WWE SummerSlam 2015 had its moments.
The main event ended in controversy, the title-versus-title match ended with a twist, new Tag Team champions were crowned and one of the evening’s best performers wasn’t even a WWE superstar.
WWE swung from the heels with its four-hour, 10-match presentation Sunday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. It whiffed in some areas and connected big time in others.
Let’s run down the good and the bad, starting with the event’s first match and working forward.
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Sheamus defeated Randy Orton.
Liked: Orton dishing out another awesome RKO.
Disliked: The lack of originality. The buildup was terrible, and we’ve seen this match 900 times.
Grade: D
The New Day defeated The Prime Time Players (champions), The Lucha Dragons and Los Matadores to win the Tag Team titles.
Liked: Everything about The New Day. Each member of the group brings something to the table.
Their opening was gold. Xavier Woods face-planting El Torito was gold. Kofi Kingston’s celebration was gold. Big E running around the ring like a mad man before breaking it down was gold.
Disliked: The tag team division still leaves much to be desired. The New Day is head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to combining in-ring work with entertainment value.
Los Matadores bore the crap out of me.
Grade: A-
Dolph Ziggler versus Rusev ended in a double count-out.
Liked: Lana.
Disliked: The ending. A double count-out is such a cheap route, even when it’s so obvious the point of the match was to set up a mixed tag team match for Night of Champions. This was nothing we haven’t already seen on “RAW.”
Grade: D
Neville and Stephen Amell defeated Stardust and King Barrett.
Liked: Amell’s work. The guy’s athletic, and he sold like a champ. Celebrity matches usually suck, but this one sucked less because Amell actually looked like he knew what he was doing.
Disliked: What the hell was King Barrett even doing in this feud?
Grade: C+
Ryback (champion) defeated Big Show and The Miz to retain the Intercontinental title.
Liked: It exceeded my expectations, which were incredibly low. Momentum shifted several times throughout the match, creating a sense of unpredictability.
Disliked: The absence of a backstory to snack on. This essentially was three random mid-card guys thrown into the ring together, which is disappointing since Daniel Bryan’s title win at WrestleMania 31 actually provided some hope that the IC title would become relevant again.
Grade: C+
Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose defeated Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper.
Liked: Reigns and Ambrose feed off each other well, which makes sense because The Shield was awesome.
Disliked: There was no swerve. This was tailor-made for either Reigns or Ambrose to turn heel, yet literally nothing happened. They just kept rolling with their “brother from another mother” friendship.
This match also turned into a squash at the end. Reigns and Ambrose tuned up Wyatt in the middle of the ring, creating even more questions about how Wyatt’s being booked. He claims to be the “New Face of Fear,” yet nothing about his recent record instills any sort of “fear” in anyone.
Grade: D+
Seth Rollins (World Heavyweight champion) defeated John Cena (United States champion) to retain the World Heavyweight title and win the United States title.
Liked: The whole match, until the end. Seriously, these guys put on a show.
Rollins is super athletic and a great heel. Cena, meanwhile, has a solid match every time he steps into the ring nowadays, which has gone a long way toward silencing those who said he couldn’t wrestle.
Disliked: The cheesy finish. Jon Stewart attacking John Cena is so incredibly hokey it’s not even funny. Plus, it was obvious he was going to turn on Cena, for whatever reason, after running down.
The whole idea makes sense with the event really going mainstream this year. Stewart, after all, is a popular guy, so it’ll have people talking. But it’s just so incredibly cheesy.
Grade: A-
Team PCB (Paige, Charlotte and Becky Lynch) defeated Team Bella (Nikki Bella, Brie Bella and Alicia Fox) and Team B.A.D. (Sasha Banks, Naomi and Tamina).
Liked: The idea of a “Divas Revolution.”
Disliked: The execution. This was supposed to be a chance to break down walls, yet WWE ran face-first into those walls. The “revolution” is nothing more than a word tossed around, which is unfortunate.
Grade: C-
Kevin Owens defeated Cesaro.
Liked: The in-ring work was phenomenal. Both superstars deserve a huge push at some point. Owens has the makeup of a top heel, and hopefully WWE will take advantage of that sooner rather than later.
Disliked: The match’s placement. It happened in that cool-down stage before the main event and didn’t have the crowd response it deserved. It probably should have opened the show.
Grade: A-
The Undertaker defeated Brock Lesnar.
Liked: The momentum swings. They booked the match like it was going to be a street fight, and it delivered in that regard.
Lesnar going after The Undertaker the second he entered the ring. Their blow-for-blow exchange on the mat after The Undertaker sat up. Them trading finishers. It all was edge-of-your-seat stuff.
The split crowd helped, too.
Disliked: The ending. It’ll have people talking, so it was successful in that sense. But setting up a rubber match by having The Undertaker sneak out the back door with a victory he didn’t earn is an odd way to approach what otherwise was a knock-down, drag-out war.
Plus, who wants a rubber match? And what’s with The Undertaker’s infatuation with low blows?
Grade: B
Overall SummerSlam grade: C
