Summerslam 2023 Review
The biggest party of the summer is over
We’re back with one of the important shows of the year and one of the biggest premium live events for WWE. This year Summerslam took over Ford Field in Detroit in front of 50,000+ fans in attendance.
The show absolutely lived up to the hype in my opinion.
The match card was precisely particular this year as they wanted each match to live up to its full potential. The show flowed very smoothly and didn’t feel like any match dragged on, even one particular match that wasn’t at all the best, but still worked time-wise.
There was also a HUGE surprise during the show.
Logan Paul Vs Ricochet
I was surprised to see that this was going to be the opening match of the night, but it made sense as Logan’s brother Jake Paul had his own big fight the same night and Logan wanted to be a great brother and show up to it.
The match was for sure obvious from the get-go that this was about creating that one viral moment for the week. My fear was that the match was going to focus heavily on that aspect.
Fortunately, I think this match actually did a pretty good job on shinging the spotlight on both mens athletic abilities.
Did we get that viral moment we all were waiting for? Not really. Unless you count that Spanish Fly from the apron to the floor.
Ricochet is honestly showing that he can be a bigger figure in WWE than he is now. He’s extremely reliable and will put on a great show when given a good opponent. Logan Paul continues to show us wrestling fans that sure he might be a part-timer but when he gets in the ring he puts 100% effort into the craft.
Logan had to cheat to get the win, but it made since for his cocky character to do something like that. I will go above and beyond to say that Logan Paul is actually one of the best heels we have right now.
Winner — Logan Paul
Rating — 8/10
Cody Vs Brock Lesnar
The rubber match.
When you actually look at the match it was considered to be one of the “main events” of the night but it didn’t really feel that way. Even though the crowd was eating this match up, I think it was just called that because of the names involved.
You could think of this match almost as if Brock was a jobbing for Cody but without actually jobbing. It’s hard to explain. From the start of this feud it was easy to tell that this was about putting Cody over in a matter of time. Brock wasn’t realistically going to go all the way here.
Personally, this match was the best of the trilogy.
This is a great example of when Brock Lesnar is motivated on his storyline he will go the distance to make sure you either hate him or love him and will go the distance on making the babyface look sympathetic to us.
The one thing about this match that kinda almost threw it off for me was the fact that we got so many count out teases. I got the point of it, to show that Cody won’t give up, but I think it was a bit overused, especially with how quickly it got to that point.
The biggest question of the night for the match was the fact that Cody used the steel steps to hit Brock, which technically is a weapon and it should’ve been a DQ but that didn’t happen.
I still say this match needed a stipulation. It was suppose to be a Bull Rope Match but that got casted away, so I would’ve at least chosen a Last Man Standing Match to see who really is the alpha male here.
Regardless, the drama did build up during the match. It did feel like a war on Cody’s part with how Brock carried himself.
It’s still kinda of a mystery why Brock even chose to betray Cody, there’s still no explanation for it and there might never be.
Maybe this was just a test, a side-quest if you will for Cody on his redemption story towards a world championship.
Winner — Cody Rhodes
Rating — 6/10
Summerslam Battle Royal
Okay, this match was easy to predict, so there was never about the results but about the journey to the match. Most Battle Royal matches are hard to rate because there’s not much to them. You send the guy over the top rope and that’s it. There’s usually nothing big happening here.
There were a few teased for up and coming feuds that we might see on T.V.
Those being Karrion Kross Vs AJ Styles, Obviously we have Austin Theory Vs Santos Escobar for the U.S Belt.
But here you have one of the biggest stars in WWE right now, the hottest star maybe, in L.A Knight. The guy is completely over with the WWE Universe, we want to see him win a championship already.
Ultimately this was the match for Knight to win. The pop that he got from the crowd after he won is a clear indication that he needs a belt around his waist and time is running out as he’s in his 40’s now.
I really hope WWE see’s how big he can be and will soon make him a world champion.
