2 Matches Win Match Of The Night At SummerSlam 2021 Plus More

Two matches, from last Sunday's WWE SummerSlam 2021, were given four-and-a-half stars in Dave Meltzer's review of the PPV in the current issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

The tie for the most highly-rated match of the event means that a betting market, where customers could gamble on which would end up being match of the night in Meltzer's report, will be settled under dead-heat rules.

The bouts of note were the Roman Reigns versus John Cena match for the WWE Universal Championship and the Edge versus Seth Rollins grudge match.

Going in, both selections were fancied as likely winners in the market with the Universal Championship contest a 23/20 favourite over its eventual joint-winner, which was an 8/5 second favourite.

There will be no dead heat in a matchbet which saw the two matches compete head-to-head.

The winning selection in Kambi's market which had the two bouts oppose each other in a battle for the most stars in Dave Meltzer's review will be 'Same Star Rating'. It was 2/1 behind the favoured Universal Championship match - at 4/5 - and the Edge versus Seth Rollins match, which was 5/4.

Another market, which will be settled on the result of two matches sharing the spoils as match of the night, is a prop special which asked customers whether or not there would be 'Joint Winners'.

'Yes' will be graded as the winning selection. It was 6/4 while its opposition was a 4/9 fave.

The next best match in Meltzer's review of the PPV, was the one which saw Charlotte Flair regain the WWE Raw Women's Championship in a triple threat contest against then titleholder - Nikki A.S.H - and Rhea Ripley. It received three-and-three-quarter stars in the review.

While taking notes for the Observer markets, I forgot to check whether a rule in the 'Margin of Victory' proposition market was clear and - as a result - I cannot state for sure how that particular market will be settled.

The last time Kambi priced up a 'Margin of Victory' market which asks customers whether or not there would be a half-a-star gap between the top and next best match in Meltzer's review, for AEW Double Or Nothing 2021, it stated that - should more than one match tie for match of the night - then the winning selection would be 'No'.

Not knowing whether the rule was also applied for SummerSlam means that I don't know whether 'No' is the winning pick or if 'Yes' is because the Raw Women's Championship contest was indeed half-a-star behind the top two bouts in the review.

If I had to guess, I'd assume the rule existed and that the tie meant that 'No' won as a 1/2 favourite.

Something I am sure about is the proposition which asked whether over 1.5 matches would receive four or more stars will be graded with 'Yes' as the winning option.

The two matches receiving over four stars means that the favourite will be the winning selection in that particular market. As you can see, in the table above, the market was fairly active with the odds for the eventual winner moving in from an early 11/20 into 21/50 as the bets came in over the weekend.

A similar market, this time asking whether there would be over two-and-a-half matches graded four stars or more, will be settled with 'No' as the winner.

The selection was a 21/50 favourite over 'Yes', which was 33/20.

Kambi will also grade all of the Over/Under star ratings markets that were published for the show. I have created a table below which shows the results of all the eligible matches. 

In the table, you'll notice that the Bobby Lashley versus Goldberg match scored one-and-three-quarters in Meltzer's review. It did worse than the two stars given to Drew McIntyre versus Jinder Mahal. This meant that the latter was the winning selection in a second head-to-head market customers would have found days before the event.

It appears as though there was interest in McIntyre versus Mahal doing better than the WWE Championship match because the odds were lowered from EVS into 17/20 within hours of the market opening on Thursday. 

Another thing you'll find - or rather not find - in the table is Alexa Bliss versus Eva Marie. Kambi did not publish a line for the match. Therefore it is absent from the list of over/under results. That turned out to be a good shout by the oddsmakers because the match was ultimately rated a DUD by the Observer's editor.

These Observer Star Ratings market posts will return in a few weeks once the review of AEW All Out is published. 

Over/Under markets for the September 5th show were published earlier this week. Here are the lines of the matches that have been covered so far.

View Kambi's WWE Markets