WWE SummerSlam 2017: Results and observations from the show

Five WWE championships changed hands, but the company's top two titles stayed put at it's second-biggest event of the year, SummerSlam, Sunday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

For that reason alone, the 30th edition of SummerSlam will at least be somewhat memorable.

While the show featured some quality matches, especially the main event, it lacked that special moment that is usually reserved for one of WWE's big four events (WrestleMania, Survivor Series and the Royal Rumble).

With that said, the show was still an entertaining watch, which was helped by a lively group of fans in Brooklyn.

Before I delve into the details, here are the full match results:

- Kickoff match – The Miz, Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel def. The Hardy Boyz & Jason Jordan

- Kickoff match – WWE Cruiserweight championship – Neville def. Akira Tozawa

- Kickoff match – WWE Smackdown Tag Team championship – The Usos def. The New Day

- John Cena def. Baron Corbin

- WWE Smackdown Women's championship – Natalya def. Naomi

- Big Cass def. Big Show

- Randy Orton def. Rusev

- Raw Women's championship – Sasha Banks def. Alexa Bliss

- Finn Balor def. Bray Wyatt

- WWE Raw Tag Team championship – Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose def. Sheamus & Cesaro

- WWE United States championship – AJ Styles def. Kevin Owens

- WWE championship – Jinder Mahal def. Shinsuke Nakamura

- WWE Universal championship – Brock Lesnar def. Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman & Samoa Joe

Lesnar barely survived

Lesnar was speared through the barricade, power slammed through two announce tables and had a table flipped on top of him, but still somehow walked out of the Barclays Center as the WWE Universal champion.

The outcome itself was not all that surprising, as I, along with many others, predicted it to happen.

But after the colossal beating Lesnar endured, which came mostly at the hands of Strowman, it was still a little shocking.

What was not a surprise was the quality of the Universal title match, as it delivered in spades. All four men tour the place a part and no one was hurt in defeat.

That was especially the case for Strowman, who had a star-making performance Sunday night.

Strowman has already had his share of standout moments in 2017 that made fans believe he could be a big star, but SummerSlam was when he cemented it and did so with absolute brute force.

Strowman's main victim was Lesnar, as he tossed the champion around like very few have before. Strowman was responsible for power slamming Lesnar through a pair of announce tables and put the icing on the proverbial cake by flipping a third one on top of the champion, which put Lesnar on a stretcher and seemingly out of commission.

But in a scene reminiscent to the 2015 Royal Rumble in Philadelphia, Lesnar came back. He came back at less than 100 percent, which was obvious due to Lesnar's tremendous ability to sell pain, but he fought through the rest of the match and merely escaped with his title after hitting Reigns with an F-5 and pinning him.

This match lived up to its billing and was undoubtedly SummerSlam's best, in my eyes. There were other good matches on the card, but this was the only one that truly stood out, in my opinion.

The Maharaja retained

Nakamura's championship moment will have to wait another day, as he fell victim to Mahal and his sidekicks, the Singh Brothers.

The match itself was decent and the fans were ready for Nakamura to become WWE champion, but the outcome lacked the creativity necessary to make this match truly memorable and worth watching again.

If you have seen a Mahal title defense, but missed SummerSlam, you know exactly what happened.

Nakamura was in position to win, but the Singh Brothers got involved, causing him to be momentarily distracted. Mahal slid into the equation and quickly capitalized to pick up the victory.

I have nothing against Mahal retaining. I just wish WWE would do something a little different with the ending of his title defenses. We saw essentially the same finish at Backlash and Money in the Bank, and got a variation of it at Battleground with The Great Khali.

It's time to change things up.

The Demon King stopped Wyatt

As expected, Balor defeated Wyatt with the help of the Demon King.

Although I was excited to see Balor don the body paint for the first time in a year, the lackluster story and the fact that we just saw Balor and Wyatt have an entire match less than a week before quelled my anticipation.

The match was fine, but was not anything to remember.

Moving forward, I assume that Balor and Wyatt will face each other one more time. Since Wyatt defeated Balor on Raw, the feud now begs for a rubber match, which we might get … on Raw.

Women's, Tag Team titles changed hands

Since there are so many titles in WWE, I guess we should not be surprised to see five of them change hands on a single show.

Four of the five titles that changed hands were Raw and Smackdown Live's tag team and women's championships.

The Smackdown Tag Team title match between The New Day and The Usos on the kickoff show was fantastic yet again. I think I could watch these two teams face each other every week.

SummerSlam's outcome dictates that we will see at least one more encounter between the two teams, as The Usos defeated Big E and Xavier Woods to become four-time champions.

On the Raw side, Rollins and Ambrose became tag champs after a very good match with Sheamus and Cesaro.

The finish was one of the best I have seen from a tag team contest in a long time and the crowd loved every second of it. If only we could get Reigns involved to make a full Shield reunion a reality.

In the Raw women's division, Banks defeated Bliss to become a four-time women's champion, which I found a little bit surprising.

It is not that Banks is unworthy to be the champion. I just didn't feel as though it was time for Bliss to drop the title just yet.

I'm not at all surprised that Naomi did not walk out of SummerSlam as the Smackdown Women's champion, as she and Lesnar were the longest-reigning champs in WWE heading into Sunday night.

Holding as title from WrestleMania until SummerSlam is nothing to be ashamed of if you're Naomi, especially after putting together what I thought was very good performance with the new champion, Natalya.

Naomi and Natalya may not have felt like the most marquee matchup Smackdown Live could offer, but I thought it more than delivered in the ring and was probably better than the Raw women's match.

As for Carmella, she surprsingly did not cash in her Money in the Bank contract.

What now for Corbin, Rusev?

I have no idea what is in store for Corbin and Rusev after SummerSlam.

I figured that WWE would try to give Corbin some heat back after failing to cash in his Money in the Bank contract last Tuesday. He desperately needed it, but I guess Cena needed to win … again.

I don't understand it. I don't believe Corbin is being punished — having a match with Cena at SummerSlam is by no means a form of punishment — but I do believe WWE squandering the momentum Corbin had built up over the last year and especially after he won the Money in the Bank contract.

Corbin could still rebound, but it will take a lot of work after Sunday night.

As for Rusev, I'm not sure if he can be saved.

Rusev jumped Orton before the match, which forced the official to make sure that he could actually participate in the bout.

Once Orton made it to his feet, the referee signaled for the bell to ring and Rusev rushed after his opponent.

Orton quickly stepped out of the way and hit Rusev with the RKO (outta nowhere) to pick up the quick victory.

Why? Who knows?

My only assumption was that it helped with the timing of the show, as it barely clocked in at four hours. So for that, thanks, WWE for not keeping us in front of our televisions and mobile devices for more than four hours.

But, man, where does Rusev go from here?

Vaughn Johnson has a podcast with Nick Piccone called the Straight Shooters on WildfireRadio.com. Check it out here HERE.