11 Match Star Ratings For WWE SummerSlam 2021
1. Roman Reigns Vs. John Cena - Universal Title Match
With worn tropes stacked on top of a bizarre story beat in which John Cena was presented as a plucky jobber rather than some expert counter technician - which is just as well actually, looking at the sheer state of his STF - this transcended the Michael Hayes Special because these wrestlers are legit stars.
The lovely stadium backdrop helped. The easy adrenaline of the finisher kick-out did too. Look, this was simple and artless but as dramatic and heated as it was always going to be.
John Cena looked for the roll-up finish in between Roman throwing him around like he was nothing. This was meant to put over the idea that Reigns was a level above WWE - he is WWE, per the contents of his latest monologue/acting audition - but it was undermined because Cena always did parody underdog psychology at his peak.
What wasn't quite artless was the escalation of the near-falls. Normal variation, table, top-rope: every AA attempt felt like it had brought Cena closer to victory, who at some point deserted his pre-match strategy. This was odd. A roll-up is more devastating than a chair shot in WWE canon. Still, Roman's timing was tremendous on the kick-outs. This was always going to be methodical pretext to finisher spam. That's the WWE style. Star power and a shred of thought elevated it.
Extra quarter star awarded for nothing in the way of boring for-the-sake-of-it limb work.
Star Rating: ★★★½