WWE Summerslam PPV Evaluation
By Nathan Kyght, PWTorch PPV specialist

BEST MATCH - C.M. PUNK VS. BROCK LESNAR

This was a great, hard hitting "fight" that would not have been out of place at the top of the card. I still prefer Lesnar's match with John Cena at last year's Extreme Rules, but I thought this overshadowed both of the Triple H matches since Brock has come back into the WWE fold. I like that Lesnar won, as it's best he is kept strong for a WrestleMania headlining match, and I don't think Punk lost anything in defeat. This just edged out the WWE Title match for me.

WORST MATCH - RING OF FIRE

Disastrous. Neither man seemed sure of what to do, and the whole purpose of using the gimmick to negate outside interference was foiled by an, ahem, blanket. To be fair, though, if you set the perimeter of my office on fire, my work would likely suffer as well.

BIGGEST SURPRISE - MITB CASH-IN

This was a surprise not because it wasn't expected, but because it was seemingly so telegraphed on television leading into the show, I thought for certain that they would not go with the cash-in. Not so. Just as he had essentially guaranteed, Randy Orton cashed in and walked out the new WWE champion. Funny side note: the next night on Raw, Orton said, "I told you you wouldn't see it coming." Huh?

BIGGEST LETDOWN - NONE

While the undercard may not have been quite as good as Payback, the two main events of this show over-delivered and made for a better pay-per-view, in my opinion.

BEST QUOTE - C.M. PUNK

Not sure if Punk forgot he was in the TV-PG era, or he simply realized that he's basically untouchable right now, but on two separate occasions his audio had to be edited out during the match. Still, it was unusual for WWE and added to the feel of a wild fight.

BEST MOVE - DANIEL BRYAN

The addition of the running knee into Bryan's arsenal that resulted in the (temporary) clean win was a nice way to incorporate a new finishing move that Bryan can use in matches moving forward.

BEST MATCH FINISH - BROCK LESNAR VS. C.M. PUNK

Punk looked great here, but Lesnar winning was the right move. The F5 on to the chair and Paul Heyman's interference also gave Punk his "out."

OTHER THOUGHTS:

- I can't tell why Dolph Ziggler is supposed to be a babyface.

- John Cena and Daniel Bryan had an amazing main event match. Fans who still chant "You can't wrestle" at Cena aren't paying attention at all.

- Nattie and Brie Bella had an okay mid-card match, but I suppose that it only took place so that they could plug Total Divas. Any guys out there watching it? I pretend that my wife is the one that makes me sit through it, so you can use that too if it helps.

Total Divas side note: On one episode, Nikki Bella - of the Bella Twins - got annoyed about Eva Marie coming in because she doesn't want "another girl in the company that looks like me." Think about that for a sec.

- Alberto Del Rio had a really solid match with Christian. Sadly, the World Heavyweight Title is basically being positioned on the same level as the U.S. Title at this point.

- Cody Rhodes defeated Damien Sandow. I had high hopes. It was six minutes of just okay.

WHAT IT'LL BE REMEMBERED FOR

The majority of fans that were watching this show went in for two matches, and both of those matches were legit match of the year candidates. When was the last time you saw that on a WWE pay per view? This was the best pay-per-view of 2013 so far.

UPDATED 2013 PPV EVALUATION RANKINGS

1 - WWE SUMMERSLAM (2013-08-18)
2 - WWE PAYBACK (2013-06-16)
3 - WWE WRESTLEMANIA XXIX (2013-04-07)
4 – TNA SLAMMIVERSARY (2013-06-02)
5 - WWE MONEY IN THE BANK (2013-07-14)
6 - WWE ROYAL RUMBLE (2013-01-27)
7 - TNA LOCKDOWN (2013-03-10)
8 - WWE EXTREME RULES (2013-05-19)
9 - WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER (2013-02-17)
10 – TNA GENESIS (2013-01-13)

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