WWE News:
WWE SummerSlam HOLT report
Indianapolis, Ind.
August 17, 2008
Report by Brian Brinegar, PWTorch.com correspondent

I'm not sure how it came across on TV, but the live experience was about a 9 out of 10. Before the event Big Show defeated Bam Neeley, the match was announced as Big Show v. Chavo, Chavo then stepped down and put Bam into the match. Big Show seemed to be in a happy mood and really interacted with the crowd.

Announcers were introduced, Lillian came out first, sang the national anthem, and announced the commentators. She attributed Taz as, "representing ECW." Though he's on Smackdown now. Jim Ross seemed to have some kind of issue with his chair which he discussed with a member of the ring crew. One member of the ring crews job seemed to be to pull the chairs out for the announcers.

Just prior to going live several refs, announcers, and ring crew removed the top layer of the ring mat. They had several layers of mat separated by plastic tarps which allowed them to unstrap and peel off a layer of the mat in about one minute.

The pyro throughout the event was incredibly loud, much louder than it comes across on television. The fireballs used in the Undertakers entrance were very hot, we were sitting half way across the arena and could feel the heat as each fireball went off.

The Jeff Hardy v. MVP match came across pretty well for an opener, the crowd was mostly behind Hardy, though a few big MVP chants started up.

I was a bit surprised, but the womens action in the inter gender match was very fast pasted and fun to watch. Kofi's jumps were amazing. Seeing him jump onto the turnbuckle and out to the floor was amazing. I'm a Kofi fan after watching that live.

Shawn's decision segment was what it was and I thought came across fairly well. It looked like Jericho connected with HBK's wife. The guy sitting behind me told his friend who missed the segment, "Shawn came out, said he was going to quit, so Jericho came out and punched his wife." I guess that's a warning for all of WWE, try to quit and Jericho will punch your wife.

Mark Henry vs. Matt Hardy was could have stunk up the show, I think it was booked correctly... very short. Matt hit big moves and then the DQ. Followed by fun stuff with Matt and Jeff. What could have really killed the show was short and sweet. Downside was no title for Matt... yet.

C.M. Punk vs. JBL was ok, though it seemed to have a few to many rest holds. We were joking that the match contained, "The Bearhug of the Summer" They knocked heads hard during the match and Punk was busted open. After the match one of the ring crew got some cleaning supplies out from under the ring to try and remove a spot of blood. After that didn't work they stripped off another layer of the mat.

Triple H vs. Khali was probably the most boring match in my opinion. Khali's moves are all slow. It seemed that he may have legitimately hurt his knee on a spot with the stairs/ring post. Either that or he's better at selling knee injuries than wrestling.

Following the match five crewmen in black came out in the dark and crawled under the ring. They would assist in the Hell in a Cell match later, for now they get a unique perspective of the Cena v. Batista match.

I missed John Cena's entrance because I was in the bathroom. Both he and Batista are huge. The match was solid with lots of big impact moves. Very fun to watch live.

The Hell in a Cell is massive. It lowered from the ceiling taking about 30 - 45 seconds, and seemed to have it's own music as it came down. They also moved the stair steps from the far right side of the ring to the front right prior to the match.

Both participants had huge entrances with Undertaker's being quite impressive.

During the match the crewmen under the ring seemed to feed the wrestlers weapons and of course were involved in setting up the through the ring slam and fire at the end. It reminded me of the wrestling video games, Edge would lift up the far side of the ring apron and there would be a ladder, then a table, then another ladder, then another, etc.

When the cage wall fell it looked very close to hitting JR in the head. Chains are hung around the inside of the cell where the sections meet, these chains cause the metal on metal sound when the wrestlers crash into the cage.

Following the event, after Edge was apparently burned to death Lillian thanked us for coming and hoped we had a great time.

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