Some matches are just supposed to mean something. Sure, occasionally, a match will rise above the rest and become a sleeper hit or even steal the show in a major way that changes a promotion's booking indefinitely β think Daniel Bryan in the WWE β but as a general rule, companies typically want the main events of Pay-Per-Views, or should I say Premium Live Events, to be the match folks remember a show for, and will often pull out the stops to get them over.
Of all of the matches booked for SummerSlam 2022, from the women's title matches, to the celebrity/commentary bouts, and even the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships, none had more attention paid to it than The Last Man Standing match between Brock Lesnar-Roman Regins; a match being billed as the final chapter of a decade-spanning feud.
Would Lesnar beat out the odds and end Reigns' historic streak before it could hit 700, or would Reigns pull it out and ultimately leave Nashville with both of the belts and arguably the biggest win of his career?
Either way, everyone knew the match would be noteworthy but frankly, did anyone expect it to have so many tractor spots?
Roman Reigns took one member of the WWE Universe out to pasture.
Last Man Standing matches aren't always the most exciting thing to watch because so much of the in-ring action is based on non-action. There are no near falls, no submissions β as Brock Lesnar eventually learned β and when the match does start to wrap up and come to an end it usually becomes less exciting, not more, as the 10 counts become more labored and the performers become more tired.
WWE, to their credit, tried their very best to make up for the quirks of the stipulation with more than a few gimmicks of their own, and in this particular case, they mostly worked because the goofiness was on display from the opening bell.
You see, Lesnar didn't just walk down to the ring with his posse by his side like his opponent, Roman Reigns, no, he drove through the winding rampway on a literal tractor, with its lift elevated straight up into the air, and then refused to enter the ring by standing a good 5-10 feet above his foe.
Weird, right? Oh goodness, you are in for a treat from that point on.
From there, Lesnar launched himself onto Reigns like A.J. Styles earlier in the evening, and the match got underway to the start you would largely expect⦠well, unless you expected an underwhelming quickie like WrestleMania 38, but thankfully, that didn't happen.
Call it the element of surprise, call it preferential booking for a performer who WWE wanted to make look good in a loss, but Lesnar took the upper hand early on, fought Reigns down to the ground on multiple occasions, and, in one of the more memorable spots of the night, put the βHead of the Tableβ into the tractor's lift and plopped him down into the middle of the ring.
Speaking of tractors, this happened too, which will probably be the definitive moment of the show.
Goodness, if GCW did that spot, it would be called outlaw mud show antics, but when WWE does it in their second-biggest show of the year, it's called the spot of the night β wrestling, you are a fickle mistress.
With the ring fully destroyed, Lesnar and Reigns took their fight outside of the ring β largely because the ring was no longer wrestleable β and that's when Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, and even the former's former manager, Paul Heyman, got in on the action, and, in a weird, twist of fate, the duo actually had one of the moments of the match. Heyman looked at his former client and threw him the belts, suggesting that he'd rather see βThe Beastβ win the straps that way instead of by destroying his meal ticket. This, understandably, rubbed Lesnar the wrong way, as, in another signature spot of the night, he lifted up the former ECW booker and F5'd him through the announcing table; a table that would ultimately play into the finish in the not-too-distant future.
Distracted by Heyman, Reigns laid into Lesnar in a big way, hitting him over and over and over again with everything from spears to Superman punches, and even the titles before finally piling every weighted item, from speakers, to chairs, and even the broken announcing table on top of Lesnar and finally stood over his buried body as the referee counted to 10. The match was over, Roman won it all, and the WWE Universe left with an interesting ending to Lesnar's first, and probably final Last Man Standing match.