Sheamus & his thumb get 1st win over Cesaro in best-of-7 series starting at SummerSlam

Both men came flying out of the gate, trying to hit their finishers and other big moves on each other right off the bat instead of waiting until later in the match. Cesaro and Sheamus were so intent on causing each other pain that neither was able to get a clear advantage over the other for very long; every time one started to gain the upper hand for more than a few moments, the other would come up with a counter and start to bring momentum back his way.

Cesaro and Sheamus both wound up trading blows outside the ring, with Sheamus managing to get into the ring with time to spare in the referee’s countout, but Cesaro could only just barely roll in before he got to 10 and disqualified the Swiss Superman. Cesaro was able to stun Sheamus with his patented repeated uppercuts and knocked the Irishman off the turnbuckle with a massive dropkick.

Cesaro couldn’t capitalize on the moment, though -- after hitting a top-rope superplex, Sheamus kicked out of the pin and turned things into his favor, going from hitting White Noise to a huge rolling senton. Cesaro’s resilience kept him in it, and the two kept trading pins off clubbing blows until finally Sheamus put his thumb in Cesaro’s eye and landed a Brogue Kick to put Cesaro down for good.

What we learned: The only match in the kickoff show with actual stakes, Sheamus winning the first match of their best-of-seven series will give him a leg up as that progresses -- but Cesaro is going to be mad about how he won it. Raw general manager Mick Foley hasn’t yet said what the prize at the end of winning the series between these two will be, but maybe they’ll get a crack at the WWE Universal Championship out of it.