Summerslam (2015)

Summerslam (2015) was a pay-per-view event produced and uploaded by ProJaked and took place on August 24th 2015

Build-up

Heading into this event, the Raw tag team division had kind of fallen by the wayside. There were a couple of teams out there, but none had looked like true competitiors for the reigning World Tag Team champions Big Show and Rey Mysterio aka The World's Largest Underdogs. However, a team had been formed shortly after Money in the Bank that wanted their chance, Scott Steiner and Goldberg aka the 2 Man Power Trip. By process of elimination, the 2 Man Power Trip were technically the #1 contenders, but Goldberg said that he wanted to earn the title shot, not be handed it. He then challenged the only other team worthy of a shot at the time, The Rude Generation, to a handicap match for the shot at Summerslam which he then won. Meanwhile the previous couple of weeks had seen Mark Henry destroying, in separate matches, Rey Mysterio, then Big Show. On the final Raw before Summerslam, a contenders vs. champions match took place and although Steiner did not get the victory, Rey was the one defeated in the match, making the World's Largest Underdogs continue to look like underdogs heading into Summerslam.

On the Smackdown 3 weeks before Summerslam, 2 battle royals took place with the winners of each fighting the following week to determine the number 1 contender for the Intercontinental championship. In the first battle royal, while obvious favorites Undertaker and Austin Aries seemed poised to win, Ted DiBiase Jr came out of nowhere to eliminate Samoa Joe, Neville, Undertaker, and Austin Aries (the only other elimination was Sami Zayn at the hands of Undertaker) to move on to the next week. Meanwhile in the second battle royal, featuring another list of huge stars, it was Stone Cold eliminating Rock, Christian, and Matt Hardy (while other entrants Edge and Titus O'Neil had been eliminated by Matt Hardy and Christian respectively) to move on to the next week. The following week, in a surprising upset to many, Ted DiBiase Jr managed to put Stone Cold away with Dream Street to earn the title shot at Summerslam. Meanwhile Randy Orton, while failing to stop Ultimo Dragon from being able to cash in his World title shot at Summerslam, went on a path of rage he's famous for, making short work of Jack Swagger, putting down one half of the WWE Tag Team champions Bobby Fish, putting away both Matt Hardy and Austin Aries, and putting down Titus O'Neil on the final Smackdown before Summerslam. With this momentum, it looked like Orton couldn't be stopped even by the surprise emerging contender DiBiase Jr.

Trent Baretta had won himself a Fate or Fortune Briefcase a while ago and had developed a friendship with Shawn Michaels during that time. They first fought as a tag team with a victory over the team that had failed to win the ECW Tag Team championships at Vengeance, The Dudley Boyz. It was then announced later on that Trent had decided to cash in his briefcase for him and HBK to challenge for the Tag titles at Summerslam. After picking up another victory against the New Nexus, it appeared as if the team was on a roll despite Trent losing to Cesaro on the ECW before Summerslam. Meanwhile the One Percenters continued their dominant run over the ECW tag team division. After defeating the Dudleyz at Vengeance, Brodus suffered his first loss when Seth Rollins defeated him in a one on one match, but that was just a minor speed bump because EC3 defeated Alberto Del Rio on a episode of Velocity, they defeated Tajiri and Hideo Itami on ECW, and they defeated Sheamus and Jimmy Jacobs just days before Summerslam, making the match at Summerslam even more intriguing with the amount of momentum both teams had.

When Brock Lesnar had seemingly destroyed Roman Reigns, many were shocked. However, when reports of Reigns being injured because of that surfaced, there was one person who was happy about that. Luke Harper, who had a Fate or Fortune briefcase for a midcard title shot, announced that he was cashing that in and challenging Reigns for the US title on the Raw after Money in the Bank despite Reigns' injury and won the title on that night. Reigns meanwhile went away to fully heal his injuries. But Reigns didn't forget about what happened. On the Raw after Vengeance he returned, defeating Bray Wyatt, while earlier in the night Harper had won a non-title 4 way match over DDP, Damien Sandow, and AJ Styles, eliminating them all. The following week Reigns found himself a partner in the form of Triple H and defeated the Wyatt Family with a spear on Bray. The week after that, Reigns became the number 1 contender for the United States championship by defeating his partner the week before, Triple H. 2 weeks before Summerslam Reigns defeated Daniel Bryan while Harper lost to Triple H in a non-title match. Then, on the Raw before Summerslam, Harper and Reigns were involved with the 6 man champions vs. challengers match and while neither man was involved in the final decision, with the champions losing that match, it looked as if Reigns had all of the momentum and was the clear favorite heading into Summerslam.

Cesaro's reign as ECW World Television champion is one of beauty and ugliness at the same time. Superstar after superstar were put out of action because of Cesaro's Swiss Death and Jimmy Jacobs happened to be one of them. While Cesaro continued putting people out of action, including ECW World Heavyweight champion Seth Rollins, he continued to pile up victories and title defenses, including a title retain against Ryback, a retain against HHH and Rock, and a non-title win over Adam Cole. 2 weeks before Summerslam, a 4 way match for a shot at Cesaro's championship took place and Jimmy Jacobs eliminated Mr. Perfect, watched as Seiya Sanada was eliminated, then eliminated Leo Kruger to earn the shot at redemption and revenge at Summerslam. On the final ECW before Summerslam though, Jimmy and Sheamus lost to the One Percenters while Cesaro defeated Trent in a non-title match. With that swing in momentum, plus another title retain against Shelton Benjamin, it looked as if Cesaro had all the momentum heading into Summerslam.

