WWE SummerSlam 2016: Results and observations from the show

It was another marathon effort from WWE Sunday night as the company produced a little more than six hours of programming for its second-biggest event of the year, SummerSlam.

Although SummerSlam is billed as a show only topped in importance by WrestleMania, did that mean the fans at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. were treated to a show worthy of that billing?

In some ways they were, as SummerSlam did provide some very good matches and one that belongs among the best of 2016 so far.

However, in other ways it fell short of feeling like it was indeed the biggest event of the summer. That was mostly due to some questionable match placement and match outcomes that gave SummerSlam the same odd feel that WrestleMania had back in April.

What I usually do for WWE events is separate the results from my observations, but SummerSlam is one of the few WWE pay-per-views that I actually have some type of takeaway from every match on the card.

Since that is the case, I'm going to give my thoughts on each match in the order that they happened. This may get long, but it won't be any longer than SummerSlam so don't worry.

Kickoff match – American Alpha, The Hype Bros & The Usos def. The Vaudevillains, The Ascension & Breezango

There isn't much to say about this match other than I liked the ending, as it created some tension between American Alpha and The Usos.

After Jason Jordan and Chad Gable hit Simon Gotch with grand amplitude, Jey Uso tagged himself in and hit a splash from the top rope to seal the win.

That didn't sit well with Jordan and Gable, who questioned why Uso would essentially step on their toes. The Usos, on the other hand, didn't seem to care about Alpha's feelings one bit and showed as much after the match.

Kickoff matches largely mean very little, but at least this one had some storyline progression injected into it.

Kickoff match – Sami Zayn & Nevill def. The Dudley Boyz

About a month ago, Zayn defeated Owens at Battleground in one of the best matches of the year. At SummerSlam, he was thrown into a makeshift tag team with Neville to face The Dudley Boyz on the SummerSlam pre-show.

That was quite the downgrade for Zayn.

The match itself was solid and saw more malfunction conjunction from the Dudleys, who look to be inching closer and closer to a breakup.

Kickoff match – Best-of-7 (Match 1) – Sheamus def Cesaro

This sort of feels like a best-of-nine series since these two have face each other on the last two episodes of Raw, but apparently SummerSlam is only the beginning.

The match was good, but nothing we've never really seen before from these two.

Chris Jericho & Kevin Owens def. Enzo Amore & Big Cass

The main portion of the show started off with a lot of energy, as Amore and Cass electrified the crowd with their usual pre-match promo.

Amore and Cass' speech came complete with nods to the Notorious B.I.G and Frank Sinatra, which more than pleased the Brooklyn faithful.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but this was another good match. The only gripe some may have with this was that Jericho and Owens came away with the victory.

While it was good for Owens to gain another victory at SummerSlam, it came at the expense of one of the hottest acts in WWE in their hometown/area.

Amore and Cass are talented enough to bounce back from a loss, but I think this sort of deflated the crowd a little. Also, how many times have we seen Amore and Cass lose a straight-up tag team match on pay-per-view?

And I'm going all the way back to NXT when they came up short at Takeover specials time after time after time again. But like the basketballs on the court that they first met at, Amore and Cass always seem to bounce back. I'm sure they'll do the same again after their latest defeat.

WWE Women's championship – Charlotte def. Sasha Banks

In a bit of a surprising move, the Women's championship went on second. I personally expected it to go on much later in the show, but it didn't.

I had very high expectations for this match because I believe both women are extremely talented performers and the SummerSlam stage seemed ripe for them to tear down the house.

While we got a very good match, I wasn't necessarily blown away. If anything, I cringed a couple of times after seeing some of the falls — scripted or unscripted — Banks took.

The one when Charlotte dropped her from the top looked horrific upon first viewing and it clearly affected Banks the rest of the match. I cringed again when Charlotte had Banks in what looked like the razor's edge on the middle rope, but Banks managed to reverse into a hurricanrana that could have easily gone horribly wrong for both women.

The biggest story out of this was the outcome, as Charlotte managed to pin Banks while in the Banks statement to claim the WWE Women's championship for a second time, ending Banks' title reign at only 27 days.

Upon first viewing I, along with many others, were confused by this. It didn't seem to make any sense for Banks' first title reign to be cut so short.

After thinking about it a little harder, it began to make more sense. Firstly, Banks is apparently really banged up and is in need of some time off. If that is the case, dropping the championship makes some sense.

Secondly, it sets up a rubber match that if WWE promotes correctly, could be huge and potentially headline one of the upcoming Raw pay-per-views.

