WWE Summerslam 2020 Thread

[I Bent My Wookie]

The newz sites all seem to think it's a heel turn, that the level of battering he gave two guys who had just had a battle was a heel turn. 

For me it's just Reigns reminding them this is his yard. I'd be happy if he just batters people for the premise he was away for 5 months or so and now he wants what was rightfully coming to him. 

[Statto]

He's a face I'd say. Both Wyatt and Strowman are heels coming out of their feud, IMO. Guessing they may go triple threat which positions Roman as the face.

[tiger_rick]

It'd be peak WWE to finally turn the top babyface heel after 15 years just when there are no fans to react.

[andrew "the ref" coyne]

PLUS WWE pumped in cheers. So when you can literally control the audience response, no way is he a heel.

[BomberPat]

Watched some of this last night, spoiler-free. Ended up falling asleep during Sasha vs. Asuka, waking up to see who won, and then drifting off again until the main event, and missing most of that too. Not in any hurry to go back in and fill in the blanks.

Bayley vs. Asuka was fine, but I don't remember much of it after the fact. I was surprised that the show just opened straight into the first match, rather than any real chance to show off what the "ThunderDome" was capable of. I'm a firm believer that wrestling's biggest boom periods are kicked off by changes to presentation and production at least as much as by individual star power, and while I didn't see ThunderDome having quite that much of an impact, I saw it as at least having the potential to freshen up a TV show that's been stale for over a decade. That it became clear very early on that they were just using it as an audience surrogate, and making no effort to change how they operate, was a disappointment, as was the piped in crowd noise - it was just a dull murmur all the way through, it didn't peak at finishers or near falls, so actually quite significantly took away from the show. Only WWE would use canned audience reactions that make the crowd sound thoroughly disinterested and not engaging with the show they're watching.

Street Profits vs. Andrade & Garza was fine, but Kevin Owens sounding extremely bored on commentary and cracking rubbish jokes was terrible, even alongside some of the worst commentary I've heard in years, even by WWE standards. With the exception of Angelo Dawkins, this just felt like a match full of people who deserve much better.

Mandy vs. Sonya had a fun spot with chairs being slid across a table, but otherwise was just sort of there. 

Rollins vs. Dominik could have been great. I find it hilariously that WWE act as if Mysterio is the family name (ANGIE MYSTERIO!), and Dominik put a real shift in. This was a match that really needed a crowd, though. It was built on spots to generate heat that wasn't there, and punctuated by brief moments designed to elicit a pop that wasn't coming. It was good, but really highlighted how much WWE just see the crowd as superfluous to what they do, in that it was structured around reactions even when there weren't any. Weirdest part of it all was Tom Phillips saying how important it was that this match was happening "15 years after Summerslam 2005", without explaining what was significant about Summerslam 2005 - and when he eventually did explain it, just saying that Dominik was "at ringside" to watch Rey vs. Eddie; not that he got involved in the match, or that the match was about who got custody of him, he just happened to be there watching. He did a Frog Splash, in tribute to that bloke he just happened to watch once. Why even bring it up?