SummerSlam 2018: 5 things we learned from Sunday’s WWE event

SummerSlam has come and gone, and we learned quite a bit from it. Some of it was good, and some of it was... not so good. We’ll mostly be talking about the good stuff here, though, because this recap format is designed to keep me from having to revisit anything I don’t feel like revisiting. Pretty smart, right?

If you want the full blow-by-blow recap, I live blogged all four hours of SummerSlam proper last night as it happened. If you want to see what the most meaningful highlights from SummerSlam are and what they mean, well, this is the space for you.

Sure, it happened closer to the middle of the show than the end of it, but Daniel Bryan vs. Miz was the main event of SummerSlam 2018 for many fans. It’s a match eight years in the making, between two polar opposites who always seem to be linked within WWE, and it delivered. Miz tried to out-Bryan Bryan, and it didn’t work: it was only when he fully embraced his Miz-ness that he got the upper hand and the victory. Miz realized he was going to lose to Bryan, the source of so much of his frustration and feelings of inadequacy over the years, so he just happened to end up outside the ring at the barricade where his wife could slip him a pair of brass knuckles.

Miz then clocked Bryan with his new metal punching hand, slipped off the brass knuckles to hide the evidence, and pinned his nemesis. You know Bryan is going to figure out just what happened, and confront Miz, and the result will be we get more Miz vs. Bryan. That, or Miz weasels his way out of continuing this feud, ends up challenging for the WWE Championship at some point, and then we get the return of Miz vs. Bryan at WrestleMania next year, with Daniel Bryan challenging for the WWE Championship for the first time in years.

Whatever, I’m allowed to have dreams.

Either way, the result is more Miz vs. Bryan. And that is a positive development. If Bryan had won here, it might have signaled the end of the feud (or even the end of Bryan in WWE — he’s currently in contract negotiations for a deal that ends next month). The fact this had Miz winning in a shady, Miz-like fashion, in a way that gives Bryan reason to push for a rematch, means Bryan is probably sticking around and we’re getting that rematch. Which, of course, will need a rubber match.

tl;dr hell yeah this feud

Charlotte Flair made her way into what should have been Becky Lynch challenging Carmella for the SmackDown Women’s Championship, and of course, she won the match. Charlotte rules, don’t get me wrong, but come ooooooon she’s always the champion on whichever show she’s on where is Becky’s championship and the conclusion of the story arc she’s been working on for the better part of two years now?

Becky is asking the same question, as she followed up a post-match hug with Charlotte in the middle of the ring with a violent attack on her friend. You might think this means a heel turn, and maybe it does. I’m interpreting it as Becky rightfully asserting herself and standing up for herself, the first step on the road to being something besides Charlotte’s Friend. Being friends with Charlotte is good and all, and I’m not suggesting you need to avoid friends to succeed in wrestling. When you’ve got friends like Charlotte Flair, though, you might as well be in a “who needs enemies?” situation, too. She’s a Flair, y’all.

Becky’s ceiling is higher if she can get Charlotte to respect her as an equal and not just her pal who trails behind her. Charlotte angling for a championship spot and interfering with Becky’s revenge story shows she doesn’t think about Lynch that way. Lynch is going to punch that point of view into Charlotte, though, and now we’re likely getting a Charlotte vs. Becky match at either Hell in a Cell or the women’s-only Evolution in October, or maybe both!

This was great. The match was great, the post-match was even better, and like with Miz and Bryan, there’s the promise of wonderful feuding to come. SummerSlam works as a kind of mini-Mania, acting to conclude storylines, but it’s also super effective when it focuses on giving us a reason to care in the otherwise quiet fall, pre-Royal Rumble period of the wrestling season.

WWE has been telling a pretty clear story with the Intercontinental Championship: Dolph Ziggler isn’t a match for Seth Rollins, but with Drew McIntyre backing him up, Seth is at a disadvantage and the IC strap will remain on Ziggler. That is, until Seth’s old tag team partner and Shield brother Dean Ambrose returned from injury, anyway. Ambrose did what Rollins could not do while fighting Ziggler, and that’s keep Drew McIntyre’s incredibly muscled self away from the match itself. With McIntyre (mostly) out of the picture, Rollins could focus on Ziggler... and Ziggler vs. Rollins one-on-one isn’t something Dolph is going to come away from the victor.

Now, we likely move into Ziggler getting a rematch, which should result in another loss. That might create some tension between Ziggler and McIntyre, and yeah, I’m ready to see McIntyre beat the hell out of the guy he’s clearly better than. I’m also ready to see what happens with Ambrose now that he’s back and his buddy is a champion: does he turn on Seth? Does he politely challenge him for the title he helped him win back, the title that Ambrose has his own deep connection and history to? Or does he go off to do something else, always willing to aid a Shield brother in need?

It’s worth pointing out that, before Ambrose was hurt, the Shield had reunited. And now that he’s back, he’s the only member of the team without a title. Is it finally time for the return of Heel Ambrose?

Ronda Rousey is such a natural, believable badass, and she’s so, so good in a wrestling ring already. However, her character work on Sunday against Alexa Bliss for the RAW Women’s Championship left a lot to be desired. Geno Mrosko at Cageside Seats already hit on quite a few of these points, so you should check that out, but the short version is basically that her attempts to yell the crowd into supporting her were just awkward, and detracted from the match.

That being said, Alexa Bliss needed a serious ass kicking to happen. She’s successful because she’s often the smartest wrestler in the ring, and it helps make up for her height — there’s a reason Bliss has as many championship runs as she does, and it’s thanks to her head. Against Ronda, though, being smart should only get you so far: she’s a force of nature. And when Ronda let herself just be that force of nature, this beatdown ruled, and sent a message to the entire rest of the locker room. When Ronda started yelling and overacting, though, it took you out of the moment.

In the long run it’s a small thing, really — I don’t want you to think I’m getting off of the Ronda train just because of some weird fan interactions. It’s something I hope Ronda and WWE learn from, though, that the whole silent killer in the ring thing works better with silence.

Braun Strowman emphatically defended his Money in the Bank briefcase against Kevin Owens, who against my better judgment challenged Braun to a match at SummerSlam. He then came out before Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns — the main event of SummerSlam for the WWE Universal Championship — began in order to let them know he’d be cashing in on whoever won immediately after. Braun’s face move of announcing his cash-in didn’t work out well, as Brock Lesnar realized he could hurt Strowman and then throw the briefcase into orbit to keep a cash-in from happening. That move also didn’t work out for Brock, though, as focusing on Braun gave Reigns the opportunity he needed to down the Beast and finally win the Universal title.

The thing is, Braun isn’t dead, he was just hurt. And now Roman is Braun’s sole target, which did not work out so well for Reigns the last time they feuded. There’s also still the matter of Lesnar, who is likely to want a rematch against Roman — does Strowman immediately go after Roman, or does he wait to let Brock get his rematch? Does he get involved in that and make it a triple threat, or does he just cash-in on Reigns immediately and then face Lesnar instead of Reigns?

I have no idea! But it’s likely one of those scenarios, and I’m excited for any of them. Why’s that? Because the top of the RAW main-event scene can finally change and tell new stories, and they’re going to involve some of the raddest people in the entire company.