The SmarK Rant for WWE Summerslam 2026 – 08.01.26 (Night One)

The SmarK Rant for WWE Summerslam 2026 – 08.01.26 (Night One)

Man this is pretty early for a Summerslam, isn’t it?

Live from Minneapolis, MN

Your hosts are Michael Cole & Wade Barrett

Women’s World title: Liv Morgan v. Iyo Sky

Despite the noted ticket sales issues, the stadium looks plenty full at least. Liv runs Iyo into the corner to start, but Iyo puts the boots to her in the corner and follows with a mule kick. Iyo with a low dropkick, but Liv pulls her to the floor and runs her into the railing. Back in the ring, Liv dropkicks her into the corner and stomps her down to take over. Liv with the Three Amigos and a Shining Wizard for two. Liv with running knees in the corner, but Iyo rolls into a double stomp for a double down. Sky comes back and goes up with a missile dropkick and follows with the double knees in the corner, sending Liv to the apron to escape. Iyo hits her with the sunset flip to the floor, but Liv’s Judgment Day backup shows up and Raquel chokeslams Iyo behind the ref’s back for two. Iyo backdrops Liv onto them outside and dives onto the pile with a moonsault. Back in the ring, Liv catches her with a short rana on the way into the ring and she goes up, but Iyo brings her down with a Spanish fly for two. They slug it out and Iyo hits a double hook facebuster and then a backbreaker, but she can’t get a pin off it. Iyo misses the running knees in the corner, but she gets a neckbreaker and then hits her own Oblivion for two. Iyo misses a moonsault and Liv hits a codebreaker for two off that. They fight to the apron and Iyo suplexes her out there, on THE HARDEST PART OF THE RING, and follows with the double knees into the post but hurts herself in the process. Sky goes up and hits knees as a result, and Morgan hits Oblivion, but Iyo pops up. So Liv hits a second on the rebound, and that finally finishes at 13:37 to retain. Solid opener and they have good chemistry together. ***3/4

The Usos & Jacob Fatu v. LA Knight, Solo Sikoa & Royce Keys

This seems like a super random match for a Summerslam. I’m not super clear on who the babyfaces are supposed to be here, to be honest. Big brawl to start and Jey slugs away on Solo after clearing the ring, but Solo fires back with his own and steals the Yeet gimmick from his brother! Whoa, when he did develop a personality? So it’s over to Jacob and Solo hits him with a samoan drop, but Fatu pops up and superkicks him before hitting his own samoan drop and a senton. Fatu chokes him out on the ropes and the Bloodline works him over in the corner. Fatu with a corner splash, which gets two. Solo fights back and collides with Fatu for a double down, but Keys get the hot tag and runs wild. Clotheslines for Jimmy and he hits Jey with a spinebuster, but Jimothy cuts him off with some superkicks in the corner. They fight to the top and Keys awkwardly powerslams him down and makes the hot tag to Knight. So now he runs wild and powerslams Jey, but Jey blocks the BFT with a spear that gets two. Jey goe up and Knight pops up with a superplex, but Jimmy flies in with a splash, triggering a bunch of finishers, as Keys brawls with Fatu out to the floor and into the crowd. Knight rolls up Jey out of that for two, but Jey spears him again and Jimmy follows with the flying splash for two. Usos set up to finish, but Solo breaks it up and Knight finishes Jey with the BFT at 11:08. Good, all-action TV level match. ***1/2

Gunther v. Nick Aldis

Interestingly, TKO actually springs for “What’s the Story Morning Glory” here for Nick’s entrance, which is kind of crazy because Oasis is mad expensive to license as far as I know. Gunther takes him down with a headlock, but Aldis fights back and Gunther bails to celebrate and play mindgames. Back in the ring, Gunther smacks him in the corner, but Aldis slugs back and catches Gunther with a slam into a suplex for two. Gunther slugs him down to the floor with one chop and runs him into the post for the benefit of Mickie James. Back in the ring, Gunther keeps beating him down and fights off a cloverleaf attempt, putting him in a sleeper off that. Aldis fights out of that and comes back with a superplex for a double down. Gunther fires up with clotheslines, but Aldis hits him with a running powerslam for two. Aldis goes up and misses whatever off the top, but gets a slam and then goes up again with a flying elbow. Back to the top for another elbow and that sets up the cloverleaf, but Gunther makes the ropes. Aldis gets a sleeper, but Gunther suplexes out of that and follows with the powerbomb for two. Into the sleeper and Aldis taps out at 11:33. Never really felt like Aldis was a threat to Gunther to be honest, but he had a good match for someone in retirement and the crowd was into him. Finish was somewhat anticlimactic. ***1/2

The Bella Twins & Paige v. Jacy Jayne, Lainey Reed & Fallon Henley

I’m not familiar with the heel team but their names sound like a bunch of country singers who love whiskey and Texas. Big brawl to start and the heels manage to take over on the floor, and back in Jacy gets two on Brie. They work Brie over in the corner and Nikki gets a hot tag and puts Jayne and Henley on the floor, and an X-Factor on Reed gets two. Reed cradles for two, but Nikki hits the Rack Attack for two. Henley dares to mock the iconic Bella dance, but Paige comes in with a sunset flip on Jayne for two. But then Jayne hits her with a lariat for the pin at 7:23. As the kids say, this could have been an email. *1/2

Afterwards, the Bellas don’t take the loss very well, and they attack Paige to turn on her, thus making a mockery of their matching gear!

