After Hell in a Cell between Edge and a returning Undertaker was announced for SummerSlam, I knew I had to order it. In my mind, I think the Hell in a Cell Match was worth the $39.95 I paid. I knew that it would be good, but it turned out to be an epic. I will get to that after I give my opinions on the rest of the card.
MVP Vs. Jeff Hardy- A decent grudge match for the opening bout. I was surprised that MVP managed a win over Jeff considering that MVP has only won about one, possibly two matches since losing the U.S. Title at Backlash. I look forward to the impending Triple Threat Match for the U.S. Title between Benjamin, MVP, & Jeff. I suspect Benjamin to win if that match happens, as it’s a little early to be ending Benjamin’s reign.
Intercontinental & Women’s Championship: Winners Take All- I thought that this was a great comedy match. I kind of half-expected Santino Marella & Beth Phoenix (“Glamarella”) to win the belts, but I made my prediction for Kofi & Mickie to retain. I was unsure of how well a comedy duo holding the Intercontinental & Women’s Titles would do, so it should be interesting to see how this goes. Whenever they do lose the belts, I expect Santino to be at fault, even if the matches are one-on-one.
Shawn Michaels’ Announcement- This was one of the highlights of the night for me. It was way too predictable that Chris Jericho would “crash” Michaels’ time in the ring, but what I didn’t predict was that straight shot that Jericho gave to Michaels’ wife, Rebecca. It seems to me that this will keep Michaels wrestling at least for one more match. I still think that it’s in his best interest to “walk away” from WWE, but a retirement match sounds intriguing to me.
ECW Championship- It’s hard to believe and very easy to forget, but their was an ECW Title match on the card and it did happen. This was just bizarre to me. Having Matt Hardy hit the Twist of Fate on Mark Henry and then having a DQ ending within a few seconds of the match starting was dissappointing to me. I was hoping the two would put on a good match at one of the WWE’s biggest pay-per-views. For those who haven’t watched the batch of WWE.com Exclusives, Theodore Long informed Matt that he would be getting a rematch against Mark Henry for the ECW Title this Tuesday on ECW. It seems like they are trying to draw people who seen SummerSlam to watch ECW. Even in the rematch, I imagine Mark Henry will retain, though Matt winning the belt would be a nice surprise. After what happened at SummerSlam, I expect to see The Hardys teaming up to face Mark Henry & Tony Atlas at Unforgiven.
World Heavyweight Championship- Pretty much a standard match for a RAW show, the only problem was that it was SummerSlam, not RAW. I was pretty much bored from the ECW Title Match to the closing moments of Cena Vs. Batista. Anyways, CM Punk retaining was a no-brainer. Had he not already defended the title against JBL in his first defense on June 30, I might have questioned whether or not he would keep the belt. Punk got quite the nasty cut on his head too (you can see it up close on WWE.com). I hope they add a stipulation to it, but it seems as though Punk will face Batista for the title at Unforgiven.
WWE Championship- About what you would expect from a match between Triple H & The Great Khali. You have to feel sorry for Trips for having to carry Khali through that match. Triple H was selling for almost the entire duration of the match, but him hitting the Pedigree did not look near as bad as I thought it would. I hope this is the last we see of Khali, but I fear it won’t be.
John Cena Vs. Batista- I’ve stated countless times that I hate both of these individuals, but Batista is the lesser of two evils in my mind. Batista can actually do pretty good with a lot of his spots. This match just bored me to death for the longest time, but about the time that Batista caught Cena off the leg drop and powerbombed him, the match picked up for me. Batista using the Figure-4 was impressive for a man his size, even if his rear naked choke looked horrible. It takes a lot of effort to make a submission move look worse than the STF-U but the rear naked did that. Still, as I predicted, Batista won the bout. As I said above, I expect Batista to face Punk for the title at Unforgiven.
Hell in a Cell- This match was incredible, to say that it was the best match on the card would be a monumental understatement. It had a ton of incredible spots and surpassed anything I expected from it. The only thing that could have made it better was Edge & Undertaker fighting on top of the Cell. Seeing one or both busted open would’ve been good too (even though ‘Taker did get his forearm cut on that spear through the Cell). Both of these great talents had their own series of unbelievable moves. Edge spearing Undertaker through the side of the Cell was awesome, but it was topped by Edge running across all three announce tables and spearing ‘Taker through the ECW Announce Table. Undertaker had some great spots too. Him chokeslamming Edge through the two tables was awesome and looked awesome (even though the camera caught Edge nodding his head “yes” to tell Undertaker he was ready). Using the spear and con-chair-to was a nice touch, but him chokeslamming Edge off the top of the ladder through the ring to “hell” was incredible. After the rest of the SummerSlam card, I knew this match had to deliver and it absolutely rocked. Now I look forward to where this Edge situation goes and where Undertaker goes from here. I think it is interesting that Triple H and Undertaker are on the same brand, despite their differences with each other. I still think that seeing them have a match for the WWE Title would be a classic.
I will more than likely be posting another blog after tonight’s RAW. Peace.
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