WWE Summer Slam Reactions

FroWrestling Podcast

This episode we review everything that took place at WWE Summer Slam 2026 including shock returns and championship changes.  Follow us on all social media: Facebook - Fro Wrestling Podcast On X - @frowrestling Instagram - @frowrestlingpodcast As well as these and other platforms: Bluesky, Apple Podcasts, Rumble, Odysee, Daily Motion, and many more  Please support our sponsors: 3WA Wrestling www.worldwidewrestlingalliance...  Beezle Games - Sketchy People Doodle Games - Banani Market Freddie Foo Games - Legendary Elements All available at www.thegamecrafter.com  Fro Life Educational Planning www.frolifeplanning.com  Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/fro-wrestling-podcast--2103073/support.

Transcript

00:00Pro, pro, pro wrestling podcast.

00:06Pro, pro, pro wrestling podcast.

00:13Pro, pro wrestling.

00:17What?

00:18What?

00:20What?

00:21What?

00:22Bang!

00:23Bang!

00:24What the?

00:25He's breaking it out.

00:27Whoa!

00:28Pro wrestling podcast.

00:30Just when they think they got the answers, I take the question.

00:35Breath through breath.

00:37Yeah.

00:39Woo!

00:40You need that!

00:42You need that!

00:45Who are you to doubt El Dandy?

00:47Because this guy's a serious professional.

00:49What are you doing?

00:50Oh!

00:52Oh, and he's coming out.

00:54Unbelievable!

00:55I'm too hard to handle into cold arms.

01:00And I am a matrimony savage.

01:08Oh, Austin Podcast!

01:12Such a match of thong-wearing fatty.

01:15I said WWE stands for...

01:17Austin United!

01:21It's me, Austin.

01:23I will never retire!

01:27What's up, Austin?

01:28What's up, Austin?

01:30Promotional considerations paid for by the following.

01:37Hey, yo, Pro Wrestling Podcast listeners.

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02:29Hello and welcome to this episode of the Pro Wrestling Podcast.

02:32If you've got questions, comments, something you want me to touch on that maybe I missed

02:35or didn't cover, something you'd like me to address, now, past, doesn't matter, future,

02:40let me know through the Pro Wrestling Sound Offline, 267-642-1160, and I will get to those

02:45in a future episode.

02:47Tonight, recapping SummerSlam, all the events, the happenings, the things that went down.

02:53Look, I know I'm in the minority here, but I actually enjoyed a lot of SummerSlam.

02:57I really did.

02:58I'm going to critique it like I always do, but there was just enough good stuff that I

03:03felt like it was a serviceable, very solid show.

03:06I would have loved to have seen a little more time given the talents, but I did feel like

03:12the commercial breaks were cut down quite a bit this time.

03:15Um, and there was some decent level of in-ring action, so let's get into the matches themselves.

03:20Got to talk about Liv and Io.

03:22Look, I'm sorry, Io's in a tough spot.

03:25She is probably the best wrestler in the world, male, female, or otherwise.

03:29Liv Morgan, she's on her game.

03:32Going into this, I had predicted she would win the match, as did many people.

03:35She needed to have more of a substantial championship run, and she's only had one defense in 100

03:41whatever days, so it made sense she was going to win here.

03:44They put on probably the best match, maybe across both nights.

03:49Now, I won't say that.

03:50I'll say one of the two best matches across both nights.

03:54So the wrestling action was phenomenal.

03:56The ending's too predictable.

03:58I'm getting kind of tired of seeing the three-on-one stuff when it comes to Judgment

04:01Day.

04:02It gets monotonous, very boring.

04:04It's lazy booking.

04:05That's the drawback to it.

04:07But if you just eliminate that part of it and just watch Io and Liv work, they are phenomenal

04:13in the ring.

04:14They do everything you could possibly ask two ladies to do.

04:17They really put it all on the line.

04:18They have such great chemistry.

04:21The match was solid.

04:22It was one of my favorite parts of the whole show.

04:25From there, the LA Knight Solo Sokova Royce Keys match against Jacob Fatu and the Usos.

04:32I mean, look, going into the show, I felt like this was one of the few times that a six

04:36-man

04:36tag like this actually captured my attention.

04:39It was something I actually wanted to see.

04:41I think the match did a pretty good job.

04:42I would have liked for it to go a little longer just because of the quality of talent you have

04:47in there.

