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JMO: SATURDAY NIGHT'S MAIN EVENT REVIEW - 1/2/88 RRC: 08/22/05 TJR: WWE Summerslam Recap and Analysis When Worlds Collide: Summerslam 2005 OTC: Smackdown Grades for 08/18/05
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Just My Opinion: Summerslam 2005 From the Nosebleed section
by: Corey on: 8/25/2005 12:03 pm est 
Summerslam was live from the MCI arena in Washington, DC this year. I was all set for what should have been some front row seats due to a ‘contact’ of mine leaving a couple of tickets at the will call desk. Well surprise, surprise! I get to the desk, and the tickets aren’t there. So I get to do my report from the nosebleed section. And I’m not kidding you. There were only 6 rows between me and the top of the arena. I should have realized that something was wrong when the guy next to the escalators were selling binoculars. We were so damn high up, that the concession stand only sold drinks in those tiny airplane bottles. We were so high up, that if Jesus Christ returned for his faithful believers, I’d have been first in line. Ok, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system. Despite being so high up in the arena, the view wasn’t too bad. My buddy and I had a great time, and we were able to see everything with no difficulty. Chris Benoit v. Orlando Jordan Ok, I was pissed with this one. Not because it was such a short match, but because it was such a short match that I was still in line getting my damn food when it was over! There was no other way that this match should have gone though. I like OJ, but there was no way that he should have given Benoit a hard time. Benoit once again has some gold around his waist, and the live crowd couldn’t be happier. I couldn’t even hear his music because everyone was cheering so loudly. Matt Hardy v. Edge There was a lot of anticipation from the live audience about this one. Those people who knew the real story behind this match knew that it could very easily turn into an actual shoot. It was clear early on, that they were working, but nobody expected the match to end so quickly. Most of us thought that Edge knocked Hardy silly when he pushed him onto the ring post. It turns out, that much like Austin having to do the ultra-clean job to the Rock upon his return to the WWE after walking out for a year, it seems that Hardy too, was forced to pay some penance for getting his job back after upsetting the WWE’s applecart by airing the Lita/Matt/Edge love triangle over the internet. Personally, I think that this was bullshit. Matt wasn’t the cause for these problems. Edge & Lita are. From what I understand, Lita is really upset that her personal life is being dragged out in the open like this, but screw her (As Edge has already done)! She betrayed Matt, not the other way around. It’s no less than what she deserves. The only person that came out smelling like a rose was the primary person at fault, Edge. He kept his job, got a big push and still got the girl. Not sure what the state of his marriage is, but he still has the girl. And to top it off, he destroys Matt in less than 5 minutes, seemingly killing off the entire feud in one shot. I was really looking forward to at least 10 minutes of these guys damn near killing themselves in there and really throwing the rulebook out the window. Instead the match barely gets any heat behind it before it’s over. The live audience was very much confused and upset by the finish to this one. I would have really liked to see this match go to a double DQ or a no-contest. They could save the clean finish for their third or 4th match out. There was some real mileage that the WWE could have gotten from this one, and I suppose that they still will, but In my personal opinion, they botched this first match by giving it to Edge in so decisive a manner. A lot of people are saying that it’s Vince McMahon’s way of showing Matt who’se boss, or reaffirming that Matt will be nothing more than a mid-carder, but they could have definitely done better than what they gave us. Eddie Guerrero v. Rey Mysterio Eddie and Rey did a good job here. Lots of good spots between the two of them. Despite being the heel, Eddie had more than his fair share of fans tonight. The live crowd was clearly chanting for Eddie when he powerbombed Rey when Rey was hanging from the suitcase. Ok, while this was definitely a good ladder match, I have to question how far the WWE is going with their storylines. Do we really need to get that far into these guys’ family history just to have them wrestle each other? I was joking with my friend, that 20 years ago, Rey would have driven up to the arena in his car, and Eddie would have run up and hit Rey with a brick or a bat. That right there would have been enough to get 3 or 4 months worth of matches out of them. Now, we need to have them fighting over custody of Rey’s kid and have both wives running in on the match. I suppose next up, will be a Welfare Check match. They only wrestle on the 1st and 15th of the month, and the winner gets Dominick and the check until their next match. Kurt Angle v. Eugene Despite the “You Suck” chants during Angle’s intro, I had to