Mr. Tito’s PHAT WWE SummerSlam 2025 Night #2 Review: Brock Lesnar Returns, Cody Rhodes New Champ, and More
The beauty about the WWE, especially with Triple H in charge since June 2022, is that when you think that an event is over after an incredible Main Event, dessert gets wheeled in and it’s amazing… On Night #1, Seth Rollins reveals that his injury was a work and cashes in the Money in the Bank briefcase to royally screw CM Punk. Night #2 said “hold my beer” and delivered Brock Lesnar at the end after John Cena lost his WWE Title to Cody Rhodes. The bonkers part about Lesnar’s return is that we haven’t seen him since SummerSlam 2023 and he’s been placed on the down low since he was named in Vince McMahon’s accusations made by Janel Grant (who is suing Vince for not paying NDA settlements regarding workplace sexual issues).
Now, the Morality Squad, who by the way are armed with the wrath of God (great GWAR song, check it out), are instantly attacking the WWE for rehiring Lesnar. Many fans and several websites (yikes, guys at Cultaholic!) were questioning why WWE would even dare to bring in Lesnar. Well, it’s pretty obvious that WWE wants to make a few extra bucks off of John Cena’s retirement year and Lesnar is one of his biggest feuds.
But for the Morality Squads out there, let’s see what Brock Lesnar actually did… Yeah, let’s go there before reviewing a Premium Live Event. According to Janel Grant’s lawsuit against Vince McMahon and the WWE (now TKO), she alleged that Vince McMahon wanted to make “personalized sexual content” for Brock Lesnar who was in the middle of a WWE contract negotiation. Janel also alleged that Vince McMahon personally flew Lesnar to Stamford, CT for a “sexual encounter”, but for whatever reason, it ended up not happening. According to Grant, that was during July 2021… Lesnar only wrestled one time for the WWE during 2021 and that was at October’s Saudi event.
We’ve never heard Brock deny said allegations… Michael “P.S” Hayes had similar allegations, at least on the “personalized sexual content” side and after a brief absence (which turned out to be health related), Hayes is clearly back as seen by WWE Unreal on Netflix. It has been more than 1.5 years since the allegations have been made and that’s ample amount of time for WWE to do their own internal investigation of the matter. No other details about Lesnar has come up, other than this allegation and for both the desire to make “sexual content” or to possibly have a “sexual encounter”, neither happened for Brock. And we’ve seen Brock with Sable lately, so their marriage isn’t on the rocks for getting possibly caught.
Sounds to me like Vince McMahon was a sick bastard and was trying to pull everyone in… John Laurinaitis gave in and was part of the Janel Grant “sexual encounters” while Michael PS Hayes, Brock Lesnar, and maybe others were offered (hence the sex trafficking allegation). But again, being offered to participate and actually going through the deed is another matter.
1 year and 7 months is ample time for a corporation to perform their due diligence… Corporations have to deal with the liability, the public relations, human resources, and matters involving being a publicly traded company. Aside from allegations of being offered up, which Lesnar didn’t apparently receive, that’s all there is on Lesnar. Thus, keep the focus on Vince McMahon who is at the center of around $20 million worth of NDA settlements for the past 25 years THAT WE KNOW OF. For all of you Vince McMahon marks who somehow want Vince to return… The man is sick and used his position of power to manipulate women into pleasing him and others.
In my view, enough time has passed, enough internal investigations have been clearly performed, and Brock was offered something that he just didn’t receive. WWE has looked the other way on far worse stuff with their wrestlers, so again, Morality Squad, why are you so focused on blocking Brock Lesnar from returning?
Anyway, let’s get onto SummerSlam…
First and foremost, I really want to point the FINGER OF SHAME at the biased and jealous anti-WWE fanbase out there. The hilariously were passing around photos of the tarped up section of Metlife BEHIND THE ENTRANCE WAY and were trying to suggest that WWE had half of the stadium tarped off. No, dummies, nobody wants to buy a seat behind the entrance way where you cannot see a damn thing. Fact is that WWE sold over 50,000 for Night #1, but pulled in 63,000 for Night #2 in impressive fashion AND with those prices. That’s pretty damn good and is only shallow of JUST Wrestlemania 41’s 2 nights and 2025’s record attendance from Royal Rumble at 70,000 fans selling out that place in Indianapolis (I was there, holy cow it was packed!).
You don’t have a leg to stand on when your #1 even of the year draws 25,000 with CHEAPER ticket prices.
