WWE SummerSlam 2022 Post Examination

Nashville, TN—Nissan Stadium

July 30, 2022

An image that will live on for years (courtesy of wwe.com)

Star Ratings

Becky Lynch def. Bianca Belair: ★★

Logan Paul def. The Miz: ★★

Bobby Lashley def. Theory: ★

The Mysterios def. Judgement Day: ★★

Pat McAfee def. Happy Corbin: ★★

The Usos def. Street Profits: ★★

Liv Morgan def. Ronda Rousey: ★

Roman Reigns def. Brock Lesnar: ★★

Logan Paul looked good (courtesy of wwe.com)

Post Examination:

We want a war.  With Vince gone, can’t we expect WWE to have a better product that challenges Tony Khan creatively?

Triple H assumed the throne of WWE creative on July 25th.  So as wrestling fans do, whatever you thought was the peak of NXT years previously, that was what you expected to be on the main roster that Monday night in MSG.  Of course that wasn’t the case, as that show had already been signed off on and written by Vince.  Undoing two decades of generally dipshit booking by Vince is a big ask to do in one day, fine.

Another projection that was easy for wrestling fans to make, was that Tony Khan took Triple H’s ascension as a personal challenge and produced a banger episode of Dynamite on 7/27 that was a the wrestling creative equivalent of a spiteful hatefuck.  Dynamite featured a dream match between Jon Moxley and Rush, a shocking upset in Daniel Garcia going over Bryan Danielson, and Team Taz imploding in brilliant fashion as Ricky Starks was made into a star by putting over Hook for the FTW title only to receive an out of nowhere beatdown from Powerhouse Hobbs.

So SummerSlam had to be Triple H’s retort, right?  It was too early for Raw and Smackdown to have a new identity, so what better place than the PPV?  Well, depending on your projections, pinnings, and optimism, SummerSlam was or wasn’t what you expected.

There’s no way around it, if Triple H doesn’t cut the cuts, it’s going to feel like the same old shit.  Think of how easy Hunter’s job actually is.  All you have to do, literally all you have to do, is hold the camera on the wrestlers for an average of 4 single solitary seconds, and the product is going to feel like a revelation.  It’s that simple.

What SummerSlam did well was make Nissan Stadium look full and impressive.  Sure, they didn’t actually draw the bullshit number that MAGA Red Machine said they did—(remember that one time when WWE said they don’t have anything divisive on their programing?) it still looked great and the blocked the empty sections well.  Regardless if there wasn’t 65,000+ fans in there, they had to of drawn a big house financially with filling the equivalent of two NBA/NHL arenas.

The Lesnar tractor shit was silly and didn’t work for me, but that and Logan Paul created a lot of buzz and had enough people talking about WWE in a positive light for the first time in an incredibly long time.  And that’s great.  There’s no risk for WWE financially right now, really.  All they need to do is focus on re-imagining the creative and what the new vision of the company will be.  While it’s insane to assume that we’ll get exactly all our favorite individual moments from NXT replicated on the main roster here on out, there’s no reason to believe that by the Clash at the Castle, Triple H will have a direction and vision for his WWE.  Reasonable expectations and new standards should be set then.  But why can’t we have a war of who has the best creative?   

Roman wins (courtesy of wwe.com)

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