As a service to followers who’ve a basic curiosity in WWE however may not have watched a match in months, we’re joyful to offer this FAQ as a information to SummerSlam at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Saturday and Sunday.
Wait, SummerSlam is now a two-night occasion? Is all the things getting WrestleMania-sized?
The WWE listens to the Universe, and apparently the Universe mentioned it was keen to fill MetLife Stadium with over 45,000 followers twice in the identical weekend to look at skilled athletes lose painfully. So that they’re mainly now honorary Jets and Giants followers.
That is the primary two-night SummerSlam, and subsequent yr’s occasion in Minneapolis shall be a two-nighter as nicely. It is smart: No different WWE occasion apart from WrestleMania will get the form of construct that SummerSlam does. There’s even a particular movie star host: Cardi B, who as soon as name-checked Eddie Guerrero in a tune and thus earned a lifetime membership wrestling cred card.
This yr’s occasion is notable for one more purpose: It is the ultimate SummerSlam for John Cena as an in-ring performer, because the undisputed WWE champion as soon as once more faces Cody Rhodes, this time in a avenue battle. (Can one actually have a avenue battle at MetLife? Would it not be a Parking Lot Punch-Up? Turnpike Tussle? Route 1 Ruckus?)
John Cena nonetheless has the championship? At his age?
The clock is ticking on Cena’s retirement tour. Will he retire as a heel champion, or can Rhodes (or another person) take the title from Cena earlier than he departs?
Please recall that Cena gained the title from Rhodes in April at WrestleMania 41 because of a low blow, a belt shot and interference from The Rock’s emissary, rapper Travis Scott, whose title we doth not speaketh of any longer. That gave Cena his document seventeenth world championship. Since then, he has gained matches towards Randy Orton in Could and CM Punk in June because of exterior interference, defeated fan favourite R-Reality a pair instances and tagged with the detestable Logan Paul in a loss to Rhodes and Jey Uso at Cash within the Financial institution.
Rhodes gained the King of the Ring match in June to safe a title shot towards Cena at SummerSlam. However in a present of heel cowardice and company synergy, Cena claimed on the “official contract signing” that he was unable to defend the title as a result of he was filming a film for Netflix and too exhausted. This went over about in addition to you would possibly anticipate with Rhodes, who beat Cena unconscious, put the pen in his hand and scribbled on the dotted line.
Look, we’re no contract legal professionals, however …
Rhodes revealed that Cena did not join only for a title rematch however for a avenue battle, which is nice information for followers of the subgenre “Cody Rhodes getting whipped along with his personal belt till there are seen welts.”
What in regards to the WWE world championship?
That belongs to the Ring Basic, Gunther, who regained the title from Jey Uso in June after seeing his 258-day reign ended by the grasp of “YEET!” at WrestleMania. He is dealing with CM Punk right here, who’s saying issues like “I do not need to win the WWE world championship … I NEED to win the WWE world championship,” as he has not gained a serious title since returning to WWE in 2023.
Should you consider within the betting odds, Punk is favored to win right here. Regulate the place this match lands on the Evening One card — if it is the primary occasion, it could possibly be Punk’s “SummerSlam Second.”
Enjoyable reality: Courtesy of the brand new “WWE: Unreal” docuseries, which pulls again the curtain on the writing course of, we all know that Gunther vs. Punk was a part of the preliminary plans for WrestleMania 41. As an alternative of that showdown, Gunther dropped the belt to Jey Uso and Punk misplaced in that triple menace match that noticed Paul Heyman double-turn on Punk and Roman Reigns to align with Seth Rollins — who’s out of motion long-term (or so he says) with a knee damage suffered in July.
With out Seth Rollins on the cardboard, what’s Paul Heyman as much as at SummerSlam?
The Sensible Man-turned-The Oracle debuted his new faction of Rollins and Bron Breakker at WrestleMania and has since added Bronson Reed to the group. However there may be nonetheless that little matter of getting double-crossed Roman Reigns with a blindside crotch-shot that handed Rollins the match at ‘Mania and formally ended the extraordinarily profitable partnership between Heyman and Reigns that tracks again to the beginnings of The Bloodline.
After lacking just a few months, Reigns returned emphatically to Uncooked final month throughout a beatdown by Breakker and Reed on Punk and Jey Uso, who known as a long-awaited truce with Jey after he made the save. They’re tagging collectively at SummerSlam towards Breakker and Reed, because the Unique Tribal Chief (or the “OTC” for those who’re into the entire brevity factor) seeks vengeance on Heyman.
Contemplating their historical past, one has to surprise what the connection is absolutely like between Reigns and Jey. And contemplating that Heyman is a grasp manipulator, already planting seeds of doubt about Roman’s intentions with Jey this week.
Talking of The Bloodline, what’s the remainder of the prolonged household doing at SummerSlam?
