Bang For Your Buck PPV Review: SummerSlam 2013

World Heavyweight Championship Match

Alberto Del Rio (C) defeats Christian to retain World Heavyweight Championship

What Will Happen: A meh match that elicits a meh crowd reaction where approximately 90% of Christian’s moves are telegraphed well in advance, with the only crowd reaction coming from his incessant clapping and the only saving grace coming from the fact that he has no chance to win this match.”

I was wrong about this match. Mostly because I forgot that Alberto Del Rio has entered a Bret Hart zone where all of his matches are technically proficient and aesthetically pleasing. We should be rooting for the style of match and work that Alberto Del Rio specializes in.

As the WHC turns into the Intercontinental championship (in a good way), guys like him — people who have a strong in-ring character (brutal fucking shark monster), a great workrate and the ability to work a variety of different styles within the context of their in-ring character (see: Wyatt, Bray) — are going to be extremely important in making it a true secondary title, as opposed to the “other white meat” level when it was a SmackDown!-only title and the “other other white meat” status it’s had since they combined brands. If not for the two main events, this would have been considered one of the best matches of the year. Instead it will known as the “secret really good match on this card”, which ain’t bad.

Match: +.9

PPV: +1.6

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2 Comments

  1. […] to be the best. There has to be space on Raw for these kinds of stories. Nick mentioned in his SummerSlam column earlier this week how he felt Del Rio was slowly evolving the World Heavyweight championship into a […]

  2. […] those who missed the SummerSlam review, the criteria for these is simply: “Did I get my money’s worth?” in terms of the individual […]

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