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WWE SummerSlam 2008 (DVD)

Published By: Daniel Needham On: 04/12/2008 10:00

In the top three events of the year.

There’s always an air of anticipation lurking over Summerslam, touted by WWE as their biggest event of the American summer, and even I sometimes get worked up for the ‘summer special’. It was host to the best WWE pay-per-view I have seen back in 2002 with great matches all across the card. However the quality since then has been more of a mixed bag, and the WWE are hoping to hit one out of the park with this important member of the ‘Big 4’ pay-per-views.

The card looks very good with some interesting matches thrown in, as well as some added stipulations on top. The dual main events of Batista vs. John Cena and Edge vs. The Undertaker in a Hell In a Cell match had plenty of fan interest in them, and were booked reasonably well heading in to the event.

Meanwhile the undercard matches had potential, but like any undercard bouts it really depends on what happens on the night to see if they ‘sink or swim’, as little to no back-story, except title-matches, takes place beforehand, as is commonplace with matches in that position.

But fortunately on this night the event went down very well, and will probably end up being in the top three pay-per-views of the year. Match of the night honours went to the Hell In a Cell bout, as it was a thoroughly satisfying main-event, with some slow passages, but they were more than made up for with a few huge spots and a terrific finishing sequence and a feud ending finish to boot afterwards.

A close runner-up would have been the Raw main event, as two of the WWE’s stars of the future battled out a surprisingly enjoyable match, which combined the two wrestlers’ abilities well and kept it at a pace which never became frantic or mundane.

The rest of the card performed at a level between pay-per-view standard and above average, and it’s matches like this that help the main events look even more spectacular, as a solid undercard will always attest to at the very least a decent event. Worthy of mention are the mixed gender tag match and the opener between MVP and Jeff Hardy, which helped get the night off to a flying start.

The only matches that struggled to capture the imagination were in fact the title ones, as it proves that hype around the belts alone will not directly cross-over to the match itself, as some questionable booking decisions really show as the quality of the three title bouts (WWE, World Heavyweight and ECW) is down on what one would expect for a title match at a pay per view, but to their credit were still very watchable.

The undercard and dual main events really held up WWE Summerslam 2008, and provided the base for what will be a worthy DVD purchase, despite some minor flaws.