What we learned from this year's baffling SummerSlam event

The early signs last night were good. The lights came up, and Enzo Amore and Big Cass delivered an over-the-top address to the capacity crowd at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, chock-full of New York references and stereotypes. Big Cass even sang some Sinatra (and he wasn't even that bad!). That preceded a genuinely entertaining match between the two of them and the tag team of Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens that saw Enzo Amore used as a human missile, thrown into his opponents by Big Cass. It was an acrobatic, fast and exciting match that ultimately ended with Jericho landing a codebreaker and getting the pin on Amore.

The first half of the card proceeded in similar fashion. A dynamic, brutal match saw Charlotte besting Sasha Banks to retake the Women's Championship, a tag team match between The New Day and The Club in which Jon Stewart joined The New Day and Big E returned, an amazing match between John Cena and AJ Styles, and a crazy-acrobatic three-on-three women's match featuring the return of Nikki Bella all amazed. Then the show fell off a cliff.

So what have we learned from last night's up-and-down pay-per-view?

The WWE Really Wants You To Watch SmackDown

The brand split was in full effect last night, down to the commentary teams for each match. And if you, for some reason, forgot which wrestlers belonged to the SmackDown brand, the commentators were more than happy to remind you about a thousand times.

Every time a SmackDown championship was contested, the commentators really pushed the weekly event, likely because the WWE wants to push the weekly event a bit more. It was a bit odd to see that much support for SmackDown, when promos for Raw (and the WWE's subscription service, WWE Network) seemed few and far between.

The WWE Has No Idea What To Do With Seth Rollins And Roman Reigns

The inaugural WWE Universal Championship match was slightly underwhelming, with Finn Balor taking down Seth Rollins to win the title, but more underwhelming was the match between Roman Reigns and Rusev. Nothing about the match was memorable, and it ended almost as soon as it began with Reigns hitting Rusev with a chair.

Perhaps this is a sign that the WWE is aware of how much people seem to hate Roman Reigns, but it's baffling that it gave such a disappointing match to Seth Rollins, the NXT's most recognizable superstar. Perhaps with so many following in his footsteps, rising through the NXT ranks, the WWE is struggling to find space for him.

Roman Reigns is a bit more of a mystery, though. The WWE has been pushing him as a top-level superstar for a long time now, but he's always remained a divisive figure in the eyes of fans. It's clear that the WWE isn't really sure what to do with him anymore.

The Rumors About Brock Lesnar Might Be True

Despite an RKO through the announcing table, the most disappointing match of the night was also the most-hyped one, the match between Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar. Essentially, the match was a nonstop series of suplexes and F5s with a few Randy Orton RKOs thrown in for good measure, but it was the ending of the match that provided the oddest moment of an already-odd PPV.

Lesnar caught Orton with a very real-looking forearm that opened up a huge gash on Orton's forehead. It's still unclear whether or not this was a work, especially given the appearance of Shane McMahon at the end, but in terms of Lesnar's reputation as an unsafe wrestler, this match certainly didn't do him any favors. Lesnar's matches have become hard to watch, not only because he seems to legitimately hurt his opponents more and more often, but also because the matches are honestly pretty boring. He might sell tickets, but SummerSlam was worse for his presence.

The Love Affair Between John Cena And The WWE Is Mutual

Unquestionably, the best match of the night was AJ Styles vs. John Cena. It was a completely back-and-forth affair, with both wrestlers pretty much giving fans exactly what they wanted.

AJ Styles came out on top in the end but only after about a million close calls. Seriously, the match was amazing, with John Cena's power and AJ Styles's acrobatics clashing in spectacular fashion. Hopefully, this is a sign that Styles' star is rising and that we will see a rematch of these two in the ring sooner rather than later.

The Future Of The WWE Is The Women's Revolution

The second and third best matches were the Women's Championship match and the three-on-three women's match, and it wasn't close, despite the best efforts of The New Day and The Club. Where the choreography in matches like Ambrose/Ziggler and Crews/The Miz seemed haphazard and unrefined, the women's matches were tight, brutal and, above all, exciting.

If SummerSlam is anything to go by, and the WWE really is confused about what direction to go with stars like Rollins, Reigns, Lesnar and others, it'd be wise to look to stars like Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Naomi to pick up the slack.

The Audience Is Important

One of the weirdest things about last night's event was the oddly low energy level of the crowd. Whether it was a quirk of the arena that made the chants sound quiet and unenthused or simply the natural effects of an event that ran for 10 hours straight (including the undercard), the crowd really didn't seem to be into it (with the exception of the Cena/Styles match).

Chants of "New Day Rocks/Sucks" seemed flaccid and distant, and the energy in the arena seemed palpably low. That matters for PPV events as much as it does for live ones. Viewers can tell if an audience is tired or simply not interested in what's going on, and that kind of attitude is contagious.

We didn't learn much last night from a storytelling perspective. Bray Wyatt didn't show up to interfere in anything, and we were robbed of an expected cameo by Goldberg. SummerSlam didn't really advance any storylines save for the Styles/Cena rivalry. That said, SummerSlam was enlightening in a few unexpected ways, and many of them should be a bit worrisome for WWE fans.