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WWE SummerSlam (2023) -- Results & Afterthoughts

SummerSlam (2023) was the 36th annual SummerSlam professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event took place on Saturday, August 5, 2023, at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan, returning the event to its traditional August slot after the previous year's event was held in July. This was the first SummerSlam to be livestreamed on Binge in Australia. It also marked the first time a WWE event was held at Ford Field since WrestleMania 23 in April 2007, and the first SummerSlam to be held in Michigan since the 1993 event.

Nine matches were contested at the event, with four promoted as main event matches. In the final match of the night, which was one of SmackDown's two main matches, Roman Reigns defeated Jey Uso in Tribal Combat to retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship and recognition of Tribal Chief of the Anoa'i family. For SmackDown's other main match, Bianca Belair defeated defending champion Asuka and Charlotte Flair in a triple threat match to win the WWE Women's Championship, after which, Iyo Sky cashed in her Money in the Bank contract and defeated Belair to win the title. For Raw's two main matches, Seth "Freakin" Rollins defeated Finn Bálor to retain the World Heavyweight Championship and Cody Rhodes defeated Brock Lesnar. In other prominent matches, Gunther defeated Drew McIntyre to retain Raw's Intercontinental Championship, and in the opening bout, Logan Paul defeated Ricochet.

According to WWE, this was the highest-grossing SummerSlam of all time, as well as the company's highest-grossing event outside of WrestleMania. The event also had a reported attendance of 59,194. This number has been disputed, with an actual paid attendance of 51,477, but still giving it the second-largest crowd in SummerSlam history, after the 1992 event.

Match Results:

Singles Match

Logan Paul defeated Ricochet by pinfall

An excellent opener for this PLE/premium live event. Whatever they are paying Logan Paul isn't nearly enough for what this dude is giving them in return for how well he has been soaking up wrestling like a sponge in this short amount of time. What I loved about this the most was that it was a "flippy shit" match, but it had a goddamn story and both men took the time to sell each other's offense so it meant something instead of both guys popping up mere seconds after being hit with big move after big move to the point where nothing means anything and the audience doesn't have time to register/process anything. Sure, it all looks cool, but you won't remember it by the time the next "flippy shit" match comes around throughout the week in every other wrestling promotion.

I had to tip my hat to WWE for acknowledging ring announcer Samantha Irvin and Ricochet's real life relationship for Logan Paul could garner some heel heat by taunting her throughout this match. Just great stuff from bell to bell in this match by both men. I don't want to sell Ricochet short either as I thought he definitely held up his end of the bargain when it came to this match. This loss isn't going to hurt Ricochet at all.

I had totally forgotten about Paul's victory over The Miz, so this marks his second singles victory since joining WWE. Still, it feels like he's been around this long and in so many high profile matches that it feels like he never wins anything despite putting on these amazing in-ring performances, so I was glad to see him pick up a win over Ricochet. I wouldn't see a problem with them running this back if they wanted to make a series out of this.

Singles Match

Cody Rhodes defeated Brock Lesnar by pinfall

This was easily the match of the night without a shadow of a doubt. Brock gave Cody a convincing beating that I'm sure most will be talking about for months on end that didn't end with Cody popping right back up, hitting the "five moves of doom" and picking up the win without a problem like "Super" Cena during the height of his stardom. No, Cody's selling here was phenomenonal and believable. I found myself wondering several times throughout this match that Cody was going to be jobbed out like John Cena was within the span of 16 seconds by Brock at SummerSlam 2014.

Fortunately, Cody Rhodes wasn't done dirty like that and actually picked up a clean victory over Lesnar. It took Cody a Kimura Lock and 3-consecutive Cross Rhodes to do it, but he got the job done.

The post-match was even more surprising when Brock stripped off his gloves and shook Cody's hand to personally endorse him after it was all said and done. I was convinced that Brock was ready to shoot on Cody and leave him a bloody mess once the gloves came off. (Laughs) I was having flashbacks to Brock busting Randy Orton open hard way and leaving him a bloody mess at SummerSlam 2016.