Winner — L.AKnight…YEAHHHH
Rating — 5/10
Shayna Bazler Vs Ronda Rousey — MMA Rules Match
Okay this was the match that I said earlier that wasn’t all that great. Honestly I think this match should’nt even have been on the card. The crowd completely bored and a lot of people were going to the bathroom during the match.
This match could’ve easily been switched with Trish Stratus Vs Becky Lynch. I don’t know how they even would consider this to be a good idea.
I get it, this is Ronda’s las match in WWE and they want her to go out in a PLE.
There just wan’t anything special here. They tried to make it as personal as they could by bringing in the fact that Shayna in real life is Ronda’s daughters godmother. But even then that wasn’t enough to entice the crowd.
I can appreciate the effort of WWE trying things out but there’s somethings that aren’t meant for the square circle. Anybody remember Steve Blackman’s Lion Den matches? Yeah, it’s like that.
The match went on for 7 minutes with the referee just breaking them up constantly. They tried to kinda make it seem more like MMA when Shayna looked injured and they called the medics to check up on her. It was a small detail but again I appreciate the realism they tried to put on here.
It was definitely the flattest match of the night.
Winner — Shayna Baszler
Rating — 3/10
Gunther Vs Drew McIntyre — Intercontinental Championship
This match had a lot of hope for me. Both men are big and strong and both men have a history of putting on great shows. For some reason it just didn’t live up to the hype for me, yet the match was as physical as I imagined it to be.
Gunther has been operating on that sort of level.
I honestly think this match should’ve been before the Ronda and Shayna match because the crowd looked a bit lukewarm. Perhaps that worked against them.
These two men have good chemistry don’t get me wrong. But I do think that Sheamus and Gunther are a better pair than Drew/Gunther. This was still an overall good match. Gunther’s presence during the match was dominate and he again proves just how much he respects the Intercontinental Championship.
The chops in this match were definitely hurting me. After the match you could see the results on their chest, their chests were purple with the stars immediately showing.
The final moments of the match were meant to be great but it almost felt rushed and didn’t have the affect it needed to have. Maybe if the match was to be 5 minutes longer it could’ve been better. Maybe we’re all just so used to Gunther having great matches as he’s been on a roll.
What we’re left with is a Intercontinental Championship that was very, VERY good but could’ve been greater.
Winner — Gunther retains
Raing — 6/10
Finn Balor Vs Seth Rollins — World Heavyweight Championship
This was hands down the best match produced. It’s just completely impossible for Finn and Seth to have a bad match. These two just work so well together and they understand the assignment given to them.
This storyline has been building to a boiling point with Finn reminding Seth that at Summmerslam 7 years ago, he won the Universal Championship but had the relinquish it because Seth injured him.
Finn wrote “seven” on his shoulder and spoke to Seth on his way down to the ring. This made things more personal.
Seth knows how to play mind games to and he did. He wore the same attire he wore from their past Summerslam match and was almost gloating at the fact that they’re back to where they started.
It was a given that Damien Priest was going to come out and tease another Money In The Bank cash-in tease. The near-falls that came out of that scrap her phenomenal, there was a moment where I actually though Seth was going to lose the belt in that fashion.
The finish was absolutely amazing. You had the false counts coming in hot. The Judgement Day were at ringside, but Seth was ready for them. I understood that this wasn’t about Priest cashing in his briefcase but it was about adding more tension between him and Balor. It was kinda similar to Money In The Bank last month.
I honestly thought Finn would win the championship and Damien would cash in his briefcase right there and be the leader of the Judgement Day.
Sure you could nitpick a few things in the match, regardless it was the best match of the night and gave us a glimpse of what’s to come for the Judgement Day and again shows that Seth is a FIGHTING champion.
