SummerSlam 2026 Night 2 - August 2, 2026

Night 2 is upon us! To catch yourself up on my predictions of the event, click here. To read the results of yesterday’s event, click the link at the bottom right of this page. The end of the review from last night noted that the vaunted ESPN title wasn’t handed out. Turns out it was and I guess ESPN posted it online instead of doing it as part of the broadcast. The winner of the first ever ESPN title is none other than Oba Femi, and doesn’t he look elated?

Michael Cole on the pre-show just said that Chad Gable has a chance to win the very first singles match of his career here at Mania. I know he’s not been pushed super hard but I feel like he’s got to have at least one singles win. Yes, I know he meant to say singles title.

The show will be kicking off with Finn and Sami for the #1 contender spot. But before that, Hootie, minus the Blowfish, sings the star spangled banner for us.

The girl who may or may not be cosplaying as the Joker is back in the front row with her fuchsia shirt and lime green hair.

Match 1: Finn Balor versus Sami Zayn - #1 Contender for the Undisputed WWE Championship

Before the bell can ring, Aldis comes out and says that he’s adding a third competitor. And out comes Gunther. Who shakes Aldis’ hand on the ramp. What?

Match 1: Finn Balor versus Sami Zayn versus Gunther - #1 Contender for the Undisputed WWE Championship

And before the bell can ring, Aldis comes out on the ramp and he’s adding a fourth competitor… KEVIN FUCKING OWENS IS BACK. Minnesota is going banana!

Match 1: Finn Balor versus Sami Zayn versus Gunther versus Kevin Owens - #1 Contender for the Undisputed WWE Championship

And before the bell can ring, Aldis.. just kidding. The bell rings and Night 2 is underway! While I will always love a good multi-man match, part of my larger issue with how WWE handles them is that it’s mostly just 2 guys in the ring and anyone extra just hangs out on the outside. If you want an incredible multi-man match, watch any of the Tajiri versus Super Crazy versus Little Guido matches from the original ECW days. Most of the time all three men were in the match at once. The WWE version is basically a singles match where the competitors rotate throughout. And that’s pretty much precisely what this version was.

In a match that feels like it should have been longer and had more action, Kevin Owens is the #1 Contender. Punk retained last night so they’ll be squaring up in the near future. There’s no main roster PPV’s between tonight and Money in the Bank, so unless they have their match at Saturday Nights Main Event, they’ll go head to head in New Orleans in October.

Winner: Kevin Owens pins Sami Zayn to become #1 Contender for Punks title.

Segment We get a commercial for Super Troopers 3. I find it funny that apparently the reason WWE has to be so PG is because of their business dealings, but then they have a commercial for Super Troopers. And don’t get me wrong, the original Super Troopers is one of my all time favorite movies. It’s exactly my level of comedy. But “We have to have a super clean image, no swearing, no blood” promoting a movie that glamorizes sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Sure.

Match 2: Trick Williams (c) versus Baron Corbin - United States Championship

Corbin is now a “Nomad”. Apparently he just travels the world to set up his livestock. I guess it’s not entirely different than “Lone Wolf” but “Nomad” is nowhere near as cool. The crowd is very out of sync on their “Whoop that trick” chant in terms of the music as Williams comes out. They’re like a beat behind.

The match felt kind of stuck. Unfortunately their styles are a bit too similar and they just don’t mesh. After what just feels like a slog, Corbin gets the win and is the new champion. Corbin with the fuzzy white belt over his shoulder is a hell of a sight. Again, I don’t plan to do ratings for matches but this may be the worst match of the weekend so far, solid D territory. Corbin had to call Yachty into a spot, the psychology didn’t make sense (Why did Trick set up the table?). Just not a great match for either guy. Neither should be expected to put on 5-star classics, but with the right opponent they can certainly have much better matches.

Winner: Baron Corbin via pinfall after an End of Days following a belt shot.

Match 3: Women’s 5-way ladder match for the interim Women’s WWE Championship

Not much of a reaction for Tiffany Stratton who is the first woman out. She’s wearing purple and gold although Cole say’s it’s Vikings colors which are purple and yellow. Jade comes out next with a jacket with a Prince inspired symbol on the back of it. Guess this will be the “Hey, guys, we’re in Minnesota!” match. Chelsea out third and gets the biggest pop of the women so far. Guess they’re not all doing Minnesota gear as Chelsea is in various neons. Looks cool actually. Lash is out fourth after beating Gulia on Friday on SmackDown. Charlotte out last wearing the robe she had put together for that sick girl who she became close with who passed recently.

