WWE SummerSlam 2017 Review: Fatal 4-Way and Top Highlights and Low Points of PPV

SummerSlam is widely considered WWE's most important event of the year underneath WrestleMania, as it is one of the four cross-branded pay-per-views that will have a monumental impact on things to come.

With WWE SummerSlam 2017, the biggest party of the summer boasted a stacked card where nearly every match had something special attached to it.

All but one of the main roster titles were scheduled to be defended, Shane McMahon would serve as a special guest referee, Enzo Amore would be hanging in a shark cage, and so much more.

This seemed like a recipe for success, but now that the show has concluded, how did things really pan out?

Every show has its ups and downs, and despite the massive potential, there were sure to be some pitfalls along the way. But were there more positives or negatives throughout the night?

What moments stood out from the pack, for better or worse?

It's time to look back on what happened at WWE SummerSlam 2017 and single out the biggest highlights and low points of Sunday evening, presented in order of appearance.

Kickoff Pre-Show Breakdown

Credit: WWE.com

The pre-show for this year's SummerSlam had a variety of ups and downs over the two hours and even during the matches themselves.

Here is a breakdown of the positives and negatives of the three segments that started the night.

Highlights

• Elias having a musical performance to upset the Brooklyn crowd was a great addition.
• Peter Rosenberg's jacket was great, no matter what Jerry Lawler thinks.
• Easily the best part of the pre-show was the SmackDown Tag Team Championship match, which prompted a well-deserved "this is awesome" chant from the crowd.
• If you're going to have a KFC plug, at least having Shawn Michaels do it makes it good. HBKFC, anybody?

Low Points

• Why does WWE continually not let the crowd in early enough to at least mostly fill up the arena for the pre-show? Empty seats killed the first match.
• Then again, the first match meant nothing to begin with, so it wasn't the end of the world despite how it was a blunder.
• What was the point of giving the title to Akira Tozawa just to have him lose it less than a week later on the pre-show?

The kickoff is always an opportunity to cram a few more matches on to the card and to keep things interesting, but it's never a priority for WWE.

If you spent the time preparing your food and having this on in the background, there's not too much room to complain even if there's still untapped potential that could have made this much better.

Low Point: Baron Corbin Continues to Lose

Credit: WWE.com

There seems to be a curse with Money in the Bank holders; as soon as they take that briefcase into their possession, they tend to go on a losing streak.

Corbin suffered that with his feud against Shinsuke Nakamura, which abruptly ended in favor of a hastily thrown together feud against John Cena.

As a mercy attempt to give the program some kind of heat, Cena was booked to screw Corbin out of his cash-in opportunity as that was apparently a higher priority than the integrity of the contract.

If this was going to lead to Corbin getting a win over Cena as retribution, it might have helped offset all of his losses, but having The Lone Wolf lose again does him no favors whatsoever.

Low Point: Big Show vs. Big Cass with Enzo Amore in a Shark Cage

Credit: WWE.com

It's sad that the best part of a segment is when someone undervalues the gimmick and then immediately gets kicked in the face, rendering the whole stipulation moot.

Other than Enzo Amore getting blasted with a big boot, the rest of the match was lumbering and slow with little energy.

While it's good that Big Cass came out victorious, the injury to Big Show's hand takes some of the luster away from it.

For the second-biggest event of the year, this was simply underwhelming.

Low Point: Randy Orton Squashes Rusev

Credit: WWE.com

Following one bathroom break match with something to be even less proud of is astonishing.

The feud between Rusev and Randy Orton was the worst as far as build was concerned, since WWE put zero effort into it.

It seems as though that lack of effort carried over into the match itself, which lasted less than a minute as Orton squashed Rusev with an immediate win.

Orton wasn't in desperate need of such a one-sided victory whereas Rusev is struggling, so what was the point?

Given the result of this match and the Corbin vs. Cena one, it's becoming curious if the SmackDown writing team has it out for some of the younger talent on the brand instead of wanting to show them some support.

Highlight: Raw Women's Championship Match

Credit: WWE.com

The SmackDown Women's Championship match was fairly decent, but the title change came out of nowhere with relatively no enthusiasm behind it.

With regards to the Raw Women's Championship match, however, Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss had much more heat to their feud.

This was also the better match of the two and opens up many more options for the women's division on the Raw roster, particularly as Banks usurped Bayley's title shot.

Bliss was also the clear favorite of the four female wrestlers of the night as far as the crowd's interest was concerned, giving this match much more energy throughout.

It will be interesting to see if Bliss can recapture the title in a rematch or if there is a different plan that will come to fruition in the coming weeks.

Highlight: Raw Tag Team Championship Match

Credit: WWE.com

In a pay-per-view filled with disappointments and confusing booking decisions, one of the major highlights of the night was something unplanned on WWE's part.

During the Raw Tag Team Championship match, fans in the crowd started to toss around a beach ball which took some attention away from the in-ring action.

Cesaro, in a brilliant move, got some of the biggest heat of the night by ripping the ball apart and killing the fun.

This was also one of the few title changes that actually made sense and had a storyline to go with it, as well as some hype going forward.

With Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins reunited, memories of The Shield will help revitalize the tag team division on Raw for a long stretch.

Highlight: United States Championship Match

Credit: WWE.com

One of the most well-performed matches throughout the entire event was the United States Championship defense which saw AJ Styles retain his title against Kevin Owens.

The addition of Shane McMahon as the special guest referee could have been more of a problematic element getting in the way of the quality, but it was actually a welcome plus.

The story being told was of both men potentially screwing themselves over by interacting with McMahon, so it was nice to see that it wasn't a one-sided favoritism for either man.

After so many title changes, it was also nice to see someone hold on to his belt—particularly someone as talented as Styles who only won the title recently.

Owens will have an interesting story going forward as he complains to McMahon about how he cost him his title, and Styles will be able to move on to someone new.

All in all, this was a solid match with a good story, so there isn't much more to ask for.

Highlight: Universal Championship Match

Credit: WWE.com

On a personal level, the idea of Brock Lesnar retaining the Universal Championship was the main thing I was hoping to avoid happening at this event, as I have zero interest in watching his title reign continue until WrestleMania.

However, it's impossible to deny the quality of this match and how there will be fans of the outcome who disagree with me.

This was such a lackluster event in so many ways, but at least the main event delivered.

All four juggernauts had their moments to make the crowd chant "this is awesome" in support of the match itself, even though there were clear favorites.

The standout star was Braun Strowman, who looked like a true unstoppable monster and may have even cemented a future title reign for himself after this performance.

This doesn't make up for what came before it—or what possible missteps WWE will take in the future—but in the scope of this particular event, this match was one of the best parts of the show.

What do you think were the biggest positives and negatives of the show and how would you rank the missing elements not on this list?

Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.

Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.