10 Big Mistakes WWE Made At SummerSlam 2016
What went wrong last night? Well, quite a lot actually...
Well, that was a bit of a mess wasn't it?
SummerSlam comes with the baggage of being WWE's second biggest show of the year, and in 2016 it seemed like that baggage became too heavy for the company to carry. What we got was some sort of WrestleMania-lite, a show filled to the brim for the sake of appearances as opposed to storyline necessity.
It wasn't all bad, of course.
Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho continued their excellent partnership with a solid win over Enzo & Big Cass. AJ Styles defied history and logic to defeat John Cena clean in their second match, turning the 'John loses one, wins three' trope on its head. Finn Balor and Seth Rollins had a technically-proficient match for the WWE Universal Championship and Charlotte regained the Women's Championship from Sasha Banks in a cracking little match in the first hour.
Still, even the most ardent WWE supporter will say that last night featured more misses than hits. The last hour in particular was a strange one, with an apathetic crowd going through the motions when quite the opposite was expected/hoped for.
So what mistakes did WWE make at SummerSlam 2016? Here are 10 of the biggest boo-boos...
10. The Show Was Too Long
I don't want to complain about having 'too much wrestling', but once again this show was too long.
WrestleMania 32 was the Slog of Slogs as opposed to the Show of Shows, and at six hours (including the Kickoff) and 13 matches this show was just too much. Nobody wants that much of anything in one sitting. I mean, 'The Wire' is the greatest television show (or thing) ever, but I'm not going to sit through six whole straight hours of it.
WWE has a real issue when it comes to pacing its shows at this point. SummerSlam 2002 was arguably the best SummerSlam of all time, and looking back at that card it is the timing that stands out. Eight matches long, it truly was all killer, no filler. WWE has a tendency these days to throw everyone onto big shows for the sake of being there, as opposed to creating stories that justify their placement.
The crowd were visibly burnt-out throughout this show. By the time Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler locked up for the WWE World Championship the apathy shown to both men dragged that bout down terribly. You can lay the blame at the feet of the WWE Network, but WWE is also getting far too liberal when it comes to its show lengths.
Sometimes, less really is more.