10 WWE SummerSlam 2020 Impulse Reactions
2. Braun Strowman (c) Vs. "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt
Ponderous and plodding, this Falls Count Anywhere dud only approached good if you happened to think their storyline approached genius.
WWE elected to do away with the cinematic entirely for SummerSlam, and while another Swamp Fight wouldn't have been tolerable, this wasn't a great deal better. Almost as if Money In The Bank all the way back in may told us rather explicitly that these two don't actually work that well together.
A walk-and-brawl when stuff actually was happening, the physicality played out like an old Raw main event rather than the first headliner of the ThunderDome pay-per-view era. Bray got thrown into the screens, the pair had a wander, somebody tried a fall on the floor because the company thinks we're too stupid to remember stipulations, you know the type.
An introduction of a toolbox earlier in the night was key. Wyatt discarded it after attempting to butcher Braun - he'd probably win a few more matches if he just got on with the "Hurt" bit of his act - allowing Strowman to find a knife and give the ring its second slicing in the space of a month. But he suffered the RETRIBUTION for his interior decorating job as Wyatt landed Sister Abigail on the exposed wood for the anaemic reclamation of his precious.
And now to the good bit.