August 30, 2020 - Evan Luebbe

WWE SummerSlam 8/23/2020

August 30, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

The Big Dog is back, and The Fiend is Universal Champion – Completing his Rivalry with Braun Strowman

Roman Reigns stepped away from WWE for several months starting a few weeks before ‘Mania in March primarily to ensure that his newborn twins would have a healthy father – which is extremely respectable. Many WWE fans were hoping that he would be able to return in time for SummerSlam (the second biggest Pay-Per-View of the year next to WrestleMania. As it turns out that’s exactly what happened, and it would be safe to assume that Reigns will go after the Universal Championship – since he was scheduled to face Bill Goldberg at WrestleMania 36 for that title before COVID-19 hit and threw a wrench into the entire world. We are all in the process of changing the way we operate on a day-to-day basis and establishing new norms – not necessarily a bad, just a new normal.

As for the Universal Title, Braun Strowman received an unexpected opportunity in a run with the Universal Championship in place of The Big Dog, and he delivered in a big way over the past four months by showing the most charisma and character development the WWE universe has ever seen out of The Monster Among Men. It was expected that The Fiend would win the Universal Title from Braun because The Fiend/Bray Wyatt is by far the most captivating character on SmackDown – FOX right now. This should be the first of many world championship runs for Strowman as he performed much better in that role than anyone could have expected.

Mr. McMahon’s plan for Roman Reigns’ return as far as what his character is going to be is for The Big Dog to bring more of an “edge” to his character (that’s what WrestlingNews.co is reporting). Fans have been clamoring for a heel turn for Roman’s character for years – it may not be a completely traditional heel turn, but it will be extremely nice to see WWE allowing Roman to show more of his authentic personality rather than trying to force-feed the WWE universe a character that is not completely authentic to him. Roman has proven over the past eight years that he doesn’t need a whole lot of guidance anymore – as long as Mr. McMahon gives him a basic outline of what he wants The Big Dog’s character to be, Roman can do it and has earned the trust of the boss.

This semi-heel version of Roman Reigns will be reminiscent of the later Shield days at the very end of 2013 and the first half of 2014 when Roman was getting on the fast track to be “The Guy” (this was ancient history, before any of the WWE universe turned on Roman and they all absolutely loved what he was doing because it felt authentic). This is the key to building a character that will consistently get over in WWE. Roman’s new shirt says everything one needs to know about what his new mentality will be: Wreck Everything and Leave. This was the original plan for the direction of Reigns’ character right after he beat Goldberg at WrestleMania 36, but those plans were put on hold when Roman decided to take a few months off and focus on raising his newborn twins (which is very commendable).

In addition, a happy birthday goes out to Vince McMahon, who turned 75 years old on August 24 (an important episode of Monday Night Raw also aired on that night, with some major storyline development). All of us as fans need to express our appreciation to Mr. McMahon for bringing the world of WWE into existence. Even if not everyone completely agrees with the direction all the storylines go, it would not exist if it were not for Mr. McMahon. Thank You and Happy Birthday!

Drew McIntyre is cemented as a legitimate Superstar and Leader of the Company after defeating Randy Orton for the WWE Championship

So Drew McIntyre was claiming that Randy Orton never reached down and to pull younger superstars up to his level by putting them over, which is true to a certain degree. Orton has not done this very often throughout his WWE career. But it cannot be refuted that he absolutely did this at SummerSlam by putting over McIntyre, who has gained the necessary maturity and perspective throughout his journey in wrestling to become grounded in his own energy.

This is exactly the kind of victory McIntyre needed to establish himself as a legitimate threat in WWE. Now he has legitimate victories over probably two of the top three stars in WWE at the two biggest shows of the year – in the same year. However, a scenario easily could have been executed where Randy Orton wants his 14^th world title (Ric Flair could have returned at SummerSlam to distract Drew McIntyre and help Orton win the WWE Championship. No one would have expected that because Orton obviously punted Flair on Raw, albeit WWE smartly went the safe route and orchestrated a power outage caused by Retribution to ensure Ric’s safety by not making the 71-year-old take that bump. This could have been great storytelling had WWE decided to go down that route, but McIntyre defeating Orton is great in its own right).

The actual match was fantastic with great pacing. This is easily the greatest match Drew McIntyre has been involved in since he became WWE Champion. Randy Orton has a special ability to elevate the game of anyone he steps in the ring with, and his next task will be to do the same thing for Drew McIntyre’s good friend Keith Lee at WWE Payback.

