Featured Image by @kimberlasskick
The biggest party of the summer has come and went. The landscape of WWE has experienced a paradigm shift. The implosion of one of its most prominent factions, 5 championships changed hands, and of course the long awaited return of Roman Reigns. The Miz and R-Truth came out during the show to announce that there were 57,791 people in attendance. This set a new all-time American attendance record for the Summer Slam event. It seems that with every PLE, a new record of some kind is broken. Just last month WWE set a new company live gate record for an arena show in Canada. Cleveland hosted WWE for 2 televised events and many more events for just the fans in the city.
Cleveland Screwjob
After months of build up, a returning Rhea Ripley looked to regain the World Championship she was forced to vacate 3 months earlier. Liv Morgan’s revenge tour reached its final performance by snatching Dominick Mysterio, Rhea’s on screen boyfriend. Rhea Ripley dislocated her shoulder very early on in the match, which lead to her driving her shoulder into the announce desk to shove it back into place. Rhea looked to be unstoppable, the only thing to stop her in her tracks was Dominick betraying her and allowing Liv to retain the championship. Rhea sat in the ring dejected and angry while Liv and Dom celebrated with tongue.
Bron Breaks Sami
Sami Zayn has been the underdog his whole career, despite entering this weekend as Champion. The new hotshot on the main roster Bron Breakker was determined to become Intercontinental Champion. Bron has left a path of destruction where he went, even writing Ricochet off WWE TV by slamming him into a car windshield! Sami uprooted Gunther’s 666 day championship reign, only 118 days ago. However, the tanned pitbull, split Sami in half in front of Cleveland to become the new Intercontinental Champion, his first title on the main roster.
Megastar is champion
The United States Championship has been held for the last 273 days by the ever controversial Logan Paul. The Cleveland native was exposed on Smackdown from actually being from Westlake, which might explain why Logan received nothing but hate from the audience this weekend. LA Knight has been with WWE since 2021, somehow despite his popularity LA has not held any championship. After stealing Logan’s PRIME truck, LA Knight arrived at the Cleveland Browns Stadium in style, and broke the truck’s window on his way to the ring. LA and Logan put on a great match, and the Megastar LA Knight leaves Cleveland with the United States Championship. Logan leaves with a broken window on his truck.
From Queen To Champion
A new WWE Women’s Champion was crowned. Queen of the Ring Nia Jax punched her ticket to Summer Slam back in May after winning the QOTR tournament. Bayley has been a fighting champion successfully defending her title in Scotland and France. The heat was turned up for Bayley after Tiffany Stratton won the Money In The Bank Contract and paired up with Nia Jax. Two lethal competitors both with opportunities against her. After Tiffany made a cash-in attempt fake-out, Bayley was caught out by Nia and suffered two “annihilators” for Nia to crown herself new WWE Women’s Champion.
CM Punk Costs Himself Revenge
For the first time in 10 years, CM Punk competed in a one on one televised WWE match. After he suffered a torn tricep in the Royal Rumble at the hands of Drew McIntyre. Drew claimed to have prayed for that to happen. Months of back and forth on social media and on screen, it seemed like everyone was just waiting for CM Punk to be cleared to compete. At WrestleMania Drew won the World Heavyweight Championship, but instead of celebrating he was compelled to shout and scream in Punk’s face. This choice cost him his title after Punk suckered punched him and allowed Damian Priest to cash in his Money in the Bank contract on him. At the Money in the Bank event, McIntyre won the MITB contract himself and intended to cash it in on Damian Priest and Seth Rollins to get back the title that was stolen from him. This wasn’t going to happen with CM Punk around. Once again costing Drew a championship. This is what lead Seth Rollins to be involved as the special guest referee.
During the match, Seth tried his best to be an unbiased official, however after Drew managed to cheat, Punk took it as a personal attack from Seth. Punk shouted in Seth’s face which was unsurprisingly reciprocated. Punk’s focus was taken away from the Scottish Warrior, a mistake he would quickly regret after his head got kicked off from a Claymore Kick. Drew McIntyre defeated Punk and still holds the bracelet he stole from Punk with his wife’s name on it.
Cleveland Screwjob Part 2
Turmoil in the Judgement Day continued, Damian Priest was set to defend his World Heavyweight Championship against the King of the Ring Gunther. After a historic reign as Intercontinental Champion Gunther was set for even greater heights. Bubbling under the surface in the Judgement Day was Finn Balor and Damian not being on the same page. When Dominick turned on Rhea earlier in the night, Damian accused Finn of knowing that it was going to happen. Even after an apology, it’s possible the damage was already done.
When Damain and Gunther collided it was what Jim Ross would call a slobberknocker! The two giants slapped, clubbed, chopped and tossed each other all over the ring. Finn appeared in the last few minutes of the match and saved Gunther from losing by putting his foot on the rope which nullified the pinfall. Damian was livid, no longer able to focus on the match he reached out to Finn and gripped him by the neck. Gunther yanked Damian back into the ring into a sleeper hold for the victory.
Original Tribal Chief Comes Home
The main event of Summer Slam was Bloodline Rules, The self proclaimed Tribal Chief Solo Sikoa challenged WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. Cody and Solo have been at each other’s throats for months now. Solo has forged an entirely new Bloodline after cutting out anyone still aligned with Roman. It’s been about four months sine Roman was last seen on WWE TV. The WWE audience has been clamoring for the OTC’s return, especially after Paul Heyman refused to acknowledge Solo as the new tribal Chief.
In typical Bloodline Rules several people joined the fray, each member of the Bloodline and Kevin Owens and Randy Orton. What finally gave Cody the victory was Roman Reign’s spearing Solo Sikoa in half. Cody retained the WWE title. The show went off the air with Roman conflicted after having to help his former enemy and screwing over his own family.
The landscape of WWE has had a major shift in Cleveland with new champions across the board. The Judgement Day is in shambles. Both the King and the Queen of the Ring are now World Champions. WWE’s next PLE will be in Berlin Germany for BASH IN BERLIN, where I’m sure they look to break even more records.