Summerslam 2024 - August 3rd

[Supremo]

Honestly, these images are so sexy they should be classed as pornography. It’s not for everyone, but WWE have mastered giving those that enjoy their product exactly what they want.

Most fascinating thing was all those, “YEET!” chants near the end, just before Roman’s music hit. I thought Roman returning was the most obvious thing ever, but then you see something like this, where people are expecting Jey Uso instead, and you realise a large portion of their fanbase aren’t as chronically online or as switched on to the tropes and rhythms. Must be bliss. Imagine not expecting that music, only for it to hit! Fucking hell.

One final thing I really liked on this show; how fresh and different both Dom and Finn’s turns were. Whilst the big reaction came when Dom kissed Liv, I loved that he was already grinning like a prick as soon as Rhea had lost. You don’t see enough of that. He wasn’t waiting for the big, dramatic moment to reveal his true motivations. As a character within the fiction, he’d already achieved what he wanted, so had no reason to keep up the pretence.

Similarly, I loved that Damien had to use VAR to see what Finn did. Can’t remember the last time Instant Replay was used like that. Really clever. And then rather than having some big, dramatic moment where Finn costs him the match by hitting him with a chair or something, Damien cost himself the match trying to rip Finn’s eyeballs out, taking his focus off Gunther. Again, really smart, fresh way of doing it.

No wonder Hunter’s never got a proper answer when asked a proper question. Clearly spends all his spare time on the jet coming up with new, interesting ways to do heel turns. Man’s the biggest dork of us all.

They should open up Raw with JD McDonagh recreating this. Removal men slowly emptying the Club House. Soft piano music in the background.

[RedTwoster]

For me, more than anything else, this show demonstrates how unnecessary swerves are in wrestling storytelling. Pretty much every match had a predictable outcome, but seeing everything unfold was really satisfying.

We knew Dom would turn on Rhea, Gunther and Breakker wins seemed likely (and sensible) and we knew Roman was coming back. But none of that stopped me from wanting to see the show, or enjoying it to the point I’m buzzing for Raw and Smackdown to see what happens next. It’s remarkable really; we’re in a situation where Nia Jax and Liv Morgan are two of the main champions, and neither title run feels like a bad idea.

[FUM]

Cracking show.

I still need to call out Bloodline Rules though. It made no sense at WrestleMania and makes no sense now. If The Bloodline are making the rules then why allow the opponent to do what he likes and have who he likes interfere? Just call it a no disqualification and be done with it. In another gaping hole of logic, why does the Cody “back up” always wait till after a pin has been attempted - he could have lost the title because you didn’t fancy saving him 3 seconds earlier when a guy was pinning him.

That’s just my small gripes but it was a really good show and I’ll take those logic holes for face Roman Reigns that the entire crowd is behind all day. What a moment and they nailed the music. Had said to my mate earlier in the show that if he returned I wondered if they would change up his theme because his normal one isn’t really a big face save theme.

Agree on Dom and Finn’s turns, great stuff. I really liked Rhea and Damien together having banter on the kick off show so not entirely against those two remaining without the Judgment Day tag. One thing about Damien I loved was there was none of this “let me just finish my match” stuff there usually is when someone knows there has been an attempt to screw them. He spotted Finn again and went straight for him ultimately costing himself - brilliant.

[TheScarlettChad]

Solo crying like a little baby  perfectly shows off his character for what it is. Can't wait for Roman to slap him into place.

[d-d-d-dAz]

I wonder if they can work round to heel Cody v babyface Roman in the next year or two.

I'd enjoy that.

I love CM Punk, but his in-ring trunks look isn't a strong suit anymore. He looks like a Romesh Ranganathan type forced into doing a skit on League of their Own or something, whilst Jack Whitehall cackles with laughter in the corner.

Punk's still great, just not much aura in the trunks.

Roman is something else. Remarkable man 

Edited August 4, 2024 by d-d-d-dAz

[Supremo]

Like throwing up the Bat Signal. The Aura Signal. The fucking Man Signal. The hero we deserve. Said his name. He appeared. I believe in the Tribal Chief.

 

[AndyUK]

14 hours ago, AndyUK said:

Looking forward to this. Think there should be plenty of great moments even if the matches aren't amazing. 

I said that before the show and I think that is about right.

Really good show and absolutely full of big moments, you certainly can't accuse of it being a PPV where nothing happened and I love the new set of title holders they've got. Punk/Rollins, Reigns/Solo, Priest/Balor and Liv/Rhea 2 all scream like the sort of things they'd leave until Mania, so I'm interested to see what they actually do on RAW and Smackdown.

From a match perspective, Gunther v Priest was fantastic though. They did a great job with that entire feud to be fair because it looked like a cold heel v heel match, and they've now managed to turn Priest into what will be another fairly over babyface. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Gunther is amazing and fully deserves to be World Champion. I'd probably put LA Knight/Paul as a far away second.

