Night two was the weaker night of the first-ever two-night edition of WWE Summerslam. It had it’s moments including a wild TLC match and the return of Brock Lesnar, but a lot of it felt like it just didn’t matter all that much.
For as good as the main event and TLC match were, other matches like the WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship and Cage Match didn’t capture the audience like they needed to.
As for that main event, it was wild, but lacked logic. From a match perspective alone, the near falls pulled big pops from the audience and the action kept the crowd on the edge of their seat. Cena as a babyface all of sudden was an abomination and tremendously hard to get past.
Here are my Brass Ring Ratings for the event and here’s how they work … I call it like I see it and grade accordingly. Period.
Naomi vs. Rhea Ripley vs. Iyo Sky - WWE Women’s World Championship
A strong opener, but not on the level of the Ripley vs. Sky singles match at Evolution 2 or the WWE Women’s World Championship Triple Threat Match at WrestleMania 41. Still, it had good action and felt like more of a feature match for Naomi as champion than anything else. Sky and Ripley held a lot of it together, but Naomi was the focus. Plus, she had a tremendous entrance with her Dad playing her to the ring on guitar as well. Given that focus and presentation, Naomi retaining wasn’t a surprise. Stephanie Vaquer looms next.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO 3/4
The Wyatt Sicks vs. DIY vs. Street Profits vs. Fraxiom vs. Motor City Machine Guns vs. Andrade & Rey Fenix - WWE Tag Team Championship TLC Match
On the higher end of TLC matches in my mind. This had all the car crash spots in it — including a wild Spanish Fly from the top rope to the outside of the ring and through two tables — but, it also had plenty of action that revolved around the competitors working to climb the ladder in the middle of the ring in order to get the win. That is missing too often in these types of matches, but they had it present constantly. Wyatt Sicks just won the titles, so the belts staying where they are made sense.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOO 3/4
Becky Lynch vs. Lyra Valkyria - WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship No Disqualification Match
The crowd refused to come alive for this. The match had it’s moments, but was the worst match of their three together. The root issue seems to still be that Lyra Valkyria isn’t over enough for the spot she occupies. The audience should have been frothing at the mouth to see Valkyria beat Lynch, but they weren’t.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - O 3/4
Solo Sikoa vs. Jacob Fatu - WWE United States Championship Cage Match
A lame match all the way around. Sikoa looked like he was going to crack laughing at multiple points and the interference pulled almost zero reaction from the audience. The finish? What? What the hell was that? Not only did production miss Fatu breaking out of the handcuffs, but then Sikoa basically just fell out of the ring to win. Not good for anyone involved.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - O 1/4
Dominik Mysterio vs. AJ Styles - WWE Intercontinental Championship
A ode to Eddie Guerrero. This had many Guerrero staples including faking a chair shot and a loose boot, but neither in this match were executed as pristinely as Eddie did it. They tried, but like the cage match, this just didn’t capture the audience. They were all over the place in terms of where their allegiance was and even broke out a Bray Wyatt firefly light show during it. Fine action, but pretty much zero deep investment from the audience.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO
John Cena vs. Cody Rhodes - Undisputed WWE Championship Street Fight
A really good match with an absolutely ridiculous premise. So, John Cena just turned good again after Cody beat him up and then wrestled like a good guy to a chorus of good guy cheers from the audience? Like, what are we doing? It was a moment and I suppose it’s fine to have fun with it, but let’s call a spade a spade. This made no sense. Now, they built in some strong near falls and drama throughout, which buoyed the ridiculousness. This was the best Cena has looked since returning and Cody was on his game too. Rhodes as champion again is the right call, but the question is going to be whether or not the fans still react positively to Rhodes after the way he took out Cena. As for Brock Lesnar … eh. We’ve seen plenty of Cena vs. Lesnar and don’t really need to see it again. I guess we now know why WWE cancelled their press conferences for the foreseeable future.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOO 1/14
What did you think of WWE Summerslam 2025 Night One? Let us know in the comments!
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