Over the weekend, emanating from the US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, WWE hosted their annual SummerSlam the biggest show on their yearly calendar that isn’t Wrestlemania. This article will focus on Night One with a follow up addressing Night 2 as each Night had 6 matches and I want to give everyone equal attention while not having a full length novel worth of summarising for people to read.
Opening Night One, we saw the Women’s World Championship on the line as Liv Morgan had her first title defence against Iyo Sky. This of course came as a result of Iyo defeating Liv in the Queen of the Ring Finals not long ago at Night of Champions. As you can imagine, the match didn’t stay even for too long as Roxanne Perez & new Women’s Intercontinental Champion Raquel Rodriguez came out to run the numbers game against Iyo to help their Judgement Day teammate. Despite this, Iyo did admirably in holding off not only Liv but also Roxanne/Raquel which goes to show her talent/skill holding off three women alone. But despite this, it ultimately proved too much as Liv Morgan despite being countered by Iyo the first attempt was able to quickly hit a ObLIVion to retain the World Championship seemingly proving that (atleast in her case) Danhausen’s curse expired when she was defeated at Night of Champions.
Next, we saw the 6 Man Tag pitting the team of Solo Sikoa, Royce Keys & LA Knight against The Usos & Jacob Fatu representing The Bloodline. All 6 men have storied history with each other through many different paths (e.g. Keys/Fatu long history as friends even before WWE, LA Knight having drawn the ire of The Bloodline for years, Solo having broke off by himself etc). Solo continued in this match to win over fans with his new lease on life/more fun persona at one point turning the tables on Jey by ‘running it back’ mid match. And Solo ultimately was key in the ending of the match, nailing Jimmy Uso with a Samoan Spike as The Usos were setting up for a ‘One D’ to put down LA Knight, but this momentary distraction gave Knight enough time to hit a BFT on Jey Uso and score the victory for his team, putting a solid dent in this New/Reunited Bloodline and potentially set a bad precedent for Roman Reigns as he prepared to defend his World Heavyweight Championship against Seth Rollins on Night Two (see next article for more on that).
Next, was the long awaited WWE in-ring debut of Nick Aldis as he squared off with Gunther, looking to add another career to his list of careers he’s killed next to the likes of Goldberg, AJ Styles & John Cena. Despite not having wrestled in many years, Aldis looked like he hadn’t missed a step in the ring, more than keeping up with The Ring General at stages and spending a majority of the match being serenaded by chants of “you’ve still got it”, which must have been so satisfying to Aldis as he expressed on a podcast interview before the match how he didn’t want to let people down after anticipating this moment for years. But ultimately, Aldis fell to Gunther, being unable to escape from that fatal Sleeperhold and being forced to tap out, before receiving a standing ovation in the middle of the ring for his efforts alongside his wife, WWE Alumni Mickie James & his son. Also worth noting is that after the show, Triple H personally voided the agreement Aldis had made to resign as Smackdown’s General Manager and reinstated his position.
Following up this grudge match, was Fatal Influence looking to firmly establish themselves as the now & future of the Women’s Division by defeating The Bella Twins & Paige, all three icons of modern WWE women’s wrestling stemming from the Women’s Evolution. This of course was coming off of a loss as Paige & Brie had recently lost the Women’s Tag Championships to Fatal Influence at Saturday Night’s Main Event. Early in the match, Fatal Influence took Brie out of commission effectively turning the bout into a 3 v 2 handicap match. Despite trying their hardest to keep up, the numbers game ultimately proved too much, with Paige ultimately falling to a Rolling Encore from Jacy Jayne, securing the win for Fatal Influence. And between that & also being pinned at SNME, this proved the last straw for The Bellas as the Twins assaulted Paige after the match, with Nikki Bella notably focusing her offence on Paige’s neck, who you may remember/know she has a long history with neck issues, even forcing her into a temporary retirement for several years.
