Professional Wrestling (WWE, TNA, ROH, etc)

[[Q]]

I want Velveteen Dream to win, but he won't. He's been taking a lot of Ls and has proven that he still gets over when he loses matches.

Tired of Undisputed Era, but they'll continue to win. Luckily, I think Cole will drop his belt to ricochet who they seem to be pushing hard.

I hope Kairi wins because Shayna really isn't that interesting

Ciampa wins to defend against Black and continue whatever they were setting up before Black's injury

Finn should totally win, but he won't. They like to hype him as the first universal champion but they don't book him like it.

Rusev should win as they finally set him up as the face and they've been taking a lot of losses in the build up. Hopefully they reunite with English but they've been trying to split them for a while so it'll probably be a heel turn for English

Please, no more Bludgeons.

Orton will interrupt the match during the finish and give the writers a way to write Hardy out for injuries

Braun will win and probably cash tonight. It's either that or he loses but he still gets the title shot anyways and wins. If Reigns wins, Heyman joins him and they are the new top Babyface act on Raw

Becky totally deserves the win and honestly they've been building to it very well, but as Daniel Bryan noted their long term storytelling sucks so they'll probably have Charlotte or Carmella win.

Whoever loses the IC title match will have their friend turn on them. Ambrose or McIntyre.

AJ wins. He's not losing for a long time.

[Andrew]

I wonder if they'll have AJ eclipse Punk's reign with the belt. It wouldn't surprise me, and I think he's certainly worthy of having that opportunity.

[Lean]

Good god, what a Takeover. I think not as strong as New Orleans was, but definitely better than Chicago II.

Spots of the night for me are the low superkick from Cole to the neck of a mid-air Ricochet off a springboard moonsault and a running hurricanrana over the top rope from Ricochet to Adam Cole who's on the outside standing on the apron.

Was surprised they went on with Kairi but I guess that sets up the rumored WWE vs UFC Four Horsewomen match come Survivor Series.

I like the ending of the main event because it's great storytelling. Gargano going down to Ciampa levels of dickery didn't win him the title, thus his road to redemption begins. I don't see Gargano going for the title in a long while, and Ciampa will probably feud with Aleister Black when the latter returns but I see one more Gargano-Ciampa match come Wrestlemania weekend, with Gargano finally winning the championship this time and ending their feud.

[Lean]

Owens got absolutely squashed there.

[Andrew]

Hopefully it's in aid of pulling the trigger on a big push for Braun. I am glad they didn't have him lose the MITB contract; they've already missed a couple of opportunities with him.

[Andrew]

Charlotte Reigns goes over, which isn't a huge surprise. Hilarious how it was clearly supposed to facilitate a heel turn for Becky, but the crowd was completely behind her when she attacked Charlotte. No doubt that will be ignored and they'll keep trying to force her as a heel, then kill her push because she isn't getting over as one.

[Lean]

Meanwhile, Charlotte wins again after hitting Natural Selection on Becky Lynch. Becky turns on Charlotte, with the crowd cheering on. I think the turn is also well put out in storyline.

And damn it, the WWE Championship being put in the middle of the card. AJ really won't main event a PPV as long as he's on Smackdown or feuding with Reigns.

[Andrew]

The angle with Becky and Charlotte is fine, but they've got the heel and face backwards, judging by the crowd reactions. If Lesnar/Reigns is main eventing, then one way or another, the title better be coming off Lesnar.

[Lean]

Yeah would've been better if Charlotte gloated instead, leading to Becky beating her up to add justification in the post-match altercation.

Funny how the WWE title match goes first before the Corbin-Bálor match.

[Andrew]

I suppose they do need cooldown matches, and with two world titles, it makes sense to spread them out a bit on the card.

[Andrew]

Good use of a DQ/non-finish there to keep the belt on Styles but get heat on Joe and not have him go under.

[Lean]

Agreed, their next match should definitely be inside Hell in a Cell.

[Andrew]

Great match, thought I felt Bryan should've gone over. Obviously they're going to milk the feud a little longer, hopefully it doesn't get stale.

[Andrew]

Well, they finally got the belt off Lesnar, for better or worse. It would've been nice if it was finally a proper competitive match, so that Lesnar could finally repay the favours everyone else has done for him. Guess this was the best we were going to get.

[Lean]

Great match, thought I felt Bryan should've gone over. Obviously they're going to milk the feud a little longer, hopefully it doesn't get stale.

This could also mean that Bryan would re-sign with WWE.

Well, they finally got the belt off Lesnar, for better or worse. It would've been nice if it was finally a proper competitive match, so that Lesnar could finally repay the favours everyone else has done for him. Guess this was the best we were going to get.

I think this has something to do with time constraints, which is surprising with how short some of the matches were.

I liked how the Bellas were booed when they were in the ring, and how Cole said they were the trailblazers of this whole women's wrestling in WWE. Now I hope Ronda gets to show up on weekly TV.

[Andrew]

Hopefully it's a sign that he's re-signing, and not being jobbed out.

