WWE SummerSlam live results: Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins

WWE’s biggest event of the summer takes place tonight as the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada hosts SummerSlam.

After being beaten down by Brock Lesnar on Raw each of the last two weeks, Seth Rollins will challenge for Lesnar’s Universal Championship tonight. The WWE Championship match will see Kofi Kingston defend his title against Randy Orton.

Becky Lynch defends the Raw Women’s Championship against Natalya in a submission match tonight. On the SmackDown side, Ember Moon will challenge for Bayley’s title.

Goldberg returns to the ring to take on Dolph Ziggler. In her hometown, Trish Stratus will be in action against Charlotte Flair. Stratus has said this will be her final match.

Also on tonight’s main card: Kevin Owens takes on Shane McMahon (Owens will “quit WWE” if he loses), Ricochet challenges for AJ Styles’ United States title, and “The Fiend” version of Bray Wyatt makes his in-ring debut against Finn Balor.

We’re looking for your thoughts on tonight’s show, as well as last night’s Takeover, and all three G-1 shows at Budokan Hall to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

The two-hour pre-show begins a 5 p.m. Eastern time and will feature Drew Gulak vs. Oney Lorcan for the Cruiserweight Championship, Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross vs. Peyton Royce & Billie Kay for the Women’s Tag Team titles, and Apollo Crews vs. Buddy Murphy.

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DREW GULAK VS. ONEY LORCAN FOR CRUISERWEIGHT TITLE

A lot of striking late in the match after solid wrestling early.  The ref was distracted when Gulak pulled the ring skirt into the ring and Gulak punched him and used the Cyclone crash. 

Drake Maverick is out talking about the 24/7 title.  He’s back looking for R-Truth.  He vowed that he would leave Toronto as 24/7 champion.  R-Truth and Carmella were hiding on the set.  R-Truth was eating popcorn.  Maverick threw popcorrn at R-Truth he ran oiff.  Maverick hurt his knee chasing and R-Truth and Carmella got away..

APOLLO CREWS VS. BUDDY MURPHY

They went just over 4:00.  Murphy did a running flip dive and that woke the crowd up.  Erick Rowan then showed up and attacked Murphy for the DQ.  Rowan was mad at him for outing him on Smackdown and beat Murphy down including finishing him with a power bomb into the post.  The match was all action until Rowan ran in.

Elias is out now.  He’s ripping on Toronto, about the Maple Leafs not winning a Stanley Cup and said the Blue Jays don’t draw.  Edge came out.  Edge speared him.  It’s notable they let him even do that because he was for years not cleared for any physical activity. 

This network is not doing well today.  Lots of complaints I’ve seen.  It’s gone out for me five times since the pre-show started.  And a lot of people don’t even bother tuning in until the main show starts.   

NIKKI CROSS & ALEXA BLISS VS.  BILLIE KAY & PEYTON ROYCE FOR TAG TITLES

Bliss & Cross retained the title when Bliss punched Royce in the face and used Twisted bliss to pin her.  The match was pretty bad.  It was like a Raw match with no time to build.  Royce got  a near fall on Bliss with a Gori especial bomb but Cross saved.  

BECKY LYNCH VS. NATALYA FOR WOMEN’S TITLE IN A SUBMISSION MATCH 

Real good match here.  Lynch retained with the disarm her.  The crowd was cheering both of them.  Lynch had more chants but the loudest the crowd was for the match was when Natlaya had the sharpshooter on and Lynch was booed when she used the sharpshooter and when she pulled herself out of the ring when Natalya had the sharpshooter on her.  Natalya also got the disarm her on Lynch at one point.  

Trish Stratus interview.  This felt very scripted with the WWE style verbiage.  .

BILL GOLDBERG VS. DOLPH ZIGGLER

This was exactly what you’d think.  The idea was to rehab Goldberg after the Undertaker match.  Ziggler superkicked him right away and Goldberg kicked out at one.  Then he gave him a second superkick and Goldberg kicked out at two.  Goldberg then speared and jackhammered Ziggler and pinned him.

Ziggler said that was like being hit by a little baby.  He was still selling and Goldberg got back in the ring.  Goldberg gave him another spear.

Ziggler grabbed the mic again.  He said anyone can get lucky twice.  Said Goldberg doesn’t have the balls to face me man to man and that’s why he’s a laughing stock in this business.  Goldberg came out again.  Goldberg acted like he was going to let it go but then speared him again.  This feels like it was too early in the show to do this, but time will tell on that.

New Day promo.  Said Dre was here.  It was Drake Maverick pretending too be Dre.  Maverick then said this was a waste of my time as I have more important things to do.  Kingston said he’d been waitiing for a decade for this match because Randy Orton tried to hold him down.  