Two of them are dealing with one another in a strong metal cage! United States champion Solo Sikoa, son of Rikishi, will battle Jacob Fatu, nephew of Rikishi and the previous champ. Fatu turned on Sikoa and the reconfigured Bloodline — which now options JC Mateo (né Jeff Cobb), Tonga Loa and Talla Tonga (né Hikuleo) — at Cash within the Financial institution, however Sikoa took the title from him lower than a month later at Evening of Champions because of interference from Fatu’s former Bloodline brethren. Therefore the metal cage, a time-tested strategy to GUARANTEE that there shall be no exterior inference within the match, offered nobody figures out tips on how to open a door or climb issues.
To ramp up the drama for a match that did not actually need this a lot of a tough promote, Sikoa was lately “arrested” by San Antonio cops (that conspicuously acted like WWE enhancement expertise) for framing Fatu by staging a automotive crash and making it seem like … once more, typically we do not want to do that a lot. Typically it is OK to have two kin who hate one another, and they’ll get violent inside a confined house. Thanksgiving for me and also you. A SummerSlam metal cage match for Sikoa and Fatu.
What is going on on with the WWE’s different longstanding faction, The Judgement Day?
“Soiled Dom” Mysterio, the reigning Intercontinental champion since WrestleMania, has been having some enjoyable these days. He made a surprising look at Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide in Mexico final week in maybe the primary run-in by somebody carrying a Tony Gwynn jersey. However largely, it has been enjoyable to see him dutifully keep away from wrestling AJ Kinds, who has been chasing him and the IC title for just a few months.
Dom was carrying round a “physician’s observe” that forbade Kinds from touching him in any method till he was “medically cleared,” which led to Kinds discovering other ways to harass him, like sending a threatening message on a cake to the locker room. Lastly, Dom was cleared by WWE docs … and instantly attacked Kinds. Nice chicken-you-know-what conduct from one of many masters of the artform. Dom is aware of tips on how to construct what would possibly in any other case be a pedestrian mid-card match into one of many extra extremely anticipated bouts at SummerSlam.
In the meantime, The Judgement Day’s different title holders, WWE girls’s tag-team champs Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez, are dealing with Charlotte Aptitude and Alexa Bliss. Aptitude and Bliss are enjoyable, having turned the ol’ mismatched rivals “however can they coexist!” tag-team trope on its head by embracing the concept that “we’re not mates” — proper right down to carrying T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan. In the meantime, they’re delighting followers by performing like they could really find yourself besties. Alexa discovered a strategy to get Charlotte cheered once more. That is an achievement unto itself.
If Charlotte Aptitude is not wrestling for a girls’s singles championship at SummerSlam, who’s?
The reigning champs are Tiffany Stratton (SmackDown’s WWE girls’s champion) and Naomi (Uncooked girls’s world champion), and each face critical challenges this weekend.
It is solely a matter of time till Jade Cargill holds a WWE championship. She earned this shot towards Stratton by defeating Asuka within the Queen of the Ring finals at Evening of Champions. Stratton has held the title since Jan. 3 and efficiently defended it towards Aptitude and Trish Stratus. However this looks like a altering of the guard second right here.
Naomi misplaced to Cargill in a no holds barred match at Evolution, which ended their feud, however then shocked followers by cashing in her Cash within the Financial institution contract to make the primary occasion between champion Iyo Sky and Rhea Ripley into an impromptu triple-threat. Naomi pinned Sky and gained the title for the primary time since 2017.
Ripley, Sky and Naomi are working it again at SummerSlam for the championship. Each contenders consider Naomi is holding a belt that is rightfully theirs. Naomi is trying to get the form of assertion win that would preserve the belt round her waist for a very long time. Uncooked basic supervisor Adam Pearce mentioned this trio would possibly “blow the proverbial roof off” of MetLife Stadium, which doesn’t have a roof to blow off besides in proverb.
However there’s one other girls’s match between two Irish lasses that would additionally do some harm to that proverbial roof.
Is that this the place Lyra Valkyria takes it to a different stage towards Becky Lynch?
Valkyria is an fascinating place. She’s nice within the ring. She’s … nicely, she typically speaks right into a microphone. But when we’re being sincere, there’s simply one thing lacking right here. Maybe it is a bit of a violent edge, which she might show on this showdown towards The Man, her former tag-team accomplice.
Valkyria was the primary WWE girls’s Intercontinental champion. She efficiently defended the title towards Lynch at Backlash however misplaced the IC belt at Cash within the Financial institution to Lynch. The stipulation on that match was that Becky might by no means problem for the Intercontinental Championship once more so long as Valkyria was the champion. My, how the tables have turned. At SummerSlam, there are three stipulations on the match: No count-outs, no disqualifications and if Valkyria loses, she will by no means problem for the IC title once more so long as Lynch is the champion.
These two placed on arguably one of the best match at Evolution in a triple-threat with Bayley earlier in July. Now it is one-on-one, title on the road and something goes. Lynch already tried to introduce Valkyria to her kendo stick on Uncooked, solely to have it slapped towards her again a number of instances as a substitute. It was a distinct aspect of Valkyria and maybe the one we wanted to see.
