a rollercoaster of a formula filled with huge saves, major spots, great surprises. The tag work here early was solid engaging stuff – New Day run, beatdown, etc etc – and the last 10 of this was SO up-and-down edge-of-your-seat incredible. ****1/4
Three heels won on the Kickoff!
The HBK KFC thing was peak wrestling. No complaints.
1. John Cena vs. Baron Corbin
This was a Big Match John match, it’s the GOAT doing his thing but you’ve seen it all before – teardrop suplex, five-knuckle, superplex struggle. Corbin looks like he belongs, but nothing beyond that, sort of like a Jinder. Did like his random bursts of aggression and attitude, and freakin’ adored John doing spots with JBL’s cowboy hat 5 minutes into SummerSlam. John taking the Deep Six sure was cool. Oh and Baron took his shirt off!! ***1/4
Michael Che and Jeff Ross front row! SWEET! I saw Michael Che at a Zanies in Rosemont once. He wished me a happy birthday. It was cool.
2. SmackDown Women’s Title: Naomi [c] vs. Natalya
This was a very long wrestling match. It was a fine grappling contest for what it was but it just kept going. A 4-hour wrestling show just doesn’t need a Natalya abdominal stretch spot, yanno? Cool enough finish with the struggle for the Sharpshooter. Natalya is champ now, assume we have a very Charlotte and Becky-filled fall in the women’s division on SmackDown and they needed a heel to lead the way. If Road Dogg tells Naomi she’s putting over Tamina in a couple weeks she should walk out. **1/2
3. Big Show vs. Big Cass (Enzo Amore in a Shark Cage)
Seriously, how long was that Enzo Amore promo? I’ve defended Enzo longer than most but the bloom is off the damn rose, my word. Big Show selling his injured hand here on EVERYTHING (between moves, climbing the post) made for a smart but boring match. The Enzo cage escape spot was kind of fun but wasn’t saving this bore-fest. **
4. Randy Orton vs. Rusev
Poor RuRu. I guess the fans high-fiving after Randy’s 5-second win made it all worth it. Or did it? Fuck. Cena and Orton over Corbin and Rusev – it’s a trope at this point to complain about this stuff but sometimes ya just have to say MY GOODNESS. Honestly though, this match might have been the best use of time on this show. N/A
5. RAW Women’s Title: Alexa Bliss [c] vs. Sasha Banks
What was the deal with Sasha’s weird-ass entrance gear? Excited to hear that story on Talk is Jericho next year. This was a little less intense than the Great Balls of Fire classic but this is two gals with HEAT just throwing themselves at each other. That Alexa elbow, man! It was another one that maybe didn’t need to go so long, as it dragged a bit with Alexa in control for long stretches, but I still dug the hell out of this match. Another surprise finish with the Sasha win. ***1/4
6. “The Demon” Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt
Welp, they followed up a bunch of good not great matches with an OK not exactly good match. The Demon stuff is fun, dug the pose-off. Balor looked alright flying all around, and glad the Demon got a real decisive victory over Wyatt – but this feud was uninteresting from the start and the chemistry just isn’t there. **1/2
7. RAW Tag Team Title: Cesaro & Sheamus [c] vs. Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose
The Cesaro beach ball spot made this damn show. This was another good uninteresting match for a while and then it actually got pretty dang epic. It may have been the four and a half hours of wrestling delirium setting in but the finish felt very mid-90s All Japan-like, with guys just diving for desperate saves and the crowd biting on everything. Not going to say it got there, as none of these four have a character and presence established enough to get anywhere near it, but I still had a good time. AWESOME set-up for the finish. ***1/2
8. WWE U.S. Title: AJ Styles [c] vs. Kevin Owens (Special Guest Referee: Shane McMahon)
These guys had their working boots on but there is something about this pairing that just isn’t clicking for me these days. They had an epic right after AJ debuted on RAW back in March 2016 and have had SO many good not great matches since. This was probably their best outing since that match – high energy, sweet counters, lightning-fast exchanges, AJ working his ass off – but it still wasn’t anything amazing, and with the hype these guys always get that’s pretty disappointing. Didn’t help that they had to hard-sell the guest ref gimmick. For every fun spot they did with Shane there was a forced goofy one too. I dunno, KO. Love the shit talk. Love the person. But wish he adapted to doing more interesting character stuff as opposed to Guy Who Tries to Keep Up With Cruiserweights or Guy Who Does a Lot of Chinlocks. Might be reading too much into things but AJ looked legit pissed post-match, as if he tried real hard and it just wasn’t working. ***1/2
