Summerslam Night 2: The Farewell Tour hits a Roadb(r)ock:

For the first time, WWE over the weekend hosted a 2 Night Summerslam. My previous article covered all of Night 1, so this article will cover Night 2. Again, the card consisted of 6 matches (this time with no Money in the Bank briefcases left in play to create a technical 7th match), but Sunday’s card was definitely more stacked than Saturday’s in comparison, considering the matches that were chosen for Sunday (likely as tickets were more expensive for Sunday than they were Saturday so it would make sense to tip the scales towards Sunday’s show having the better card.

Opening the show, was a Triple Threat match for the Women’s World Championship that saw Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky looking to reclaim the title from Naomi following the cash in of her Money in the Bank briefcase during the main event of Evolution to snatch the World Championship under both Iyo and Rhea’s noses. Considering the 2 night show, natural comparisons will be drawn to Wrestlemania 41, and much like Night 2 of Wrestlemania 41, the women opened the show with a Triple Threat that will likely be in the conversations for Match of the Year come Christmas (only difference being Naomi is the third participant here, where Bianca Belair was the third at Mania). All 3 women came close to scoring a victory on several occasions, but there was always the third person to break up an attempted pinfall. The match finally ended when Rhea Ripley hit an Avalanche Riptide on Iyo Sky, but before Rhea could get the pin, Naomi quickly slid in and rolled up Ripley to again steal the match and escape clutching the title by the skin of her teeth, which when combined with the fact that her father was able to play her down to the ring during her entrance, completed a great night for Naomi.

Second was the TLC match for the Smackdown Tag Championships where The Wyatt Sicks were looking to defend the titles against DIY, Fraxiom, The Street Profits, Rey Fenix/Andrade &  Motor City Machine Guns. Again going back to Wrestlemania, fans at the time were bewildered that the Smackdown Tag Division was left off of Wrestlemania for the far less popular Raw Tag Division, this criticism was heightened when the Smackdown after WrestleMania the Smackdown teams had another TLC match which people were calling Match of the Year, debating if it had dethroned the Wrestlemania 17 TLC match between The Dudley Boyz, Hardy Boyz & Edge/Christian as the best TLC match of all time, and many saying this one match had outshone most, if not every match actually on Wrestlemania. So people were already expecting this TLC match would be incredible and likely the best match on Summerslam.

Yet somehow, the Smackdown Tag Division saw these already high expectations and outdid the previous TLC match and exceeded the already high expectations people had of this match. As would be expected of any TLC match, let alone a TLC match with 12 participants (then also including interferences from Candice Leray, B-Fab & Uncle Howdy/Erick Rowan & Nikki Cross) the match was total chaos from start to finish, people were slammed onto ladders, through tables, Candace Leray went through a ladder, Tommaso Ciampa became Spiderman for a bit hanging upside down from the titles held above the ring to dodge an attempted spear, there were bodies strewn everywhere. When all was said and done, a Rey Fenix attempt to unhook the belts was thwarted by Dexter Lumis & Joe Gacy, before they cleared what little of the field was left and Gacy unhooked the titles to secure the win for The Wyatt Sicks in a match that again many (including myself) are calling Match of the Year and in my own opinion has beaten Wrestlemania 17 to become the best TLC match of all time.

Any match would have been in the worst position imaginable to follow the TLC match, and the No Disqualification/Countout match between Becky Lynch & Lyra Valkyria for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship had the unfortunate task of being the follow up. As well as the previously mentioned stipulation, this match had the added condition that should Lyra lose, she’d be barred from challenging for the Women’s IC Championship again for as long as Becky remained the champion. Both women took full advantage of the stipulation utilizing chairs, kendo sticks, steel steps and whatever other weapons they could get their hands on to get a definitive victory and claim the crown of best Irish woman in WWE. And Lyra didn’t even let being bound with zipties for a good chunk of the match affect her that much, giving everything to try and reclaim her title. Ultimately the match came down to Bayley interfering to prevent Becky attacking Valkyria with a crowbar as payback for assaulting her and stealing her spot at Wrestlemania. But then, an attempted strike with a chain from Bayley struck Valkyria instead by accident allowing Becky to hit another Manhandle Slam to score the victory and retain her title through the accidental assist from her fellow Horsewoman.

Continuing the streak of stipulation matches, it was then time for a Steel Cage match between Jacob Fatu & Solo Sikoa for the United States Championship. Despite taking 2 top rope moonsaults from Fatu, Solo was able to stay in the match long enough for MFT to yet again come down to the ring to try and turn the odds in Solo’s favour (despite the cage making this more difficult than usual). Jimmy Uso attempting to stop this was quickly taken out by Talla Tonga, Talla then continued to be MFT’s MVP by managing to handcuff Fatu to the cage while he was distracted with Tonga Loa & J.C. Mateo. But Jacob Fatu of course is a monster and was able to quickly snap the chain of the handcuffs barely having to break a sweat to go try and prevent Solo from escaping through the cage door, this struggle was eventually ended when Talla Tonga again proved to be the most capable member of MFT, booting the cage door into Jacob Fatu’s head, taking him down long enough for Solo to fully escape the cage & retain the title. But again, Fatu’s a monster so he quickly got back up, attacked Tonga Loa/J.C. Mateo for a bit longer before then hitting a moonsault off the top of the cage because nothing is off limits for Jacob Fatu, you could probably tase him and he’d shrug it off more annoyed than hurt. But Solo of course still retained his title and escaped the wrath of Jacob Fatu yet again. 

