2020 was a fantastic year, if you’re first, middle and last name is bourgeois.
In all seriousness, 2020 was my battlefield earth in that it sucked but what didn’t suck was the pandemic-era PLEs.
For the most part, I enjoyed them mainly because those shows were 2 and a half to almost 3 hours long. As somebody that lives outside of North America and sees the sky still dark so that I’ll get a few hours of sleep before work (or uni depending on the day), I truly appreciated that.
The pandemic/Thunderdome era PLE that I love the MOST is the 33rd annual Summerslam show aka Summerslam 2020. Let’s answer the headline’s question, is it the best Summerslam show in the modern era? The answer, in my humble opinion, is an undisputed yes.
Why’s that? Well, let’s run down the card to tell ya why.
MVP got a sweet new title made only to lose it to APOOLLLLOOOOOOOO on RAW and then lose it again during the pre-show.
If you think about it, that’s how Vince McMahon booked MVP throughout his first run with WWE. During a creative meeting way back when, he probably said, “Most Valuable Player? More like Minimum Valuable Performer, am I right? *Vince McMahon laughs*”
Speaking of Ls, Asuka actually took one in a fantastic opening match with Bayley who along with Sasha Banks, were THE highlight of the pandemic era programming.
Fortunately for Asuka, she did take the W by regaining the RAW women’s championship from the now Mercedes Cash Mone in a fantastic bout.
The Street Profits had a short but solid encounter with Angel Garza (remember him?) and Andrade for the red tag belts.
The only thing I remember from this feud was Zelina poisoning Montez Ford only to later get her sh*t kicked in by Bianca Belair during Vega’s live stream on Twitch. Pog?
A conclusion to a well-booked feud between Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville led to another piece in the GOATED Telenova saga in the Seth Rollins and Dominik Mysterio match in a street fight. My man Seth was on the F Dominik train since day one. There’s a reason why he calls himself a visionary.
The WWE title match between Drew Mcintrye and Randy Orton was by far my match of the night although the feud itself did overstay its welcome which was and to some extent, still a common practice in WWE’s booking (the year 2018 was the worst example of that). The main event for the blue belt between Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt was nothing to write home about. However, the ending was because of a certain tribal chief that should be acknowledged more times than ever (something that The Usos now hate), Roman Reigns. Reigns’ return to WWE from a several-month hiatus has made such an impact on not only the main event storytelling as a whole but as well as how they approach writing said main event storytelling.
In just a couple of weeks, I went from not thinking of Jey Uso being in the title picture to after seeing the feud unfold weeks after Roman won the universal title thinking, “You know what, I buy that”. Now that’s how you write storylines and make me invested in the overall presentation which is something WWE rarely executes especially at that time.
The ending wasn’t the only great thing about this show, it was also WWE putting the W in wrestling because that shines bright like a diamond, to quote Rihanna as well as the pacing of the show. In other words, I really enjoyed the go-home show of Payback 2020 which happened the week after Summerslam.
