By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Longtime Dot Net Member Tom from St. Paul attended WWE SummerSlam Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and sent the following report.
This night sucked on paper and overdelivered. I won’t go as far as to say it was good, but it exceeded my expectations. I got a four-pack of tickets tonight out of VetTix. This is the first time I’ve seen a WWE show on there, but I have gotten AEW tickets from there a few times. I was seated in the lower bowl about halfway up at what would be the 20 or so. Joining my six-year-old son and me was my father-in-law, who isn’t a wrestling fan but likes free tickets, and the ten-year-old son of a family friend who is a wrestling fan.
The setup for the stadium remained unchanged from yesterday as best I could tell. I didn’t notice a major swing either way in attendance.
Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn vs. Gunther vs. Finn Balor to become No. 1 contender to the WWE Championship: WWE blew their load super early with the return of KO. The stadium blew up when his music hit, and it was really cool to be there in person for it. My son was excited when Gunther joined the match, but didn’t realize KO was an active wrestler still.
Trick Williams vs. Baron Corbin for the U.S. Championship: This match was fine for what it was, but no one seemed to care about it much. There were a few scattered Whoop that Trick chants during the match but nothing sustained. The match was fine for what it was but could have been a Smackdown main event.
Tiffany Stratton vs. Jade Cargill vs. Chelsea Green vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Lash Legend in a five-way ladder match to become the Interim WWE Women’s Champion: In person, this match didn’t come off as well as reading the review made it seem. I suspect it’s because I saw a lot more of the set-up stuff that distracted from the match. Tiffany got a nice reaction coming out, but the crowd was behind Green the whole way. My son was a bit disappointed Alexa Bliss (his favorite wrestler) didn’t come out to chase off the baddies. Overall, this match was fine but hardly something to be remembered other than Green winning.
Danhausen vs. Dominik Mysterio in a “Human Monies on a Pole” match: I’ll get it out of the way early, the boys loved this match. That being said, I feel dumber for having watched it. While I may be mistaken, I feel like “on a pole” matches used to require climbing a pole, not just standing on the top rope. This would have been a perfect house show match leading up to intermission with what I think were merch gift cards being thrown into the crowd, but it was a waste on one of the biggest shows of the year. The only way this will have been worth it is if Justin Jefferson and Danhousen in the same building leads to a Vikings Super Bowl win this year, in which case I will withdraw any criticism laid at Danhousen and hold him up as the peak of pro wrestling.
Penta vs. Chad Gable for the Intercontinental Title: This was my favorite match of the night, but it still disappointed me. Occasionally there are matches I feel are wasted on a promotion, and this is one of them. I can’t help but wonder what these two would do in a Best of the Super Juniors or Continental Classic tournament with the governor removed and 18ish minutes to work. Gable winning was cool given he’s a Minnesota boy (I try not to hold being from Minneapolis against him). Having his family come out to the ring was a nice touch, but what was a mascot doing out there? And why was Gable trying to be Stone Cold with root beer?
Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship: If you like the Roman Reigns main event style match, this probably hits the sweet spot. It’s not my preferred style. The crowd was far more excited for this match than I was, but I also got sucked into the excitement a little bit. My son asked why the referee wasn’t counting when they went out to the floor. I told him that the ref was too chicken to count anyone out. Really, attending the show with my son makes me realize WWE needs a kid in the writing room asking questions.
Overall, night two was better than it looked on paper, but the boys had a blast, so that made it worth it. One funny thing on the way out was the TVs at the light rail station had AEW ads. I don’t know if I missed them yesterday or if it was just a today thing.
SummerSlam was fine overall, but it could have been an awesome one-night card. It did confirm that I am ok keeping up on WWE via Dot Net and only watching the product when my son wants to watch.
Thanks For the reviews both nights I appreciate the perspective.I knew six people that went on Saturday, and two of the six went both days(the other was a family of four) the only wrestling fans in the group were the two guys and the one son. I bought and paid for a pair of tickets so the two guys could go see GCW at first ave prior to the Saturday event (they had no idea what GCW was or any of their wrestlers) they told me they had a blast ( i figured they would) seeing wrestling up that close gives it a totally different perspective for most people.
I asked one of the parents(my cousin) and the two guys about what I felt seemed like a subdued crowd on saturday … they said the crowd had it’s moments.. but they did agree at times it was… they thought it was perhaps due to the down time in between matches, and to my surprise they both mentioned the earlier start time… I had to do a double take because the thought never entered my mind, however they might be right.
Most will say 5pm isn’t early but what we tend to forget is the amount of time put in, getting ready to go, and the amount of time it takes to get there( that can take a great chunk of your day and tire you out) having been to various sporting events I can attest to the atmosphere being different just based on the time of day it’s held.
The parents told me their kids like most just want to grow up too fast, stay up late, and do and see things they aren’t really supposed to, which for those of us who’ve had kids we know quite well…why? because it reminds us of..well us. They all said they had a good time but felt it was more spectacle than anything else, and being in a big stadium they felt like they spent too much time staring at the big screens.
I only bring it up like I said, because it hadn’t occurred to me, even if i know there are people who enjoyed getting out of there early just to go to go home and presumably go to bed LOL(unlike my cousins two kids) they did say there were lots of merch tables set up inside the event.
SummerSlam was fine overall, but it could have been an awesome one-night card
That was my exact thought following last nights show, I’m glad you brought it up.