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It’s impossible to overstate the importance of SummerSlam booking and presentation.
A great SummerSlam performance can create a superstar overnight – consider Ultimate Warrior crushing the Honkey Tonk Man in 30 seconds or Bret Hart defeating “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig.
A disastrous one can derail a wrestler’s career – consider Lex Luger failing to capture the WWE Title from Yokozuna, Mabel losing to Diesel in a wretched main event.
This year’s SummerSlam featured thrilling highs and miserable lows, which will have a powerful impact on booking opportunities going forward for those involved.
As ever, I’ll give you the good news first.
SummerSlam Rising Star: Oba Femi
Now THAT is how WWE creates a star.
Oba didn’t just need a win. He needed a star-making moment — and Hell in the Cell delivered.
Brock Lesnar threw everything he had at Femi, from Suplex City to multiple F5’s. The Beast even stripped the canvas off the ring to tombstone The Ruler on the wooden ringboards.
And none of it mattered.
Oba came back strong, hit the Fall From Grace, and became the first man to defeat Lesnar in Hell in a Cell. Afterwards, Brock raised Oba’s hand, calling him the future.
Lesnar couldn’t have put over Femi more strongly than he did.
The question is no longer whether Femi belongs in the title picture. It’s how long WWE can justify keeping him out of it.
Runner-up: Kevin Owens
KO’s surprise return made the Undisputed WWE Championship number one contender’s match into a four-way. Fans in attendance were as ecstatic as Sami Zayn was stunned.
The best friends shared a brief hug before laying into one another. KO dominated the brief match before pinning Sami to become number one contender.
The surprise return followed by the immediate victory has become a WWE trope. It also remains one of their most reliable booking formulas.
KO’s win took advantage of an audience which was overjoyed to see him return and therefore particularly invested in him. KO wasn’t simply reintroduced — he was immediately reestablished as a main-event player on SmackDown.
It remains to be seen what role KO will ultimately play. He was framed as a babyface, which capitalized on fans’ immediate enthusiasm, but this could change if SmackDown has greater need of a heel. Owens has proven himself able to fill either role equally well.
Either way, one of WWE’s top stars has returned from an injury that threatened to end his career, after a 17-month hiatus. A changed landscape and a fresh collection of dream matchups await.
Wrestling fandom will be watching intently as he challenges CM Punk on the mic and in the ring.
Second Runner-up: Chelsea Green
Nobody saw this coming.
Lovable loser Chelsea Green seemed the least credible challenger to win Sunday’s five-way ladder match to become the Interim WWE Women’s Champion.
To the surprise and delight of the U.S. Bank Stadium, win she did, capturing her first (interim) world championship.
In the ring, Green has been consistently presented as hapless. Her ineptitude is such a part of her character that it would be odd to see her rise to the occasion by showing the skills needed to compete at a top level.
It seems more likely that Green’s championship run will be defined by good fortune rather than dominance, that she defeats more credible opponents through sheer happenstance, just as she won the title.
Green’s status as interim champion places her on a collision course with Rhea Ripley. This would appear to be an unfortunate pairing, as fans would feel conflicted between their loyalties to two beloved figures.
A better possibility may be for Green to drop the Women’s Interim Title to a heel before Ripley’s return. Given how Green is portrayed, a short title reign would be more believable.
Regardless, Green’s wonderfully entertaining character work will have a brighter spotlight on SmackDown as she becomes, if briefly, the focus of its women’s division.
Fans are in for a treat.
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
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SummerSlam Fading Star: Lil Yachty
Lil Yachty is a suboptimal pairing with Trick Williams. A fan favorite like Trick would not typically be matched with an obnoxious manager like Yachty, who would fit better alongside a heel. Yachty partially compensated for this mismatch with his celebrity status and his genuine chemistry with Trick.
At SummerSlam, Yachty became a liability twice over: in storyline and in execution.
His cold open introduction of Trick was unintelligible. He became an unwelcome distraction during the matchup by confronting Corbin and threatening him with a kendo stick. A babyface star like Trick should not need help from his manager to get unfair advantage in a match.
Later in the match, Yachty was apparently out of position, leading to Corbin breaking character to yell “Yachty, come on.” Corbin prompted Yachty to return to the ring to hit him with the kendo stick. The spot looked exactly as ridiculous as it reads — and it sucked whatever energy remained out of the match.
Yachty would later provide an excuse for Trick to lose the US Title, when he was sent through a table at ringside, distracting his friend and allowing Corbin to finish him off.
This pairing is not working, in storyline or in reality. Yachty has been a major reason Trick hasn’t fulfilled his promise as Smackdown’s hottest young star.
Here’s hoping this title loss will lead to a dissolution of their partnership, and a new direction for the former champion.
First Runner-Up: CM Punk
Punk’s title defense against Cody Rhodes may have been the most highly anticipated match of the weekend. For months, fans had waited to see the two biggest babyfaces of WWE’s new era collide. We couldn’t wait to find out who is “the Best in the World” at a major premium live event.
We were led to believe this would be an epic matchup with a definitive finish.
What we got disappointed on both counts.
First, the finish. Randy Orton’s involvement, landing an RKO on an exhausted Cody, completely invalidated the results of the match. We didn’t find out who was the best. We didn’t even find out who was better on that night. Fans were cheated out of the promised result of one of the most important matches of the summer.
Just as frustrating was the match itself. Cody and Punk were barely able to pull off a good match, let alone a classic. From my perspective, Punk’s conditioning is to blame. He became exhausted early into a 25-minute match and lacked the vigor to make his offense or selling realistic. He could not maneuver himself correctly in the CrossRhodes and instead just fell on top of Cody, making the critically important maneuver look completely ineffective.
When it comes to telling a compelling story on the mic, Punk is truly great. However, he has lost the ability to do so in the ring, at over the course of an extended match. Punk can still play a star, but he can no longer play a top athlete for 25 minutes. He needs to get himself in better shape or keep his matches short.
Second Runner-Up: Dominik Mysterio
I believe that Dominik’s success has come from his lack of ability. Fans resentment of an apparently talentless nepo baby is what created such enormous heat and ironically made him a star.
Dating women who seemed out of his league, cheating at every opportunity, and winning titles from those with far greater appeal and credibility kept that fan resentment high. Mysterio has been able to make fans desperately want to see him lose, and love watching him get what he deserves.
In short, his booking has taken perfect advantage of the situation and kept Dominik hot.
Until now.
Playing the fool to the likes of Danhausen defines Mysterio down and undercuts his potential as a top star. We can only see Dom humiliated so often before we lose interest.
To Dom’s credit, he played his role straight, avoiding the slapstick hamming it up that Miz and Kit Wilson displayed when in the same position. Dominik didn’t oversell his frustration in a way that would have made a bad situation worse.
Like those before him, Dominik is in a worse position than he was before feuding with Danhausen. WWE Creative should be more careful before putting other wrestlers with potential in such a position.
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