The bell rings after Jade jumps Charlotte on the outside.. but who cares what’s happening in the ring because while we can hear bumps that camera stays focused on Charlotte and Jade for about the first 15 seconds. Multi-person ladder matches generally fare better than a standard multi-person match. They generally leverage multi-person ladder spots a bit more. Although the issue of having just two people in the ring at a time persists.

And so far this match faces the same issues other ladder matches do. Participant 2 takes out 1, 3 takes out 2, 4 takes out 3… The mics are hot tonight as you can hear the wrestlers calling for spots pretty easy.

Chelsea pushes Tiffany off the top of the ladder causing Tiffany to hit a rolling senton from the ladder to everyone else on the outside. With the four other competitors down the crowd is hot for Chelsea to grab the belt. Of course we get schmoz so she doesn’t. All four other competitors up on the ladders and everyone goes down again. Chelsea sprints up the ladder! She didn’t do the slow crawl! Chelsea is the Interim Women’s Champion! The first several minutes moved slow but the last few minutes were a lot of fun.

Winner: AND NEW! Chelsea Green

Match 4: Danhausen versus Dominic Mysterio - Human Monie$ on a Pole Match

I find it funny that most matches don’t even get promo packages any longer.. but Danhausen consistently still gets pre-match videos.

Danhausen is wearing Bret Hart inspired tights. I wonder what Bret Hart spot him and Dom will hit.

Apparently this match is no DQ. I mean it makes sense since you need to grab the monie$ to win. Schmoz as McDonough and the Minihausens all get involved. And now although nobody has said it, Joe Hendry appears.

Daniel Hausen grabs the satchel of monie$ and is the winner.

Winner: Danhausen grabs the satchel of human monie$ after cursing Dominic, causing pyro to go off in the corner, which leads to Dominic tumbling off the top turnbuckle.

So far we’ve gone through four matches in an hour and a half. We still have the IC and Heavyweight championship matches, so hopefully those will take up some decent time.

Segment: They’re showing Booker T and Vic Joseph doing radio commentary. I might subscribe to Sirius and WWE Radio just to hear their commentary over Cole and Wade. I won’t, but it would be an improvement. After that we get a dick pill commercial. Which we’ve been getting all weekend. “Experience better sex now”. But keep the show PG. For the kids. We get the Killer Bee’s in the crowd. FUCK THE B BRIAN BLAIR. Also, shown includes Rick Martell and Molly Holly.

Match 5: Penta (c) versus Chad Gable - Intercontinental Championship

Gable comes out in legit Vikings colors. This place is going to go banana when he wins the belt in, well, based on the match timing of the other matches, about 11 minutes.

These two are giving - and taking - everything for one another. They’re also deciding to use some ring psychology of Gable having an injured shoulder and with it the story of without his arm, how can he beat Gable. Didn’t they already run this with Cody last night?

Guess a hurt shoulder doesn’t prohibit you from locking in an ankle lock. Before Penta can break the hold with the ropes, Gable pulls Penta back to the center of the ring and grapevines him for the quick tap from Penta.

The match was decent but once again hurt by being too short. And that 11 minute estimate from before, I’m fairly certain that’s just what it was.

Winner: Gable via submission after a grapevine ankle lock

Gable’s entire family is in the ring. His father is wearing a t-shirt that says #2 fan. Mom gets to be #1. That’s sweet as hell.

Now the Mug Root Beer dog is on the apron handing Gable cans of root beer? What the fuck?

Match 6 - Main Event: Roman Reigns (c) versus Seth Rollins - WWE Heavyweight Championship

I missed Seth’s elaborate entrance gears. The drip-king is back! I’ll also always pop for the SHIELD entrance. Extra cool with the fake Seth on the stage to make you think he’d do it to Roman again after the 2022 Rumble. Cole with a subtle dig at Ambrose / Moxley. “Neither has ever left WWE. They got us to where we are today.” I wonder how the SHIELD gear would look in white. I guess that’s what Seth was supposed to be holding?

