WWE SUMMERSLAM 2026 SUNDAY
AUGUST 2, 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.
UNDISPUTED WWE TITLE #1 CONTENDER MATCH
SAMI ZAYN VS. FINN BALOR
Before this match started, the reinstated SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis came out and added Gunther to the match to show that he wouldn’t hold a grudge.
UNDISPUTED WWE TITLE #1 CONTENDER MATCH
SAMI ZAYN VS. FINN BALOR VS. GUNTHER
Before the match started, Aldis announced that he had added ANOTHER person to the match, making it a four-way. Can this guy make up his mind?
UNDISPUTED WWE TITLE #1 CONTENDER MATCH
KEVIN OWENS DEF. SAMI ZAYN, FINN BALOR, GUNTHER – Owens pinned Zayn
Before the match started…I’m kidding. This was the match.
This was another example of WWE booking an angle where the heel is completely in the right. Zayn had been complaining about mistreatment ever since losing the WWE Title to CM Punk last month. So, Aldis booked him in a #1 contender match against Balor on this show, only to stick two more people in it for no reason. All the Allegedly Great Michael Cole could muster up as an explanation was that it was screwing Balor as well.
This was a standard four-way, with Owens getting a ton of shine on his comeback from the Smackdown 2003 Special (major neck surgery). It ended with Owens and Zayn going back-and-forth, with Owens winning with the Stunner. It’s good to have Owens back, and he’ll be taking on CM Punk for the WWE Title at some point in the future. Personally, I can’t wait to see a feud about a 20-year-old beef from ROH. ***
UNITED STATES TITLE MATCH
BARON CORBIN DEF. TRICK WILLIAMS (STILL W/ LIL YACHTY FOR SOME REASON) (3RD DEFENSE)
This match was brought to you by Nimrods, A Green Day Comedy.
This match is a damning indictment of the WWE Performance Center. A complete snoozefest with two people who know how to do their finishes and nothing else. You could hear a rat piss on cotton during Corbin’s heat. Trick Williams continues to be a confused character, as shockingly, the 50-year-old white guys in creative don’t know how to present a charismatic black man. He’s nominally a babyface, but his manager hits people with a kendo stick behind the ref’s back.
Speaking of Trick’s manager, why the fuck is Lil Yachty still here? If he was a popular rapper as they claim, he wouldn’t be on WWE television every week.
Michael Cole talked about how this wasn’t the Baron Corbin we had been accustomed to in his last run in WWE. Well, he was a pasty, schlubby snore the last time I saw him, and he was a pasty, schlubby snore here. Trick punched Corbin into Yachty, sending him into a table and not through it. End of Days, Corbin wins a horrendous match.
Trick Williams is done. There’s only so far charisma can get you. He’s a prime example of WWE developmental being ass-backwards and not training people how to do things the way they’re done on the main roster. Sol Ruca, who lost her Intercontinental Title to Raquel Rodriguez on Raw last week, is another. These pure PC trainees are immediately exposed on the main roster. None of them can call a match on the fly or improvise when something goes wrong. They can barely work outside of finisher spams and high spots if the match hasn’t been rehearsed for weeks at a time.
WWE isn’t developing superstars. They’re churning out backyarders who are barely competent enough to stick on the CW Network to squeeze more TV dollars out of soon-to-be underwhelmed television executives. It’s a house of cards, one that is unsustainable without WWE bringing in competent wrestlers from outside the system only to completely bungle them as well. The incompetence in this promotion runs from bottom to top, and you see it with every overhyped NXT star that can’t cut it when it’s time to be a real star.
I knew Corbin winning the title would piss me off, but this was a lot. *
INTERIM WWE WOMEN’S TITLE LADDER MATCH
CHELSEA GREEN DEF. CHARLOTTE FLAIR, JADE CARGILL, TIFFANY STRATTON, LASH LEGEND
This match is brought to you by Chumba Casino. Let’s Chumba! There was so much to talk about here, and almost none of it is positive.
I love WWE putting these nonsense Pop Meters on the screen, the people getting no pop, and the production still spiking the Pop Meter like what happened with Stratton. Legend & Cargill pulled a ladder out from under Charlotte, leaving her hanging on the belt. Charlotte, who was wearing gear that I can only describe as “interesting,” almost pulled a Jim Cornette and blew her knees out when Jade and Lash almost failed to catch her coming down from the belt.
