SummerSlam 2026 This Board is Dead Edition

[C.S.]

SummerSlam Saturday

• Undisputed WWE Championship: CM Punk © vs. Cody Rhodes
• Hell in a Cell: Oba Femi vs. Brock Lesnar
• WWE Women’s World Championship: Liv Morgan © vs. IYO SKY
• Grudge Match: Gunther vs. Nick Aldis
• Six-Man Tag Team Match: LA Knight, Solo Sikoa, and Royce Keys vs. Jacob Fatu and The Usos
• Six-Woman Tag Team Match: The Bella Twins and Paige vs. Fatal Influence

SummerSlam Sunday

• WWE World Championship: Roman Reigns © vs. Seth Rollins
• Ladder Match for the Interim WWE Women’s Championship: Tiffany Stratton vs. Jade Cargill vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Chelsea Green vs. Lash Legend
• WWE Men’s Intercontinental Championship: Penta © vs. Chad Gable
• WWE Men’s United States Championship: Trick Williams © vs. Baron Corbin
• Undisputed WWE Championship #1 Contender’s Match: Sami Zayn vs. Finn Bálor
• Human Monies on a Pole Match: Danhausen vs. Dominik Mysterio

[TheDuke]

Looks awful.

[C.S.]

1 hour ago, TheDuke said:

Looks awful.

Yep, this board really is dead...

Guy doesn't watch the show, comments anyway, tells us something we all already know, adds nothing of substance.

Thanks, "Duke." 

[The Thread Killer]

It was okay. Better than Night One of Wrestlemania this year, that’s for sure.

-> Iyo vs Liv was definitely the best match I’ve ever seen them have against each other. There were a few botches, but that’s par for the course, even for Iyo. They got 13 minutes, which I thought was pretty fair. There were some good highlights. I wasn’t crazy about the Judgment Day run ins, those were totally unnecessary, especially because they went with a clean finish. I would’ve liked to see Iyo win, but Liv is definitely improving in the ring.

-> The 6 Man Tag was what it was. It didn’t suck, but it wasn’t great. It probably could have used a bit more time. Any time LA Knight gets a major win, on a PLE no less, I’m all for it. I would never have figured he would pin Jey Uso. I’m not sure what the heck they are doing with Solo now. Then again, I don’t understand what they are doing with the entire Bloodline either. They act like heels, but still play to the crowd, and of course, the stupid fans still cheer them. I don’t know what the heck they are doing with Jacob Fatu. I was guessing that Solo was going to turn, but he didn’t. But anyhow, this was inoffensive. It should be noted that this match perfectly encapsulated why I hate Michael Cole. At one point Keys was throwing a series of right hand punches, while Cole proclaimed him as a “southpaw.” This was shortly before he called a spinebuster, a powerbomb. But hey, the guy has only been working there for over 30 years, and he was all of about 5 feet away, so of course he would screw up.

-> I loved Aldis vs Gunther. I have always been an unabashed Aldis fan, and I challenge anybody who saw his interview with Chris Van Vliet this past week to watch this match and not feel good for the guy. I was afraid that that the fans were going to sit on their hands for this match, but they didn’t. I was afraid Aldis was going to look like crap, but he didn’t. I was afraid Gunther was just going to eat the guy alive and not give him anything, but he didn’t. This went pretty much exactly how I hoped it would.

-> The Women’s 6 Person match was definitely the low light of the night for me. I have no idea why WWE rehired the Bella Twins and Paige. They managed to pretty much kill the previously super hot Women’s Tag Division. They bring nothing to the table at this point, if they ever did. But at least Fatal Influence went over. As far as the angle after the match, we all saw that coming, and once again, who really cares? I might be wrong, but it looked to me like Brie Bella got legitimately hurt during this match. She did NOT look happy, she was clutching her shoulder, and she did not participate in the beat down on Paige.

-> I have mixed feelings about Cody vs Punk. I didn’t like the lead up to this match. The first portion of the match was way too slow, and even the crowd wasn’t into it, but they seemed to get going and warm everybody up as the match went along. I think it was a fair to good match. I don’t have any strong feelings about the ending. For whatever bizarre reason, WWE seems determined to run Orton vs Cody but at least this way, there are no more celebrities involved, and the title is not on the line. I’m glad Punk retained. There are way more enticing matches for him as champion than there would have been for Cody. Cody is starting to get a bit stale for me.

