WWE SummerSlam: Minnesota (2026) Discussion

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

11 minutes ago, Mr_Danger said:

Not that you should apply logic to finishers.

Or wrestling. None of its logical. 

[AshC]

Got to have logic or it's just pornography. 

[simonworden]

16 hours ago, RIDDUM_N_STYLE said:

They’ve always done that to give certain title matches a big fight feel

Stayed up to watch up until just before the main event and I thought it was a great show, every match delivered

Great to see Aldis get the big treatment of not only coming out to one of Oasis’ biggest hits but also getting his ‘National Treasure’ nickname from his NWA days and he didn’t look out of place, especially given he’s not wrestled in 3 years

I just hope, given how good last night was, that tonight isn’t a damp squib as I’ve got high hopes for the Finn/Sami and Penta/Gable matches

 

Always? I admit I haven't really focussed on much from WWE in some time but they certainly weren't doing it not that long ago.  Excuse me being pedantic but they haven't always done that the way they did it. It looked awful to me like someone had smashed the John Morrison effect button to see if it still worked. 

Otherwise show was good. 

[Supremo]

“How big of a disappointment was Cody Rhodes vs. CM Punk?”

”Roman and Seth had the longest, tropiest, most monlongue-filled nostalgia-bait match of all time and they still managed to clear Punk and Cody by a significant margin, completely justifying closing Night Two over them.”

There’s no arguing it worked for the audience, and seems to be getting praise online, but I found the whole thing a wanky load of nonsense. A big bunch of Peter Kay-pilled, “REMEMBER THIS?”, combined with the worst type of WWE melodrama.

In the end, it was The Shield Fists rather than the Shield Chairs that were real friends we made along the way. 

Best suggestion I’ve seen online is that they should just recast Dean Ambrose like when Mick’s son in Brookside suddenly had a new head, yet no-one ever mentioned it.

“Welcome back, Dean. Good to see you again. The same as you always were.”

Another average show, saved almost entirely by Kevin Owens returning, immediately making Smackdown can’t-miss by becoming Number Contender, kickstarting the dream feud with CM Punk, then giving Rebel a shout out on the post-show.

Kevin Owens is my boy. Then, now, forever. I hope he knocks Punk’s block clean off.

Edited August 3 by Supremo

[HandsomeButchIII]

The Four way went 8 minutes and if it had ten minutes more I'd have been chuffed. Chelsea won and I was chuffed  Gable won, but there was time to give to that match, as that was short too, to make me chuffed. Anything interesting was given about 8 to 12 minutes. Because we had to leave time for the main event.

 

But nothing decent could have any ring time as the main event was spamming their finishers, luing down for a bit, and carry on for fucking minutes at a time with worse amateur dramatics than *REDACTED PHRASE*. I really think that Reigns vs Rollins is one of the worst matches of the year. Neither main event was any good this weekend. Imagine being the poor fucker paying hundreds for s ticket.

Edited August 3 by HandsomeButchIII

[tiger_rick]

Saw the main event described as "Peak Cinema". 2026. We're done.

[Snitsky's back acne]

10 hours ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

Or wrestling. None of its logical. 

Of course it is, or at least it used to be.

Yes there have always been things that are, rationally, illogical but wrestling has always had its own logic. As long as that logic was consistently adhered to, it became an accepted part of the performance. 

It's what made it work. 

 

 

[Supremo]

Night Two opener was probably the highlight of the weekend. Fans weeping with joy at Kevin Owens’ return, great, hot action, and a genuinely touching moment when Sami and Kevin hugged, then immediately started throwing hands. I heard a brilliant comparison recently about Kevin and Sami being this generation’s Bret and Shawn. They never drew huge, they were never the biggest stars, but they were always there, carrying the company with top notch work, even through dark periods. Love ‘em.

Hilarious listening to the commentators try and push that Baron Corbin travelled the globe to hone his craft, coming back to WWE as a completely different wrestler, only for him to immediately put in the same dull, plodding, shite performance he’s famous for. Between Sol Ruca losing the Intercontinental Title and now Trick Williams losing the United States Title, it’s been a rough week for signs that they’re cooling off on the fresh, young talent.

Ladder match was good, carried mostly by Tiffany Stratton putting a real shift in. Delighted with Chelsea Green winning. They’ll probably take the belt off her in record time, but at least she’s finally getting some favourable booking.

