Summerslam (2021)
Results & Afterthoughts

Tag Team Match for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship

RK-Bro (Randy Orton and Riddle) defeated AJ Styles and Omos (c) by pinfall

This was a decent match to officially kick off the main card of the show. I'm still not particularly fond of neither of these teams, but at least all of the people involved made this an entertaining match to watch with the right team going over. Riddle absolutely got clobbered in the final minutes of this match with Randy Orton sealing the deal and picking up the win. I was thinking Orton was going to RKO Styles out of the Phenomenal Forearm for sure, but nope. I gotta say that was really disappointing that they didn't at least go for it.

Singles Match

Alexa Bliss defeated Eva Marie (with Doudrop) by pinfall

This was absolutely nothing of a match. I went in with very low expectations for this and wasn't disappointed in the least in what we've gotten. The best part of this was Doudrop making fun of Eva Marie in the post-match and taking her robe. They are definitely planting the seeds for their split and I'm loving it. The sooner they end all of this stuff with Lily the Doll, the better. There can't be ANYONE watching these shows asking to see more of this crap.

Singles Match for the WWE United States Championship

Damian Priest defeated Sheamus (c) by pinfall

At this point of the show, this was easily the best match bell to bell. Sheamus worked his ass off to make Priest look like a million bucks while he definitely pulled his weight here too. It amazes me that Sheamus is still able to go like this despite the talks about his back being fucked up a few years ago. Whatever he's doing to rehabilitate must be working then. I love that WWE is taking their time with building up Priest. They aren't setting him up to fail early on by throwing him in there with the sharks prematurely, only to be surprised when he doesn't get over or the fans stop having faith in the guy. They are taking their time with his push and it's working. Baby steps like this will only make him a bigger star in their system in the long run.

Hell, in my eyes, he's already come a long way from his Punishment Martinez days from Ring of Honor if you ask me.

Tag Team Match for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship

The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) (c) defeated Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio by pinfall

Nothing against the Mysterios and the Usos, but I honestly don't care about this feud. We've gotten a lot of great matches from the talents involved - no arguments there - but this crap about the "Mysterio Way" like it's the goddamn English dub of Naruto is SOOO fucking cringe that it's not even funny. That WWE contract has to be for a lot of money for Rey to agree to a lot of this silly stuff that he and his family have been relegated to on television over the past year.

On the flip side, when is this punishment for Jimmy Uso going to start? Seems like they are giving him a pat on the back for the last DUI bust. First him and his brother win the tag titles and are still being heavily featured with their cousin Roman Reigns. That can't be going over well in that locker room.

Singles Match for the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship

Becky Lynch defeated Bianca Belair (c) by pinfall

This match was the biggest cardinal sin of the night for a lot of people, myself included. Mind you, WWE knew EIGHT DAYS in advance that Sasha Banks was missing this PPV and didn't advertise a different match in its place. Instead, they went with promoting the match all the way up to the pre-match entrances and promos until the ring announcer made the announcement that Sasha Banks wasn't here tonight and was being replaced by Carmella - someone who Bianca has beaten on free television on multiple occasions now. Naturally, the live crowd booed this decision audibly and rightfully so, that is until "The Man" Becky Lynch made her return shortly thereafter. She promptly tosses Carmella out of the ring and took her place in the ring across from Belair, asking her if she wanted "tear the house down" in a match. Belair naturally accepts the challenge, only to be floored by Becky in a whooping TWO moves - first a clothesline when she went for a handshake and a "Manhandle Slam" to finish her off.

Not that Bianca's title reign has been remarkable to begin with (MUCH better than Rhea's if we're comparing the two on the main roster) but it sucks to see her title reign end like this after all that she's been through to get to this point - first winning the Women's Royal Rumble match at the start of the year and main-eventing WrestleMania Night One with Sasha Banks as part of the first main event featuring two black women in this company's history. It's eerily similar to how it all came crashing down for Kofi Kingston following his meteoric rise to become the first ever black WWE Champion. In Bianca's case though, she's still fairly new to the main roster. She can recover and bounce back from this loss. If anything, the sympathy from the fans and other wrestlers in the industry are getting behind her even more as a babyface. That could propel her stardom even more in the coming months and years. Time will only tell. Out of the two NXT female call-ups, I'm firmly behind Bianca more than Rhea at this point anyway.

