WWE
SUMMERSLAM 2026 SATURDAY
AUGUST 1, 2026
US BANK STADIUM
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNEBOTA
Watch: ESPN Unlimited (US)/Netflix (Non-US)
MEET YOUR PREVIEWER:
Suit Williams: Check out SuitWilliams.com for show reviews, like the AEW Redemption pay-per-view this past weekend and coverage of STARDOM’s ongoing 5 Star Grand Prix. I’ll also be reviewing this show for Voices of Wrestling, check out my past work for the site here!
I’ll note here that while I’m watching the show on the night, I’m watching on a two-hour delay. I say this because I won’t have to deal with pacing or commercials, since I’ll skip any dead time if the ESPN Unlimited app makes it easy enough. That could apply to a few matches on these SummerSlam shows too, but I digress.
WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
LIV MORGAN © DEF. IYO SKY
For the talk of the business decline from last year’s show, the crowd looked good here as they set the stage much closer to the ring than usual at these stadium shows.
This was Morgan’s first defense since winning the title, and it was fine. I started to tune out when the other Judgment Day women interfered, but Iyo took them out with a moonsault to the floor, and the match went on to where they weren’t a factor. They did the standard Big Match stuff, with Iyo hitting Liv with a Spanish Fly and a sunset flip powerbomb to the floor. Liv is always willing to take a big bump, I’ll give her that.
Iyo missed a moonsault and hurt her leg but was able to give Liv an Oblivion for a nearfall. Iyo kipped up out of an Oblivion, but Liv came back with a Codebreaker and a completed Oblivion for the win in a nice and tidy opener. ***
LA KNIGHT, ROYCE KEYS, & SOLO SIKOA DEF. THE USOS & JACOB FATU – KNIGHT PINNED JEY USO
This match is brought to you by Gears of War E-Day, as was the Bloodline’s entrance. I’d ask why they don’t have the babyfaces do the special entrances, but it makes them look like geeks, so maybe that’s a good thing.
Rule of thumb: if there’s a Bloodline multi-man tag on the card, expect nothing. A house show effort from the lads here. Who’s the babyface? Who cares? Everybody yeets, at least Solo does. He’s the only one who didn’t fall back in line with Roman and is now against the Bloodline. Or is still against the Bloodline. I’ve lost track.
It was nice to see the former Powerhouse Hobbs slide his way onto a stadium show, as he wriggled his way into the Bloodline Cinematic Universe as an old friend of Jacob Fatu. He had some trouble maneuvering BIG JIM for a top rope powerslam, but later, took Fatu over the barricade with a powerslam. The finish came when Solo hit the THUMB OF DOOM on BIG JIM to interrupt a 1-D, leading to Knight hitting the BFT on Second-From-The-Bottom Jey for the win. Nothing bad, but nothing notable. **1/2
WWE and The General named the Fan of the Year in a man named Junior Holgren. It’s a bit odd to name the Fan of the Year on August 1st. It used to be that you couldn’t even start Fan of the Year discussion until the G1 ended.
This is where I ran into issues navigating the ESPN app on my PS5, so I switched to watching it on my computer. It’s not my preferred way to watch stuff, but it worked for my current situation.
GUNTHER DEF. NICK ALDIS
Speaking of generals, Gunther took on Nick Aldis here, who inexplicably came out to “Morning Glory” by Oasis. How much money has Oasis made off British pro wrestlers walking out at stadium shows? Mickie James was in the “Get Yelled At By The Heel” seats in support of her husband Aldis.
I thought it was funny to hear Nick Aldis, who is younger than the four men in World Title matches on these SummerSlam shows, get the You Still Got It chants. This was exactly what you would expect if you knew what Nick Aldis was before the WWE run. It was a simple, professional effort with good crowd heat, as they were impressed at the SmackDown GM bringing the fight to Gunther. It was basically a cleaner version of the Pat McAfee match.
Gunther fought to the ropes to escape the King’s Lynn Cloverleaf, surviving Aldis’s flurry and getting the tap out with the Rear Naked Choke. ***1/4
Celebrities are here: UFC fighter Michael Chandler, singer Zac Brown & designer Kendra Scott, the Busted Open hosts.
FATAL INFLUENCE (JACY JAYNE, FALLON HENLEY, & THE OTHER ONE) DEF. THE BELLA TWINS & PAIGE – JAYNE PINNED PAIGE
Fatal Influence defeated the team of Paige & The Bella Twins in 7:30. The Bella Twins jumped Paige after the match, because not only do we need the Bella Twins at all in 2026, but we ALSO need them getting a heel push. **
WWE CHAMPIONSHIP
CM PUNK © DEF. CODY RHODES
I popped for Cody’s Street Fighter entrance, and his goofy skull mask with Guile hair. Punk’s entrance where he wanders to the stage to light CM Punk chants (in Minnesota Wild colors, pick a team you suck-up) doesn’t really work.
