For only the second time in its rich 32-year history, WWE SummerSlam brought the heat to Canada on Sunday night with their biggest annual event of the summer. The Scotiabank Arena in Toronto was sold out to the tune of 16,904 pro wrestling fans, and they came ready for a wild show that delivered plenty of action, controversy, and surprises along the way.
Did Seth Rollins slay the “Beast” Brock Lesnar? Did Natalya topple WWE Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch with her home country advantage? Was Dolph Ziggler, “next?” Muscle & Fitness has your back with a rundown of the 10 biggest moments from SummerSlam 2019.
Courtesy WWE
Ricochet Loses the Numbers Game
Ricochet’s futuristic new ring attire set the tone for a match that would include plenty of cutting edge sports entertainment on Sunday night, while AJ Styles brought his OC teammates Gallows and Anderson in an effort to stack the odds in his favor during the United States championship match.
Despite the stiff opposition, Ricochet came to win, and a stunning one-footed springboard into a flying elbow illustrated that the challenger would be no pushover. The “One and Only” even took it to Gallows and Anderson at ringside, holding his own, but was eventually caught mid-air and planted into the mat with AJ’s Styles Clash. Not content with the victory, the OC then dished out a post-match beating to the fallen Ricochet, making a statement to the rest of the locker room that this dominating faction is taking no prisoners.
Courtesy WWE
Bayley Is All Business
Bayley’s career in WWE, post NXT, has certainly had its ups and downs, including a devastating loss along with Sasha Banks, losing the Women’s Tag Team titles to the IICONICS at WrestleMania 35. But the huggable one’s current run as SmackDown Women’s Champion is beginning to solidify her status as one of the most important members of the female roster.
Thanks to her hard fought victory against Ember Moon in Toronto at SummerSlam, catching the challenger and besting her with a stunning Bayley-to-Belly suplex all the way from the top rope, Bayley is back in the spotlight and ready to maintain her run as a fighting champion.
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Don’t Mess with Kofi’s Family, Stupid
Kofi Kingston’s WWE Championship victory at WrestleMania 35, back in April, was a fairy tale come true for a man that had been chasing a dream over the course of a 12-year pro wrestling career. Kofi’s political struggles in WWE date all the way back to 2009, when he says Randy Orton used his influence to keep the exciting new prospect low on the card, calling the New Day star “stupid” at the time.
Now, some 10 years later, Kofi had the chance to settle the score with Orton and prove once and for all that he is, and always has been, championship material—but things went awry. After a nip and tuck war, Kofi would find himself swallowing an RKO Outta Nowhere. The action would then spill to the outside where Randy taunted Kofi’s son, unleashing a crazed reaction from the champ, who then nailed Orton repeatedly with a kendo stick. The official decision was an extremely unpopular double count out, meaning that this feud is far from over.
Courtesy WWE
Kevin Owens Lives to Fight Another Day
The so-called “Best in the World,” Shane McMahon had everything to gain as he went at it with Kevin Owen’s on Sunday night. As per the agreed stipulation, Owens would be forced to quit WWE should he lose at SummerSlam.
K.O., who is from Quebec, and taught himself English by listening to Jim Ross’s commentary on WWE Monday Night RAW in the ’90s, received one of the loudest cheers of the night as he headed to the ring, but it soon became clear that Shane-o-Mac would use his power to tilt the odds, appointing his good friend Elias as a special enforcer at ringside.
Unsurprisingly, the less than impartial special enforcer did everything he could to make sure Owens would be forced to leave WWE. In the melee, the assigned referee found himself being accidentally taken out by Owens, which allowed K.O. to try and even the odds with a steel chair.
But, with the referee back in play, the chair would be taken out of the ring. Ever the opportunist, Owens used the distraction to kick Shane hard in the McMahon family jewels. A Stunner was then delivered for a winning pin, securing the safety of his career, but no doubt enticing future wrath from Shane in the coming weeks on SmackDown Live!
Courtesy WWE
Becky Is Still “The Man”
Calgary’s Natalya Neidhart won a Fatal 4-Way match on Monday Night RAW for the right to face Becky Lynch for the RAW women’s championship match at SummerSlam, and it wasn’t long before the new Number One Contender challenged The Man to a submission match in the run up to the big show. With her home country advantage, Nattie would seek to topple the champ in a bout that showcased both girls technical skills, but when Becky locked Natalya in her own signature Sharpshooter hold, the challenger was forced to counter with Lynch’s Dis-arm-her.
Becky Lynch’s massive popularity held strong, despite Nattie’s home field status, and the champ managed to stay in the game as the former friends traded each others holds, that is until Becky finally applied the Dis-arm-her to end the contest by submission.
For a submission-based encounter, it was a surprisingly frenzied match and included a brutal sharpshooter from Natalya, who used the turnbuckle for leverage but despite her best efforts, SummerSlam 2019 will be remembered as another notch on the belt of the Lass Kicker.
