{"id":454,"date":"2010-08-15T17:45:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-15T16:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=454"},"modified":"2010-08-15T17:49:37","modified_gmt":"2010-08-15T16:49:37","slug":"summerslam-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=454","title":{"rendered":"Summerslam 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

I may have skipped last month’s show, but Summerslam<\/em> tonight is an interesting one on a couple of levels.<\/p>\n

Summerslam<\/em> is traditionally one of the WWE’s big shows of the year (in the second tier after Wrestlemania<\/em>, along with Royal Rumble<\/em> in January and Survivor Series<\/em> in the autumn). \u00a0This is really is just a hangover from the days when there were only four PPVs a year, but the name still has a certain added credibility – not least because the company usually puts a bit more effort into these shows.<\/p>\n

This year, it’s something of a one match show. \u00a0But it’s a match that they’ve been building to for months, in a storyline which has dominated Raw<\/em> for much of that time. \u00a0And now, for the first time, it’s a leading to match. \u00a0All too often, the WWE loses its nerve with this sort of long-term build, but this time they’ve got it right, and in theory at least, that ought to result in a lot of interest for this show. \u00a0Whether the match will be any good… well, that’s more of an unknown factor. \u00a0But unusually, that might even add to the curiosity here.<\/p>\n

1. \u00a014-man elimination tag team match: The Nexus (Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, David Otunga, Skip Sheffield, Heath Slater, Michael Tarver and Darren Young) \u00a0v. Team WWE (John Cena, Chris Jericho, Edge, Bret Hart, R-Truth, John Morrison and ???).<\/strong> For once, the obvious main event is not a title match, and not even a singles match. \u00a0It’s a 14-man tag.<\/p>\n

The Nexus are the wrestlers who appeared as “rookies” in the first series of NXT<\/em>, the WWE’s C-show. \u00a0NXT\u00a0is an odd show that doesn’t really work. \u00a0It does at least start with the right idea: the previous C-show, ECW, was just the same thing as Raw and Smackdown, only at half the length and with a fraction of the star power. \u00a0Unofficially it was the starting point for new wrestlers, but in practice it was just more of the same, from a company that was already producing four hours of higher-priority television every week.<\/p>\n

So the idea of NXT was to do a faux reality show – a concept they haven’t executed particularly well, because the writers don’t have time to produce that sort of script, and the wrestlers don’t have the talent to pull them off anyway. \u00a0In theory, each “season” of NXT involves eight rookie wrestlers, each being mentored by an established wrestler (which adds a bit of star power to the show, and also provides a dumping ground for midcarders who don’t have a storyline at the moment). \u00a0The rookies have wrestling matches of variable quality, and appear in other competition segments which are generally unwatchably excruciating. \u00a0And over time, through a process of elimination the mechanics of which are not wholly transparent, one wrestler is left and becomes the winner.<\/p>\n

It’s not a very good show, because to do it properly would involve producing something like a cross between Ultimate Fighter<\/em> and The Hills<\/em>, and the company simply isn’t prepared to throw that much effort at it. \u00a0It also goes against a long-standing maxim of professional wrestling in America, which is that if you want to make a star, you introduce him as a star, and have him beats of people – you don’t introduce him as one of eight interchangeable losers and then spend four months beating home their inferiority by telling us that it’s a huge shock if they manage to pull off a win over an established wrestler. \u00a0(In fairness, in Japan they do it differently. \u00a0Wrestlers over there will usually start as outmatched rookies and work their way slowly up the card. \u00a0But conventional wisdom says it doesn’t work in America. \u00a0If NXT was being done better, we might be able to test the theory.)<\/p>\n

So… the first “season” of NXT – there are no actual season breaks, but the WWE likes to call them seasons anyway – ended with Wade Barrett winning the contest. \u00a0And then, a week or so later, all eight rookies showed up at the end of an episode of Raw to demolish the set and kill everyone in sight. \u00a0And more or less, that’s what they’ve been doing ever since – attacking in a swarm at the end of main events, annihilating people by weight of numbers, and generally \u00a0acting like nihilist wreckers. \u00a0Quite why<\/em> they’re so angry – other than a general irritation at the way they were treated on NXT – remains a bit vague, although they occasionally suggest that they have a masterplan which will become clear in due course. \u00a0(Cynics would say that this means their masterplan will be revealed if and when the writers figure out what it is.)<\/p>\n

The storyline took a knock at the outset when the WWE fired Bryan Danielson, the best wrestler of the bunch, ostensibly for choking out the ring announcer with a tie during the group’s first attack. \u00a0Broadly speaking, the suggestion seems to be that the WWE got into some trouble with their sponsors for not sticking to their stated PG rating, and Danielson may have been the fall guy. \u00a0He’ll probably be back in the end.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the story continues with the remaining seven rookies, now calling themselves the Nexus, and with Barrett (who can certainly talk) acting as their leader. They attack people, they talk a lot, they hardly ever wrestle. \u00a0Barrett’s had a couple of brief matches, but otherwise the only official Nexus match saw them taking on seven lower-card guys and killing them quickly. \u00a0Partly this is because they’re building up the first proper Nexus match as a big thing. \u00a0Partly it’s because most of the Nexus really are<\/em> rookies, and getting them to wrestle risks spoiling the mystique. \u00a0Tonight, we will find out how much the WWE have to worry about there.<\/p>\n