WWE Intercontinental championship – The Miz def. Apollo Crews

With as little buildup this match had, I'm surprised it made it onto the main card.

After watching it, I didn't feel any different.

The only way this match would have meant anything after it happened was if The Miz and Crews had a surprisingly great match and Crews walked away as the champion.

Neither of those things happened.

Instead, the match was fairly average by pay-per-view standards and The Miz retained his title with a clean victory.

There was nothing else to see here.

AJ Styles def. John Cena

This match was by far the best on the card and was probably the most shocking outcome.

That was because Styles defeated Cena in clean fashion after a match that was worthy of being considered the best wrestling has produced all year.

The victory is obviously huge for Styles, as he can now say he is one of the few men o defeat Cena clean. After losing to Jericho at WrestleMania and Roman Reigns at back-to-back pay-per-views, fans had began to wonder if Styles was being presented in the manner they feel he deserves.

That was all erased Sunday night after Styles defeated Cena and cemented himself as a top-line talent in WWE in the process.

In the span of two nights, Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Samoa Joe for the NXT championship and Styles defeated Cena at SummerSlam. What a crazy year 2016 has been in the world of professional wrestling.

After Styles soaked in his glory, the attention went to Cena, as he sat alone in the ring and received a respectful round of applause from the Brooklyn fans, who appreciated all of Cena's hard work.

Cena then took his "Never Give Up" armband off, kissed and put it on the mat before leaving the ring to continued applause. Cena looked reflective, as he walked up the ramp and went backstage.

What that moment meant is unknown.

It is widely known that Cena's schedule outside of WWE is beginning to fill up, meaning that his time away from the company may become more frequent.

But this looked more like someone entering retirement and not like someone taking a break from television.

At this point, no one knows for sure.

WWE Tag Team championship – Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson def. The New Day via disqualification

Before the match started, we got yet another SummerSlam cameo from former Daily Show host Jon Stewart.

Although Stewart announced himself as an honorary member of The New Day, the fans in Brooklyn were not all that receptive of his appearance. Maybe they still remember the debacle of him costing Cena a chance at becoming a 16-time world champion at last year's SummerSlam.

Anyway, The New Day skipped to the ring without Big E to defend their tag team titles against Gallows and Anderson, who were still donning lab coats and even broke out a new jar for Stewart. It was much smaller than the others.

The match was good, but basic and got out of sorts when Stewart jumped into the ring again. This time, it was to prevent The New Day from losing their tag team titles.

Although the fans were supposed to be happy about this, they were not. They simply wondered why Stewart was getting involved in another match.

Gallows and Anderson eventually got hold of Stewart and attempted to drag him groin-first into the ring post, but Big E made a surprise and thwarted them.

However, Big E's interference got New Day disqualified, but because of that, the trio remained champions.

After Big E cleaned house, The New Day celebrated their disqualification loss by dancing with Stewart.

I'm not sure a disqualification loss really works for babyfaces, but this wasn't really about the match or titles. This was about getting Stewart involved in something so WWE can gain some of that mainstream attention it covets so much.

WWE World championship – Dean Ambrose def. Dolph Ziggler

I thought WWE did a very good job of building up this match as something very important. The end product didn't come off that way though.

That is not to say that this was a bad match. As a matter of fact, it was very good. However, it simply didn't meet my expectations, which was a show-stealing performance from both men.

The match was fine for what it was, but I personally feel like it could have been greater.

Nikki Bella, Natalya & Alexa Bliss def. Carmella, Becky Lynch & Naomi

After missing almost a year due to neck surgery, Bella returned to action at SummerSlam and joined the Smackdown Live brand for the six-woman tag team match, replacing the suspended Eva Marie.

WWE still went through Marie's grand entrance, but did not mention the fact that she wasn't partaking in the match because of her suspension.

Instead, the announcer said that she was taking a vacation due to stress and anxiety caused by the WWE fans. I'm sure her vacation will be for exactly 30 days.

As for the match, it was decent. It was nice to see Carmella and Bliss on the big stage of SummerSlam just weeks after being called up from NXT.

At the end of the day, Bella won the match for her team by pinning Carmella and re-establishing her place near the top of the division. She did not use the rack attack like she used to, as that was part of the reason why she needed neck surgery to begin with.

WWE Universal championship – Finn Balor def. Seth Rollins

Before I talk about the match, I have to talk about the look of the new WWE Universal championship.

