Ranking the 4 SummerSlam weekends in Brooklyn from worst to best

#1 2018

All four shows over this weekend were excellent.

NXT TAKEOVER: Honestly, the latest Takeover show could possibly be one the greatest in the history of NXT. A show filled with great action, feel-good title wins and a shocking ending is bound to receive a lot of praise from wrestling fans and critics alike.

It has also continued the stellar run of Takeovers NXT has been on for over a year now. A big reason for such rave reviews was the opening tag title match between Moustache Mountain and the Undisputed Era. The action was frantic and fast-paced, threatening to steal the entire show before they had any chance at all.

EC3 and Velveteen Dream had a decent match which was by far the worst of the night through no clear fault of the wrestlers. The rest of the show was just brilliant.

Ricochet and Kairi Sane won the North American and Women's Championships respectively in two stunning bouts. Adam Cole and Shayna Baszler were excellent as well, keeping the momentum of the show high. This was already a Show Of The Year candidate before we even got the main event.

Tommaso Ciampa defended his NXT Championship against Johnny Gargano in a Last Man Standing match, a compromise due to Aleister Black's groin injury. They did make the most of this, as the former tag team partners went all-out in a typically brutal affair.

The fact that they had three hardcore main event matches on three separate Takeover shows and all of them felt different is the ultimate testament to Gargano and Ciampa as performers. Johnny Wrestling cost himself the match and the title, as he focused more on hurting Ciampa than winning the match. Due to that, Ciampa reigned supreme at the end to close the third chapter of this incredible storied war.

SUMMERSLAM: There hasn't been a better pay-per-view event on the main roster for the entire year than SummerSlam. It was an incredible show, one which played out in the best possible way. It is incredibly hard to construct a consistently enjoyable four-hour show, but WWE managed to do it.

The booking was logical throughout as some feuds came to a conclusive end, while the others were just getting started. That was the contrasting theme for Raw and Smackdown respectively.

We did get some inconclusive finishes on the show, but they did make sense. The other matches gave us a tease of what to expect on the blue brand. The Miz cheated to beat Daniel Bryan in their hotly-anticipated clash, the first of what is going to be a long and storied rivalry.

AJ Styles and the Bludgeon Brothers retained their championships via disqualifications against Samoa Joe and The New Day respectively, but recent developments have indicated that they were for the better. But the most noteworthy moment from the Smackdown side of things was the apparent heel turn by Becky Lynch.

You wouldn't know because the crowd was so vocal in cheering for her. All in all, SummerSlam built to an extremely exciting future for Smackdown, heading into the all

As for Raw, their matches all focused on ending current storylines at the show, doing so effectively. We got three squash matches which ranged from damaging to brilliant. While the handling of Kevin Owens was an issue, the surprise appearance of the Demon and Ronda Rousey's dominant Women's Championship victory were both highly popular late into the show. The night opened and closed with significant title changes as Seth Rollins, with Dean Ambrose in his corner, beat Dolph Ziggler for the Intercontinental Championship before Roman Reigns finally captured the Universal Championship.

However, WWE did manage to get the fans to cheer for the Big Dog's victory by promising them that Braun Strowman would be cashing in his Money in the Bank contract after the match between Reigns and Brock Lesnar.

It was a genius move to end a SummerSlam which genuinely looked like the creative team put in a real effort to make this show a good one. Here's to hoping that we get more shows like this in the future, well-structured and well-booked.

OTHER HAPPENINGS: The post-SummerSlam editions of Raw and Smackdown were both really eventful, completing a weekend of glorious wrestling with some more glorious wrestling. Over these two shows, we got some solid wrestling, a pull-apart brawl, two big main event title matches, a shocking tag team reunion and a feel-good title change.

They certainly put the cherry on top of the delicious sundae that was SummerSlam weekend, making this year the best overall weekend WWE has produced in Brooklyn for SummerSlam without a doubt.

The Raw after SummerSlam gave us a Universal Championship match between new champion Roman Reigns and Finn Balor. Following a great and competitive match, Reigns retained his title. However, the real story came after the match. Braun Strowman again tried to cash in his briefcase but before he could do so, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose came out to help their Shield buddy.

Ambrose, who wrestled his first match back from a long injury earlier in the show against Dolph Ziggler, and Rollins came down to the ring in their Shield gear and prevented the Monster from taking the Universal title from Reigns. The Hounds Of Justice proceeded to triple powerbomb Strowman through the announce table to end Raw on a major cliffhanger.

Similarly, Smackdown got us intrigued and excited for the future. Bryan and Miz continued their feud as their wives were inserted in it, with a Mixed Tag Team match scheduled for September's Hell in a Cell pay-per-view. On a more personal note, Samoa Joe followed up his comments about AJ Styles' family by doing so again and putting the WWE Champion to sleep.

Jeff Hardy continued to jump from high places and Becky Lynch cut the promo of her life, despite the crowd still strongly favouring the heel. But the night, and the weekend, was capped off with a No Disqualification Smackdown Tag Team Championship match between the Bludgeon Brothers and The New Day.

After an incredible and brutal war, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods persevered to become five-time tag team champions. A truly fantastic way to conclude the events in Brooklyn.

While every year has seen various different moments happen over SummerSlam weekend, 2018 has been the best one because all four of the shows produced ranged from good to epic.

This has been one of the most consistent and successful weekends in WWE's history of holding such festivities.