Title Changes, Returns and Heel Turns Punctuated Eventful SummerSlam
SummerSlam 2024 was marked by changings of the guard and otherwise notable moments sprinkled throughout the event. Naturally the questions that follow circle around what comes next for the key players in major storylines as well as the newly-crowned champions.
Of the key developments of the night, the most important talking points centre around the title changes, the Punk-Rollins-McIntyre middle-aged kerfuffle, the fracturing of Judgment Day and ultimately the return of Roman Reigns during the Cody Rhodes-Solo Sikoa main event.
CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre, with a dash of Seth
It’s clear what the story is here as it almost entirely centres around CM Punk paying for past sins, but as a whole I don’t know how much longer this should be dragged out. That McIntyre won and reclaimed Punk’s bracelet implies Drew will continue to be attached to Punk for the immediate future, which begs the question of what the long term play is here. I think another match relatively soon is the likely move, perhaps in a cage (if not Hell in a Cell) if they hold off until Badd Blood. If that’s the case I would assume Punk goes over and we start building toward Rollins and Punk. To be honest though, perhaps a triple threat might be the better play to fashion an ending in such a way that you can detach Drew but also continue on with Punk and Rollins. Drew’s trolling of Punk has been a fresh move, but I think it’s nearing the point where it’s running its course whereas Rollins and Punk is going to be a whole other beast for WWE in the coming months.
In the short term this feud is at least interesting solely for the story of Punk getting grilled for his past mistakes, although I did appreciate the allusion toward the Undertaker vs. Bret Hart match from Summer Slam ’97 that also featured Shawn Michaels as guest referee. If that was the inspiration and the end result is a cage match, then it’s pretty clear it was intended. Long term, I think we need to see Punk go over Drew, and then move on to Seth for a match at Survivor Series. There’s little sense in drawing that out, however I think Seth needs to go over in their first match. I foresee many between them in the coming months, and given Punk’s current limitations Rollins is a great dance partner for him.
Title Changes
There were four big ones, with Gunther, Nia Jax, Bron Breakker and LA Knight securing gold.
What should be noted about all four is none of them felt hotshot or done frivolously; each paid off a pre-existing, ongoing story and dovetailed the people involved into new feuds. Each was further done to setup those title feuds for the coming months, or in Gunther’s case what I assume is going to be a lengthy run due to how he framed Balor interjecting and costing Priest the match.
Nia Jax: Of the new champions, I think this is going to be the shortest reign and that isn’t a knock on her. The arrival of Tiffany Stratton on the scene — with her Money in the Bank win — signals WWE’s long term plan to strap her up and there’s no better way than to use her friendship with Nia Jax to catalyze that. Although still green, she’s come a long way in two years and surpassed many on the roster and notable people in other companies who simply just stagnated. That’s worth noting and rewarding. I think they can still give Jax a good reign but the endgame is pretty clearly to have Stratton win the world title over the next several months. It’s really just a matter of when it happens.
LA Knight: Well, since it seems Logan Paul is stepping away from boxing and won’t be getting punched in the face anymore, I guess I’ll have to settle for Drake faceplanting him and taking the U.S. title. While I do openly loathe the Paul brothers, credit is due to Paul for seemingly wanting to take wrestling fully seriously. What that means long term in WWE over the coming months is anyone’s guess. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Drake and Paul continuing their feud throughout the end of the year with them trading the title a little bit, but short reigns also haven’t been a hallmark of HHH’s reign on top of WWE creative. Regardless, Knight deserves this title run. For anyone who’s been shouting “yeah” back at him for years and allowing him to talk to them, this one feels earned especially with how his main roster run began under Vince McMahon’s heinous sense of good television. Knight is a very solid worker who’s more substance than flash, but as his time in WWE has drawn on he’s proven himself capable in all respects and more importantly got himself over on his own no matter what he was doing or given. That’s worth noting, is commendable and denotes why Knight’s U.S. title victory is meaningful. Much like Jax, I think his run won’t be as long as Breakker or Gunther’s respective runs, probably ending before the end of the year. But I also think he has tremendous value in the upper mid-card to help make that U.S. title a critical piece of WWE TV.
