WWE SummerSlam 2020 Results: Reviewing Top Highlights and Low Points

Credit: WWE.com

As one of the four most important pay-per-views on the WWE calendar, SummerSlam always has the potential to be a game-changer for better or worse.

When it's great, big matches are worth the hype, new champions are crowned, the status quo is given a refresh and the rest of the year fills with hope. When it's bad, it can leave a sour taste and take a long while to get back on track.

This year's show had some interesting elements, such as a Loser Leaves WWE match, Dominik Mysterio's debut, several titles on the line and more.

Now that The Biggest Party of the Summer has finished, how did it turn out? Was this a mostly great PPV, or did the bad outweigh the good? Which segments were the biggest pros and cons of the night?

It's time to break down and recap the results as well as the highlights and low points of SummerSlam 2020.

Credit: WWE.com

WWE SummerSlam 2020 Results

• Apollo Crews defeated MVP by pinfall to retain the United States Championship.
• Bayley defeated Asuka by pinfall to retain the SmackDown Women's Championship.
• The Street Profits defeated Andrade and Angel Garza to retain the Raw Tag Team Championships.
• No Disqualification Loser Leaves WWE match: Mandy Rose defeated Sonya Deville.
• Seth Rollins defeated Dominik Mysterio by pinfall.
• Asuka defeated Sasha Banks by submission to win the Raw Women's Championship.
• Drew McIntyre defeated Randy Orton by pinfall to retain the WWE Championship.
• Falls Count Anywhere match: Bray Wyatt defeated Braun Strowman by pinfall to win the Universal Championship.

Credit: WWE.com

Apollo Crews and MVP are more than capable of having a great match. In fact, they've proved that by having a few quality contests already. But therein lies the problem.

We've seen this match a number of times this year, including a few weeks ago on Raw. That doesn't even include how they fight in some capacity every week, even if it's not an official match.

So why did WWE feel the need to have them repeat it yet again here?

They should have wrestled at Extreme Rules, but that wasn't able to happen due to injury to Crews. Once that put a halt on those plans, WWE should have made the call to keep them separate until SummerSlam. Instead, they wrestled on Raw only to wrestle again here and do nothing worth a repeat.

At the very least, this should have been Crews against Bobby Lashley. While not drastically different, it would have been fresher in comparison and taken Crews vs. The Hurt Business another step forward instead of remaining stagnant.

Instead, it was a copy and paste of what we saw earlier this month, and several times before that, tossed onto the pre-show because even WWE knew it didn't have much value other than hearing MVP's new theme.

Credit: WWE.com

In many ways, this was just an echo of the Apollo Crews-MVP situation. There wasn't anything inherently bad about the match, as these combatants are all talented and can put a good fight together.

The problem is that these two groups have been feuding since before WrestleMania 36. It's been long past time to move on and do something else.

Had anything of note happened here, it might have made it worthwhile to be on Sunday's card. That includes a title change, a heel or face turn, one of the teams splitting—anything.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. It was just a regular match with Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins retaining yet again, as they've done every time they've fought Zelina Vega's crew.

SummerSlam is supposed to be one of the biggest events of the year. It doesn't feel special when you can look at every episode of Raw and multiple pay-per-views over the past five months and see the same thing on repeat.

Credit: WWE.com

Given the circumstances with Sonya Deville's attempted kidnapping, it's more than reasonable this match was not what was originally intended. Had that not happened, we would have been given the treat of a Hair vs. Hair match, rather than a No Disqualification match with the loser leaving WWE.

That in itself is a disappointment, but what makes this a true low point is just how this segment played out beyond that original change.

No Disqualification matches have a wide range of options to be interesting. Every weapon is available to use, there are no count-outs or disqualifications and Superstars have spent decades pulling out innovative offense.

None of that happened here, though. They didn't even go through the table they had set up.

This was nothing but a series of knee strikes from Mandy Rose—around a dozen or so—and not much else.