double check who the heel was supposed to be. Angle was cheered throughout this match, while Eugene had his share of boos. Especially whenever he used any of the Rock’s moves. When he used Steve Austin’s Stunner, the crowd loved it though. In the end, Angle won his medals back and the live audience was definitely appreciative of their Olympic hero when he made Eugene tap out. The award ceremony afterward was pretty funny. Vince McMahon’s little presidential segment afterward got a much bigger pop though. Undertaker v. Randy Orton Thanks to his Dad, Cowboy Bob Orton, Randy adds another legend to his list. The Undertaker is still super over with the crowd, and got a HUGE reaction when he came to the ring. The finish was funny, as even after Bob Orton took off his mask, most people in my section still had no idea who it was that helped Randy. Some people just don’t appreciate the old school. Chris Jericho v. John Cena While I’ve heard other arena reports for this same show telling of how the crowd wasn’t really into this match, I must say that from the Mt. Everest nosebleed section, the people were enjoying this match more than any match on the card so far. Both men had their cheering sections, as on at least one occasion, there were extremely loud competing “Let’s Go Cena” and Let’s Go Jericho” chants going on at the same time. Jericho got a big pop when he put the Walls of Jericho on Cena, and an even bigger pop when he dragged Cena back to the center of the ring. Not to be outdone though, the crowd exploded when Cena finally managed to reach the ropes to break the hold. The finish got the biggest crowd reaction of the night so far. Jericho may have carried Cena, but both men did a great job and the crowd was definitely pleased with what they saw. Batista v. JBL Again, I’ve heard other things about this match from people who may have been closer to the ring, but from the lo-rent district up in the rafters where I was (I swear, we were so high up, they should have issued us parachutes), this match didn’t generate much heat. Batista being from DC got a tremendous reception from his hometown audience, but up until the finish, there wasn’t that great a response. The response was sure there when he powerbombed JBL on those steel steps though. Glad to see the hometown hero get to win and retain the title. Hulk Hogan v. Shawn Michaels Ok, first of all it must say something when your 2 oldest stars are headlining your PPVs. And it must say something else when you realize that even though they’re both past their primes, they’re still both more over than anyone in the company. Say what you will about Hulk Hogan being old, stale and having only 6 moves in his arsenal (with 2 of them being a right hand punch to the head), but damned if there wasn’t more Hogan t-shirts out there than anything else. I’m not kidding folks. It looked like every 3rd or 4th person was wearing red & yellow. And talk about a reaction! Hogan’s entrance music brought 90% of the audience to their feet and easily got the single largest crowd reaction of the night. Now I know that it’s the en vogue for the internet crowd to piss all over Hogan, but y’know what? Like it or not, love him or hate him, he’s still over. I read how Michaels was quite upset at how Hogan’s creative control really made it damn near impossible for Michaels to negotiate how the match would proceed or finish because it always wound up with Hogan getting his way because he was in so tight with Vince McMahon. I can’t feel sorry for Michaels though. He’s getting a taste of what he did during his time on top of the WWF during the mid 90s. If Michaels is an experienced backstage politician, Hulk Hogan is the damn President of the United States. In the end, what you got was a decent match. It ended up of course, being Hogan by the numbers. It was slightly better than his usual fare, because his opponent was Shawn Michaels. Michaels bumped like crazy for the Hulkster, but I am still trying to figure out what the hell kind of sharpshooter HBK had on Hogan. You’d think that as often as he’d been put in that hold, Michaels would know how to apply it correctly. In the end though, even Shawn Michaels couldn’t avoid the patented boot/legdrop finisher as HBK finally met the one man who was better at backstage politics than he was. As I said, this wasn’t a bad match, the quality of Hogan’s matches is usually determined by his opponent. And Shawn Michaels was a great opponent for Hogan, because he can make Hogan look much better than he actually is. All the traditional Hogan and HBK spots were done and Hogan won clean with the legdrop. The crowd despite the predictability of the match, loved it. Hogan was over throughout, and Michaels did a great job of putting him on top in the end. As a whole, I’d give this card a 7. It was good, but not great. And I was hoping for “Great”, as this is supposed to be one of the WWE’s big 4 PPVs of the year. I still had fun being up here in the stratosphere with the rest of the fans who didn’t want to pay $90.00 for floor level seats. Till the next time they have a show in my area, I’ll talk to you soon. -Corey |
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