I remember really enjoying this pay-per-view when I watched the night of, so I was curious if it still held up 10 years later...
The show starts with The Miz welcoming the crowd to the show, hyping up tonight's double main event - CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar and Daniel Bryan vs. John Cena (with Triple H serving as the guest referee). Before he can announce he participants of the opening contest, Fandango and Summer Rae show up to cut him off, dancing around as was their gimmick.
We then get JoJo (announced as being from Total Divas) singing the national anthem. WCW did this better when they'd let Maxx Payne shred it out on his guitar.
Bray Wyatt has his debut match against Kane in the opener. While there are flames around the ring, this isn't necessarily an "Inferno" match because the flames are there to keep Bray's "brothers" - Luke Harper and Erick Rowan - out of the ring rather than as a means to end the match (a traditional Inferno match can only end when one competitor is lit on fire). I would've thought that Bray had already competed on Raw or at any another PPV by this point, but in hindsight, it makes a ton of sense to load this match up with literal "sizzle" to hide the fact that Wyatt, while certainly not terrible in the ring, was certainly nothing special. Also, at this point, there are some missing elements - the spiderwalk is nowhere to be seen, he was years away from adopting the Mandible Claw, and I'm not sure he was even busting out his uranage yet (though, even if he was, it'd be near impossible for him to apply it to Kane). Harper and Rowan eventually interfere, allowing Wyatt to hit the Sister Abigail and score the win. Not a very good debut and the post-match angle - which saw the future Bludgeon Brothers drop the steel steps on Kane's neck (but not really, they clearly slammed down on him with the part of the steps that would go around his neck and not onto it) was terribly shot and executed. If you're going to do a post-match angle like that, do something that at least looks cool. Heck, even an "abduction" would've worked better. (1.5/5)
Next up - Damien Sandow vs. Cody Rhodes. Sandow had won the Money in the Bank Briefcase in June or July (I don't recall) by turning on Cody Rhodes, who had been his tag team partner. Rhodes was now the babyface, but was obviously not nearly as over as he is right now in 2023 when he's easily among the top 3 babyfaces on the roster. I forget what happened with Sandow and his briefcase, though I know his cash-in was unsuccessful and that, aside from being The Miz's stunt double, he went on to achieve very little in the WWE (or Impact, for that matter). This isn't a bad match, but feels like something you'd find on SmackDown rather than on a major PPV event as there's not a ton of fan interest. Better than the match before it, but that's not saying much. (2/5)
The World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio defends his title against Christian in the next bout. I've never been a big fan of ADR, but I'm a big Christian "peep" and, with seemingly every year that passes and more of his work I see, I only become a bigger admirer of his work. Here, he takes a crowd that seems maybe a bit bored with the show so far and pulls them, step-by-step, up to a fever pitch (and a well-earned "This is Awesome" chant before audiences would do that for nearly anything) as they built towards a very good finishing sequence. Hard-hitting, good back-and-forth that feels organically paced and not "your turn/my turn," Del Rio getting to show his toughness - this is a very good match that makes me wonder if it is Christian, not Mysterio or CM Punk or John Cena - that was his greatest WWE opponent in terms of delivering quality matches. Like a few other matches on Christian's resume, what jumped out at me when I looked at the match times was how much of a battle this felt like despite the match only going 12-and-a-half minutes. Good selling of the arm damage by Christian helped do that. A very good match that, given a few more minutes and maybe a little bit less of a predictable finish (Christian's odds of winning this were very low as Del Rio was going through yet another, arguably failed, major push to be seen as a true top guy) and this might've really been considered a classic. (3.5/5)
Brie Bella vs. Natalya followed. This was better than I thought it would be, considering that Brie Bella was the lesser of the two Bellas in terms of wrestling acumen (though, at this point, I'm not sure Nikki had really stepped up yet). The crowd gives absolutely no shit about this match, chanting for JBL, Michael Cole, and Jerry Lawler in the middle of it and then demanding tables at another point, clearly just trying to "pop" themselves. Bella and Nattie didn't put on a clinic or anything, but there were some good spots in this - specifically a great apron-pull from the heels on the outside that caused Nattie to take a nasty fall, a quality and well-executed Sharpshooter counter from Brie later on, and an impressive fireman's carry lift from Nattie. Compared to some of the Diva matches I've reviewed from years prior, this was not terrible at all and felt like a competitive, athletic contest without overstaying its welcome. (2.5/5)
One half of the show's double main event was next as CM Punk took on Brock Lesnar in a No DQ match billed as "The Best vs. The Beast." I remember watching this for the first time live and enjoying it, but being so caught up in the Daniel Bryan storyline that I didn't really appreciate just how good this was. Watching it a second time, I was much more focused, knowing that this match had taken on a reputation as arguably among the top 3-5 matches either guy ever had (which is saying a lot for guys this decorated, regardless of the various controversies that surround their careers). As others have written, what sets this match apart from the rest of Lesnar's post-2012 run is that he is incredibly giving throughout. Yes, he dominates for large stretches and puts a serious beating on Punk, but he also allows Punk multiple times to shine, show his toughness, and get is own strategy over, going for headshots via running knees, putting his own body on the line multiple times with dives and splashes, trying to soften the Beast with devastating kicks and submissions, basically