I have always been a fan of the aesthetics of title belts. Maybe I'm crazy, but I'm just a stickler for title belts and how they look.

With that said, I was very excited to see what the Universal title would look like. To my disappointment, it looks exactly like the WWE World title except that it's red and it says "Universal Champion" at the bottom instead of "World Heavyweight Champion."

It is not that I don't like the design. I actually do like it. I like the design of the WWE World title so I would be a hypocrite to dislike the design of the Universal title.

My issue is that it's not unique. It's just the same belt again. I understand that all of the UFC title belts look exactly the same, but that doesn't mean WWE's has to.

I also understand that WWE wants the logo to be prominent in an effort to increase brand awareness for casual and non-fans. I totally understand that and WWE is smart to do that.

I just wished it had a unique designed that differed from the WWE World and WWE Women's titles.

With that out of the way, let's get to the match. I thought that this was the second-best match on the card behind only Styles versus Cena.

However, it didn't quite knock my socks off like I expected. Maybe my personal expectations are too high, but they are warranted when you have a pair of world-class performers in the ring such as Balor and Rollins. I simply expected more, but the match was still great.

When it was all said and done, Balor pinned Rollins in clean fashion to become the first-ever WWE Universal champion.

In less than a month, Balor went from a main-roster rookie to the world champion of WWE's flagship television program. I've always said that Balor was the most important call-up in NXT history and that WWE could ill-afford to drop the ball with him.

So far, I'd say WWE has done more than enough to make Balor a top star in the eyes of the fans. I think most fans and pundits expected Balor to have some measure of success on the main roster, but not to this level this quickly.

It is nice to see WWE go out of its way to make a new star that the fans actually cheer for.

WWE United States championship between Rusev and Roman Reigns never started

When Reigns and Rusev had pay-per-view quality match on Raw this past week, I wondered if they could do anything to top that with their SummerSlam.

WWE didn't even try. Instead, they threw Reigns and Rusev out there and had them have a brawl before the match even started in an angle that could have been shot on Raw. However, it was done more than five hours into a pay-per-view.

And to think that this match happened after both of the world title matches is rather baffling.

Rusev jumped on Reigns before the match began, but Reigns eventually got the upper hand on Rusev and injured him. Doctors ran down to aid Rusev, as referees ran in to keep Reigns away from him.

Reigns obliged, but then ran back down and speared Rusev before walking away from good.

I don't see how this helped Rusev at all and he's supposed to be a champion. First you had him get beat in clean fashion on Raw and less than a week later he gets beat up after initiating the confrontation.

This all felt weird to me.

Brock Lesnar def. Randy Orton via technical knockout

As expected, Lesnar defeated Orton to continue his dominance in WWE.

What was not expected the way Lesnar won.

Lesnar and Orton had a good match going until Lesnar mounted Orton in the ring and began to rain down elbow strikes to Orton's exposed head. Lesnar did not hold back on these elbow shots and Orton paid a dear price, as he was opened up the hard way and quickly lying in a pool of his blood. The elbows left a massive gash on Orton's head, which eventually required 10 staples.

Orton lied on the ground and looked like he was miles away mentally, which caused the referee to get Lesnar off him and stop the match and reward it to the beast by way of technical knockout.

Lesnar wasn't satisfied with just winning, as he continued his assault on Orton after the bell rang. This brought out more officials and even Smackdown Live general manager Shane McMahon, who ran out to protect his investment in Orton.

The only problem was that Lesnar doesn't respect any authority and delivered an F-5 to McMahon and walked up the entrance ramp, as the show went off the air.

A lot of people had an issue with the finish (and there was a finish), but I am not one of them.

Lesnar won by TKO, which commonly happens in regular combat sports such as boxing and mixed martial arts. Since Lesnar is a former UFC Heavyweight champion, it makes sense for him to win in that fashion.

It only made him more dangerous that he busted open Orton's forehead with vicious elbows to the head and left him lying in a graphic scene. It only added to Lesnar's aura.

I saw a lot of people wonder if technical knockout was even a method of winning in WWE, as if it never happened before. It just happened in early 2015 when Owens defeated Zayn for the NXT championship.

It wasn't a bloody mess like SummerSlam's finish was, but I don't remember anyone complaining back then.

My only issue with the finish was that it didn't feel very climactic. It didn't feel like major ending to a major pay-per-view. It just sort of happened and that was it.

The fans in Brooklyn didn't really buy into it and even booed as they were filing out of the Barclays Center. That didn't help either.