Nothing summed up WWE in 2026 more than Chad Gable vs. Penta. Good action, hot finish, and then what was originally a lovely, emotional moment with Chad celebrating with his family was immediately undermined by them sending that random mascot out to turn the whole thing into another advert. Nothing is sacred anymore. Nothing can get over organically or generate an earnest emotional reaction. Everything has to be an advert.

I wonder how different WWE history would be if everything was also so cynically designed around endlessly flogging shit.

Edited August 3 by Supremo

[abucalves]

I don't watch their live shows regularly, but is it normal that there's so much dead air. It feels like it mainly came from Cole starting to talk about the sponsors in the wrong spots, which to be fair, there's so many of them, it would be easy to get it wrong.

[d-d-d-dAz]

1 minute ago, abucalves said:

I don't watch their live shows regularly, but is it normal that there's so much dead air. It feels like it mainly came from Cole starting to talk about the sponsors in the wrong spots, which to be fair, there's so many of them, it would be easy to get it wrong.

A lot of the sponsor reads are cut by Netflix. For example, they always cut the Cricket Mobile mentions when i've watched.

On a side note, I think Roman Reigns is the most important/influential in-ring wrestler for WWE since Austin. His style and match template has become the de facto WWE main event, relentlesly repeated over and over again to the point it's come to define what their version of 'good' is. So much so, when it's delivered competently (like last night) it's automatically assumed that it must be brilliant.

It's not brilliant. It's just what they do, and WWE fans have forgot that a world exists beyond that style.

[RedTwoster]

11 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Nothing summed up WWE in 2026 more than Chad Gable vs. Penta. Good action, hot finish, and then what was originally a lovely, emotional moment with Chad celebrating with his family was immediately undermined by them sending that random mascot out to turn the whole thing into another advert. Nothing is sacred anymore. Nothing can get over organically or generate an earnest emotional reaction. Everything has to be an advert.

I didn’t bother watching the show, but I’ve just watched that segment, and I’m absolutely astounded that they did that. If you’re the root beer company, you’d surely have to fear a backlash for a spot like that. Sure enough, it seems to have been removed from the clips on YouTube, so perhaps they have seen that happen. 

I have mixed feelings about Chelsea’s first World title win being an ‘interim’ run. It doesn’t really feel like it counts. It’s something I’m glad AEW has stopped doing, and I don’t know why WWE has decided that this is a good practise to adopt. 

It’s nice to see Kevin Owens return, and it was amazing of him to bring up Rebel during the post-show. I’d like to see some WWE names take part in that ice bucket challenge, just to show - like Owens said - that some things are bigger than wrestling.

[BomberPat]

36 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

I’d like to see some WWE names take part in that ice bucket challenge, just to show - like Owens said - that some things are bigger than wrestling.

I'm half-convinced that WWE are actively restricting their wrestlers from doing it; Rebel challenged CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, Natalya, and Charlotte Flair, and Dustin Rhodes also challenged Cody, and to the best of my knowledge none of them have done it or acknowledged the challenge. If that's the case, then more power to Kevin Owens for still publicly supporting Rebel anyway.

I had wondered if it was a corporate thing - companies have their chosen charities, and so can get a bit iffy about their employees (putting the whole "independent contractors" bullshit to one side) publicly fundraising for a different cause - but I saw Seth Rollins has done the ice bucket challenge for someone else, so it's not a case of WWE talent being blanket not permitted to take part. I hope that the WWE wrestlers I mentioned just haven't got around to doing the challenge yet, haven't been made aware they were challenged, something like that, rather than this being a really petty move from WWE's side, but you'll never lose money betting on WWE taking the pettiest and most morally objectionable course of action available to them.

[wordsfromlee]

He's absolutely buzzing to have won that 'ESPN Moment of the Night' belt award.

Edited August 3 by wordsfromlee

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

14 minutes ago, wordsfromlee said:

He's absolutely buzzing to have won that 'ESPN Moment of the Night' belt award.

Sheer unbridled joy!

[SuperBacon]

I watched the first match as I like Sami, Gunther and Owens, and it was pretty decent. I was then fast forwarding through it until I thought to myself "What am I fast forwarding to?" and I had no answer.

Watched 2 minutes of the Danhausen match which was fine and then I saw the main event with 50 minutes to go. Skip to 15 minutes later and they STILL hadn't started so I watched the last 5, and that was too much. I like Reigns but this was just terrible, and I can't imagine the rest was any good. Rollins is the actual worst.

Highlight of the night was Cole saying of McDonagh "He's just happy that he's in the ring with someone smaller than him" about the mini Danhausens which did get a chuckle from me.