A.J. STYLES VS. RICOCHET FOR U.S. TITLE

This was a weird match.  Finish saw Ricochet come off the top rope with a what appeared to be a twisting Dragon rana but Styles caught him with a Styles clash fo’ the pin.  Ricochet had a bodysuit on.  Almost the entire match was Styles working on Ricochet’s legs so he didn’t do much in the way of acrobatics.  Ricochet early on did jump off the apron on Gallows’ shoulders and then Anderson’s and then hit the huracanrana on the floor on Styles in once spot.  Ricochet also did a moonsault off the middle rope to the floor on Gallows.  The real story is the crowd was totally dead as putting anyone after Goldberg probably would have been death.  Styles at one point used the calf crusher but Ricochet got out of that.  Match was fine but not what you’d think from a Styles vs. Ricochet match.  Not even close.

Anderson & Gallows gave Ricochet the magic killer after the match.

The Street Profits were out.  Ric Flair showed up with them.  They treated him with reverence and he talked about his alligator shoes.

BAYLEY VS. EMBER MOON FOR THE SMACKDOWN WOMEN’S TITLE

Bayley won with a Belly to belly off the middle rope.  The crowd was dead the entire match.  That positioning of Goldberg has now killed two matches although this one probably wasn’t going to get a lot of reaction either way.  Moon did a few cool spots but stuff was awkward in spots.  Not a good match.

KEVIN OWENS VS.  SHANE MCMAHON WITH OWENS’ CAREER AT STAKE

This match worked with the crowd but as a match it wasn’t much.  The people were heavily into Owens.  Elias was brought out as the enforcer.  Elias kept interfering.  Shane’s offense was brutally bad.  Owens used a senton off the top and frog splash but Elias pulled the ref out of the ring.  Owens had a few chances to use a chair shot and Shane taunted him to get him to use it for the DQ.  So Owens ended up hitting Elias over and over with a chair shot.  Earlier Owens did a cannonball off the apron onto both Elias and the ref.  So logically he should have been DQ’d both times.  In the end, Owens had the ref throw the chair out of the ring, so he gave Shane a low blow behind the refs back and hit the stunner for the pin.

CHARLOTTE FLAIR VS. TRISH STRATUS

Flair won a long match with the figure eight.  Some early spots were sloppy, but Stratus tested herself and did a lot more than you’d think.  This was better than most women’s matches on WWE PPV shows.  The crowd was quiet early but they got into it at the end.   Stratus took a big bump off the apron, did a great looking top rope Frankensteirner, did the Stratusfaction, Flair’s figure eight and the chick kick.  She did some lucha spots early.  It was definitely a very good performance for her not having done a singles match in eight years.  Flair left the ring to let Stratus get the applause whne it was over.  The crowd chanted “Thank you Trish” after the match.  They got a “this is awesome” chant during the match.

Bret Hart did a cameo wishing Seth Rollins well.

KOFI KINGSTON VS. RANDY ORTON FOR WWE TITLE

The match ended with a double count out.  They had a deliberate match.  Not much heat.  Kingston did a backwards dive to the floor.  There were a few near falls.  Kingston came off the top rope into an RKO but laid on his back rather than went for the pin.  Kingston rolled out of the ring.  Orton went out of the ring with him and started taunting Kingston’s family in the front row.  Or at least that was hte idea.  Both were counted out.  Kingston then got a Kendo stick from under the ring and hit Orton with hit over and over and then laid him out with  Trouble in Paradise.  Way below the caliber of what you would exepcxt from a WWE title match. 

They pushed the idea that this feud is continuing which is why they did the double count out finish.

BRAY WYATT VS. FINN BALOR

This was what it shoudl have been.  It was more the spectacle of Wyatt’s debut with the new character.  He came out wiht a Bray Wyatt head and lantern.  He had a new version of his old music.  Wyatt is in much better shape and the entire presentation was star-like for him.  It was a quick match.  Wyatt mostly dominated, Balor got  a comeback, missed a double foot stomp and Wyatt won with the mandible claw.  Then the lights went out and Wyatt disappeared.  Fans chanted “that was awesome” so it worked.  

BROCK LESNAR VS. SETH ROLLINS FOR UNIVERSAL TITLE

Rollins regained the title with a superkick and curb stomp after escaping an F-5.  Really good match.  Rollins used the curb stomp at the beginning for a near fall and did a second one later in the match and Lesanr kicked out of both of them.  Lesnar did a lot of German suplexes.  It was the basic Lesnar framework of almost all big moves.  It worked and went longer than a usual Lesnar match.  Rollins did a splash off the post putting Lesnar through an announcers table to the floor,  At one point Rollins did three topes but Lesnar caught him on the thrid and drove his back into th epost.  Rollins had his ribs taped and sold the ribs much of the way.  People were into this because it’s all big moves.