10 Ways WWE Screwed Up At SummerSlam 2017
Barren bleachers, burials, and baffling booking.
SumerSlam 2017 was a real Jekyll and Hyde pay-per-view. While the night was peppered with highlights, and concluded with an awesome main event, each high was tempered by at least one terrible low.
One minute The New Day and Usos were engaging in a Tag Team Title thriller, the next John Cena and Baron Corbin were boring everyone to sleep. Natalya's first championship win in almost seven years was followed by a stinker in Big Show vs. Big Cass. Jinder Mahal vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, one of the year's worst World Title bouts, preceded the outstanding Universal Championship clash. The list goes on.
Battleground aside, WWE haven't had a terrible year in terms of PPV quality, but they've been terribly inconsistent. This was just another show full of peaks and valleys, with WWE shooting themselves in the foot several times throughout.
If you were to cut the bad stuff out, you'd be left with a phenomenal two-hour event, but alas. Logistical issues, oddball match outcomes, dumb stipulations: SummerSlam had them all. It won't finish as one of 2017's worst PPVs, but this monstrous six-hour show was laced with problems, most of which came from the decision-makers themselves...
10. HBKFC
Something strange happened at the conclusion of last night's Kickoff Show. The feed cut to a pre-recorded KFC commercial featuring Dolph Ziggler, Enzo Amore, Mojo Rawley, and a handful of others. It came out of nowhere, but this wasn't completely out of the ordinary, as WWE have produced such KFC commercials in the past, and even booked a Colonel Sanders (Ziggler) vs. adult-sized chicken (The Miz) dark match at last year's SummerSlam.
What followed, however, was absolutely bewildering.
'Sexy Boy' hit the PA system. The crowd naturally went nuts, but this wasn't your usual Shawn Michaels appearance, oh no. KFC's red and white took over the arena, and out stepped HBK, decked out in full Colonel regalia. He then spent the next few minutes dancing and gyrating around the arena, before strutting across the announce tables, which is when we cut back to the studio.
This spot was apparently originally intended for Ric Flair prior to 'The Nature Boy's' recent health problems. It was an odd way to utilise a WWE Hall Of Famer on the second biggest show of the year, and totally needless, particularly as WWE could've used this time to give Neville vs. Tozawa an extra couple of minutes.