[bigh0rt]

Everything I've read indicated that Bryan will be re-signing with the WWE, which I hope is true. Overall I thought SummerSlam was a good show, highlighted by the Rollins/Ziggler match, obviously. But Miz/Bryan, the SmackDown Live Women's Championship match, Hardy/Nakamura all entertained as well. The squash matches, albeit strange, were almost necessary for Balor and Ronda (though I'm never a fan of having your champion be visibly afraid of their opponent, as Bliss was, when they aren't a sniveling type heel or the opponent isn't some monster like Braun). I don't really understand what is going on with Kevin Owens right now; it feels like Braun has just been beating the dogshit out of him for months with not much else substantiating. I'm glad to have Brock out of the picture, hopefully entirely, and certainly it will be nice to see the Universal Title on television more often. I'm really hoping that RAW can take big steps forward as it's been so so bad for months now.

[Lean]

Balor coming out in the demon gimmick was a nice surprise, although it's also funny that the entrance itself is longer than the actual match (putting on that paint was probably longer than the entrance and the actual match combined).

Part of me was surprised that there were no shenanigans in the Rousey/Bliss match.

[[Q]]

Man, they must have run out of time to have 3 squash matches towards the end of the show. Unless that was their plan all along.

The fans still cheering Becky beating down Charlotte is basically all of us tired of the same shit they keep writing.

At least the belt is now on a regular performer, I almost forgot what it looked like.

I thoroughly enjoyed the AJ and Joe match. Who would have thought ten years ago that those two would fight for the WWE championship at SummerSlam? Lol

NXT matches were way better as usual

[bigh0rt]

The card had a crazy amount of matches scheduled so I think the squashes were largely planned beforehand.

The Becky getting cheered was a bit annoying for me, to be honest. I mean I agree that Charlotte is a better heel, but really Becky hasn't been super over or particularly interesting in some time, and I don't mind them turning her and seeing what kind of heat and interest she can garner as a heel (if any). What she did to Charlotte after the match was a bonafide heel move, and she deserved to be booed for it (Brooklyn I think is generally a pretty smarky crowd, and had it been in a different venue, the reaction may have been substantially different).

AJ and Joe was good, and as unsatisfying as the finish may have been, I don't mind it in order to set up a bigger blow off match (same goes for Miz vs. Bryan, where I actually didn't mind the finish at all to, though).

Who challenges Reigns for the title? I feel like there is a glut of faces near the top of the RAW roster. I'm afraid we're going to see someone like Jinder again. It's tough to send someone like Owens into the picture after he's had his ass handed to him for the better part of two or three months. Braun seems like a logical choice, but that doesn't help Reigns get over as a face at all (at this point, not much will). Maybe Ziggler/McIntyre?

I'm much more interested in the Intercontinental Title picture, where I'd love to see Rollins battle it out with a heel Bobby Roode, Elias, etc.

[Andrew]

I was fine with Bliss being afraid as she is pretty much a cowardly heel who talks a lot of smack and acts tough when she takes cheap shots, then runs when she's confronted. She's pretty much a classic heel in that she's portrayed as being a very capable wrestler who would do just fine if she played by the rules and relied on her skill, but sadly resorts to villainous tactics instead.

Brooklyn being a smarky crowd definitely doesn't help, but I think the buildup has been all wrong, to the point where Charlotte looks like the heel. After all, she's had all these title reigns and opportunities, but then when someone else gets a shot at the title, she pushes her way into the match instead of waiting her turn. It comes off as her betraying and using Becky first, so Becky snapping and retaliating feels justified. I guess it remains to be seen and they'll probably have Becky go full on heel to force the angle the way they want, but I think they should ride these crowd reactions. That is WWE's problem, though. Even when it's clear how the crowd feels about a character and the story as it's told, they'll try to push through it. There's having shades of grey to stories and characters, and then there's positioning the wrong characters as the protagonist and antagonist (see: Reigns, Roman).

I'm glad that Owens didn't get the MITB contract and interrupt Braun's potential push that they do need to pull the trigger on sooner rather than later - he's still over and greatly improved, so they need to capitalise on that - but yeah, KO is a bit lost right now. I think they need to move him away from Braun and build him up to be a heel challenger in the world title picture. Not necessarily ending up as the champion anytime soon, but just a viable name to be in the main event.

[Andrew]

phpBB [video]

So, The Shield are back, but are they faces or heels? Seems the crowd wasn't entirely sure how to feel.

[Lean]

I'd rather have them heel, because that is definitely a heel move. Makes Roman look like very incompetent too: he would've lost the title match on Summerslam if weren't for the distraction from Braun, and he would have been cashed-on by Braun if weren't for the Shield, and then a 3-on-1 assault and a Triple Powerbomb onto the table.

I guess it remains to be seen and they'll probably have Becky go full on heel to force the angle the way they want, but I think they should ride these crowd reactions.

I heard Kevin Dunn is not a fan of Becky's face and accent.

[[Q]]

Yeah it's pretty obvious they obsess over the blondes judging by their booking over the last two years. These guys think they know everything. They just ignore all the people cheering for her every week, and even for Rusev Day they just kept ignoring what was going on and thought they knew best.

Reuniting the shield is a desperate move to try to get people to cheer Roman. Just like when they had him challenge Finn Balor for the title

[Lean]

And then they decide to give Rusev a title shot months after the whole Rusev Day thing exploded.

With the Shield, the best way is to have them heel given their assault on Braun. But I look at this as a 6-man feud, Shield vs Braun/Drew/Dolph, which sounds like your average Raw feud.