Recap and Review of WWE Summerslam 2021

Tonight, was the annual Summerslam event, which is an event that’s been going on for over thirty years. These last few weeks and months, WWE has gone through a major transition of releasing talent, bringing up from NXT and bringing back two legends to compete in World Championship Matches. Going into this Summerslam, I sensed it was going to set the tone for the future for WWE. How would the tone be set? This is what went down at the biggest show of the summer.

-Kickoff Show- Big E defeated Baron Corbin
-RK-BRO defeated AJ Styles and Omos to become the new Raw Tag Team Champions
-Alexa Bliss defeated Eva Marie
-Damian Priest defeated Sheamus to become the new United States Champion
-The Uso’s defeated Rey and Dominik Mysterio to retain the Smackdown Championships
-Becky Lynch defeated Bianca Belair to become the new Smackdown Women’s Champion
-Drew McIntyre defeated Jinder Mahal
-Charlotte Flair defeated Nikki A.S.H. and Rhea Ripley to become the new Raw Women’s Champion
-Edge defeated Seth Rollins
-Bobby Lashley defeated Goldberg by referee stoppage
-Roman Reigns defeated John Cena to retain the WWE Universal Championship

The opening match of Summerslam was for the Raw Tag Team Championship. AJ Styles and Omos won the Tag Team Championships at WrestleMania and I feel like the Tag Team Division has not had a great direction. I am not a fan of makeshift tag teams, but I love the organic progression of Randy Orton and Matt Riddle. They have had a really fun dynamic since they have been paired. I am super happy that they are the new Tag Team Champions, because they can add more to their dynamic. I will be curious to see how they do against other teams in the division.

We stay on Raw with a match between Alexa Bliss and Eva Marie. I’ll be honest, I had no idea what to make of this match. It had a very weird buildup and the match itself was very underwhelming. Alexa Bliss is in a weird spot right now. She is still continuing to the character she started with Bray Wyatt. Even though she won tonight, she is in need of a major character change and shift. I am not sure where they’re going with Eva Marie and Doudrop. It’s one of those things where there is no clear direction.

Raw continued on with the United States Championship match as we saw a hard-hitting contest between Sheamus and Damian Priest. This match was a good slugfest between two men who have been around for quite some time. Priest had a great run going into WrestleMania then he cooled off. He and Sheamus have been having a nice buildup towards Summerslam. With Priest as the United States Champion, I would expect to see some really great matches. He is a phenomenal talent who can work any style and match up well with multiple styles. Priest as champion is good for Monday Night Raw and a step in the right direction.

We now move to the Smackdown side where the The Uso’s took on the The Mysterios in another chapter in their rivalry. You really don’t have to say much about these two teams. They’re bonded by blood and legacies. It was one year ago on this pay-per-view that Dominik Mysterio made his debut. He has come a long way as a performer and has learned a lot from team with this dad. Even though they didn’t recapture the tag team champions, I have a feeling we’re going to see something big with Mysterio’s really soon. As for The Uso’s, they have multiple teams they can on Smackdown. They have the Dirty Dawgs, The Alpha Academy and The Street Profits. The Uso’s have plenty of teams to create more magic with.

In what was supposed to be one of the biggest matches on the card, it turned out to be a complete disaster. Sasha Banks was not at Summerslam to challenge for the Smackdown Women’s Championship. Carmella came out, but was then interrupted by a returning Becky Lynch. Belair accepted Lynch’s challenge and lost within thirty seconds. This had to be one of the worst decisions in company history. They erased eight months of momentum with one horrible decision. This not a good way to build towards the future. Had Lynch won it in a twenty-to-twenty-five-minute match, it would have been fine. They took the lazy way out and put no effort into it. I really have no words for what is going to happen with the Smackdown Women’s Championship going forward.

Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal is a match that did nothing on this show. I understand they have history in a faction that wasn’t even use properly. Drew got the victory, but where does he go from here? He cannot get back into the WWE Title Championship picture until Lashley loses the WWE Championship. I think a move to Smackdown would really benefit McIntyre at this point. They booked him into a bad spot with the championship stipulation and now they have no where to go.

The Smackdown Women’s Championship match was a train-wreck, so thankfully the Raw Women’s Championship Match was a lot more solid. Unfortunately, they set the Raw Women’s Division back with another Charlotte Flair championship reign. Nikki A.S.H and Rhea Ripley are more than capable of holding the championship. In fact, Charlotte Flair has now ended both of their title runs within a month or two of them winning it. From my perspective, it sets the division back about five years. When Charlotte, Becky, and Sasha all came up they were not held back or poorly booked. You can’t say that for most of the women who’ve come up that last four years. Flair is closing on her dad’s record, so we will have to wait a while longer for other women to be permanently in the spotlight.

Edge and Seth Rollins have had history going back seven years when Rollins almost took Edge out for good during his retirement. This match had history around and a really great build. What made this match special is the nostalgic side of Edge bring back his roots from the Brood. Edge brought back so much from his past and he brought an intensity we haven’t seen in a long time. I was shocked that Edge made Seth Rollins tap out. I definitely think this is far from over between these two.

Next up was the WWE Championship Match between Bobby Lashley and Goldberg. This match went on longer than expected, but ended abruptly when the referee called the match due to Goldberg’s knee being injured. I am not sure why they didn’t have Big E and cash-in the Money in the Bank Briefcase while Lashley was beating up Goldberg’s son Gage. I think Big E capitalizing on something involving his childhood hero. The thing I don’t like about this is that it leaves the door open for more Goldberg. I’m not a fan and haven’t been in a long time. I am of the mindset that there are so many deserving stars in the company who would thrive if they got a chance to be in the spotlight.

The Main Event was between Roman Reigns and a returning John Cena. They have had history before, but as personal and intense as this. John was the face of the company and Reigns is the present face of the company. Reigns has been on amazing run in the last year taking on Edge, Bryan, and Cesaro in very great matches. I was very uncertain about how Cena was going to do or what he was going to do, but he brought his absolute best that he could. After the match as Reigns was celebrating, Brock Lesnar made his return to WWE. This will be a very interesting story due to Paul Heyman’s relationship with both of them. This is a story I can get behind and support.

Summerslam is a 6 out of 10 for me. There was a lot of poor decisions tonight that will be very hard to correct given everything else going with WWE right now. For a pay-per-view that is suppose to be considered one of the big four, I was very let down as a viewer tonight. I’m not sure how WWE recovers from the recent releases, the changes to NXT and now a very lackluster pay-per-view. Whatever the future holds, I hope they figure it out soon.