04:47Combine that with the fact that Solo's been getting over so well with this current, what

04:53do you want to call it?

04:54I don't want to say character.

04:55He's still Solo Sokova.

04:56But this current incarnation of himself.

04:58Yeah, I would have liked to have seen him get a little more time to showcase and shine.

05:01But it is what it is.

05:02The match was solid.

05:04Seeing LA Knight Solo and Royce Keys win was not a shocker to me.

05:08Just because, I hate to say it this way because I sound like such a jerk, but Jimmy Uso was

05:12in the match.

05:13That means there was an easy person to pin there.

05:15Everybody else has got consequential situation if they lose the match.

05:19You know, you don't want to pin Jacob Fatu.

05:21You don't want to pin Royce Keys.

05:23You don't want to pin LA Knight.

05:24And you certainly don't want to pin Solo Sokova.

05:26You really don't want to pin Jay Uso.

05:28So that really only leaves Jimmy.

05:29And so, going into it, I had a feeling this was the way it was going to go down.

05:32But I thought, for the amount of time they were allotted, it was a decent match.

05:38Now, the flip side to that is, I do believe that because of the time it was allotted, this

05:42could have easily been a television match.

05:44But whatever.

05:45I digress.

05:47To the Gunther Nick Aldis match.

05:49Okay?

05:49So here's the thing.

05:50For people who've been tuning into this show for any significant length of time, you know

05:54that one of my favorite interviews I ever did was with Nick Aldis when he was still the

05:58NWA World Heavyweight Champion.

06:00He is one of the most kind-hearted, wonderful human beings I've ever had the pleasure of

06:05speaking with.

06:06And so when I found out this match was happening, I was like a kid in a candy store.

06:10I love him going all the way back to his days as Magnus in TNA.

06:15That was my first exposure to him.

06:16I have since sought out other matches online, YouTube and such, of his earlier wrestling

06:22career.

06:23I love that on commentary, Wade Barrett referenced that his very first match was against Nick

06:28Aldis.

06:28That was really nice.

06:29You could hear almost his voice getting emotional when he was coming out to Oasis.

06:32That was awesome.

06:34So everything about this match was perfect because you can't beat Gunther, but you really

06:39wanted to make Aldis look good.

06:40And they kept it relatively basic, but still did enough really cool stuff.

06:44I love the spot where Aldis ended up doing like really muscling Gunther up and doing a

06:50suplex, which was really awesome.

06:52And I really hope that WWE is looking at this and saying, you know, yes, he does a great

06:56job as a general manager, and he really does.

06:59But wow, what he could do in the ring.

07:01If he is certainly, if he had a more consistent schedule.

07:04But yeah, great match.

07:05Loved it.

07:06Huge fan.

07:07Loved that Mickie James and their son got to get in the ring afterwards and celebrate

07:10with him.

07:10That had to be one of his career highlights.

07:13It really must have.

07:13From there, we get the fatal influence defeating the Bellas and Paige.

07:18There are tons of stuff to talk about here.

07:21One, the fact that, you know, Nikki Bella just came off an injury and now Brie Bella has

07:25a fractured scapula, which takes place when she's taking a cannonball from JC Jane during

07:31the match.

07:32You saw her holding her shoulder.

07:34She didn't do a whole lot after that when the heel turn takes place where Nikki and Brie

07:38turn on Paige at the end, which again, I predicted months ago.

07:42Um, it's really a shame because now I think they were obviously leaning into the Bellas

07:47versus Paige and AJ Lee.

07:49I've said that all along.

07:50And now that's going to have to be put on hold because Brie Bella is going to be out

07:54about six months is what they're saying.

07:56Now, I suspect she may be able to get back quicker than that.

07:58But if you do a simple Google search with AI mode, it'll tell you that this injury is

08:02a six to 12 week recovery and full, to get full, um, range of motion back takes about

08:08six to nine months.

08:09So six months is probably a good number.

08:12Do we see her at the Royal Rumble?

08:14Maybe we'll have to wait and see, but what a stroke of bad luck for the Bellas from their

08:18CM Punk, Cody Rhodes.

08:20I, I feel like this match, it was almost like in slow motion.

08:26There was nothing that was overly exciting.

08:28It was solid.

08:30Don't get me wrong.

08:30But again, and then now this match dragged on a long time because it actually got a lot

08:34of time.