Penultimately, surprisingly to me was the WWE Undisputed Championship match seeing Cody Rhodes attempt to regain the Championship from CM Punk after weeks of notable tension between the two. An early leg drop from Punk clearly caused an issue with his left knee, Cody saw this and cleverly focused a lot of his offence on that dodgy knee throughout the match showing a meaner streak that he has been known to reach to in matches like this. The knee issue worsened when CM Punk missed an attempted elbow drop through the announce table and landed quite badly almost feet first (I know I cringed watching that landing). The match began winding down when Punk dodged a Cody Cutter which took out the referee instead. Punk quickly hit a GTS but there was no referee to make the count. Cody then hit a CrossRhodes, but not only was there still no official, but Punk was able to roll out of the ring. This presented a perfect opportunity for Cody Rhodes to be hit with an RKO from out of nowhere by a returning Randy Orton who we had not seen in WWE ever since his loss to Cody at WrestleMania and subsequent Punt Kick. Orton quickly left through the crowd after this attack, with neither Punk nor the referee having seen what happened. So Punk was able to hit a final GTS to retain the Undisputed Championship leaving Cody high & dry with an Apex Predator to once again deal with (and for anyone worried, there was no sign of Pat McAfee or any celebrities alongside Randy Orton).
So, closing Night One was the Hell in a Cell match pitting Oba Femi against Brock Lesnar one final time. Both men had one win a piece against each other, so the stage was set for one more all out brawl to prove without a shadow of a doubt who was the better man. Early on in the match, Lesnar hit three sequential German Suplexes against Oba Femi, each time Oba getting up almost immediately seeming more angry than hurt. Oba then quickly took control, sending Lesnar to the outside and throwing him through a table he’d set up balancing on the cell. Lesnar was then able to retake control absolutely slamming Oba with the steel steps, with Oba going down as if he had been shot or hit by a truck but this still wasn’t enough to take down The Ruler. Oba Femi eventually managed to catch Lesnar with a Fall from Grace, but Lesnar was able to kick out unlike at WrestleMania, making this the first time anyone has been able to kick out of the move since Oba’s debut on the main roster. Lesnar then quickly got up and hit 3 F5’s in a row (remember, this was enough to end The Undertaker’s Undefeated Streak at WrestleMania), yet still Oba Femi refused to stay down. Lesnar clearly also thought of Taker at this moment, ripping up the ring canvas to reveal the wooden boards underneath and hitting a Tombstone Piledriver onto those boards, yet even this couldn’t keep Oba Femi down, and maybe at this moment Lesnar finally accepted he’d been overtaken. And Oba Femi proved this afterwards, punching a steel chair out of Lesnar’s hands before hitting a second Fall from Grace to win the match and definitively prove himself better than Lesnar.
Of course, at WrestleMania Brock had seemingly retired leaving his gloves & boots in the ring so I’ve been proven wrong once before but this time I truly believe Brock Lesnar will never wrestle again. This belief only became stronger after the match when Lesnar returned to the ring, embraced Oba Femi before grabbing a microphone and directly telling everyone he was the past and that Oba Femi was the future. And when you also consider Brock Lesnar’s history with Minneapolis, how he seemed to really be taking everything in during his entrance which isn’t usually his MO and Paul Heyman seeming emotional during the entrance himself, all of this combines to really create the impression that this time Lesnar is done and that Oba Femi has officially been passed the torch as ‘The Next Big Thing’.
So that’s how SummerSlam Night One ended, with Oba standing tall, Lesnar likely walking away for good and no doubt everyone on the roster, especially CM Punk & Roman Reigns mentally preparing for what they’ll do if/when The Ruler comes for his pound of flesh, knowing that man has now officially retired The Beast Incarnate. Tune in soon for my article covering Night Two, including a long awaited return after over 2 years away, the crowning of a new Interim Women’s Champion & Roman Reigns/Seth Rollins writing the Final Chapter of ‘The Shield’.