Following several weeks of this sort of thing, John Cena has assembled a team of established WWE stars to take on the group. \u00a0And that’s our match for tonight.<\/p>\n

The psychology is simple. \u00a0The Nexus are rookies. \u00a0A bunch of established wrestlers, in a fair fight, ought to win. \u00a0Except the WWE team are a mixture of heels and babyfaces, and Cena has pretty quickly discovered that being the team leader is a bit like herding cats. \u00a0The two heel members, Edge and Jericho, are only there out of a grudging sense of mutual self-interest, and won’t do as they’re told. \u00a0Morrison and R-Truth, who are midcard babyfaces, are squabbling for unrelated reasons. \u00a0Retired wrestler Bret Hart is reliable in theory, but realistically we all know he’s not going to be doing a great deal in his condition. \u00a0And the Great Khali, who was supposed to be in the final slot, was taken out by the Nexus last week, leaving the WWE side a man down.<\/p>\n

So you’ve got a team rookies who are at least on the same side, versus a bunch of main event wrestlers who hate one another. \u00a0Can Cena’s team get their act together long enough to finally beat these guys, or are the Nexus going to get a rather big win over Raw’s elite?<\/p>\n

It’s a solid story, and it also means there’s plenty of scope to play up storyline aspects and work around the limitations of the less experienced Nexus members – some of whom, one can’t help suspecting, are unlikely to see the main event again once this storyline is complete. \u00a0In theory, Cena, Edge, Jericho, Morrison and R-Truth ought to be good enough to get a decent match out of these guys as long as it’s reasonably well rehearsed.<\/p>\n

Barrett’s solid, even if he doesn’t feel like a main event singles wrestler yet. \u00a0Gabriel and Slater are promising. \u00a0Sheffield has something to offer as a big man. \u00a0David Otunga was hired because he’s married to Jennifer Hudson, and has yet to convincingly demonstrate any other reason to keep him around. \u00a0Darren Young is not very impressive either, though it’s only fair to acknowledge that John Morrison was bloody awful at that stage in his career, and he improved enormously over the years. \u00a0Michael Tarver is pretty abysmal, but has been okay in this angle since they can hide him in the crowd.<\/p>\n

The match will be a challenge for the more experienced wrestlers on the other side, but there’s something there to work with. \u00a0I think they’ll be able to pull it off.<\/p>\n

There are two main storyline questions going into this match. \u00a0First, who (if anyone) takes the seventh slot on Cena’s team? \u00a0They’re hinting at the Miz, the United States champion, but that would be a third heel on an already unstable team. \u00a0Miz’s main motivation for helping out seems to be that he likes the ego boost from knowing that main event babyfaces need his help – which is actually quite in character for him. \u00a0And, as a wrestler heading to the main event, he would make sense.<\/p>\n

Second, who wins and why? \u00a0This story is going well, so they don’t want to end it just yet. \u00a0If so, Nexus probably win. \u00a0And there are several ways of doing that. \u00a0Nexus could<\/em> just win, if they really want to keep them incredibly strong. \u00a0(Don’t hold your breath.) \u00a0The Raw team could splinter down face\/heel lines. \u00a0Or one of the overlooked Raw wrestlers could switch sides. \u00a0Cena and Hart make no sense for plot reasons, and it’s not a shock if Edge or Jericho do it, so the best candidates are the two midcard team members, Morrison and R-Truth, who seem to be there to make the numbers on Cena’s team. \u00a0Either would potentially work, but Morrison is a better bet. \u00a0He’s struggled as a babyface with his contrived “Jim Morrison” gimmick, and a high-profile heel turn would reinvigorate his act.<\/p>\n

Also on this show…<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0WWE Title: Sheamus v. Randy Orton.<\/strong> Sheamus is the defending heel champion here, and Orton – still settling into his role as an antihero babyface – is the latest challenger. \u00a0This is basically just a straight wrestling match. \u00a0There’s a stipulation that Orton doesn’t get a rematch if he loses, and that anyone who interferes in the match gets suspended (not a given, in the wonderful world of professional wrestling). \u00a0But basically, that just means “no, honest, we’re going to have the match and the Nexus aren’t going to run in after five minutes.”<\/p>\n

