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A NEW HOPE, AN EXCELLENT MAIN EVENT, LET THE GAMES BEGIN: MIKE'S COMPLETE SUMMERSLAM BLOG

Welcome to my ongoing WWE Summerslam blog.

I'd like to take a moment to dedicate this to my dear friend, David "Blackjack" Brown, who passed away last night unexpectedly.  I don't even know what to write about him yet beyond this: I love you and I miss you and so does everyone else.  I can't image a week where my phone won't ring at 4 AM as you act like it's normal to randomly call me to say, "Yeah...so what's going on?" as I am half-asleep.  

We opened up with the usual fireworks and promotional blitz.  The Stadium looks great and WWE is doing a great job hiding that the entire side behind the hard camera is tarped off.  They were hoping for about 36-38,00 fans in attendance.  I really like the CGI pinball effects.

Interesting to note the ring posts and ring aprons don't have any of the LED boards.  I wonder if that's a sign the ring is gimmicked for something later on.

The opener was Becky Lynch (dressed like Jean Grey from X-Men) vs. Bianca Belair (who had some cool silver accoutrement for her ring gear) for the Raw Women's Championship.  This started off feeling like their timing was really off early on, but the longer they went, the better this got as they really started clicking in the ring.   They had a nice sequence outside where Bianca nailed the KOD on the barricade wall but Becky drilled her and nailed a legdrop off the barricade.  They battled back to the ring and the action got far crisper.  In the end, Bianca and Becky battled on the top, setting up a Spanish Fly and the KOD.  This was damn good by the end.  Becky showed Bianca respect after.  Are they going on Vince's old decision to turn her heel a year ago and get The Man back to where the fans want her to be?  Let's hope.

After the match, out came the returning Bayley, then Dakota Kai (who must have been signed again over the last week, talk about babyfacing the new regime!) and then Io Shrai (apparently making her main roster debut) came out one by one to confront Bianca but Becky backed the champ.  They faced off but Bayley's crew backed off.  The message was clear - the new regime is officially kicking off and that it's OK for the fans to hope that the company is going to service them and give them what they want.  

A strong start.

Miz with Maryse and Ciampa in matching outfits vs. Logan Paul is second.  Miz was mocking Logan Paul's Pokemon card that is worth a milion dollars.  The early segment of the match was designed to show Paul could wrestle, even hitting a moonsault off the apron to the floor.  Miz cut him off but was nailed with a series of hard chops.  Ciampa got involved and the referee ejected him but he refused to go.  AJ Styles' music hit and he nailed a Phenomenal Forearm off the barricade, which the cameras almost completely missed.  They brawled through the crowd and disappeared.  Logan Paul was worked over but made a comeback with an insane frog splash through the announcers' table on Miz, which looked awesome.  Maryse tried to get involved but was thwarted.  Paul nailed the Skull Crushing Finale.  You never got the idea that the audience loved Paul but the entire scene was entertaining.

Logan is having a much better night than his brother, who's debut fight in Madison Square Garden was canceled tonight.

While they air commercials on Peacock, we are watching a Brock Lesnar profile.

They aired a bottled water commercial starring Maximum Male Models.

Now it's a profile on Roman Reigns.

Third up is Theory vs. Bobby Lashey for the United States title.  This was a spotlight at times for Theory's swagger and attitude and from that perspective, he looked cool.  Athletically, this was fine but Lashley looked stronger in coming out of it with the win, thwarting Theory's attempt to walk out and pressing and dropping him into the Hurt Lock.  Theory quickly tapped, which under the old regime, was a sign he was winning the Universal title.  I don't see the same happening here.  This was fine.

More thoughts on Page 2!

 

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