KB’s Review: Just Wrestle

We’re coming into “Summerslam 2014” this Sunday and it looks like the answer to a lot of WWE’s problems. Over the last few weeks, we’ve sat through endless plugs for the WWE Network, repetitive matches, people leaving the organization, and a lot of questionable Brie Bella vs. Stephanie McMahon segments that have brought viewership down in droves. However, we’re coming up on the second biggest show of the year and the answer to a lot of the company’s problems are waiting for them. The answer to WWE’s current issues, or a lot of any wrestling company’s problems, is to just wrestle.

The main event this Sunday is Brock Lesnar challenging John Cena for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. If you look at the booking, it’s fairly clear that Lesnar is likely to dominate the match and walk out with the title. However, Cena is going to put up a fight and make the match incredibly entertaining. Look back at their match at “Extreme Rules 2012.” Lesnar completely destroyed Cena for fifteen brutal minutes, only to get caught by a shot to the head with a chain and an Attitude Adjustment for a fast pin.

Yes the match was one sided for the most part and ended on a glorified fluke, but the two men were more than entertaining enough to make it one of the best matches of the year. Both men are athletic freaks and know how to bring it on the big stage, making it almost impossible for the two of them to have a bad match. If what we’ve seen between the two of them before is any indication, the match at “Summerslam” is going to be great.

On the other side of the spectrum, you have a match built entirely on hatred with Seth Rollins facing Dean Ambrose in a lumberjack match. While the gimmick itself is questionable, I can’t imagine this being anything less than very entertaining. Ambrose is on fire with his work lately as he’s channeling some bizarre version of Brian Pillman. He’s at the point where winning a match doesn’t matter as long as he gets to hurt Rollins and that’s exactly what he should be doing. Ambrose is out for revenge against someone who turned on him and it’s going to be hard for Rollins to run away again.

While Ambrose is great, people are forgetting about Rollins in this match. The man has shown that he’s capable of keeping up with and surpassing almost anyone who gets in the ring with him. This gives us a great dichotomy between the two and it makes for a much more interesting match. You have the athletic prowess of Rollins vs. the insanity of Ambrose. When you throw in a great story, it’s almost impossible to not have an awesome match between these two.

Another big match on the card is Roman Reigns vs. Randy Orton as Reigns continues his rise to the top of the company with his biggest match to date. While he may not be the most interesting character in the world at times, Orton has shown time and time again that he’s capable of having a great match with the right opponent and enough time to make his style work. Reigns still needs someone to walk him through a lot of his matches and Orton, like him or not, is someone who can easily do just that.

This match is another good example of the ending being pretty clear coming in, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. Reigns should win every major match he’s in and a win over the man who was WWE World Champion coming into “Wrestlemania XXX” is going to be a big moment for him. There’s no reason for Orton to win the match, but it’s exactly the way it’s supposed to be. This is where all those titles help Orton out: he can lose so many big matches and still be at the same level he was at coming in due to the wins he’s achieved before.

We also have the rematch of Chris Jericho and Bray Wyatt where Wyatt is almost guaranteed to win. This is why Jericho was brought back into WWE: to make someone like Wyatt look good and keep the fans from cheering him so much. At the end of the day, Jericho is a guy that is really hard to boo. He’s a wrestler, a rock star, funny and great in the ring. In a word, Jericho is cool. This makes him perfect for Wyatt, who is getting over with the fans by being so out there that he’s fun to watch. However, he’s not going to be able to out-cool Jericho and that’s what makes the match perfect.

Finally Summerslam has some good old fashioned American patriotism with Jack Swagger wanting to wave an American flag over the fallen body of the evil Russian Rusev. This is a story that has worked for years and is going to work until the end of time. It may come off as cheesy at times, but listen to the fans cheering for Swagger. For the first time in years he’s getting a reaction and that’s the beauty of a basic story like being an American patriot. There’s no real reason for Rusev to lose on Sunday, but WWE has done a good job of planting a seed of doubt, and that’s the right idea.

Now, of course I’m not saying Summerslam is going to be the best show of all time because there are a lot of matches on it that are going to slow down the momentum. That being said, there’s still more than enough good stuff on it to make it a fun show. It’s going to make the problems that WWE has been having go away for three hours and let the fans enjoy a good wrestling show. The stories have been well built (for the most part) and now we get the good payoffs for the efforts put in. While it’s not going to fix everything, it’s going to make things a lot easier to sit through.

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