WWE Summerslam 2023 Review and Match Ratings
Logan Paul def. Ricochet
It became abundantly obvious from the way they were telling the story and how these two began the match that this match was about creating a viral moment. My fear was that the match would focus too much on being about having great spots and not telling a story. Fortunately, I think this match did a great job of finding a smooth spot while having a good flow to it. Did we get that viral moment that they were probably looking for? I wouldn’t say so. Was the match particularly memorable? No, not really. Was it really good? Yeah, I’d say so.
I like the early tone being set with Ricochet showing off his acrobatics and some doubt creeping into Logan’s mind. But as the match settled down and Logan was able to get it to a more ground and pound style, I thought was a seamless flow afterwards. What I will say is that I think there were too many flips here. Specifically, Ricochet’s moonsaults. I don’t necessarily have an issue with it, and sure, there were different varieties, but I thought it started to become a bit too overly choreographed. Sometimes, simpler is better in that sense.
The finish makes sense on Paul’s end, having to cheat to win, cheap as it may be. You can just tell from watching Logan’s matches with the likes of The Miz, Reigns and Rollins and watching this one tonight that Logan has shown the ability to adapt to any style. And that I definitely can appreciate. So in spite of Ricochet’s insistence that he doesn’t belong in the WWE, he’s a damn fine WWE heel. Overall, a very rock solid opener to get the crowd warm for the rest of the night. Could have used without some of the moonsault spamming though. ***3/4
Cody Rhodes def. Brock Lesnar
First thing I’ll say about this. I was just laughing at the insistence that this was a “main event” match at Summerslam and this qualified as Lesnar’s 10th, even though no it’s not THE main event. Lesnar’s match was the main event at Summerslam in his rookie year and in his return to WWE in 2012 and every year thereafter up until the pandemic. And then when he returned again, he main evented last year. I don’t know when the 2nd match on the card qualifies as being the main event. Anyway, I’ll talk about this little talking point later.
As it pertains to the actual match, imagine Lesnar’s match against John Cena at Summerslam 9 years ago, but if he lost. Lesnar’s one of the best big time performers in recent memory because of the element of realism that he brings to matches. The scars that Cody bore on his chest were real, and something that can only come from a prize fighter like Rock. Now as it pertains to this match itself, I thought it was easily the best of the trilogy. Cody played the role of sympathetic babyface as good as anyone could, and when Brock Lesnar is motivated, you often get magic.
I definitely thought that this was an outstanding effort from both men. One thing I will say is that with the constant count out teases and use of the steel steps (does that not constitute a DQ?), it would have made all the more sense for this match to have had a stipulation, probably a Last Man Standing match with the way the match was going at the start. Regardless, the drama properly got built up as the match reached its zenith towards the end, and it genuinely felt like a war for Cody that he had to summon all his strength to overcome, and those are the best kinds of Lesnar matches.
It’s pretty funny considering that to this day it has never been explained why these two were fighting, or even why Lesnar decided to instinctively attack Cody right after WrestleMania after not having one interaction between the two prior. Proceeding to break his arm and F-5 him in front of his own momma. So for this to end 4 months later in a handshake and show of respect with both men looking like they ran two marathons is rather funny, but if the matches kick ass, I guess who cares? Maybe it was a test to see if Cody was ready? I guess. So overall, a great end to this rivalry of unknown origin. ****1/4
LA Knight Wins Summerslam Battle Royal (PRESENTED BY SLIM JIM)
So the winner of this match was pretty easy to predict. So it was never about the result, but rather the journey to get there. Most battle royals are always hard to grade, but it helped that this match not only had a good deal of decent star power, but you have the hottest rising star in the company today involved. This battle royal was more entertaining than most. You had feuds between stars actively continuing such as the one between AJ Styles and Karrion Kross (still don’t know why they’re fighting either), Theory and Santos Escobar and the whole Nakamura/Ciampa/Reed trifecta among other beefs.