I also want to point out how impressed I was at Night #1’s ending yesterday… Either CM Punk was impressively acting last night and/or those were real emotions. Say whatever you will about his rollercoaster AEW career, but the fact that CM Punk returned to WWE during November 2023 is remarkable. His relationship with Triple H was completely broken and the two legitimately hated each other. For Punk to be pushed as a main eventer again and under Triple H’s watch is remarkable. And then, WWE pulled off the Seth Rollins injury angle perfectly.
And I headed into Night #2 thinking how could they top that ending… Well, they did… BROCK LESNAR has returned! Holy cow!
Before we get to that, as we’ve already said enough already, let’s review the show…
Theme music SUCKS BADLY and was much more evident on Night #2. Just listen to the similar garbage that Solo and Jacob have as their theme music. There’s nothing unique and it doesn’t enhance the wrestlers before they start wrestling inside the ring. Theme music should be a significant part of the presentation and WWE now takes it for granted.
We started off with Naomi retaining over Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky. I seriously just got done watching one of the first episodes of WWE Unreal where Triple H names Rhea as “one of the top stars in the WWE, if not the top star” and yet here we are, having her in a Triple Threat and losing. I enjoy Naomi as a performer and feel she’s very talented, but it’s like I’ve seen her act forever now… Oh yeah, I have since 2012. Match was fine, but I just don’t know what WWE is doing with Rhea Ripley. They seem lost with her and there’s a lack-of-chemistry issue with everyone else right now other than Liv Morgan. [ ** ]
And then we had the TLC Six-Pack… Folks, we had this match, the Becky vs. Lyra No Disqualification match, Solo vs. Jacob in the Steel Cage, and Cody vs. Cena in a Street Fight. Was I watching EXTREME RULES instead of SummerSlam?!?!?!
Now, for this TLC match… Lots of chaos, lots of car crashes, and tons of crazy spots. Show me this before 2002 and my mind is completely blown. Show me this in 2025, and I’ve seen many variations of things tried tonight. Still impressive, don’t get me wrong. The bigger issue is that I give ZERO craps about any of the 6 tag teams who participated in this match. Seriously… I feel nothing. Compare that to the year 2000 and I cared deeply about Edge/Christian, Dudleys, and Hardys while also caring about the Guerreros, Benoit/Angle, Edge/Mysterio, and Haas/Benjamin during 2002. Oh, and I really liked NXT’s tag division a few years ago, too, with American Alpha, the Revival, and a younger and more energetic DIY. These guys in this very match just feel like total unknowns to me as tag teams, yet I’m well aware of who each wrestler is in this match. There is a LACK of importance with any of these teams and that’s an utter failure of the Creative Team to make people care about tag team wrestling again. [ ***1/2 ] for the effort, but I’m taking a star for just not connecting any of these teams fully with the fans and totally disregarding tag team wrestling.
Speaking of LACK of connections, I totally see what is wrong with Lyra Valkyria… Aside from a difficult to pronounce name, she’s just a wrestling robot inside the ring with ZERO attempts to connect with fans. She just goes in there and hits move after move after move… Granted, she’s very good at move execution and selling. She has that down! By Lyra does NOTHING to get the fans into the match. It’s as of she’s wrestling in an empty arena. Hence why her match with Becky Lynch had UTTER SILENCE to it, despite actually being a well executed match. Both women worked hard, didn’t botch too much, and did some brutal stuff to each other with the No DQ rules. However, we have ZERO CONNECTION to Lyra Valkyria. With the way she’s being pushed, you can tell she’s a management favorite… She’s very much in that Iyo Sky mold, who is also a fantastic worker who doesn’t acknowledge fans at ring side that much. Later in the match, I’m like “what in the purple hair is that?” and it was Bayley. And even with Bayley added to the match, fans weren’t into it. Granted, they just witnessed a total car crash with the TLC match, but this match proves my point why I consider the Women’s Division as a midcard act similar to US/IC Title contendership and just above tag team wrestling. [ *** ]
Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu come out, walking the same and having similar terrible theme music. With Jacob Fatu, if you’re going to call him the “Samoan Werewolf”, at least make music that fits that. Think something scary like John Carpenter’s Halloween theme music, or with a house organ playing to emphasize that this guy has a full moon happening all of the time and he’s going to rip your head off. Instead, we hear completely garbage theme music. And when are we going to get off this Solo bus ride? He was a fine complimentary enforcer for the original Bloodline, but on his own as a singles competitor, he has flaws. There’s just not energy to his performances and seeing a cage match here didn’t feel special. And then the whole entire purpose of the cage was to keep outside interference out, yet many were able to enter the cage. Why? Because the cage had no ceiling and a door readily open. I though the whole point of having the cage was that Solo couldn’t escape? I’m 100% with Jesse Ventura on this cage match gimmick. F leaving through the door. Win by pinfall, or at least show physical strength to climb over. [ ** ]
I do love how Triple H empowers Stephanie McMahon to still have a part of the WWE, even though she technically doesn’t work there and with all of her father’s scandals. She came out to announce the Night #2 attendance and the combined attendance. She looks so happy doing that and Triple H giving her these opportunities to speak positively to the fans is what a good husband should do. When your father receives massive public shame, it’s hard to recover… Yet, there’s Triple H who is encouraging and nurturing. Take note, for whomever is about to get married. That’s how you support your spouse.
