SummerSlam (2019) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brands. It took place on August 11, 2019, at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was the thirty-second event under the SummerSlam chronology and the second event to be held at this particular venue (the other being the 2004 event).
Twelve matches were contested at the event, including three on the pre-show. In the main event, Seth Rollins defeated Brock Lesnar to win the Universal Championship for a second time. In other prominent matches, Bray Wyatt in his new "Fiend" persona defeated Finn Bálor, Charlotte Flair defeated Trish Stratus by submission, Kevin Owens defeated Shane McMahon to keep his job, Kofi Kingston fought Randy Orton to a double countout to retain the WWE Championship, and Goldberg defeated Dolph Ziggler.
Results
Kick-Off Show:
WWE Cruiserweight Championship - Drew Gulak (c) def. Oney Lorcan
Buddy Murphy def. Apollo Crews by disqualification
WWE Women's Tag Team Championship - Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross (c) def. The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce)
Edge interrupts Elias to lay him out with a Spear
Submission match for the WWE Raw Women's Championship - Becky Lynch (c) defeated Natalya
I was surprised to see that Nattie and Becky would open this PPV at 7PM as the first non-Kickoff preshow match. That being said, they both tried to make this interesting, but it ultimately came off as any dime a dozen match that you would see on RAW or SmackDown between the women. That being said, there were some good spots to come out of this submission match, including but not limited to Becky and Nattie using each others' signature submissions on each other and Nattie wrapping Becky's legs around the ropes in the corner for a top rope variation of the Sharpshooter. I can't speak for anyone else, but I have never seen that move used in that capacity before. I have to tip my hat to Nattie in that regard. Can't say that I was surprised that this ended in a losing effort for her though either.
The sooner we get this belt off Becky Lynch the better. Her character, much like her boyfriend's (Seth Rollins FYI), has gotten stale in these months following WrestleMania. It's making it painfully aware that these babyfaces were so much better in the chase for the gold rather than actually defending said prizes. The sooner Becky gets knocked off her pedestal by a worthy challenger the better. There's no knowing when or if Ronda Rousey is coming back anytime soon, so WWE has slim pickings in that regard in terms of possible opponents. Fortunately, we weren't left to wonder those options for long as the problem resolved itself the following night on RAW.
The next night on Monday Night RAW (8/12/19), Nattie reverts back to being a babyface as she cherishes the memory of this match in her hometown as a dedication to her deceased father who passed away a year ago. Cue the return of Sasha Banks, who goes heel instantly and attacks Nattie. I have been ready for a heel Sasha Banks since her initial call up from NXT, but while I'm glad that we're FINALLY getting it here, the reasoning was pretty stupid to have her ruin Nattie's emotional moment when Becky has been the one popping off the handle in all of her interviews over the weekend about who needs to step up and Sasha couldn't hang. If anything, those two should have joined forces and beat the piss out The Man. I can't complain too much though since Sasha got the job done solo.
Goldberg defeated Dolph Ziggler
This was exactly what needed to be - short and sweet. The redemption that Goldberg needed to validate himself after the embarrassment at the last Saudi show. I didn't watch that nor the previous ones so I didn't care either way, but I got my money's worth from the sheer amount of laughter I had from Ziggler's sells off the first and third Spears. Ziggler sold that shit like death. Homie would've died if Rhyno ever hit him with The Gore back in the day.
WWE United States Championship - AJ Styles (c) (with Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows) def. Ricochet
I wanted to like this match, but I couldn't when I know both men are capable of so much better. Someone thought it was a good idea to ground Ricochet in terms of match psychology and strip him of what makes him fun to watch in the first place. Perfect example? Case in point below.
I honestly was surprised to see that Styles retained the title here when I thought they were going to hot potato the title back and forth. Ricochet's Nightwing-inspired gear was pretty sick though.
On Monday Night RAW the following night, it seems that WWE is moving on from Styles defending the title against Ricochet and has inserted him into a program possibly with Seth Rollins going forward. The ending moments of the show saw him get bailed out by Ricochet and a returning Braun Strowman to even the odds against The OC. There was a moment where I thought Strowman was going to lay out Ricochet and Rollins, but that didn't happen at all as WWE.com has already announced that Braun will be challenging Styles for the US title next week.
(Sighs) So much for a possible champion vs. champion match at Hell in a Cell next month then...
WWE SmackDown Women's Championship - Bayley (c) defeated Ember Moon
I felt that this was another "nothing" match - something EASILY that could have been seen on RAW or SmackDown! on a regular basis. WWE has been handling Ember Moon like absolute shit, even before her "nomination" to be Bayley's hand-picked challenger for the title. One week I'm hearing about she's mad at Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville for breaking her Nintendo Switch and on the next, I'm hearing about her losing left and right on the weeks leading up to this title match. The worst being the go-home edition of SmackDown! last week where Bayley had to come out to save Ember Moon - her Summerslam opponent no less - from RAW Women's title challenger, Natalya, being trapped in the Sharpshooter. After all of this nonsense, I hope a heel turn is in the books for Ember Moon. She showed some impressive spurts of aggression in this match that was reminiscent of her NXT run, but ultimately fell flat as it resulted in nothing but a losing effort in this match.
Kevin Owens defeated Shane McMahon
Had Owens lost, he would have quit WWE.
Elias was the special guest enforcer
Outside of the pandering to the Canadian crowd, I thought this was a nothing match. Don't get me wrong. I was glad to see KO go over Shane here, but this match overstayed it's welcome. I get they are attempting to recreate the magic of Vince McMahon vs. Steve Austin with this feud, but those two are not those two Legends in the least.
