00:00Roman Reigns is back, Dirty Dom did the Dirty on Rhea Ripley, and we have four new champions.
00:08I'm Luke Owen and this is my review of WWE Summerslam 2024.
00:15Triple H opened the show to welcome us to Summerslam and introduced Jelly Roll to play
00:20the theme for Summerslam for The Miz to appear in the crowd and welcome us to Summerslam.
00:25You had three hours of a pre-show and you decided to save all of that for the main broadcast
00:30huh?
00:31Kidding aside, this really showed off how immense this Summerslam looked and felt.
00:35The huge stadium atmosphere, the lack of stage, the sea of wrestling fans who were loud all
00:41night long.
00:43It was awesome.
00:44Do you know who else is awesome?
00:46Morgan and their wife who repped WrestleTalk in the crowd.
00:49And those loud fans were in force for the opening match between Rhea Ripley and Liv
00:53Morgan with sadly, no custody of Dominik Mysterio stipulation.
00:57Cowards.
00:58Liv bailed a lot early doors and the match became about Rhea dominating poor Morgan until
01:02she posted herself into the corner and seemingly re-injured her shoulder only this time in
01:06a worked way.
01:07Like a total badass, Rhea popped it back into place by barging herself into the announce
01:11desk but it continued to bother her.
01:13It meant that she couldn't fully lock in the prism lock, but was able to get out of
01:16an armbar by Morgan.
01:18Liv went out to get a chair, basically looking to get Rhea DQing herself, but Dom stopped
01:22her from doing something silly.
01:23In all the commotion, Liv hit the Oblivion for a fantastic nearfall, but then in further
01:28commotion, Dom slid in a chair and Liv hit a second Oblivion to score the win and retain
01:33her title.
01:34A total mirror of the finisher King and Queen of the Ring.
01:37Only this time, there was no ambiguity, as Dom picked Liv up and gave her a big ol'
01:43smoochie kiss.
01:44So they were in it all along.
01:46I've not been hugely into the story, but appreciate I'm in the minority on that one,
01:50but I'm glad that it is at least getting to its next chapter.
01:53After basically three months of teasing, Liv and Dom are your new heel power couple in
01:58WWE.
01:59Damian Priest freaked out backstage wanting to know where Dom is, and in his anger hurt
02:04Finn Balor's feelings.
02:05Balor said that he would go and find Dom so Priest can focus on his match, while Priest
02:09looked conflicted about what he'd said.
02:11Braun Breaker beat Sami Zayn in a proper sprint of a match.
02:14Seriously, this was less than six minutes bell to bell.
02:16Like Rhea in the previous match, Braun charged into the corner and hurt his shoulder.
02:20They traded moves, and Braun hit two spears for the win.
02:22This is the right call, but I don't think the match told the story they were telling
02:26going into it.
02:27What was a much better match and story, however, was LA Knight beating Logan Paul to win the
02:31United States Championship.
02:33We could talk about how WWE did not capitalise on how over Knight was last year, and how
02:38it feels a little too late to be pulling this trigger.
02:41But Knight was very over with this Cleveland crowd against their hometown boy of Logan
02:46Paul.
02:47So in order to make sure Logan Paul was booed, not that he needed the help, he came out with
02:51MGK.
02:52Where's Kevin Owens when we need him?
02:54This was a very basic match carried by an insanely hot crowd.
02:57There was a gnarly landing from a Super Plague which Paul took almost like a Muscle Buster,
03:01and LA Knight made sure to kick the crap out of Jeff at ringside.
03:05MGK handed Paul the Nux which he used to hit Knight, but Knight reversed his Buckshot attempt
03:11into a BFT for the win.
03:14Another fun match.
03:15Before we get into the rest of the review, though, let's give a shoutout to this episode's
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04:34I was there live for Bayley vs Nia Jax at TakeOver London back in 2015 and thought it
04:38was probably the best match on the card.
04:40Oli Davis has said that it was one of the best 24 hour periods of his life because he
04:43saw The Force Awakens the following day.
04:45And this SummerSlam bout had a lot of similar vibes, to the London match not The Force Awakens,
04:50and even had some good callbacks, including that guillotine spot, only this time Jax was
04:54more powerful and was able to get out of it.
04:57Jax also charged into the corner and hurt her shoulder.
05:00They should rename this show Shoulder Slam, am I right?
05:03No, but really, the producer should have communicated this better, because doing that same spot
05:07in three of the first four matches felt very silly.
05:11Bayley kicked out of the Annihilator, but got caught in a Samoan Drop on the floor when
05:14she attempted a dive.
05:16She somehow managed to hit an incredible Powerbomb on Jax, but got distracted when it was tippy
05:21time and the scene queen-themed Stratton came down to tease a cash-in.
05:24Bayley fought her off and Jax took advantage of the commotion to hit two more Annihilators
05:28and win the WWE Women's Championship.
05:32The gimmick of the Champion and Money in the Bank briefcase holder being a duo is a lot
05:36of fun, but I don't think Bayley was given enough with a run with this belt and felt
05:41that it wasn't really time for her to lose it.
05:43The match was very good though, and I am excited to see the next phase of this Jax-Tiff partnership.
05:48There was a lot of hype around Drew McIntyre vs. CM Punk, not the least of which it being
05:52Punk's first televised singles match in WWE in over a decade, but it's also been
05:56building since the Royal Rumble and it's Punk's first match back since his latest
06:00injury.
06:01So yeah, a lot of hype and intrigue.
06:03Punk arguably also had a lot of hurdles to overcome.
06:05And with Seth Rollins as the special guest ref, there was a lot of chatter about Summerslam
06:081997, which might feature one of the greatest finishes in WWE history.
