WWE SummerSlam 2014 Report: Brock Lesnar defeats John Cena, saves us all
By Ryan Ritter
Paige has an interesting definition of how to treat your “best friend” and I love it. Photo credit: WWE.com
Paige and A.J. Lee make the most out of the time they had.
My only complaint about this match was that I felt it deserved much more time than it was given. Still, Paige and A.J. Lee put on a very entertaining match.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a divas match so physical. A.J. started the affair by ripping out some of Paige’s hair. Soon after, Paige threw A.J., seated on her shoulders, into the barricade head-first. A.J. launched herself from the top rope to the floor onto Paige, who sold it like she was broken in half.
The grand finale saw Paige reverse the Black Window submission into a vicious RamPaige DDT that earned her the victory.
The only thing better than the match was Paige continuing to build her heel character after the match. Grabbing an unconscious A.J., embracing her, and kissing her while proclaiming they are still “best friends” has pushed into her character into a truly frightening realm of violent instability.
I love heel Paige so much.
This was the most the flags were used in a “flag match”. Photo credit: WWE.com
Now for a Flag Match in which the flags don’t matter.
Based on the description of the match, I thought Rusev or Jack Swagger would have to beat each other senseless so one of them could hoist their country’s flag to score a victory. Instead, we got a normal match that had a flag ceremony after.
I really wish the WWE would stop placing stipulations like this into matches. It makes the affair confusing when it doesn’t need to be and that completely detracts from an otherwise great match.
Rusev in particular was solid gold, selling a pre-match Patriot Lock throughout the entire match. Every move that appeared to put any pressure on his bad wheel, including his Accolade finisher, brought a reaction out of him. It was great, I love seeing wrestlers sell limb injuries like that as it adds a layer of legitimacy the moves being used in a match. Too often, especially when ending a match, the performers ignore the injured limb they are selling in order to hit their spot.
Because of this clinic in selling, when Rusev won the match with the Accolade, he looked like a complete beast fighting through the injury. After all, the modified Accolade on one leg that he initially tried to put on Swagger failed, so he had to throw caution to the wind in order to score the victory.
One additional gripe: when a TKO is called isn’t the ref supposed to raise and check the arm three times to make sure the competitor is still conscious? It was just odd to see the match end suddenly like that.
I’m excited to see where Rusev goes from here. Swagger is a big hoss and he dispatched him with a bad wheel. Maybe a feud with Mark Henry? Possibly giving Big Show something to do? Either way, the arrow is pointing nowhere but up here.