8 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SummerSlam 2023 (Results & Review)

1. A Boring, Overdramatic, Recycled Slog

Jey Uso
WWE.com

Dress it up however you want, but Roman Reigns versus Jey Uso was the most dragged-out, melodramatic slog of a main event we’ve seen in a while, recycling the same old Bloodline tropes for the 87th time to diminishing results.

Calling it “Tribal Combat” and making the match for both the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship and the right to lead the tribe didn’t really matter, as it was just a plodding plunder brawl that saw Solo Sikoa get involved, completely undermining the idea of an honorable competition. There seemed to be 2-3 minutes in-between every move, which might have been designed to build drama, but instead just padded out the runtime.

Then they threw in Jimmy Uso turning on his twin brother to tip the scales to Roman, and setting up one of Vince McMahon’s favorite tropes, a sibling feud. It’s clear WWE is trying to throw in another twist to the ongoing Bloodline saga, and while fans likely need to give it time to breathe and play out, the overall package we were handed Saturday night missed the mark.

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Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.