Over the weekend, WWE hosted their annual SummerSlam PLE. Emanating from the US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, this article will cover everything that happened on Night 2 of the event (see my previous article covering Night 1).
Opening the show, was supposed to be a Number One Contenders match between Sami Zayn & Finn Balor, with the winner earning a shot at CM Punk for the Undisputed Championship after he defeated Cody Rhodes to retain the title. However this quickly changed as before the match started, Nick Aldis came out and used his newly regained authority as Smackdown General Manager to first of all add Gunther into the match making it a triple threat. But he then again revealed that he’d made it a Fatal Four Way match, bringing out a returning Kevin Owens to also compete for a title opportunity. Of course Kevin Owens prior to this had been absent for a long time with a neck injury that many thought may result in him being forced into retirement, having last competed at Elimination Chamber in 2024 against his long term best friend/rival Sami Zayn. So of course, it’s fitting that Sami was involved in what very well could have been KO’s last match, as well as his first match back in over 2 years.
And in the match, Kevin didn’t seem like he had missed a beat, more than keeping up with Gunther, Balor & Sami all looking for an opportunity to go after Punk and claim the Undisputed Championship. And when all was said & done, it was Kevin Owens who had the best comeback he could have imagined, pinning Sami Zayn after hitting a Stunner to win the match and immediately on return potentially punch a ticket to becoming a World Champion once again. As for Sami, he will no doubt go even further into madness/insanity over this development as he’d already been accusing upper management of screwing him over and playing favourites, which may cause stronger feelings of being targeted (though may be conflicted considering it was Kevin Owens, again his best friend who benefitted from this).
Next, the United States Championship was on the line, with a returning Baron Corbin looking to win the title from Trick Williams. Corbin went after Trick quickly, though alongside occasional assistance from Lil Yachty, Trick managed to stay competitive in the match. The match came to a head when Corbin went to grab the title belt to try and hit Trick with it, Yachty noticed this and went to confront Corbin, with Corbin distracted, Trick went to attack him on the apron, but accidentally hit Lil Yachty, sending him flying through a table on the outside. Corbin then took advantage of the referee/Trick being distracted by Yachty, to hit Trick with the title, before hitting an End of Days to win the match and be crowned the new United States Champion.
Next was the 5 Woman Ladder match to crown an Interim WWE Women’s Champion while Rhea Ripley is out with injury. This match saw Charlotte Flair, Jade Cargill, Tiffany Stratton, Chelsea Green & Lash Legend competing to be the first woman to unhook the title and become the World Champion for as long as Ripley is out of action, before having a chance to defeat Rhea upon her return to become the true Women’s Champion. As one would expect with a ladder match, there was chaos throughout the affair with all women utilising the ladders as weapons & generally doing everything in their power to unhook the title. At one stage, Chelsea Green of all people looked to have the match won after knocking over a ladder with Tiffany Stratton on top of it, sending her crashing to the outside taking out all other competitors, but she was quickly stopped by Michin & B-Fab who ran out to salvage the match on behalf of Jade Cargill. Their attempted assistance to Jade was thwarted by Charlotte who has long standing issues with Cargill who quickly dispatched the two women before climbing the ladder herself to square off with Cargill. They knocked out Stratton/Legend to continue their own battle before knocking each other off the ladder as well. This then left the floor open for Chelsea Green to climb back up the ladder and unhook the title to become the Interim Women’s Champion. And on the post show, Chelsea dedicated this victory to Michael Hayes, in reference to Season 1 of WWE Unreal where Hayes makes a comment that he felt Chelsea Green’s ceiling was helping to make stars like Charlotte Flair/Tiffany Stratton rather than being on that level herself, with Chelsea clearly spotting the opportunity to throw that poorly aged quote back in his face after she overcame both Charlotte & Stratton in winning this match.
Following this was the first ever (and probably only ever) ‘Human Monies on a Pole’ match pitting Dominik Mysterio against Danhausen as he tried to reclaim the $100,000 dollars he claims Danhausen stole from The Judgement Day. With there being no disqualifications, JD McDonough who has also had issues with Danhausen lately came out to exact some payback for his loss at Saturday Night’s Main Event and how much Danhausen has been a thorn in the side of The Judgement Day in recent months. Three of Danhausen’s Minihausens then emerged to tip the numbers game in the other direction into Danhausen’s favour, though despite this Danhausen still couldn’t reclaim the human monies. Joe Hendry then came out and took JD out of commission with a guitar shot as payback for The Judgement Day’s interference in his/Danhausen’s concert on Raw last Monday. Ultimately, one final attempt from Dominik to try and reclaim his money was thwarted by Danhausen when he once again cursed Mysterio, causing a pyro malfunction on the ring post to blind Mysterio & knock him off the post, allowing Danhausen to reclaim the human monies and firmly put The Judgement Day behind him with a massive win on such a big stage.
