Ranking the WWE Summer Slam 2024: Marquee event has a few new champs in the house

Summer Slam was the third Main Event started by WWE (then WWF), after Wrestlemania and Survivor Series. The first one came out in 1988. Royal Rumble began in 1989, and these four still remain WWE’s consistent premier events of the year. This year it started at a huge disadvantage – A two-day Wrestlemania that still continues to be talked about even now. Will it come out of big brother’s shadow?

Here we rank all that played out over the weekend at Summer Slam 2024

Liv Morgan vs Rhea Ripley -Women’s World Championship

Rhea Ripley is out for revenge. She had had to give up her title supposedly as a result of Liv Morgan’s backstage shenanigans. Liv became champion and Rhea wants her belt back.

Rhea was a breath of fresh air with her goth look, feet firmly planted in the grey area of storylines and excellent physical prowess. Live, on the other hand, had very little going for her except aping Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and an irritating shriek. So, the writers started giving her more drama to play out of the ring, the latest being flirting with Rhea’s boy toy Dominik Mysterio.

The match started silly as one expected, but as time went on, I became obvious that Liv did have some wrestling chops and she held her on against Mami. Her sustained attack on Rhea’s injured shoulder was smart and calculated. It led to one of the wow moments of the day, when the latter intentionally slammed her shoulder against the announcer’s table and then proceeded to pull it back into socket. Then, the writers spoilt it by making her do it again. Idiots!

The match ended with Dominik interfering and letting Liv keep her title. And, in front of a shocked Mami, he proceeded to give a lingering kiss to the new champion. I like Dominik. He is never going to be a big name like his father. He doesn’t have the physical attributes for it. But, if WWE gives him smart heel activities, then he can get out of the nepotism complaints he always gets. He is a much better actor than most. Hollywood should take notice.

Rating: B

Sami Zayn vs Bron Breakker – Intercontinental Championship

Talking of Nepo babies, here’s another. The stupidly-monikered Bron Breakker is the son of Rick Steiner and nephew of ‘Big Poppa Pump’ Scott Steiner. You would definitely have seen the latter, even if the name is not familiar. He is the guy with the platinum blonde goatee who made a habit of kissing his biceps, which were unnatural bulged.

Sammy had his own redemption arc which culminated in him winning the title in Wrestlemania earlier in the year. Bron’s challenge in the Money in the Bank event didn’t come to much, as Sammy retained the title. It is very unusual that the same opponents would clash so soon. But I have been saying that Sammy aged very badly and he could only headline events so far, before the crowd became tired. Young Bron was chosen to be the giant slayer. Only that it was not so much of a giant and it was more of an annihilation. I really doubt if we are going to see much more of Sami in the coming months.

Rating: C

Logan Paul vs LA Knight – WWE United States Championship

It was dubbed Megastar vs Social Media Superstar. Two guys with the ‘It’ factor that made them a hit with the audiences. LA Knight is just a good-looking, fit wrestler, who looks way less than his 41 years. Yet, I can’t dismiss him as such. There is something likeable about his personality that WWE was able to tap and blow up into such a big success in a short time. On the other hand, Logan was a superstar in social media before he ventured into wrestling. But it is still surprising how he dedicated he was to this discipline and how many how many risky maneuvers he was willing to put his body through.

Though there were some really eye-catching moves, one got the feeling this was a very muted Logan paul. He looked like he had been in a fight just before this. The knuckles given to Logan by his ringside friend, rapper Machine Gun Kelly, didn’t have their desired effect and LA Knight took over the title.

Rating: B-

Bayley vs Nia Jaz – WWE Women’s Championship

Bayley entered the Royal Rumble this year at number three and proceeded to outlast everyone else. This got her a title shot against Ivo Sky at Wrestlemania, which she promptly won. Nia was the surprising winner of the Queen of the Ring tournament. The two had to clash.

The size difference between Nia and pretty much everyone else in the Women’s Division is huge. Every time she lost to someone, we had to take a huge bite of the disbelief cake. But, as we saw in Queen of the Ring, Paul Levesque aka Triple H was quite willing to trod the unfamiliar road. Bayley could hold out so long. To avoid embarrassment, there was a brief interlude when Money-in-the-Bank winner and Nia’s friend Tiffany Stratton rushed to the ring and pretended to be ready to cash in. A distracted Bayley couldn’t handle Nia’s finishing moves and we had a new champion.