With that in mind, it might have been better to just call this match off entirely and not do it at all.

Credit: WWE.com

While the feud between the Mysterio family and Seth Rollins has seemingly gone on forever, this match was at least worth checking out.

Unlike the No Disqualification match that preceded it, this Street Fight actually made use of its gimmick, allowing tables and kendo sticks to come into play. None of it was unforgettable, but it was solid action.

Dominik Mysterio surprised, though. This was his first match in WWE and he more than held his own. Plenty of others who have been at this game longer haven't looked as good.

Bonus points go to whoever decided Dominik should use a frog splash as a tribute to Eddie Guerrero. It will be funny to see how conspiracy theorists point to that as proof that he really was Guerrero's child all along.

The finish of Rey being handcuffed and watching his son take a Stomp for the loss was a good way to take Rollins' heel character to an even lower level, too.

Ultimately, everyone came out of this better than what they were before the bell sounded. That's all you can ask for.

Credit: WWE.com

The Raw Women's Championship has been on a different path over the past month, with Sasha Banks capturing the title and Asuka sent on a detour from her feud with Shayna Baszler.

Whether it was just a way to kill time or WWE actually thought this was the most compelling story to tell, we may never know. Ultimately, things are back to normal now with The Empress of Tomorrow back on top of the Raw women's division.

This is as it should be. Bayley has to drop the SmackDown Women's Championship to Sasha Banks, meaning The Boss couldn't keep this title any longer.

Now that half of The Golden Role Models has lost her title, the next downturn in their friendship should come next week at Payback.

After they drop the women's tag team titles, Banks vs. Bayley must happen at Clash of Champions on Sept. 20. Having Bayley retain and Banks lose here was a one-two punch to get those plans in motion.

Credit: WWE.com

Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton for the WWE Championship was a textbook main event match.

It featured two of the biggest stars on the roster battling it out for the top prize, giving it their all to win and pulling no punches.

With so much hokey stuff going on these days, it's nice to see something as simple as this go down by itself. There was no need for interference, oddball stipulations or quirky gimmicks that could have gotten in the way.

Instead, The Viper kept up his sadistic streak by doing things like slamming McIntyre on the commentary table twice, seething the entire match with blood dripping down his forehead. Meanwhile, McIntyre never lost his resolve and powered through to keep his title.

Using a backslide for the finish was an interesting touch, too. Most title matches end with a Superstar's signature maneuver, which becomes predictable. This was a great counter that made sense and showed it will take more to beat McIntyre for his title than just avoiding a Claymore Kick to the face.

Credit: WWE.com

There were both highlights and low points in the main event.

Overall, the match between Braun Strowman and "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt was decent. They brawled, rather than trying to wrestle, which better suits their characters.

One downside, though, was that they didn't utilize the Falls Count Anywhere stipulation enough. Knowing these matches can go throughout the arena and beyond, it's disappointing when all they do is fight on the ramp and Gorilla position.

The ending was lame and abrupt, too. After months of feuding, with a swamp fight and all sorts of trickery and otherworldly gimmicks, it all came to a head with a few moves on the exposed wood of the ring.

There was no payoff for the Alexa Bliss situation, while Retribution didn't show up at all for this entire event. They were two big elements of the hype for Sunday's show but neither factored in whatsoever.

A big positive ended the night, though, with the return of Roman Reigns. Perhaps WWE figured that was good enough to make everyone forget about the negatives that preceded it.

It's a shame Strowman's title reign has come to an end and the belt is back on Wyatt seemingly just to transition it to Reigns.

Here's hoping WWE does right by The Monster Among Men and doesn't forget about him, or use him as a stepping stone for The Big Dog to humble on his way to fighting The Fiend down the line.

If this is followed up with Strowman taking another loss at Payback to set that up, it will prove WWE only considers him a backup plan when necessary and not someone who is truly valued.

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.