10 Observations From Attending WWE SummerSlam 2016 Live
4. This Is What Red Belts Do
Finn Balor may have spent more time in NXT than anyone though he would, but WWE decided to make up for it by pushing him to the moon upon his callup. He debuted on Raw the evening after Battleground, and less than a month later, he can call himself a world champion.
Unfortunately, the world championship in question is the WWE Universal Championship, one of the ugliest title belts introduced in recent memory. A cheap-looking copy of the WWE World Championship, the design shows no innovation and the red strap makes it look hideous. The title was unveiled just prior to the Finn Balor-Seth Rollins match, and the Barclays Center crowd hated it.
The disgust over the belt completely overshadowed what was supposed to be a dream match. Despite the fact that the Balor-Rollins contest was good (the third-best match on the show, easily), fans wouldn't drop the belt thing - they spent several minutes chanting about how bad it looked, then booed whenever it was shown on the overhead screens.
Seth Rollins was vocal on Twitter about his disappointment in the fans, and it's hard to blame him - he came to Brooklyn to compete and put on a great show, and nobody noticed. Still, when a title is brand-new and has no inherent meaning, it should at least look like something worth fighting for.