Summerfest 2025

[NintendoLogic]

WWE may be a corporate vampire squid run by contemptible ghouls, but they're finally giving me Punk/Gunther.

[sek69]

Looking forward to the Slamming of the Summer. Apparently Gunther has some kind of issue with his news, I wonder if that means we're getting at least a brief title run for Punk. 

Roman/Jey vs the Brons also should be excellent, as should the women's tag title match since the Charlotte/Alexa pairing seems to have unexpectedly struck gold. 

Feel bad that Tiffy Time probably is going to get ended, but I suppose WWE is in full sunk cost fallacy mode with Jade at this point. 

[sek69]

Holy shit Roman nearly overshot everyone on that dive.

[sek69]

1 hour ago, sek69 said:

Roman/Jey vs the Brons also should be excellent, as should the women's tag title match since the Charlotte/Alexa pairing seems to have unexpectedly struck gold. 

Both these ended up being accurate, still surprised Charlotte managed to win over the fans.

[NintendoLogic]

That was easily the best Jade Cargill match I've ever seen. Whoever agented that match deserves a bonus.

[sek69]

All things considered that was a great performance by Jelly Roll. Dude gets it. 

[Blehschmidt]

That ring announcer girl is terrible, and she looks fucking ridiculous. Can we not just keep Lillian around?

[NintendoLogic]

Punk/Gunther ruled, obviously. I thought it took a bit to get going, but I'd probably enjoy it more on a re-viewing because I'd go in with a better understanding of what they were going for storywise. I'm also thankful they held off on the Rollins cash-in until the actual match was over.

[Flyin' Brian]

Not a fan of hot shotting the world heavyweight title. 
 

Since Wrestlemania it’s went from Gunther to Jay back to Gunther to Punk and now to Rollins. 4 different champions and title changes in four months. 

[strobogo]

It's so fucking crazy how the only thing they seem to give a shit about is social media stars and adverts. If you aren't a regular watcher, you have no idea what any of the storylines are because they are paywalled on their main US platform, the announcers then do not follow up on details during entrances or the match because they're doing ad reads. They couldn't give me 25 seconds to tell me why the fuck Jellyroll and Logan Paul are wrestling at Summerslam, but did have time to give the rundown on viewership numbers for Jellyroll's wife's podcast and its rankings in iTunes. 

[JKWebb]

Punk vs. Gunther is one of the best matches I’ve seen in years.  Physical & emotional and a huge moments - Gunther selling the left arm throughout Punk’s strategy of attacking it and blocking the chops, the story of fatigue, how Punk gets the win.  It’s a pretty brutal match and love Punk firing up after Gunther gets back in the ring bloody.  Great stuff.  

[The Thread Killer]

I watched the show with a bunch of friends and their wives and kids, at a large social gathering. It was an interesting way to watch a WWE event, as opposed to the way I do it usually, watching either by myself or with another hardcore fan, and looking at it with a more critical eye, almost like I am looking for things to complain about.  Maybe it was the festive atmosphere or something, but I went into Night One of SummerSlam 2025 with very low expectations, assuming I would not enjoy the show at all, (especially after Night of Champions) but I have to admit I really enjoyed it and I felt the show really over-delivered, especially considering the quality of the card.  Maybe if I rewatched it looking for flaws I might find some and be less impressed, but as of last night, I thought it was a lot of fun.

-> Reigns & Uso vs. Breakker & Reed: I loved that opener. They gave them plenty of time, and they worked the traditional Tag Team style for the most part, which made me very happy.  There will be plenty of time tonight for matches with everybody in the ring all at once, doing whatever they want. But they actually did an extended face-in-peril/hot tag sequence during this match, and it made me very happy.  Roman looks awesome, and that dive of his was insane. Like @sek69 said, he pretty much almost accidentally cleared the crowd, although he wisely grabbed Bronson Reed at the very last second and kind of dragged him down with him. Reed played his role great, and if Bron Breakker isn't ready for a Main Event push right now, he's certainly not far off.  I've said it before and I'll say it again (and it's hardly a controversial take) but that kid is money.  I know a lot of people online were clamoring for Breakker to pin Roman during this match to make it official and really establish himself, but I'm not sure a Tag Match was the platform to do that.  Eventually, he needs to get a big singles win that really puts him over the top. Unfortunately, he apparently injured his knee during this match, so I just hope it's not too bad. 