Rating: B-

CM Punk vs Drew McIntyre

The biggest surprise of Wrestlemania was the first match of Day 2. Drew McIntyre beat Seth Rollins and showed off in front of CM Punk, who was at the announcer’s table. Punk knocked him down with his arm guard. Before Drew could get his bearings, Money-in-the-Bank winner Damien Priest cashed in his suitcase for a shot at the title. McIntyre’s reign was over in a matter of minutes. When the two clashed again at Clash at the Castle, Punk spoilt the Scotsman’s homecoming in front of his countrymen. Drew retaliated by stealing a friendship band that had the names of Punk’s wife and his dog. Only in America would people believe this plotline!

The special guest referee for the match turned out to be Rollins. For the only non-title match of the day, this did have a lot of star power. Rollins seemed quite content to let his two rivals duke it out. He stepped in when chairs got involved, but for most part was content to actually referee. The stupid bracelet turned out to be the game-changer and Drew got his revenge and Punk again lost his bracelet.

Rating: C

Damian Priest vs Gunther – World Heavyweight Championship

WWE is firmly team Gunther. Even his loss after 666 days of holding the Intercontinental Championship was because they wanted the Austrian in the big league. Damian Priest has the chops to be a legitimate champion, but does he have the charisma to warrant remaining that for long? We are about to find out.

Gunther has long been bandied around as one of the pure wrestlers in WWE. Damian had to bring his A-game to keep us. WWE pulled off a double bluff, by announcing the telecast of a Damian Priest documentary the day after the event. It seemed like they outed the result of the match before it happened.

We earlier saw the Judgement Day group facing a fissure with Dominik and Rhea going separate ways. It became a legitimate crater when Finn Balor intervened and ensured that Gunther won the title. The Ring General’s new reign has begun. Let’s hope Priest doesn’t end up as a footnote. Technically, this was the best of the matches. The Balor interference took the sheen off somewhat.

Rating: A-

Cody Rhodes vs Solo Sikoa – Undisputed WWE Championship

There were two losers in this match.

After the events of Wrestlemania, Roman Reigns retreated into a shell, the Rock went back to acting and Cody Rhodes started living out his epilogue, now that his story was complete. With Roman gone, Solo Sikoa took charge and anointed himself the new Tribal Chief and head of bloodline. He got his gang of sidekicks – Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa and his own cousin Jacob Fatu. For the unfamiliar, Solo is the younger brother of the Uzos – Jey and Jimmy. WWE had a lot of success with the Bloodline rules match in Wrestlemania. It was not going to be a stretch; they would want to see how long they could squeeze that golden goose.

There was a long-drawn-out entrance for Cody. All the way from his trailer. There was a fan carrying a poster with ‘Overrated’ written on it. The cameramen tried their best, but they couldn’t focus on Cody without having that in the background. But, feeding off the adulation of his fans, Cody entered,

The match itself was surprising. Solo Sikoa was never going to be the person that took the title away from Cody Rhodes. But no one seems to have told him that. He came at Cody with everything he had. Considering that he was much more powerful than the champion, that was quite a bit. He was also wrestling smartly. Which meant he anticipated a lot of Cody’s moves, and reacted to them in a way that the audience figured out what he was doing.

Towards the latter half of the match, there was at least one instance when you could clearly see the referee pause between the second and third counts to enable Cody to kick out. It was getting worrisome that when the Bloodline’s interference came, it was quite welcome. Initially it was Tama and Tanga. As expected, the music went on and Kevin Owens ran in. It was a long run, and Owens is not Tom Cruise. The awkward phase finally ended and he reached the ring. But two against three isn’t going to be fine for long. The Bloodline started getting the high hand when the music came out again. It was Randy Orton’s chance to jog to the ring. Normal service resumed and there was a count that Solo somehow kicked out of.

Owens and Orton then chased the two outsiders out of the ring. The combatants were back at it. In no time, Jacob Fatu made an entrance. A very violent one. He almost decimated Cody. But people were not exactly paying attention. They knew the music was going to play. But whose? Summer Slam would succeed based on how that person was received by the audience.

The music played. The crowd went bonkers. There has consistently been online chatter for years about favouritism in the WWE. How they put all their eggs in one basket and never gave others a chance. How that basket was not very talented or charismatic. But WWE still stuck to their plans. If today’s reception was even a smidgeon of an indication, then they definitely know what they had. The man who walked out to rapturous adulation was Roman Reigns.

Roman was arguably miffed about Solo trying to take over his position at the Head of the Table of the Bloodline. Not one person believed he was going to attack Cody. A Superman punch and a spear later, Solo Sikoa was ready to be history. Cross-Rhodes by Cody and it was game over. All that was pending was the look between Rhodes and Reigns. That wasn’t disappointing.

There were two losers in today’s match. Sikoa lost the match, but held his head high. Between the placards and the almost-count-out and the reaction to Reigns entry, Cody lost. He didn’t seem to be the most important person in the story anymore.