WWE SummerSlam live results: Fatal four-way main event
Preview by Joseph Currier
WWE returns to the Barclays Center tonight as the venue hosts the company’s biggest pay-per-view of the summer.
We’re looking for your thoughts on this show, last night’s NXT Takeover, as well as yesterday’s ROH iPPV with a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com
In the main event of SummerSlam, Brock Lesnar puts his Universal Championship on the line against Roman Reigns, Samoa Joe, and Braun Strowman in a fatal four-way. Both Lesnar and Paul Heyman have promised to leave WWE if Lesnar loses his title.
The WWE Championship will be up for grabs as well, with Shinsuke Nakamura getting his first shot against Jinder Mahal. Nakamura won a number one contender’s match against John Cena to earn the title shot.
Cena will be in action against Baron Corbin, AJ Styles will defend his United States Championship against Kevin Owens (with Shane McMahon serving as the special guest referee), Sasha Banks will challenge Alexa Bliss, Natalya will challenge Naomi, and Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose reunite against Cesaro & Sheamus for the Raw tag titles.
Also on the show, Finn Balor brings back his “Demon” alter ego to face Bray Wyatt, Randy Orton takes on Rusev, Enzo Amore will be suspended above the ring in a shark cage for Big Cass vs. Big Show, and there will be three matches on the extended pre-show.
Our coverage begins with that kickoff show before the main card starts at 7 p.m. ET.
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HARDYS & JASON JORDAN VS. THE MIZ & CURTIS AXEL & BO DALLAS
A basic match building a Jordan hot tag. Jordan was the most impressive guy but the crowd was cold for him. Jordan was throwing Axel & Dallas around, but Axel tagged Miz as Jordan was about to finish Axel, used the skull crushing finale on Jordan and pinned him.
AKIRA TOZAWA VS. NEVILLE FOR THE CRUISERWEIGHT TITLE
This was really well worked and more over than most pre-show matches, but it still lacked for any real intensity from the crowd. Neville regained the title. Tozawa did a great looking toipe. Neville went for a superplex, but Tozawa blocked and dropped him off the top with a front suplex, and went for the senton. Neville got his knees up, and then got the pin with a red arrow to the back and the pin.
Elias, who is back without a last name, sang a couple of songs. Most booed him heavily but there was a clear undercurrent of people who were cheering him, and when he said he was doing a second song, there were a lot of cheers. I don’t think people expected that, but his songs both ripped on Brooklyn and he was booed heavily,
BIG E & XAVIER WOODS VS. USOS FOR TAG TITLES
This was a hell of a match. The Usos won the belts back after a series of superkicks on E, followed by a double splash off the top and Jey pinned E. There were a ton of new moves including a move where Woods picked up E on his shoulder and dropped him on one of them. E did the tackle on on Jey to the floor and set up the Midnight Hour on Jimmy but he got off and E got hit with all the superkicks They had done a ropewalk Midnight Hour but the other Uso saved earlier. This was the best pre-show match in recent memory and has a shot at being the best bout of the show.
An interesting note is that if there was smart money that came in for this show, it was minimal. The Usos were underdogs, and in fact, all three pre-show matches saw underdog wins. None were the super long odds when smart money comes in and as of right now, there haven’t been major swings in the last minutes so I think the odds aren’t going to be any kind of a predictor for finishes.
JOHN CENA VS. BARON CORBIN
Well, this wasn’t a good sign for Corbin. Corbin mostly yelled at the crowd. Corbin got a near fall with the Deep Six but Cena, who looked really big, won clean with the Attitude Adjustment with not much of a build.
This is the fourth match in a row that the underdog has won.
NAOMI VS. NATALYA FOR THE SMACKDOWN WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP
Natalya won clean with a sharpshooter after Naomi went for for a split-legged moonsault and Natalya got her knees up. They did a lot of cool looking new stuff here including a Naomi escape of the first sharpshooter by using her legs to power Natayla off and she hit her head on the bottom turnbuckle. Natalya reversed Naomi’s submisison into the first sharpshooter. Good match.
BIG SHOW VS. BIG CASS WITH ENZO AMORE IN A SHARK CAGE
Enzo said he’d put his worst day with his microphone against the best day Cass ever had in the ring. He called himself the Al Capone of the microphone until Cass cut him off. Enzo was put in the cage,
This was a weak match. Cass destroyed both Show and Enzo to win. Enzo took off his shirt and pants, so he was left in his underwear, and then poured oil he had in his underwear and slipped out of fhe shark cage, which was very low, and jumped into the ring. But Cass kicked him in he face immediately. Cass then won with two high kicks and the empire elbow. Crowd chanted boring at one point. The story was that Show’s hand hurt him. He did a KO punch but it wasn’t strong enough to pin him and also did a left hand choke slam that wasn’t enough.
Kurt Angle and Daniel Bryan. Bryan brought Jason Jordan, Kurt said you learn more from your mistakes. Bryan said we’re going to steal the show with title match, not sure about that. Bryan said “It’s true it’s damn true” and the Kurt screamed “Yes” and Bryan said “No.”