Bron Breakker: Hi, I’m a Steiner mark.
When I was younger I loved watching the Steiners, and was a big fan of Scott when he turned heel in WCW. Suffice to say when I learned Bron, Rick Steiner’s son, was going to be joining the PC, I was pretty excited and of that class I said in an old column he was going to be the one to watch there.
It would appear that was dead on.
Breakker is equal parts his father and uncle, melding the best parts of the two into one wrestler who on the cusp of turning 27 later this year has so much upside left. More importantly I think the path they took to anointing him the IC champion was smart; it feels earned and less so given. Where they could have hotshot the title clincher at Money in the Bank, they showcased Sami in such a way that it was demonstrated he was a smarter competitor and outclassed Bron in a 4-D chess-style outwitting. It put Bron through adversity and defeat and made him need to comeback to redeem himself. It made him learn from defeat and come back better on the second attempt. For his part, Zayn had a great run as IC champion and I think he was the perfect champion to transition the title from. Bron was built well out of this feud, and despite Zayn playing 4-D chess with Bron in their last match, in their rematch Bron took the board and beat Sami with it.
Bron’s reign is probably going to be a longer one. There’s no shortage of contenders to put opposite him, even if one of them is Zayn in a more competitive blowoff match to cap their PLE trilogy. We definitely won’t see something on par with Gunther’s record-breaking run, but definitely something in the vein of a couple of lengthy runs amid a longer feud before he moves onto the world title in the next year or two. If I was booking him, I think we go Zayn one more time, but have him break out the Steiner Recliner to really cement his vicious dominance. But maybe that’s just the Steiner mark in me talking.
Gunther: Call him whatever you like at this point, but the consistency is that the man is a thoroughbred champion. Him overcoming Priest at SummerSlam was a crowning moment while also transitioning Priest more into a Judgment Day Civil War story. What I appreciate about the aftermath, affirming Gunther as a badass, is that he openly stated that if anyone questioned the legitimacy of his win due to Balor’s interference then they should meet him in the ring. Gunther’s reign should last the longest of this list of four, perhaps even until WrestleMania next year. I think this run needs to cement him as a main event tweener-veering toward heel champion who’s the type of wrestler who has villainous backup, but conversely also doesn’t need them. He’s the kind of wrestler who should run through everyone convincingly because they’re that much of a physical specimen, but as his feud with Zayn demonstrated, is beatable with his arrogance being the chink in his armour. I liken his aura as being similar to Georges St-Pierre’s on the run up to his first UFC welterweight title reign. GSP was someone who was very good early on, lost his first title match and then proceeded to run off six straight wins en route to claiming the title for the first time. However, in his first defense, in a very Zayn-like fashion, Matt Serra beat him clean. The why is irrelevant, but the point is that GSP was beatable and never lost again in his career. While I’m not saying Gunther will never lose another match, the point is that even the most seemingly unbeatable champions can be overthrown. Gunther is very much a GSP, one-of-a-kind type of champion who I think similarly to Bron is going to run through a laundry list of contenders over the next year. Who “Matt Serra’s” him is anyone’s guess.
Judgment Day Implodes
Where the members of the group go from here is unclear, but it’s likely for the best that Priest and Ripley move away from the group’s more heelish tendencies and strike out as predominant faces. In the short term, there’s the manner of dealing with the fallout on Raw.
