WWE SummerSlam 2017: Star Ratings for AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens and Each Match
WWE presented SummerSlam 2017 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Sunday night and, keeping with recent trends, it was a show uneven in match quality and rife with several questionable booking decisions.
In some instances, those booking choices hampered that aforementioned quality and robbed fans of the explosive card they deserved.
That is not to say the show did not deliver.
There was an extraordinary main event, two tag team matches that proved that particular art is not dead, two better-than-expected women's matches and a United States Championship match that was good, if not as spectacular, as it should have been.
There was also a fair share of disappointments, beginning with the night's very first match wrestled in front of a handful of fans lucky enough to find their seats in time.
How did each match rate and why did they achieve the number of stars they did?
Find out with this reflection on Sunday's broadcast.
An Explanation of the Star Ratings
1 of 14
Star ratings have always been, and will always be, a controversial element of the online wrestling community.
Analysts and critics assign them to matches, with their opinions and personal preferences weighing heavily into their judgment of any specific bout.
For decades, fans have flocked to the internet to find out their favorite writer's thoughts and input on matches, shows and, more particularly, the star rating he or she has assigned to a given contest.
Before we get to that, an explanation for the ratings you are about to encounter:
- ZERO: A bad, irredeemable match
- *: Just slightly above worthless
- *½: Merely OK
- **: Subpar
- **½: An average wrestling match
- ***: Above average
- ***½: Very good
- ****: Great
- ****½: Match of the Year candidate
- *****: Classic
The Hardy Boyz and Jason Jordan vs. The Miz and The Miztourage
2 of 14
The Hardy Boyz, Jason Jordan and The Miztourage took to the squared circle in front of a few dozen fans while thousands of others filed into the building. The lack of energy was reflected in the match that, while solid enough for the Superstars involved, was still disappointing.
An unnecessary late addition to the card, it felt like an excuse for Miz, Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel to get their win back from Raw.
Nothing was advanced, nothing accomplished, and viewers were left wondering what the point of the bout was.
Rating
Akira Tozawa vs. Neville
3 of 14
Six days after losing the Cruiserweight Championship to Akira Tozawa, Neville regained the title in a match that did not approach the quality of their previous contest.
The action itself was solid, but the match lacked a sense of urgency and, considering the quality of performers involved, was almost lethargic.
A slight disappointment, but still better than much of the action on the first half of the main card.
Rating
The New Day vs. The Usos
4 of 14
One month after tearing the house down and stealing the show at Battleground, The Usos and The New Day once again demonstrated their wicked in-ring chemistry, producing a match that captivated the audience and had them hanging on every near-fall.
They built on spots from the previous match and used impeccable timing to build dramatic false finishes.
Jimmy and Jey isolated Big E late, blasted him with a double superkick and pinned his shoulders to the mat, regaining titles they probably should not have lost in Philadelphia.
A superb match that reaffirmed both teams' status as the best in tag team wrestling.
Rating
John Cena vs. Baron Corbin
5 of 14
Anyone who expected Baron Corbin to roll over John Cena and avenge his failed Money in the Bank cash-in from Tuesday night was stunned by just how meekly he fell to the franchise star in kicking off the summertime spectacular.
The match was the epitome of an average television-quality match.
Corbin got heat, then Cena fought back and won with the Attitude Adjustment.
It followed the most basic formula and never once left fans thinking Corbin's status as the next main event star on SmackDown Live was safe.
If anything, it felt like he had been buried at the end of a pencil as the victim of vengeful bookers.
Rating
Naomi vs. Natalya
6 of 14
Naomi and Natalya wrestled a strong, technically sound wrestling match Sunday night that was better than it had any right to be, given the somewhat underwhelming creative effort.
Had the fans in Brooklyn had a reason to care about the match, the performers may have been able to feed off their energy even more and deliver an even better match.
As it stands now, it was the perfect example of a grizzled veteran technician battling a flashy, athletic babyface.
Natalya wore her down, took away her greatest weapons and forced her to tap out to the Sharpshooter. The better wrestler won, and on that night, it was the villainess.
It was storytelling 101 with strong work from both competitors.
Rating
The Big Show vs. Big Cass
7 of 14
Those initially wondering why The Usos vs. The New Day was relegated to the Kickoff Show while Big Show vs. Big Cass remained part of the main roster were still left scratching their heads following the slow, plodding snoozefest of a match they were forced to endure Sunday night.
The match was an overly long, extended look at the beatdowns Cass dealt Show in the weeks leading to the event.
The former tag team specialist pummeled the hand of his opponent. When Enzo Amore weaseled his way out of the shark cage above the ring, he was greeted with a big boot to the face. His contribution was making an ass out of himself.
A match that did nothing to advance the story or give fans an unexpected outcome, it would have been at home in front of 700 earlier in the Kickoff Show than on the main card, where its lack of quality was more obvious.