25-man Slim Jim SummerSlam Battle Royal

LA Knight won by last eliminating Sheamus

The right man won this match but holy cow, this match was full of guys that I honestly forgot still worked for this company.

(Laughs) If Karrion Kross' hair gets any longer then Vince is going to start booking him and Scarlett as the new iteration of Chuck Palumbo and Michelle McCool. Dude looks so odd with hair again.

It's so weird to see guys like Sheamus, AJ Styles, and others in a match like this when they are supposed to be jobbers like the rest of the guys in this match just collecting a paycheck as if this is the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania. And if we can stop kidding ourselves, that match is a nothing match too. If this match doesn't pan out to a future title match opportunity (hopefully United States title for Knight's sake for he'll have a chance at winning it...) for LA Knight then I fail to see the point here. It would be just as big of a wasted opportunity of momentum for this guy like how WWE squandered what they had with Cesaro time and time again.

MMA Rules Match

Shayna Baszler defeated Ronda Rousey by technical submission

I won't even sugar coat it by saying this but this match was a complete waste of time and space on this card. In hindsight, they could have done this match on television before or after this PLE, but if this is Ronda Rousey's last match then you know she wasn't doing that on free television. Her name value doesn't mean next to anything in wrestling right now, but it still carries some weight to the casual crowd and MMA world. It's enough to convince the top brass to keep this match on the SummerSlam card in favor of Trish Stratus vs. Becky Lynch and whoever was going to challenge Rhea Ripley for the World Women's Championship.

I can easily see why the other women were pissed and why Trish and Becky were tweeting out not-so-subtle jabs at management about the situation. This match did absolutely no favors for neither Ronda nor Shayna. I'm sure Shayna appreciates the gesture from her friend to do the honors for her on the way out, but man, this match was rotten - from their horrible facepaint to this entire match from bell to bell. The only saving grace was that Shayna got a singles win on one of the main roster's PLEs.

The best thing to come out of this match were the hype/promo videos to build up to this match. Go out of your way to find and watch those.

Singles Match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship

Gunther (c) defeated Drew McIntyre by pinfall

This was the same hard-hitting affair that we saw at WrestleMania that involved Sheamus too, but that was to be expected. This was another match that I couldn't get into, especially when this match really didn't have any real/proper build to it outside of the post-match return and attack by McIntyre at the last PLE. WALTER has been working with Chad Gable on the weekly shows as of late so it's hard to care about this when there's no coherent threads to connect all of the dots.

At this point, I'm like this. If Drew wants to leave and go elsewhere since him and WWE can't see eye to eye on money, then just leave and quit dragging it out. I think a change of scenery will do him some good as I think he's done all that he could do in this run after waving around Vince McMahon's Masters of the Universe Power Sword around for all of these years. Their audience sees him as only one way and it's definitely not as one of the guys at the top of the roster.

Singles Match for the World Heavyweight Championship

Seth "Freakin" Rollins (c) defeated Finn Bálor by pinfall

This felt like the same ol' shit in my eyes from these two. Nothing against Finn nor Rollins as individual talents, but I'm over seeing this match-up between them. It feels like I've this match at least a thousand times at this point. Move on already or go ahead and let Priest try his hand at Rollins since Finn clearly can't get the job done. Speaking of which, Damian Priest, Dominik Mysterio, and Rhea Ripley all got involved, but Finn ultimately botched using the MITB briefcase to gain the upper hand only to get his brains stomped on it by Rollins to retain. From the reactions online and in that building, it seemed like nobody cared that Finn lost and I don't blame them.

The bigger match is the eventual fallout between Finn and Priest over leadership of Judgment Day and I'll for that. Priest, Dom, and Rhea will be just fine on their own without him. It's obvious that they don't need his veteran leadership in that group anymore as those three young talents are already three of the hottest acts on the entire main even roster. Finn would be better off teaming up and/or elevating his own protege in JD McDonagh.

