WWE SummerSlam 2017: Best and Worst Moments

Worst: Change All The Titles Except The Ones That Need Changing

While the United States Championship being successfully defended wasn’t a big deal, both the WWE Championship and the Universal Championship could have stood to change hands. I’m on record as being a Jinder Mahal as World Champion fan, and who doesn’t love Brock Lesnar? But a storytelling standpoint is different from a fan’s standpoint. And as a storyteller, I would have taken the opportunity to do a soft reset on both championships.

First, Jinder retaining wastes a glorious entrance by Shinsuke Nakamura. And the way it went down makes it abundantly clear that this feud is continuing. So all we’re really doing is dragging out the inevitable – Mahal dropping the belt to Jinder (but not until after the Indian tour is over). The interference from the Singh Brothers was par for the course for Mahal’s reign, which isn’t really a terrible thing, but once in a while he needs to win a match on his own.

Then came the fatal four way for the Universal Championship. It was, both surprisingly and unsurprisingly, a match of the year contender. Words can’t do this match justice. But when the smoke cleared and the pieces of furniture had all been cleaned up, Brock Lesnar retained. WWE had kind of painted themselves into a corner with Lesnar making the declaration that he’d leave the company if he lost tonight. So Lesnar winning wasn’t really a surprise.

But man, was it disappointing.

Listening to the crowd (and me at home, if you could hear me screaming the whole time), Braun Strowman is more over than anyone in WWE history it seems. Everyone wanted him to win the title, but it just wasn’t in the cards. Instead, we get an absent Universal Champion until we get closer to Survivor Series. I can’t hate on the match itself, but the end result was just so disappointing (but totally acceptable, if that makes any sense).

Next: WWE SummerSlam 2017 Review

What were the best and worst moments of SummerSlam for you?