SummerSlam 2021: Listing 3 things WWE got wrong

One of these days, WWE will produce a major pay-per-view that doesn’t feature a baffling decision like some of the ones fans witnessed at SummerSlam this past Sunday. Unfortunately, that day hasn’t come.

To be fair, the show featured a lot of fun moments that would’ve fit well on a better, less saturated show. However, WWE just couldn’t help but go full WWE and inject some stuff that makes you want to give up on this product altogether.

So, where did WWE fail from a creative standpoint? Well, that’s what we’re here to discuss today by picking these three moments that discussing why they sucked.

These are the three things WWE got wrong at SummerSlam 2021

Everything involving the SmackDown Women’s Championship

Twenty-seven seconds and one Book End. That’s all the time WWE needed to undo all of the work they put into building Bianca Belair into one of the brightest stars in the company. There are Tik Tok videos that last longer than this “match” did.

But let’s not pretend that was the only thing WWE messed up because this portion of the PPV included a number of strategies that are, at best, carny nonsense. In a few short minutes, the promotion:

• Never announced that Sasha Banks wasn’t medically cleared to wrestle and continued to pretend that Banks/Belair was happening until Greg Hamilton announced it wasn’t.
• Sent Carmella out there to be the underwhelming replacement that no one wanted to see, though Becky Lynch’s return remedied that.
• Booked an impromptu match between Lynch and Belair. Seconds after the bell sounded, Belair ate a Manhandle Slam from Lynch and lost the SmackDown Women’s Title.

Using Lynch — who fans were delighted to see return — in this spot made the third part of this all the more insidious, as WWE knew “The Man’s” popularity would mitigate at least some of the backlash for treating Belair like an afterthought while the established star got to bask in the adulation from those who weren’t turned off by what they just saw.

Look, fans understand when unforeseen circumstances force a promotion to change things up. And listen, most would’ve accepted a title change following a good 15-18 minute match between the two.

What isn’t understandable — unacceptable, in fact — is advertising a match knowing you weren’t going to deliver and then screwing up your make-good by extinguishing one of the few babyface stars you have for no reason. Plus, given how they kicked aside Kofi Kingston in a similar way back in 2019, the optics of doing this again with a Black world champion aren’t good, either.

Oh, and you know the Belair heel turn is on its way now. You know, because that’s what everyone wanted coming out of this: the ascending babyface star becoming another heel for Lynch to beat. This company, man.

Charlotte Flair wins the Raw Women’s Championship again

Speaking of frustrating title changes, WWE really made the last few weeks of Raw feel inconsequential when they booked Charlotte Flair to dispatch Nikki A.S.H. in a triple threat match to regain the Raw Women’s Championship. WWE’s Curtis Martin is now up to 12 recognized reigns as women’s champion.

The match itself was good — no surprise given that Flair, Nikki, and Rhea Ripley were the participants — but going back to Flair reinforces that WWE gave Nikki the “way to show initiative” reign to avoid booking another Flair/Ripley singles match for this show.

That certainly came through in the weeks preceding this match, as WWE booked Nikki as a dork who could only muster the flukiest of wins when she wasn’t busy counting the lights following a clean loss. They did nothing to legitimize her as a wrestler, and now we’re back to the same old stuff: with Flair as the champ and another set of matches with either Ripley or Asuka on the horizon.

Instead of those stale options, WWE could’ve tried something new with Nikki, but it looks like we’re back to rematch city with the Raw women’s division.

The drip stick stuff

Okay, seeing Xavier Woods cosplay as nWo Wolfpac-era Scott Hall was cool, but this segment with The Miz and John Morrison would’ve been wasteful on an episode of Raw, let alone a show where fans are paying a premium price to watch it.

Look, it was a cool-down segment, but on a show where the SmackDown Women’s Championship match lasted 27 SECONDS, perhaps having Woods douse two cartoon villains with water wasn’t the best use of PPV time.

It’ll probably lead to a billion matches between Miz & Morrison and New Day on Raw, so we have that to look forward to, I suppose.