08:35But if you're going to give a match a lot of time, you got to do something in that time.

08:39I know there's stories online.

08:41People think that, uh, when CM Punk botches the one move that he, um, defecates in his

08:46trousers.

08:47There has been no confirmation of that as of yet.

08:50Um, I did see the same thing everybody else saw.

08:53I think maybe he was just really, really sweaty.

08:54That's what I'm going to choose to go with in my brain.

08:57Um, I do love that Randy Orton came out and got involved, cost Cody the match, get Cody

09:02out of the world championship picture for a little while.

09:04Have a few with Randy Orton.

09:06I'm just a huge Randy Orton fan.

09:08So I don't really like seeing Randy Orton as a heel, but I understand why they're doing

09:10that.

09:11I just don't know why he took so much time off if he was just going to come back and

09:14jump right

09:15back into the same feud he was in when he left.

09:17Um, but whatever it was, it was what it was.

09:19It was the best part of the match was seeing Randy Orton come out and hit Cody, uh, CM

09:23Punk retaining, not a shocker there.

09:25The Oba Brock hell in a cell match.

09:27I'm going to echo what I've heard a lot of people saying is that this did not need to

09:31be a hell in a cell, maybe a no holds barred match or something like that would have been

09:34a more appropriate, uh, use.

09:37But if you use the cell and this is what some people who keep saying that are forgetting

09:40Brock is like undefeated in the cell.

09:43So there's a reason that you use the cell and not a no holds barred match because there's

09:47more prestige about the fact that Oba defeated him inside the cell where he never loses.

09:52I was shocked to see him pull back the tarp and everything and expose the wood and then

09:57drop Oba in a tombstone paying homage to the undertaker without knee protection on.

10:03But that was insane.

10:04I mean, for me, I'm a 49 year old guy.

10:06If I dropped to my knees like that, I think I'd shatter my kneecaps, but Brock did it with

10:10style.

10:11I loved everything that took place after the match.

10:14Brock going off script, showing respect to Oba.

10:17You could tell Oba really didn't know what Brock was doing, which was awesome.

10:20And I love that he put him over so strong and so with so much respect.

10:24Um, I love that Oba showed the same kind of respect back to Brock.

10:28Um, if you follow up with all the conversations that happened since then, lots and lots and lots

10:33of mutual respect there.

10:34I love what Brock did for Oba here, really passing the torch.

10:37It's a beautiful thing from there night to the night starts off with what I consider to

10:44be some of the most awesome, crazy, but also some frustration.

10:48You have Sammy and Finn, which I had predicted originally that Sammy was going to win because

10:53I thought KO was going to come back and help him win.

10:57But instead, first we get Aldis coming out.

11:00He's been reinstated as the SmackDown general manager, making an executive decision, trying

11:04to right the wrongs.

11:05And he gives Gunther a spot in the match.

11:07I have a problem with this because if the storyline all along has been that he didn't

11:11screw Gunther until, uh, Saturday night's main event, then you didn't owe him anything,

11:17nothing whatsoever.

11:19Um, now you give him that back into this world championship picture.

11:22He's now in a triple threat.

11:24And then before they could start things up, he says, wait a minute, I didn't say I was

11:27just adding one person.

11:29I'm making this a fatal four away, which means we need another competitor and outcomes.

11:33Kevin Owens to one of the biggest pops that I've seen in recent memory.

11:38So happy for Kevin Owens.

11:39If you watch the, uh, the after show, so humble, so thankful.

11:44The embrace that he shared with big E almost made me cry immediately because you know, everything

11:48big E's been through the fact that during his after show, uh, conversation, he gave a shout

11:53out to rebel AEW superstar who is battling ALS.

11:57Kevin's just such a great guy.

11:59He really is.

11:59If you ever get a chance to meet him, he's just such a wonderful human being.

12:02So to see him be able to come back and finish up his career on his own terms is amazing.

12:08He's going to be challenging punk now, which is a dream match we've all been waiting for.

12:11There's some real life discord there where, um, he is friends with the young bucks.

12:16And obviously everybody knows from brawl out that, you know, CM punk is not a fan of the,

12:21uh, the young bucks.

12:22So it'll be interesting to see whether these two guys lay it in when they finally have

12:26their few, but KO picking up the win in the fatal four way, a little bit of a surprise

12:29that he comes back and wins that so quickly.

