WWE Summerslam 2013: 10 Best Moments From The Biggest Party Of The Summer

9. Ring Of Fire Becomes Ring Of Dire

The opening contest of the main show (which incidentally didn't begin until fifteen minutes into the show) was the Ring of Fire match between Kane and newcomer Bray Wyatt. The re-branding of the Big Red Monster's speciality match, the Inferno match, was bound to excite the crowd as soon as a spit of flames came out from the outside of the ring. Instead of setting the opponent on fire, the match was pinfall/submission, with the fire there to keep out Wyatt's henchmen Harper and Rowan. Matches that Kane has had against the likes of the Undertaker, Triple H and MVP in an Inferno match have always been somewhat of a novelty, as it really is like just a normal match, except the action is slightly obscured due to smoke and flames and the competitors stay slightly further away from the ropes. However, with regards to this contest, the action wasn't obscured enough. In Wyatt's first chance to shine in the ring as opposed to on the microphone, he got the show off to a really poor start. He looked slow and uninspiring in the ring, and didn't mesh well with Kane at all. I'm not going to pin all the blame on Wyatt, as this was certainly not Kane's finest hour either. Nevertheless, the veteran doesn't have to prove anything in the ring any more, but on the strength of that match, Wyatt still has a lot to learn. Having watched some of his matches on NXT, he is a capable hand in the ring, and certainly has a solid grasp on in-ring psychology and promo skills. But, he needs to become more fluid and functional in the ring when the spotlight is on him. Not only that, but the finish made his character look weak. Though most in the IWC would have expected the Wyatt Family to get involved, the amount of damage done to their shepherd before they entered the ring made him look more like a manager than a wrestler. Harper and Rowan are two more that still have a lot to prove after their disjointed performance on Raw against Tons of Funk. And, after Wyatt won the match with the Sister Abigail, instead of using the fire to torture Kane, instead they went with an ending of Kane's head being smashed with the steel steps in a clearly fake way. The fact that the fire really had no impact on the match other than to keep interference out for the first half of the match, it was a poor excuse for a gimmick match and got the night off to a bad start. Hopefully the Wyatt Family can bounce back against new competition, or they could be the next Mordecai or Kizarny.