The Kick-Off show
has began to take on a bit of a life of it's own. Originally the
bouts would be about four minutes long, and there really was no much
point tuning in early. However, in the last few shows there's been a
noticeable shift to longer matches, usually longer than most of the
matches on the PPV. I think WWE has realised that this is a great
platform to push for the last few pay-per-view buys and a long
impressive match may just change someone's mind.
United States Championship Match:
Rob Van Dam
vs.
Dean Ambrose ©
The Shield are
apparently chasing The Miz's former title of Mr. Kick-Off, after
making appearance on the last two shows. They are a good choice for
this role, as they almost always have good and exciting matches, and
usually wouldn't get this amount of time to show what they can do on
pay-per-view. Rob Van Dam has only been back with WWE just over a
month, and after WWE made such a big deal over his return with some
good hype videos, I was a little surprised to see him only make the
Kick-Off bout this time round. WWE really could've done with giving
Van Dam a story heading into the show, as it took them til the final
Raw before this pay-per-view to even book him in this match. He even
could have been added to the Christian vs. Alberto Del Rio bout, to
give that match a bit more pull.
The opening part
of the match was strong with Ambrose working well in grounding Van
Dam. There was some exciting back and forth with both men doing a
great job at getting the crowd involved. The crowd were redhot from
the outset of the battle and of course that really helped Van Dam's
performance. With Van Dam taking control of the bout, after reversing
Ambrose's Headlock Driver, with a series of kicks, it looked like it
might be over early with Van Dam heading to the top rope for a Five
Star Frogsplash, only for the Shield's music to hit and Tag Team
Champions Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns to make their way down to
ringside. I didn't really understand the logic behind this move, as
Rollins and Reigns took so long to get down to the ring, that Van Dam
could of hit his finisher and won the United States Championship in
the time that it took them to get down to the ring.
When we returned
for the break, Van Dam was in full control again, so with The Shield
trying to get involved, Mark Henry and Big Show made came down the
aisle to even up the numbers. The in ring action continued to be
strong, with Van Dam continuing to have the upperhand for the most
part, with Seth Rollins' distraction not allowing Van Dam to hit the
Five Star Frog Splash for a second time. However, Van Dam did finally
manage to hit his finishing move a few minutes later, this time over
the other side of the ring, however when he went for the cover, he
ended up on the receiving end of a Spear from Reigns, giving Van Dam
the disqualification victory, but allowing Ambrose to retain the
United States Championship. We've seen a lot of similar endings from
The Shield lately, and it's beginning to make Ambrose look like a
weak United States Champion after originally being booked so
strongly, with no need for Rollins and Reigns to interfere in his
match, he could really do with a clean win soon.
After Show and
Henry had chased off The Shield, the three veterans celebrated in the
ring, with The Shield taunting them from outside. Obviously WWE
wanted to keep Van Dam looking strong here, without actually giving
him the United States Championship, therefore I wouldn't expect to
see a rematch between the two anytime soon, especially not for the
title. However, I do expect to see Show and Henry get a title shot at
The Shield's Rollins and Reigns, possibly at the next pay-per-view,
Night of Champions. It will interesting to see how the dynamic of the
two big men plays out in this kind of battle, as WWE hasn't really
had two big men team together in quite some time.
Best of the Rest (In The World)
Elsewhere on the
show, Paul Heyman had an announcement to make about Brock Lesnar's
match with Paul Heyman at SummerSlam. After a beautiful analogy
comparing Punk vs. Lesnar to David vs. Goliath, with some classic
Heyman changes to the story. Then Heyman, announced that both parties
had agreed that the bout would be No Disqualification, before talking
about how Lesnar was going to dismantle Punk. It was a nice addition
to the pre-show and the news of a change in the match might have
helped people who were previously unsure about buying SummerSlam
dip into their pockets.
The addition of
the No Disqualification rule was certainly a good move in my opinion.
We've seen a lot of weapons used in the build up to this one, and
therefore if they'd have gone for a straight up wrestling match it
might not have felt as impactful as the build-up had been. Also,
we've seen Lesnar in a number of No Disqualification match since his
2012 return, and it certainly is the best enviroment to have The
Beast Incarnate do his work, as it can make him look even more
vicious and dominating. It would also give Punk an oppurtunity to get
his hands on Paul Heyman without getting reprimanded by the referee!
The panel for
SummerSlam Kick-Off was hosted by Josh Matthews, who was joined by
WWE Hall of Famer's Shawn Michaels and Booker T, as well as Smackdown
General Manager Vickie Guerrero. Michaels and Booker were informative
and entertaining bringing a nice insight into the rivalries and
matches that would be going on during the show, with Vickie
occasional chipping in, but for the most part she was simply there
to make up the numbers and give her something to do. I'm not a
massive fan of Josh Matthews on commentary, but here he was at least
tolerable, setting up conversation points for his panel well.
Renee Young also
got invovled in the show, as we occasional visited her in what was
termed “The Social Media Lounge”, what this meant was a sofa and
a television screen that would occasional show tweets. Renee is good
as a host, she's likeable and her tone makes her easy to listen to as
she lead us through what the WWE fans were thinking on various forms
of social media, however where she came undone was when she had to
speak about how own opinion on wrestling, especially when talking
about her favourite SummerSlam moment. It was clear she was being fed
the lines and didn't really know what she was talking about.
Throughout the
show we were also joined by Tony Dawson who was outside the arena
talking to fans. This was a nice touch, even if Dawson was a little
close to the camera a number of times, which I'm sure will give
children nightmares for weeks to come. The fans interviewed were
excitable and clearly a little taken aback at being aproached to be
on television, however their answers were good and helped to get a
sense of how the crowd would be in the arena once the show had
started.
Finally...
What did I learn from SummerSlam Kick-Off?
1. WWE has bigger plans for Rob Van Dam than the United States Championship.
2. A little addition to the card on the Kick-Off helps to build anticipation.
3. These Kick-Off shows really get me pumped for the real thing.
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