-> As far as the Main Event goes, what can you say? I can’t imagine anybody was expecting anything different from what we got. It was short, it was stiff, it was violent. Say what you want about Lesnar, but he pretty much made Femi in this feud. Femi looks like an unbeatable monster now. I was going to say there is no way they could screw this up, but of course, these are the people who managed to take all of the momentum that Gunther had after retiring Goldberg, Cena and AJ and totally piss it away, so of course they can screw this up. But if he is booked correctly, Oba Femi is a made man now. I would not be one little bit surprised to see him in the World Title picture from this point on.

So like I said, this wasn’t bad. I enjoyed parts of it quite a bit. Conversely, tomorrow looks like it’s going to be total shit. Aside from Gable vs Penta there is not one single match on that show that I have any desire to watch.

 

 

[C.S.]

This is already better than Night 1.

[TheDuke]

20 hours ago, C.S. said:

Yep, this board really is dead...

Guy doesn't watch the show, comments anyway, tells us something we all already know, adds nothing of substance.

Thanks, "Duke." 

Sometimes my posts can be more "Dookie" than "Duke" I will give you that. 

[C.S.]

"This is a much different Baron Corbin."

Seems like the exact same dude to me. 🤷‍♂️

Just now, TheDuke said:

Sometimes my posts can be more "Dookie" than "Duke" I will give you that. 

[C.S.]

Oddly worked match, with Trick and Lil' Bitchy cast as the heels and Corbin as the face - even though that's certainly not how the fans perceive them.

[WingedEagle]

2 hours ago, C.S. said:

This is already better than Night 1.

Very much so, despite all the Baron Cobin & Danhausen business. If I didn't apparently have great contempt for myself I would FF through any and everything those two touch.

[NotJayTabb]

On 8/2/2026 at 4:12 AM, The Thread Killer said:

-> The 6 Man Tag was what it was. It didn’t suck, but it wasn’t great. It probably could have used a bit more time. Any time LA Knight gets a major win, on a PLE no less, I’m all for it. I would never have figured he would pin Jey Uso. I’m not sure what the heck they are doing with Solo now. Then again, I don’t understand what they are doing with the entire Bloodline either. They act like heels, but still play to the crowd, and of course, the stupid fans still cheer them. I don’t know what the heck they are doing with Jacob Fatu. I was guessing that Solo was going to turn, but he didn’t. 

 

For quite a while now, there's been a lot of discourse online about how Solo is miscast as a heel, and that his natural charisma and the fact he's apparently really nice in real life mean that he should be getting a face run, and it seems to be working. He's already been far more interesting since turning.

[TheDuke]

When Chad Gable made his speech after beating Penta I was kind of hoping he was going to say that now he has proven he is superior to Lucha Libre and turn heel again.

[C.S.]

14 hours ago, TheDuke said:

When Chad Gable made his speech after beating Penta I was kind of hoping he was going to say that now he has proven he is superior to Lucha Libre and turn heel again.

Vince Russo, is that you, bro? 

[TheDuke]

I just feel the whole face turn has been kind of lame. If you watch AAA, it was awesome, but I think the majority of people buying tickets for Raw each week aren't watching AAA and so don't really care. I don't think most American fans care what happens in AAA. And really, Gable's face run should be playing out on AAA. He lost an unmasking match, not a loser leaves town match. He should have done his apology tour and then went back to AAA.  The AAA fans would have loved him right now. On Raw his face run just seems kind of flat.

[DMJ]

Just finished the show (yeah, I watch it in chunks), which was the first WWE PLE I've watched in its entirety since the Royal Rumble (and, before that, Clash in Paris 2025). A few thoughts:

Night 1:

- IYO is still great.

- Thought the six-man was not very good. I think my steady diet of AEW TV has probably hurt my appreciation for six-mans that aren't loaded with rapid-fire sequences. Also, once you see what I assume is a mandate for tag partners (in six-mans and in straight-up tag matches) to not be on the apron and to basically disappear on the floor, it is really hard to unsee it. Say what one might about the lax refereeing in AEW multi-mans so that they can do double-team and triple-team maneuvers at will, it at least makes some sense that everyone is involved and that the referee "loses control." In this match, and others, the wrestlers are off-screen until they need to dramatically break-up a pin, which feels cheaper to me. 

