Summerslam 2007 Review

Well, I think after this one it's going to take awhile for fans to get the sour taste of John Cena retaining the belt out of their mouth enough to really enjoy this show for what it was, which was pretty good. Here's the reviews.

WWE Championship
John Cena v. Randy Orton

This is an utterly fantastic match. This played off a lot of the Cena defenses we've seen thus far with yet another new spin from a challenger. Orton, like he has for most of the feud (and the entire summer for that matter) seemed to be one step ahead of the champ for most of the early going. He's working smart here, sticking to the neck and head to do his major damage, but never getting carried away at any one point.

The staple of John Cena's work is his Jerry Lawler like comebacks and Orton sees them coming almost before John Cena does. He easily neutralizes them in the early going, but as the match continues along, he begins to gradually lose control of Cena and Cena gets in more and more offense. Orton seems resigned to the fact that a Cena is going to make a comeback at some point, and thus keeps the work targeted so that when and if it happends, he can pull off an RKO and win the match, so he's trying to make sure that if the worst case scenario occurs, he'll be able to bail himself out and the work will pay off.

Orton does a brilliant job for most of the match, but the past mistakes of challengers catches up with him as well. Like Umaga at the Royal Rumble and Michaels at Wrestlemania 23, Orton controls most of the match but Cena is always able to avoid the home run shot. When Orton finally DOES connect with an RKO, he's too worn from all his prior activity to follow up and get the pin fall.

The end comes when Orton falls into the same pit everyone else does, and lets things open up, which was exactly what he wanted to avoid. It's Cena, ironically, whose three seconds away from winning a match at anytime and like any clutch hitter, connects with a big FU at the right time for the pin fall.

The psychology is really done well here as Cena just looks lucky to be alive after the match. Like the Yankees though, the first eight innings don't mean anything unless you can get the hits when they count and Cena got that big hit. This is a great story and a great match was made super great by a super hot crowd. Best match of the card and best match for Cena since Raw. It was Orton's best performance ever. ****1/4

World Heavyweight Championship
The Great Khali v. Batista

Batista steals a page from John Cena's book and basically tries to sell Khali's stuff like it's death. Problem is, Batista ain't John Cena. Khali works fairly well here, keeping Batista on the mat and using his leverage to his advantage. Batista tries to work in spurts but continuously gets put on his rump by the bigger, stronger champ. He's one guy Bats can't toss bombs with.

The commentating on the part of Michaels Cole and JBL is outstanding here and made what looks like a mediocre, plodding match, pretty decent actually. Especially getting over Khali's rest holds as being truly painful. Just as this match was getting somewhere though, they seemingly cut it off with a really weird DQ finish that caught Cole and JBL off guard. They tried to cover it with the old chicken shit thing, but Khali doesn't look nor act like a chicken, so I don't get it. Moderately decent stuff that got cut before it went anywhere with a bad finish. **1/4

ECW World Championship
John Morrison v. CM Punk

This was ok for the first five minutes or so, but as the match progressed, it fell apart. I don't know if Punk and Morrison were trying too hard to get a totally dead crowd into it or not, but it suffered from all the same lapses their Bash match did with yet another super akward finish. Nice back and forth with another akward conclusion. **1/4

Triple H v. King Booker

This wasn't sensational or anything, but I wasn't really expecting much more than this. Triple H looks slimmed down after being out for so long and he definately looked like he had a lot of adjusting to do throughout the match. This was kept pretty tight, around ten minutes or so, but that works well considering the fact that the Game is coming off a big injury and they didn't do that last time he had his big comeback and it left him kind of exposed.

Booker worked ok in this match, but it wasn't really about anything more than the jerk-face heel finally getting his. I'd have liked to have seen them toss Sharmell's involvement in things into the match a bit more. Nothing spectacular here, but served it's purpose of bringing the Game back and blowing off a nice 'heel will get his ' sort of feud. **1/2

Rey Mysterio v. Chavo Guererro

Very good stuff here. These two are always good for a little something fun and this wasn't much different. In fact I found this to be QUITE good.

Rey looks like a super hero which is good for the kiddies, but brings a lot of intensity to the match, which is something he sorely lacked during his world title run. Chavo is a total asshole here, going right after the injured leg and being entirely unafraid of the man he conquered last fall. The near falls were worked really well and this was well grounded, not featuring too much of the Rey flippy stuff. It's a fairly compact match at slightly over ten minutes. Certainly worth a good look see and a sleeper pay per view match. ***

WWE Intercontinental Championship--Triple Threat Match
Umaga v. Mr. Kennedy v. Carlito

This wasn't bad, but a little anti-climatic. The heels basically decide to gang up on Umaga, but can't ever get on the same page long enough to really get anywhere. The one downfall of these matches in the WWE is the tendancy for guys to get stuck in the whole 'guy gets chucked and two guys go at it' formula but these guys did a good job of avoiding that for the most part. nice action here with Umaga getting his, Kennedy and Carlito squabbling, then Umaga pwns them. Nice match, but nothing long enough to warrant more than **1/2

Diva Battle Royal for the #1 Contendership to the Women's Championship

This was pretty forgettable, although not entirely bad. Basically it comes down to Beth Phoenix taking on the Smackdown duo of Michelle McCool and Torrie Wilson, who quickly get overhwhelmed and dumped by Phoenix. I would've liked to have seen them stick with this for longer than they did as nothing really played out except for the fact that Beth Phoenix is a tank. *1/4

Kane v. Finlay (w/ Hornswaggle)

Another match that was fine for what it was. Finlay is best when he's got a body part to tear apart and he does that here, working over Kane's ribs with pretty good effect. Kane sells as good as he has in the past year or two and it makes Finlay's offense believable. The ending is a bit rushed, but it is fun with Hornswaggle and Finlay freezing in fear of the Kane pop up. Nice little match and good opener to get the crowd going, but nothing more, nothing less. *1/2


Overall Thoughts: This is going to be a show that might not get rave reviews now, but will be looked upon fondly over time. The main event is truly sensational and is supplimented with a decent mid card with some fun stuff, mainly Chavo-Rey. The lackluster stuff suffers from weak endings but everything seemed to do what it was intended to do. For the second biggest show of the year, it was dissapointing to not see any title changes, but that shouldn't get in the way of calling this like it was, a solid WWE pay per view. Grade: B