-> Women's Tag Team Championship: Minor quibble, I don't know why they ran the Women's Tag Team Title match right after a Men's Tag Team match, but whatever.  This whole angle continues to subvert my expectations.  I totally expected Charlotte to turn on Alexa, and I certainly did not expect them to win the titles.  I figured Rodriguez and Perez would hang on to those belts until Liv Morgan returns, especially since I figured Charlotte for betraying Alexa.  Maybe they called an audible because the Flair/Bliss team seems to be getting so popular. There's no doubt that Charlotte seems to really want to be a babyface right now, so more power to her, I guess. This match was pretty good. It wasn't as good as the opener, but it certainly wasn't a bad match, so I have no complaints.

-> Zayn vs. Kross: Ugh. I am so over this ridiculous Zayn/Kross angle.  Please let this be the end of it. It was never good, it was never compelling, and the fact that this match ended up on SummerSlam while Penta, LA Knight, Sheamus, Rusev, Damien Priest, Aleistar Black and the entire RAW Tag Team division couldn't get on the show? To quote Gorilla Monsoon, "give me a break."  I'm not as enamored with Sami Zayn as most people around here are, and Kross is just okay at best.  This whole deal needs to go away now.

-> Women's Championship: I never would have figured that Roxanne Perez and Asuka wouldn't be able to pull a watchable match out of Jade Cargill, but that Tiffany Stratton would be able do it. I fully agree with @NintendoLogic in that was definitely the best singles match Cargill has had in WWE.  It wasn't exactly Flair/Steamboat (or Flair/Ripley I guess) but I'll take it.  Maybe the agent/producer did a really good job of laying it out.  Mind you, Cargill's power based style and Stratton's flashy gymnastic style seem to mesh really well together.  It was hardly a great match, and as per usual there were a couple of moments where Jade looked totally lost in there, but it was miles better than I expected, or it had any right to be.  And thank goodness, the right person won.  The Women's division is not ready to have Jade Cargill and Naomi holding the respective World Championships, because neither of them are really good workers, in my humble opinion.  My final observation is that, in addition to being less than impressive when she wrestles, I don't "get" Jade Cargill as a character.  After Naomi turned on her, I assumed that she was meant to be a babyface.  But she sure doesn't act like one.  I remember that weird promo she caught after winning Queen of the Ring, which sure sounded like a heel promo.  And I swear, it looked like while she was on her way to the ring last night she was arguing with the fans.  IF she's supposed to be a babyface, she does a terrible job at coming across, and if she isn't, that's just weird booking.