The splitting of Ripley and Mysterio as an on-screen pairing is overdue, and I think it does two things. First, it switches the dynamic of the women’s world title picture with Morgan being the conniving and manipulative heel champion with Mysterio by her side. It freshens up their stories a little, adds some heat to the Morgan-Ripley feud in and of itself, and gives Mysterio’s character a refresh as opposed to sticking with the staling act of Ripley and Mysterio. Secondly, it somewhat humanizes Ripley and tears her down a bit. I would argue she’s also both outgrown the group and the need for Mysterio to be lingering around her. By flipping that dynamic, it extends the lifespan of the Morgan-Ripley title feud a little. I’d still expect Ripley to run through both of them in a very abrupt fit of rage at some point soon before reclaiming the title. While the explanation of “why” will be very much by-the-numbers, between then and now should at least be entertaining.
With Dom specifically, what WWE has done right with him is let him develop reasonably organically and mostly avoided placing him in feuds or title pictures that don’t make sense, or don’t fit his stories. As he is now I don’t think he really needs a title of any sort, and can get by just being a slimy Guerrero-type heel as he helps Morgan torture and antagonize Ripley in the short term. I think how the angle played out for the trio is a positive step for all three.
Where Priest and Balor are concerned, I think the writing was on the wall from the moment Priest won the championship. Balor costing him the title was the culmination of Priest portraying himself as being bigger than the group; as not needing Balor or the group. In that regard, much like with Gunther’s hypothetical downfall in the future, it was his own ego that brought him down in conjunction with his own trust of his teammates. I think there’s some value in Priest striking out on his own alongside Ripley. That’s somewhat interesting as he’d believe himself wronged when in reality the seeds are planted as far back as when he cost Balor the world championship last year. It almost brings the story full circle.
As with Ripley, I think Priest has outgrown being in Judgment Day, and that there’s more value for both feuds in having Balor reforming the group around himself, JD McDonagh, Liv Morgan and Mysterio and pitting themselves against the original core of the group when Adam Copeland/Edge formed it. That scenario still gives Balor a group to lead, with fresh faces, and lets Dominic still hang back in the group while almost counterintuitively developing at the same time. It’s just a smart move in both respects at this point that likely ends with Priest squashing the remaining members and Ripley reclaiming her title. They’re both respectively good feuds to stay in through the end of the year leading into the Royal Rumble.
Cody, Roman and the Bloodline
As expected Roman Reigns returned at the end of the SummerSlam main event to halt Solo Sikoa’s bid to claim the WWE title. Straight away there are questions to be asked.
What’s next for Cody?
Does Roman return to slide into the current bloodline, and do the members continue their allegiance to Sikoa and presumably to The Rock?
If they prove to turn on him, how long before we see the Usos return to his side? And even then, how long before Hikuleo, Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa’s younger brother, comes in?
And from all of this, how does this fit into the War Games picture over the next two or three months ahead of Survivor Series?
Foremost, I think it’s far too soon for Roman and Cody to have a third installment, and subsequently it makes more sense for Reigns to directly deal with the Bloodline dynamics up front. While his return in that moment was inevitable, equally so, this likely leads to Sikoa, GoD and Jacob Fatu beating Reigns down combined with Hikuleo’s arrival. The timing of this seems all-too-convenient to lead into a Bloodline-based War Games, and therefore there’s no better way to round that out than reuniting the original trio to stand against Sikoa’s faction. The only real question is how the teams are composed. If we stick to the convention of 4 vs. 4 the Sikoa faction is pretty clear in that it would include Sikoa, Fatu, Tonga and either Loa or Hikuleo should he debut before then. Aiding Reigns, I think there are only two real options — either we see Sami Zayn return by their side, or if Rhodes is without a challenger and stays within the Bloodline nexus, then Rhodes. Zayn feels more likely in light of his title loss.
Reigns’ return was arguably the most notable moment of SummerSlam, mostly because of its significance as the beginning of the next phase of the Bloodline saga and how that is going to affect WWE’s landscape heading into WrestleMania. At least heading into the Rumble, I think Cody will be on his own path defending his championship while the Bloodline sorts its matters amongst themselves. After that, one pathway or another, the clock is ticking on his title run.
