{"id":143896,"date":"2022-07-31T23:49:41","date_gmt":"2022-08-01T04:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=143896"},"modified":"2022-07-31T23:49:41","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T04:49:41","slug":"wwe-ple-hits-misses-for-summerslam-2022-reigns-vs-lesnar-last-man-standing-morgan-vs-rousey-belair-vs-lynch-usos-vs-street-profits-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2022\/07\/31\/wwe-ple-hits-misses-for-summerslam-2022-reigns-vs-lesnar-last-man-standing-morgan-vs-rousey-belair-vs-lynch-usos-vs-street-profits-more\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE PLE HITS &amp; MISSES FOR SUMMERSLAM 2022: Reigns vs. Lesnar Last Man Standing, Morgan vs. Rousey, Belair vs. Lynch, Usos vs. Street Profits, more"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-807463860\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><h3>WWE SUMMERSLAM HITS &amp; MISSES<br \/>\nJULY 30, 2022<br \/>\nNASHVILLE, TN. AT THE NISSAN STADIUM<br \/>\nAIRED ON PEACOCK, 8:00 p.m. EDT<br \/>\nBY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR<\/h3>\n<p><em>Announcers: Jimmy Smith, Byron Saxton, Corey Graves (Raw); Michael Cole and Corey Graves (Smackdown. Graves in for Pat McAfee)<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>I\u2019m Back!<\/h4>\n<p>For those that didn\u2019t hear on my latest Pro Wrestling Then and Now episode, I have transitioned to doing the WWE PLE Hits &amp; Misses report, which is a new but familiar feature here at PWTorch.com. I join the ranks of the great contributors who have done Hits &amp; Misses reports through the years. I appreciate<\/p>\n<p>Bear in mind this is purely an opinion-based report. I\u2019m not right, wrong, or indifferent in what I say. It will all be about what I think, and you\u2019re free to agree or disagree.<\/p>\n<h4>Raw Women\u2019s Championship: Bianca Belair defeats Becky Lynch to retain.<\/h4>\n<p>Given their story started at the previous year\u2019s event and went through a match at WrestleMania, this was one of the matches that had my focus and attention. Not only was I intrigued by the outcome, but I was curious about the layout of the match. With Becky \u201chitting bottom\u201d recently, would she be desperate and pull out all the stops to defeat the women that was the first to defeat her in over two years and regain her title? Instead, Bianca for all intents and purposes, dominated the match. When she hit K.O.D. on the outside it did make me wonder if she wouldn\u2019t hit it in the ring, and that would be the turning point for Becky. Instead, Bianca kicked out of the Manhandle Slam and hit the K.O.D. for the clean finish.<\/p>\n<p>When you have a big match like this on a big show, it\u2019s always better to give a decisive finish. Pick someone and have them win. It makes the time you invest worthwhile and makes for better conversation moving forward. My time was well invested to see Bianca get the win here. I liked the sportsmanship of Becky post-match, and the apparent return of her to the babyface side of the ledger. It\u2019s where she naturally belongs. I just hope the fans haven\u2019t given up their love for her. I don\u2019t think they have, but you never know. I\u2019ll remain optimistic<\/p>\n<p><em>Hit or Miss: Hit<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Post-Match Return of Bayley and Dakota Kai and the Debut of Iyo Sky<\/h4>\n<p>For the past few months, you wondered when Bayley would be making her return. WWE typically likes to wait for the right time to have one of their big stars return. SummerSlam is a perfectly good time. I was shocked to see the returned of the recently released Dakota Kai, and even more shocked to see Io Shirai (now going by Iyo Sky) make her main roster debut. With Triple H at the helm of creative, it shouldn\u2019t have been too much of a shock. Women like Dakota and Iyo didn\u2019t stand a chance under the Vince McMahon regime, but they do now. I thought this return was well done mostly because nobody touched, and you go into Raw wondering what\u2019s going on. I liked Becky standing alongside Bianca and I\u2019m curious about the apparent alignment of Bayley, Kai, and Sky.<\/p>\n<p>One minor quibble is, do we still have to do name changes? I mean, Sky can\u2019t be Io Shirai? WWE may have their reasons but, they\u2019ve changed so many names over the past year. Please, enough with this already.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-3745048089\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><em>Hit or Miss: Hit<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Logan Paul defeats The Miz<\/h4>\n<p>I went into this match with mixed feelings because I must be honest, I couldn\u2019t give two you-know-whats about Logan Paul. I don\u2019t care about how he became an influencer or his YouTube success, or whatever he does ok? That said, he did do a good job at WrestleMania in the tag match with Miz and I looked forward to seeing what he would do in this match, and I wasn\u2019t disappointed.<\/p>\n<p>Look, say what you want about this Miz, and you can say a lot alright. The guy knows what he\u2019s doing out there, and you can tell during the match he was doing what he could to help Logan. That\u2019s why for the most part most new babyface\u2019s first feud is with the Miz, or if you need to keep someone occupied and get them back on track, they put them with the Miz. Miz\u2019s credibility is an issue too, but that\u2019s a separate conversation.