-> Orton & Jelly Roll vs. McIntyre & Paul: One of the main reasons I wasn't really all that enthused about this show is because of this match. I hate celebrity matches.  I hated them when the WWF did them in the 80's, I hated them when WCW did them in the 90's and I hate them now.  I was especially crusty about this match because I had literally never heard of "Jelly Roll" before she showed up on WWE TV.  When I saw him, I thought he looked like some dumpy looking meth addict.  But apparently TKO has made it clear that they love celebrities, cross promotion, and the media attention which comes with it, so here we are, I guess.  As I mentioned, I was at a pretty big social gathering last night, and I'll be damned if all of the people there came into the room to watch this match...including the non-WWE fans, and especially the kids.  I guess people have heard of "Jelly Roll" and I'm the one who is out of touch. (I can live with that.)  All of the non-fans in the room absolutely loved this match, so what do I know.  People kept talking about how much weight Jelly Roll has lost, so I assume he used to be a big fat guy? As far as the match?  It was what it was.  Like the Women's Title match, this was WAY better than I had expected it to be.  I'll give Jelly Roll credit where it's due, he seems like a legit fan of Pro Wrestling, he did his best and he didn't treat this like a joke. Unsurprisingly, the MVP of this match was Logan Paul. I know a lot of people hate the guy for stuff he has done before signing with WWE, but much like with Jelly Roll, I had the luxury of not knowing anything about him before he showed up to wrestle.  I know who his brother is, and I heard about that stunt he pulled in Japan a few years ago, but that was it.  But I'm sorry, even if you hate Logan Paul...the dude is just a natural. He plays a great heel, his promos and facial expressions are outstanding and he's a freakish athlete.  That spot with him leaping off the ring post, onto Jelly Roll on the announcer's table was done to perfection. Bottom line is, I actually found myself enjoying this nonsense, despite the fact that I went into it determined not to...so there you go.

-> World Heavyweight Championship: This and the opening Tag Team match were the main reasons I wanted to see this show.  What can you say?  I loved the way they laid out this match.  Gunther got to be Gunther at his all time Guntheriest. He basically beat the ever-loving crap out of Punk, using every move in his not unsubstantial arsenal, for what felt like about 27 of the 30 minutes of this match.  He pretty much dominated Punk, and Punk did an awesome job of selling it.  These guys were great together, it was a very intelligently worked match, and I definitely want to see more of these guys together. As far as the finish, I have no complaints.  Firstly, love him or hate him, Punk is one of their top guys so there is no shame in him winning the World Championship.  And as sek mentioned earlier, word has leaked that Gunther needs some sort of surgery on his nose (which they appeared to set up in this match with the spot on the announcers table) so this probably had to happen.  Great damn match.  I haven't perused the review sites or Twitter or Reddit today, and I'm guessing there are a lot of people who have complaints about this match, but I really enjoyed it.

-> Seth Rollins Returns:  If I was Triple H and Nick Khan, I would find out who leaked this angle to John Pollock and fire their ass.  This could have been a real shocking moment, except Pollock broke the story around the time of Saturday Night's Main Event and pretty much spoiled it. Pollock is a known and respected name in Pro Wrestling journalism, so when he broke the story a lot of people believed him, and so as soon as Punk won the title I was waiting for Seth's music to start playing...and there it was.

As far as the angle itself?  I think it's a bad idea.  I don't like Rollins as a Main Event guy.  I find him annoying sure, but even worse I find him to be boring.  I have joked about this here at PWO, but I swear, when Rollins is heavily featured on RAW, the shows always seem more boring and seem to drag. The thing is, the Netflix views and rankings seem to bear that out as well.  The numbers are not as good when he is featured in the opening segment. But for whatever reason, Triple H seems to love this guy, so I guess we're getting a lot more of him...and for my money that's not a good thing.  I am very curious to see where this goes from here, does Punk continue his feud with Rollins and go after the title, or does Gunther go after Punk for injuring his nose?  And if that's the case, who ends up challenging Rollins next? There were rumors of a program between LA Knight and Rollins, but who knows what the status of that is. I'm interested to see...but since it involves Seth Rollins, my interest is kind of muted.

Overall:  

This was a fun show, I'd say it was very good and really over-delivered. The only real stinker was the Zayn/Kross match, and the fact that yet another fun Main Event ended up being kind of spoiled by a "cash in."  Thankfully, both Rollins and Naomi have cashed in their contracts, so we don't have to worry about that again until after next June.  On paper, the show tonight looked like the better card (in theory) so we'll see how this pans out for Night Two.

[sek69]

7 minutes ago, The Thread Killer said:

All of the non-fans in the room absolutely loved this match, so what do I know.  People kept talking about how much weight Jelly Roll has lost, so I assume he used to be a big fat guy?

