WWE SummerSlam Night 1 set the bar incredibly high before WWE returns to MetLife Stadium on Sunday for Night 2 in New Jersey.
CM Punk bloodied Gunther, Seth Rollins cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase, and Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss cemented their unlikely friendship to become Women’s Tag Team Champions in what was a transformational night across the WWE landscape.
Before we jump head-first into the second night of SummerSlam, here’s the Night 1 takeaways from New Jersey.
1. Seth Rollins shocks the world
At WrestleMania 40, as Drew McIntyre celebrated defeating Seth Rollins to win the World Heavyweight title in CM Punk’s face, Punk pulled McIntyre’s legs out from under him. The move ultimately cost McIntyre the championship, opening the door for Damian Priest to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase to win the belt.
In a wild ending to Saturday night’s main event, Punk pulled almost the same maneuver to swing the tide in his match against Gunther, busting "The Ring General" open on the announcer’s desk and landing two GTS finishers to claim his first WWE World Heavyweight Championship in more than a decade. The sequencing may have been different, but how appropriate was it for Rollins to be the one that cashed in, stunning the world a month after he appeared to suffer a serious knee injury?
Rollins playing off an injury as part of the show feels like an intentional blurring of the lines between what’s real and what’s a work. What is unquestioned is Rollins didn’t use or need the help of Bronson Reed or Bron Breakker to cash in his briefcase. He did it himself, and he’s set the path for Punk to chase the belt the rest of the summer in a rivalry that feels destined for a WrestleMania main event.
2. Pairing two top stars in the tag-team division is a formula that works
It worked for Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill, it worked for Belair and Naomi, and it’s working for Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss. Absent a program at the top of the card, or when WWE is invested in developing some of its younger stars, the tag-team division is a perfect spot for a couple of veterans to try something new.
Between her emotional Players Tribune article and her partnership with Bliss, it’s an opportunity to view Flair as a different character than how she’s been portrayed over the past decade. She’s an equal with Bliss and it's a wonderful change of pace to cheer the unlikely duo now as tag-team champions.
From a storyline perspective, the Judgement Day fallout when Liv Morgan returns will be delightful. Roxanne Perez has played the part of Morgan’s replacement well until now, flexing between supporting Dominik Mysterio to joining Raquel Rodriguez in a tag team. Morgan returning to her group sans the Women’s Tag Team championships and seeing how Perez has positioned herself with Mysterio is a story that writes itself.
3. Jade Cargill awaits her night
From Jade Cargill’s return at the Elimination Chamber to her win at WrestleMania 41 and eventually winning Queen of the Ring, it felt like everything was in motion for her to claim her first major singles championship. The matchup set for her complicated things, with Tiffany Stratton also on a course to continue proving herself as a fighting champion and a permanent member of the upper echelon of the roster. Stratton fended off Charlotte Flair in a title defense at WrestleMania and was coming off a win against Trish Stratus at Evolution, so it wasn’t out of the question for her to retain.
Something had to give on Saturday night at SummerSlam, and Cargill’s superstar entrance set the stage for an assumed changing of the guard for who would hold the WWE Women’s Championship. Instead, it was Stratton, in a legit surprise, coming out on top with a clean finish.
How much of Saturday’s result was about keeping momentum behind Stratton versus how much Cargill may not be ready for a main-title run is unclear. Cargill has improved leaps and bounds in the year-plus since her WWE debut, and while SummerSlam wasn’t her moment, she appears right on the cusp of the next level.
4. An enormous moment for Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed
Bronson Reed and Bron Breakker joining Seth Rollins always felt like it was the right step for two stars ready to move into the next tier of their WWE journies. Rollins’ “injury” offered a glimpse into the future, as Breakker is ready-made for the main event and Reed has picked up right where he left off before his ankle injury. Opening SummerSlam against the caliber of talent as Roman Reigns and Jey Uso showed just how far they’ve come, and the duo didn’t miss a beat.
The structure of the match went about as anticipated, with Reigns and Uso dispatching Rollins’ henchmen. Reigns and Uso as part of the post-SummerSlam roster adds some intrigue for what happens next, following CM Punk as former champions who have beef with the new World Heavyweight Champion, Rollins.
Other thoughts:
- Despite an enormous social push and fan reactions, Karrion Kross appears to be on his way out of the company. Recently asked about his contract, Kross chose not to answer directly. Instead, his SummerSlam match against Sami Zayn resulted in another clean loss for Kross ahead of what appears to be his WWE exit. Kross is an unlikely example of when crowd reactions get talent more television time and that’s about it. If this is it for Kross in WWE, it will be fascinating to see what happens in his post-WWE run — and if he’s able to sustain the momentum he's built in recent months.
- Jelly Roll’s inclusion in SummerSlam didn’t set the world on fire in the way Bad Bunny was able to, but he served his purpose. There was no insane work rate, but he took some wild spots, including a splash through the table and a frog splash finish from Logan Paul. The Paul Levesque regime has shifted in a way with celebrity appearances, which follows more logic-based booking. Jelly Roll and Pat McAfee both having matches this calendar year and both coming in losing efforts is more digestible than seeing folks waltz into the ring and get victories over world championship contenders.
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