Two live pay per view events, two live broadcasts, two new belts, two new champions and over TWELVE hours of wrestling.
It’s been a topsy turvy couple of days in the world of WWE. Understandably, staying up until 4am for four days in a row isn’t quite possible for the UK wrestling fan on the go.
Here are a few things you may have missed out on this past weekend. (SPOILERS, because we know a few of you haven’t made it to the WWE Network yet.)
NXT chimed in a New Era too
New Era this, New Era that; the folks at WWE were at pains to emphasise just how new and different wrestling would be in the wake of the past weekend.
It sounded like a lot of hype and bluster, but following their developmental show NXT Takeover: Brooklyn II on Saturday night, the WWE had a programme where both their men’s and women’s champions came from Japan, and the number one contenders also came from BME backgrounds. Professional wrestling has come a long way from bald men in beards fighting other bald men with beards and the NXT subtle shakeup has to be appalled.
Wrestling looks more diverse and welcoming than ever before, and that NXT Takeover got fantastic matches including Bayley vs. Asuka, Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa and Samoa Joe vs. Shinsuke Nakamura shows that WWE’s commitment to making something new and fresh is more than lip service. It’s a New Day yes it is.
A new meme was born
The great thing about professional wrestling is how it combines amazing live stunt work with ridiculous soap opera style pageantry.
Yeah it’s all well and good having two men enter a ring to fight, but when one of them enters like this?
That, dear readers is the #GloriousBomb, the entrance for new NXT recruit and storied veteran Bobby Roode. Expect to see it appear on your various internet timelines too.
(Special Note: Shinsuke Nakamura’s entrance to his NXT Championship match is one of the best entrances in WWE history. This writer was sat in a Brooklyn bar watching UFC 202 and people were still singing along to the theme song. That is, they were singing along to a theme song that has no words.)
Superman died
John Cena lost on Sunday.
No shenanigans. No injured referee. No illegal weaponry.
John Cena lost on Sunday. Clean. He faced AJ Styles and the better man won.
For all of John’s big match, “Never Give Up” bluster, he does tend to lose often at SummerSlam. WWE’s version of “The Empire Strikes Back”, good guys rarely run away from the event with their pride intact.
But what made Cena’s loss so devastating was his reaction. For so long Cena has talked of his love of the WWE fans and how they’re the only reason he stays around after 14 (FOURTEEN) years in the ring.
But in Brooklyn, the crowd rejected Cena, in a different manner from their jokey “John Cena sucks” chants. The AJ Styles match felt like a passing of the torch from one SuperStar to another, and while Brooklyn cheered when the three-count was made, by the time John Cena removed his “Never Give Up” armband, there was a palatable shift in tone and the mourning began in earnest. John Cena could be finally giving up the full-time wrestling game. Superman may have just died.
Brock Lesnar is a menace
SummerSlam’s main event was a cross-promotional match between RAW’s Brock Lesnar and Smackdown’s Randy Orton. The Beast vs. The Viper, Suplex City vs. Viperville.
It ended with Brock Lesnar taking a chunk out of Randy’s head.
In a confusing finish, the match had to be ended early because Brock used a (banned, even in UFC) 12-to-6 elbow to bust Randy Orton open.
The WWE announced on Tuesday night that they’d be fining Brock Lesnar $500 for his actions, but that’s a small price considering Orton needed 10 IRL stitches to sort himself out. Brock Lesnar is a terrifying man, we all know this, but what happened when he goes too far?
Finn Balor made history… but has had to step aside
It should have been a crowning occasion for Irish wrestler Finn Balor, but a poorly received title design and a nasty shoulder injury has put WWE’s Next Big Thing on the shelf for a while.
His match with Seth Rollins for the new WWE Universal Championship has all the makings of match of the year… but the Brooklyn crowd decided to chant about the perceived ugliness of the new, red velvet cake inspired title.
That it transpired Finn gained a shoulder injury in the match only made things worse. After winning the title on Sunday, The Demon had to vacate it on Monday Night RAW. In the space of a month there will have been two WWE Universal Champions. It wasn’t in the plan, but we’re sure something good will come to pass. Get well soon Finn.
Smackdown gets a shot in the arm
After a couple of weeks figuring out what the live show wants to be, Smackdown got a bit of verve with two new titles.
This week saw Smackdown introduce new tag team and women’s titles and suddenly their divisions look wholly more interesting.
That the show plays host to the WWE’s most over star in AJ Styles and the blue brand is looking good ahead of the Backlash pay per view on 11th September.
The Miz got good. REALLY good.
A former winner of WWE reality show “Tough Enough”, The Miz has never been too popular with wrestling’s hardcore. Often called an “actor’s idea of what a wrestler should be”, The Miz’s ever so slightly comic timing annoyed those who liked their heroes and villains more… gritty.
When The Miz is up and firing though, there are very few around that can top him. And that it includes Daniel Bryan, aka “the best professional wrestler of the past half decade or so.”
Real or not, that is one heck of a speech to make on a man you know is IRL injured and had to retire.
Goodness. The Miz did not come to play. We’re excited to see what he does next.