06:13Punk made this homage very clear when he wore black and pink to the ring, but it was a swerve
06:18as he ended up taking the Taker role.
06:20They even recreated the 1997 finish, only Seth didn't actually hit Punk, but it did
06:24lead to Rollins missing a visual pin on Drew.
06:27Punk made his comeback and locked in the Anaconda Vice, but distracted himself when he saw Drew
06:31was wearing the Friendship Bracelet that he stole from him on Smackdown.
06:35Seth, trying to remove this distraction from the match, put it on himself.
06:38So when Punk went for the GTS, he was distracted by Seth wearing it and felt that he was doing
06:43that just to screw with him.
06:44Seth and Drew collided, and Punk got another visual pin on Drew as Seth was late to make
06:48the count.
06:49Punk, now in his own way, accused Seth of screwing him more, and he hit him with the
06:53GTS and walked straight into a low blow by Drew and a Claymore for the reluctant three
06:58counts by Rollins.
06:59The drama of the match was very intense, and it was proper edge of your seat stuff
07:03at times.
07:04Punk being the one that was screwed is wonderful karma for his actions against Drew, because
07:08Punk really screwed himself.
07:10Very sports entertaining, and exactly what you want from a special guest ref stipulation.
07:15Damian Priest and Finn Balor reconciled backstage, and Balor basically told Priest he was going
07:18to turn on him later.
07:20Which he did, at the end of his title defence against Gunther.
07:22I feel that Priest has had a real uphill battle in getting over this World Championship reign.
07:26He hasn't really had a proper story, and he's been overshadowed by much bigger things
07:31on Raw like The Wyatt, Alpha Academy Split, Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley, and Punk and Drew.
07:36And a lack of big time rivalry over the belt has not helped that.
07:40But this babyface turn has really bolstered him, and it worked for the Summerslam crowd
07:44who were super behind him retaining his title.
07:47What also helped was this match was very physical, which you would expect from a Gunther bout,
07:51and featured Priest chopping him so hard that it made Gunther's tit bleed.
07:55Gunther fired back and demolished Priest, but Damian refused to quit and kept getting
07:58back up.
07:59All of a sudden Balor appeared at ringside, and when Priest hit the razor's edge and
08:03south of heaven, Finn put Gunther's foot on the ropes.
08:07Confused, Priest watched the replay on the big screen and saw that his closest friend
08:10and brother had just stabbed him in the back.
08:13And that commotion distracted Priest, and Gunther got in a sleeper.
08:16Priest survived, but distracted himself again with Balor, and Gunther powerbombed him into
08:20the earth and choked him out with a second sleeper to become the new World Heavyweight
08:25Champion.
08:26Finally!
08:27A champion we can all be proud of, now give him more belts!
08:30I'm joking of course, but I am super happy to see Gunther as the top champ on Raw.
08:34I've been a fan of his for so many years now I am still bitter that Oli would not let
08:38me crown him as Wrestler of the Year in both 2018 and 2019, and seeing him hold a lofter
08:43world title on such a massive stage was awesome to see.
08:47And it means that the follow-up to all of this Judgement Day drama will be saved for
08:51Raw, as we'll see what this means for Balor, Dom, Liv and, importantly, Carlito and his
08:57PS5.
08:58Miz & R-Truth did some comedy to announce the attendance figure for Summerslam, 57,791
09:04though WrestleTix thinks it's more in the 55k range, and that bellends came out for
09:08some local sports team heat and some local jellyroll heat.
09:11Mr Roll got in the ring and hit the lads with chairs and a chokeslam on theory, and he joined
09:15The Miz & R-Truth in doing a three-way five knuckle shuffle.
09:17That's a hell of a sentence when you remember that move is named after a term for wanking.
09:23Having watched back our live reactions, I don't think Pete, Sat or Tempest were particularly
09:26impressed with this segment, but it was what it was.
09:29And it was a decent buffer between the World Championship match and the WWE Championship
09:34match between Cody Rhodes and Solo Sukawa, which saw the WWE return of AEW's Arn Anderson
09:39who sadly did not advise Cody to take a Glock with him to the ring.
09:43The hype around this match was less about Solo, and more if we would see the return
09:47of Roman Reigns.
09:48Part of that is the aura of Reigns, but also because, I feel, WWE did not do enough to
09:53follow the squash of John Cena to make Sukawa feel like a legit threat to Cody Rhodes'
09:59WWE Championship.
10:00It also meant that much of the match was just waiting for the cameos, which came when the
10:04Gorillas of Destiny attacked Cody Rhodes with Tonga Loa somehow managing to charge Cody
10:08Rhodes into the corner… and miss the corner.
10:11Then we also saw the return of Kevin Owens and Randy Orton to even the odds.
10:15Jacob Fatu was out next and was so incredibly awesome, hitting a splash from the top rope
10:19to Cody through the announce table on the outside, hurting his foot in the process.
10:23Triple H has said in the press conference that Fatu was banged up, but I figured this
10:27was just a way to give him a reason to not get back in the ring to stop the return of
10:32Roman Reigns.
10:34He got a gigantic pop when his music hit, and he casually walked to the ring, hit a
10:39Superman Punch and a Spear on Solo and gave Cody an almost approving look.
10:44Cody hit the Crossroads for the win.
10:46The stare down between Roman and Cody was phenomenal, and the return was perfectly executed.
10:54You can watch that moment from our live reactions by clicking the link in the video description
10:57down below.
10:58Roman is clearly coming for Solo, but Cody also has something that belongs to him, the
11:04WWE Championship.
11:06And it capped off a brilliant SummerSlam, every match delivered, stories were furthered
11:10and the Roman Pop was epic.
11:12Now go and watch Pete and Sat's reaction to that return by clicking the link in the
11:16video description right now or the video that's on screen.
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