The 1st night of this year’s ‘SummerSlam’, one of WWE’s biggest annual events, went down this Saturday live from US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Each night this year is featuring a 6-match card and on paper Night 1 looked like it may be the stronger night star-power wise, but Night 2 has a real chance to steal the weekend from an in-ring perspective I think. So, let’s talk about it then!
The show started off with Liv Morgan defending her Women’s World Championship against Queen of the Ring winner Iyo Sky. This was a rematch from their Queen of the Ring finals match that they had at Night of Champions which Iyo won and earned herself an opportunity at the strap at this show. I’ll start off by saying this was a hell of a match, one of the best on the night certainly, and in my mind much better than their match at Night of Champions even and I enjoyed that one as well. The heel champion dominated the early moments of the match, but it didn’t take long for Iyo to find her footing and send the champ back on her heels. Iyo leaned into her strengths, her agility and high-flying ability, while Liv tried to be an opportunist and keep the jumpy Iyo grounded. It didn’t take long before Raquel & Roxanne, Liv’s Judgment Day sisters, to make their way to ringside at the first whiff of real danger to Liv and her Championship. They distracted the referee and took advantage of it, laying in cheap shots and underhanded tactics to the outnumbered Iyo Sky. Iyo fought her way back into it though and took them both out with a moonsault to the outside, effectively eliminating them from the matchup. As she entered back into the ring though, Liv hit her with this crazy looking head scissors maneuver that dropped her face first. Iyo almost got the win after hitting Liv’s finisher ‘Oblivion’ on Liv, but she kicked out at 2. The closing moments saw Liv go for Oblivion, but Iyo countered out of it in a way I’ve never seen before, handspringing herself into a flip and back onto her feet. Liv stayed on the attack however and nailed Iyo with a codebreaker before following up immediately with Oblivion for the pin and win to retain the championship.
Next up was the 6-man tag team match between The Bloodline (Jacob Fatu and Jimmy & Jey Uso) vs LA Knight, Royce Keys, and Solo Sikoa. This is a match with a lot of people I enjoy in it, but on paper I shouldn’t even really care about it because it feels sort of like a throw away just to get these guys onto the card. WWE actually spent a decent amount of time building this particular match up on the weekly shows leading up to SummerSlam and effectively did a good job at making me care. Shame the same can’t be said for a lot of the other matches, which makes this one all the more surprising. Solo as a good guy has been tremendous and this bonding relationship with him and LA Knight is cracking me up. In the early moments of the match, Solo knocked Jey down and stole his ‘Yeet encore’ celebration in front of the live crowd, much to Jey’s anger and dismay. The big question for everyone coming into this match was if the Knight, Keys, Solo team would be able to coexist or if someone was going to turn on them. The main concern was if Solo was going to turn on them and become this quiet domineering heel for the Bloodline faction again and I am happy to say that didn’t happen! The Bloodline already killed Fatu’s momentum and character, don’t go messing with what Solo is building now too. The end of the match saw a resilient LA Knight kick out of a Jey Spear followed up by a Jimmy Uso Splash. The Usos went for their patented 1D finisher, but Solo blindsided Jimmy with a Samoan Spike which opened the door for Knight to hit a BFT on Jey for the pin and win. After the match, the babyface team embraced each other and celebrated.
Next up ‘The Ring General’ Gunther went to battle with former pro wrestler turned Smackdown General Manager, Nick Aldis. This match was honestly pretty well built coming into the show too and had people really excited and heavily anticipating seeing what Nick Aldis was going to be able to do in the ring. The guy is still pretty young all things considered, especially given the median age of the men’s main roster division in WWE right now, and he’s still built really well and in ring shape. You could tell that just by looking at him every week on Smackdown and he was in a suit. Gunther dominated the early portions of this matchup, as he should, as expected. Using his typical Gunther effectiveness and just wearing his opponent down, knocking into him with chops, lariats, punches, and stomps. He maybe felt a little too cocky and confident though because when he went to the outside of the ring to start taunting Aldis’s wife (Mickie James) and son, that’s when he started to slip out of control. Aldis took control off of a vertical suplex followed by a Superplex that got the crowd up on their feet. He followed up shortly after with an elbow drop for 2. Aldis was eventually able to lock in his submission finisher the ‘Kingsland Cloverleaf’ in a moment that had people up and cheering as Gunther was barely able to get to the ropes to escape. Aldis initially fought out of Gunther’s sleeper hold as well and locked in one of his own, but Gunther was able to wrestle out of it and drop Aldis with a powerbomb before wearing him down with a series of elbows and locking the sleeper in. Aldis tried fighting it at first but eventually tapped out. Good pure wrestling match and I’m happy with the result and how it went down. Gunther took the air out of the building, which he should’ve, but Aldis proved as the crowd chanted that ‘He’s still got it’ and can deliver a competitive match in the ring.
