On most nights, what WWE gave us at SummerSlam would certainly be good enough, just not on what’s supposed to be your second-biggest event of the year.
What we got was an uneven night, about as many highs as lows and nothing that truly made it special.
The main event might have been one of the weakest of The Bloodline storyline — but the bar is very high.
Iyo Sky’s Money in the Bank cash-in lifted up what was an OK WWE women’s championship triple-threat match and Ronda Rousey vs. Shayna Baszler was doomed from the start.
WWE did strike some good notes with Logan Paul, Cody Rhodes, L.A. Knight and The Judgement Day, but SummerSlam was far from a perfect showing.
Here are five takeaways from what we saw from Ford Field in Detroit in Saturday night.
The Bloodline story may have peaked and it appears WWE isn’t digging too deep to find ways to stretch it all the way to WrestleMania 40.
Tribal Combat felt like it for maybe the first half of the match as Roman Reigns and Jey Uso gave us a refreshing level of violence and weapon use we don’t normally see in the Undisputed WWE Universal champion’s matches.
Then, what is supposed to be a battle of two men for the title of Tribal Chief turned into a 3-1 handicap match by the end. Every single Reigns match ends in chaos at this point.
Silo Sikoa attacked Uso once the match moved into the crowd — though he and Reigns had a moment of tension after the champ speared his enforcer once Uso slipped out of the way.
Then the big swerve was Jimmy Uso turning on his brother — returning from storyline injury at the hands of Sikoa to pull Jey off Reigns when he appeared to have the match won.
He eventually fed Jey back to Reigns for a spear through a table to get the win.
I can’t wait for Jimmy’s explanation for his actions — the only logical one being maybe he doesn’t like the idea of his twin trying to ascend higher than him.
Other than wanting to create a shocking moment, there is nothing we saw happen in storyline that makes what Jimmy did logical considering it was Roman and Sikoa who injured him, and Jey has always picked him over anyone else.
Why did WWE do it?
They are running out of ways to keep The Bloodline going.
All that’s left is Sikoa turning. Reigns beating Jey clean would have made that harder and Jimmy and Jey have always dreamed of a match against each other at WrestleMania.
Still, this feels like the weakest of The Bloodline story twists, but well short of a jump-the-shark moment.
The match between Cody Rhodes and Brock Lensar was incredibly well laid out and successfully told the story they were looking for.
Lesnar looked like a monster manhandling Rhodes early and continually telling him to stay down and take the count-out loss because it will only get worse.
Lesnar’s frustration with Rhodes not complying led to him F5-ing the American Nightmare through the announce table.
Rhodes barely beat the 10 count in.
When Rhodes did get back into the match and damage Lesnar, it wasn’t with any conventional offense.
Rhodes used the ring post, the stairs and his signature Diasater Kick, Cody Cutter and Cross Rhodes.
He even ran Lesnar into an exposed turnbuckle.
Rhodes survived a Kamora Lock, put one of his own on Lesnar and then counter an F5 into the triple Cross Rhodes for the win.
He then got the all-important handshake, hug and nod of respect from Lesnar.
This was Rhodes’ most significant win in the company since returning.
It’s almost as if the whole trilogy was test from Lesnar to see if Rhodes could truly be the company’s new megastar.
And if Triple H saying the moment wasn’t planned is true than it means even more.
SummerSlam continues to be cruel to Bianca Belair.
Two years ago, Becky Lynch made a surprise return to beat her for the SmackDown women’s championship in less than a minute.
This time around, Belair had gutted out through a storyline knee injury and survived a full Figured Eight thanks to Asuka using her mist on Charlotte Flair — only to roll up Asuka to win the WWE women’s championship.
It ended up being a shortlived reign as Iyo Sky successfully cashed in her Money in the Bank briefcase —smashing Belair in the knee with it.
It created a cool moment by bringing the injured Dakota Kai back for it too.
It all preserved Flair from becoming a 15-time champion and will only further fuel Belair’s anger.
Something felt missing from the actual match between Flair, Asuka and Beliar — who effectively played up the knee injury only to limp back to deliver a 450 splash from the top rope on both of her opponents.
The crowd never got into this one.
Maybe it’s because WWE didn’t create or give them a clear favorite to root, though Beliar matured into that a little by the end.
Maybe the three relied too heavily on spots that felt choreographed and predetermined than a fight feel.
The best thing to be said about Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler’s MMA Rules match was the right person won and in one of the best ways possible.
Baszler defeated her best friend by making her pass out in the Kirafuda Clutch and it remains to be seen the next time Rousey is on WWE TV.
The rest of this match proved just how dumb turning a pro wrestling match into a quasi-MMA fight is.
If fans wanted to see precision strikes, takedowns, mounts and leg kicks they would have flipped to ESPN for UFC Fight Night.
It made for a lot of standing around and lack of substantial action outside of a vicious leaping knee from Rousey.
Also, backfiring was positioning neither as a babyface or heel because the Detriot crowd seemed to not really care about who won the match.
The good news for Baszler is she might be able to use all of that to remain a heel going forward.
Man, it’s got to stink to be Finn Balor right now as it appears he may never get his revenge against Seth Rollins — seven years and counting.
Becoming a world champion again may need to wait for him to beat Damian Priest down the line — should his Judgment Day partner successfully cash in.
Still, WWE has left plenty of fun intrigue around Priest’s Money in the Bank briefcase as it appeared he tried to use it multiple times to help Balor win the match.
But Balor was reluctant at times and unable to capitalize, losing when Rollins stomped him onto the briefcase after Priest threw in the ring and distracted the ref.
Both men are going to have an issue with the other and both will have a strong case.
This was the best pure wrestling match on the card with a good nuanced advancement of the story.
Logan Paul over Richocet
Thankfully, this is just the start of his feud and Paul and Ricochet delivered one of the most entertaining and action-packed matches of the night.
Yes, the finish — Paul getting handed and using brass knuckles by a random friend to get the win — was very abrupt but it sets up hopefully plenty more fun to come in this storyline.
These two have clear chemistry in the ring and the athleticism is off the charts.
Add the extra layer of Paul tormenting Ricochet’s fiancee and ring announcer Samantha Irvin will give them plenty to play off of going forward.
L.A. Knight wins the SummerSlam battle royale.
L.A Knight got one of the biggest pops of the evening and finally feels on his way to a long-awaited push in WWE.
His SlimJim commercial aired right after he won.
Knight also had a hand in the eliminations of Omos and Bronson Reed and kicked out Sheamus to finish the story WWE was telling coming in between the two.
A few small things to note were No. 1 contender Santos Escobar eliminated U.S. champion Austin Theory.
A.J. Styles eliminated Karrion Cross — who eventually came back to help get Styles knocked out. Grayson Waller was thrown out by Sheamus.
Gunther over Drew McIntyre to retain in Intercontinental championship
This felt a lot more like a standard Gunther match than expected.
While McIntrye challenged the champ physically with his own chops and the ability to take punishment, outside of one Claymore Gunther never really felt in danger of losing.
It just took him digging a little deeper into his arsenal and power game to finally put McIntyre away.
It feels a little bit like a missed opportunity for a more memorable clash against a former world champion.
Biggest Winners: Iyo Sky, Cody Rhodes
Biggest Losers: Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler, Finn Balor
Best match: Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor
Predictions: 6-2
Grade: B