As a service to fans who have a general interest in WWE but might not have watched a match in months, we're happy to provide this FAQ as a guide to SummerSlam at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Saturday and Sunday.
Wait, SummerSlam is now a two-night event? Is everything getting WrestleMania-sized?
The WWE listens to the Universe, and apparently the Universe said it was willing to fill MetLife Stadium with over 45,000 fans twice in the same weekend to watch professional athletes lose painfully. So they're basically now honorary Jets and Giants fans.
This is the first two-night SummerSlam, and next year's event in Minneapolis will be a two-nighter as well. It makes sense: No other WWE event besides WrestleMania gets the kind of build that SummerSlam does. There's even a special celebrity host: Cardi B, who once name-checked Eddie Guerrero in a song and thus earned a lifetime membership wrestling cred card.
This year's event is notable for another reason: It's the final SummerSlam for John Cena as an in-ring performer, as the undisputed WWE champion once again faces Cody Rhodes, this time in a street fight. (Can one even have a street fight at MetLife? Would it be a Parking Lot Punch-Up? Turnpike Tussle? Route 1 Ruckus?)
John Cena still has the championship? At his age?
The clock is ticking on Cena's retirement tour. Will he retire as a heel champion, or can Rhodes (or someone else) take the title from Cena before he departs?
Please recall that Cena won the title from Rhodes in April at WrestleMania 41 thanks to a low blow, a belt shot and interference from The Rock's emissary, rapper Travis Scott, whose name we doth not speaketh of any longer. That gave Cena his record 17th world championship. Since then, he has won matches against Randy Orton in May and CM Punk in June thanks to outside interference, defeated fan favorite R-Truth a couple times and tagged with the detestable Logan Paul in a loss to Rhodes and Jey Uso at Money in the Bank.
Rhodes won the King of the Ring tournament in June to secure a title shot against Cena at SummerSlam. But in a show of heel cowardice and corporate synergy, Cena claimed at the "official contract signing" that he was unable to defend the title because he was filming a movie for Netflix and too exhausted. This went over about as well as you might expect with Rhodes, who beat Cena unconscious, put the pen in his hand and scribbled on the dotted line.
Look, we're no contract lawyers, but ...
Rhodes revealed that Cena didn't sign up just for a title rematch but for a street fight, which is great news for fans of the subgenre "Cody Rhodes getting whipped with his own belt until there are visible welts."
What about the WWE world championship?
That belongs to the Ring General, Gunther, who regained the title from Jey Uso in June after seeing his 258-day reign ended by the master of "YEET!" at WrestleMania. He's facing CM Punk here, who is saying things like "I don't want to win the WWE world championship ... I NEED to win the WWE world championship," as he has not won a major title since returning to WWE in 2023.
If you believe in the betting odds, Punk is favored to win here. Keep an eye on where this match lands on the Night One card -- if it's the main event, it could be Punk's "SummerSlam Moment."
Fun fact: Courtesy of the new "WWE: Unreal" docuseries, which pulls back the curtain on the writing process, we know that Gunther vs. Punk was part of the preliminary plans for WrestleMania 41. Instead of that showdown, Gunther dropped the belt to Jey Uso and Punk lost in that triple threat match that saw Paul Heyman double-turn on Punk and Roman Reigns to align with Seth Rollins -- who is out of action long-term (or so he says) with a knee injury suffered in July.
Without Seth Rollins on the card, what's Paul Heyman up to at SummerSlam?
The Wise Man-turned-The Oracle debuted his new faction of Rollins and Bron Breakker at WrestleMania and has since added Bronson Reed to the group. But there is still that little matter of having double-crossed Roman Reigns with a blindside crotch-shot that handed Rollins the match at 'Mania and formally ended the extremely successful partnership between Heyman and Reigns that tracks back to the beginnings of The Bloodline.
After missing a few months, Reigns returned emphatically to Raw last month during a beatdown by Breakker and Reed on Punk and Jey Uso, who called a long-awaited truce with Jey after he made the save. They're tagging together at SummerSlam against Breakker and Reed, as the Original Tribal Chief (or the "OTC" if you're into the whole brevity thing) seeks vengeance on Heyman.
Considering their history, one has to wonder what the relationship is really like between Reigns and Jey. And considering that Heyman is a master manipulator, already planting seeds of doubt about Roman's intentions with Jey this week.
Speaking of The Bloodline, what's the rest of the extended family doing at SummerSlam?
