9 Ups And 7 Downs From WWE SummerSlam 2021

5. Making A Champion

Sheamus Damien Priest
WWE.com

This writer called the United States Championship match a potential sleeper for match of the night, and it delivered exactly what it needed at SummerSlam.

Damian Priest overcame Sheamus’ onslaught to topple the Celtic Warrior and capture his first title in WWE. The match itself was aided by an unfortunate misstep, when Priest did a step-up dive to the floor and splatted back-first on the floor. That apparent injury became the story of the match, as Sheamus targeted it over and over.

Sheamus delivered some serious, hard-hitting offense (as expected), which led to near-falls that sucked the fans in and had them rallying behind Damian. The climax came when Priest ripped Sheamus’ mask off and pounded him, leading to a comeback topped off with the Reckoning, bringing him the victory.

It was a perfect little bit of storytelling, and the fans’ reaction made it mean even more. Great job all around.

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Contributor
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.