Seth Rollins defeats Dominik Mysterio in a somewhat Lopsided Match

Dominik Mysterio looked a little timid and somewhat nervous in his first WWE match. It’s totally understandable – you’re a 23-year-old kid and you are performing at the second biggest WWE Pay-Per-View of the year, in the ring with a veteran like Seth Rollins who has been doing this for about 15 years. You were also the son of a living legend who is right next to you at ringside. I have never been in that position, so it’s not fair to cast any sort of judgment. I have seen Dominik execute better frog splashes before (like back in November 2019 at Survivor Series when his father had a WWE Championship match with Brock Lesnar), so I know the kid has it in him to do much better but it just wasn’t his night.

Dominik’s character and the moment are a little too reliant on the legacy of his father. WWE might want to have him break out and develop his own persona by perhaps joining Seth Rollins in a heel turn and becoming a disciple alongside Murphy.

Asuka defeats Sasha Banks for the Raw Women’s Championship; Bayley keeps the SmackDown Women’s Championship

It doesn’t make much sense at all why WWE would book Asuka in two title matches on the same night when there are a plethora of other women on the WWE roster who have more than enough credentials to fill that spot. Asuka absolutely has earned a spot in one of the women’s championship matches, but not both.

It’s fine for Asuka to take the Raw Women’s Championship off of Sasha Banks, but the WWE universe is growing tired of Bayley being the SmackDown Women’s Champion for most of the last year and a half. She’s incredibly talented, but fans just want a fresh face as champion.

Mandy Rose defeats Sonya Deville in a Loser Leaves WWE match; A Match with many Underlying Layers and Stories

This match arguably had the most backstory of any match on the SummerSlam card, because one of the participants went through a legitimate crisis in her personal life very recently. Sonya Deville legitimately had an intruder break into her home recently and attempt to abduct her – unsuccessfully. The match at SummerSlam with Mandy Rose was originally supposed to be a Hair vs. Hair match, with the loser shaving her head (similar to WrestleMania XX when Molly Holly got her head shaved by Victoria).

However, Deville will be obliged to appear in court soon to settle the abduction dispute, and her lawyer advised her that it might not be such a good idea to appear in court with a shaved head. Instead WWE made the decision to do a Loser Leaves WWE stipulation, which will accomplish the same goal. It will give WWE an excuse to have Sonya off TV for a while so the company can repackage her character and introduce her in a couple of months as someone brand-new. Deville has blossomed in the last couple of months by delivering excellent promos on the microphone and showing that she is very comfortable in front of the camera.

The Street Profits successfully defended the Raw Tag Team Championships against Andrade and Angel Garza

The Street Profits have been entertaining and charismatic tag team champions who can do a little bit of everything in the ring (Montez Ford has ridiculous athleticism and Angelo Dawkins – who is from my hometown of Cincinnati – has proven over the last couple weeks that he is very capable). The whole is much greater than the sum of its parts with this team – neither one of them stand out by themselves, but they mesh together in a perfect way.

Angel Garza and Andrade, on the other hand, have serious potential to be a modern-day version of Eddie and Chavo Guerrero. Garza is doing a good job of embracing the lethario element of his character, but Andrade needs to find himself as a character more and develop a more authentic sense of charisma that will appeal to the WWE universe.

The WWE ThunderDome had an incredibly successful second night on-air – this will most likely be something that will work for the foreseeable future during the era of the pandemic and perhaps even longer. This might turn into the new normal for WWE as the primary way to bring entertainment into people’s homes.

Side Note: Keith Lee will be a fantastic addition to Monday Night Raw after dropping the NXT Championship this past weekend. This is a very exciting addition because no one has ever been called up to the main roster this quickly after dropping the NXT Title – a few have come close, but it’s never been this quick. WWE is striking while the iron is hot with Lee, and he will fit right in on Raw no matter what he does, with his level of presence and the fact that he commands everyone’s attention whenever he does anything.

