WWE SummerSlam took over the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, this weekend — and, as expected, the result was epic.
With an A-list lineup of stars such Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, Samoa Joe, A.J. Styles and Kevin Owens, the Big Apple certainly delivered the goods.
The packed card in front of a sold-out crowd provided endless entertainment, from a historic tag team tournament to a brave WWE superstar daring to take on the mountain man Brock Lesnar (with a little help from the set).
While millions of viewers forked out for the pay-per-view, TheWrap had a seat inside Barclays Center in Brooklyn. For those of you who didn’t buy the biggest entertainment event of the summer, here’s what you missed.
Women Rule
Proving that the women’s revolution is going strong, the thousands of male fans in the stadium cheered for the female matches as loudly as the men’s, especially when it came to Natalya going head-to-head with neon-clad rival Naomi. “Tap, tap, tap” came the chant, as Nattie blew away her opponent to become the SmackDown Women’s Champion.
Shark Tank
“How ya doin’?” became the chant of the night when the shark cage was set up in the ring and Enzo Amore bragged, “Right now, I’m the Al Capone of this microphone.” Those were big words when it came to floating over Big Cass and Big Show — or “Big Slow” as the crowd dubbed him — in a giant cage. Clearly size doesn’t matter, as the chant soon turned to “oh, this match is boring!”
Commercial Non-Breaks
Usually commercials are an unwanted and unnecessary inconvenience, but when it comes to John Cena strutting his stuff and pitching the Tap Out brand while walking on burning coals, it’s must-see-TV.
Channeling “Game of Thrones”
Randy Orton bent the knee on Sunday just as Daenerys kept demanding her rivals to do the same on “Game of Thrones,” but he did it in victory after a swift defeat of Belgian powerlifter Rusev.
Pink or Punk?
The Sasha Banks v. Alexa Bliss match divided the audience as they split into chants of “Sasha sucks” and “Alexa sucks,” while the pink-hued Divas proved there was nothing catty about this fight. Sasha eventually made a solid Banks Statement and Alexa was forced to tap out.
Beauty vs. Brawn
It was tattoos vs. war paint when Bray Wyatt took on Finn Balor, and as the clean-cut Demon got dragged across the ring by the dreadlocked Wyatt, the crowd was clearly on Balor’s side. Even an impressive crab crawl sadly couldn’t save Bray, and he became another victim of the body-painted fan favorite.
Final Four
It was a tag team extravaganza when Seth “Freakin’” Rollins and Dean Ambrose went against Cesaro (complete with a James Bond worthy-entrance) and Sheamus. The popular quadruple sparked the first standing ovation of the night in anticipation of the power play match up. Despite looking he was in dire need of a spray tan, Sheamus got the golden-skinned Rollins on the ropes early on before bouncing out of the ring like an agile leprechaun. His swift escape didn’t sit well with everyone, however, and sparked a yell of “stop frickin’ running.” The audience on the front row literally got the action in their lap when Cesaro went off script and leapt over the barricade to take out a beach ball. Ultimately, however, it was Rollins and Ambrose that manned up and set the stadium on fire with a resounding victory.
Referee McMahon
Sometimes it’s the referee that’s the real star of the show. And such was the case when Shane McMahon wore the zebra stripes to officiate the A.J. Styles v. Kevin Owens bout. Bursting out of his pinstriped shirt, McMahon eventually handed the belt to Styles.
Roman Doesn’t Reign
While HBO fans were engaged in finding out who would rule the Iron Throne, Roman Reigns discovered that he hadn’t won over the WWE fellowship when he joined Samoa Joe, Braun Stowman, and the mighty Lesnar. Boos and chants of “F— you, Roman,” echoed around the stadium … until a security guard reminded the rowdy crowd that “there’s little kids here.” Yeah, that didn’t work very well, but at least “Roman sucks” had less F-bombs.
And yep — when Lesnar and Stowman took it outside the ring, the crowd really did go wild, demanding “one more table.”