8 Match Star Ratings For WWE SummerSlam 2020
1. The Fiend Bray Wyatt Vs. Braun Strowman - Universal Title Match
This sucked.
It wasn't a good, intense brawl, and it wasn't helped by a pretentious s t o r y t e l l i n g dynamic that didn't cast a specific babyface and a heel. This can be achieved, if the artistry and creativity is there, but Braun friggin' Strowman doesn't have the chops to play a complex character. There was no dynamism nor imagination to any of it. They ambled sluggishly between every WWE plunder match trope you've ever seen, which was a massive indictment of the preposterous idea that this is good storytelling told by "different" breeds of "character".
Virtually any two wrestlers could and have worked this type of match, only better, and Braun Strowman taking Sister Abigail on what amounted to a concrete floor killed another narrative stone dead. This isn't the safe company. He has a nasty hardway gash to prove it.
The finish, Jesus Christ, the finish.
Not only did it depict Braun Strowman as a complete dipsh*t - he cut up the ring, only to fall on the exposed boards himself - but the execution was abysmal too.
In a sequence worked by two men developed exclusively within the WWE system, who as such should know where the hard cam is, since they're so pious about it, Wyatt dropped Strowman with Sister Abigail away from view. He realised, and positioned himself awkwardly but correctly for the second - only to drop Strowman on the matting, undermining the violence of the spot. And if that reads contradictory to the above, so did the spot. We'd already seen what should have been a more effective killer blow.
Following this all-heel match, Roman Reigns returned with distracting teeth to annihilate both Strowman and Wyatt under no provocation before issuing them each with a meta burial, like Steve Austin booked by Vince Russo only in WCW.
Star Rating: ¾★