Penultimately we got a match that turned out to be a massive greatest hits/tribute to Eddie Guerrero as Dominik Mysterio defended his Intercontinental Championship against AJ Styles, 20 years after Eddie Guerrero & Rey Mysterio fought for custody of Dominik in a ladder match at Summerslam 2005 (I’m not joking, that actually happened). Dominik’s history with Eddie doesn’t need to be mentioned & AJ Styles came out in a very Eddie like lowrider and his gear was clearly also a tribute to the late Hall of Famer. The first Eddie spot came when Dominik tried the old reliable trick of hitting the ring with a steel chair while the ref’s back is turned, before quickly passing the chair to AJ and laying down, hoping the ref would turn around, see the chair and call a DQ assuming AJ had struck Dominik with the chair. However AJ thought fast, placed the chair over his head and also laid down, so when the ref turned around there was no indication of who’d *allegedly* hit who. So the match continued, and ultimately ended with another Eddie tribute as while in the Calf Crusher, Dominik Mysterio had seconds earlier unzipped his boot so the boot ended up coming off all-together, allowing Dom to escape the submission, strike AJ with the boot while the ref was again distracted and then hit a Frog Splash to retain the IC Championship with Eddie no doubt smiling looking down on the son of one of his closest friends, but not his actual son as Rey Mysterio won that ladder match I mentioned earlier.

And the final match of the weekend saw Cody Rhodes competing in a Street Fight for the Undisputed WWE Championship against not just John Cena, but the REAL John Cena. As on the Smackdown before Summerslam, Cena officially saw the light and realised the error of his ways over the last few months after the people at his side abandoned him after he turned (a not so subtle jab at The Rock/Travis Scott). So this match we truly had John Cena back, sprint down the ramp, talking with Stu & everything. But this was still a street fight, so both Cena & Cody still were happy to use whatever weapons they could get their hands on for the title. Cena wanting to retain so he could still retire with the belt, but not to ruin wrestling as he initially claimed but simply as he doesn’t want us to forget about him after he’s gone (as if that would ever happen).

Both men gave everything they had, and both men would not stay down, no Attitude Adjustment would defeat the American Nightmare, no Cross Rhodes would topple Super Cena. The announce table was broken with an Attitude Adjustment, the two fought through the crowd, by the ramp, *under the ramp* (leading to an incredible shot of Cena emerging from the elevator Cody had used in his entrance ready for another attitude adjustment. Cody even unhooked the bottom rope altogether using that as a weapon, Cena then turned it around on Cody using the rope as extra pressure for the STFU. Cody went to use the title as a weapon, where he refused at Wrestlemania but Cena countered again, refusing to use it himself like he had so many times since Wrestlemania, instead hitting an Avalanche AA, but again Cody refused to stay down. Ultimately, a Cody Cutter off the top rope through a table, and one more Cross Rhodes (I think the fifth total in the match), finally allowed Cody to score the pinfall and reclaim his Kingdom. And Cena willingly handed the title to Cody as the two embraced with Cena *officially* passing his torch to Cody as the face of the company.

But then, in a twist I don’t think anyone could have seen coming, Cena’s post match showing of gratitude was interrupted by the return of Brock Lesnar, who went to the ring and hit Cena with an F5 to close the show. Prior to this, Lesnar hadn’t been seen in WWE for 2 years where he’d last lost to Cody Rhodes at Summerslam 2023, this of course being because Lesnar was all but directly named as part of the (still ongoing) lawsuit against Vince McMahon & WWE by former WWE employee Janel Grant accusing McMahon of various instances of sexual assault, among other horrific acts. Among the accusations was a claim that Vince had offered Grant to “a world-famous athlete and former UFC Heavyweight Champion with whom WWE was actively trying to sign to a new contract.” And while he wasn’t named at the time (and not named in the lawsuit officially until January of this year), the timeline of events meant Lesnar was the only person that lined up as the unnamed individual. 

As you can imagine, this return has immediately proven extremely divisive for fans, one group thrilled that Lesnar has returned and the other highly critical of WWE’s decision to bring back Lasnar considering the serious allegations levied against him (despite him not being a specific target of the lawsuit). This is a highly volatile situation for good reason, made worse by WWE’s announcement they were ending the traditional post show press conferences the DAY before Lesnar’s return. In the last 12 or so hours since Lesnar’s return I’ve slept/thought on it, and the conclusion I’ve come to is that if Lesnar has returned, I’d imagine TKO would not have approved a return unless they were triply sure nothing that comes from whatever outcome the lawsuit comes to will affect/charge Lesnar directly. Because TKO clearly cares a LOT about the sponsors/sponsorships (remember they ousted Vince within hours of Slim Jim threatening to pull their sponsorship of the company). Regardless, the coming weeks will no doubt clarify where everyone stands on Lesnar and where this decision stands on the scale of controversial to some to complete moral bankruptcy from WWE/TKO if the things Brock is claimed to have done are true.

Whatever happens with Lesnar, that shouldn’t take away from the fact that Night 2 of Summerslam was a rousing success. And as a result, the first 2 Night Summerslam if anything outperformed Wrestlemania in terms of show quality. All the superstars involved should be proud of the incredible show they all put on, and I’d imagine after the success of the show (even past next year already being confirmed) that 2 Night Summerslam’s are here to stay.