Tiffy Time did a Nestea Plunge off a ladder to Charlotte and Jade on the floor, and in replays, you can see Lash rushing to get in position to catch her opponent as she falls from 20 feet in the air. It is infuriating seeing this promotion put these people who THEY HAVEN’T TRAINED PROPERLY in these car crash matches where they are responsible for each other’s well-being. The fact that no one has gotten seriously hurt is damn near a miracle.
The last spot of this match was Charlotte and Jade just jumping down from the ladder, kinda reaching out for the other one. Chelsea Green won this Actually Fake World Title to cheers because she does funny backstage segments, and that is what matters most. This was a goddamn disaster. *
HUMAN MONIES ON A POLE MATCH
DANHAUSEN VS. DOMINIK MYSTERIO
OH GREAT. THIS WILL GET THE SHOW BACK ON TRACK.
Danhausen is one of the hardest-pushed acts in this promotion. This show drew 25,000 fewer fans than last year’s. I wonder if those two things are related.
I’m hearing these annoying announcers talk about Karl-Anthony Towns and cloning machines and racist boxers, and I just wonder why we let these people vote. These people drive. These people interact with the rest of us. “Why don’t you like fun, Suit? Wrestling is a variety show! You can’t just do three hours of serious pro wrestling!” You have the sensibilities of an annoying child, and you are LESSER than me.
Danhausen won the money after he pointed at Dominik, and Pyro went off. Why he didn’t do that ten minutes ago, I’ll never know. Dom is the AAA World Champion, by the way. Get your tickets for Worlds Collide 11 & 12 today! FUCKING DUD
INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH
CHAD GABLE DEF. PENTA (10TH DEFENSE)
Wait, these are two trained professionals who can engage a crowd? Who let these two on the stage?
You can’t put on the last hour of this show and expect me to snap back into pro wrestling work rate mode. I dunno, they did some stuff, and Gable won. According to Michael Cole, Chad Gable won the first singles title of his “storied career.” Doesn’t sound so storied to me. Gable disrespects lucha, pretends to be a luchador, loses to the white guy who replaced him when he got injured, then beat Penta without ever putting over a Mexican. Phenomenal.
A Root Beer celebrated with Gable and his family because every second of this show must be packaged, sold, marketed, and commercialized. **3/4
WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH
ROMAN REIGNS (3RD DEFENSE) VS. SETH ROLLINS
DA SHIELD! MEMBER DA SHIELD! MEMBER THE SHIELD MASKS? YOU MEMBER THE SHIELD VESTS? No! They don’t! They would’ve bought tickets if they did!
Watching these two do their heatless, lame, passionless, mild walk-and-brawl made me wonder if I’ve ever seen two bigger cosplay main eventers in one match. These two fucking pretenders, these absolute clowns preening around like they’re legitimately two of the best to ever do it. The work not being anything special isn’t what annoys me. The ego isn’t what does it either, as all pro wrestlers have massive egos and believe that they’re one push away from being a money-drawing star. These two truly believe they’re on the level of all-time greats, even though neither of them is even the best member of the group whose nostalgia they’re milking.
It’s the phony, plastic EMOTIONS that Roman always puts in his matches. He started this wave of talking and crying in these matches with the Jey Uso Hell in a Cell from COVID Time that I wouldn’t watch with a gun to my head. It’s legitimately poisoned professional wrestling all over the world, and the sooner we move on from it, the better we’ll all be.
Kazuchika Okada has been sleepwalking in AEW for three years, and he had a better, more engaging, more emotional match with the corpse of Hiroshi Tanahashi than these two had here. There was no emotion here. There was no FEELING here. They put each other through tables and stole each other’s finishes. It was the most paint-by-numbers stadium match you’ve ever seen, with them stopping to talk to each other after every nearfall. They threw some F-bombs in there to make it feel REAL. But nothing about this felt real. Nothing in this company feels real. It’s a plastic, phony, FAKE promotion that puts on ACTS that are allegedly professional wrestling matches.
AND THEN WE GOT A REF BUMP SO WE CAN DO SHIELD CHAIR LORE.
FUCK OFF.
FUCK YOU.
I’M DONE.
WORST MAJOR SHOW OF THE YEAR.
GOD HELP US IF SOMETHING ELSE COMES CLOSE.
