SummerSlam and NXT Takeover 30 Takeaways

Initially I was going to record this in podcast form but since my kids won’t let me have even 30 minutes to record, this will have to do. I’ll keep it simple here and rather go match by match, I’ll simply lay out my biggest takesaways from each show this weekend.

NXT TAKEOVER 30

•Keith Lee losing to Karrion Cross isn’t necessarily shocking. Keith Lee being called up up Raw shouldn’t be either. I’m happy for the guy but sad for the NXT brand in the short term. History says they’ve always shown the ability to recover from major call-ups to the big shows (Raw/Smackdown) but I’d be lying if I told you that right now in this moment the NXT roster feels kind of plain right now. In 2020 alone NXT has lost Shayna Baszler, Matt Riddle, Bianca Belair and now Keith Lee.

•Never was a big Damian Priest fan but I’m happy for him he won North American title in that entertaining five way ladder match. I thought Bronson Reed came out looking like a million bucks in the aftermath as well. Also what is NXT doing with Velveteen Dream? That’s the big elephant in the room.

•Confession: I hate Cameron Grimes less than I did before Takeover. For a while he had “go away heat” because he was so damn annoying. I think he’s salvageable now.

•Holy crap Pat McAfee pulled off an amazing performance in his loss to Adam Cole. Also supposedly both McAfee and Adam Cole had little to no time to rehearse this match so if that’s actually true it’s even more amazing what they pulled off together. My question now is do we see Pat McAfee in the ring again or was this just a one off?

SUMMERSLAM

•No surprise Asuka was able to grab one title from the Golden Role Modela. I just thought it would’ve been Bayley who would’ve suffered and not Sasha.

•Mandy Rose/Sonya Deville was underwhelming but given the events of the last week in which Sonya Deville survived an kidnapping attempt in real life they both get a pass from me. Also the hair vs. hair stipulation was changed on Smackdown to loser leaves the WWE. Given that Mandy was the victor, are we sure the stipulation change was in reaction to the real life events of last week?

•Solid debut by Dominick Mysterio in his loss to Seth Rollins. They told a great story in ring. Also are we sure Seth Rollins isn’t Mr. Summerslam now? He’s had really impactful wins Seth has had in the last 10 years in the biggest show of the summer. Something to think about.

•Match of the night for me was Orton/McIntyre. Loved the slow pace of it. Very old school. Loved that Drew actually got his “championship moment” that he wasn’t able to get with crowds at Wrestlemania back in April.

•Admittedly I never cared for the Bray Wyatt/Braun Strowman feud. That said boy am I glad the Universal Title is off of Braun. It’s not a knock. He just never pushed the needle as champion. Plus we know why he even got booked with the belt on his waist at Wrestlemania.

•We never saw it coming but Roman Reigns jumping The Fiend from behind did not actually stun me. But it was executed to perfection. Also, are we sure Roman Reigns isn’t a heel now? Cause he kind of looked like one at the close of the show.