He used to be over 500 pounds, and he said his current weight of 299 is the lightest he's been since middle school.  Also your first impression wasn't that far off, he was involved with drugs and did prison time when he was younger, something that the heels brought up in the buildup. 

[Boss Rock]

The main event was good if a bit long in the tooth. Karrion Kross is aggressively mediocre at best and actively bad at worst. I really don't get the surge of support and popularity this guy has with fans. Apart from a decent look, he's got nothing.

[The Thread Killer]

38 minutes ago, Boss Rock said:

Karrion Kross is aggressively mediocre at best and actively bad at worst.

That’s pretty much a perfect description of Kross. I am legitimately baffled at who thought this was a good feud and that it deserved to be featured on not one, but two PLE’s?

[sek69]

2 hours ago, The Thread Killer said:

That’s pretty much a perfect description of Kross. I am legitimately baffled at who thought this was a good feud and that it deserved to be featured on not one, but two PLE’s?

They feel they should push him somewhat since he got some buzz online when he made some folks think he was going into business for himself during interviews on Mania weekend. 

[strobogo]

Weird to make night two Uncensored 2025 with all but one match a gimmick match when there weren't any gimmick matches on night one. Also weird that Becky/Lyra for the IC was longer than the WWE and World title matches combined. They really made sure to make people know night 2 was the real show, including HHH and Steph having to be all up in the videos.

[C.S.]

41 minutes ago, strobogo said:

They really made sure to make people know night 2 was the real show, including HHH and Steph having to be all up in the videos.

Which is ironic when night 1 was better in every possible way.

[strobogo]

Miracle match from Cena considering how terrible his matches not just this run, but the last like 4-5 years he's popped up have been. Also shows how completely unthought out this heel turn was and is an all time fumble that no one wanted in his final run, they just wanted to get some Super Cena shit on his way out one last time. Half his farewell run completely wasted.

Fucking hard pass on Brock. Unless he's going to work like it's 2003, could have gone the rest of my days not seeing him again.

[Boss Rock]

I was shocked for like a few seconds, then I remembered Paul said everyone should just move on from the Vince allegations, which was a sign as clear as any all bets were off.

[Embrodak]

Bringing back Brock is nuts, and the pop was fucking shameful. Dude was absent because he participated in Vince’s weird, rapey pimp fetish for fuck’s sake.

[strobogo]

Cody was laughing about being asked about Vince with Bill Simmons just this week. I'm sure they changed their post show to avoid being asked questions they didn't like about Vince, Trump, and the host of terrible PR they've been doing all year. I'm sure the return of Brock would immediately get questions about Vince in a presser. 

 

[Timbo Slice]

My guess is Cena asked for it but man, if you watch this product now, how does getting spit in your face repeatedly feel and then being told it’s raining?

[Embrodak]

1 hour ago, strobogo said:

Cody was laughing about being asked about Vince with Bill Simmons just this week. I'm sure they changed their post show to avoid being asked questions they didn't like about Vince, Trump, and the host of terrible PR they've been doing all year. I'm sure the return of Brock would immediately get questions about Vince in a presser. 

 

This in the same week Triple H stood behind Trump while he answered at least one Epstein question has to be among WWE’s all-time low points. At least with Vince there was an odd Freudian pathos when he would commit to harmful, bonkers bullshit, Triple H has to be one of the more bloodless head bookers in wrestling history, just pure smugness and cynicism. “I booked NXT Black and Gold, I’m untouchable forever” is deeply pathetic.

[The Thread Killer]

I thought Night Two was okay. I didn't enjoy it as much as Night One.