They’ve done some decent interview work to build up the match, but there’s no real storyline as such, and it’s simply two main event guys fighting. \u00a0These guys are usually solid, though, and I’d expect it to be good. \u00a0A win for Orton wouldn’t entirely surprise me, because the Miz is still hanging around with the “Money in the Bank” title shot that he won a while ago. \u00a0Since the “Money in the Bank” title shot can be cashed in at any time, it’s basically an excuse to ambush the champion, and Miz, as a heel, pretty much needs a babyface champion to screw. \u00a0(For that matter, Wade Barrett is still owed a title shot, and it doesn’t really make sense for him to challenge Sheamus. \u00a0But I expect they’ll hold that match off for a bit, or add him to a three-way.)<\/p>\n

My guess would be that either Sheamus just retains, or Orton wins and Miz instantly snatches the title from him (or at least tries, and does enough to set up a rematch next month where he wins the title legitimately). \u00a0For lack of babyface challengers, if nothing else, Sheamus feels like he has to be a transitional champion who loses the belt sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0World Heavyweight Title: Kane v. Rey Mysterio.<\/strong> Smackdown’s world title match. \u00a0Kane got the title last month at the “Money in the Bank” show, when he won the Smackdown title shot and ambushed Mysterio after a successful title defence. \u00a0This is Mysterio’s rematch.<\/p>\n

Kane is a surprise choice for world champion, because he last held any version of the world title for about a day in the late nineties, and he long since settled down to an upper-midcard role. \u00a0But he’s in the main Smackdown storyline at the moment – in which he’s supposedly trying to identify the mysterious attacker who left his brother, the Undertaker, in a coma. \u00a0Kane being a deranged maniac, his idea of detective work is to hit people until they confess. \u00a0Kane says that Mysterio did it. \u00a0Mysterio says Kane did it himself, and is just covering his tracks. \u00a0Nobody really cares. \u00a0It’s a storyline that hasn’t taken off, but they’re committed to it now. \u00a0Besides, the Undertaker will be back sooner or later, so they’ve got to follow through with the story.<\/p>\n

I don’t expect wonders from this – Mysterio has a fairly standard “little man versus big man” match, and I think that’s what we’ll get. \u00a0I’d expect Kane to retain here, simply because they’re obviously building to Kane vs Undertaker, and the next PPV is Night of Champions<\/em>, where very match has to be a title defence. \u00a0So one of them needs to hold a title belt. \u00a0The other possibility is that Undertaker shows up and costs Kane the title, but I don’t see that happening unless they’ve lost faith in the storyline.<\/p>\n

4. \u00a0Intercontinental Title: Dolph Ziggler v. Kofi Kingston.<\/strong> The Intercontinental Title is Smackdown’s secondary title. \u00a0Ziggler is a midcard heel who’s been trying to win the belt for ages, and for one reason or another – often involving backstage politics or the knock-on effects of changes to other stories – he’s always fallen a little bit short. \u00a0Finally, he managed to win the damn thing last week, and this is Kingston’s rematch. \u00a0It’s probably time to move Kingston on to something else; Ziggler really desperately needs the credibility of holding the thing for a while now that he’s finally got it; and so logic says Ziggler is winning. \u00a0The match ought to be above average.<\/p>\n

5. \u00a0Handicap match: The Big Show v. the Straight Edge Society (CM Punk, Luke Gallows & Joey Mercury).<\/strong> Well. \u00a0This is a three-on-one match with a giant babyface taking on CM Punk and both of his henchmen. \u00a0Punk’s been wandering around with his arm in a sling for a while now, and to be honest, I’m a little vague as to whether he’s actually going to be wrestling in this match. \u00a0If Punk does participate, then the heels really have to win. \u00a0Punk is one of the top heels on Smackdown, and if he can’t beat the number 2 babyface in a three-on-one handicap match, well, he’s not much of a bad guy, is he? \u00a0If Punk doesn’t wrestle… well, to be honest, I’d still be inclined to keep the Straight Edge Society strong by letting them beat the Big Show two-on-one, but I suspect that’s not the way the WWE would see things. \u00a0My bet: Punk doesn’t participate, Big Show wins, match isn’t very good.<\/p>\n

6. \u00a0Divas Title: Alicia Fox v. Melina.<\/strong> The Raw women’s title. \u00a0Melina is a babyface just back from injury, so conventional wisdom says that either she wins here, or she comes very close indeed and gets thwarted by blatant cheating. \u00a0This will be a schedule-filler used to give the crowd a break between two of the major matches, and it won’t be very good.<\/p>\n

Worth buying?<\/strong> Depends how interested you are in the Nexus storyline, because the undercard isn’t spectacular, and the Nexus match will be very much a storyline thing rather than a wrestling showcase. \u00a0I am<\/em> interested to see where the Nexus match is going, and I’ll probably be buying it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I may have skipped last month’s show, but Summerslam tonight is an interesting one on a couple of levels. Summerslam is traditionally one of the WWE’s big shows of the year (in the second tier after Wrestlemania, along with Royal Rumble in January and Survivor Series in the autumn). \u00a0This is really is just a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wrestling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":456,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions\/456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}