NXT Takeover: Thirty 8/22/2020

August 30, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

Keith Lee Drops the NXT Championship to Karrion Kross

It’s a tough task to put a positive spin on Keith Lee losing the NXT Championship, but I’ll give it a go. Perhaps Lee dropped the title because Vince McMahon sees the “it” factor in him and has deemed that it’s time to test him now on the main roster by promoting Keith to either Raw or SmackDown and seeing how he will resonate with that fanbase. Maybe Lee could even show up on the main roster right after SummerSlam. Keith Lee has an energetic quality about him that is reminiscent of Roman Reigns, almost like a gravitational force that seems to pull people in to where they want to be a part of the experience he creates with his presence; I don’t know about anyone else, but I can feel off of him that Lee is very comfortable in his own skin and that energy has almost a magnetic quality.

Regarding NXT, there’s Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and Vince McMahon (Vince still has a lot of input on the happenings in NXT). NXT is Triple H’s baby but Vince still runs the company) may have jumped the gun a little on the push of Karrion Kross. The NXT universe is just flat out not very familiar with him, so they have no reason yet to develop any sort of allegiance to this character.

Adam Cole gets another Victory as he should have, along with a Character Change; However, Pat McAfee Impresses

Two weeks ago, Adam Cole was still ridiculously over as a heel, so I would have told someone that I would have a really hard time ever seeing him in the light of a babyface. With the help of Pat McAfee, WWE has successfully turned Adam Cole from a cocky heel to a sympathetic babyface in the span of a couple weeks. This is a testament to how malleable people’s perceptions of reality in general are; it takes barely anything to completely shift the perception of the general public, and because of this reality can be molded into whatever someone desires.

McAfee has been around WWE often over the past couple years, but he has never actually been in a match before. At Takeover: XXX, Pat looked like he had spent most of the last decade with WWE as a performer rather than in the NFL. This guy is extremely talented and has a great feel in the ring. He is also a great heel and played his role to perfection as an outsider who does not respect the business. It was similar to what Jerry Lawler did back in the early 1980s with comedian Andy Kaufman. The difference is that Kaufman looked somewhat uncomfortable and timid in the ring whereas McAfee looked right at home and like he could easily do this for the next 10 years if he wanted to.

Io Shirai successfully defends the NXT Women’s Championship against Dakota Kai, and Raquel Gonzalez was confronted by Rhea Ripley signifying the Start of a Rivalry

The announce team at Takeover had its most lively period of the entire evening during the NXT Women’s Championship match. Speaking of the announce team, the fact that an indispensable announcer in Corey Graves returned to NXT to call the action at Takeover: XXX made the entire event feel bigger and much more important than usual; Mauro Ranallo has earned the right to take a night off every now and then.

Io Shirai is far too talented to drop the NXT Women’s Championship already; she’s only been champion for about two months (and unlike Keith Lee, she is not quite as ingrained in her character, as a result she is not yet ready for success on the main roster in WWE). She has made quite a name for herself in Japan, but she still needs a little more time to adequately cultivate her character in a new country – and develop better English skills.

Dakota Kai has the potential to be champion one day, but she also needs more time to cultivate her character. Kai has only been a legitimate threat in the NXT Women’s Division for about nine months since she turned on her “best friend” Tegan Nox in November 2019.

Damian Priest wins the NXT North American Championship – His first Championship in NXT in a Five – Man Ladder Match

First of all, it was an incredibly unselfish move by Keith Lee to relinquish the North American Title in order to give other superstars the opportunity to win a title rather than keeping all the gold for himself.

Each participant’s perspective:

New Champion Damian Priest: Priest has been performing in NXT under his current gimmick for a little over a year now, so he has built credibility in NXT – this just takes time because fans need a reason to care about a particular character, otherwise they will simply fade away with time. Priest has given fans a reason to become attached to his character; he also appears to have a high degree of maturity, integrity, and grounded-ness to his personality which are all intangibles that Vince McMahon looks for in a champion.

Johnny Gargano: Johnny Wrestling is absolutely a much better babyface than a heel; he is by no means a bad heel; it’s just not working quite as well for him. This is how people learn – if you never try, how will you know what works and what doesn’t? Gargano already has everything needed for his character to evolve in NXT. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he doesn’t get promoted to the main roster as soon as this heel run for him runs out of steam (Gargano might revert back to a babyface character on the main roster in order to adequately set him up for success.