-> Women's World Championship: I thought this was pretty good, I guess. It was okay. If I was a star rating type of guy, I'd go *** 1/2. It was certainly nowhere near as good as Rhea/Iyo/Bianca from Wrestlemania this year, or as good as Iyo/Rhea from Evolution.  Let's be honest...if you put Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky in the ring, you're going to get a good match.  And Naomi wasn't terrible.  I appreciated her attempts at heeling, as cartoonish and over-the-top as she can be. They announced after the show that it's going to be Naomi vs. Stephanie Vaquer at the big show in Paris at the end of this month, so I hope they get busy heating Vaquer up before then, because she's pretty cold now. I still don't get the idea of having Naomi as your World Champion where there is such an insane amount of talent on the roster.  Curious where they go with Rhea and Iyo from here.

-> TLC for the SmackDown Tag Titles: This was pretty crazy. The standout spot to me was Fenix doing the Spanish Fly on Dawkins from the top, outside through the two tables.  That was nuts. The spot with Ciampa hanging upside down above the ring was also nuts. Only problem was, there were too many damn people in this match.  6 teams in one TLC match is too many. And then on top of that, they had people running in. I barely saw Andrade during this whole match. (Except that sunset flip spot from the ladder onto the folded ladder, which looked like it almost killed him.) I'm not going to lie, if I'm being honest I preferred the TLC match they did on SmackDown right after Wrestlemania.  In fact, that might be my favorite TLC match that I could remember. But this certainly wasn't boring so I can't say it was bad.

-> Lynch vs. Valkyria for the Women's I/C Title: I'm pretty much over Becky Lynch at this point, I haven't enjoyed anything she's done since her return at Wrestlemania.  And while Lyra Valkyria is competent, I find her to be a bland and unconvincing promo, and this whole feud between these two has done nothing for me.  Plus. this match was "anything goes" (and did it really need to be?) so when they announced that this match was next, I decided to walk my dog and make something to eat.  So I did.  And when I got back the damn match was STILL GOING. I literally walked my dog, prepared food, and when I sat down the stupid match was still happening.  This match did not need 25 fucking minutes, I'll tell you that much. But I have no comment on how good it was, because I didn't watch it. I texted a buddy of my mine and asked him how the match was, and he texted me back: "Long."

-> Fatu vs. Solo for the U.S. Title: I have come to the conclusion that Solo really isn't all that great.  He might be okay, but he certainly isn't good enough to justify the kind of push he's been given since last year's Wrestlemania. And they have surrounded him with stiffs, which really doesn't help.  This whole angle is really cooling off Jacob Fatu so I hope this was the end of it, and they get him away from Solo and the "MFT's" as soon as possible.  This really wasn't all that different from their match at Night of Champions.  Sure, there was a cage, but this match was still unremarkable. 

-> Dom Mysterio vs. AJ for the I/C Title: This match was also the definition of "just okay." It wasn't really bad, but it wasn't really good. It just was. At least it was shorter than Becky vs. Lyra. The fans seem to really want to cheer Dom, so they probably either need to turn him, or have him do something to make sure the fans know they're supposed to be booing him. You can really tell AJ Styles is nearing the end, as well.

-> Cody vs. Cena for the WWE Championship: This was definitely the best match Cena has been involved with on his retirement tour. It was better than his match with Punk last month, it was better than his match with Orton, and it was miles better than his first match with Cody at Wrestlemania. I guess part of that was due to it being a "Street Fight" which probably helped mask Cena's limitations, but he also looked a lot more motivated during this match.  I still can't get over how much he overuses the "Attitude Adjustment." I swear, half of every one of his matches are made up of him either trying to set up that move and not hitting it, or he hits it and it doesn't work. It's comical. I could see an argument that this match went too long. And there were a ton of false finishes. But I appreciate the effort that went into it, and I enjoyed the match, so I'm not going to quibble. I'm very glad to see Cody with the Championship again.  I think even WWE realizes that the Cena heel turn and title reign just wasn't working, so they finally gave in and killed it.  The fans just don't want to boo Cena during his retirement tour, and he certainly hasn't been performing well enough to justify having him as your #1 guy...especially when you consider that he only has 9 or 10 dates left on his retirement tour.

