Reception
Overall reaction to the pay-per-view was good, TheWrestleReview awarded the event a score of 8.6 out of 10, stating that "A great event with all title matches being very watchable, and the IC and World Title matches achieving classic status. What let this event down the matches competed without titles on the line, MVP, Jack Swagger, Kane and Great Khali all put in a good amount of effort their showing didn't really stand out from regular televised matches." TheWrestleReview also described the D-Generation X vs The Legacy match as a "near 30 minute tag team clinic".
The Sun gave the event an overall rating of 8 out of 10, and Canadian Online Explorer's wrestling section rating it as 7 out of 10. The opening match between Rey Mysterio and Dolph Ziggler was praised, with James Caldwell of the Pro Wrestling Torch declaring it "awesome" and Dave Meltzer calling it a "really strong" match. Writing for The Sun, Mike Aldren, who attended the event live, also praised the match, and said that it was a "great technical opener" with "fluid, crisp back and forth action" from both wrestlers. The match between DX and The Legacy also received praise with Caldwell describing it as "WWE's best tag team match of the year". The main event TLC match between Punk and Hardy was universally praised with Aldren declaring that it was "a guaranteed match of the year candidate". Caldwell concluded that the "drama was great, Punk was great, Hardy was great", and rated the match as 4 and a quarter stars, while Meltzer praised it as a "great match" and touted the moment when Hardy performed the Swanton Bomb on Punk from the top of the ladder as "spectacular".
All the writers criticized the WWE Championship match, however, with Aldren remarking that "everyone in the arena" was confused and Caldwell saying that "WWE over-booked the crap out of this match". The shortness of the ECW Championship match was also criticized, with Caldwell remarking that it was "another ridiculous ECW Title match on WWE PPV". Aldren queried the decision to make it so short, saying that Christian and Regal "could have had one of the best matches on the show", a sentiment echoed by Meltzer. Aldren and Meltzer also criticized the match between Khali and Kane, with Aldren remarking that the crowd "was dead" and Meltzer calling it "pretty bad". Caldwell said that it was a "bad match with a decent finish", as the match "lowered the bar" early enough that the "finish was intriguing".
The event received 369,000 buys, which was a decrease from the SummerSlam 2008, the previous year's event, which received a figure of 477,000 buys.
Read more about this topic: Summer Slam (2009)
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