just trying to outlast and survive Brock's onslaught long enough to wear him down and maybe score a lucky GTS. The strategy and story works because, though there was little doubt that Lesnar wasn't leaving with his arm raised, we do get a well-executed nearfall in which it is made fairly clear that Punk had him beat until Heyman's interference. From there, a match that had been - up to that point - just an absolute war of physicality with a few hardcore elements (use of the top of the table by Brock, steel steps, a chair) turns into more of the type of modern "blockbuster" match with heightened drama courtesy of Paul Heyman's repeated involvement, a handful of excellent false finishes, and some really nifty and cringe-inducing weapon usage that show that even if shots to the head are outlawed, Punk and Lesnar were willing to get creative to get over the viciousness of a simple steel folding chair. Its hard to find a real "flaw" in this match aside from the inevitable logic flaw that all wrestling matches, and especially No DQ matches, have: that no human could actually survive the beating they withstand for 30+ minutes in a "real" fight, that even a match like this, with so many punishing moves and hard hits, takes undeniable cooperation between its combatants. Yes, that's pro-wrestling. And this match is pro-wrestling at its finest and most brutal without sacrificing story, drama, or having to go to grotesque extremes. (5/5)
Kaitlyn and Dolph Ziggler took on AJ Lee and Big E in the next match-up. I wasn't watching WWE religiously back then, but I followed it enough to know the big names and the major storylines and I still have zero recollection of who Kaitlyn was. I also don't remember the specifics of the Ziggler/AJ Lee split and, based on audience reactions, I'm not sure even the crowd knew who to cheer for here as there doesn't seem to be crowd support for either team specifically. Still, this doesn't overstay its welcome and Big E looks much, much better than I remember him being this early in his run. Passable TV-quality match that served its purpose of bringing the crowd down a little after the previous match and getting them prepped for the main event. (2.5/5)
Main event time - Daniel Bryan challenging John Cena for the WWE Championship with Triple H as guest referee. This match is a bit polarizing - either you think it might be one of the best matches ever, a 5-star classic that shows just how good both Cena and Bryan could be at their peak, or you think it is just an 4-4.5-star match that is slightly imperfect due to a handful of near-botches and Cena not selling his elbow damage enough. What you find are many respectable wrestling fans or critics who don't think is a tremendous, must-see match and probably one of the top 10 WWE Championship matches in company history. I'm not going to go into too much detail about why I fall into the former category, but to me, this match is a masterpiece with nary an element or moment I don't love. I love that Triple H is a non-factor for the entire match aside from, as the commentators note, letting the two combatants clash and not trying to stop things when Cena looks like he might be injured. I like how Cena, at first, wants to try to outwrestle Bryan, but then ultimately choose to use his strength to try to ground the challenger. I love that Bryan is relying on his bread n' butter - strikes and submissions and some brilliant suplexes using leverage - but that he sometimes gets overexcited and ends up eating a Cena clothesline to stop his momentum. I like that this match doesn't feature any excessive weapons or table spots, but is mostly fought inside the ring with neither guy grabbing tights or holding onto a rope or inadvertently undoing a turnbuckle pad. I like that Cena doesn't tease any sort of real heel turn here, wrestling the match straight-up. I love that the match ends with the "creation" of a new, devastating finisher move for Daniel Bryan that immediately pops the crowd and feels believable as a means to put down one of the most decorated WWE wrestlers ever. I love how much the crowd is behind Bryan from beginning to end, that this match really does feel like a "Passing Of The Torch" moment. The only thing that saddens me a bit is that, as far as I remember, we never got to see these two guys try to top what they did here as their chemistry is undeniably great. It is rare that the same wrestling show features two Match of the Year candidates, but SummerSlam 2013 does. (5/5)
...And then we get the post-match. After Bryan celebrates his championship win, Randy Orton shows up - Money in the Bank briefcase in hand - and teases a cash-in before turning his back to the champion. Triple H then hits Bryan with a pedigree, allowing Orton to come in, make the pin, and leave the show with the WWE Championship. At the time, I hated this angle and wished, if it had to happen, it would've happend on Raw. Looking back, I do see why this angle happening at the end of the night made it a bigger deal, but I still disliked the storyline. Over the next few months, my disfavor for it would prove to be true as the company cooled off on Bryan considerably, having him continue to lose Championship matches to Orton, fall back into the midcard by December, briefly join the Wyatt Family, and not even be included as a participant in the 2014 Royal Rumble match before the crowd support became so overwhelming that they had to insert him into the WrestleMania XXX main event. The WWE stans will always say "That's how the story was supposed to go," but those of us who remember it vividly know that not to be true. No point awarded for the first major misstep in the booking of Daniel Bryan post-championship victory.
With an all-around Kwang Score of 3.14-out-of-5, the 2023 edition of SummerSlam is imperfect and certain matches fall a touch short - the Sandow/Rhodes match and the opener, most noticeably - but Cena/Bryan and Punk/Lesnar is an undeniably awesome combo of main event matches that absolutely deliver and the Christian/Del Rio match is arguably Del Rio's best singles outing in an uneven WWE career. Throw a better women's match on this show and you might have an all-timer, but for what it was, this was a strong show and worth checking out.
FINAL RATING - Watch It
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