Penultimately, the Intercontinental Championship was on the line, with PENTA defending the title against Chad Gable. Gable of course coming off of unmasking himself as the Original El Grande Americano with a newfound respect for Lucha Libre and looking to win the Intercontinental Championship fittingly from PENTA since it was Gable’s inability to defeat PENTA that led him down the path which led to the birth of ‘El Grande Americano’ so Gable was looking to avenge the biggest ghost of his recent past and redeem that failure. Early into the bout, PENTA pulled Gable into the turnbuckle damaging Gable’s already slightly injured shoulder. Later in the match, Gable hit a Flying Headbutt to PENTA which could have been the end of the match, but due to the injured shoulder he was unable to make a full cover allowing PENTA to kick out. PENTA then hit a Mexican Destroyer on the ring apron, yet somehow Gable had the energy to kick out. PENTA then went for a second Mexican Destroyer, which Gable was able to counter into an Ankle Lock, which after some effort to escape from PENTA, Gable was able to sinch in harder leaving no choice but for PENTA to tap out so Gable won the match, won the Intercontinental Championship and gave us the most fitting storybook ending for his part in the El Grande Americano saga (allowing whoever is under the other mask to continue the legacy of El Grande Americano).
And the final match for the whole weekend, the main event saw Roman Reigns defending the World Heavyweight Championship against Seth Rollins. Anyone who has watched WWE in the last decade likely knows all about The Shield and the long history between Roman & Seth with both men never fully being able to get away from each other no matter which direction their careers took, they always found their way back to each other. But with this match, both men were looking to go at it one last time, or at the very least finally put The Shield behind them once and for all. And that legacy held over the entire match, from the moment Seth entered with a brief section of The Shield’s old theme music before his own theme began, and coming down to the ring wearing a Face Covering very familiar to the ones Dean Ambrose, the third member of The Shield (now Jon Moxley in AEW) would wear during their period of dominance. Both men were also able to hit a Powerbomb to the other through an announce table each, calling back to the Shield’s Triple Powerbomb from back in the day. After the referee was taken out by Rollins, the references to the past continued with Seth Rollins hitting a ‘Wacky-line’ to Rollins before Roman hit a ‘Dirty Deeds’ to Seth, both signature moves, again of Dean Ambrose. So throughout this entire match, despite him not being there sufficient tribute/respect was shown to Dean Ambrose as he played just as important a part in The Shield as Roman/Rollins.
The referee was then taken out by a spear from Roman Reigns, allowing Seth the perfect opportunity to grab a Steel Chair, with Roman in the prime position for Seth to strike him in the back just like he did all those years ago when he joined The Authority and put all of this into motion. However, Roman saw this coming and was able to avoid the chair. Roman then similarly had an opportunity to strike Seth with the Steel chair just as Seth had done to him (and Seth was seemingly expecting/goading Reigns to do this), but this time Roman threw the chair to the side, showing that finally Roman had been able to put that betrayal behind him and would no longer allow Seth’s mind games to cloud his judgement. With a clear mind, despite some further resistance from Seth, Roman was ultimately able to hit multiple spears in quick succession to score a pinfall victory, retain the title and finally, definitively put an end to Seth Rollins and the years of lasting trauma his betrayal caused.
And after the match, having slayed that demon, Roman actually offered Seth Rollins a Fistbump, the iconic symbol of The Shield from years ago. So SummerSlam closed with both men doing that fistbump in the middle of the ring, with Seth’s entrance mask perfectly positioned in the middle of the two men, again symbolising Dean Ambrose making sure he was part of this (at least in spirit). So with that, both men finally gave a definitive and perfect end to the story of The Shield after just how much it has defined the last decade of WWE and who knows what it may take to stop Roman Reigns now that he has expelled his biggest demon from the past & also, much like at Wrestlemania against CM Punk, did it all by himself not bending the rules in any way.