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m a sucker for the ringside help getting tossed, and I did get a kick out of Ciampa taking a chair and refusing to leave. Side note, here\u2019s hoping under Triple H Ciampa gets a better role. I\u2019m admittedly not his biggest fan, but I can\u2019t discredit what the guy can do.<\/p>\n<p>It SEEMS like Logan won the crowd over with the dive to the table and hitting the Skull Crushing Finale for the win. That said, the crowd\u2019s always going to eat up a table spot, so I don\u2019t know if that was about love for Logan, but we\u2019ll see. I didn\u2019t need Logan saying \u201cthat\u2019s how a champion does it,\u201d but it\u2019s heat of the moment. I\u2019m not going to make a big deal.<\/p>\n<p><em>Hit or Miss: Hit<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Maximum Male Models Water Commercial<\/h4>\n<p>I got no use for this gimmick. I don\u2019t need the former Mace of Retribution who was trying to destroy the WWE, and Mansoor who looked like a submissive fool to a then-heel Mustafa Ali pouring water all over themselves. I know some people are into this, but stuff like this is not why I started watched professional wrestling 36 years ago. Do this crap on Smackdown, not on a PLE.<\/p>\n<p><em>Hit or Miss: Miss<\/em><\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1866404046\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<h4>Bobby Lashley defeats Theory to Retain the U.S. Championship<\/h4>\n<p>These are two guys that to me, just didn\u2019t have any chemistry in this feud. I never got into it, even with the pose down. This isn\u2019t Ultimate Warrior and Rick Rude from 1989. In a real fight, Lashley should waste Theory in like two minutes. He did so in under five, so the length here was fine. Theory looked like a weakling attacking Lashley pre-match with the briefcase, and still getting dump-trucked, but what else were they going to do I suppose. The idea was to make Theory look like a threat to cash in later in the evening. After all, he said he would do so like a hundred times on TV!<\/p>\n<p>The finish was decisive, and made sense overall, which is the only reason I score this a hit<\/p>\n<p><em>Hit or Miss: Hit<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Rey &amp; Dominick Mysterio defeat The Judgement Day (Finn Balor &amp; Damian Priest); Edge Returns<\/h4>\n<p>The match existed. It didn\u2019t do much for me, and the Mysterios required a returning Edge to beat The Judgement Day who aren\u2019t necessarily a protected act. That\u2019s not really the problem. I understand the excitement of returns, but Edge has been on a weird ride this year. He starts out as the loving husband and babyface act for which he is well known. He then turns inexplicably for no good reason, forms a faction, and the faction turns on him basically withing two months. Now he\u2019s what, an enhanced version of his old Brood character? That act was barely mid-card.<\/p>\n<p>That said, I wasn\u2019t into the match. I\u2019m sorry but I just can\u2019t get into anything regarding the Judgement Day. I don\u2019t care how hard they work. My personal investment in the characters has a lot to do with how I feel about matches. It\u2019s not just about \u201cthe work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Hit or Miss: Miss<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Pat McAfee defeats Happy Corbin<\/h4>\n<p>Oh, the Corbin matches. Listen, he has place on a wrestling roster, but there\u2019s a reason he hasn\u2019t ascended to a higher spot. He\u2019s not the type of guy that can elevate an opponent, and you wondered heading into the show could he help carry the load for McAfee. I mean he did overall, but I thought Theory did a much better job at WrestleMania. The spot out on the announce table involving Michael Cole was cool. Dare I say, I may start enjoying commentary again, but I digress.<\/p>\n<p>This wasn\u2019t a good match, and the Code Red McAfee hit for the win looked scary. That said, the trash talking in the run-up to the match made me want to see McAfee win the match, and they gave the right finish.<\/p>\n<p><em>Hit or Miss: Hit<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Drew McIntyre Promotes Clash of the Castle Match<\/h4>\n<p>Drew sounded like a guy wanting to win the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, and I have to admit that very subtly making fun of Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar having another match was funny. Drew does have a good sense of humor. The problem is, he ended the segment raising the sword. That\u2019s not what I want to see from a guy challenging for the top company championship.<\/p>\n<p><em>Hit or Miss: Miss<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>The Usos defeat The Street Profits to retain the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship with Jeff Jarrett as the special referee.<\/h4>\n<p>I\u2019m still wondering why Jarrett was chosen to be the referee for this match. My question was not answered during this show, but so it goes. This was a passable match. I didn\u2019t think the Profits had any shot to win, so it was hard to get into it. That\u2019s a thing for me in that if the winner is a foregone conclusion going into a match, I have a hard time getting invested. It\u2019s not a slam dunk as there are some matches that I want to see the work and the story told. Having seen these teams wrestle multiple times, that also took it down for me.<\/p>\n<p>I do understand this was to portend the potential break-up of the Profits, so having them lose was the way to go. The work was perfectly fine, so I\u2019ll be fair.