WWE SummerSlam Saturday Night One Review

The “biggest party of the summer” has arrived.

Night one of WWE’s annual SummerSlam pay-per-view extravaganza is about to begin, and there’s a lot to talk about.

U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota is hosting this weekend’s events.

15 minutes before the pay-per-view went on the air, WrestleTix reported that there were 499 tickets left to be purchased. The number of tickets already distributed is 35,759.

Let’s have some fun.

Liv Morgan vs Iyo Sky – Women’s World Title Match

Continuing the trend of their previous match on pay-per-view, this one is starting off with a physical tone.

Shoutout to the homie, Chris Van Vliet, sitting in the front row, dead center in the hard camera shot.

It’s obviously very early, but the WWE production team is doing a good job of making the stadium look full. If there’s 36,000 people in attendance, that’s 54% of the normal capacity of the stadium, and far less than that for the capacity that the stadium could hold for an event like this. There are a ton of sections that tickets were never available for.

Roxanne Perez is out to distract the ref, allowing for Raquel Rodriguez to appear and knock Iyo off the top turnbuckle, but the distraction isn’t enough to get the win for the champion just yet.

ObLIVion by Iyo Sky… for two! The match has really started to find its groove.

What a finish. Liv goes to hit ObLIVion, but Iyo flips out of it, rolling through like Super Crazy… so Liv hits a Lungblower, sending Iyo staggering into the ropes, where Liv finally lands ObLIVion to get the pin and the win.

The match was really enjoyable. A physical contest that built as it went on. My only issue is that it could’ve used a few more minutes. It was just starting to cook, and then it was over. 3.75 Stars, but it probably would’ve gone higher if they had three-to-five more minutes. Still a fun start to the night’s proceedings, though.

LA Knight, Royce Keys & Solo Sikoa vs Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso & Jacob Fatu – Six-Man Tag Match

Technically, this is a match featuring two teams of face wrestlers, but WWE prefers to confuse everyone. LA Knight is a face. Royce Keys is a face. Solo Sikoa is supposed to be a face, but fans are used to him being a heel, and are expecting his face run to be a ruse. Jey Uso is a face, but the entire Bloodline continue to act like the heels that they were for the majority of their run. Jacob Fatu is a face, but he’s a soldier doing the bidding of Roman Reigns, who is a face, but again, the Bloodline group is still acting the way they did when they were heels. Did I miss anything?

Solo “runs it back” and yeets with the crowd as Jey Uso’s music plays, while Jey looks on confused. I really hope Solo’s face run is legit, because it would be interesting to see how he’s booked in that way. He’s such a naturally funny person, and it could be entertaining to see him use that humor on television, instead of playing the stoic character that he has usually been over the years.

The crowd isn’t quite as hot for this one as they were the opening match. Makes sense. Half the crowd probably has no idea who to cheer for, who they’re supposed to cheer for, and so on.

Jimmy Uso appears to have legitimately hurt his leg in some way. He was grabbing it, then he buckled as he walked, almost staggering right out of the ring. He climbs to the top rope, but Royce Keys intercepts him. Royce struggles to lift Jimmy, though, taking several seconds to lift him before hitting an ugly slam. I don’t know if it had anything to do with Jimmy perhaps not being able to get himself up, but that was a bad look for Keys, who looked like he had a hard time lifting a smaller man.

Jimmy is still wrestling, but he keeps grabbing at his upper thigh or groin area.

BFT from LA Knight gets the win for his squad. The match was decent enough. Nothing to really complain about, but it also came across as something that might have been better served taking place on television. As it was, it’s a 3 Star match.

Nick Aldis vs Gunther

This is the first match for Nick Aldis since October 2023, but what’s hilarious is that he’s still only 39 years old. There are 20 people wrestling on tonight’s show, and of those 20, nine of them are older than Aldis.

After watching the recent appearance Aldis made on Chris Van Vliet’s show, it’s impossible for me not to root for him. Seeing him get emotional as he talked about how this was his one shot, and that he didn’t want to let anybody down, really showed how much this means to him.

Really good face pop for Aldis during his entrance. He’s still looks to be in great shape.

Nick’s wife… the legendary Mickie James… is in the front row, along with their son. It didn’t take long for Gunther to make his way over to them and talk his shit about how Mickie should’ve convinced her husband to just stay home.

Gunther is obviously known for his game-changing chops, and he has landed a bunch of them already, turning Nick’s chest all different shades of purple, but Gunther has also been on the receiving end of several strikes that echoed throughout the stadium. Physical stuff from both men so far.

Gunther locks Aldis in a sleeper, and he eventually fights to get Aldis down on the mat with it. It’s enough to make Aldis tap out, and the crowd is disappointed. It was the expected outcome, but they’re still upset. The match was fun, although it wasn’t a super long contest. Aldis was protected a lot here, but he looked really good. He does a great job as a General Manager, but after that performance, I wouldn’t mind seeing him wrestle again under the right circumstances. 3.5 Stars

Nikki Bella, Brie Bella & Paige vs Jacy Jayne, Fallon Henley & Lainey Reid – Six-Woman Tag Match

Another six-person tag match on the show, and another six-person tag match that probably should’ve taken place on television instead of on one of WWE’s biggest pay-per-view events of the year. We’ll see if this match surprises me, though.

At the start of the match, Fallon rocks Brie with a shot to the mug, then mocks her with the “Yes” hand motions. No response from the crowd, though. In fact, nothing has really gotten a response in the early few moments. This is easily the quietest the crowd has been over the first 90 minutes of the show.

We went from Gunther and Nick Aldis dropping bombs on each other, to this match, with Brie hitting some of the softest looking strikes you’ll ever see.