- Punk/Cody was pretty good. I don't get the slow/boring criticisms. I thought it was a nice logical match with good selling from both guys. There were elements I didn't like, but whatever. As for Orton's return, I don't watch enough WWE TV/PLEs to really care about the booking at this point, but running back that feud seems weird to me considering it didn't set the world afire before WrestleMania. 

- Femi/Lesnar was fine. I don't think Lesnar is 100% retired. The payday for SaudiMania is going to be too high. Cena seems like he's really done - I expect he'll either host SaudiMania or get inducted into the HoF there to warrant his inclusion in the marketing - but Lesnar? Naaah. Half-a-million dollars to squash someone like Theory or Kit Wilson in 30 seconds is hard to say no to.

Night 2:

- Kevin Owens feel-good return was really well-done. Not sure why GUNTHER was included in the match, but I'm not going to complain about him wrestling twice per show. Owens looked really good for a guy coming off such a serious injury. 

- As I haven't watched much WWE over the past year, I've really only heard about Trick Williams. He was okay, but I didn't see the generational talent/"future of the company." Corbin is a legit BJJ badass now, as Cole noted on commentary, but I thought he was less interesting than he was a few years back. It's one thing if he had come back with an adapted style, but by being a more "serious" competitor he ditched some of the "dumb brawling heel" shtick that had made him somewhat passable from what I remember. Maybe I'm misremembering, but I feel like there was a time he was almost-if-you-squint-hard-enough working a bit like Robert Fuller/late era Barry Darsow where he was big and mean but also something of a chickenshit the minute he got punched in the nose. 

- Thought the Women's Ladder Match was alright. Again, maybe it's too much AEW in my life but it is very noticeable how much more reckless and dangerous AEW's "plunder" matches are in comparison (not just ladder matches, but Blood and Guts compared to War Games). On the one hand, it's probably a good thing that there is more hesitation/preparation for the big spots in a match like this, though it is noticeable how often the competitors telegraph things or take a "stutter step" to make sure their opponent is ready to take the move. On the other hand, the pauses in action so that the wrestlers can perform a move safely doesn't exactly lend realism to what we're watching. Again, if it prevents the athletes from breaking their necks or getting concussions, it's not necessarily a bad thing (especially when we've seen even "basic" moves lead to serious injuries).  

- Everyone shitting on the Dom/Danhausen match just shows I've watched wrestling for far, far too long because this wouldn't even rank on my top 10 worst matches in SummerSlam history. Like, if you think this sucked, I've got a Kane vs. Khali match from SummerSlam 2009 to show you. Or maybe you'd care for the Diva Dodgeball match from the 2004 edition instead? Now, I'm not saying this match was good...but it was 8 minutes long and spotlighted Mascarita Dorado so it's not like it was without its merits. Could you imagine if they had wrestled this match straight-up without all the smoke-and-mirrors and interference?  

- Rollins/Reigns leaned too obviously on parity spots for me, but I still thought it was good for what it was. With these two, you know you're going to get the melodrama so, if you hate that, this is not going to win you over. That being said, some of the kickout timings were excellent and when they got away from "I put you through a table/you put me through a table" and actually just went to trading signature moves that weren't exact mirrors of each other, I enjoyed it more. I also think it was silly for the commentators to play up the idea that Roman "has never beaten Rollins in a major match." Yes, Roman's record in 1-on-1 matches, even including TV shows, is 3-and-5 so there is some truth to that concept...but Roman has been such a dominant force over the past 5 years that I don't think anyone sees defeating Rollins clean as some sort of unfinished business for him. It's kinda like saying The Undertaker has a losing record to Kurt Angle*. Sure, it's true (it's damn true), but nobody looks at Angle as the Undertaker's white whale and no matter how hard they try to push the narrative, I don't see Rollins as "the one guy Roman couldn't get past." If anything, it seems like the opposite. 


All in all, though, the presentation of these shows is just awful. Being able to fast-forward helps, but you really shouldn't have to do that with a "Premium Live Event." The time between matches is loaded with not only ads but, watching the replays on Hulu, a whole bunch of minutes where you had bumper screens and ambient music telling you that the show would return after a break. That's not even ad content - it's just straight up "sit and stare at the color pattern" time, which is laughable in 2026. Like, why not fill that time with a music video package? Re-air the old Bret Hart/Tom Petty one or "Tell Me A Lie" for shits and giggles, I don't care. It's just stupid. 

I don't intend on catching the next PLE but it depends on how bored I get.


* Aside from their first match in 2000, the Undertaker's only singles victories over Angle were by DQ.