-> Brock Lesnar Returns: Quite honestly, I was not entirely shocked to see Brock Lesnar return.  I have browsed some of the online reaction to his return, and it has ranged from mild disgust, to shock, to horrified outrage.  One of the common refrains is: "How could they bring Brock Lesnar back? He's named in Janel Grant's lawsuit?" Yes he is, he's "named."  But it's not a criminal complaint, and he's not a defendant in the lawsuit.  Janel Grant is suing Vince McMahon and WWE. When the Justice Department asked Grant to pause her lawsuit back in May 2024, I thought maybe there was a chance McMahon might face some criminal charges (although I figured he'd either skate on the charges, or get a pardon even if he was convicted.) They opted not to seek an indictment (or they sought one and didn't get it, who knows.) But the minute it became clear that McMahon wasn't going to face criminal charges, I figured it was only a matter of time before Brock Lesnar came back. From what I understand (and I could be wrong) Brock Lesnar's contract with WWE was actually up, so if they brought him back now, that means they probably re-signed him. There was no legal reason they couldn't bring him back.  They just waited for enough time to pass and for the outrage to die down a bit, and then they did what I always figured they were going to do.

Bottom line is this...the allegation is that Vince McMahon was either asking or coercing or forcing Janel Grant to send sexually explict videos of herself to people, and two of the people named were Michael Hayes and Brock Lesnar.  Apparently, this was part of McMahon's effort to entice Lesnar to re-sign the last time his contract was up.  Lesnar allegedly responded with some sexually explicit and verbally abusive texts.  That's it.  Not even Janel Grant or her lawyers are alleging that anything more than that happened.  So basically, Lesnar got emailed some explicit pictures texted to him, and responded with explicit texts.  That doesn't classify as criminal behavior and it didn't even warrant him being a co-defendant in the civil lawsuit. Is it morally acceptable behavior? No. Is it bad PR for TKO?  Maybe. But anybody who thought this was going to be enough to keep Lesnar from returning to WWE when he decided he wanted to, are clearly just fooling themselves.  

Do I care about Lesnar vs. Cena?  Meh. The thing about Lesnar is, he never sticks around long enough to have any serious impact on the product one way or the other. He comes in, he does a couple of TV appearances to build up to his PPV/PLE match, and then he disappears again.  I never really liked Lesnar, from the get go.  I didn't like him during his first run in WWE, I especially didn't like him in UFC, and I haven't cared much about him during his WWE returns.  His endless feud with Roman Reigns bored me. From everything I have heard about him behind the scenes, he's basically your typical jock bully and he treats people like shit. Color me surprised. I'm sure there will be a ton of shrieking and pearl clutching about Brock Lesnar returning, but I never figured this would end any other way.  If you look at the larger issue with the Janel Grant lawsuit, the worst possible outcome for Vince McMahon is that he's going to have to write a big check. He's an 80 year old Billionaire who can easily afford it, and considering his history of drug use, he might very well be dead before that day ever comes.  So if people are upset about Lesnar coming back...just wait until the Janel Grant lawsuit is "resolved."  Nobody is really going to be called to account for this situation, and they never were. Especially Brock Lesnar.

-> Overall

Night One of Summerslam 2025 was definitely better than Night Two.  There was really no need for a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match, a No Countout/No Disqualification match, a Cage Match and a Street Fight all on the same show. Aside from the Main Event, I found this show to be bland and average. I quite enjoyed the Main Event, although I am sure the return of Brock Lesnar will have ruined it for a lot of people.  Looking at the two shows as a combined event overall, I liked SummerSlam quite a bit, especially in comparison to Night of Champions. I'm curious to see where they're going from here, and I am looking forward to big show in Paris at the end of the month, since those crowds are usually insane.  I just hope WWE gives them a card worth going nuts over...but we'll see.