WWE Summerslam 2014 Review

Match 1: Intercontinental Championship - The Miz (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler
Live from Hollywood, it is Summerslam 2014 and Mr. Hollywood himself is ready to open the show. The Miz comes out first and puts himself over while putting down the Lakers. Los Angeles crowd is loving Ziggler as he looks to capture his second Intercontinental Championship. Miz does his best to avoid shots to the face in order to save the moneymaker and nearly scores the win in a nice back and fourth match but Ziggler got the best of him to get the big win as the crowd popped big for the win. Nice opening contest to set the mood. Not too long, not too short, and nicely paced.
Winner: Dolph Ziggler
Rating: **1/4

Match 2: Divas Championship - AJ Lee (c) vs. Paige
This is Paige's rematch after AJ beat her for the title on an episode of Monday Night Raw. They do some weird hair pulling in the beginning of the match as they wrestle a decent match for five or so minutes until AJ locks in her Black Widow finisher. Paige nicely reverses into her modified DDT and scores the win. She then kisses an unconscious AJ after the match as she celebrates her second Divas Championship. Nothing different from their other matches but it was cool to see the crowd pop nicely for the finish.
Winner: Paige
Rating: *

Match 3: Flag - Rusev vs. Jack Swagger
Every Summerslam should have a Flag match! Okay, maybe not. But I am a sucker for America vs. any other country feuds. Before the bell tolls, Swagger locks in his Patriot Lock on Rusev and injures Rusev's ankle in the process. The match still goes on and Rusev does a great job of selling the injury as it became difficult for him to lock in his Accolade submission until the very end where he locked it in completely as Swagger passed out. Zeb Colter then receives a kick from Rusev afterwards for good measure. The Russian national anthem then plays as the Russian flag is raised behind the ring as Rusev celebrates in front of an unconscious Swagger. Good stuff.
Winner: Rusev
Rating: **1/2

Match 4: Lumberjack - Dean Ambrose vs. Seth Rollins
They did not get to beat the hell out of each other at Battleground so they get to do it here in a Lumberjack match at the Staples Center. Chaotic from the start as the two straight throw punches at one another and the entire arena can feel the pressure boiling. This definitely was not your typical Lumberjack match. This was much, much better than what we normally see. Ambrose likes to do unique things and this is a perfect example. The suplex out of the ring onto the lumberjacks, Ambrose punching his way through the lumberjacks, running on the announce tables to dive onto Rollins. Ambrose is a loose cannon, no pun intended. They even take the fight way into the seats where Kane finally comes out and screams at the lumberjacks to get them back into the ring. Rollins tries to escape but the babyface lumberjacks carry him back into the ring where Ambrose dives onto everybody! He then hits Rollins with a Curb Stomp but Kane attacks Ambrose which allows for all the lumberjacks to enter the ring as a huge melee erupts. Rollins then nails Ambrose with the Money in the Bank briefcase and scores the victory. Awesome stuff from these two and the crowd was definitely hot for this one. Good fun leading into the second half of the show.
Winner: Seth Rollins
Rating: ***3/4

Match 5: Bray Wyatt vs. Chris Jericho
I love Chris Jericho but I think his time for more serious feuds has concluded. His feud with Bray Wyatt has been good but nothing else. It lacks the fire and emotion the two are trying to build. The match here resembled my thoughts of their feud, it lacked that fire and that extra step. The crowd could not invest their troubles into the match after being fried out from the last bout. This felt like more of a match to kick off their feud rather than one that has been built for weeks. The action was fine but nothing spectacular or anything noteworthy. They did their normal routines as Wyatt was able to score the victory after hitting a Sister Abigail outside followed by hitting one inside the ring.
Winner: Bray Wyatt
Rating: **1/2

Match 6: Brie Bella vs. Stephanie McMahon
Feels weird to see Stephanie McMahon back in the squared circle but I am all for it! This feud has been really odd but like I said, I am all for having Stephanie back in the ring for the first time in over ten years. For being out of the ring for so long, Stephanie never really showed any ring rust. Then again, her and Brie Bella had a pretty basic match from the start to the finish. Triple H and Nikki Bella both came out during the match as Triple H pulled out the referee before Brie hit a sliding kick to Triple H. Nikki then came into the ring where she dropped Brie in the middle of the ring for Stephanie to pick up the bones. The crowd loved the turn and loved seeing Stephanie in the ring. Match was fine but nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary.
Winner: Stephanie McMahon
Rating: *3/4

Match 7: Randy Orton vs. Roman Reigns
Roman Reigns needs that one big match to really elevate him into the main event scene and one against Randy Orton on the company's second biggest show of the year is perfect. Many argue that this match went on too long for their liking but I liked it. Reigns needs a lengthy match in the spotlight so he can get used to these types of matches. I never felt like this match dragged at all, they spaced out all their moves nicely with no real wasted motion throughout. Things really started to pick up later on which saw Orton slickly reverse a Spear from Reigns into a powerslam. He then turned a Superman Punch a couple minutes later into a RKO which caught everybody off guard. It's almost as if we know the RKO is coming but at the same time, we don't. Reigns managed to kick out as the crowd is going nuts before Reigns hits a Spear and covers Orton for the win. Definitely a huge win for Reigns but begs the question of where Orton is going after this. Either way, great match that sets up the main event of the night.
Winner: Roman Reigns
Rating: ****

Match 8: WWE World Heavyweight Championship - John Cena (c) vs. Brock Lesnar
This is it, the huge rematch from a couple years back. The difference here is that this is for the richest prize in the industry and Brock Lesnar is coming off a victory against The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXX. With that being said, the Los Angeles crowd is hyped for both Lesnar and this match. They set the pace fast early on as a slug fest ignites between the two which led to Lesnar hitting an F5 within the opening minute. How cool would it have been to have Lesnar win right then and there? Either way, this was foreshadowing for the rest of the match. Lesnar basically tossed Cena around with ease, suplex after suplex after suplex. Cena did show some signs of life as he was able to hit an Attitude Adjustment on Lesnar only for Lesnar to sit right back up like The Undertaker and laugh at the face of Cena. Lesnar continued his onslaught and once Cena was able to see an opening, he locked in the STF. But Lesnar quickly countered and landed another F5 for the convincing win. This was almost like a glorified squash match. But I loved it. People get so caught up with the action in the ring that they forget that this is all entertainment and nobody does it better than these two along with Paul Heyman. They established their story early on with the F5 and it carried on from there with the commentators continuously hyping Lesnar to the moon. Should be interesting to see Lesnar as champ.
Winner: Brock Lesnar
Rating: ***1/2

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
Another great installment to the Summerslam legacy with a very fluid pace from the start to the finish. The biggest highlight of the night goes to the main event as Lesnar's legend still grows with a huge win over Cena in what was a fitting way to cap off the summer's biggest show.
Rating: 8/10