WWE SummerSlam (July 2022)

Original Airdate: July 30, 2022

From Nashville, Tennessee; Your Host is Corey Graves, with Jimmy Smith and Byron Saxton (RAW), and with Michael Cole (Smackdown)

Opening WWE RAW Women's Title Match: Bianca Belair v Becky Lynch: Cool venue! Some real SummerSlam ‘92 vibes, and I like the lowkey entrance set. Sometimes, less is more. Feeling out process to start, with Belair dominating, and Lynch getting frustrated. Becky suckers her into a takedown when Bianca gets too cocky, however, and the challenger goes right to work on the arm from there. Belair manages a chickenwing facebuster to set up a standing moonsault for two, and Becky wisely bails. Belair is on her tail for a KOD on the barricade, but Becky drops her arm on it to block, and delivers a guillotine legdrop there. Inside, that gets the challenger two, so she delivers a suplex. Another one, but Belair throws elbows to block. She tries a suplex of her own, but Becky counters with a cradle for two, and hammers her in the corner for two. Becky works the arm, and takes her down into a cradle for two. Dropkick knocks Belair to the apron, so Becky spinkicks her out there, only to have another guillotine legdrop countered with a powerbomb. Becky still manages to knock her to the floor, but a dive gets blocked, and a chickenwing facebuster to the apron follows. Belair tries a suplex on the floor, but Becky blocks - only to have a smash into the post reversed. That allows Belair the suplex she wanted on the floor, and a handspring moonsault gets her two on the way back inside. Becky tries a springboard bodypress, but Belair rolls through, only to have the arm give out on her when she tries powering to a vertical base. That allows Lynch a somersault cutter for two, and they stagger up for a slugfest, won by the resilient champion. Lynch tries a rana, but Belair drops her on her face to block, and sets up the KOD - only for Lynch to counter to the Dis-Arm-Her. Belair manages to get the ropes before Becky can get it properly locked on, however, and she slides to the outside for a KOD on the floor! Belair leaves her for dead out there, but the challenger beats the count in. Belair responds with another KOD, but Becky blocks. Lynch charges the flustered champion, but Belair manages a spinebuster, and goes up for a dive, but Becky blocks again. Lynch follows upstairs for a superplex, but Belair blocks, so Becky pulls her off by the braid, and delivers a uranage for two. Becky goes for the arm again, but Belair cradles for two. Rollup gets two, so Belair tries a springboard, but Lynch blocks. She tries a uranage off the middle, but Belair counters with a Spanish fly, and the KOD retains at 15:09. This was a fun opener, with a good energy to it, and solid storytelling. ** ¾ 

Miz v Logan Paul: Miz schools him in the early going, just toying with the celeb. Paul manages to hold his own, but can’t build much, before getting clobbered again each time he manages a strike or two. Paul manages to block a charge and deliver a buff blockbuster to buy time, and he throws a pair of clotheslines ahead of a running powerslam for two. Paul clips the leg to set up a figure four, but Miz escapes. Paul goes upstairs with a flying bodypress, and a standing moonsault gets the man two, so Ciampa tries interfering, but gets ejected by the referee! He refuses to leave, so AJ Styles comes out to back Logan up - complete with his entrance theme. AJ takes Ciampa out, allowing Paul a springboard flying forearm for two. Miz bails, so Logan chases, putting him on the announce table, and splashing him through it. Inside, Paul hooks the leg, but Maryse is distracting the referee, so no count. That allows Miz to grab a weapon, but Paul ducks it, and delivers a full-nelson facebuster at 14:14. Logan looked good here, especially for a celebrity participant, but the match itself was super basic, and not especially interesting. * ¼ 

WWE United States Title Match: Bobby Lashley v Theory: Theory beats him down with his Money in the Bank briefcase before the bell, and he keeps unloading with right hands after the official start. Theory dominates, hitting a dropkick for two, but walking into a reverse STO. Bobby then locks on the full-nelson, and that’s it (in both theory and reality) at 4:44. Nothing to this one. ½*

