4 reasons why SummerSlam was the best WWE pay-per-view of 2018 so far

#2 Short and sweet from Raw

The Demon's appearance was a nice surprise.

As mentioned earlier, Raw’s build-up to the Biggest Party Of The Summer was not the best. In fact, it was pretty average, with only the top matches picking steam towards the last few weeks. Also, the action was also not the most exciting WWE had to offer.

Matches such as Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar, Kevin Owens vs Braun Strowman and Finn Balor vs Baron Corbin were all rematches from previous pay-per-views, that did not impress. There was no reason for us to be excited for, or see any of it. But they did make them all worthwhile and kept them as short as possible.

Kevin Owens vs Braun Strowman was predictably a squash match and did not need to be anything more, although Owens desperately requires something new. WWE brought out the Demon, in a great surprise, to face Baron Corbin, completely justifying the inclusion of Balor vs Corbin on the SummerSlam main card.

Both Owens and Corbin got zero offence in during their respective matches. Also, Ronda Rousey vs Alexa Bliss lasted four minutes in a weird but satisfying match for the Raw Women's Championship. WWE avoided drawing out any of the matches beyond their prime efficiency, this saved the crowd’s energy for the matches that would steal the show.

However, the booking of the main event must go down as a genius move, if a little backward and misleading. In order to avoid the crowd completely crapping on Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar, Braun Strowman came out and announced that he was cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase on the winner. This kept fan interest and excitement levels up, knowing that Strowman was going to face the winner of the match.

However, the Monster was taken out of the equation by Lesnar during the match and Roman Reigns finally defeated the Beast to win the Universal Championship. The match only lasted six minutes, continuing the trend of Raw’s bouts being kept short and sweet.

The crowd was into Reigns winning as they thought that Strowman was going to cash in, but it did not happen. The Big Dog stood tall at the end of the show, as the Brooklyn crowd was baited into cheering for the one guy they hated with a passion.

Now that the WWE universe has been trolled by the company in such a way, the cheers will not stick. Despite what is to follow, fair play must be given to WWE for achieving the impossible. They got the crowd to cheer for Roman Reigns as he finally beat Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship.