The biggest winners and losers from SummerSlam 2018

SummerSlam 2018 is in the books. Four major titles changed hands and the landscape of the WWE looks far different than it looked before the show. Despite the show's importance, however, it was only a lukewarm effort, marred with poor booking, and doesn't compete with NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn 4 on Saturday night (which isn't a new phenomenon by any means, in fairness).

Ultimately, once past the kickoff, the show started hot, lagged in the middle, and picked up some until it reached its anticlimactic conclusion. Its absurdly long length didn't help matters. The one match that had the potential to become a match of the year candidate was ultimately prey to a questionable finish.

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No new stars were made, though one was solidified, and there were a few burials to be found. Who made the most out of what's likely to be the final SummerSlam in Brooklyn's Barclays Center? Who truly got buried?

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Losers: The Revival

Just two more casualties to a comedy run by comedy jobbers which has overstayed its welcome by about a month. Rollups of Doom were to be liberally found, as the "B-Team" accidentally lucked themselves into another victory.

Unfortunately, the act is now exhausted, and the longer this keeps up, the bigger a joke the tag team titles become. We all know how they've been treated since The Bar dropped them at WrestleMania.

With The Revival now falling to the wayside, it remains to be seen whether the Authors of Pain will step up. They haven't been in the best place since their Raw debut in April, either. Even so, they're in the best place to challenge, which shows how poorly the tag team landscape is.

Raw's tag team division remains as one of the worst in the company. Unfortunately, this was an opportunity for a reset that the company simply chose not to take.

Winner: Seth Rollins

In one of the best matches of the night that started the main show sizzling, Seth Rollins, finally felled Dolph Ziggler and became a two-time Intercontinental Champion. Interference spots were kept to an enjoyable minimum, and did the job they needed to do to add some depth to this story.

It was definitely the proper decision. The championship is in far better hands with Seth Rollins than it is with Dolph Ziggler. This will ultimately open the door to Drew McIntyre's breakout and, potentially, the rivalry between Seth Rollins and a heel Dean Ambrose that fans have been clamouring for.

Loser: Kevin Owens

This is what a real burial looks like. In a little under two minutes, Kevin Owens was destroyed by Braun Strowman. There were no shenanigans, no interference spots from Jinder Mahal, and pleasingly, no Dumb Babyface Syndrome present. Braun just destroyed Kevin Owens flat.

While it was certainly the correct decision, as Owens has proven over and over again that he doesn't belong in the main event picture with his main roster booking, it was surprising to see how little protection he got.

But what goes around comes around, as Braun Strowman would find out later on.

Loser: The SmackDown women's division

While the division is certainly in a better place now that Carmella is thankfully no longer champion, everything that fans have said about Charlotte Flair's booking being an albatross to the division showed itself last night.

The end to Carmella's abysmal reign ultimately felt unsatisfying. If Charlotte was just going to win the title back, there was no reason for her to lose it in the first place. It didn't justify the casualties incurred by Carmella's reign.

Instead, a cynic would say that Carmella's reign existed just to pad the number of Charlotte's reigns and prevent Asuka and Becky Lynch from getting too popular relative to Charlotte. And WWE has given fans plenty of reason for cynicism.

Speaking of Becky Lynch, it looked like she turned heel last night, in what was another stunning display of how out of touch WWE is with its own fanbase. After Charlotte received thunderous boos for winning the championship, Becky's supposed heel turn got one of the biggest pops of the night.

A Charlotte vs. Becky feud, if indeed it happens and WWE doesn't pull a Dr. Shelby, is a far better prospect for the division, but the wrong turn was made.

Winner: Samoa Joe

Samoa Joe proved himself more than ever in what was easily the best match of the night. With AJ Styles' family at ringside, Joe used their proximity to try to gain a psychological edge. Ring wise, it was Joe's best main roster showing to date.

He proved himself beyond a shadow of a doubt to be WWE Championship material last night.

This could have been even more than it was, were it not for the infuriating DQ finish, following on the heels of yet another DQ finish in the SmackDown tag team match beforehand.

It all reeks of WWE trying to give the feud legs without changing the title, which would be a major mistake. A Samoa Joe championship reign is what SmackDown needs right now.

Loser: Baron Corbin

In what was one of the surprises of the night, Finn Balor returned as the Demon for the first time in nearly a year. He would go on to squash Baron Corbin in the second of the night's burials.

The match was ultimately more a loss for Baron Corbin than a win for Finn Balor, however, because as soon as the Demon paint goes off, he'll be back in the exact same spot he was before.

Winner: Ronda Rousey

In a rare show of willingness to pull the trigger on a hot act, Ronda Rousey demolished Alexa Bliss last night, as she should have. Alexa Bliss is already a made superstar, so this can't quite count as a burial, but she was ultimately sacrificed on Ronda Rousey's altar.

It looks like the start of a genuinely new era in the women's division that promises more than we've seen before if the company plays its cards right (which is always a dicey proposition).

It was also certainly satisfying to see Alexa Bliss as close to buried as she'll ever be. We can consider it payback for all the burials she's done over the past two years.

Loser: Braun Strowman

In what was one of the most damning indictments of WWE's broken creative engine in a long time, Braun Strowman was brought out to watch the main event of SummerSlam simply to give the fans hope that he would cash in. Otherwise, WWE knew, the match would be treated the same way it had been at WrestleMania.

It was clever, but ultimately insulting. WWE knew there was no enthusiasm about the match, but went forward with it anyway, trying to use Braun Strowman's genuine popularity as a safety valve.

When the finish was close and he wasn't needed anymore, he was simply dispatched with ease by Brock Lesnar.

Winner: Roman Reigns

The Strowman safety valve aside, this match was genuinely better than the last two Lensar vs. Reigns matches, though that isn't saying much. The ending, however, was anticlimactic.

After Brock Lesnar was done with his beatdown on Strowman, Roman Reigns essentially caught him unawares with a spear and finally got the pinfall win. Although it was indeed a clean victory, it felt like an anticlimax and a copout to protect Lesnar. His long, torturous reign could have ended in a much more satisfying, cathartic fashion, but it was nowhere to be seen.

Reigns posed with the Universal title and the company seemingly faded to black immediately afterwards to prevent the viewing audience from hearing any boos. No pyro. No confetti. Just a quick series of poses and some credits. It was one of the lamest "coronations" in WWE history.

All that said, Roman Reigns finally got the albatross of Lesnar off his back, which can only be good for him and for Monday Night Raw. At long last, this nightmarish loop is over. Raw now has a top title on TV again, opening up the main event picture once again.

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