To be fair, Owens was over with this Toronto crowd, but I think the ceiling is pretty low in terms of where he can go with this knock-off Steve Austin gimmick. Even Becky Lynch is losing steam in that regard.
Charlotte Flair defeated Trish Stratus by submission
For a long time, I had considered Trish's retirement match back in 2006 at the Unforgiven PPV as the best match in her career. This match right here EASILY tops that. Trish and Charlotte told an excellent narrative here and it ended with the right woman going over.
You can throw a tantrum all you want for the nostalgia and all of that, but Trish's time is over. Besides, it's LONG overdue for her to put someone else over on the way out. This woman had the fairy tale ending in 2006, winning the Women's Championship in her hometown in her retirement match. It doesn't get any better than that in terms of a last match. Trish put up a valiant effort here, even had me convinced that she was going over at certain points of this match, especially after that Stratusfaction near-fall.
Whether we like it or not, Charlotte Flair is pegged as their golden girl and WWE's going to continue padding up her resume with the laundry list of accolades. As for Trish Stratus, she will go down in history as the best of her era with this match being a testament to that fact. She has absolutely nothing to be ashamed of walking away from this match in a losing effort. She hung with arguably the best female talent that WWE has signed right now at 40+ years old.
I have to add this much too. As good as this match was on Sunday, do yourselves a favor and watch Gail Kim vs. Tessa Blanchard from a few months ago in Impact Wrestling. Trish and Charlotte borrowed a little from this match and rightfully so as it's the better "passing on the torch" match of the two in my humble opinion.
WWE Championship - Kofi Kingston (c) vs. Randy Orton ended in a double count out
After all of the build-up for this match playing off of Orton having backstage pull back in 2009 - the same year where Orton punted the WWE Chairman's skull in and attacked his daughter in kayfabe - it felt like they were setting this match up to be 2019 version of the Triple H vs. Booker T WrestleMania 19 feud without all of the not-so-subtle racism sprinkled all over it.
As for this match, it was another match that can be easily considered a massive waste of time - with a finish that easily soured the live audience and fans watching at home even more. The finish saw both men getting counted out for what seemed like the quickest count out in company history to end the match in a draw. This resulted in the Toronto crowd chanting "Bullshit" and I absolutely don't blame them in that regard. The RKO counter to Kofi's diving cross body was incredible. Too bad that wasn't the damn finish...
As much as I'm over Kofi Kingston and this title reign, the better finish would have been him going over Orton clean here then having the rematch in Hell in a Cell to justify a rematch with a different stipulation if they want to involve Kingston's family. I personally can't buy into him getting aggressive in a "blood feud" with Orton when he's going to come out with the New Day the next damn night with a smile on his damn face and throwing goddamn pancakes in the crowd like nothing happened. I would love to know what is WWE's obsession with the smiling and dancing black wrestlers as if they can't be anything else but traveling goofs. Only exception in recent memory seems to be Bobby Lashley, but who knows where the hell he is currently.
"The Fiend" Bray Wyatt defeated Finn Bálor
I don't know what drugs you have to be on to think otherwise, but this was easily the best thing on this show PERIOD. This new gimmick/character revamp for Bray Wyatt is money. I love absolutely everything about it: the mask, the entrance, the mannerisms, and sheer ferocity in the ring. I was glad that he didn't pull a Jeff Hardy and cook up a cool new gimmick (Willow during his Impact Wrestling tenure), only to work the EXACT same way as he did without it. Finn's supposed to be taking time off for a few months and this was the best role for him going out. Once he comes back, they should have the rematch with Finn gearing up as the Demon, only for that too to be bested by The Fiend. If they want to this thing to continue catching fire, he's going to have to keep ranking up wins.
I haven't been this impressed with the debut of a new monster character in wrestling in recent memory not since "Monster" Matanza Cueto's debut in Lucha Underground. Outside of that, Kane still has the all-time best "monster" debut in wrestling.
(On my knees begging) For the love of all things holy, PLEASE don't fuck this up, WWE.
WWE Universal Championship - Seth Rollins defeated Brock Lesnar (c) (with Paul Heyman)
I joked about it for about two weeks now that there shouldn't have been no way that Seth Rollins should have beaten Brock Lesnar unless either he showed up with a gun or drove a tank down to the ring and nuked the building after the biblical beating that Brock has given him on MULTIPLE occasions over the last few weeks. Instead, we got a really competitive match out of this and I was honestly quite surprised. I enjoyed this a hell of a lot more than their WrestleMania match earlier this year, but I was even more surprised that Rollins went over Brock clean here without any dick kicks or any other shenanigans.
I thought it was comical that Rollins could take all of this punishment and still put on a performance like this tonight. Great match, but logic went out the window before even the bell rung. The highlight of this match for me anyway was Paul Heyman's facials at ringside, ranging from absolutely beaming with pride (from the beating Brock was giving Rollins) to holding his heart in fear like Fred Sanford after every near-fall. Heyman's truly a legend at his craft. I'll never understand why WWE doesn't have more managers or at least train more in the business to fill roles like this in big matches.
Once again though, I have to pose this question: Where do we go from here? I mentioned earlier that on Monday Night RAW (8/12/19), WWE teased a title for title match between Universal Champion Seth Rollins versus United States Champion AJ Styles before The OC got involved, thus ending the match in a disqualification/no contest. Ricochet and Braun Strowman made the save for Rollins with WWE announcing shortly after the fact that Strowman will challenge Styles for the United States title while Ricochet will be competing in the 2019 revival of the King of the Ring tournament. That leaves the lingering question: What happens next with the Universal Championship? Is it going to be Brock versus Rollins again - in Hell in a Cell? I hope not as I don't want to see Brock and Rollins hot potato the title back and forth for the next few months.
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