The opening moments of this match were stunningly cold for a match between two of the top babyfaces of the promotion as they did some cold limb work to start. But as I’ve written, these two are at the valley of their popularity cycles, having spent years on top in this promotion with little as far as change to their characters. The limb work led to some submission nearfalls that got the crowd invested, with Cody locking on the Figure Four and Punk getting the Anaconda Vise.
Cody fought out of a Vise and eventually got a Cross Rhodes off for a nearfall. Punk sent Cody off the top rope, then did a moonsault for a nearfall. He didn’t hit the moonsault, but he certainly did one. There was a random interlude on the floor before Punk hit a GTS in the ring for a nearfall. Punk set Cody up for an elbow through the announce table, but Cody moved, leading Punk to basically double stomp the announce table as he didn’t fully sell out on the elbow. I’m not gonna blame him for not wanting to do that, but it just looked funky.
Cody went for a Cody Cutter but got the ref instead for the requisite ref bump in a Cody World Title match. Punk did the double GTS spot that was cool once and gets worse every time he does it, but Cody countered it and hit the Cross Rhodes that sent Punk to the floor. But from outta nowhere, the “not injured, just resting” Randy Orton showed up to RKO Cody. Punk and the ref got back into the ring and hit the GTS for the win as the announcers sold that Punk didn’t know what happened.
If I were WWE, the last thing I’d be doing is reminding people about the Orton/Cody debacle from April, as it was one of the most pathetic displays I’ve seen out of this promotion in years from a storytelling perspective. But Cody needs a detour from the title as Punk runs as champion, and god forbid we do it with someone who could use a heated program with a top guy. This match was supposed to feel like a battle of the titans, but it came about 18 months too late to really feel like that. Still, a good World Title match. ***1/2
HELL IN A CELL Match
OBA FEMI DEF. BROCK LESNAR
Did you like the WrestleMania match between these two? Would you like one with far less buzz and minimal plunder? Well, here you go.
WWE had a special MOMENT™ at WrestleMania when Oba beat Brock in that awesome opener. Oba Femi felt like THE GUY in a way very few people have felt over the years. He felt like the new star this promotion needed at the time they desperately needed a new star to emerge. It was a home run angle and a real star-making performance in a sea of synthetic ones.
Instead of capitalizing on it and really giving Oba the rocket-pack push to cement him as a real-deal, money-drawing superstar, they balked. They had Brock get his win back at Clash in Paris for no reason other than to give a reason for a third match, even though it would’ve made just as much sense with Brock losing a second time. They thought to themselves, “What’s the rush? We’ll crown him at WrestleMania! He’ll be fine!”
The rush is because we got to this match, and it felt like just another match that just so happened to be in a cage. That buzz wasn’t there. That rabid fan need to see Oba Femi dominate wasn’t there. He was just another guy in another feud doing another match on another WWE show. Oba Femi isn’t SPECIAL anymore. They had a guy who felt like he could’ve caught fire like Bill Goldberg in WCW, but because pro wrestling in 2026 has completely lost the ability to catch lightning in a bottle and is obsessed with the idea of every story being a years-long epoch, that flame is snuffed out.
This match was nothing special. Not particularly inventive for a Brock match, not particularly brutal, not much better than anything else on the show. There was a cool spot where Brock exposed the wooden boards under the ring and hit a Tombstone, referencing the awesome Cell match against Taker (the second one), with Oba kicking out to a good pop. Oba immediately won with the Fall From Grace (not on the wood, Brock ain’t that generous). Brock got on the mic after and put Oba over as the future, which was nice but unnecessary. ***1/2
Every second of this feud that came after WrestleMania was completely unnecessary. Oba was in a much better spot on April 20 after he beat Brock the first time. That was when he felt like a transcendent star and didn’t need Brock patting him on the head post-match. That was when it was time to make a fucking star.
In an interview with Busted Open, Paul Levesque said he wished fans would invest in and engage with the wrestlers as characters on the show rather than talk about the writing process that led to certain things happening. Put aside the hilarious lack of self-awareness from the star of WWE Unreal and the hilarious irony that the head of creative can’t get fans invested in stories for a moment and understand that Levesque had what he wanted after WrestleMania. Fans were engaged with Oba Femi to a game-changing degree. Levesque then did what he does best: completely squander momentum.
Think of the stars and the moments that Levesque has been handed on a silver platter. Sami Zayn in Montreal needs no further explanation. Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 39. Chad Gable’s first big babyface push against Gunther. Sheamus and his quest to win the Intercontinental Title. Mariah May was fresh off a Match of the Year contender in AEW and has done absolutely nothing of note in 13 months with WWE. Giulia and Jordynne Grace were two of the most popular and renowned women in wrestling, and you can’t find them with a search party on WWE television. Ricky Starks was a name that WWE fans were rabid to see make the jump, then wandered out on NXT television without a name set. And that’s all just off the top of my head.
Paul Levesque wants fans to invest in the storylines. But good investments yield a return, and for years, Levesque has repeatedly shown himself incapable of paying it off. We’ll see if that changes with Oba, but my money is on WWE blowing it again. Don’t worry, there’s always next year.
READ SUIT’S PREVIEW OF NIGHT TWO HERE!