Winner — Seth Rollins retains
Rating — 10/10
Bianca Belair Vs Charlotte Flair Vs Asuka — WWE Women’s Championship
This match…well…it wasn’t what it should’ve been really. Unfortunately the crowd looked a bit dead, maybe even fatigued. Again they just witnessed Seth Vs Finn so they should’ve been hyped up, but they weren’t.
As the match progressed you could feel that they were speeding through the spots and with that resulted in a lot of botched moves and misplacement. It looks like just a match centered around spots instead of an actually wrestling match.
The biggest moment of the match was really Bianca’s ability to really sell her knee injury. I actually thought it was really injured. She did a great job in making us believe it. I think from there the match really picked up and we got to see what was really planned out.
I was shocked to see that Asuka’s WWE title curse continue. She never holds the belt for more than 3 months. I don’t see why but that’s just how things are right now. I had my money on Asuka coming out as champion.
Bianca ended up winning the match after a 450 splash.
Just when we thought the match was over, Iyo Sky’s music comes on and the crowd erupted in cheers. I didn’t see this coming, I thought about it, but didn’t think it would actually happen.
Iyo cashed in her Money In The Bank briefcase and did a moonsault to Bianca and now we have a new Women’s champion and it felt so good to see Iyo holding that belt up.
This completes a full circle moment from Summerslam last year where she debuted on the main roster and a year later she’s champion. She deserves it after years of hard work and dedication to her craft.
Not to mention we saw Dakota Kai come into the ring and celebrate with her Damage CTRL teammate. We haven’t seen Dakota since she’s dealing a torn ACL injury.
It’s only a matter of time that we see a Iyo Vs Bayley match and Dakota is going to have to chose a side.
The second half of the match really saved the triple threat match.
Winner — Bianca Belair — Iyo Sky cashed in her briefcase to win
Rating — 7/10
Roman Reigns Vs Jey Uso — Undisputed WWE Universal Championsip — Tribal Combat
Lately I’ve been seeing a pattern with Roman Reign matches. They tend to be real slow burners and then once the climax hits we’re in for a hell of ride.
I think we’ve all come to terms that Roman isn’t losing his belt any time soon until I’m eligible to cash in my 401k, it will be an extremely long title reign.
The match itself was alright. Your typical family affair and trash talking that you see from Roman Reigns. Once the second half kicked in and all the weapons started getting thrown in, man did that match really go wonders for me.
We’re all going to be talking about the ending of the match for the remainder of the week. Jimmy came back and seemingly so betrayed his brother just as Jey was about to pin Roman.
Why did he do it? Jealousy? Envy? Is this the Uso’s plan because they both know they can’t beat Roman right now?
I don’t think this is about the Bloodline anymore. This is now about family. The Bloodline is “family” sure, but now it’s more personal as Jimmy is going to have to explain his actions and we don’t even know if he’s on Roman’s side as Roman also looked confused when he saw Jimmy.
We’re thinking right now that Jimmy is the bad guy but maybe he saved his brother from becoming another version of Roman, maybe an even worser version of Roman. Jimmy could tell Jey that that belt changes people, just look at how it changed Roman. He doesn’t want to see his brother fall into that realm.
Also we’re still getting teases of Solo leaving Roman as there was a disagreement with them outside the ring. Jey took advantage of the moment and speared Roman through the barricade.
This was also the longest match of the night, coming in at 40 minutes.
I think this match could’ve been a bit shorter and gotten to the main point of the match. That point being that no one in the Anoa’i can trust each other because greed is thicker than blood. Maybe if they cut 10–15 minutes it would’ve flowed better.
Nonetheless the Bloodline story continues and we’re onto the next chapter. I would say since Jey is technically alone right now, it’s time to bring in more family for back up. Rikishi can come in, not as a wrestler but be the Paul Heyman for Jey Uso. Bring in Umaga’s son, bring the calvary because Roman is going onto new heights after Summerslam and no one can stop him.
Winner — Roman Reigns Retains
Rating — 8/10
