Summerslam 2006 Review
Mood:  spacey
This past sunday was the 19th annual Summerslam PPV. It's been a while since I have seen a WWE PPV (WrestleMania 22 was the last) but I had obtained a copy of it a few days afterward. Last night I had privilege...honor...opportunity to watch it. On to my review.

Chavo Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio: I am fed up with this whole Eddie Guerrero angle that they are doing. Rey Mysterio has been booked as the worst champion in WWE history. It's bad enough that he won the title due to Eddie untimely death, but the WWE continues to drag this over and over again. It's gotten so bad that Vicky Guerrero was brought in to flesh out the storyline.

One thing I noticed is that when Chavo went for the Three Amigos, the fans were cheering, yet when Rey Mysterio did it, the fans booed. It could be that the people are agreeing with Chavo on that Rey is leeching off of Eddie's name or that the fans were booing the idea of the match in general.

One of my favorite matches was No Way Out 2004 with Chavo and Rey going at it for nearly 20 minutes in a great match; unfortunately this match was nowhere near the caliber of that match.

Big Show vs. Sabu: A somewhat sensible storyline leading up to this match but if came off quite dull. A few missed spots here and there but nothing so bad it took away from the match. It had its moments but didn't have the feel of it. If Paul Heyman was so scared of Sabu taking the title off the Big Show and losing in a big investment on Show, why did he do nothing to stop Sabu. Even an appearance would have helped. The ending came out of nowhere, which is ok at times, but since this is under Extreme Rules I expected more, but I wasn't upset by it. Their rematch on ECW two days later was a bit better than this match.

Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Orton: This was Orton's big opportunity to show to everyone that he can be a main guy again and carry a lesser wrestler (Hogan) to a good match like HBK did last year. That did not happen. The fans were more into seeing Hogan rather than anything else. It was good for seeing Hogan pulling off his usual spots, but it did nothing for Orton. Another thing I noticed, Hogan's novelty act is wearing out fast. While his reaction was loud, it wasn't "Hulk Hogan" loud. The milking of the crowd can only work for so long before they want something else.

Ric Flair vs. Mick Foley: This was the match I was looking forward to; more so than any other match. I heard that they wanted to recreate the 1989 classic "I Quit" match between Flair and Funk. I have that match but as of yet, I haven't seen it. This match started out brutal real fast. They used, barb wire boards, barb wire bats, thumbtacks and we even got the see the classic Nestea Plunge out of Foley. Just when this match was reaching its climax, the ending killed it. It was a bit confusing. For me, it looked like Foley quit because Flair was not going to stop and Foley was still seeing stars from the plunge, but the way the announcers played it, it made it look like Foley quit so Flair wouldn't hit Melina who was shielding Foley. Good match, quirky ending.

Batista vs. King Booker: This match needed to be great because Smackdown is in such a dire state right now, it is looked upon my many people as the minor leagues. This match pretty much came out of nowhere. While it was logical for a former world champion who was pinned or submitted to lose the title to be given a match for said championship, there was no appropriate build for their match. Not to mention the fact that we are supposed to forget about their little scuffle at the Summerslam photo shoot, which was reported again and again on WWE.com. You would think that they would have incorporated some of that into their match since they are the ones who brought so much attention to it. It would have made the match more interesting.

The match was ok at best. A lot of sloppy offense mostly from Batista really hurt this match. I'm not sure if Booker was sandbagging him, alluding to the fight mentioned earlier, or Batista was phoning in his performance but none of these guys were on their A game, especially Batista. The crowd was dead for this match; perhaps it was from the earlier match with Foley and Flair, but coming to the end they woke up a bit.. Those 4-5 minute chinlocks didn't help much either. The ending was very bad too. A clean victory would have been great, or some sort of small controversy would have sufficed too, but Sharmell, who looked amazing that night, might I add, interfering by smacking Batista weakened an already weak match.

DX vs. The McMahons: This has gone on too long. DX went from cool to embarrassing within a month. Say, did we ever get an explanation of why DX is back? Yeah, I didn't think so; that would have actually helped. Not only that, it seems that DX is the most unstoppable force in WWE. The Spirit Squad (who are the tag team champions in case you forgot, because I sure did) couldn't touch these guys and any chance they had was quickly snuffed. At Summerslam, DX single handedly beat the Spirit Squad, Mr. Kennedy, Finlay and Regal with ease. It took the Big Show to actually turn the favor. A quick note, Kennedy got a nice reception, followed by Finlay. I know the internet loves Kennedy, but I still don't see why. He's good, but he hasn't shown much to me yet.

By the time the match actually started, DX was already laid out. I loved the way the McMahons were using double team moves, and even finishers from tag teams in the '80's like the Decapitation, Hart Attack and the Doomsday Device, all on HBK by the way. Hunter was still laid out. When he finally got the tag, he became Superman. What happened to the pain he was feeling after being chokeslammed though a table? After HHH was getting the match balanced in his favor, Umaga made his presence know attacking him with the taped thumb of doom, or the Samoan Spike as its better known. Kane comes down to attack Umaga and help DX. Why, you may ask. :shrugs: It hurts to make sense out of this stuff.

With it being back to DX vs. McMahons, Shane went for the Coast-to-Coast on Hunter, and got superkicked along the way. That was a nice spot, but we all saw that if it didn't happen, Shane wasn't going to hit Hunter anyway. He landed right in front of him and to make matters worse, HBK's foot didn't even hit him. In the end DX won. and sadly, it seems that this feud won't end here.

John Cena vs. Edge: People sure do hate John Cena. I don't hate the guy. I'm a fan of is enthusiasm and his ability to work hard and give 110% every night. His in-ring abilities may be severely limited, but he does try to cover some of that up with his in-ring charisma. Like I've said before and will keep saying, John Cena isn't a bad wrestler. It's just that in this point, he can afford not to do any fancy moves, the top rope drops, the submissions or even good old chain wrestling. there are things he can do to make himself better, but I believe that the WWE has to be the ones who tell him what he needs, and they don't even realize they have a problem (like the boos aren't a warning sign)

Edge is where he belongs, on the top of the WWE. When Hunter was there, it was stale and he was stale. Make no mistake, Hunter is still at the top, but just not in the title picture. Edge gives great performances many times and given the right opponent, can give match on the night performances as well.

The match at Summerslam was a good match, and I loved the way the stipulation of the title changing hands through a DQ was used. Not much bad things to say about it, but I do have two qualms:

When Sharmell jumped on Batista, the match ended on a DQ. When Lita jumped on Cena, the ref who saw this did nothing. Why?

Edge had to use brass knuckles to win this match. Can't he ever win a match cleanly or on his own. His stock drops each time that happens. He has to be a dominant heel champ; Hunter can't hold that title all the time.

All in all, the PPV was not the best PPF the WWE has produced. The 2 best matches were the I Quit match and the WWE title matches, and those were above average at best.