No Disqualification Match: Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio v Finn Balor and Damian Priest: Sadly, we’ve lost the daylight already, and now it just looks like a regular show again. Brawl to start, with Balor and Priest dominating, but the father/son duo manage to clean house, and hit dives on the floor. Dominik with a flying bodypress on Balor for two on the way back in, and Rey tags in for a tandem Russian legsweep. Rey splashes him for two, but Finn fights off another double team, and Dominik is in trouble. The heels cut the ring in half on him, complete with getting under Rey’s skin by mocking Eddie Guerrero along the way. Dominik manages a tag, and Rey comes in hot on Priest. Kind of hilarious that they note that Rey will prove that he’s still the ‘giant slayer’ against Damian Priest. Actually, I just checked, apparently he’s 6’5”? Okay, but he does not look it. Rey gets into the trouble, so Priest tries a chokeslam, but Rey blocks. He sets up the 619, but Balor cuts him off with a clothesline, and hits a running dropkick. That sets up a flying double stomp, but Dominik distracts him, and Rey takes him down with a rana from the top for two. Dropkicks put both heels in position for the 619, but Rhea Ripley trips the babyfaces up, and drops Dominik on the apron. That allows Priest a sitout chokeslam on Rey, but suddenly Edge shows up (one-upping AJ Styles with not only his theme, but rising from underneath the stage like in the 90s) to take the heels out. That allows a 619 on Finn, and Rey adds a slingshot splash for the pin at 11:07. Solid tag action that happily didn’t kill the vibe by overstaying its welcome. * ¾ 

Happy Corbin v Pat McAfee: Pat dominates in the early going - hitting a superkick, and sending Corbin over the top with a clothesline. Pat follows to feed him the post out there, as Graves tells Cole that he ‘liked him better when he wasn’t allowed to have an opinion.’ “That’s changed - lots has changed,” notes Michael. I’ll say. Inside, Corbin fights him off with a dropkick, and Happy delivers a hiptoss out of the corner. Corbin dumps him to the outside for a trip into the barricade, but gets superplexed on the way inside, and Pat covers for two. Both guys stagger up for a slugfest, as Graves goes into overkill with his cheerleading for Corbin. Remember what I said about less being more, Corey. Corbin misses a corner charge and takes a spill back to the outside, allowing Pat a dive with a flying somersault senton! McAfee with another dive on the way back in, but Corbin dodges. End of Days, but Pat blocks, and the referee gets bumped. That allows Pat a punt down low, and a Canadian destroyer finishes at 10:38. Another one where the celebrity participant looked really good for their experience level, but where it wasn’t a particularly good match in the general sense. *

WWE Undisputed Tag Team Title Match: The Usos v The Street Profits: Jeff Jarrett serves as the special guest referee for this one. Jimmy Uso and Angelo Dawkins start, and Jeff works to establish his authority early on. Dawkins quickly gets into trouble, allowing the champs to work him over, getting into the heat segment right away. Dawkins gets away long enough for a hot tag to Montez Ford, and he comes in running wild. Ford with a standing moonsault on Jey Uso for two, and a somsersault neckbreaker gets him two. A flying splash gets two, and he’s lucky there’s no roof on this place, because he would have smacked right into it with that one! The Usos nail Dawkins with stereo superkicks, however, and a pop-up/cutter combo finishes him at 13:22. Jarrett was a total non-factor here. *

WWE Smackdown Women's Title Match: Liv Morgan v Ronda Rousey: Liv is so tiny that the belt looks ridiculous on her. Rousey knocks her around at the bell, so Liv tries sticking and moving, but gets suplexed for two. Liv tries swiping at her like a cat, but Rousey quickly fights her off with a sidekick, but Morgan escapes a fireman’s carry. Morgan with a facebuster, but Ronda drills her with a uranage, and takes her down for the submission, but Liv manages a crucifix cradle. Rousey quickly escapes, so Liv shifts it into a rings of saturn, but Rousey powers to a vertical base with a Samoan drop - only for Liv to hold on into a cradle for two. Liv tries following him in the corner, but Rousey wrenches the arm again, and gets a cross-armbreaker on. Liv makes the ropes, so Rousey just hammers on her poor little arm, and puts her back in the hold. Morgan makes the ropes again, and the referee teases stopping the match, but they continue. Rousey goes back to the hold, but Liv shifts into a cradle for the pin (while also tapping out) at 4:34. The referee didn’t see the tap though, so Morgan retains. The work was a little sloppy, but Morgan looked like she was legitimately getting the stuffing knocked out of her, so that kind of covered for it. * ½ 