Courtesy WWE
Edge Returns at SummerSlam
It’s extremely rare that a pay-per-view pre-show delivers one of the most iconic moments of the night, but as Elias took to the ring for a musical performance, designed to run down the Toronto faithful, one of Canada’s most popular grapplers made a short but sweet return.
The 11-time world champion, and class of 2012 WWE Hall of Famer, interrupted Elias to deliver a thunderous spear to the wannabe rock star, much to the delight of the crowd, who rose to their feet in excitement. The Rated-R Superstar was forced to retire from the ring under doctors orders in 2011 due to a severe neck injury, which made this shock SummerSlam cameo all the more special.
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Ziggler Was “Next”
All eyes were on Goldberg as the crowd chanted ahead of his entrance at SummerSlam. The big man’s last outing against the Undertaker in Saudi Arabia back in June had reportedly left him with a concussion and personal disappointment over a clumsy performance. Could Goldberg erase the bad memories of Super ShowDown and squash the Show Off?
The Toronto masses were in full vocal support for Goldberg, who was caught off guard in the match’s opening moments and almost found himself pinned, following two early Superkicks. This initial flurry would fail to phase the former NFL defensive tackle, and Goldberg answered with a Spear and a devastating Jackhammer to score a (perhaps sensible) quick and clean pinfall. This WWE Hall of Famer doesn’t get paid by the hour, but he would be forced to return to the ring following Dolph’s plea for the match to be restarted. The legend obliged and delivered a second hellacious spear before leaving once again.
“Anybody can get lucky twice, idiot,” taunted a deluded Ziggler, causing Bill to return a third time, almost cutting Ziggler in half with his third and final spear of the night.
Courtesy WWE
Yowie Wowie, “The Fiend” Makes His Chilling Debut
The new, remixed Bray Wyatt made his official debut as “The Fiend” at SummerSlam against Finn Bálor, and as far as ring entrances go, this may have been the most intimidating of all time. Finn withstood the initial assault to mount a comeback, but was soon caught in the Mandible Claw, which made Finn pass out, awarding the match to a man that that will be haunting the WWE locker room for some time to come.
Bray Wyatt now finds himself in the driving seat of an extremely controversial, and seemingly popular character. He has also used his time away from the ring to get into perhaps the best shape of his career. It will be interesting to see what’s next for The Fiend, and whether Finn Bálor will enlist his own alter ego, The Demon, to avenge such a convincing loss.
Courtesy WWE
Trish Stratus Still Has It
As seven-time Women’s Champion and Toronto’s own, Trish Stratus clashed with Charlotte Fair, a nine-time champion in her own right, we were treated to a historic battle between queens from different wrestling eras. Could Trish, a mother of two and now semi-retired, really hang with one of the best current wrestlers on the scene—in her first singles match in eight years? The answer was YES!
The sold-out crowd certainly felt that Trish came prepared, and broke into a chant of “You’ve still got it.” in the opening moments while two members of wrestling royalty fought tooth and nail. As the pace settled in, Charlotte tried to wear the former fitness model down, but a comeback was never far away.
Still, a big boot from Flair would leave Stratus seeing stars and sailing to the ringside floor. The writing seemed to be on the wall as “Second Nature” attempted a moonsault for the finish, but the veteran moved out of the way and dug deep to blast her opponent with some stinging Flair-style chops.
The two warriors traded blows on the top rope until Stratus countered with a seriously high Hurricanrana and a near pinfall for good measure. Stratus even locked Flair into a figure-four leglock before turning it into Charlotte’s own Figure-Eight hold. The matched looked to be over until Charlotte escaped by grabbing the rope. “This is awesome,” enthused the crowd.
Moments later, Stratus delivered her Stratisfaction bulldog from the second rope, but Flair would kick-out on two and nine tenths. The match seemed to be going Trish’s way, but another big boot would deck her, allowing Charlotte to apply her Figure-Eight, snapping victory from the jaws of defeat by scoring a submission.
Trish Stratus brought the fire, and earned our unreserved respect, but Charlotte Flair cemented herself as the queen at SummerSlam 2019.
Courtesy WWE
Seth Rollins Keeps His Word
Last week on Monday Night RAW, Seth Rollins promised the world that he would slay the beast once again and recapture the WWE Universal Championship. At SummerSlam 2019, The Beast Slayer made good on his word.
In a gutsy performance, Seth was taken to the limit by his much larger foe, Brock Lesnar, but in the end, passion and desire would prove to be the deciding factor in an incredible main event. It was a highly physical match that may well best be remembered for an unbelievably high splash delivered by Rollins to Lesnar, obliterating the announce table and raising the bar as only the Architect’\ can.
In the end, a Curb Stomp would put Lesnar out for the count, and bring back the era of Monday Night ROLLINS.