Next up was the 6-Women’s tag team match between the up-and-coming faction Fatal Influence (Jacy Jayne, Lainey Reed, & Fallon Henley) vs the veteran team of Paige & The Bella Twins. This match to me always felt like Fatal Influence had to get the win here to build the team up with a big win over a veteran squad and establish themselves as a real threat to the women’s division now. I also felt like someone was going to turn heel in this matchup, I just wasn’t really set on if it was going to be Paige or Nikki Bella. The match itself was okay, it started off with Brie and Fatal Influence was giving her the beatdown, but she got seriously hurt with a shoulder injury pretty early on in this matchup. Nikki was a difference maker for a while, coming in off a hot tag and laying out all 3 members of the heel faction single handedly. The numbers game proved to be too much for the vets though. Paige nearly rescued the matchup, but Fallon Henley distracted her and after laying her out with a sunset flip, she was left vulnerable for Jacy Jayne’s ‘Rolling Encore’ elbow for the pin and win for Fatal Influence. After the match, the Bellas came to “console” Paige before turning on her. Nikki jumped her from behind before dropping her with a ‘Rack Attack 2.0’ and sort of cheesily saying “Nikki Bella is back bitches!” into the camera.
Next up was a big one. CM Punk defended his Undisputed WWE Championship against ‘The American Nightmare’, Cody Rhodes. This was a well told, slow building, ring psychology sort of wrestling match between 2 of the better choices to deliver a match like this in the game today. The match started off slow and technical, back and forth, both men working a different area on their opponent’s body trying to wear them down. Punk went for Cody’s shoulder so he wouldn’t be able to effectively go for his signature moves, and Cody did the same to Punk by targeting his knee. Cody planted Punk with a Cody Cutter before locking in a Figure-Four on Punk, targeting his damaged knee. Punk was able to reverse out of it, but not before more serious damage was done to the knee. Punk countered an Alabama Slam attempt from Cody into an Anaconda Vise submission of his own and wore Cody and his shoulder down more before he was able to get out of it. Later on, the action spilled to the outside and Punk went for a high-risk top rope elbow drop through the announce table, but Cody was able to move, which sent Punk crashing feet first through the table. Cody drug a dazed Punk back into the ring and attempted another Cody Cutter, but Punk dodged it and he inadvertently knocked down referee Charles Robinson with the move. Rhodes hit Punk with a Cross Rhodes shortly after but with no ref to count the pin he couldn’t win the matchup. A returning Randy Orton made a shocking run-in into the match and laid Cody out with an RKO while both Punk and the referee were still down. Punk got back to his feet and dropped a dazed Cody with a GTS and a damaged Charles Robinson made the labored 3-count. Punk retains the belt via pinfall in a pretty darn good one.
Then it was time for the main event of the evening! As The Ruler, Oba Femi went to battle with the hometown legend, The Beast, Brock Lesnar in a Hell in a Cell match. This was the 3rd matchup in these 2’s storied rivalry this year that started at WrestleMania with a shocking Oba squash, had its 2nd chapter in Italy with Brock being able to get his win back by the skin of his teeth, and concluding in Brock’s old stomping grounds of Minnesota inside Hell in a Cell. This was one of the most hyped and more highly anticipated matchups of the entire weekend I’d say. The passing of the torch from the previous generation’s ‘Next Big Thing’ to the current era’s ‘Next Big Thing’. I’ll just preface this by saying, this match was the exact opposite of the previous match. This wasn’t a slow-burn, building anticipation, ring psychology heavy sort of matchup. No. This was 2 behemoths waging war with another and hitting each other with their biggest bombs early and throughout the match. Lesnar sent Femi to Suplex City early before the match spilled to the outside and both men took each other into the steel steps off Irish whips. Femi sent Lesnar crashing through a table and into the cell moments later, before Brock was able to find his equalizer in a steel chair. He whacked Oba with it multiple times in the head and back. Femi was able to smack the chair away from Lesnar’s hands though and drop him with a chokeslam before following up with his finisher ‘Fall from Grace’ for a 2 count. Lesnar was able to get the upper hand back from an F-5 but Oba got back to his feet, so he dropped him with a 2nd F-5 but Oba got back to his feet, so he dropped him with a 3rd F-5 and Femi kicked right out at 2. Lesnar ripped the ring mat apart then, pulling the foam pad up and exposing the wooden boards underneath. He paid homage to The Undertaker and dropped Femi headfirst onto the wooden boards with a Tombstone Piledriver, but Oba still kicked out at 2. A shocked Lesnar went to grab a chair, but Femi pulled it from his hands before dropping him with another ‘Fall from Grace’ for the pin and win. After the match, Lesnar raised Oba’s arm and said he was the future of the business before referring to himself as the past and exiting the ring for Oba.
Match Ratings: 1-10 scale (.25s applicable)
Women’s World Championship match: Liv Morgan (c) vs Iyo Sky- 8.5/10
6-Man Tag Team match: The Bloodline (Jacob Fatu and Jimmy & Jey Uso) vs LA Knight, Royce Keys, and Solo Sikoa- 7/10
Gunther vs Nick Aldis- 8/10
6-Women Tag Team match: Fatal Influence vs Paige & The Bella Twins- 6.5/10
Undisputed WWE Championship match: CM Punk (c) vs Cody Rhodes- 8.5/10
Hell in a Cell match: Brock Lesnar vs Oba Femi- 7.75/10
That’ll do it for this one though folks! Make sure to like the page on social media or come back to the website to read my discussion over Night 2 and enjoy your 2nd night of wrestling! Until next time, be good to one another!
