Image: WWE
The Original Tribal Chief is back.
As many expected, the end of Saturday’s WWE SummerSlam saw Roman Reigns make his return, laying out Solo Sikoa while led to Cody Rhodes hitting the Cross Rhodes for the win, retaining the undisputed WWE Championship.
People reacted huge to Reigns’ return and it set up the big storyline for this fall between Reigns and the Bloodline group that left him in the dust.
The match itself wasn’t anything special: think of the Cody/Roman match from WrestleMania 40 dialed down to a 5. When they announced the stipulation on Friday’s SmackDown, it was almost assured that this would be a match filled with run-ins and indeed, there were. No one really reacted until the interference started, but at least they reacted big when everything started to go down.
Overall, SummerSlam won’t be remembered for the matches (which were fine) as it was largely nothing special. What it did a great job of is paying off the storylines that started following WrestleMania, and now has created intrigue for the fall which will likely focus on the Judgment Day breakup, Gunther’s rise on Raw as the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion, and Bloodline drama on SmackDown.
Here’s my thoughts on the rest of the show:
- For all of the build, I didn’t think CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre was a good match. This was a THEATRE match where Seth Rollins’ outfit, his refereeing, and Punk’s bracelet were more important than the two wrestlers having a wrestling match. If you were someone who thought Reigns deserved an Emmy for his work in the last year, this match was for you. I don’t think this was the match to do after Punk spent most of this year out of action. This needed to be a better payoff after eight months of build. At least there is clearly more between these three, which means more matches, heading into the fall.
- The question heading into the Rhea Ripley vs. Liv Morgan match was if Dominik Mysterio was going to do the turn. He did, helping Liv by putting a steel chair exactly where she needed it, allowing her to hit Oblivion to retain the Women’s World title. This was good, particularly toward the end where the crowd really got into it. This was the first shoe to drop in the Judgment Day split with the other one happening later in the show…
- ..which we will get into now with Gunther defeating Damian Priest to win the World Heavyweight Championship. This was a good, hard-hitting match that was the best bout on the show. I mean, just look at Gunther’s chest during the course of the match. Yikes! It was Finn Balor’s turn to do the turn, putting Gunther’s foot on the ropes during a pinfall attempt and betraying Priest. The two big questions coming out of this bout is who Gunther faces as Bash in Berlin, and what will happen with Judgment Day next.
- Bron Breakker quickly took care of Sami Zayn to win the Intercontinental title. There isn’t much to say as this match only lasted five minutes, though it was good while it lasted and they worked a quick pace. I expect a very long title reign for Breakker as they are going to push him strongly.
- LA Knight defeated Logan Paul to take the United States title. This was good — nothing explicitly amazing but both looked fine. Well, there was that scary superplex spot where Paul almost landed on his head, but overall, it was good. I guess this is it for Paul until it’s time for a Saudi Arabia payday, but we’ll see.
- The WWE Women’s title match was fine. Bayley and Nia Jax worked hard and toward the end, it got really good. Then, Jax won. Yay. The major story here in the long term is how long will it be until Tiffany Britton eventually turns on her and cashes in the Money in the Bank briefcase.
That’s it for SummerSlam. Next is Bash in Berlin later this month, which yes, will be in Berlin. I’m not exactly sure what we’ll see as I don’t think there’s any obvious rematches, but I think that will become more clear in the next week.