And then after like 20 minutes of ads, it’s time for…

WWE Undisputed title: CM Punk v. Cody Rhodes

Cody is of course repping his Street Fighter role tonight, although TKO would object to fighting in the street because you’re giving it away for free to onlookers. That being said, I’m sure they can appreciate the Capcom model of releasing 18 different versions of the same Street Fighter game, so it’s kind of a wash. Punk just goes with the Minnesota North Stars gear. I’m sure TKO would appreciate how the team was dismantled by greedy owners and sold off. They trade chops to start and Punk goes with the FLYING HEADSCISSORS before putting the boots to Cody in the corner and going to work on the arm. Cody puts him down with tackles and works a headlock. Punk fires back with kicks to escape, but Cody tosses him and follows with a dive to put him down. Punk fires back with a clothesline off the railing, and back in with a double axehandle to the arm to go back to that. Punk with a floatover suplex for two while the announcers talk about how he’s in the best shape of his life. I mean, I don’t wanna cast aspersions on the natural physique of CM Punk, but I don’t think he’s building that body entirely in the gym, if you know what I mean. I love Punk but cardiovascular conditioning has not been his strong point these past few years. Punk with a dropkick, but he hurts his own knee and Cody goes after that. Cody takes him down with a dragon screw and goes to work on the knee in the corner, but he tries the disaster kick and Punk kicks him down in mid-move. Punk goes up and Cody cuts him off, but Punk fights him off and drops the flying elbow for two. Cody with the Cody Cutter for two. Disaster kick gets two. Super duper Cody Cutter gets two.

Cody tries a figure-four and Punk fights him off and tries the GTS, but Cody catches the knee and gets the figure-four on the second try. Punk makes the ropes to escape and reverses another try into the Anaconda Vice, but Cody also makes the ropes. Punk with another GTS attempt, but Cody grabs the ropes and goes with a cheeky airplane spin. But Punk somehow survives the power of centrifugal force and applies another Anaconda Vice, only for Cody to reverse out into the Crossroads for two. They fight to the top and Punk sends him down and “hits” a moonsault that is pretty far away from Iyo Sky’s material. That thing is gonna be meme’d for the next decade. Punk with a lariat for two. GTS puts Cody down, but Punk hurts his own knee and it only gets two. They fight to the floor and Cody runs Punk into the stairs, but Punk catches him with a GTS in the ring for two. So we head back to the floor and Punk puts him on the table and then misses the flying elbow off the post, putting himself awkwardly through the table. Back in the ring, Cody accidentally bumps the ref, and Punk hits the GTS. But then Cody hits the Crossroads and Punk retreats to the floor. But then Randy Orton returns, hits Cody with an RKO OUTTA NOWHERE and runs away, and Punk recovers with another GTS to finish at 29:21 to retain. I love both guys but I’m kind of sick of Cody and his plodding OH SO EPIC matches lately. He needs a heel turn or something so that they work in the context of his character. Meanwhile, Punk was GASSED, so this was too deliberately paced to be what they wanted from it. Punk was not a guy who should have been trying a flying elbow through the announce table and it showed. Technically fine but not for me and the crowd didn’t seem super into it. ***

Hell in a Cell: Brock Lesnar v. Oba Femi

Oba charges and Brock starts throwing suplexes, but Oba pops up and takes him to the floor and runs him into the cage. Brock goes back to the suplex on the floor, but Oba runs him into the stairs and pulls out a table that he sends Brock into. Back in the ring, Brock beats him down with the stairs in pretty aggressive manner and his him with another german suplex. More suplexes and he tries the F5, but Oba chokeslams him and comes back with running forearms in the corner. Oba with the chokeslam and powerbomb, and the pop-up powerbomb gets two. But then Brock pops up and hits him with the F5, NOT ONCE, NOT TWICE, BUT THRICE, and that gets two. So Brock rips up the canvas, exposing the boards underneath, and he hits Oba with a tombstone on the wood, but it only gets two. Femi makes the comeback and shrugs off a chairshot, and then powerbombs him again and pins him at 11:40. I don’t know why that was even a Cell match. They did some weapons but there was no blood and barely any interaction with the cage. It wasn’t BAD, I guess, but 11 minutes for a Cell match seems pretty stingy. **

This was a decent show that I’d give a mild thumbs up based on the strength of the first three matches alone.