Main Event: WWE Title and WWE Universal Title Last Man Standing Match: Roman Reigns v Brock Lesnar: Brock drives a literal tractor down to the ring, and he leaps off of the scoop to hit him with a dive to kick start the match. To the outside, Lesnar delivers a suplex on the floor, and Roman takes a trip into the steps. Brock with another suplex on the floor, this time off of the steps, and the referee puts the count to the champion. Roman beats it, so Lesnar hits him with a clothesline, and they brawl into the crowd. Brock rams him into the big columns that hold up the lighting a few times, and a German suplex on the floor rattles the champion as they come back over the barricade to ringside. Reigns beats the count, so Brock pulls a table out, leading Paul Heyman to try a distraction. Lesnar takes the bait, allowing Reigns to recover with a Samoan drop through the table. Brock beats the count, so Reigns slams him through another table, but Lesnar is up, and gets into the ring. Reigns follows with a Superman punch, but it doesn’t put Brock down. Roman adds a second one, but Brock is quickly vertical again, so Reigns spears him, and that puts Lesnar down for some counting. Lesnar beats it at seven, so Reigns tries another spear, but Brock counters to the F5 - Roman able to block. He tries a charge, but Brock sidesteps, and the champ takes a bump to the outside. Brock follows to spinebuster him through a piece of one of the broken tables from earlier, but Reigns beats the count, so Lesnar blasts him with the steps to knock him silly. Reigns doesn’t go down, so Brock brains him with a chunk of the table, and Roman looks out cold. The referee counts, but Reigns beats the count at eight, so Brock decides to dump him into the front loader of his tractor. Brock hops into the cab and raises the scoop up high above the ring, then dumps Roman to the mat. That sounds better on paper than it actually was. Brock sits back in his ride as the referee puts the count to the champion, but Reigns beats it at seven. Lesnar responds with a pair of German suplexes, but Reigns beats the count. Brock responds with another German, but Reigns gets up, so Lesnar puts him right back down with an F5. Roman fights up at nine, so Brock sets up another F5, but Reigns counters to the guillotine choke! Brock escapes with a DDT into a guillotine choke of his own, and Reigns looks to have passed out. Brock lets off so the official can count, but Reigns somehow gets vertical at nine. Brock is still feeling pretty triumphant at this point, though, and he decides to get back in his tractor. He uses it to literally lift a corner of the ring, and a still groggy Reigns goes flying off of it, to the floor. The referee count, but Reigns beats it again, so Brock goes for the announce table, but the Usos show up. They gang up on the challenger, but Brock fights them off with suplexes on the floor. Next try, Heyman comes over to try and hand the title belts over so Brock doesn’t kill his meal ticket, but Lesnar responds by putting Paul through the announce table in brutal fashion. Heyman taking the bullet allows Reigns to recover, however, and he spears Lesnar. Both guys are taking the count off of that one, and stagger up at nine. Neither guy has anything in the tank, so Theory runs out with his Money in the Bank briefcase - it’s cash in time! Theory blasts Reigns with the case, but Brock takes him out with an F5 on the floor. All that time gives the Usos a chance to recover, however, and stereo superkicks knocks Lesnar silly for an eight count. Reigns spears him as soon as he gets vertical, but Lesnar beats it again, this time at nine. Reigns grabs the briefcase to beat on his challenger with, but Lesnar still beats the dang count! Reigns responds by clocking him with the title belt, but Brock somehow gets up at nine. He falls right back to his knees, however, so Reigns grabs the title belt again, braining the challenger. The Usos help him bury the Beast under the rubble of various pieces of the ring set, and Brock is unable to answer the count at 22:59. I’m not usually one for Last Man Standing matches, but this was one hell of a take on it, and certainly one the better ones I’ve ever seen, especially in the modern era. Both guys worked hard here, and even though they’ve worked about a million major matches together at this point, this one still managed to be unique and interesting. And, best of all, not like a videogame where they just spam their finishers the whole time. I also really dug how well they built drama of their count teases, and Reigns did a brilliant job of getting the crowd to do whatever he wanted - getting back into heel mode just in time to avoid becoming a sympathetic babyface. ****

BUExperience: This was a pretty decent show. Most of the matches weren’t especially strong, but the show felt light thanks to good pacing, and the open air stadium atmosphere was welcome. Topping it with a truly great main event (where I really wasn’t expecting one) was the perfect cherry to the first show of the post-Vince McMahon era. 

**