WWE SummerSlam 2025 Discussion

[FUM]

Just now, TheScarlettChad said:

Except the crowd treated the heel like a babyface. Complete with roaring ovation. 

That’s standard for every single “surprise” MITB cash-in ever. It’s never not going to happen. As much as I hated the decision to do it, that’s not something that can really be criticised.

Even Austin Theory used to get cheers running down. Fans are just excited to say they seen a cash-in.

[SuperBacon]

3 minutes ago, TheScarlettChad said:

Except the crowd treated the heel like a babyface. Complete with roaring ovation. 

We can't condone or control what 50,000 yanks do. 

I was more distracted by the lad in the 91 Spurs shirt front row.

[The Gaffer]

Saw a clip of Becky Lynch gurning for the cameras giving it the "Oh I'm sorry, was the internet wrong?" thing at the Gorilla position. It's gotta be my new ratings chat now. It can proper fuck off in its new guise as the official secret environment of the shows. 

[waters44]

3 hours ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

I thought the opening video with that comedian fella was a big flashing siren saying 'Darren, this show simply isn't for you anymore.' It didn't promote a single story, or build any tension, it was just about how the whole point of everything they do is going viral on social media. 

It was basically an advert for not bothering to watch the shows, and just keep refreshing your Instagram feed. I know I'm an old man shouting at the clouds, but I'd rather they booked a wrestling show designed to be enjoyed as a wrestling show and then social media falls out from that, rather than thinking first and foremost in 20 second blocks for TikTok.

The fact that in that same video they specifically pulled out a clip of some podcaster or something saying 'Good Promo'; not for me. This is your big open to the second biggest show of the year for fuck sake, talk about the feuds and the matches. Not your social media engagement rate you fucking losers.

Then Cardi B came out and really shouted at people and all hope was lost.

I worry that WWE under TKO's ownership may never be for me again. The obsession with social media, the endless celebrities, the aggressive advertising... if anyone's watched the new Happy Gilmore yet, it feels like I'm watching MAXI golf when all I want is regular golf.

Cant agree more with this tbh. That opening video was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. They showed a tweet that just said “Liv is hot haha” - these are the sort of people they’re targeting these days. I’ve got a friend who watches WWE TV but skips most of the wrestling. There are people that enjoy this shite and it’s really hard to believe

FWIW I thought the opening match was pretty fun and the main was also quite good. But everything else was average at best and I hate myself for sitting through it. I’d love to be able to not watch but I can’t stay away, there’s always that possibility you get a Ripley / SKY / Belair or a Punk / McIntyre. But here it was all misses. 

To really rub shit in the wound the cash in was spoiled by fucking WhatsApp of all things. My nephew put a status up, so I clicked on the status section, and below that was a WWE channel which said PUNK > ROLLINS. 

I’ll be back on the sofa tomorrow with a cup of tea and some garibaldi wishing I could turn over and catching up on some G1 instead. 

I really don’t want to be down on wrestling as it’s a massive part of my life and I love it with all my heart. I truly am glad for you if you enjoyed this, but fucking hell it’s really hard at the moment with this lot. 

[Callum1993]

Doesn’t help that they haven’t changed Seth’s theme since he turned so the fans still want to sing along  with it. Have to feel for LA Knight too. Essentially left off Summerslam as part of a work. 

38 minutes ago, FUM said:

That’s standard for every single “surprise” MITB cash-in ever. It’s never not going to happen. As much as I hated the decision to do it, that’s not something that can really be criticised.

Even Austin Theory used to get cheers running down. Fans are just excited to say they seen a cash-in.

 

[Arch Stanton]

3 hours ago, TheScarlettChad said:

The crowd cheering for Rollins was embarrassing. I thought he was a heel?! Are we back to the crowd cheering for MOMENTS again? 

What do you mean 'back to'? This has been the way for ages and it's not gone away. 

Like loads of people have said, crowds always have and always will, pop massively for MitB cash-ins. Going back twenty years or whatever it is now, most of the successful cash-ins they have ever done have been by heel characters. It's a total heel move and yet it's designed to be exciting, so of course people are going to respond to it.

For what it's worth, I didn't think the show was too bad, all things considered. Maybe I've just managed my expectations appropriately, but I don't know what you might have expected differently, given the poor build to these shows.

I do agree with @SuperBacon on Jelly Roll, they should definitely put a belt on him. His pants keep falling down.

Seriously though, he did a decent job out there. Again, it's about managing expectations isn't it? I'm not expecting him to throw a good clothesline, or get all his footwork right, but he sold and he showed good fire out there. Looked like he was having a blast and I like to see that from celebs when they're involved. Fair play to him on taking that giant splash through the table too, really could have hurt that.

[thevestofdeanambrose]

My main issue with wwe these days, is most of the matches follow the exact same pattern with the odd exceptions.

Every match seems paint by numbers following the same routine. The originality has nearly completely gone and it's like watching robots perform. WWE is the The Pep Guaidola of the wrestling world.

[air_raid]

Hooray, Seth’s Silver Medal is back where it belongs!

Anyway… six matches interwoven with loads of filler. Good job physical media isn’t the lifeblood of fandom like when I was a kid, you’d wear out the FF button if all this shite made it to Silver Vision.

Opening tag I part watched with the +10 button - sorry, but I’ve been conditioned for approx 25 years to believe that with 4 hours or more a week of telly, it’s just a waste to do singles-stars tag matches on PPV/PLE and they’re usually inconsequential time killers. It’s especially nonsensical to pay Reigns $15m a year then book him in a tag at the second biggest show of the year in front of 50,000 people. Some fun looking spots but pulling out a Steiners bulldog for a kick out, I could have done without. Anything but Roman or Bron pinning the other would have made it feel a bit pointless so of course, we didn’t get that. As more of a “unit” I’d have thought the Dangerous Alliance would be a logical winner but given how few wrestling matches are happening these days, without checking, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was Breakker and Bronsons first time tagging. Ho hum, probably a match I’ll enjoy as a match to watch at a later date, but this morning it was skippable as “just want to know who won” en route to the matches I cared about.

