BRM Reviews WWE SummerSlam 2023

[Big Red Machine]

WWE SummerSlam 2023 (8/5/2023)- Detroit, MI


LOGAN PAUL vs. RICOCHET- 8.25/10
This was a great athletic match. Logan Paul won with brass knuckles, which feels notable simply because they’re protecting Ricochet.

BROCK LESNAR vs. CODY RHODES- 9.5/10
Corey Graves said that Brock has been training “as if this really is fight week.” Why is the word “really” in there? That makes it sound like this is fake.
To get it out of the way first: Cody hitting Brock with the steps should have been a DQ. Other than that, this was f*cking amazing.
I had absolutely no interest in this feud. I’m sick and tired of Brock, and have been for years at this point, so having the super-hot Cody be forced to take a months-long detour into Snoreplex city for a formulaic feud with the same formulaic match I’ve seen so many times over the years with Brock and not cared about pretty much destroyed all of my interest in Cody. Then they started doing stuff like having Cody wearing an arm brace but still being allowed to wrestle with it, or stuff like beating Cody up in front of his family that feels like a two year old throwing a temper-tantrum demanding pathos rather than earning it made me worry Cody had begun to backslide into being ROH/AEW Cody. And despite that, these two managed to have a match using the usual Brock formula, and with the announcers pointing out how brave Cody was… and it was amazing. Absolutely engrossing. When the bell rang, this was a match I figured I’d just have to slog through to get to the other stuff, but by about two thirds of the way in, they had me enthralled.
Brock played his part well, and Cody as amazing, but I feel that the announcers also deserve a lot of credit for making this not feel like an extended version of the Brock formula with Cody being overdramatic. By linking Cody’s desire to keep going to a psychological need to prove to prove to himself that he can beat Roman Reigns via the proxy of Roman’s greatest rival, they took this same story and made it feel not just different, but like an inextricable part of a larger whole.
I really didn’t like Brock showing Cody respect after the match. That felt like too much for me because it was so out of character. If this is Brock’s last appearance for a long time (like, years) then I could accept it, but otherwise, it feels too heavy-handed and will feel completely out of character when Brock shows up again and attacks someone else for no reason.

SUMMERSLAM BATTLE ROYALE- 6.25/10
They gave us a video package about battle royales. On a PPV.
The bell rang… and then MVP showed up and announced that Omos was in this match and would win… and everyone just went with it. If Omos was in the match, why did the bell ring before he had come out? There is NO benefit to doing this, and all it does is make people ask questions.
They focused on Omos being the big guy who everyone else had to work together to eliminate. Karrion Kross came back to eliminate AJ Styles to continue their feud, and Tomasso Ciampa and Bronson Reed got some focus as opponents as well. L.A. Knight got the win at the end, making the crowd happy. If you’re going to do a battle royale at a PPV, there either needs to be something solid on the line (like an actual title shot, not just the announcers saying “whoever wins will surely be under consideration for a title shot” or something like that) or there needs to be a really good storyline reason to have the battle royale. Anything else makes it feel like the entire reason the match happened was so that the chosen winner could be elevated with a win, which makes everything feel less organic.

MMA RULES MATCH: Ronda Rousey vs. Shayna Baszler- 4.5/10
They did some meh fake MMA. Shayna made Ronda pass out. I really could have done without the teased stoppage and Ronda assaulting the medical staff.

WWE INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: Gunther(c) vs. Drew McIntyre- 8.5/10
The usual hard-hitting excellence. Gunther won cleanly.

WWE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Seth Rollins(c) vs. Finn Balor- 8.5/10
Rollins wore the same vest her wore at SummerSlam 2016 when he lost a title match to Balor but injured Balor’s shoulder so Balor had to vacate the title. He immediately threw the vest at Balor. Balor worked over Rollins’ shoulder. That wasn’t just a nice artistic touch, but it also resulted in Balor working over a body part that he doesn’t usually work over, which made for a nice change.
They had a great, intense match revolving around the work on the shoulder and references to their SummerSlam 2016 match until Judgement Day showed up to help Finn. Rollins overcame the attempted interference and won. Given the story they’ve been telling with Balor, after this finish, he needs to go after Priest. He can’t be this obsessed, fail, and then just brush it off.

WWE WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Asuka(c) vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Bianca Belair- 5/10
That ad in the bottom left corner of the screen really pissed me off. I pay for an ad-free Peacock experience. That shouldn’t just mean no commercials.
This was… ambitious. They tried a lot of cool stuff, and some of it worked, but a lot of it didn’t. Charlotte in particular was bad. Bianca injured her knee, but, of course, she came back and won the title.
Iyo Skye came out, and Bayley attacked everyone with the Money in the Bank Briefcase. Bianca took out Bayley but was herself taken out by Iyo. Iyo handed the referee the briefcase, leading to another…

WWE WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Bianca Belair(c) vs. Iyo Skye (w/Bayley)- no rating, odd segment
Iyo hit the Over The Moonsault and won the title. I don’t understand why they would have Bianca win the belt back just to lose it, or why they would have the babyface-trending Iyo cash in on babyface Bianca.

TRIBAL COMBAT MATCH FOR THE WWE UNIDSPUTED TITLE AND FOR THE TITLE OF TRIBAL CHIEF OF THE ANOA’I FAMILY: Roman Reigns(c)(c) (w/Paul Heyman) vs. Jey Uso- 6/10
This was just too long and slow for a match with such a frustrating finish. Said finish was Jimmy Uso turning on Jey. He came out of the crowd, and wearing a hoodie and a bandana. I can excuse this because it could be argued that- like Jey a few months ago, Jimmy was conflicted and didn’t know what he was going to do until he chose to do it, so the disguise was to allow him to watch the match from ringside without distracting anyone or being bothered by fans. I presume the turn itself is Jimmy being jealous of Jey and/or not thinking he was fit to be the tribal chief, both of which were previously set up, so that’s not an issue, either.
The issue is that it’s yet another Roman Reigns world title match main event f*ck finish. Not only that, but it’s one that makes babyfaces like Kevin Owens and Samy Zayn look bad for not helping the guy they convinced to turn on Roman when he was getting beaten up two on one by Roman and Solo (their absence is clearly because if they had come out, they would have been right there and been able to stop Jimmy… and that’s not a kayfabe reason for someone to not interfere when they logically should). I’m just getting tired of this crap. If they had let Roman beat people like Owens and Drew and Cody cleanly, this wouldn’t be such a big issue, but they didn’t, so it is an issue.

Despite some AWESOME matches, this show managed to feel disappointing because those awesome matches were all towards the front half of the card, and most of the big matches had frustrating finishes.