Saturday Night's Main Event XXXVIII (2025): Jacob Fatu Loses the Match and Wins the Night

Rhea Ripley and Nia Jax open with the right kind of match for a short television special. Jax attacks before the bell and immediately forces Ripley into a different role from her usual power-dominant presentation. Ripley has to move, counter and find unusual ways to create leverage against an opponent she cannot simply throw around whenever she wants.

The best moments come from that adaptation. Ripley uses a Code Red, survives the middle-rope offense and eventually counters the Annihilator position with an electric-chair drop. Jax also shifts her weight during a Riptide attempt and creates a nearfall that briefly makes the champion look vulnerable. The match never becomes a classic, but it has enough escalation to feel like a championship defense rather than filler.

B- / 7.4 reflects a strong opener whose biggest strength is variety. Ripley retains with the Riptide after finding a way through the size disadvantage, while Jax loses without being flattened. Both women leave in essentially the same hierarchy, which is appropriate this close to Royal Rumble.

The match also benefits from ending before the formula becomes repetitive. Their chemistry is based on impact and contrast, not twenty minutes of intricate counters. In this setting, around ten minutes is exactly enough.

Bron Breakker and Sheamus wrestle like the Intercontinental Championship has been hidden inside a car crash. The appeal is obvious from the first exchange: Sheamus can absorb Breakker's speed and power without looking overwhelmed, while Breakker is athletic enough to turn standard heavyweight spots into something much more violent. The spear on the floor after Sheamus launches himself from the steps is the perfect example.

Sheamus' championship pursuit gives the match emotional clarity. He has won almost everything else available to him in WWE, so the Brogue Kick nearfall matters more than a generic challenger getting two. Breakker's foot reaches the rope, Sheamus realizes how close he was, and the audience briefly believes the missing title might finally be his. That nearfall is the entire match in miniature.

Breakker recovers, survives another attack and finishes with the Spear. B+ / 8.3 gives the match credit for excellent physical chemistry without pretending they emptied every possible idea. Several reviewers make the same point: the match feels like something WWE can revisit later with even higher stakes.

This is the best kind of non-final chapter. Breakker retains cleanly enough to strengthen his reign, Sheamus loses without losing the audience's sympathy, and the next meeting already has a reason to matter. The title feels more valuable after eleven minutes than it did before them.

Braun Strowman and Jacob Fatu spend the opening minutes trying to establish which enormous man can move the other one farther. Strowman wins the first exchanges, Fatu answers with the suicide dive, and the match settles into a series of power collisions that are perfectly acceptable without becoming especially imaginative. Strowman's slower movement keeps the pace from matching the violence the rivalry promises.

Then Fatu stops caring about the match. He traps Strowman in the corner, hits repeated running attacks, shoves the referee down when told to stop and gets disqualified. As wrestling, that is an abrupt ending to a contest that never found a higher gear. As character work, it is the beginning of the part everyone remembers.

Fatu continues after the bell, knocks aside security, leaves Strowman bleeding from the mouth and hits repeated moonsaults even after Tama Tonga tries to calm him. The crowd starts asking for more. C+ / 6.8 grades the match itself while recognizing that the surrounding segment is far more effective than the score might suggest.

The strange success is that Strowman officially wins and Fatu leaves feeling like the dominant force. WWE uses the disqualification not to protect Fatu from a pin but to show that the rules are beneath his immediate priorities. That distinction turns an average match into one of the night's defining scenes.

Gunther against Jey Uso works because the match never asks the audience to forget who Gunther is. He controls long stretches with chops, kicks and power, repeatedly cutting Jey off whenever the challenger begins to create rhythm. Jey is not presented as Gunther's equal in technique or damage. He is presented as the man who keeps finding one more burst of offense after the champion thinks the fight is over.

That distinction matters in the closing stretch. Jey lands the superkick, finds the Spear, later connects with another Spear and the Uso Splash, and suddenly a crowd that understands the likely result is reacting to a believable championship nearfall. Gunther does not need interference or a mistake to escape. He survives, blocks another Spear attempt and ends the match with consecutive powerbombs.

A- / 8.8 makes this WrestleFile's Match of the Night. The reported Observer rating is even higher, while several television reviews are slightly cooler because commercial breaks remove large sections from the home-viewing experience. The in-ring structure is excellent even if the broadcast presentation makes the full rhythm harder to appreciate.

The match gains another layer seven days later when Jey wins the Royal Rumble. Suddenly this is not merely a failed January title shot. It becomes evidence that Jey can push Gunther to the edge before earning another chance to choose his WrestleMania opponent. The loss becomes part of the next victory.