Random Thoughts on the History of SummerSlam

Bigpapa42 · 06-10-2009, 11:10 AM

I should have SS 03 posted pretty soon. And yeah, not a real enticing show overall. And SS 04 hasn't exactly made up for it, based on what I've watched so far.

Bigpapa42 · 06-10-2009, 11:19 AM

SummerSlam 2003
Disc 16

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Important Matches

Eddie Guerrero d. Tajiri, Rhyno + Chris Benoit – WWE United States title match

Kurt Angle d. Brock Lesnar – WWE Championship match

Triple H d. Goldberg, Nash, Michaels, Jericho + Orton - Elimination Chamber match for the WWE World Heavyweight belt

Random Thoughts

-hey, we actually get the same commentators as last year – Tazz and Cole for Smackdown with JR and Lawler for Raw.

-the opener is La Resistance against the Dudley Boyz, with the WWF tag belts on the line. This hardly lives up to some of the great tag matches from the first few SummerSlam's. Neither team does much for me and the match is rather forgettable.

-a little segment between Christian and Eric Bischoff. Bischoff is wrestling tonight... Christian isn't... Ugh.

-The Undertaker takes on A-Train. A-Train has Sable with him... Sable is nice but the rest of the match is meh. I can't really explain exactly why, but I run hot and cold on the UT's American badass gimmick. I'm kinda cold on it here and A-Train never did much for me. Throw in Stephanie McMahon coming out and the match just doesn't do much for me.

-a match between Eric Bischoff and Shane McMahon. I understand why they do these matches with non-wrestlers, but they tend to annoy me. Even as much as its impressive the risks and bumps that Shane takes, its still something I'd rather not see. This one is a pure mess as Coach intervenes, only for Bischoff to make the match “no disqualification” and “falls count anywhere”. It gets worse as JR and King are taken off commentary and Coach does the commentary in-ring... then Stone Cold comes out and ends up beating the hell out of Coach... After a coast-to-coast onto the Spanish announcer's table, Shane gets the win and ends the cluster-fuck of a match.

-a four-way for the United States championship. Its Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Rhyno, and Tajiri. Benoit and Guerrero make this interesting but Rhyno and Tajiri a bit less so. Its a fun match for having four guys in there. Tajiri is a bit more fun than I remember, while Rhyno still doesn't appeal to me a great deal. The dual-submission attempts by Guerrero on Tajiri and Benoit on Rhyno is kinda cool. Guerrero retains. Decent match that feels pretty messy too.

-the WWE Championship is up next, with Kurt Angle defending against Brock Lesnar. This one intrigues me to a large degree. It delivers for the most part. Love the way that Angle works over Lesnar's shoulder and looks to be stalking him through part of the match. If Angle could still work matches like this on a regular basis, I would probably be a lot more intrigued by TNA. Angle makes Lesnar tap twice to the Ankle Lock.

-the recently unmasked Kane takes on Rob van Damn. Man, did those fans love RVD. Its a No Holds Barred match, and its not bad at all. RVD is just plain fun to watch. Still wish they never would've unmasked Kane, though.

-the main event is the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE World title. Its champion Triple H, Goldeberg, Chris Jericho, Randy Orton, Kevin Nash, and Shawn Michaels. I can understand the appeal of the Elimination Chamber, but its never been a favorite of mine. Shockingly, Nash is gone first. I had almost forgotten he had run in the WWE between WCW and TNA. Goldberg cleans house, and Triple H gets a sledgehammer from Ric Flair to use on Goldberg to get the win. Replace Goldberg and Nash and this one really does feel like a match you could see today... and likely with Triple H winning in a similar manner...

-overall, a decent but still forgettable show. No amazing matches. Nothing that I would say is definitely going to be enjoyed to the point where you should run out to see in on DVD. Not terrible either. Just meh. I feel the same way about SS 03 as I do about SS 02... which I know is a bit weird because 02 definitely had some better matches.

Tommy Platinum · 06-10-2009, 11:32 AM

I actually liked the Chamber. I must be one of the only people who did. As much as I thought Goldberg vs Triple H was a bad feud, I really liked their (short) interaction in the Chamber. It just had a huge feel to it which is missing in WWE today, especially when Goldberg had just destroyed everybody else in the match and it was down to the two of them. I love it when JR says: "AND NOW WE ARE DOWN TO TWO, AND NOW WE ARE DOWN TO GOLDBERG AND THE REIGNING WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION". The whole thing just felt epic.. to me at least. I also mark for one guy just destroying everybody as Goldberg did.

Rest of the show is forgettable to say the least. I have the show on DVD and I couldn't remember the card until I read this.

King Steventon · 06-10-2009, 11:40 AM

Yeah, I didn't dislike the chamber as much as most people did. I thought Goldberg's WWE run was actually kinda underated and it was a lot of fun seeing him pretty much squash guys like Michaels and Jericho. Wrestling is lacking badasses like Goldberg.