The rating reflects the strong selling from Big Show and the in-ring psychology.
Rating
Randy Orton vs. Rusev
8 of 14
Blind charge into the corner. RKO. One, two, three.
That was the totality of the match.
Rusev was buried deeper and faster than Baron Corbin was earlier in the show, and that is saying something.
It was a terrible waste of a talented Superstar in The Bulgarian Brute and yet another example of Randy Orton's inexplicably awful in-ring output in 2017.
Rating
ZERO
Sasha Banks vs. Alexa Bliss
9 of 14
Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss may not have wrestled as strong a match as they did at Great Balls of Fire, but they still delivered in a big way when the show most needed it.
SummerSlam was in major need of a dynamic wrestling match after four nondescript bouts to kick off the festivities. It got it in Bliss vs. Banks.
Their in-ring chemistry was once again apparent. The hits came harder, the action was smarter and the work itself was more focused than in the other matches to that point.
The finish itself, which saw Banks shake off shoulder pain to force a tapout from the relatively healthy Bliss, did not make sense and it certainly hurt the overall star rating. With that said, it was still a smartly wrestled match that demonstrated Banks' greatness and Bliss' evolution as a worker.
Rating
Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt
10 of 14
The return of The Demon gave the Brooklyn crowd a jolt of electricity it had not experienced to that point. His emergence from the locker room generated buzz and created an energy that the show needed.
The match itself was exactly what you come to expect from Bray Wyatt at this point. Finn Balor was a ball of energy, but Wyatt was slower, with the pace cut in half and the match coming across more like the opening scene of a three-hour epic than the culmination of a rivalry.
The action between bells was strong enough to warrant a three-star rating, but the one-sided booking never allowed the match to become more and reach its potential. The result? A match that was merely good rather than great.
Rating
Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose vs. Sheamus and Cesaro
11 of 14
Had Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Sheamus and Cesaro been able to deliver a more consistent pace early, their Raw Tag Team Championship match Sunday may have been the best match of the card.
As it stands, it was an explosive bout late that gave fans a taste of the potential they have to deliver a Match of the Year candidate should their program continue into September.
Sheamus and Cesaro are a great tag team. They have a skillset that allows them to mesh with everyone and every style. That was on display Sunday as they beat down their smaller opponents, then played the perfect bases for their energetic comeback.
The finish was red-hot and paid off the reunion story of Rollins and Ambrose to perfection.
Not a flawless match but the foundation for better to come.
Rating
AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens
12 of 14
Heading into SummerSlam, fans were still waiting for the great AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens match they knew both men were capable of delivering.
They did not get it Sunday night, but they did get their best match in recent months, hampered significantly by the involvement of Shane McMahon as special guest referee.
At numerous points throughout Sunday's match, it felt like Styles and Owens wanted to unleash that classic on the WWE Universe but could not. They had to adhere to booking plans, which saw McMahon get bumped, become engaged in a conflict with Owens and count The Prizefighter's shoulders to the mat as Styles retained the United States Championship.
The match, another really good but not great one, wrapped up Styles and Owens' rivalry and planted the seeds for KO to battle McMahon in the near future.
Rating
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Jinder Mahal
13 of 14
The WWE Championship match between Jinder Mahal and Shinsuke Nakamura felt like a contest shorted for time reasons. It never really got out of first gear and when it did, Nakamura's babyface comeback felt rushed.
By the time The Singh Brothers interfered to set up the Khallas finish, it was as if fans had watched a match literally go from zero to 60 in the span of three minutes.
The pacing issues aside, Mahal has proved himself to be a strong technician. He knows his limitations, understands what he is comfortable doing and does not venture from it. He is a basic "wear you down" villain whose strikes are improving with every match, as is his timing.
That much was on display. Should he and Nakamura get the opportunity for a longer match, when they do not have to rush through everything late, the potential is there for a quality main event that builds on the foundation of this one.
Rating
Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe
14 of 14
A wild, chaotic car wreck of mangled bodies and broken dreams highlighted the best SummerSlam main event in four years.
Braun Strowman was the star of Sunday's Fatal 4-Way match for the WWE Universal Championship, physically dominating and manhandling Brock Lesnar in a manner no other Superstar has ever done. He was superior, and were it not for the animalistic determination of The Beast Incarnate to fight back, The Monster Among Men would have won it.
Their conflict was at the center of the match, but Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe both brought the work rate, providing the foundation for the match in between the crowd-pleasing spots involving Lesnar and Strowman.
Reigns ate the pinfall clean, to the surprise of fans, and Lesnar miraculously retained his title despite the assault from Strowman.
Everything accomplished by the match seems to point toward a showdown between the monstrous competitors, and if the fan reaction is any indication, fans are more than ready to watch them do battle.
Rating
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