9. WWE Title: Jinder Mahal [c] w/ The Singh Brothers vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
The Nakamura entrance at Barclays was incredible and a top 5 moment of this show for me. The violin, Nak bringing the BIG MATCH MANNERISMS, the crowd chanting along to his song. But then the match started and it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo just fine. Nakamura did some fun enough stuff – dug him booting Jinder to the outside especially – but this was more Jinder time-killing, just working the basic-ass match that D-Von Dudley or some other asshole told him he had to do. I’m not in any way mad or disappointed that Jinder won, but I am mad and disappointed at the lazy way they did it. Totally understand building up a legit hateable heel but the pride WWE seems to have in shocking fans into disappointed silence seems odd. **1/2
10. If Brock Lesnar Loses, He Leaves WWE – Fatal 4-Way Match – WWE Universal Title: Brock Lesnar [c] w/ Paul Heyman vs. Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe vs. Braun Strowman
The month of August 2017 provided me everything I love about the professional wrestling. It had the New Japan crew crushing it with the matwork, stiff strikes, and insane hot finishes. And it had the WWE crew crushing it with the absolute big fight main event level mainstream-worthy hoss INSANITY. What a FUCKING MATCH THIS WAS. It made every god damn second of the five and a half hours leading up to it worth it. I wanted to rip my god damn shirt off during this and scream to the sky like some Norse god.
There were three things I loved about this – the chaos, Brock Lesnar, and Braun Strowman somehow becoming an even bigger wrestling superstar.
First of all, it was absolutely brilliant beautiful chaos, like the best ever ROH Four Corner Survival times a thousand. Every time there was a big huge spot, Joe would grab someone in a choke or come at them with a tope. In the middle of all the chaos, Joe vs. Reigns continued to be awesome. Brock took a spear from Roman and barely freakin’ budged. Brock Lesnar was somehow sympathetic (more on this in a sec). You had Heyman’s amazing intro, the hot Barclays crowd. The story of all four guys since WrestleMania has been some of the best stuff WWE has done since The Shield came in, and this was the wild collision all that story promised. I just love it when a plan comes together.
And how about Brock FUCKING Lesnar? Say what you will about part-time Brock – guy came to play tonight. The action in this match was tons of fun but he made it epic with a seriously genius performance. You can tell Braun is a guy he legitimately wants to put over – he took a powerslam through a table TWICE, they kicked each others asses, they did the big table flip-over spot that was sold so well (Heyman’s NOOOO, the overhead shots), Brock had himself a return from a stretcher job like he was Terry freaking Funk, Brock jumped on Braun with a Kimura like he was suddenly Inoki battling Andre or some shit. And for fuckssakes – BROCK COULDN’T GERMAN BRAUN!! Most importantly he was selling his ASS off the whole match, from his facial expressions of amusement to curiosity to fear, and his absolute EXHAUSTION towards the end, as if the beast had finally met his match and wasn’t sure what to do about it.
Braun meanwhile was THE GUY here and stepped up. Love seeing a star being born. It can always be messed up, it probably will be at some point, but what a ride to the top this has been. Outside of the interactions with Brock, he did SO MUCH GREAT STUFF. My favorite spot of this amazing match might have been Roman trying to clothesline Braun over the top (a typical WWE 4-way spot) and Braun not going over and just TOSSING Roman away. The freakin’ toss of the steps into the ring like they were nothing, the double chokeslam to Joe and Reigns, the crazy bump he took when he did go over the top – Braun has been a made man for a while but somehow they made him even more. It wasn’t just the presentation of him as a star, it was all the cool things he pulled out that prove he’s legitimately become a very good professional wrestler.
Part of me is like – hey, they had the luxury of all the tricks. It was the main event! WWE seemingly gave up on promoting anything else but this and like 2 other things! There were broken tables and barricades and stretcher jobs and Brock Lesnar! But god damn, man. I think a lot, sometimes too much, about how I want the pro wrestling to be, what heights I want it to reach. This reached them. It might have actually surpassed them. *****
A great pair of matches, everything else right in the middle though. Six hours, man. Six hours. 5/10
