This may be an odd choice to look forward to, but the newly announced United States Championship match between Antonio Cesaro and Santino Marella has me interested. Yes, I’m looking forward to the YouTube pre-show match mroe than some of the other matches on the card. What can I say about Santino; they really shit the bed with his title run and it’s time to make a change. He is really entertaining and can wrestle, but he’s not doing anything with the title and he’s over without it. I want to see titles defended regularly, and I think Cesaro is the perfect guy to do it. It may be a pipe dream, but I hope he goes over Sunday and he changes the US Title to the (Very) European Championship.
As for the other mid card and/or title matches, Miz/Mysterio was thrown together, and Prime Time Players versus Kofi & Truth just didn’t get the time it should have. All feelings about AW aside, it should be given more time on both television shows, and all three teams should be fighting on Sunday evening. Primo and Epico were just as involved in the mix as the other guys, but they aren’t even in the match this weekend. Kofi Kingston, one half of the tag team champions, wasn’t even on the show. I said Summerslam doesn’t feel as important as it should, and stuff like this are reasons why. Alberto Del Rio versus Sheamus was cancelled last week, and according to spoilers, Alberto had to earn back his match and then Sheamus demanded Booker T make it official anyways. It makes no sense. I’m sure it will look much better on this week’s Smackdown, but devaluing the title like that right before the event doesn’t help the event, or Alberto for that matter.
WWE has more television time than in the past but it feels like they try to squeeze more things into a particular show than in the past. It should be the opposite; the past few weeks of RAW have definitely been an improvement, but it needs to keep happening. Summerslam shouldn’t have a thrown together build up, and they should really give it time to breath like Wrestlemania gets. I wouldn’t give it a build like starting the “Road to Wrestlemania” at Royal Rumble, but it could certainly benefit from having the seeds planted right after the June pay-per-view. (Money In The Bank could be the lead in to Summerslam; just make it earlier in July and go from there.)
I miss seeing big time matches at Summerslam that almost made it more important than Wrestlemania itself. Stone Cold versus The Undertaker at Summerslam ’98 was dubbed the “Highway to Hell” and it was awesome. The Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match between The Rock and HHH was also on the card, and it remains one of my favorite matches of all-time. There’s Warrior/Savage and Bulldog/Bret in ’92, Bret/Owen in ’94, and Cena/Edge in ’06. I can go on, but I made my point. I expect to be entertained on Sunday evening, and I think there will be great matches and some suprises too. I may not be “sold” on the whole event, but part of the fun is having WWE prove me wrong. I hope they come through again, they’ve been doing a better job of running “complete” shows. Extreme Rules was the most entertaining event so far this year, and it was supposed to just be a throwaway event that rehashed ‘Mania matches. This year’s Summerslam undercard may be a bit more entertaining than the main event (to some) but I think that’s good in the long run. Newer stars are getting better chances, and it’s not that the main event is suffering so much, but the other guys are catching up and getting their chances. Summerslam may not be what it used to be, but it should still be a good event and I hope WWE continues their trend of elevating the entire program instead of a select few.