Two of them are facing each other in a solid steel cage! United States champion Solo Sikoa, son of Rikishi, will battle Jacob Fatu, nephew of Rikishi and the former champ. Fatu turned on Sikoa and the reconfigured Bloodline -- which now features JC Mateo (né Jeff Cobb), Tonga Loa and Talla Tonga (né Hikuleo) -- at Money in the Bank, but Sikoa took the title from him less than a month later at Night of Champions thanks to interference from Fatu's former Bloodline brethren. Hence the steel cage, a time-tested way to GUARANTEE that there will be no outside inference in the match, provided no one figures out how to open a door or climb things.
To ramp up the drama for a match that didn't really need this much of a hard sell, Sikoa was recently "arrested" by San Antonio police officers (that conspicuously acted like WWE enhancement talent) for framing Fatu by staging a car crash and making it look like ... again, sometimes we don't need to do this much. Sometimes it's OK to have two relatives who hate each other, and they're going to get violent inside a confined space. Thanksgiving for me and you. A SummerSlam steel cage match for Sikoa and Fatu.
What's going on with the WWE's other longstanding faction, The Judgement Day?
"Dirty Dom" Mysterio, the reigning Intercontinental champion since WrestleMania, has been having some fun lately. He made a shocking appearance at Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide in Mexico last week in perhaps the first run-in by someone wearing a Tony Gwynn jersey. But mostly, it has been fun to see him dutifully avoid wrestling AJ Styles, who has been chasing him and the IC title for a few months.
Dom was carrying around a "doctor's note" that forbade Styles from touching him in any manner until he was "medically cleared," which led to Styles finding alternative ways to harass him, like sending a threatening message on a cake to the locker room. Finally, Dom was cleared by WWE doctors ... and immediately attacked Styles. Great chicken-you-know-what behavior from one of the masters of the artform. Dom knows how to build what might otherwise be a pedestrian mid-card match into one of the more highly anticipated bouts at SummerSlam.
Meanwhile, The Judgement Day's other title holders, WWE women's tag-team champs Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez, are facing Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss. Flair and Bliss are fun, having turned the ol' mismatched rivals "but can they coexist!" tag-team trope on its head by embracing the idea that "we're not friends" -- right down to wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan. Meanwhile, they're delighting fans by acting like they might actually end up besties. Alexa found a way to get Charlotte cheered again. That's an achievement unto itself.
If Charlotte Flair isn't wrestling for a women's singles championship at SummerSlam, who is?
The reigning champs are Tiffany Stratton (SmackDown's WWE women's champion) and Naomi (Raw women's world champion), and both face serious challenges this weekend.
It's only a matter of time until Jade Cargill holds a WWE championship. She earned this shot against Stratton by defeating Asuka in the Queen of the Ring finals at Night of Champions. Stratton has held the title since Jan. 3 and successfully defended it against Flair and Trish Stratus. But this feels like a changing of the guard moment here.
Naomi lost to Cargill in a no holds barred match at Evolution, which ended their feud, but then shocked fans by cashing in her Money in the Bank contract to make the main event between champion Iyo Sky and Rhea Ripley into an impromptu triple-threat. Naomi pinned Sky and won the title for the first time since 2017.
Ripley, Sky and Naomi are running it back at SummerSlam for the championship. Both contenders believe Naomi is holding a belt that's rightfully theirs. Naomi is looking to get the kind of statement win that could keep the belt around her waist for a long time. Raw general manager Adam Pearce said this trio might "blow the proverbial roof off" of MetLife Stadium, which does not have a roof to blow off except in proverb.
But there's another women's match between two Irish lasses that could also do some damage to that proverbial roof.
Is this where Lyra Valkyria takes it to another level against Becky Lynch?
Valkyria is an interesting place. She's great in the ring. She's ... well, she sometimes speaks into a microphone. But if we're being honest, there's just something missing here. Perhaps it's a bit of a violent edge, which she could display in this showdown against The Man, her former tag-team partner.
Valkyria was the first WWE women's Intercontinental champion. She successfully defended the title against Lynch at Backlash but lost the IC belt at Money in the Bank to Lynch. The stipulation on that match was that Becky could never challenge for the Intercontinental Championship again as long as Valkyria was the champion. My, how the tables have turned. At SummerSlam, there are three stipulations on the match: No count-outs, no disqualifications and if Valkyria loses, she can never challenge for the IC title again as long as Lynch is the champion.
These two put on arguably the best match at Evolution in a triple-threat with Bayley earlier in July. Now it's one-on-one, title on the line and anything goes. Lynch already tried to introduce Valkyria to her kendo stick on Raw, only to have it slapped against her back several times instead. It was a different side of Valkyria and perhaps the one we needed to see.
