The 25th Anniversary edition of Summerslam is now in the books and in my humble opinion it was a solid but unspectacular PPV. Some excellent matches and then there was the FIGHT that took place between HHH and Brock Lesnar. All in all, I believe we got our money’s worth and that’s what we deserve.

Here’s a recap of the matches and the winners. My comments will be in red and italics.

Pre-show:

Antonio Cesaro def. United States Champion Santino Marella

Cesaro was impressive and the humorous spot in the match was when Marella pulled out the 2nd Cobra from the rear of his tights and the announcer saying “That’s what you call a backup plan”.

Chris Jericho def. Dolph Ziggler

My personal favorite match of the night – not the best match of the night, but my favorite. I make no bones about being a huge Jericho fan, and both he and Dolph put it all on the line for us fans. It was good to see Jericho prove Ziggler wrong about not being able to win the big one any more. Right after the PPV ended, Zigglar touted his demand for a rematach. http://www.tout.com/m/yzzs1v

Daniel Bryan def. Kane

I had to step away during this match so I will let WWE.com give this recap: At SummerSlam, two hotheads collided as Daniel Bryan defeated Kane in a thrilling back-and-forth encounter that had both Superstars seeing red.

Intercontinental Champion The Miz def. Rey Mysterio

Great work by both superstars! Nothing more to add than you know The Miz is a great heel, because I can’t stand him!

World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus def. Alberto Del Rio

Can’t really believe I’m typing this, but Sheamus stole this one from Del Rio. Rodriquez attempted to throw a shoe to Del Rio but instead, Sheamus caught it and blasted Del Rio with it. Then on the cover, the referee missed Del Rio’s leg on the rope as Sheamus pulled his leg down after the 3 count so the ref wouldn’t see it. 

WWE Tag Team Champions Kofi Kingston & R-Truth def. The Prime Time Players

I will just take this quote directly from our live blog tonight:  “Truth and Kofi retain! What a cross body from Kofi on Titus from the top turn buckle to the floor just before the pin by Truth”. Here is  the link to the archive of the DTRT Wrestling News Live Blog of SummerSlam – http://blyve.com/event/f02d3150647a406ebc000000

WWE Champion CM Punk def. John Cena, Big Show

Show pretty much dominated until both Punk and Cena applied submission holds AT THE SAME TIME on the giant. Show tapped out, but referee didn’t know what to do. Hit Raw GM AJ Lee’s music. She skips to the ring in her business suit, and after Punk gave us a plug (well not really, but he told AJ to Do The Right Thing), she said RESTART THE MATCH, and that included Big Show who had tapped out. Cena hit the Attitude Adjustment on Big Show, but Punk quickly threw Cena out of ring and pinned Show to retain the title. Not sure Punk is going to gain that RESPECT he wanted from Cena when Cena did the work and Punk got the pin. That’s a Triple Threat Match for you though.  

It should also be noted that earlier in the match Cena was about to do U Can’t C Me on Big Show when Punk broke it up and then mocked Cena by waving his own hand in front of his face while laughing at Cena. 

I have no inside information, but I’m thinking Punk vs Cena tomorrow night for the main event on Raw. We’ll see if I’m right. 

Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar

Ok, this wasn’t a match, it was a fight. That’s what Lesnar said it would be and that is what it was. The Game held his own and when he hit his second Pedigree on Lesnar it looked like The Cerebral Assassin might pull of the stunning upset. However, Lesnar had worked over HHH’s left arm all night and when he once again locked in the submission hold that had broken both The Game’s and HBK’s arms – HHH tapped out. 

Some random observations on the match: the crowd was mostly quiet during the match, which I believe was because they were in awe of how brutal this match was; for those who think this is all fake – I would ask how did Lesnar get those big whelps under each eye; The Game seemed to be apologizing and tearing up after refusing medical attention on his left arm; Michael Cole asks if this is the end of Triple H. I was a little disappointed in the crowd chanting “You tapped out” as Hunter stayed alone in the ring at the end of the PPV.

There you have it folks. As I said earlier, a solid PPV. I wish they would have used Raw GM AJ Lee a little better tonight. Her one line of restart the match was uneventful and her talent is much better than being under used that way, and besides with Big Show tapping out, why didn’t they have Cena and Punk finish one on one? I didn’t care for the end of the Sheamus vs Del Rio match either. It just didn’t feel right to me. Other than that, put another great big thank you down to the WWE for providing a great evening of Sports Entertainment!

Ed Boston

Co-Founder of DTRT Wrestling News

And BTW I just now saw a tout rebuttal from Jericho to “Zoggler” http://www.tout.com/m/f311y5