After the Motor City Machine Guns surprised many by defeated reDragon for the WWE Tag Team championships at Vengeance, reDragon wanted a rematch for the titles, however they would have to earn it. Despite O'Reilly's loss to Bram on the Smackdown after Vengeance, they would do just that, defeating the Real Americans the following week, then defeating Evolution in a number 1 contenders match 2 weeks before Summerslam. Meanwhile Shelley & Sabin had started their reign off with a non-title victory over Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit, a non-title victory over Power & Glory, and Sabin's following singles victory over Jericho. On the Smackdown before Summerslam however, with Shelley and Sabin not in the arena, reDragon defeated Jericho and Benoit themselves to seemingly get the final bit of momentum heading into Summerslam.

Cody Rhodes was coming off of a victory over Stone Cold and Drew McIntyre at Vengeance to retain his World Heavyweight championship and needed a new challenger for Summerslam. After defeating Christian and Stone Cold in consecutive weeks it seemed as if it didn't matter who challenged him for the belt. However, Ultimo Dragon then announced he was cashing in his Fate or Fortune World title shot... only to be told by the Smackdown GM that he first had to defeat Randy Orton to cash it in. Ultimo defeated Orton, but after the match celebrated with McIntyre and Titus O'Neil showing that he had joined forces with the Next Big Things. The following week however Cody teamed up with Dean Ambrose to defeat McIntyre and Ultimo causing the newest member of the Next Big Things to start off on shaky ground with them. 2 weeks before Summerslam Ultimo proved he could still be victorious, defeating Edge in a singles match, but Cody matched that by defeating fellow Next Big Things member O'Neil. On the Smackdown before Summerslam though, Ultimo was able to put Austin Aries away, but Cody suffered a loss to Matt Hardy, hurting his momentum and causing Ultimo to look like he had the upper hand heading into Summerslam.

After Seth Rollins was injured at the hands of Cesaro, he came back to defend his title against Eddie Guerrero at Vengeance only to have his head kicked into the post by Eddie to end the match, causing further injury. To make things worse, Eddie showed up on the ECW following Vengeance wearing the old silver ECW championship belt and proclaiming that because of what he did to Rollins, he was now the ECW champion. However, Rollins didn't stay out for long, coming back the following week and defeating one half of the ECW Tag Team champions, the undefeated to that point Brodus Clay, while Eddie lost to Ryback earlier in the night after hitting Ryback with a chair. Eddie, annoyed by Rollins' return that soon, decided to attack him from behind with a pipe after Rollins' victory over Big E 2 weeks before Summerslam. Then on the final ECW before Summerslam Eddie easily put away Kalisto while Rollins defeated Michael Bennett only to be attacked from behind by Eddie once again, showing that Eddie had all of the momentum heading into their encounter.

Mark Henry's dominance on Raw was pretty clear. Superstar after superstar were inducted into the Hall of Pain, including Dolph Ziggler at Vengeance. Henry had said that he wasn't going to compete in the main event of Raw anymore because there was no competition, so he'd have a quick short match and go home. That continued with his dominance over Chris Hero, Kane, Rey Mysterio, and Big Show in consecutive weeks. However, there was a new face appearing to challenge Henry and try to stop his reign of dominance. After defeating Henry's last challenger Ziggler, Finn Balor proclaimed that he wanted a shot at the WWE championship. So Henry granted him once... provided that he could win a gauntlet match against three former World champions. Balor surprised everyone though by defeating Dolph Ziggler, Scott Steiner, and Daniel Bryan to earn the shot against Henry at Summerslam. Some considered Steiner's loss in the match shady due to the quickness of it, believing that Steiner "laid down" for Balor out of respect and wanting to see him get the title shot, but Balor proved that to be just a rumor when he defeated Steiner in a highly-contested singles match the following week, then defeated Jeff Jarrett the week after that. Balor and Henry were both involved in that champions vs. challengers 6 man tag match that took place before Summerslam and Balor picked up even more momentum by getting the pinfall on Mysterio in that match. With both men full of momentum heading into Summerslam, it was sure to be a great match overall.

Results

Aftermath

After the show, The World's Largest Underdogs lost to Bad Influence in a match for a shot at the World Tag Team titles and ended up splitting up because of it, being drafted to separate shows. After Night of Champions, the 3 midcard champions (Jimmy Jacobs, Luke Harper, and Randy Orton) all lost their belts while all 3 tag team championships were successfully defended. Lesnar's shocking cash-in only remained shocking for a short while because Dean Ambrose cashed in his Money in the Bank contract at Night of Champions and defeated Lesnar for the title. Meanwhile, after the draft happened, the entire ProJaked universe was shaken up and while some feuds continued, many started down other roads.