<\/p>\n<p><em>Hit or Miss: Hit<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Riddle calls out Seth Rollins<\/h4>\n<p>Who knows what the real reason their scheduled match was pulled from SummerSlam within two weeks of the event. You know what would be nice? If someone gets called out by another wrestler, just come out without music, especially when heel Rollins\u2019s theme has a sing-along component. You don\u2019t want the crowd singing along the theme of a heel whom they should want to see put down. This is the problem AEW has with Judas for Chris Jericho.<\/p>\n<p><em>Hit or Miss: Miss<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Liv Morgan defeats Ronda Rousey to retain the Smackdown Women\u2019s Championship. Rousey attacks Liv and the referee after the match.<\/h4>\n<p>I hated this finish with a passion. Why would WWE run another story with a referee missing something key when they JUST did it with the Usos and Street Profits? Does this mean we need a special ref for a rematch between these two? Anyway, I understand trying to tell stories over time, but this finish was manufactured at best. You\u2019re telling me Liv couldn\u2019t hang on for two more seconds when she saw the referee start the three count? Ronda couldn\u2019t turn her shoulder up? (Ref might have missed that anyway so, who knows.).<\/p>\n<p>As far as the post-match, right on Ronda for attacking Liv and the ref. She had a point, right? Now people might buy this as a heel turn, but I\u2019m not sold that\u2019s happening. In fact, and this is me thinking out of the box, I wouldn\u2019t be shocked if Liv turns heel eventually. I know Charlotte is coming back, so that might not work. We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n<p><em>Hit or Miss: Miss<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Roman Reigns defeats Brock Lesnar to retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship in a Last Man Standing match. Theory\u2019s Money in the Bank cash-in is thwarted.<\/h4>\n<p>If you\u2019re reading this report, you watched the show, so I don\u2019t have to go through everything that happened, and there was a lot. I don\u2019t think I was alone in being checked out on this feud. After Reigns beat Lesnar at WrestleMania, there was absolutely no reason for anyone to want to see another match between these guys. There were injuries and I know this wasn\u2019t the original plan, but I\u2019m sorry that\u2019s a convenient excuse. Hopefully under Triple H they stop pulling from the past and have a philosophy of moving someone up the card when there\u2019s an injury.<\/p>\n<p>The bottom line is they did what they needed to do to make this memorable, which they typically try to do for SummerSlam. They had to deliver on the Theory cash-in, which they talked about 10,000 times on TV. I didn\u2019t like the Usos interference from the standpoint of why would they wait so long? Why not get involved from the get-go? In addition, if this was the final match between Roman and Lesnar, shouldn\u2019t Roman have won decisively once and for all? This was likely to protect Brock in case they want to do, and I believe it\u2019s possible, another match down the line. I don\u2019t buy this was the last go for these two.<\/p>\n<p>I was annoyed in real time watching the match, but it\u2019s settled a little better on me overnight. I got a kick out of the tractor spot lifting the ring. I enjoyed Cole\u2019s commentary saying \u201ccount faster\u201d and everything else he was saying. The Roman legacy continues to get bigger and makes defeating him an even bigger deal when it happens.<\/p>\n<p><em>Hit or Miss: Hit<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Final Score<\/h4>\n<p><em>Hits 7<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Misses 5<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This was an overall good show as evidenced by there being more hits than misses. I want to watch the Roman vs. Brock match one more time with the benefit of hindsight and everyone\u2019s analysis. Outside of that, there\u2019s nothing I need to see again although I\u2019m fine with what I saw. See you next month for Clash at the Castle!<\/p>\n<p><em>Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Thank you for reading!<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-1480061188\"><div id=\"pwtor-2442113959\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>WWE SUMMERSLAM HITS &amp; MISSES JULY 30, 2022 NASHVILLE, TN. AT THE NISSAN STADIUM AIRED ON PEACOCK, 8:00 p.m. EDT BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR Announcers: Jimmy Smith, Byron Saxton, Corey Graves (Raw); Michael <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2022\/07\/31\/wwe-ple-hits-misses-for-summerslam-2022-reigns-vs-lesnar-last-man-standing-morgan-vs-rousey-belair-vs-lynch-usos-vs-street-profits-more\/\" title=\"WWE PLE HITS &amp; MISSES FOR SUMMERSLAM 2022: Reigns vs. Lesnar Last Man Standing, Morgan vs. Rousey, Belair vs. Lynch, Usos vs. Street Profits, more\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":125428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,52,28,27,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prowrestlingnews","category-opnionandanalysis","category-specialists_hitsandmisses","category-specialists","category-news_wwe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2021\/08\/Brock-Lesnar-Summerslam-2021.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143897,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143896\/revisions\/143897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}