I’ve always liked when a match randomly becomes No DQ. “The ref is giving a lot of leeway. This match is too important to end on a DQ.” And it’s true. A match as important as this, in kayfabe, should just allow the competitors to just fight it out and not allow the champion to retain off a DQ.

I’ve always loved when competitors use each others signatures in a match. It shows that they’re willing to try anything to put their opponent down, even if it’s not in their normal repertoire.

Did I just hear Seth call Roman a mother fucker? Roman and Seth now trading Ambrose movies. Rebound lariat, double undertook DDT. This match really is a love letter to their entire history.

With the ref down, we’re in the endgame now. Let’s see what schmoz we get next. Surprisingly they decide to go clean and just beat the hell out of each other. Punches, and stomps and spears, oh my. Roman picks up the win and finally pins Seth after three straight spears.

Winner: Roman Reigns via pinfall after repeated spears

After the match, a symbolic end to the Shield as the two bump fists with the Shield face mask in the middle of the ring between them. A very OK match with an excellent ending and a great story after the bell rung. What’s next for Seth? Roman picked up the mask and looked at it, holding it. Is it possible we get a new two-man power trip between them?

Post Show

Roman cuts a very face, anti-OTC promo. He says that using the chair to hit Rollins wasn’t the right move. Leave the past in the past, learn from your mistakes. Says that in terms of Rollins “It’s always been me and you.” That they’ve always held down the place. Other people left, but they never did. We move to the desk and even they say it’s a very humble, completive promo. It’s going to be interesting to see what they do further with both men.

KO talks about how much he missed wrestling and he thought it would be taken away from him, but his strong support system is what kept him going; including Big E. Tells the crowd he went out there to make a point. He’s not back to half ass this. He’s going full tilt for as long as he can and if it means he’s got two years, then it will be an awesome two years but he hopes it’s longer. Gives a shout to Rebel and how she’s handling ALS and how much it inspires him, and that while she never wrestled in WWE, some things are bigger than wrestling.

I’ve always wondered; for the post show panel, are the guys given free rein to speak but told to do it in kayfabe? Are they told what to say like commentary?

Danhausen comes out next and calls Rosenberg Sam Roberts. Danhausen is very literally built for WWE. He says he’s cursed Judgement Day enough, seems like he’ll move to something else. What that is who knows.

Here comes Chelsea and the crowd is crazy for her with a loud “You deserve it” chant. During the show Michael Cole made a comment about how all Chelsea’s girlfriends were meant to come in for the show from Canada. Turns out that was legit. She says she dedicates the title to Michael Hayes which the desk laughs at. I suppose Hayes wasn’t in Chelsea’s corner (maybe this is from Unreal, I never watched it; no interest in it).

I guess no Triple H press conference tonight. Instead he’s speaking with Cathy Kelly in the back. He mentions how Aldis had a career moment, KO’s win and him versus Punk coming up with their history, some unknown to the fans, Chelsea Green winning her first world title.

Gable is now out on the set. As the hometown kid he.. gets a bit less of a reaction than I expected. He does get a loud “You deserve it” chant as well. And he does for sure. Gable says he’s had some low points in his career, calls out Shorty G. But you have to stick with things. Wants that to be a lesson to hand down to his kids. Says Mexico was a magical period of his career and it’s crazy how the circumstances had to work out the way they did for it to all come together.

And I guess that’s it. Joe T says SummerSlam over delivered and that we’ll see you down the line,

Final Thoughts

The final match of the night saved the night overall. The Penta and Gable match wasn’t bad but it could have used more time. Honestly, all the matches could have used some more time. I saw a graphic on Reddit I believe and the average match time was 11 minutes last night, and I think tonight as well. I don’t mean the mean time. I mean as in there were 4 matches last night that were in the 11 minute range and it seemed like another 4 tonight as well.

My predictions weren’t quite as good as last night. To be fair, I didn’t expect Kevin Owens to show up tonight to pick him. And even in my discord chat when asked about the prediction for Danhausen and Dom, I said that Dominic makes sense, but Danhausen can win off schmoz and it really doesn’t hurt anything. I do think Dom needs some strong direction right now and am hoping he wins Money in the Bank. I went I think 4/6 tonight with Corbin winning really being what knocked me down a peg.

Overall Night 1 was the better night in my opinion. I wish I liked Night 2 better but what can you do.

On to Raw tomorrow. Will we get Enzo along with Cass? Where will Cass end up on the card? Tune in to find out!