Womens tag title match, I started watching from Alexa getting the hot tag, skipped a bit more of the heat then played everything from Charlotte getting the second hot tag. I like that handspring into clothesline Charlotte did, the teased betrayal was very well done and the Fucking Bomb/Pop Rox one-two fooled me for a finish even if Roxi pinning “The Queen” was unlikely in hindsight. Very pleased to see Alexa win big for the first time in forever (@Jazzy G The Last Dance strikes again)  and I did buzz a lot seeing her hold her belt sideways like she used to with the big belt. Made good sense to get the titles off the contingency pairing before Liv comes back.

I’ll probably confuse the match order on account of not watching everything. I haven’t been watching the TV so not keeping up with the story between Zayn and Kross so didn’t watch the match and skipped to the finish. I’m glad Zayn has another win on a big show to his name. I absolutely couldn’t care any less about the Jelly Roll tag so skipped straight past it and landed on some more twixt-matches fluff, I only found out the heels won from this thread a couple of minutes ago.

Watched most of Stratton vs Cargill and quite enjoyed it. Some good spots and nothing seemed badly flubbed except it was a bit obvious Cargill had to help Tiff get her foot on the rope off Jaded and it looked rather too intentional that they were so close to the ropes to begin with - SummerSlam curse strikes again after the similar mishap in Priest vs Gunther last year. Tiff is clearly a strong gal, seeing her with a unit like Jade up for that Alabama Slam was quite a visual. Marginally surprised that she retained but I guess it might be too soon to move the title thinking about potentially Jade vs Belair for Mania. Speaking of… two night show and Bianca hasn’t got a match?? That’s bullshit.

Finally… Gunther vs Punk I watched from start to finish, it was a very good wrestling match and I was genuinely happy when Punk won. Cash in was well executed, I was waiting for Seth to chuck his crutches down and it was cool when it came.

On 7/30/2025 at 11:52 AM, air_raid said:

Seth to cash in on Punk and that will be the final absolute end of it between them. 

Not sure what I was thinking there to be fair.

On 8/1/2025 at 10:53 AM, SuperBacon said:

Headlining Mania and Summerslam in the same year What a 2025 for big Phil!

On 8/1/2025 at 4:07 PM, air_raid said:

Or to put it another way… getting to say you’re the main event when the whole planet knows you aren’t the main event. Must feel like Groundhog Day for Punksatawney Phil.

 And Rollins ruins it for Groundhog Punk yet again. Honestly, who can name another feud that’s ran this long, virtually uninterrupted, taken in two Manias, three cash in segments, a steel cage match “to settle it” and still there’s no end in sight?

Looking forward to how distressed Seth will look when Punk wins the Rumble and elects to challenge Cody instead of him, mind.

Game of two halves, Clive.

[Slapnut]

4 hours ago, The Gaffer said:

Saw a clip of Becky Lynch gurning for the cameras giving it the "Oh I'm sorry, was the internet wrong?" thing at the Gorilla position. It's gotta be my new ratings chat now. It can proper fuck off in its new guise as the official secret environment of the shows. 

It’s so fundamentally flawed too.

The people who believed he was legitimately injured have bought into a storyline and may have enjoyed themselves. Good job.

The people who didn’t believe he was legitimately injured just…weren’t wrong.

It’s like taking the piss out of 1996 fans who didn’t see Hulk Hogan’s heel turn coming.

[MVP RULZ]

1 hour ago, air_raid said:

Speaking of… two night show and Bianca hasn’t got a match?? That’s bullshit.

She's been out since Wrestlemania with a bad finger injury 

She only had a brief one off return since then to ref the Naomi/Jade match at Evolution but has been away again since then continuing her recovery

 

[air_raid]

5 minutes ago, MVP RULZ said:

She's been out since Wrestlemania with a bad finger injury 

Thanks, had forgotten that entirely.

[Hannibal Scorch]

On 7/31/2025 at 6:47 PM, Onyx2 said:

What happened to Cardi B hosting? A few months back they kept running that "I'm hosting! Two nights!" trail without actually naming who it was, I had to Google her. 

And now not a whisper. She been Travis Scotted? 

Well done for reminding them.

[SaitoRyo]

Only bothered with Punk/Gunther, which I absolutely loved. He has his critics (and rightfully so) but I really, really enjoy how Punk wrestles a match like it's a wrestling match. There's a man whose not afraid to use an atomic drop or a Russian legsweep. I really like Punk in this old gunslinger phase of his, suits him well. Gunther was a great opponent for him and I hope there are future matches between them. 

Punk and Seth? Not so much. I've never been interested in Rollins and the cash-in is just so overused at this point. 

[Snitsky's back acne]

10 hours ago, The Gaffer said:

Saw a clip of Becky Lynch gurning for the cameras giving it the "Oh I'm sorry, was the internet wrong?" thing at the Gorilla position. It's gotta be my new ratings chat now. It can proper fuck off in its new guise as the official secret environment of the shows. 

Viral moments.

It's all about the viral moments now. That's corporate wrestling for you 

Re Kross: If he were to leave I doubt he would go to AEW. Don Callis is well in there and after all the allegations re: him and Scarlett I don't think they would go there. 

[WyattSheepMask]

Was already contemplating skipping Night 1, now that I’ve read that Seth is champion I definitely am.

It makes perfectly logical sense to do what they did, but fuck me if I’m not sick to death of Rollins v Punk