Triple Threat Match for the WWE Women's Championship

Bianca Belair defeated Asuka (c) and Charlotte Flair by pinfall

On paper this should have been match of the evening for the women's side, but unfortunately, it just wasn't clicking for me in a lot of aspects. Sure, it won match of the evening for the women by default given to the shit sandwich that was Ronda and Shayna's match earlier on the card. Boy, I know Trish and Becky were fuming to see that their match was bumped off this card (along with Rhea Ripley not having a title defense for her World Women's Championship at all) for that hot steaming pile of garbage.

In regard to this match, all three women struggled to keep this interesting with Charlotte Flair LOUDLY calling spots (to the point where it was giving me flashbacks to John Cena doing that during the heights of his career) and Bianca and Asuka obviously waiting patiently or positioning themselves for said spots. When it worked, those sequences and spots look okay, but I would be a hypocrite for not calling out the WWE women for making matches look heavily choreographed/rehearsed when I'm quick to point it out for other promotions.

It seemed like this match had fallen off the rails when Bianca took an allegedly nasty fall at ringside that legit scary but suspiciously enough WWE wouldn't show the replay of the side of the ring where Bianca landed to spot the injury if any. Bianca was then carried up the entrance ramp with the help of the medical trainers and staff, only to get possessed by the Holy Ghost and reinserted herself back into this match. That's where I REALLY started rolling my eyes as it echoed back to the heights of Sasha Banks' feuds with Charlotte Flair where they spent the better part of a year hot potatoing that Women's title back and forth between each other. I pray that this isn't going to be the beginning of that here.

The finish of this match saw Charlotte apply the Figure Eight on the so-called injured leg/knee of Bianca Belair, only to be blinded by the poison mist from Asuka. Asuka went to kick Bianca only to be rolled up into a School Boy for Bianca to steal the win right from underneath her nose.

Singles Match for the WWE Women's Championship

Iyo Sky (with Bayley) defeated Bianca Belair (c) by pinfall

This was Sky's Money in the Bank cash-in match.

As soon as the title change occurred, out came out Iyo Sky to cash in the MITB briefcase on an already weakened and worn out Belair. One moonsault later and Iyo Sky is the new WWE Women's Champion. I didn't care for the execution of all of this in the least, but I did think that it was a touching moment for all three members of Damage CTRL were able to all celebrate Iyo's big win in the ring together one year later from their SummerSlam debuts last year. For those wondering, Dakota Kai is still a ways off from returning from injury so her appearance was a one-off here.

Personally, I would have preferred if Asuka stayed champion a little longer, but if this means that we're going to get an Asuka vs. Iyo program in a WWE ring then my body is ready for it. That shit is absolutely LONG overdue at this point.

Tribal Combat for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship and recognition of Tribal Chief of the Anoa'i family

Roman Reigns (c) (with Paul Heyman) defeated Jey Uso by pinfall

I have absolutely NO reservations saying that I found this to be the most lackluster Roman Reigns title defense in recent memory. It was to the point where I was questioning why did they even put "Main Event" Jey Uso in this position in the first place. Did they set him up to fail intentionally? This was a long and boring as hell title match. It was to the point where it was borderline painful and I can't remember the last time where I was watching one of these Roman Reigns' title defenses during this run where I kept looking at the clock and going, "Go ahead and end this already."

I'm going to need someone to explain to me why did Jimmy Uso turn heel on his own brother. It doesn't really make much sense given the fact that they worked together at the last PLE a few weeks ago to hand Reigns his first pinfall defeat in well over a year that sent Jey down this road of getting this one-on-one match with Reigns in the first place. This was one twist/swerve in this ongoing soap opera that is the Bloodline storyline that didn't make me want to see what's next. It's making me question whether or not this thing has ran out of steam already.

By the time this match was over, this PLE was running well past midnight on the East Coast so that really didn't do this show any favors as a whole.

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