WWE SummerSlam 2018: Results, Highlights, and Grades

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The Best of the Rest (of the Kickoff Show)

Lots of time to fill in a two hour Kickoff Show that probably could have been trimmed down to an hour, maybe 90 minutes at most. The three matches went a combined, what, 30-305 minutes? Fill in the rest with the same video packages we’ve seen on Raw and SmackDown Live for the past two weeks, get rid of Rosenberg and JBL, and boom, you got yourself a nice compact preshow. Did WWE hire Peter Jackson as a program editor?

But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t some highlights mixed in. Here’s the most notable things we saw in the marathon warmup:

• Paige, Kurt Angle, and Drake Maverick had a little pow wow in the backstage area, and boy Drake is wonderful. His jacket was right out of the Bobby Heenan collection, and he fits in so well as an on-screen authority figure. You can’t really have him as an active competitor outside of 205 Live, especially after Constable Corbin literally dwarfed him. But props to Paige for being super excited about SummerSlam, and making fun of the Constable title like everyone should.

• Paul Heyman once again delivered a great hype promo for his client Brock Lesnar. My only issue with it? He had to put down the lovely and talented Charly Caruso to do it.

• Samoa Joe won the entire preshow with his amazing segment with the panel. From congratulating Renee Young on “becoming a two-income household again,” to telling no lies as he hyped his upcoming title match, Joe killed it.