I thought SS 2003 was pretty bad though, overall.

Tommy Platinum · 06-10-2009, 12:53 PM

Batista would make a great Goldberg style badass if WWE wasn't so watered down and faces wern't so bland and nice.

RaiZ-R · 06-10-2009, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tommy Platinum
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Batista would make a great Goldberg style badass if WWE wasn't so watered down and faces wern't so bland and nice.

And he was able to not always be injured.

horrorfan_1986 · 06-10-2009, 04:22 PM

I hated the Elimination Chamber. It felt like a giant waste of time with Hunter just cheating to retain the belt. And now, after just two matches the Elimination Chamber has lost it's whole gimmick of keeping outside interference from happening. It was a mistake having a Chamber so soon after the first one, and the sheer pointless manner of how they went about the match didn't help matters.

Bigpapa42 · 06-16-2009, 11:11 AM

Sorry that its taking me forever to get 04 up. It is coming, hopefully in the next couple of days.

Bigpapa42 · 06-18-2009, 12:01 AM

SummerSlam 2004
Disc 17

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Notable Matches

JBL d. The Undertaker – WWE Championship match
Randy Orton d. Chris Benoit – WWE World Heavyweight title match

Random Thoughts

-I need to stop looking at the case to check out the match listings before I put in a given DVD. I saw Triple H versus Eugene late on the card on this one and just about skipped it. But I decided to gut it out... Did I choose wisely? Or poorly?

-the opening match is a 6-man tag match. All three Dudley's face Rey Mysterio with Kidman and London. Decent match. Again, nothing that lives up to the early SummerSlam's, but certainly watchable.

-Matt Hardy vs Kane fighting over Lita. Meh. The best moment of the match is Lita running away with arms swinging after Kane wins and wins her.

-the John Cena vs Booker T is another meh match. Didn't think it was bad, but it just didn't do much either way for me. Its a pretty quick match, too – about six minutes.

-Batista vs Jericho vs Edge. Holy living hell is Batista every jacked. I'm going to wager a guess that he would not have met with the standards set by the current Wellness Policy back then. Just a thought... A decent match, but that might be bias because I like Edge and Jericho, plus not seeing Batista win is always a bonus.

-Kurt Angle beats Eddie Guerrero in a pretty good match. It doesn't seem quite as good as their WM match, but I don't know if I'm overrating that one a bit. I'd have to go back and watch that one again, too.

-Triple H beats Eugene. This match lasts about 14 minutes and that's 20 minutes too long.

-no wait, I'm not going to leave it at that. The whole Eugene thing is one of the biggest reasons I was barely watching through this era. A friend of mine watched the WWE around this time and I would watch occasionally because of that. As soon as I saw something with Eugene, it would turn me off for weeks. I'm not overtly sensitive or anything, but that whole character just really bugged me. It just sunk to a level that I didn't want to go to. To make it even worse, it made sure that a decent wrestler would never really be usable again for the WWE.

-Diva Dodgeball FTW. There's way too much clothing involved, though. Holy hell did Kristy Hemme have abs. And I forget how long Maria has been around. Same with Michelle McCool – think she looked better back then.

-the semi main event is JBL against The Undertaker for the WWE Championship. This is a pretty good brawl with a weak finish, as The Undertaker gets disqualified. Not a fantastic match but solid enough. The ending just kinda makes it forgettable though. From memory, JBL often used such tactics so I guess it was typical of the reign, but it still felt like it took away from the match. The post-match beatdown is a bit fun.

-the main event it Randy Orton winning the WWE World Heavyweight belt from Chris Benoit. The piece of history makes it interesting alone, but its a good match. One of the better matches that I can recall of Randy Orton's off hand. I'm sure he's had better but none jump to memory.

-overall, it was a fairly forgettable SummerSlam aside from the final match. Its just that nothing stands out.

Tommy Platinum · 06-18-2009, 09:04 AM

I've only actually seen Orton/Benoit from this PPV I believe. I thought it was a very good match and I loved the finish. Sums up why the RKO was and is the best finisher going.

I'd be interested in seeing Angle/Eddie. You say its not quite as good as their Mania match, but that was pretty great, so I imagine this was a very good match and definitely worth seeing.

Would you recommend JBL/Taker? I like brawls and I enjoyed their match at No Mercy (?).

As for the Eugene character, I wasn't offended by it, I just thought it was fucking awful. Every Eugene segment or match made me want to change the channel and I marked when he was released.

And yeah I didn't realise McCool had been around so long.

Random Thoughts on the History of SummerSlam

This is a discussion on Random Thoughts on the History of SummerSlam within the WWE Pay Per View forums, part of the Wrestling Forums category; I should have SS 03 posted pretty soon. And yeah, not a real enticing show overall. And SS 04 hasn't ...