“The Largest Occasion of the Summer time” (are they nonetheless utilizing that branding? I do not assume they’re nonetheless utilizing that branding) has come to an finish. WWE SummerSlam 2024 is within the books and the present featured loads of ups and downs. For a listing of issues the workers beloved and hated, there’s our trusty Beloved & Hated column, and should you want outcomes, that is what our fastidious outcomes web page is for, now it is time to speak in regards to the two most vital groupings in skilled wrestling: winners and losers.
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Sure, successful and dropping are an integral a part of skilled wrestling, however typically who “received” and who “misplaced” aren’t as lower and dry as they could seem within the ring. From the show-opening world title match to the show-closing world title match, there have been loads of winners, losers, and world title matches all through the three-hour occasion. Let’s break all of them down right here.
Winner: Jelly Roll
Jelly Roll may be very a lot having a second within the WWE Universe. In a world that’s usually divorced from popular culture to the purpose that even iconic Jim Johnston and CFO$ WWE themes have been excised in favor of thrifty jams from Def Insurgent, at any time when WWE embraces a star from outdoors of wrestling, the corporate holds quick. Like Pitbull, The Weeknd, Child Rock, and Snoop Dogg earlier than him, Jelly Roll now will get to be the recording star dwelling out his goals on the WWE stage, aiding Superior Fact in dispatching A-City Down.
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Jelly Roll delivered a surprisingly stable Chokeslam and did not look out of step delivering a triple 5 Knuckle Shuffle with The Miz and R-Fact. Jelly Roll additionally acquired to carry out greater than his single “Liar,” on Saturday, as he was additionally tasked with singing “America The Lovely,” a job usually outsourced to extra conventional singers or native youth choirs.
Who is aware of how far Jelly Roll Mania will go? Together with his common involvement in WWE’s huge exhibits, it may solely be a matter of time earlier than Jelly Roll joins his fellow tattoo fanatic Put up Malone in a WWE sport.
Loser: The Idea Of World Title Matches
WWE SummerSlam was principally world title matches. There have been seven matches and 4 of them have been for a title thought-about a World Championship by WWE. The World Heavyweight Championship and the Girls’s World Championship are fairly apparent, “world” is true there within the identify, after which the Undisputed WWE Championship and the WWE Girls’s Championship.
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I’m not Bully Ray. I’m not going to get into the semantics of there being 4 world championships and certainly one of them being known as “undisputed.” However I do assume that after you are principally constructing the PPV (PLE, no matter) out of world title matches, the complete idea of a world title match is diluted. Contemplating what number of hours of programming WWE has, I do not even have an issue with them having 4 world titles. They’ve sufficient programming hours in a yr that every one may conceivably be handled like “a giant deal.” But when the world title matches are simply gonna be crammed into one present, then it will get a bit bland and a bit same-y.
Add to that the truth that three of the world title matches featured some sort of private betrayal, and the allegations of constructing the present repetitive solely strengthen. Dominik Mysterio betrayed Rhea. Finn Balor betrayed Damian Priest. Roman Reigns betrayed Solo Sikoa. Hell, two of these betrayals are that includes the identical faction. What are we doing?
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Winner: Roman Reigns
It is gotta rule to be Roman Reigns. The person hasn’t proven as much as work in roughly 4 months, however exhibits up as soon as, does the naked minimal, and is instantly again within the place he was earlier than he left. He is principally early-season Don Draper from “Mad Males,” f***ing off with out discover and someway getting a promotion out of it. An Anti-Work Icon.
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Reigns’s return actually put a stamp on simply how broad the gulf is between Roman Reigns and just about everybody else. Reigns is now not champion however he is nonetheless the principle character of WWE, and now he is a very good man, which could make him an much more Irresistible Power within the coming months.
Followers have been thrilled with Reigns’s return, substantiating his assertion that he’s nonetheless the “unique Tribal Chief,” it doesn’t matter what Solo Sikoa says. With Battle Video games on the horizon, Reigns is prone to be central to the Bloodline Civil Battle to return. With the Royal Rumble on the horizon, a title-less Reigns is a transparent favourite within the titular match. With John Cena’s retirement on the horizon, Reigns seems like a must-book opponent for Cena’s farewell tour. The solar rises and units round Roman Reigns, and that does not appear to be it’ll change any time quickly.
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Loser: Actually Everybody Else, Particularly Solo Sikoa
As I simply stated, should you’re not Roman Reigns, you do not imply Jack S*** in WWE proper now, and that’s going to be brutal for actually everybody else in WWE. Reigns is the principle character, the solar rises and units wi-…Cling on, I simply did that already.
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You get it, Reigns is “The Protagonist” and everybody else is a supporting participant. The issue is that everybody else has to point out as much as work on Friday. “WWE Uncooked” would possibly have the ability to separate itself from the Roman Reigns energy vacuum over on Netflix, however the subsequent yr of “WWE SmackDown” goes to be everybody standing round saying “The place’s Roman? I certain want Roman was right here” whereas Cody Rhodes smiles with the title like a goofball.
Reigns hasn’t been the Undisputed WWE Champion in over 4 months and he is nonetheless crucial individual within the firm. It is a horrible search for Rhodes, who now carries his championship like a cuckold, initially unable to defeat The Bloodline with out assist from WWE legends, and now unable to defeat The Bloodline with out Reigns himself. Cody can cosplay because the face of the corporate, however the firm continues to be clearly behind Roman Reigns. “The Authentic Tribal Chief” is the face of the corporate and, contemplating Becky Lynch being AWOL, presumably even in rivalry for being “The Man.”
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Even worse are the prospects for Solo Sikoa and his new Bloodline, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, and the presumably injured Jacob Fatu. Sikoa was struggling to appear to be a reliable risk within the construct to SummerSlam however a loss, coupled with the return of Reigns has shifted him within the cultural kaleidoscope, and never for the higher, and that trickles all the way down to the remainder of The New Bloodline, and everybody The New Bloodline has crushed up over the previous few months. Sikoa appears like a paper chief and his declare to a spot in WWE’s foremost occasion scene is wanting much less defensible by the day. Everybody not named “Roman Reigns” simply acquired a serious demotion however will nonetheless have to hold the programming whether or not they’re appreciated for it or not.