12:31I actually liked it for Finn to have won, but didn't work out that way from there.

12:36We get to what I consider to be the biggest shocker of the entire two night pay-per-view

12:40watching Baron Corbin win the United States championship from trick Williams, putting

12:46little yachty through a table, you know, taking that, you know, frilly feathery boa belt,

12:54boafied belt up and, uh, putting it over his shoulder was kind of a surprise for me.

12:58I expected Corbin, uh, to basically be mid card fodder to trick, to try to get him over

13:03even more.

13:04And when I saw him hit end of days, I was like, almost nobody kicks out of this.

13:08And right there was where I was like, Oh my God, he's actually going to win one, two,

13:12three new United States champion.

13:14Very shocked.

13:15And I know there's some people online that are giving some attitude about this.

13:19Look, Baron Corbin's a top tier candidate for being in a prime position in the company.

13:24He always was.

13:26He just wasn't used properly.

13:27The guy will do anything he's asked to do.

13:29He's a great in-ring worker.

13:31I have no problem with it.

13:32Congratulations, Baron Corbin.

13:35The shocker of the night in terms of not like the Baron Corbin thing that surprised me

13:41because I never would have called that.

13:43The shocker of the night was in the women's interim championship match.

13:48I joked about it in my prediction episode.

13:50I never thought it was actually going to happen that Chelsea Green would come out as the new

13:55interim women's world championship.

13:57Matt Cardona sitting ringside kissing his lady friend as soon as she wins the title.

14:01So happy for her over the moon.

14:03Happy for her.

14:04If you're a diehard fan, a lot of Chelsea Green fans out there watching her defeat.

14:07Charlotte Flair, Jade Cargill, Lash Legend, Tiffany Stratton.

14:12Like, that's a big deal.

14:13Now, here's the question I have.

14:14Is this just a transitional opportunity so they could, you know, she put on social media,

14:20she gave a shout out to Michael Hayes because of his comments on WWE Unreal.

14:24Was this a transitional thing to put the belt on her so that Blake Monroe can then defeat

14:28her for it to then go on and face Rhea Ripley when she's back?

14:31I hope not.

14:32I really hope Chelsea gets some time with the championship after the hot potato of the

14:37world championship from, you know, Cody to Sammy to Punk.

14:41I don't want to see him do the same thing here with the women's interim world championship.

14:45I, but in all seriousness, I was so happy for Chelsea.

14:48She deserves everything she got.

14:50What an awesome moment.

14:51I hope everybody had as much fun with that as I did.

14:53We get that Dan Housen versus Don Mysterio with one of the Minnie Housens was standup

15:01comedian and little person himself, Brad Williams, who had reached out through all these different

15:07podcasts, CVV, all these things saying, listen, I just want to be a Minnie Housen.

15:12You don't have to tell anybody I'm going to be there.

15:15Nothing like that.

15:15And then after the whole experience was over, he actually released a vlog about it where

15:19he was in the Dan Housen outfit.

15:21He was doing the voice.

15:22He was a part of the show, got to be one of the Minnie Housens.

15:25The match itself, hokey, corny.

15:27It is what it is.

15:28I hated that JD got so involved.

15:31You kind of expected it though.

15:32The Minnie Housens, you expected it.

15:36It's a typical Dan Housen match, but you know, as over as he is, I'm starting to get bored

15:41with what they're doing with him.

15:42I would like to see something changed up a little bit, just a little bit more serious.

15:47Doesn't have to be too, too deep, but a little more serious.

15:50From there, I said earlier that Liv and Io was the match of the two nights.

15:54I pulled that back for a second because Chad Gable and Penta really went at each other.

15:59And I actually think Io and Liv probably had just a hair better match, but the drama, the

16:05emotion, Chad Gable's family being at ringside when he defeats Penta and they all join in

16:10the ring, what a beautiful opportunity for him.

16:13His parents, his wife, his children, all getting to partake in this beautiful moment.

16:18Chad Gable, the culmination of a 10-year career in WWE.

16:22He's like, you know, Kurt Angle part two.

16:24He really is just an incredible, incredible talent.

16:27And after everything he did with the El Grande Americano and then OG El Grande Americano gimmick,

16:33both in WWE and in AAA, he deserved this.

16:37So, super happy for Chad Gable, especially since he got to do it in his hometown.

