Grading the previous three 3 SummerSlams in Brooklyn
SummerSlam will emanate from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on August 19 for the fourth time in a row. SummerSlam took over Brooklyn in 2015, after emanating from the Staples Center in Los Angeles for five years in a row, and Brooklyn has been home to SummerSlam ever since. However, it is speculated that WWE will change their venue after this year's event.
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The past three SummerSlam events have received a mixed response from both fans and critics alike for controversial booking decisions. These three shows have a lot in common. All of them were headlined by Brock Lesnar and all of them ran for four hours.
In 2015, Jon Stewart was the host of SummerSlam. The show was headlined by a grudge match between The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar. Other notable events were Seth Rollins' win over Cena to become the first ever United States and WWE World Heavyweight champion, New Day kick-starting the longest tag-team reign in WWE history, Stephen Amell's WWE in-ring debut and Roman Reigns' and Dean Ambrose's victory over The Wyatt Family.
In 2016, the event was headlined by a massive dream match between Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar. The controversial TKO finish of the dream match provoked a critical response from the fans. Finn Balor became the first-ever Universal Champion by defeating Seth Rollins. AJ Styles defeated John Cena clean in an instant classic and Dean Ambrose successfully retained his title over Dolph Ziggler.
Last year's SummerSlam saw one of the best matches in the event's history and a sure-fire match of the year candidate in the fatal four-way Universal title match between Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman. Jinder Mahal retained the WWE title against Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles retained his US title against Kevin Owens with Shane Mcmahon as the guest referee and the recently-reunited team of Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose won the Raw tag team championships.
Now, let's rank the previous three SummerSlam events.
#3 SummerSlam 2015
SummerSlam 2015 was an entertaining show, but it could have been better had WWE made the correct booking decisions.
The Undertaker defeated Brock Lesnar in the main-event after hitting him with a low-blow behind the referee's back and by locking in the Hell's gate. The finish ruined what was a decent match between the two titans. Seriously, Why did Taker have to hit a low-blow to gain an advantage? Just to protect Lesnar? I mean there's no shame in losing to a legend like The Undertaker and the loss wouldn't have hurt Lesnar.
Taker winning clean would have been the preferable option. Elsewhere, Jon Stewart's involvement in the match between John Cena and Seth Rollins ruined the match of the night. These great matches deserved a clean finish.
The rest of the card was decent too with a few underwhelming matches in between. The Intercontinental title match was boring and mediocre-at-best, Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose's tag match with the Wyatt Family was a little disappointing.
Team PCB's win in a great match was a feel-good moment, New Day winning back the title was a good decision, Stephen Amell's debut was well-received and Randy Orton vs Sheamus was a fun encounter.
Overall, SummerSlam was good,but not great.
Grade: B-