Powell’s WWE SummerSlam Hit List: Cody Rhodes vs. Solo Sikoa in a Bloodline Rules match for the WWE Championship, Damian Priest vs. Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

WWE SummerSlam Hits

Damian Priest vs. Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship: The best match of the night on a card that was more about angles and turns than it was about great matches. That doesn’t mean the actual wrestling on this show was bad. Rather, the focus was on paying off several storylines and planting seeds for future programs. In this case, Gunther went over thanks in part to Finn Balor turning on Priest. The finish was more about protecting Priest than making Gunther, which isn’t a bad strategy. This was not the big crowning moment for Gunther that one may have envisioned, but he didn’t need the credibility boost given that he was firmly cemented as a dominant wrestler during his 666-day reign as Intercontinental Champion. Conversely, Priest felt like a soft champion when he won the title. None of us were talking about this being the Damian Priest Era as much as we were speculating over how quickly he would drop the title. But make no mistake about it, this was a successful title reign for Priest, whose stock clearly increased during his run with the belt. As such, I consider it a good move protect Priest as opposed to having Gunther simply beat him clean.

Liv Morgan vs. Rhea Ripley for the Women’s World Championship: The story of Ripley’s bad shoulder popping out was nicely done, as was her owed to Martin Riggs moment when she popped her own shoulder back into place. Unfortunately, it came off like the producers of this event weren’t communicating with one another, as we saw countless times when other wrestlers crashed into the ring post and came up selling a shoulder. WWE is typically really good about avoiding that sort of thing, so it was jarring to see this happen so frequently. Nevertheless, Ripley looked valiant for fighting through the injury while Morgan looked ruthless for trying to exploit it. The final sequence with Dom distracting the referee while Morgan hit Oblivion on a chair was similar to what we’ve seen from Dom in other women’s title matches. They could have ended it there and kept the mystery going, but they finally paid it off by having Dom kiss Morgan at ringside while Ripley seethed in the ring. This set the table perfectly for Balor’s big turn later in the show and sets up the fallout to be must see television on Raw.

CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre with Seth Rollins as special referee: I came away with mixed feelings. The long build to the match created the big fight feel that Michael Cole referenced, but then so much of the focus was placed on Rollins during the actual match that it felt like it took away from the intensity between Punk and McIntyre. Meanwhile, I’ve heard a lot of grumbling about a cheap bracelet playing such a big part in the match. I actually like this part of the story a lot. Forget the actual monetary cost of the bracelet, they established going in that this item has sentimental value to Punk. Ultimately, I enjoyed the majority of the match and the finish left all three wrestlers in an interesting place creatively.

Logan Paul vs. LA Knight for the U.S. Championship: An enjoyable match until the closing minute. The spot with Paul hitting Knight with brass knuckles led to a suspenseful near fall, which was fine. But Knight popped right up as if nothing had happened, avoided a Buckshot Lariat, and then hit his own finisher, scored the pin, and seemed just fine after the match. The brass knuckles and even Paul’s regular knockout punch have been portrayed as match ending blows since Paul arrived in WWE, yet Knight was seemingly unaffected? As much as I disliked that part of the match, wasn’t enough to ruin the good work that came before it or the crowd pleasing title change.

Bayley vs. Nia Jax for the WWE Women’s Championship: A match that exceeded my expectations. Tiffany Stratton teasing a cash-in saved Jax and the dynamic between them should be very interesting going forward with Stratton holding the Money in the Bank contract. It will be interesting to see where Bayley goes next. She had a fairly flat reign as champion and her act just seems to be missing something.

Sami Zayn vs. Bron Breakker for the Intercontinental Championship: A minor Hit for a brief match that saw Breakker avenge his loss at Money in the Bank and win the Intercontinental Title. This wasn’t a memorable matcha aside from the outcome, but I’m all for having some brief matches on PLE’s and pay-per-views. This approach helps with the pacing of the shows while ideally keeping fans on their toes by making it seem like matches can end at any point. There are just too many shows these days where it comes off like the fans are conditioned to know that nothing matters until they reach the ten-minute mark at the earliest.

WWE SummerSlam Misses

Cody Rhodes vs. Solo Sikoa in a Bloodline Rules match for the WWE Championship: The Miss is due to the body of the match feeling rather flat and uneventful. Sikoa had some really good street fight style matches in NXT, which left me hopeful that he and Cody would take advantage of the Bloodline Rules by having a big brawl that would keep the crowd engaged. Rather, they worked in a way that failed to keep the fans invested until the expected run-ins started. The returns of Kevin Owens and Randy Orton were fine, though also mildly flat because it’s not like they’ve been sidelined all that long. Everything built up nicely to the return of Roman Reigns. Cody locking eyes with Reigns before hitting CrossRhodes on Sikoa and then staring at Reigns while getting the three count was great. Roman’s return was a huge Hit that sent the crowd home happy. I just wish that everything that led up to it had packed more of a punch.