Sure enough… that match didn’t belong on pay-per-view. No surprise there. Jacy pins Paige after a Rolling Encore. 2.25 Stars

After the match, the Bellas attack Paige, giving us a feud that nobody with a working brain is asking for. Oh, joy. Oh, bliss. There was about five seconds of heel heat for the Bellas after the attack, but the rest of it played out to complete silence.

CM Punk vs Cody Rhodes – Undisputed WWE Title Match

Cody’s entrance begins with the Street Fighter music. His usual skull helmet that he likes to wear now includes metallic hair to match the hair he rocked as Guile in the Street Fighter movie. Cody’s usual entrance and ring gear feature a new colorway that includes a lot of camo colors, also paying homage to the Guile character.

CM Punk is rocking gear and a ring jacket with the green and yellow color scheme, paying tribute to the old Minnesota North Stars NHL squad.

Cody is receiving very noticeable heel heat during his entrance and the pre-match introductions.

This is the first singles match between these two men since the September 22nd, 2008 episode of Monday Night Raw. That was also their only other singles match before tonight. In case you were wondering, Punk won that one.

The early few minutes of this match have seen very little crowd noise. Admittedly, the match itself is off to a slow start, with both men looking like they’re pacing themselves, but this is still the WWE Title match at SummerSlam. Any sort of silence is weird.

The slow start has continued to a slow match overall. Punk is selling a knee injury, and Cody is focused on trying to land a match-finishing Cody Cutter. There have been a lot of rest holds, submissions, and posturing so far. I wouldn’t say the match has been bad, mind you. It’s just not what you would expect out of a match like this, involving wrestlers like these, in a spot like this.

There we go… now we’re starting to pick up the pace a bit. Cody hits a Cross Rhodes, but it isn’t enough to get the win, but the near fall finally pulls the crowd in.

Welp… Punk goes to hit a Moonsault, but it’s one of the ugliest attempts that you’ll ever see. I don’t think he connected whatsoever. Perhaps Mr. Brooks may want to remove that one from his arsenal for the future. Punk… a step-back, one-legged… what kind of shot is that? Have you ever shot that shot? Do you work on that shot? When? I’ve never seen you do that shot. I’ve never seen you do that, so don’t do it.

Punk is ripping the Spanish Announce Table apart, and business is picking up.

Now the English Announce Table is being cleared off. Punk has Cody on the table, and he climbs to the top rope. He attempts a big elbow drop, but Cody moves out of the way at the last minute. Punk’s landing was almost really bad, as he nearly landed feet-first on the table, causing him to tumble forward into the barricade. On commentary, Michael Cole mentions that Punk landed on his already banged up knee.

Once they’re back in the ring, Cody attempts a Disaster Kick, but Punk gets out of the way, and Cody takes Lil’ Naitch, Charles Robinson, out. With the ref down, Randy Orton makes his return to the company, running in from the crowd and dropping Cody with an RKO. Randy winks at the camera, and then escapes through the crowd again. Punk was on the outside when all this happened, and he didn’t see any of it.

Punk gets back in the ring and hits Cody with a GTS, and Charles Robinson is conscious enough to spend seven seconds counting to three, but it’s enough to get Punk the win. The champions retains his title with an assist from Randy Orton.

3.5 Stars. It picked up towards the end, but it was too little, too late to take the match to “great” status. If you wanted to refer to this as a disappointment, I’d allow it. The match went about 30 minutes, and it probably didn’t need that much time.

Oba Femi vs Brock Lesnar – Hell In A Cell

Very interesting choice for the main event.

The crowd has returned to life for the end of the pre-match video package, and then for the entrances of both men, keeping the energy alive for the introductions.

As soon as the opening bell sounds, both men charge at each other. We’re at a wild pace right off the start.

Brock with back-to-back-to-back German Suplexes, but Oba bounces back to his feet and sends Brock tumbling over the top rope with a big clothesline.

A table is propped up against the Cell, and Oba shoots Brock through the table. Within seconds, you see the entire right side of Brock’s back and side scratched up with welts forming.

Oba gets hit with the ring steps three times, and on the last two shots, he sold them like absolute death. That looked really good. Brock then takes Oba back to Suplex City before hitting him across the back with a steel chair twice. To the surprise of nobody, this has been quite the physical match so far.

Three F5s from Brock, but it isn’t enough to get the win for Brock. This comes moments after a Fall From Grace wasn’t enough to get the win for Oba.

Brock rips the ring canvas apart, and then peels off the protective padding. The wooden boards are now exposed, and Brock hits a Tombstone Piledriver on the boards… for 2.999!!! First of all… holy shit. Second of all, Brock did that with zero knee pads on.

A second Fall From Grace gets the pin and the win for Oba. That was everything it needed to be. Two unstoppable monsters that took home run swing after home run swing from their opponent, but kept moving forward.

It was the longest singles match for Brock since his match against Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam 2023, but it was entertaining from start to finish, doing all of what you wanted and needed a match like that to do. 4 Stars.

After the match, Brock and Paul Heyman leave the ring, allowing Oba to celebrate, but then they return to the ring. Brock takes his elbow pads off, and he pulls Oba in for a hug. He raises Oba’s hand, and the crowd explodes. Brock gets a microphone, declaring Oba as “the future of WWE,” referring to himself as “the past.” He and Heyman leave the ring again, and we go off the air with Oba celebrating. That was a true passing of the torch, especially with Michael Cole saying that Oba is now the “next big thing” after the match.

Well, there were a couple six-person matches that we could’ve done without on a show like this, but overall, this was an enjoyable show. Nothing that is going to be remembered on Show Of The Year lists come December and January, but enjoyable nonetheless.

What does night two have in store for us tomorrow? We’ll soon find out.

Until then, thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts and opinions. I really and truly appreciate you. Be good to each other, folks.