Forgive me for being a little apprehensive about the prospects of a major event at Nissan Stadium in July. We’re only a year removed from the infamous Garth Brooks show fiasco. So, I couldn’t help but have flashbacks when considering whether or not to go to the biggest party of the (wrestling) summer, the WWE’s SummerSlam. Of course, me being the old man that I am, I was constantly refreshing the weather app to see what the forecast for Saturday night read. When I saw that we’d get a break from that recent streak of 100+ degree real-feels, and that we’d dodge any chance of rain, I knew that my inner child would never forgive me if I skipped out on the second biggest show of the year on the WWE calendar. So, I saddled up, met up with the crew, and we ventured downtown to take in the festivities.
Nashville has always been an interesting wrestling city – there’s a rich history of it here between the heyday of the Nashville Fairgrounds, TNA launching in 2002, and the run that Southern Underground Pro has been on since 2017. When it comes to the WWE, we’ve only seen three pay-per-vie….excuse me…premium live events here. A young Big Natural was in attendance for In Your House 2 from the Municipal Auditorium in July of 1995. I was also in attendance for the other two – Judgment Day 2002 and Night of Champions 2014. But, man – the crowds in Nashville for these big shows can be really hit or miss. I’ve been apart of red hot crowds that every promoter dreams of. I’ve also been in half-empty arenas apart of crowds that are sitting on their hands. Such a thing seems why Nashville comes across as such a finicky wrestling market, and I’m not going to lie, this was the first thing on my mind when we walked into the stadium and immediately noticed half the entire building tarped off. “Uh oh,” I thought, “if this is a trial run for a potential Music City WrestleMania, I don’t think is going to go well…” But, to my surprise, the crowd was sizzling hot for the entirety of the night, and the show delivered a satisfying and entertaining experience.
Let’s start with the bad, because I do have quite a few nitpicks. I don’t want to be a downer, but the WWE really lucked out with the temperature drop. That was a roll of the dice to come to Nashville and run an outdoor stadium show in July. Even with the temperature feeling about 20 degrees cooler than it had in the weeks prior to SummerSlam, I was still a hot, sweaty mess by the end of the night. So, just for future reference…it’s going to take that type of commitment to the bit to stick a show this long out. It also felt like there was a pretty weak marketing campaign for the show. My buddy Zach and I both knew people in our social circles that had no idea the show was coming to town until the week of. With more resources devoted to spreading the word, they might not have had to tarp off half the stadium. The WWE also didn’t really come to town in full until Friday, so it seems like there was an opportunity to really dive into this like a WrestleMania event to get more people out there.
Again, those are just minor nitpicks – my main gripe was with the WWE’s production crew for cranking up one of the lights on the rig that was blasting the crowd on our side of the stadium. It made it really hard to keep track of what was happening because we couldn’t make out the ring clearly, and if we wanted to watch the screen, we had to risk staring straight into the light. The kid in front of us had the right idea, just turning around in his seat and facing behind us to watch the jumbotron there. But, I knew if I had done that, my old ass would have a sore neck this morning. Come on, WWE – be better here. What’s the purpose of that? To show there’s a crowd in attendance? I don’t get it.
Trying to watch #SummerSlam with that blinding light on like pic.twitter.com/43S79yeJdA
— Stoney Keeley (@StoneyKeeley) July 31, 2022
Now, onto the good things – I would’ve loved a pre-show match because there were several wrestlers not featured on the card that I would’ve loved to have seen. But, I also thought the show ran a lot quicker and smoother than the big shows usually do, so that felt pretty nice. I guess I can’t have both, right? Getting into the stadium itself was a smooth experience. We just hung out outside the stadium until the line died down and walked right in. The line at the Pro Shop didn’t stop moving – we dropped some dough in there and it was a seamless experience. There were so many beer and food stands open that we didn’t have to wait for beers. It was a fantastic night on the stadium experience front.
Growing up watching pro wrestling in Nashville, you couldn’t help but respect Jeff Jarrett. He was everywhere ’round here. I watched that man put on a classic Intercontinental Championship match against Shawn Michaels at the aforementioned In Your House 2. That’s just one of the many wrestling memories this man created here in the Music City, so to see him get his own stadium entrance in front of the home town crowd was a special moment for us old heads in the Nashville wrestling fandom.
The card itself was solid, and between the return of Bayley (accompanied by a returning Dakota Kai and Io Shirai), Edge showing up, I thought SummerSlam played as a pretty well-balanced entertainment-driven show. I’d say The Miz and Logan Paul had the match of the night, but there was plenty to like about the show from start to finish. I was over the rivalry between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns going into the night, but they delivered a campy and dramatic slugfest that had the crowd behind it the whole time. It felt like a beautiful ode to the messy slobberknockers of the Attitude Era, and I mean that wholeheartedly as a compliment. It’s hard to rank things off the top of my head, but it absolutely feels like one of the biggest and rowdiest main events in SummerSlam history – I feel about it the same way I did between the four-way match from SummerSlam in 2017. Nashville absolutely ate up the Cowboy Brock bit. Roman’s title reign is becoming one of the best eras in wrestling history, and it was pretty cool to be in attendance for one of the biggest stops on that tour.
I give props to Triple H – in his first premium live event as the man with the pen, he did a fantastic job of getting back to basics and allowing the action in the ring to create the drama on its own. It was a simple show, but it was well done. I kept hearing people in the crowd around us comment on how fun the show was, and the crew at Nissan Stadium was on top of its game to boot. SummerSlam 2022 made for one big special moment in Nashville’s sports history, and I’d have to imagine that it sent thousands home happy.
SummerSlam in Nashville pic.twitter.com/L4ZSqG6TYR
— Stoney Keeley (@StoneyKeeley) July 31, 2022
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Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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