WWE SummerSlam “Kickoff Show”
The WWE SummerSlam 2014 “Kickoff Show” opens up with the expert panel, which consists of Renee Young, Booker T, Alex Riley and Ric Flair. The four talk about some of the top matches on tonight’s show.
An extended video package airs to highlight the history of the Stephanie McMahon and Brie Bella feud heading into their highly anticipated match later tonight.
Back live in the arena, the panel talk some more about tonight’s McMahon vs. Bella match. I believe they just said UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion and mega-star Ronda Rousey is in the building tonight.
Rob Van Dam vs. Cesaro
We kick it to the announce team of Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler and JBL for tonight’s “Kickoff Show” match.
With that said, Rob Van Dam’s theme music hits and RVD makes his way to the ring. Out next is his opponent for tonight’s pre-show match, Cesaro, who I believe has new theme music. He also came out with a towel over his head and a big robe on.
Anyways, the final introductions are completed and it’s time for our first official match of the evening. The bell sounds to make this one official and here we go.
Early on, Van Dam takes it to “The King of Swing,” hitting a lot of his typical RVD-style moves. The action spills out to the floor, where Van Dam continues to deliver additional punishment to the former “Paul Heyman Guy.”
Back in the ring, a simple thumb to the eye from Cesaro allows him to take over the offensive lead in the match. On that note, we head to a quick mid-match commercial.
When we return from commercial, Cesaro is still in control of the action, taking it to Van Dam in the middle of the ring. Meanwhile, the announcers are basically ignoring the action in the ring to do one final hard-sell for the John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar main event title match later tonight, something that they’ve been talking about on commentary throughout the majority of this entire match.
As they continue to hype Cena vs. Lesnar, Van Dam starts making a bit of a comeback, including landing a big kick on Cesaro that knocks him out to the floor. Van Dam follows that up with a big moonsault to the floor, splashing onto Cesaro in the process. As all of this is going on, the announcers are still talking about Cena-Lesnar.
Back in the ring, Cesaro slows down RVD’s momentum with a big European uppercut. With 14 minutes left on the clock on the bottom of the screen, Van Dam leaps off the top rope, missing a Five Star Frogsplash attempt.
Van Dam heads back up to the top rope, but before he can do anything, Cesaro again stops him with a big European uppercut. Cesaro heads up after Van Dam for a superplex attempt, but Van Dam throws him off. RVD leaps off the top, but Cesaro catches him coming down with a big European uppercut yet again.
On the mat in the middle of the ring, Cesaro grabs a hold of RVD, looking for his Neutralizer finisher, but Van Dam escapes. Cesaro bitch-slaps Van Dam, which RVD responds to by hitting a big spinning kick to “The King of Swing” that floors the former “Paul Heyman Guy.” RVD heads to the top yet again, but this time he successfully connects with his Five Star Frogsplash. A three-count later and RVD is the winner.
Winner: Rob Van Dam
More SummerSlam “Kickoff Show” Coverage
After the match, with 11 minutes left in the “Kickoff Show,” we head back to the expert panel where the four talk briefly about the RVD-Cesaro match we just witnessed.
From there, Renee Young introduces a video package for the winner of the Totino’s “Show us your Superstar” contest. From there, the winner of the contest joins the foursome at the expert panel table.
They wrap up the contest winner stuff and the focus returns to more SummerSlam talk. They start discussing the Roman Reigns vs. Randy Orton match scheduled for tonight. Flair calls Orton the best performer in WWE today.
Now the gang talks about the $9.99 price tag for a WWE Network subscription, before another Cena vs. Lesnar video package airs. Much like the build-up for Cena-Lesnar over the past several weeks, the final hype for their match during this “Kickoff Show” has been great. They are really pushing it to the point that it feels like something really big. Almost like a boxing or UFC “big fight” atmosphere for tonight’s main event.
After one final elaborate Cena vs. Lesnar video package airs, the “Kickoff Show” wraps up and we head into the pay-per-view portion of tonight’s big event.
Hulk Hogan Kicks Off SummerSlam
WWE SummerSlam opens with the theme music of none other than WWE Hall Of Famer Hulk Hogan.
Hogan comes out, standing at the top of the stage and talks about how history will be made tonight. Hogan does a “$9.99” plug for the WWE Network, the price of which the fans in the arena chant along with Hogan.
“The Hulkster” mentions the next six pay-per-views that WWE is putting on, noting that if you subscribe to the WWE Network, you can watch all of them for only “$9.99,” brother. His theme music hits again and that’ll do it for the Hogan opener.