Cakes Takes on WWE SummerSlam 2020 (PPV Review)

The first match on the card surprised me, as it was one of the women's matches and for the championship too! Asuka took on her first task of the night in facing the Smackdown Women's Champion, Bayley, for her championship! Bayley vs Asuka is always a good match that I usually look forward to. When I saw the ThunderDome, people had already been saying online about how it looked and how they did not like it, however, I did not think that it was distracting as it looked on pictures of it. The audience playback that they have during the show this time was better as well. It wasn't too loud or noticeable. Other sports have gotten a good balance of the sound effects and I'm glad that WWE might have as well finally. The entire first match was a good one, nothing special really until the ending of it. I think that Bayley's win over Asuka could be played up to plant seeds for a feud between Sasha and Bayley because of the way the night ended up. Bayley's tag team partner, Sasha, helped her with a win over the challenger. Asuka still had one more match for a championship for the night.

After the match, we got a heartfelt moment between Dominic and Rey Mysterio before Dominic's match tonight. He told his father that he did not want him getting involved in the match and it felt like a good moment. Rey has always been some of WWE's heart no matter what feud he's in or what he's involved in. The second match on the card was a tag team match between Angel Garza and Andrade (with Zelina Vega) vs the Street Profits for the RAW Tag Team Championships! Even though I haven't kept up with the weekly tv shows, I thought this was a good enough storyline for these two teams and to involve their ladies (Zelina Vega and Bianca Bel-Air) in again, with Zelina having poisoned Montez Ford at some point. Kevin Owens on commentary for the match is a good thing! He is literally a gem at all times and should consider a career with commentary or backstage whenever he can no longer wrestle anymore. As the match progressed, I noticed that Montez Ford took up so much of the shine in the match that Dawkins doesn't have much to do when he gets into the ring (in comparison) or on the mic, and the announce team even make comments on it. He hadn't tagged in his partner for majority of the match, and not for any particular reason. By the end of the Street Profits cleanly retaining their tag team championships, I was a little disappointed Bianca and Zelina weren't factors in the ending of the match at all. It was a great win with a good finish and a good match though.

Another women's match was next and I'm almost surprised that this match wasn't the first on the card for the card. Sonya Deville vs Mandy Rose in a DQ Match and the Loser leaves WWE. Now, I never understood, in a storyline, why somebody would ever put their career on the line, but for Sonya and what she recently just went through in her actual personal life, it makes complete and utter sense (although I feel like they should have just done their best to write her off screen for a while until she's ready to come back). This match had a GREAT setup behind it and a long form feud, which is something that I love when it's done right. And this one did not seem bad. Sonya's promos, that I've seen her cut since the pair broke their tag team up to feud, have made me believe what she was saying. Even though I don't believe Mandy's promos, about there still being good in everyone, I did believe her a little more when she got in the ring with Sonya, which is what really matters here. I feel like she's trying to be taken more serious as a wrestler and is trying to work out of just being another pretty face. The match, however, was a little botchy, slow and awkward at times, because both girls are still rather new, but it ended good and they both did their best. I think this was an good way to give Sonya some well deserved rest after her ordeal she just went through.

The next match was what was previewed earlier in the night in Dominic Mysterio vs Seth Rollins in a Street Fight! I did not see any of the RAW's leading up to this feud, or the RAW where Seth welted Dominic's torso up terribly with a kendo stick, but I saw the pictures afterwards. I couldn't wait for this match just off that alone! I just hoped that Dominic is really ready to be in the ring, but he should be after the beating he got. In this match, I liked the addition of seeing the audience on their computer screens for some reason. Seeing the fans react to Seth as he came to the ring, really built the atmosphere for this match almost as good as the promo package before the match did. I couldn't help but fear for Dominic like he was my family, because we, as fans, have watched him grow up over the years with Rey. The match already had a lot of emotion behind it, because of what Seth did to Dominic beforehand, but WWE decided to try to ramp up the tension multiple times within this match and it was a bit forceful and shoved down our throat really. Some moments seemed like a corny, scary movie. Through all of my fears and doubts, Dominic Mysterio did look decent in the ring, still green, but decent enough to make it work for now. I thought it was pretty obvious that Seth was going to match from the storyline's perspective and how they were playing the emotions up in the match, so that made it predictable.

Asuka had her second match next for another championship! This time she faced a confident Sasha Banks for the RAW Women's Championship. Sasha came out in some really good looking ring gear and I figured she would lose the match. This was a good technical match though! I was looking forward to that aspect of it. These two are good in the ring and make for good competition with one another. I think it's laughable at this point that Sasha cannot hold any main championships for longer than a month and always loses them on her first defense of them. I don't love Sasha (or the person people have made her to be outside of the ring and WWE) but I even think she deserves better than this, because she is a talent in the ring. I am happy though that she lost underneath how I feel about how they treat her. I like that Asuka won the championship back, that she never should've had taken away from her in the first place, but she also never should've been just handed it by Becky Lynch, after leaving for her pregnancy, but this just officially solidified her new RAW Championship reign now! Now that Sasha has lost her championship, because Bayley did not take the same move that Sasha took to help Bayley win her match just earlier that night, I think that's a cool way to possibly plant the seeds of a feud for the two of them off that basis alone! They are one of the best feuds that NXT ever got to see in its time, so WWE should just slowly build to that feud and make it a slow crawl.

In one of the main events of the night, Randy Orton got to challenge Drew McIntyre for his WWE Championship. I found it funny that in the beginning promo package of their very short feud with one another, that Shawn Michaels says that he's never been one to wish bad luck on anyone but did for Randy in this match. Having Randy as the Legend Killer heel character always ups the ante on the emotions of his matches no matter who he's facing in the ring. However, this was a long match and it felt that way too. To win a match with a backslide is already a cheap finish to a match, but to win or retain a championship match in that way, is outrageous. Drew McIntyre retained his WWE championship with a backslide abruptly. It made me a little mad, but I wasn't sold on this match anyway.

During the break between matches we saw a preview for Keith Lee to debut on RAW on the Monday after the PPV. All I could think is "Please don't ruin him, WWE! Please!!!" The final match of the PPV was Braun Strowman facing off against the Fiend for the WWE Universal Championship! I understand this feud but I think I liked it better a little more when it wasn't trying to get as deep. Having Alexa Bliss involved seemed pointless to me in this feud overall and didn't seem to add much to it, especially since she's not something that can be dangled over Braun's head anymore anyway. The match itself didn't interest me for some reason though and it may have something to do with their cinematic match from the last PPV. Plans usually backfire in the ring when you cannot just get the pin. The Fiend did get his win and is now the NEW WWE Universal Champion again, but the match didn't really liven up to me until Roman Reigns (and his new teeth) came back! He went beast mode on both Braun Strowman and the new champ, The Fiend, and it was pretty cool! It was a great way to end the show, especially after a lackluster main event for the title, and it helped to make Roman come back and look strong (as per usual) and look like the star that WWE is trying to force us to think he is. Overall, the PPV as a whole wasn't bad at all. I liked more than I didn't like on it and it did make me excited to see their next PPV which is coming up very quickly, in a week after this one was released.