The only reason Gargano is still in NXT is because his rivalry with Tommaso Ciampa resonated so deeply with the NXT universe. Now that the long-term story between them is finally over – which resulted in a Gargano heel turn and as a result a de facto Ciampa face turn – the company made the decision to keep them both in developmental to see if they could have any success on the opposite end of the heel/face dynamic. It is not working quite as well for Johnny, and Ciampa has not had a great opportunity yet to test the waters as a face.

Bronson Reed: NXT’s Resident Thicc Boi is experiencing a slow burn with his character in regards to getting over. He has been around for close to a year, and he is in the midst of slowly progressing into a character that resonates profoundly with wrestling fans – the key he is just patience, because it will happen.

Velveteen Dream: I had a feeling Dream would be in developmental for a while because he was so young when he started (this guy started wrestling when he was about the same age as Randy Orton); Randy was not ready at all at such a young age. It makes perfect sense that WWE would be careful with Dream and let him take his time to develop the maturity necessary to be a champion that is equipped to with the tools necessary to represent the company well.

Cameron Grimes: Too new, loudmouth, somewhat annoying. He’s there not to be the center of attention all the time but to provide a small comedic distraction in the middle of shows to make fans say to themselves “Oh my Lord, I hope that guy doesn’t win.” That may not necessarily be his role forever with WWE, but it is at the moment and he’s doing an effective job.

Finn Balor defeats Timothy Thacher

This was a beautiful way to kick off the evening – just WWE quietly reminding fans that there is still excellent wrestling in the company. Thatcher is still a little new to the company, so it makes sense that he would lose to a veteran like Balor; he did an effective job, however, displaying his rugged wrestling style. That DDT Balor does for his finish makes me cringe every time because it looks like a borderline piledriver; I guess I should be used to it since AEW does those on a regular basis.

This was a very smart opening match that set the tone for the rest of the night and furthered the evolution of both characters – particularly Thatcher. I was not resonating with his character that much prior to the match, but I appreciate his wrestling style.

WWE ThunderDome Debut 8/21/2020

August 30, 2020 by Evan Luebbe

WWE moved its tapings from the WWE Performance Center – which is essentially a glorified gym for WWE superstars – to the Amway Center (also in Orlando). This is a much bigger arena, so it will simply give superstars more room to be able to spread out and have more of their own space. The virtual experience with fans is also extremely cool. WWE took the idea from the NBA to project people from home in front of the cameras on their computer screens and then projecting those images into the stands for a live, engaged audience. WWE is taking that idea a step further by doing this on a much bigger scale in a larger arena. This will hopefully usher in a new era of pandemic programming.

WWE’s next potential step with this could be to have fans compete to see who has the best background at home, and the winner could be projected onto the largest screen in the arena on the Jumbotron. Another possibility is that the winning fan could get a special discount on WWEshop.com. These are a few ideas that could make the experience even more interactive for the WWE universe.

Vince McMahon, Shane McMahon, Bruce Prichard, and everyone else involved with WWE creative has done an excellent job of generating exciting storylines between WrestleMania 36 and SummerSlam 2020. In the last several weeks, extremely compelling cliffhangers at the end of each episode of WWE TV have kept the universe tuning the following week to see what happens.

Several superstars have conceivable scenarios right now where their respective characters could undergo a heel or babyface turn at the second biggest show of the year to shift the direction of their character.

Big E’s new perspective on not being named “The Guy” – WWE Superstar Sagas

Big E seems to have a great amount of perspective on the idea of WWE choosing Roman Reigns back in 2014-15 to lead the company going forward. As the event happened, Big E took it in and internalized it. Maybe he came up with the idea that, “I was not ready for that level of responsibility – to put a company on my back and carry it on my shoulders.”

We could all learn something from this – to respond rather than react to events in our life. Instead, we could maybe internalize them and derive new meaning from them that serves us best. Any given event in life has essentially no fundamental meaning other than the meaning we give it. The event has the importance a person decides to give it in other words. Back to Big E – his perspective on his situation back about five or six years ago is very similar to Drew McIntyre’s perspective regarding being fired around the same point in time and having McIntyre’s situation come full circle with him being crowned WWE Champion at WrestleMania 36.

Everything definitely comes full circle now as Big E is getting his hard-earned singles push after well over five years of winning over the WWE universe with The New Day (the group started teaming together back in November 2014). Teaming together with this group helped E to begin feeling comfortable showing his authentic self for the WWE universe to see and be able to connect with. He has now earned several victories in a row against The Miz, John Morrison and now Sheamus.