Still hoping we get a proper Punk/Drew match, maybe inside HIAC. I was never that keen on the whole special referee stuff when they've never faced each other before so it was never going to be quite the match I wanted, but it was decent and I thought Punk looked good.

 

Edited August 4, 2024 by AndyUK

[NeverYield]

Great show imo, first one watched in its entirety for a while, Michael Cole had me laughing with his commentary at the Dom and Liv kiss, 

I watched most of the show until the boxing came on and finished the rest of the show this morning, some great moments, and good storytelling in the Drew vs Punk match. 

Edited August 4, 2024 by NeverYield

[DavidB6937]

Everyone's covered most stuff but yeah I thought I'd skip some of this but ended up watching the whole damn thing. Even the meh stuff was watchable. Predictable in the best ways as it all made sense and still hit the shock value. The temptation is to keep twisting and turning and surprising but the more you do that the less sense it makes. Here they followed through on stories properly.

Cody's entrance felt like the most Cody/WWE thing ever and yet I'm sat there like I'm a kid again absolutely fucking loving it. There's just something so wonderfully positive about the presentation in 2024 that I can really get behind.

Was that an upgraded Roman theme? It felt even more epic. Don't know if it was just the moment or what but yeah I wish I'd been there for that. Jeez. We're now in a timeline where people love John Cena and Roman Reigns turning up! 

[The Gaffer]

"I don't care about your stupid Sabu pants!"

"It's not always about me, but it'll never be about you!" 

Phil rules. Drag him and Seth out until WrestleMania. Seth can even ham into the half baked Sexy Boy gimmick as much as he wants. I'm actually dying to see that match. Cinema. Whatever. 

[DavidB6937]

I did enjoy the Judgement Day implosion but it doesn't help that I find Finn's angry face absolutely hilarious.

Also just makes me smile to see how much Randy is loving being back. Although him and KO really didn't want to run down that stupidly long entrance. Orton giving real Jeff Hardy saving Matt vibes. No rush.

 

 

Edited August 4, 2024 by DavidB6937

[Mr_Danger]

Randy’s slow jog made KO look like Linford Christie in comparison. I loved that he was high fiving fans as to make it look like he was intentionally going slow and not that he couldn’t be arsed sprinting half a mile.

Logan Paul is a twat but he’s a twat who hit a beautiful springboard moonsault to the outside. 
 

I love that a big part of this blood feud between Drew, Punk and Seth is that stupid fucking bracelet that my kids have made about 100 of in the last week alone. I also love that Punk lost because of it and Drew was still wearing it when he left. 

[MachoLibre]

3 hours ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

I wonder if they can work round to heel Cody v babyface Roman in the next year or two.

I'm not convinced they will, but Roman referring to Cody as a politician in the run-up to 'Mania was, I thought, some wonderful potential foreshadowing of that. Cody turning out to just be a false, all for the optics, out for himself politician feels like a great direction were he to ever turn. Don't think Cody ever wants to though, wants to be Cena for the remainder of his career probably. Reckon he'd be great at it though.

On the Punk aura thing, or lack thereof...nostalgia has to be his biggest ally here. Honestly, there must be 12 year old kids who've never seen anything else of him that have to be wondering what all the fuss is about. With everything and everyone else that is about now and would have been for them to be exposed to, Punk must seem incredibly average. I will never understand how he manages to hit that top rope elbow like such a sack of shit every time.

 

Good to see Big E being used on these kick-off shows. He's missed dearly and will help fill the void and cope with the withdrawal symptoms from Kayla's departure. He was hilarious regarding the bracelet angle with Punk basically going 'mate, c'mon. Its a crappy little bracelet, grow up.'

[Snitsky's back acne]

Who would have thought 5 years ago that WWE would be the company who excelled at compelling booking, matches that told stories and multi-layered storytelling.

Liv-Rhea was great, simple pro-wrestling. Liv was clearly outmatched but Rhea had the bad shoulder (I just wish three other matches didnt have wrestlers ramming their shoulders into the post but that's a minor gripe). Rhea's selling of heartbreak and anger post match was really effective, I thought, and Dom and Liv look set to be a brilliantly sleazy set of heels.

I wasn't a massive fan of Seth being interjected into the Punk-Drew match. I think it took away from it to be honest. I like the ongoing three-way storyline as it provides multiple different scenarios but after such a long and effective build I felt like a one-on-one No DQ grudge match should have been the way to go but, hey, that's why I'm not booking WWE.
It will be interesting to see where they go from here, however, so I am all in for that.

I'm hoping the Jacob Fatu injury was a work to keep him out of the Roman-Sola shenanigans at the end and it's amazing to see how effortlessly cool Roman is as a babyface after years of people rejecting him in that role. 

Overall though, a decent watch and I am looking forward to the further developments in the stories.

 

[DavidB6937]

Seen some Twitter folk saying its been ruined but I love it. Feels even more epic.