But ultimately, this was always Knight’s match to win. But the pop that you heard after Knight’s win makes it all the more befuddling why you wouldn’t give this match some kind of stake, such as a title shot. I just hope that WWE is able to build on this victory for LA and that it will lead to only greater things moving forward. ***
Shayna Baszler def. Ronda Rousey – MMA Rules Match
Well, it was certainly….different. I can’t say in good faith that this match worked out for me, and I think it would have been better had they simply gone with your standard submission match. It’s a stipulation that’s actually one that we rarely see, and one that coincides with both of their wrestling styles, both in WWE and in amateur wrestling. I mainly don’t think it worked out because the flow of the match could have used more than just body blows and grappling. And for the fairweather wrestling fan who was confused as to why they weren’t clotheslining or suplexing each other, or why the referee wasn’t counting any pinfalls, it may not have translated well. And since the match ended how Shayna’s victories usually end, I don’t think it would have made much difference.
So basically, I get what they were going for, and I can appreciate the effort, but in a WWE ring, I think they put a lot of unnecessary bells and whistles to get to the point, which should have been Shayna trying to get out of Ronda’s shadow and prove that she’s better. And a standard submission match, or even just a standard match, would have accomplished that feat easier than putting gloves on both of them and having them just roll around for 7 minutes, with one of those 7 minutes being officials trying to stop the match. Right person won, but definitely the flattest thing on the card tonight. **
Gunther (C) def. Drew McIntyre – Intercontinental Championship
It’s weird. I didn’t think this match was great as I thought it would be, yet I thought it was an astute physical battle between two gladiators. That’s the level that I think Gunther has been operating on. They did have a lukewarm crowd to work with courtesy of Baszler and Ronda, so perhaps that worked against them. But I believed those who saw the triple threat at WrestleMania, or even the match Gunther had with Sheamus at Clash at the Castle last fall could tell that this was about a tier or two below those matches.
Maybe it’s that Gunther and Sheamus are a better pair than Gunther/Drew, but here’s the thing. This was still a great match. Gunther’s sheer physicality and dominating ring presence alone is enough to carry most o fhis matches. You can also tell that his chops, clotheslines and powerbomb all hurt, and seeing a superstar try to overcome the mountain of all of that is what makes his matches highly entertaining. Drew is one of less than a handful of stars on the roster that can match Gunther’s physicality and reciprocate it in kind, so that is why expectations where high for this one.
I just don’t think we ever got to that level of greatness that we’ve been accustomed to seeing from Gunther lately. It could have been more time needed, but I think the triple threat match at WrestleMania was around the same time and that was one of the greatest matches in WrestleMania history. So what I’m left with is a very, VERY good Intercontinental Championship match that I know could have been even greater, but we didn’t get there. ****1/4
Finn Balor def. Seth Rollins (C) – World Heavyweight Championship
This was such good shit. It’s already proven to be scientifically impossible for Rollins and Balor to have a bad match. We’ve seen these two over and over again over the years. Whether it was their initial bout at Summerslam 7 years ago, their fights over the Intercontinental Championship in 2018, or their battles over the World Heavyweight Championship this year. I believe this is easily their best one on one match in WWE. And I don’t think it’s even close either.
First, you have the easy psychology and story to tell, which is Balor’s 7 year grudge. Balor has the the word “Seven” over the labrum that tore off the bone during his initial Universal Championship conquest. Rollins has the words 7 years written on his boots and is donning the same attire in that match in question 7 years ago that he throws on Balor’s chest. Balor performing the same barricade powerbomb that injured him. Seth almost winning initially off the same miscommunication with Damian Priest.
Initially, I thought when Priest came out, Rollins would lose in similar fashion that he did at Money In The Bank. Eventually, he’d do so anyway, but the near-falls that came out of that scrap were absolutely phenomenal and the drama was only heightened as a result.
