Summerslam Poll Results

Thumbs Up: 131 (32.7%)
Thumbs Down: 149 (37.2%)
Thumbs in the Middle: 121 (30.2%)

Best Match Poll

John Cena vs. Edge: 224
Ric Flair vs. Mick Foley: 91
Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Orton: 27
DX vs. McMahon's: 23

Worst Match Poll

Batista vs. Booker T: 183
Big Show vs. Sabu: 84
Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Orton: 49
DX vs. McMahon's: 34
Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero: 33


The "biggest party of the summer" ended up being just another
monthly PPV. Despite having so much star power, the show fell flat.
With seven apparently big matches it came across as a transitional
show rather than an event where issues ended. Dave said there is
nothing wrong with inconclusive finishes to build, but that this
show had them for no real reason other than to have them. Even
worse, four of the seven matches had the same finish of a woman
interfering, and it went from ridiculous to beyond ridiculous. In
the case of Vickie Guerrero it was a step in the storyline, which
Dave calls as nauseating a storyline as the company as ever done.
Dave says as bad as it looks, he can understand the company's
mentality. In there eyes, they are helping Vickie out by making her
a heel manager because it gives her a better income than she could
otherwise get and feel they are honoring Eddie. The problem is that
only the biggest WWE apologist would see it as not exploiting Eddie,
and the crowd showed that by turning on the match, and the fans have
shown that over the past few weeks by not caring about the feud at
all. The company goes back and forth on crowd reactions by either
listening to them or pushing back even harder, and in this case the
company will be pushing back and are determined to see this angle
through.

Dave understood the Melina finish in the I Quit match and thought it
was clever as part of the storyline. Said Foley was never going to
let Flair say "I Quit", and that it would take something beyond
physical punishment to get Foley to say it without violating his
entire character.

Said that with them having those two finishes, which is one too
many, the Sharmell interference finish in the Batista vs. Booker T
match was a bad idea. Also said it was telling of them having no
ideas because there were numerous other DQ finishes they could have
done, seeing as it wasn't going to lead to anything as it was just a
way to get out of beating Batista or changing the title.

Said the finish to the main event, with Lita interfering, would have
been fine except for what happened on the undercard and the match
stipulation and said it ended a damn good main event by rubbing in
how bad the overall booking of the show was.

Said the match quality was ok and apart from the ECW and World title
matches nothing was bad as far as the wrestling goes. Called it a
mix bag, with a show that should have had memories having nothing
you'd really remember except for a lot of blood in the I Quit match
and the Hogan comeback.

Said the Cena vs. Edge match was the best match, but no better than
most WWE PPV main events and calling it the same good match they've
been having at house shows since the start of the year.

Called Foley vs. Flair a bloodbath of major proportions and said
that if it was 20 years ago it would have been considered a gruesome
classic but that it wasn't long enough or diverse enough to be
labeled a classic. Dave said that it felt like the blood and barbed
was done just for the sake of it, but that it wound up telling the
only real story in a match of the whole night.

Said the live crowd considered Hogan the biggest thing on the show,
and said he treated Orton as a stooge for his routine as opposed to
a serious opponent, but it worked as well as anything on the show
and it led to some funny insider stuff…

Hogan did the crotch chop to Orton as a buzz to Shawn Michaels as
the two haven't any interaction since the year before where Michaels
spent hours trying to get to beat Hogan to no avail due to Hogan
having creative control. Later on at Summerslam, Hunter did Hogan's
ear cupping deal to get a reaction and got less than half the
reaction Hogan did earlier and you could tell Hunter was bothered by
that. However, at Raw the next night, when Vince and Kevin Dunn were
telling people how much of a success the show was and how the DX vs.
McMahon's angle was the hottest in the company, they specifically
said that DX outdid Hogan and that is now the official company line
as to what happened at the show.

While Hogan had the sympathy in-built from the knee injury and it
could have made the match famous with Hogan battling valiantly but
losing in the end because of the knee, Hogan didn't see it that way
and won instead in a match that was forgotten the next day. Said
given how the booking committee works, you can't blame Hogan or
Foley for doing what they were able to do with creative control, and
that it also showed the difference between the two. Hogan is all for
his own legacy, which Dave said is fine because it's a business
where selfishness is a virtue, at least for your own career. Foley
was for creating a story where he could lose but in doing so elevate
Melina, who he is friends with and wanted to give the main event rub
to.

The show drew a sellout of 16,168, with about 13,500 paid. The gate
is likely to be around $800,000.

Chavo Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio: **1/4. JBL got heat for his comment
about Eddie falling off the wagon, and for something he said later
in the show about Batista crying like a bitch when he had to give up
the title.
Big Show vs. Sabu: *1/2. Called it a garbage style match and not
even a good one.
Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Orton: **1/4.
Ric Flair vs. Mick Foley: ***1/2. Said that the fans chanting "we
want fire" during the heavy bloodshed gave it a sense of them
viewing it a geek show performance rather than a dramatic wrestling
match.
Batista vs. Booker T: ˝*. Almost everyone Dave spoke with internally
were pretty open regarding Batista's work. Said Batista was slow and
tentative, with none of the explosiveness he used to have, and with
his age, losing some size and his injuries said all he has going for
him now is the star power he got from playing off of Hunter and
Flair.
DX vs. Vince and Shane: ***1/4.
Edge vs. John Cena: ***3/4. Said the story once again was Cena
getting booed, and how heavily he was booed depended on where in the
building you were, with reports of the crowd being anywhere from 40%-
75% pro-Cena.

Other News

WWE and Sci-Fi are close to signing a new deal for ECW.

On the 8/15 ECW show, the Foley beatdown by Knox and Test was meant
to lead to Sandman, Dreamer and Foley vs. Test, Knox and someone
else the following week. When Foley decided the blowoff to his angle
would the match with Flair and combined with the angle the next
night, it made the idea redundant. Foley didn't nix the beatdown,
but because the match it was to have led to got scrapped, the
beatdown made no sense.

The 12/3 ECW PPV will be held at the Richmond County Civic Center in
Augusta, GA, and will be called the December to Dismember.

Matt Striker and Hardcore Holly were moved to the ECW brand this
week.

Kurt Angle was being examined over his groin injury on 8/21, and
there is now fear that he has a new injury. The Angle/ECW deal has
gotten worse in the last few weeks, with people having apparently
gone to Vince and John Laurinitis to get Angle taken out of ECW
after Angle supposedly said he didn't' want to be in ECW unless he
got a main event title push. Angle's biggest issues are non-
wrestling. Angle's family relies on him for financial and emotional
support and his wife, who is pregnant with his first son, is leaving
him again. Dave mentioned that that would throw anyone for a loop,
but combine that with Angle's breaking down, and his denial of it,
and it could see some major issues down the line.

The 2007 PPV schedule looks like this: New Year's Revolution on 1/7
in Kansas City at the Kemper Arena, Royal Rumble on 1/28 at the SBC
Center in San Antonio, No Way Out on 2/18 at the Staples Center in
Los Angeles, Wrestlemania on 1/ 4 at Ford Field in Detroit, Backlash
on 4/29 at the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Judgment Day on 5/20 at
Savvis Center in St. Louis, and One Night Stand on 6/10 at the
Hammerstein Ballroom.

While Vince was snapping at people on Raw, he was also snapping at
people in real life backstage as he was in a foul mood.

There is apparently a list of words that announces are no longer
allowed to say on-air, including the terms "belt" and "strap". They
are banned from WWE, OVW and DSW, because Vince thinks they are
linked to old-time wrestling.