Wow, that is quite a lot of matches. Certainly, that's enough chaos for two days of wrestling action.
Oh, there's always room for more chaos. For example, Sami Zayn is facing Karrion Kross, who has become ... the Joker?
Remember how Heath Ledger's Clown Prince of Crime was always trying to get Batman to admit that he was a big phony who was just as flawed and broken as the criminals he was chasing? That's sorta what they're going for here with Kross and Zayn: If Sami loses at SummerSlam, he has to admit that "Kross told the truth" after months of harassment. We're not sure if Sami acting more annoyed than menaced in this storyline is a feature or a bug.
From an agent of chaos to absolute chaos: It's a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match featuring six tag teams vying for the WWE championships!
Please recall that the TLC match officially made its debut at SummerSlam 2000, with Edge and Christian defeating The Dudley Boyz and The Hardy Boyz. The 25th anniversary of that match is celebrated with "the largest field ever assembled for a TLC Match," featuring:
• The Wyatt Sicks, the reigning champions, with Dexter Lumis and Joe Gacy representing the creepy faction.
• The Street Profits (Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins)
• The Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley)
• #DIY (Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa)
• Fraxiom (Nathan Frazier and Axiom)
• Andrade & Rey Fenix (Andrade & Rey Fenix, obviously)
The WWE has been judicious in booking TLC matches, keeping them rare and somewhat special on Premium Live Events. In fact, SummerSlam hasn't had one since 2009, and that was a singles match between CM Punk and Jeff Hardy. The SmackDown tag-team division is deep with the kind of high-flying spot-fest wrestlers that this match demands. This is going to be a blast -- and not just when someone inevitably falls off a giant ladder into a collection of tables meticulously placed for maximum breakage.
This might seem like enough tag-team wrestling to satisfy anyone's craving at SummerSlam. But what if that craving includes Jelly Roll?
Jelly Roll is wrestling at SummerSlam?
Jelly Roll is wrestling at SummerSlam.
Hasn't the WWE earned your trust with celebrity guest wrestlers? Were you not entertained by Bad Bunny, Logan Paul, Stephen Amell and Johnny Knoxville? Has Travis Scott's inability to throw a worked punch at Cody Rhodes totally shaken your faith in famous people being able to execute a basic match after weeks of intense training in Orlando, Florida?
First off, he's Jelly Roll in name only these days. The singer said he's dropped nearly 200 pounds thanks to changes in his lifestyle. So how did he get included on SummerSlam? Like so many other things in life, his motivation stems from getting really irritated by Logan Paul.
How did Jelly Roll end up in a feud with Logan Paul, other than Paul existing?
Mr. Roll was performing a song at a Nashville edition of SmackDown when Paul came to the ring and started complaining about "celebrities, personalities and influencers ... coming into our industry, leeching off of our success, on a platform that we have built." (I mean, is this guy great at this stuff or what?)
Randy Orton emerged from the back to defend the honor of Jelly Roll, only to get jumped by Paul. After some brief contemplation, Jelly Roll -- whose in-ring aesthetics suggested The Undertaker being cosplayed by Silent Bob -- ran over, grabbed Paul and threw him to the mat.
Jelly Roll was in Orton's corner at Saturday Night's Main Event as he faced Drew McIntyre, who had Paul with him. As Jelly and Logan got into it again, Orton RKO'd a distracted McIntyre for the win. This did not make the big Scotsman happy, and he delivered a Claymore Kick that nearly knocked the jelly out of the Roll.
Fast forward to "Jimmy Kimmel Live," where Jelly Roll was the guest host and Orton was his guest. Clearly, no one's learned from Jay Leno vs. the nWo: Book one side of the feud on the late-night talk show and the other side of the feud's showing up eventually. Cue McIntyre, delivering some scathingly funny lines before brawling with Orton. Cue Paul, attempting to take over the show before Jelly Roll delivered a not-bad-at-all chokeslam through Kimmel's desk. (Now do Fallon!)
Orton and Jelly later interrupted a Paul segment on SmackDown, as the singer hit a "Boss Man Slam" on the Vine star-turned-mega-heel and continued to escalate their feud.
Look, Jelly Roll might not be your flavor of pastry, even if he's a lifelong WWE fan dropping Disciples of Apocalypse references with Pat McAfee. Maybe celebrity tag matches aren't why you're dedicating two August evenings to wrestling.
But that's the joy of a two-night SummerSlam: a little something for everyone, whether you're there for big title changes or blood feuds or chaotic free-for-alls or seeing Logan Paul choke-slammed through another table. And really, is there anything that unites us all more than seeing Logan Paul choke-slammed through another table?