Oh my gosh, a REAL MATCH was next with AJ Styles and Dominick Mysterio having a non-gimmick match with actual rules to follow. Imagine that… Loved AJ Styles showing some Eddie Guerrero character tonight… That’s so out of his comfort zone, but he did well and should have fun with his character like that more often. AJ and Dom were silky smooth together and because they executed moves together with ease and perfection, their match felt longer even though it was the shortest match of the night. I consider this a CLEAN WIN for Dom. Yes, he hit AJ over the head with the boot, but boots can come off… But what I enjoyed was that for all of the effort AJ put into taunting Dirty Dom with Eddie stuff, it was Dom who outsmarted AJ Styles with the loose boot trick that Eddie Guerrero used at Wrestlemania 20 against Kurt Angle. LOVE IT… [ *** ] These two made the most out of a 10 minute match.
I was laughing at how the WWE again showed Triple H at the White House for the fitness programs for kids with President Trump. For each of the still photos, WWE tried to show pictures that barely involved former NFL Linebacker and Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor, who by the way, is a former WWE wrestler himself (go watch Wrestlemania 11, ugh!). He was only in 2 still shots, and both had him covered up by RFK Jr. for the most part.
The MAIN EVENT was Cody Rhodes vs. John Cena which had the easy task of being better than the Wrestlemania 41 match. I initially didn’t mind the match, as I was mostly happy to see John Cena as champion again, but the match hasn’t held up well upon repeat viewership. This match was pretty damn good and a major improvement… Why? I think Cody Rhodes is similar to Randy Orton and Triple H in that he shows way more enthusiasm for when he wins and is a tad depressed, personality wise, when he’s going to lose a match. He knew that he was going to be champion again, so there was an extra skip in that step. At WM 41, he knew that he was losing, so hence why there was a lack of energy. Go back to the early to mid 2010s… Cody is losing often and the energy isn’t there in the losses. He was losing matches in AEW and the opponents really didn’t get much out of it because the energy from Cody wasn’t there when he was losing. That said, I’m going with just [ **** ] because it was good overall, but too formulaic for WWE main event styles. Cody wins another WWE Title in front of a crowd that was seriously 70% for Cena. Cody win and graciously gives Cena the ring to honor fans one last time for SummerSlam.
And then, HIS MUSIC hits. You know, COOL Jim Johnston theme music that matters? You hear that guitar riff and you know exactly who it is. Cowboy Brock Lesnar came back, stared down Cena, and hit him with the F5. Basically, the exact thing as Lesnar’s April 2012 WWE return and I’m 100% OK with it.
This is a MAJOR get for the WWE, as Cena vs. Lesnar will draw money and hopefully that means we can get another Lesnar vs. Punk match again, a better Lesnar vs. Orton match, Gunther vs. Lesnar, Lesnar vs. Bron Breakker, and other matches. With the Undertaker gone, let Lesnar be the pure special attraction and no titles are necessary.
I have no problems with Brock’s return, as he didn’t do anything with Janel Grant nor is there any records of him with other female WWE employees. Give me more damning evidence than what was in the Grant lawsuit and then I’ll agree with you… But this looks more like Vince’s sick offering because Vince is a very sick man.
LAST WORD: Literally the same as Night #1… Starts off as being OK or kind of light, but then is crowned with an excellent main event that delivers with a massive surprise ending. Combine the shows and you’ve got a pretty good Premium Live Event. Adding Brock Lesnar to this already stacked roster is just going to make things interesting. I’ll go [ B ] again for the show grade.
Overall, a fun SummerSlam… Though personally, just watch the 2 main events of both nights and you’ll be satisfied.
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