16:42That was a beautiful, beautiful moment.

16:43And probably a match of, definitely a match of night two, might have been a match of the

16:47whole show.

16:48Then we get to the main event.

16:50Roman versus Seth.

16:51Seth queuing up the Shield music.

16:54Coming out with the Dean Ambrose mask on his face.

16:57Some white riot gear underneath his other entrance attire.

17:04Crazy throwbacks to Dean Ambrose.

17:06Roman coming out.

17:07I actually thought, a couple years ago when Roman came out and they had that whole orchestra

17:11out there beating the drums and playing the music, that's the kind of entrance I want

17:15to see at a SummerSlam.

17:16Not some sideshow.

17:18I wanted to see that kind of entrance at this one.

17:20I was waiting for Roman's entrance.

17:21I thought it was going to be full of pageantry.

17:23And then it kind of felt flat for me, to be honest with you.

17:26But the match itself, I guess it was okay.

17:28Physical, yes.

17:30Repetitive compared to all the other matches, yes.

17:33I could go the rest of my life without Roman Reigns wrinkling his chin and making that gesture

17:37he does.

17:38I do love, though, at the end of the match when finally Roman picks up the win, I do

17:43love Roman burying the hatchet with Seth, doing the fist bump with the Dean Ambrose mask

17:48in the middle.

17:49I did see Bully Ray talking about it on Busted Open, saying that this is like a smoke signal

17:53to Dean Ambrose, to Jon Moxley.

17:56You know, maybe someday, I don't know.

17:58They said like a 1% chance is their estimation.

18:00I don't know how to feel about that.

18:02I think Moxley probably understands that it's a different regime now.

18:05Maybe he'd be treated differently.

18:06Maybe we get to see that someday.

18:08But right now, I'm not going to get my hopes up.

18:10But I did think it was beautiful to see things like Seth Rollins doing some of his moves,

18:16Roman Reigns doing, you know, the dirty deeds, things like that.

18:19But I thought that was an awesome callback to S.H.I.E.L.D.

18:21Dace and to Dean Ambrose.

18:23And then that pose at the end was really, with capped off the night, was wonderful.

18:27All in all, solid pay-per-view, in my opinion.

18:29If people didn't like it, I think you're, this is, it's like a, ready, I'll get really

18:33super nerdy on you for a minute.

18:35I feel like it's like Star Wars fans who hated episodes 1, 2, and 3 because they were nowhere

18:39near as good as 4, 5, and 6.

18:41Nothing was ever going to be better than 4, 5, and 6, especially 5.

18:45So if you went into it with high expectations, you're an idiot.

18:49Get over it.

18:501, 2, 3 are good on their own.

18:52Not when you compare to 4, 5, 6 because nothing's going to be as good as 4, 5, 6.

18:55Now back to wrestling.

18:56You know, this show is not going to be the greatest SummerSlam of all time because the

19:01greatest SummerSlams of all time had 10, 12 matches in one night.

19:05And they were one-night shows.

19:07And months and months and months of storyline building, not three weeks when you piece me

19:11all something together.

19:12So for what it was, I thought this was pretty solid.

19:17If I had to give it a rating, like a 1 to 5 star kind of thing, 3 and 3

19:21quarters, maybe

19:224 stars.

19:23That's just my opinion.

19:24I know I'm in the minority, but it is what it is.

19:26But hopefully you enjoyed the show.

19:28If not, go back.

19:29Rewatch it again.

19:30Look for the highlight parts.

19:31I really encourage you to check out the Nick Aldis match if you haven't already.

19:34That really warmed my heart seeing that.

19:36He looks so happy to finally get that WWE moment.

19:38So I'm going to shut up now.

19:40That's all the time we have for this episode.

19:41Check back with us next episode.

19:43We'll run down the latest wrestling news and rumors.

19:44Special thanks, as always, goes to Suno for creating the music and sound effects we use

19:47in the show.

19:48If you want to bring a new friend to family, Game Night, it's easy with Sketchy People,

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20:40I'm Fred Froelich, better known as Dr. Fro.

20:42I want to thank you for taking some time with us tonight.

20:43Until next time, take care, everybody.

20:45Have a great one.

21:09Bye.

21:13Bye.

21:18Bye.

21:19Bye.

21:24Bye.

21:25Bye.

21:27Bye.

21:28Bye.

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