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WWE SummerSlam 2017, the alleged biggest party of the summer, is finally in the history books. It was a show that deserved a fair amount of praise thanks to an exciting main event, a couple of above average tag team matches, and a few other decent contests sprinkled throughout the card. If one had to edit it down to the length of a more typical pay-per-view and only included the good stuff, it would probably have been a really good card.
The ability to edit out the weak sections of the show didn't happen because it's a live broadcast. For those of us that watched the entire shindig, there were more than a few moments that were completely outrageous. From Shawn Michael's unannounced return to Enzo Amore's grand escape from his shark cage, there were a few odd moments on the show. They are about to be dissected as some sense is attempted to be made of it all.
Also ahead are a couple of moments from two of the better wrestling bouts of the night. The two spotlighted are moments of improvision that, assuming nobody was injured, added to the overall enjoyment of their respective matches.
5. The return of HBK... sort of
It seems like a horrible decision to bring the legendary Shawn Michaels onto the second biggest wrestling show of the year and not advertise him ahead of time. In fact, it's almost criminal to put his appearance on the pre-show. This all sounds like terrible business decisions on WWE's behalf until it's revealed what WWE actually did with him.
Shawn Michaels did not appear in the pre-taped portion of this KFC advertisement along with Mojo Rawley, Heath Slater, Becky Lynch, and several others. What he did do was come out to the arena in full Colonel Sanders garb to the confusion of every single person watching. He still used his WWE music and did all of his Heartbreak Kid mannerisms in an awkward way to make the sponsors happy.
This was all very strange, but it got people talking. That's probably good in the minds of the advertisers.
#4 Cesaro vs. a beach ball
This was a weirdly satisfying moment during the Raw Tag Team Championship Match. The Brooklyn crowd had a beach ball bouncing around the arena, which is usually something a bored crowd will pull in an attempt to entertain themselves. The Swiss Cyborg felt like it was all unjustified.
Cesaro ran into the crowd and confiscated the poolside toy to the overwhelming cheers of the crowd. Even the announcers had no choice but to address the situation after Cesaro did what he did.
To be fair to Cesaro, his match wasn't the best time for the crowd to play with a beach ball. He & Sheamus had an entertaining tag match with Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose that really delivered in the closing minutes.
#3 Getting out of the shark cage
The stipulation to the Big Show vs. Big Cass match was that Enzo Amore had to be hung high above the ring inside a shark cage. From the start, things seemed a little off when the cage looked way lower than when Chris Jericho was inside one back in January. Why would they put it so low? Show or Cass could've jumped up and touched it if they wanted to.
The reason that it was lower than normal was that Enzo was planning an escape. He realized he was slightly too big to fit through the metal bars, so he stripped down as far as he could on a PG show. Getting rid of his loose clothing didn't get the job done, so he then tried the Joey Ryan trick of lubing himself up to squeeze through. Lube must be a normal thing he always carries on him, just in case. That did the trick.
Enzo then shimmied down the cage into the ring. Waiting below for him was a big boot from his former tag-team partner. It doesn't seem like the Smacktalker Skywalker thought that tactic out too well.
#2 AJ fixed the misstep
It's fun to watch two elite guys like Kevin Owens and AJ Styles wrestle because even when they mess up, they fix stuff on the fly. During their United States Championship Match, it was evident at the start of this sequence that AJ was attempting a crucifix roll-up on KO. It's hard to tell precisely what went wrong, but Styles wasn't getting what he wanted and quickly changed his intentions.
Styles' Plan B that he likely thought up on the spot was to do a schoolboy roll-up instead. He kept on with a seamless transition into a Styles Clash, something that wouldn't have been a possibility with a crucifix. This may technically be a botch, but it's also a testament to just how good AJ is.
#1 Bloody Braun Strowman
The main event of SummerSlam was amazing. Four beefy behemoths entered the ring and completely destroyed each other. There's so much to love about a formula like that.
When monstrous men bring the violence, there's sure to be a cut or a bruise from time to time and that's exactly what happened here for the Monster Among Men. The first time Roman Reigns tried to smack him with the steel ring steps, it clipped him behind the temple.
Roman connected with the pointy part of the steps instead of the flat sides. It appears that this one's on The Big Dog. Braun appeared okay as the match went on, even though there was a crimson ear muff on the left side of his head. This minor injury shouldn't interfere with any automobile flipping he plans on doing in the near future.
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