RANDY ORTON VS. RUSEV
Rusev attacked him before the match. The bell then rang, Rusev missed a charfge and Orton hit the RKO to win in nine seconds.
ALEXA BLISS VS. SASHA BANKS FOR RAW WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP
Banks won the title and kind of a surprise the way it was worked. Banks took a bump out of the ring on her shoulder and was selling it with the idea it was weak. Bliss was able to get out of the bank statement beacuse the shoulder was weak. She put it on again and the announcers pushed the idea that her shoulder was hurt, but Bliss tapped out. Match okay, but didn’t have much heat.
FINN BALOR VS. BRAY WYATT
Balor, dressed as the Demon, won with a sling blade, a running dropkick and the Coup de Grace clean. Balor did a running flip dive early. He had used a dobule foot stomp of the apron and escaped from Sister Abigail. Match was okay, better than their match on Raw but not close to what you’d expect from a Balor PPV match.
SHEAMUS & CESARO VS. SETH ROLLINS & DEAN AMBROSE FOR RAW TAG TITLES
Ambrose & Rollins won the titles when Rollins gave Sheamus the knee and Ambrose hit hi with Dirty Deeds. This was very good, but with a great spot leading to the finish where Rollins used a springboard huracarana and flung Cesaro into Sheamus, who had Ambrose up for white noise. Lots of good near falls and solid work in a long match. Another highlight was early on when the crowd was playing with a beach ball which distracted them from the match, and Cesaro ran into the crowd and tore up the beach ball. Both teams looked good doing their trademark spots and this easily had the most heat so far in the show.
A.J. STYLES VS. KEVIN OWENS FOR THE U.S. TITLE WITH SHANE MCMAHON AS REFEREE
Good match with Styles winning after a phenomenal forearm and the Styles clash. The story of the match was spots with Shane McMahon, which were overdone. Owens used the power bomb but Shane had taken a bump froma springboard 450 by Styles which accidentlaly hit him, so Shane was slow in counting the pin. Owens was funny saying that you fall off buildings and you can’t get up fro that. Shane took a bump out of the ring and Styles used the calf crusher, Owens tapped but he missed it. Styles broke the hold when he tapped which was silly because the ref wasn’t there. Styles complained and Shane said it was a two count. Okay. Owens used the power bomb again and Shane counted three, but Shane saw Styles’ foot on the ropes before three so he restarted the match. Owens and Shane argued and started shoving each other. Shane shoved him into a Styles schoolboy but Owens kicked out. But Styles came back to win. The match itself was really good. It felt like Owens vs. Shane may go somewhere.
JINDER MAHAL VS. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA FOR WWE TITLE
Lee England Jr. was back as play the violin for Nakamura’s entrance.
You can see they’re in love with the media that Mahal is getting them. Nakmura looked okay in a short match, Mahal really didn’t do much. Nakamura used the Kinshasa to the back of the head of Mahal and set up another one. The Singh Brothers both got in the ring and Nakamura laid both of them out with Kinshasa’s and then Mahal had the Khallas on him for the pin. I don’t think people expected it to be that short. As a WWE title match goes, this was pretty bad, not Punjabi Prison bad, but still bad.
BROCK LESNAR VS. ROMAN REIGNS VS. BRAUN STROWMAN VS. SAMOA JOE FOR UNIVERSAL TITLE
A pretty amazing match which ended with Lesnar pinning Reigns after an F-5 after Reigns hit three Sueprman punches and ran in for the spear into the Superman punch. The story of the match was making Strowman as he destroyed everyone almost the entire match, including manhandling Lesnar early Strowman put him through two tables with powerslams and Lesnar went out on a stretcher, Lesnar came back in the closing minutes. Early on Joe and Reigns were getting destroyed and it was all about Lesnar and Strowman. Really the match layout was to make Strowman into the top guy. There was good anticipation for Lesnar vs. Reigns, but the roof came off with Lesnar vs. Strowman which is clearly the biggest match in the company right now. Reigns speared Lesnar throughthe barricade. Strowman destroyed Reigns & Joe before powerslamming Lesnar through one table, and then another. Then he turned the third table over on Lesnar, which led to Lesnar going out on a stretcher. Reigns hit Strowman with the ring steps and Strowman was cut on the side of the head. Strowman choke slammed Reigns and Joe at the same time. Fans were chanting for Undertaker and then Lesnar came out. Lesnar hit Gemran suplexes again on Reigns and Joe, but the key is they never let Lesnar hit the German on Strowman. He did get a Kkmura on Strowman but Reigns borke it up. Lesnar also kicked out of a Regins spear that looked like it couild bbe a finish. Strowman powerslammed Joe but Lesnar pulled the ref out of the ring so he couldn’t count. Strowman powerslammed Reigns but Lesnar broke it up. Lesnar tried the F-5 on Strowman, but Strowman got out and had Lesnar up for a powerlsam, but Reigns speared Strowman. Joe had the choke on Lesnar, but Lesnar got out and hit the F-5 and Reigns saved. This led to the finish with Reigns and Lesnar.