I want to know what this company was thinking with this decision when they had that excellent WWE24 special set to air after this show that depicted Bianca in an even more sympathetic light? Like holy shit was that a great piece on the woman behind the character. How can you NOT love Bianca Belair after that?

As for Becky Lynch, I'm glad to see her back, but it's pretty damning that Vince is quick to put the strap back on her - even though she never lost the title (at least the RAW Women's Championship) in the first place. It just makes everyone look at the landscape of the women's division on the main roster and see that it's painfully obvious that Vince is going hard into pushing his Horsewomen again and no one else.

Singles Match

Drew McIntyre defeated Jinder Mahal by pinfall

Veer and Shanky were banned from ringside.

I don't even see how this match was even greenlit into having this much time on this show. Why couldn't they give this match's time to Becky and Bianca? That's what made what they did prior to this match so infuriating - at least to me anyway...

Drew beat Jinder and that's all she wrote... No one cares about this feud and I still don't get why this is even a thing. At least they found a use for those dudes from Indus Sher by having them in Jinder Mahal's corner after firing the Bollywood Boys.

Triple Threat Match for the WWE Raw Women's Championship

Charlotte Flair defeated Nikki A.S.H. (c) and Rhea Ripley by submission

For me personally, I find the Nikki A.S.H stuff to be painfully stupid and cringe-worthy, BUT I understand that I'm not the audience that they are selling/marketing that gimmick towards. I've said it few weeks ago when she first debuted the gimmick on Monday Night RAW that I applaud her for coming up something new when her psuedo/wannabe crazy chick gimmick in the same vein as Daffney Unger clearly wasn't working on the main roster. I know that she's saw the writing on the wall with so many of her friends and even her own husband released from the company over the past year that she would be on the chopping block sooner more than later. She won the Money in the Bank briefcase at last month's PPV and won the RAW Women's Championship off of Charlotte Flair that following night, but they had to get that belt off of her, even though I have been never a fan of all of this hot potatoing the title back and forth, on and off of Charlotte Flair, just to get her number of title reigns closer and closer to her father's record.

To all three ladies' credit, this was a good match, even though I thought Nikki was concussed for sure off of that Corkscrew Moonsault from Flair at ringside that saw her smack her head into the ringside barricade from Charlotte's weight crashing down on top of her. Charlotte was a wrecking machine in this match from bell to bell. Nikki and Rhea tried to keep up with her but ultimately, they were no match for the Queen.

I can't help but laugh at how long it takes Charlotte to get up into position to arch her back for the Figure Eight. Like seriously, if it takes that much effort, then stop doing that shit.

Singles Match

Edge defeated Seth Rollins by submission

Without a shadow of a doubt, this was THE match of the night. If you don't watch anything else on this show, watch this match and the main event - and probably the United States Championship Match between Sheamus and Damien Priest if you got time.

I loved how they gave Edge both his Brood entrance from his days hanging with Gangrel before transitioning into his normal entrance theme.

I wasn't keeping up with the build for this match as I was already invested in seeing this when it was announced/setup after the last PPV. I loved the counter to the Spear into the Pedigree. That was a thing of beauty right there. God, I hope that is a legit reversal in the next WWE 2K video game.

I can't rave about this match enough.

Singles Match for the WWE Universal Championship

Had Reigns lost, he would have left WWE.

Roman Reigns (c) (with Paul Heyman) defeated John Cena by pinfall

Going into this main event once the entrances were done and we got Cena and Roman in the ring face-to-face, it definitely gave a big fight feel to top off this show. This is was like day and night in comparison to the reactions to both of these guys from their first one-on-one match from a few years ago.

I appreciated that they took their time (despite this match being so late into this card) and slowly built it up to a crescendo with a decisive finish when it was all said and done. Each of the near-falls meant something, even though I caught Roman doing the same thing Kurt Angle used to do back in the day was watching the referee to know when to kick out at the VERY last second to add the right amount of drama to his matches. It worked effectively here as I