This match just hit a lot of the ebbs and flows for me in the right places. I thought this was creeping on 5 star territory, but I don’t think it was quite there. The finish I understand, because it creates even more tension that existed between Damian and Finn. I just wish it wasn’t in so similar in terms of the Money In The Bank ending. I thought the match deserved a bit better than a distraction-related finish. I also though this was Finn’s time to become the World Heavyweight Champion and I’d think the fact Damian’s holding th ebriefcase would create even more intrigue in that regard. But because of how high quality the match was, that’s just nitpicking. I may be overrating this a bit, but this, like I mentioned at the start, was such good shit. ****3/4
Bianca Belair def. Asuka (C) and Charlotte Flair – WWE Women’s Championship
This was essentially a story of two matches. The first match was the one we got prior to Bianca’s “injury”. It was fine, but the crowd was really dead, and it really felt like they were speeding through each of the spots. Before I had time to absorb one, they just went to another, and it didn’t really move the match along any more than it would have been had about five minutes been cut short. Charlotte would hit a spear, and then maybe 30 seconds later, Asuka is kicking someone in the face. Belair is doing a moosault, and not too shortly after, Charlotte is rolling someone up. It was a lot to absorb in the amount of time they were doing. Nothing really felt impactful and it felt like there was spots being done just for the sake of doing spots. The Rollins/Balor match that preceded it was working against them as well, so that certainly didn’t help. So needless to say, it was an uphill battle to start.
Then, you had the moment where Bianca sold her injury and the rest of the match to that point. And I think that’s when the match really took a positive upwards turn. I wasn’t fooled into thinking that Bianca was actually hurt and wasn’t going to finish the match. However, that initil yell and the way she was limping was selling 101 for sure. The 450 splash at the roll up at the end was geniunely great to se ein real time.
The end-result did shock me. It just continues the trend of Asuka having unmemorable reigns with the championship. Not sure what the point was of having her end Bianca’s 400+ day reign as champion just to have her win it back a couple of months later, even if Sky was going to cash in anyway. I’m genuinely happy for Iyo, and it also completes a full circle moment from Summerslam last year when Damage CTRL first became a unit, complete with Dakota Kai coming to celebrate the moment with a torn ACL. Which I suppose means it’s only a matter of time before we get the Iyo/Bayley matchup.
As far as the triple threat match goes, the second half of the match was just enough to make it good. But there was hurdle after hurdle to get through after the first half. ***1/4
Roman Reigns (C) def. Jey Uso – Undisputed WWE Universal Championship (Tribal Combat)
I’ve come to the conclusion that Roman won’t be losing the championship until I’m eligible for Social Security. So it will be a long time. The ending wasn’t even really related to things in the Bloodline. It was essentially envy and jealousy on Jimmy’s end that Jey’s stock rose by virtue of Jimmy’s misfourtune. Jey Uso’s stock initially rose after Jimmy’s injury in 2020. 3 years later, Jey gets a main event slot at Summerslam for the company’s top prize by virute of Jimmy getting taken out again. So this isn’t really about any internal strife in the Bloodline. This is just good old fashioned Cain and Abel jealousy. I just wish it didn’t take us 50 minutes to get there.
So this was a good fight. Pretty good fight. Some chairs, some kendo sticks, leather straps, about 10 tables. We even got some blood. As with most Roman main events these days, there was a good deal of fluff added. The spot where Jey put Roman through the table over the top springboard took about 5 minutes. The whole walk over the barricade just for Solo to put Jey through a conveniently placed table and dragging his carcass back was another 5-10 minutes. So as you can see, there’s a lot of idle time being added to these main events, a lot of which don’t necessarily add to the match.
But focusing on the action itself, it was good, physical action. Personally, I liked the matchup from 3 years ago better because it was much quicker to the point. This had members of the entire Bloodline involved in a 40 minute brawl, so it was a bit of a sloth to get through. The overall point you should take from this is that Roman is not losing the championship until at least WrestleMania next year and they are gonna milk the hell out of the first ever Uso vs. Uso matchup. Good main event. A couple hairs too long for me to get to the point which people who were paying attention could see a mile away. ***3/4
Conclusion:
Can’t in good faith say this wasn’t a good show, because it was. It just felt like the potential for an even greater show was there but it didn’t quite hit it. But these premium live events will still be touted as successes because of the attendances and the venues they are being held at.
In terms of the matches, they were all very good. Unfortunately, it was only the women’s matches that weren’t all that interesting or great to me, but even that was made up for somewhat with the Iyo cash in. And techncially, we did get our big name return. Jimmy Uso. Oh, and Omos.
More matches delivered more than not, so I’d definitely call this a thumbs up. I just don’t see myself re-watching it again like I would WrestleMania Night 1.
By the way, anyone else find it funny WWE was pushing the whole “4 main event” thing tonight? There was only 7 matches on the card, so apparently over half the matches were main events. That’s pretty funny, at least.
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