WWE SummerSlam 2018 Final Rating: Roman Reigns Supreme

The 31st annual biggest party of the summer is officially in the books as WWE SummerSlam 2018 blazed a trail throughout the WWE universe with one of the biggest nights of the year.

WWE SummerSlam 2018 was an action-packed show that featured many standout moments and title changes, but no title change was as big as what went down with the Universal Championship on the line in the main event.

The main card kicked off with the Intercontinental Championship match between Dolph Ziggler and Seth Rollins and, simply put, this was the match of the night.  It was tremendous from start to finish and the outside dynamic between Drew McIntyre and Dean Ambrose was key.  Ambrose fended off McIntyre just in time for Rollins to hit Ziggler with a stomp to win the title in a match of the year candidate.

The SmackDown Tag Team Championship was at stake next when The Bludgeon Brothers defended against The New Day in a match that exceeded expectations.  For about a 10-minute match, this one packed a punch before Harper and Rowan got themselves disqualified.  This was the best match the Bludgeons have had since winning the gold and The New Day will certainly get another shot given how the finish was booked.

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Braun Strowman’s Money in the Bank briefcase was on the line against Kevin Owens in a match that wound up being a squash in favor of The Monster Among Men.  It doesn’t look good for KO at first glance, but the feud was so nonsensical by this point that a squash match seemed like the only way it could have ended.  It didn’t need to be on the card in the first place.

A Triple Threat Match for the SmackDown Women’s Championship was on deck when Carmella defended against Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair.  This would turn out to be a very stellar match and probably Carmella’s best showing as champion, but the relationship between Lynch and Charlotte took center stage.  Just when it looked like Lynch was going to make Carmella tap out, Charlotte hit her with a natural selection to get the win.

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Lynch hugged Charlotte after the match, but would soon snap and attack her.  The attack carried over to the outside and seeing Lynch turn heel was a sight to behold.  What these two can do in the future now that The Irish Lass Kicker has apparently turned on The Queen should be very intriguing, to say the least.

AJ Styles defended his WWE Championship against long-time friend turned bitter enemy Samoa Joe next and what a match it would be.  It was a truly great match and showing for both men, but the storytelling aspect really impressed here.  Joe continued to get under the skin of Styles via his family sitting ringside, but it wound up costing him when Styles snapped and attacked Joe with a chair, causing the disqualification.

It was a necessary step to keep this feud going and they will all but certainly have a rematch at Hell In A Cell next month.  And given how good the feud has gotten and how good the match at SummerSlam was, expect more greatness from these two in the coming weeks and maybe even months.

A match eight years in the making was up next when Daniel Bryan faced The Miz in one of the most anticipated matches on the card.  And the match would live up to the hype with a very good encounter between two of the best in the WWE.  The storytelling was tremendous in this match as well, but The Miz’s wife Maryse would pay huge dividends for The A-Lister.

Maryse handed Miz a pair of brass knuckles from her front row seat in the crowd and The Miz took full advantage, catching Bryan by surprise and winning the match because of it.  It was a marquee win for The Miz, but most importantly, it keeps this outstanding feud alive and well in the near future and maybe even beyond.

The rematch between Finn Balor and Baron Corbin followed and even though next to nobody cared about the match, an unexpected twist in the surprising return of The Demon gimmick helped shake things up.  Balor squashed Corbin unexpectedly and got the win as The Demon for the first time in nearly a year in what turned out to be a nice surprise.

Shinsuke Nakamura defended his United States Championship against Jeff Hardy next and the match basically went as expected.  This match felt pretty irrelevant on the card and despite it being an OK match, it wasn’t anything special.  Nakamura retained his title in the end after Hardy’s high-risk attempt went against him.  And then Randy Orton walked out and did nothing.

The Raw Women’s Championship was at stake when Alexa Bliss defended against Ronda Rousey in what would turn out to be another squash match.  But much like the other two squash matches on the night, it made sense in the long run with Rousey leaving no doubt and becoming the Raw Women’s Champion.  This was a huge moment for Rousey and the entire company.

The main event of the night featured Brock Lesnar defending his Universal Championship against Roman Reigns and despite the threat of Strowman cashing in his Money in the Bank, The Big Dog still made the most out of the opportunity he had.  In a pretty strange match all things considered, Reigns finally dethroned The Beast Incarnate and is the new Universal Champion.

It will be interesting to see where Reigns goes from here as Universal Champion given that Lesnar hypothetically would want a rematch and that Strowman is still lurking in the background with a guaranteed championship opportunity.  But in terms of just the match with Lesnar alone, it did what it needed to do in the end despite the match quality not being very good.

Overall, SummerSlam was a great show that saw a little bit of everything.  It saw a heel turn, several title changes, Lesnar losing, The Demon returning, and some simply great matches and feuds taking further shape.  For the first time in a while, a WWE show was booked as close to perfect as it could have been when everything is taken into consideration.

Could it have been booked better?  Of course it could have.  But given how it’s 2018 in the WWE, beggars can’t be choosers and this was a stellar booked show.  The next two nights for Raw and SmackDown respectively should be some of the most must-see shows of the year with the fallout of SummerSlam taking shape.

This was probably the best pay-per-view of the year so far, but given how three matches were squash matches, albeit smartly-booked squash matches, it takes a bit of a hit in terms of match quality in an otherwise outstanding show.

WWE SummerSlam 2018 Final Rating: 9.25 out of 10