This weekend, emanating from the US Bank Stadium in Minnesota, WWE are hosting ‘The Biggest Party of the Summer’ with 2026’s SummerSlam. The event will continue to follow in Wrestlemania’s footsteps and consist of 2 nights, covering both Saturday & Sunday. At the time of writing, there are currently 12 matches scheduled to be taking place evenly split with 6 taking place on Saturday & 6 on the Sunday. This article will only be covering the match card for Saturday, with a follow up article addressing the Sunday.
First of all, with what I imagine will open the night. Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi are set to clash for likely the final time inside Hell in a Cell. Lesnar & Oba are of course tied at one win each in their rivalry, with Oba having shockingly demolished Lesnar at Wrestlemania (at the time seemingly sending him into retirement), and Lesnar taking advantage of a pre match assault & targetting Oba’s arm to negate the Fall from Grace to get a win back at Clash in Italy. And with how personal & intense this feud has gotten, it only seems fitting to end this affair by locking both men in a cage and seeing who comes out alive. Just as much to give them a chance to definitively settle their issues as well as protecting everyone outside the cage by keeping the bout contained to the cell.
Oba of course gave up his title opportunity for winning King of the Ring for this match, as for the Queen of the Ring Iyo Sky, she did not do this and immediately upon winning, she challenged Liv Morgan (who she’d just defeated in the final) for her Women’s World Championship at Summerslam. This seems the smartest decision for Iyo as again, she had just beaten Liv already to win Queen of the Ring and of course her other option at the time would have been to challenge her long term tag partner & close friend Rhea Ripley (though that ultimately wouldn’t have happened due to an injury to Ripley). And bizarrely, despite having been the Champion since defeating Stephanie Vaquer at Wrestlemania, this will be the first time Liv has actually defended the Women’s World Championship. Which assuming things don’t go her way, the 100+ day title reign will look far more impressive on paper compared to real life.
The other women’s match on Night One will see Fatal Influence take on Paige, Brie Bella & a returning Nikki Bella. We all remember how at Wrestlemania Paige made a long awaited return to replace an injured Nikki Bella to win the Women’s Tag Championships. And since then, there has been a rapid rise for Jacy Jayne, Fallon Henley & Lainey Reid since Fatal influence arrived on the main roster. They immediately went after many of the biggest names on the roster to quickly establish themselves in a new environment. And at the recent Saturday Night’s Main Event, Henley & Reid successfully defeated Paige/Brie Bella to capture the Women’s Tag Championships. And Nikki’s return on this past Smackdown to even out the numbers game set the stage for a 6 Women Tag Match at SummerSlam.
Another six-man tag match for Night One will see Solo Sikoa, Royce Keys & LA Knight teaming up to take on Jey/Jimmy Uso & Jacob Fatu representing The Bloodline. Since his loss in Tribal Combat, Jacob Fatu has fallen in line with The Bloodline (though only to Roman Reigns and still refuses to obey either Uso). Many people have taken issue with this addition to The Bloodline, LA Knight feels like he’s been consistently on the bad side of The Bloodline for years now and recent tensions with The Usos due to their falling in line again with Roman Reigns specifically have only served to worsen that bad blood. Royce Keys, having been a friend to Jacob Fatu for years prior to both of their arrivals in WWE was upset after Fatu fell in line with Roman. And Solo Sikoa, having to some degree turned over a new leaf after all of his MFTs left him & refusing to fall back in line with Roman when prompted by The Usos, which put those 3 men who’ve had their own sets of issues with each other together to tackle a larger threat.
For a match, that many suspect could be the best match across the 2 nights, Gunther will be taking on former Smackdown General Manager Nick Aldis. Gunther and Aldis have been at odds for months, ever since Gunther threatened a lawsuit to get a rematch with Cody Rhodes following his loss at Clash in Italy. Then things went to a whole new level in the post show for Night of Champions where Gunther again failed to capture the Undisputed WWE Championship, getting physical with Aldis and calling him a failed wrestler. Which, for context if you weren’t aware prior to joining WWE in 2023, Aldis had a long nearly 20 year career in Professional Wrestling, competing in promotions such as TNA, Pro Wrestling NOAH & NWA where he was a 2 time World Champion. And these issues with Gunther have firmly woken up that side of Aldis, having started fighting back against Gunther, most notably getting involved & costing him the Tag Match at Saturday Night’s Main Event to prevent him being added to the Undisputed Championship Match at SummerSlam. So both men are more than ready to finally have a match proper, with Aldis forfeiting his position as Smackdown GM to secure this match with The Career Killer.
Speaking of the Undisputed Championship match, that will see Cody Rhodes looking to regain the title, not from Sami Zayn who he lost it to, but rather CM Punk. Sami’s victory at Night of Champions to finally win his first World Title was quickly cut short as only 9 days after winning the title, despite seeming to have caught a lucky break after Gunther assaulted Cody leaving him not medically cleared to take part in a planned title match, this episode of Raw happened to take place in Chicago, so CM Punk was able to answer the call and regain a World Championship basically the moment he returned to WWE after his loss to Roman Reigns in the Main Event of Wrestlemania. Both Cody & Punk have solid cases to make as the face of current WWE, and both men are some of the most popular throughout the company, with both having similar paths following their exits from WWE (including both having stints in AEW), so for this match to finally happen in the modern day will no doubt be a clash of two titans. And tensions between the two have spiked in the time following Saturday Night’s Main Event, with Cody perceiving Punk as having disrespected him and Punk’s own fiery personality didn’t take that accusation well so both are now ready to rip into each other.
This covers all matches currently planned for Night 1 of SummerSlam (barring any last minute editions on the upcoming Smackdown), tune in soon for my article covering Night 2. Which includes Chad Gable looking to complete his Lucha Libre Redemption Arc and capture the Intercontinental Championship, Trick Williams defending his US Championship against a returning Baron Corbin & possibly for the final time Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins coming to blows as a few examples.
