Summerslam 23 has come and gone, with a record low 6 matches across nearly 3 full hours of action. Having read the results earlier today, I'm convinced that WWE's much maligned creative staff fumbled yet again in some spots.
Start with the IC title match that led off the show. In my opinion, Dolph Ziggler is the champion now for the wrong reason. He should've won the title a lot sooner than this, and has long since proven that he doesn't need someone like Vickie Guerrero in his corner. As it is, all Vickie really does is leech heat away from Ziggler, reducing his effectiveness as a heel. Eventually, I think one is going to be tired of the other, and there'll be a split, and I believe Alberto Del Rio figures into the equation somewhere.
On to the match itself. Ziggler had the match won after applying the sleeper to Kofi Kingston. That's when Nexus decided to show up and spoil what should've been Ziggler's coronation as a legit IC champion. Ziggler was tossed to the side, like an afterthought, leaving Kingston to take yet another gang beating. What this suggested to me was that Nexus, rightfully, would win the main event, and going forward would begin to put inroads into the Smackdown roster.
More than 2 hours later, that idea went out the window with the bath water. Nexus lost the elimination tag main event, 7 falls to 6, with team captain Wade Barrett tapping out to John Cena's imperfect application of the STF for the 2nd time (the other time was on Raw a few months back, before Nexus came together). Vince McMahon and his staff of morons see Cena as this generation's Hulk Hogan, a seemingly unstoppable super babyface who overcomes impossible odds a good 90% of the time. The logic in the booking that had been established at the start of the night had been erased. While it also makes sense to send the fans home happy at a PPV, especially major events like this one, it wouldn't have hurt if just one time Cena came up a wee bit short in making a miracle comeback. Of course, Edge & Chris Jericho turned on Cena after they were eliminated, and just as naturally will make some lame excuses in order to blame Cena. Problem is, Edge vs. Cena and Jericho vs. Cena have been done to death, and there's no need to go there again so soon.
This is where the creative team really screws up. Take for another example the pending restart of hostilities between Kane and Undertaker, this time over the World title. Every time the Dead Man has won the World title the last couple of years, injuries or other circumstances have short-circuited his title runs, and Vince, it seems, keeps promising one more run before Taker hangs 'em up. This year's Survivor Series will mark the Phenom's 20th anniversary with the company (which might explain why McMahon decided to keep Survivor Series as the November PPV for at least one more year), and it's likely we'll see Taker win the title one more time. However, the feuds with Kane are just as tired as Cena's issues with either Edge or Jericho.
What Uncreative should've done is tie the UT coma angle to Nexus, which a lot of people assumed would happen. It would've gotten Nexus over even stronger if they are revealed to have done the impossible and laid out the Dead Man. Instead, people are now assuming that the current Kane-UT storyline figures to be a final coda for both men, as Kane has also talked about retiring. Of course, Kane has his post-WWE career already lined up, likely in politics.
After beating Alicia Fox in a non-title match on Raw last week, logic suggested that Melina would give the win right back, even though the PPV (and the next 2 Raws) was in her home city of Los Angeles. Unfortunately, it's clear now that the creative team has lost faith in Alicia, despite the improvements she's made in the last 18 months. Fox is likely to get her rematch, and that'll be it, setting up Maryse, now arm candy for Ted DiBiase, Jr., to make a run at 3-peating as Divas champion. However, they also have set up the prospect of title unification with the two-headed drama queen LayCool disrupting Melina's victory celebration, claiming they've run out of opponents over on Smackdown. Well, when you consider that they, too, retain the services of the power-mad Vickie Guerrero to help play keep away with the challengers, and with Kelly Kelly the only pure face Diva left on Smackdown with Tiffany having been suspended, that artificial sense of entitlement gets even worse.
In fact, the unification of the women's titles would be the best thing, especially if Melina is placed atop the division. She's the best wrestler they have among the women right now, with Beth Phoenix on the DL, and while Alicia has improved, she's still not 100% solid. Michelle McCool is where she is in the division because she is married to the Undertaker and benefits from his status. That's called riding someone else's coattails, which is what Vickie does best, oh by the way.
The Miz had everyone thinking he'd replace Great Khali on Team WWE vs. Nexus. Nuh-uh. Cena popped Mr. Smug's balloon by bringing back Daniel Bryan (Bryan Danielson), who'd been "fired" a couple of months back, but it seems he'd been on the payroll all along. One man, as they used to say on "Knight Rider" back in the day, can make a difference. They already had two heels with selfish agendas in Edge & Jericho, and Miz was responsible for Bryan's elimination, setting up the long awaited program for the US title.
The problem I have there is that by allowing Miz to just ignore the title, the creative team comes off as more ignorant of logic than usual. So what if Miz also has the Money in the Bank briefcase. He has a responsibility as US champ to defend that title as often as needed. Miz could've dropped the US title right after Money in the Bank, but as they did during Miz's 1st run with the belt, Uncreative chooses to stall. They did the same thing during MVP's 1st run with the title a couple of years ago. The blame in Miz's case lies at McMahon's feet.
So where does WWE go from here? Consider:
1. Nexus will get their heat back on Raw, that's pretty much a given. How they'll get it remains to be seen.
2. Miz will lose the US title, probably to Bryan, preferably tonight.
3. The Women's & Divas titles will be merged together, a la the tag titles, with Melina likely the standard bearer. Politics (read: Michelle being Mrs. Undertaker) cannot be a factor.
4. Kane & Undertaker will probably be retired by this time next year, so their new feud will be their last (we hope).
5. Members of Nexus will be champions before Wrestlemania. I see the tag titles and maybe the WWE title in their camp. The truce with Sheamus will be history, and soon.
6. The Raw GM will finally be revealed. Speaking of stalling, this is one thing that should've been resolved before Summerslam, but wasn't. Right now, I don't have clue one who'd fit.
Of course, I could be wrong.