Wow, that’s numerous matches. Actually, that is sufficient chaos for 2 days of wrestling motion.
Oh, there’s all the time room for extra chaos. For instance, Sami Zayn is dealing with Karrion Kross, who has grow to be … the Joker?
Keep in mind how Heath Ledger’s Clown Prince of Crime was all the time attempting to get Batman to confess that he was an enormous phony who was simply as flawed and damaged because the criminals he was chasing? That is sorta what they are going for right here with Kross and Zayn: If Sami loses at SummerSlam, he has to confess that “Kross advised the reality” after months of harassment. We’re undecided if Sami performing extra irritated than menaced on this storyline is a function or a bug.
From an agent of chaos to absolute chaos: It is a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match that includes six tag groups vying for the WWE championships!
Please recall that the TLC match formally made its debut at SummerSlam 2000, with Edge and Christian defeating The Dudley Boyz and The Hardy Boyz. The twenty fifth anniversary of that match is widely known with “the most important area ever assembled for a TLC Match,” that includes:
• The Wyatt Sicks, the reigning champions, with Dexter Lumis and Joe Gacy representing the creepy faction.
• The Avenue Earnings (Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins)
• The Motor Metropolis Machine Weapons (Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley)
• #DIY (Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa)
• Fraxiom (Nathan Frazier and Axiom)
• Andrade & Rey Fenix (Andrade & Rey Fenix, clearly)
The WWE has been even handed in reserving TLC matches, maintaining them uncommon and considerably particular on Premium Dwell Occasions. The truth is, SummerSlam hasn’t had one since 2009, and that was a singles match between CM Punk and Jeff Hardy. The SmackDown tag-team division is deep with the form of high-flying spot-fest wrestlers that this match calls for. That is going to be a blast — and never simply when somebody inevitably falls off an enormous ladder into a set of tables meticulously positioned for max breakage.
This would possibly appear to be sufficient tag-team wrestling to fulfill anybody’s craving at SummerSlam. However what if that craving contains Jelly Roll?
Jelly Roll is wrestling at SummerSlam?
Jelly Roll is wrestling at SummerSlam.
Hasn’t the WWE earned your belief with movie star visitor wrestlers? Have been you not entertained by Dangerous Bunny, Logan Paul, Stephen Amell and Johnny Knoxville? Has Travis Scott’s incapability to throw a labored punch at Cody Rhodes completely shaken your religion in well-known individuals having the ability to execute a primary match after weeks of intense coaching in Orlando, Florida?
First off, he is Jelly Roll in title solely lately. The singer mentioned he is dropped almost 200 kilos because of adjustments in his life-style. So how did he get included on SummerSlam? Like so many different issues in life, his motivation stems from getting actually irritated by Logan Paul.
How did Jelly Roll find yourself in a feud with Logan Paul, apart from Paul current?
Mr. Roll was performing a tune at a Nashville version of SmackDown when Paul got here to the ring and began complaining about “celebrities, personalities and influencers … coming into our business, leeching off of our success, on a platform that now we have constructed.” (I imply, is that this man nice at these things or what?)
Randy Orton emerged from the again to defend the consideration of Jelly Roll, solely to get jumped by Paul. After some temporary contemplation, Jelly Roll — whose in-ring aesthetics steered The Undertaker being cosplayed by Silent Bob — ran over, grabbed Paul and threw him to the mat.
Jelly Roll was in Orton’s nook at Saturday Evening’s Principal Occasion as he confronted Drew McIntyre, who had Paul with him. As Jelly and Logan acquired into it once more, Orton RKO’d a distracted McIntyre for the win. This didn’t make the large Scotsman joyful, and he delivered a Claymore Kick that just about knocked the jelly out of the Roll.
Quick ahead to “Jimmy Kimmel Dwell,” the place Jelly Roll was the visitor host and Orton was his visitor. Clearly, nobody’s realized from Jay Leno vs. the nWo: E book one aspect of the feud on the late-night discuss present and the opposite aspect of the feud’s displaying up ultimately. Cue McIntyre, delivering some scathingly humorous strains earlier than brawling with Orton. Cue Paul, trying to take over the present earlier than Jelly Roll delivered a not-bad-at-all chokeslam by means of Kimmel’s desk. (Now do Fallon!)
Orton and Jelly later interrupted a Paul section on SmackDown, because the singer hit a “Boss Man Slam” on the Vine star-turned-mega-heel and continued to escalate their feud.
Look, Jelly Roll may not be your taste of pastry, even when he is a lifelong WWE fan dropping Disciples of Apocalypse references with Pat McAfee. Possibly movie star tag matches aren’t why you are dedicating two August evenings to wrestling.
However that is the enjoyment of a two-night SummerSlam: just a little one thing for everybody, whether or not you are there for large title adjustments or blood feuds or chaotic free-for-alls or seeing Logan Paul choke-slammed by means of one other desk. And actually, is there something that unites us all greater than seeing Logan Paul choke-slammed by means of one other desk?