Worst Booking Decisions from WWE SummerSlam 2019 Results

Another SummerSlam is in the books, and Seth Rollins and Brock Lesnar capped it with an unbelievable main event that will go down in history. Their match was a classic from start to finish.

Brock Lesnar has not put over another wrestler, cleanly, in 1-on-1 competition since he lost to Goldberg in 2016. But here, he did the honors for Seth Rollins, who put on a physical, gutsy performance to slay the Beast and become the new universal champion.

And unlike the Goldberg match, it was presented as no mere fluke. Rollins wore Lesnar down over the course of the match, which made the win believable and signified a clear passing of the torch.

WWE SummerSlam was, by and large, a well-booked, fantastic pay-per-view. Save for one result (more on that later), every match ended with the right man or woman winning. But there is always room for improvement.

Here are the worst booking decisions from WWE SummerSlam 2019.

Becky Lynch (c) vs. Natalya

Credit: WWE.com

The right woman won this match. But it was saddled with a bizarre stipulation and terrible placement on the card.

It was the first match of the evening, which was a mistake in hindsight. Yes, Becky Lynch is one of WWE's most popular stars. And yes, Natalya is a Hart family member, which is a guaranteed pop in Canada. But because Natalya lost in her home country, it killed the crowd's energy.

WWE didn't get the audience back into things until Kevin Owens vs. Shane McMahon. That time, the Canadian won, and that's why it should have opened the show instead. It's always better to please the home crowd before disappointing them.

The submission match stipulation was a bit strange. Historically, the Sharpshooter is one of the most over finishers in WWE. And although Becky's victory solidifies her in-ring prowess, it diminishes Natalya's technical finesse in a way that wasn't believable. This should have been a brawl rather than a wrestling clinic; maybe they're building to an all-out war at Hell in a Cell.

Bayley (c) vs. Ember Moon

Credit: WWE.com

Ember lost, like most expected she would. Years ago, this would have been in question; Moon came closer than anyone, even Bayley, to defeating Asuka in NXT. But this is 2019, and Ember has spent more time backstage than in the ring during TV tapings. The crowd needs to be reintroduced to her, all over again, for a win to mean something.

That said, she should have lost in a better way than she did here. The announcers pretty much buried her on commentary, saying that she was lucky to be in the match in the first place rather than presenting her as a threat.

And as for the match itself, it was surprisingly sloppy, filled with botched spots, strikes that missed by a long shot and moves that looked like they were clumsily improvised on the spot.

Perhaps the two of them were trying to have a classic match via innovation and daring. If so, they didn't rehearse enough, or had too many jitters, to make that a reality.

Charlotte Flair vs. Trish Stratus

Credit: WWE.com

This was a great match that was slightly hobbled by a bad beginning—during Trish's initial offensive flurry against Charlotte. The queen bumped like a pinball for Trish, despite obviously being much taller and stronger than her opponent.

In an interview with Bleacher Report in 2018, WWE NXT trainer Sara Amato commented on one of Charlotte's weaknesses as a performer: "You want to be giving [in the ring], but you also have to be protective of yourself. Charlotte's size and superior athleticism meant she needed to know when to give and when to be a little selfish."

This was one of those times that Charlotte should have put herself first and forced Trish to target her limbs instead of dominating her outright.

Kofi Kingston (c) vs. Randy Orton

Credit: WWE.com

The only bad result of the entire evening was a double count-out finish to the WWE Championship match between Kofi Kingston and Randy Orton.

Double count-outs should be reserved for Raw or Smackdown, to whet our appetites for the PPV. A finish like this is meant to tease us with the match we want to see. But everyone who's watching has already bought the PPV. And since WWE already has our $9.99, they should be giving us the match, and the finish, that we paid for.

To have a double count-out for one of the biggest titles on one of the biggest stages all year is an objectively poor booking decision that carries on the feud but does so in the worst way, with less momentum than it had headed into SummerSlam. Even if we get the definitive finish at Hell in a Cell, it's not going to have any more buzz around it than it already does.