That RULED

I was just as loud as anyone while railing against WWE deciding to headline this year’s SummerSlam with yet another Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns title match. Mostly, I just wanted it to be done and over with, despite rather enjoying each of the matches they’ve had together.

By the time they finally got together to make it happen tonight (Sun., Aug. 19, 2018) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, I was exhausted. It was six hours into the show, the crowd seemed gone, and with a seemingly certain outcome the only reason to keep going was just to see it through to the end, genuine excitement or anticipation be damned.

Then it happened.

And it RULED.

Brock Lensar and Roman Reigns are magic together, in part because they’re two big ol’ big men throwing heavy shots, in part because WWE usually throws its typical playbook out the window for their matches, in part because everyone has some kind of feeling about them; really, they’re just great pro wrestlers who never shrink in the spotlight. There was a legitimate challenge here, to make this anything other than bad, and I’ll be damned if these two titans didn’t rise up to meet it.

They exceeded all expectations.

The booking was strong too, as they figured out a clever way to get around Braun Strowman’s promise of a Money in the Bank cash-in — perhaps to his detriment, admittedly enough. But they had to do something with it. This story needed this end, and they finally gave it to us.

As for that crowd, well, the same guys they were chanting “you both suck” at had them eating up everything they were doing. That’s how good they both are and how little it ever mattered that any of us concerned ourselves with such a silly thing. They grabbed us from the opening bell and kept us until it was over.

And they did this at the end of a show that never seemed like it would have one.

Truly remarkable.