Oh, well, kinda sub-par for a Summerslam, BUT a little better than I'd expected given the lack of build up to most of the matches and the fact that some of them were hardly tantalising prospects in the first place.
J.Hardy/MVP... Assuming Shelton came down to return the favour and help MVP fend of the challenge from Hardy, I thought this was a bit pointless considering MVP didn't have anything to speak of 'on the line' - I'd have prefered to have see a clean finish (seeing as it was the opening match). Whatever though, the match was decent enough... MVP was on PPV again at long last .... He won... Jeff didn't.... YAY! [Note: Hear the MVP chants? The net-hedz are getting restless, Vince!]
Glamourella V Mickie/Kofi... Great stuff! ...Beth rocked, Santino was funny as hell (the mono-brow absolutely fuckin' killed me! LOL), no humiliating fall for the faces... Just gutted Santino couldn't have been left holding the womens title... Still, great stuff (I can see the IC division hotting up as a result of this too... Everyone's gonna be gunning for the bwoy Morrella!).
Y2J/HBK segment... Pretty predictable (no way HBK retires like that, without a big match send-off... S'pecially after '98.)... Let's just get that fued topping match with Jericho booked!!!
Henry/M.Hardy... Ever get the feeling they mistakenly moved the wrong Hardy to ECW? LOL .....They even have to drag Jeff into Matt's title match... Anyone else notice they even played JEFF's music as Matt stood 'proud' of his DQ victory. LOL Dispite the crappy 'match' what I can't get my head round is how someone with the power, strength etc. of Henry would go down to the twist of fate with no prior softening up (I mean, how many peeps have kicked out of it over the years?)... and how little faith must Atlas have had in Henry to get involved so quickly... Can't help thinking this will lead to Matt winning in a rematch on Tuesday night's ECW show, but they may as well release Henry if that happens cos he'd just look like 'the worlds weakest monster'... Still, least we saw a Jeff again..... : P
Punk/JBL... Punk finally get's his win and benefits greatly from a legit head injury! LOL ...Them two cracking heads gave the match an edge that they'd have failed to find otherwise. Ok, match hoped for better. Noted: A large portion of the crowd still arent' behind him.
HHH/Khali... Ooooof, this was lame.... Granted, 'The Game' worked, and Khali prob did his best too for what it's worth, but with neither guy able to pull any moves for their own respective reasons, without street-fight kinda rules, as expected, it stank.
Cena/Batista... First and foremost, a decent match and the clean finish was a BIG and welcome suprise (wasn't necessarily expecting a run-in, but thought WWE would wanna keep us hanging on this as long as poss for purposes of further fueds and rematches). The big question it leaves to me is "what now for Cena"...? He's clearly not the unbeatable commodity he was a couple of years ago, has already had long term fueds with Orton & JBL... Jericho and Kane are busy with other opponents... Says to me one of three things...
1. Cena/Batista continues... BUT WHY?!?!?
2. Cena takes time out.
3. Cena turns heel.
(I'm primarily seeing Batista cooling out a little and settling into the role of #1 face on Raw... In terms of audience responses, he seems more popular than Cena to me. IMO, WHC = Punk > Orton > Orton v Batista @ WM).
Taker/Edge... Yeah!!!! ...That's more like it! Intense, physical, wicked spots, Edge looked like a fuckin' bad-ass, even Takers's emotions got the better of him; coming back to the ring to dish out even more punishment... Proper apocalyptic vibe where ya left thinking it really was the end of the line for one of them... As much cell-related fun as I've ever had without Foley half-killing himself in the process.
I am wondering though, are we supposed to beleive that Edge really has gone to hell now or will he just turn up on this Friday's SD and all but declare himself #1 contender and be straight back in the title chase?
As said at the very begining of the post, the card always felt a bit light to me (dispite the Cena/Tista biz which WWE failed to make the most of).... Could have done with a US title match of some kind (3-way elimination would have been nice) and at least one of the world titles shoulda meant enough to climb further up the card... (In particular, Punk's match felt like you were watching a mid-card fued or IC/Title title defense.). This is supposedly the 2nd biggest event of the WWE year afterall...
