SummerSlam 2024: Roman Reigns Returns, Gunther Ascends, and WWE Changes Half the Furniture

SummerSlam opens with a title match that already has more emotional baggage than most entire cards. Rhea Ripley wants the championship she never lost in the ring, Liv Morgan wants revenge for the injury that derailed her career, and Dominik Mysterio is standing close enough to both women to make every glance suspicious. The setup is melodramatic, but professional wrestling has survived worse crimes than being dramatic.

Ripley's shoulder becomes the first major turning point. She crashes into the turnbuckle, appears to dislocate it and then forces it back into place against the announce desk, giving Morgan a clear target and the match a physical story beyond the relationship triangle. Morgan attacks the injury consistently, while Ripley's power keeps threatening to erase the champion's progress in one burst.

Dominik's involvement is paced effectively because the betrayal is delayed until Ripley seems ready to win. He stops her from using a chair, then distracts the referee long enough for Morgan to hit Oblivion onto that same chair and retain the championship. The post-match kiss removes every remaining ambiguity and gives the opener a finish the audience will discuss long after the mechanics of the match fade.

The wrestling is strong rather than spectacular, but it does exactly what an opener on a seven-match stadium card should do. It establishes stakes, delivers a major story turn and leaves the next program hotter than it found it. Ripley loses without becoming weaker, Morgan escapes with both the title and Dominik, and SummerSlam immediately has a pulse.

Bron Breakker's second championship match with Sami Zayn is designed as a correction, not an epic. Zayn had beaten him at Money in the Bank by surviving the younger man's impatience, so SummerSlam asks whether Breakker can learn enough restraint to turn speed and violence into a title. The answer arrives quickly.

Zayn avoids the first spear and briefly threatens to repeat the previous result. He lands offense, forces Breakker to adjust and creates just enough uncertainty to keep the rematch from feeling ceremonial. Breakker then strings together the athletic bursts that make him look less like a conventional wrestler and more like a linebacker who discovered ropes.

The final spear ends the match at under six minutes. That brevity limits the match's ceiling, but it also fits the story because Breakker is not supposed to win a chess match; he is supposed to overwhelm a champion before experience can rescue him again. Zayn gives him enough resistance to make the title change credible without stretching the idea past its natural length.

As a standalone match, this is one of the thinner pieces of the card. As a coronation, it works cleanly and efficiently, giving Breakker his first main-roster championship and moving Zayn out of the role without unnecessary protection. SummerSlam had plenty of long entrances ahead, so five minutes of purposeful violence is hardly a tragedy.

LA Knight arrives at SummerSlam carrying the strange burden of being overdue. The audience had been ready to see him win a meaningful singles championship for more than a year, while Logan Paul had become an irritatingly effective champion whose celebrity status made every successful defense feel like another delay. Cleveland therefore treats Knight less like a challenger and more like a collection notice.

The match benefits from Paul's athleticism and Knight's connection with the crowd. They brawl before the bell, trade momentum once the match begins and keep the pace high enough that the twelve-minute runtime feels appropriate. Paul remains willing to take risks, while Knight keeps the structure simple and lets the audience invest in the possibility of the title finally changing hands.

Machine Gun Kelly and the brass knuckles add the expected ringside complication. Paul lands the loaded punch but cannot convert it into the Buckshot Lariat, allowing Knight to counter with the BFT and score the pin. The interference is familiar territory for a Paul match, yet the finish is clean enough where it matters: Knight beats the champion decisively after surviving the shortcut.

The result is more important than the match's technical detail, and that is not an insult. Knight gets the championship moment his popularity had earned, Paul loses without requiring a bizarre escape hatch, and the stadium reacts like the company finally cashed a check it had been carrying around for months. Sometimes overdue is still better than never.

Bayley and Nia Jax enter with a straightforward championship story. Jax won the Queen of the Ring tournament to earn the match, Bayley is the veteran champion trying to survive a larger challenger, and Tiffany Stratton's Money in the Bank contract hangs over the proceedings like a brightly colored weather warning. The ingredients are clear before either woman locks up.

Bayley works from underneath and uses movement to create openings, while Jax keeps returning to the size advantage. The match is competent and increasingly physical without developing the escalation of the better title bouts on the card. Its most effective moments come when Bayley has to improvise around power rather than trade it directly.

Stratton's arrival creates the expected cash-in tease, but the distraction ultimately helps Jax rather than producing a second match. Bayley survives the initial confusion, only for Jax to regain control with a powerbomb and consecutive Annihilators to win the championship. The finish gives Jax a decisive victory while preserving Stratton as a future threat.

The match is more functional than memorable, but the title change has purpose. Jax leaves as champion, Stratton remains attached to the championship picture, and Bayley's reign ends without a fluke pin or outside attack doing all the work. On a show crowded with larger moments, this one does its assignment and leaves quietly.

CM Punk and Drew McIntyre finally get a singles match after months of insults, injuries and championship sabotage. That should be enough, but SummerSlam adds Seth Rollins as special guest referee, ensuring the bout begins with three grudges instead of two. The atmosphere is excellent because the audience understands every relationship before the bell.

The wrestling between Punk and McIntyre is appropriately hostile. They fight with more urgency than polish, and Punk's return from the triceps injury gives every sustained exchange a little extra weight. The stolen bracelet remains the emotional prop, a small prop asked to perform the workload of a supporting actor.

Rollins becomes increasingly central when Punk mistakes his handling of the bracelet for provocation. Punk hits the GTS on McIntyre while Rollins is down, loses a long visual pin, argues with the referee and eventually hits Rollins with another GTS. McIntyre uses the opening, lands a low blow and Claymore, then pins Punk while Rollins reluctantly counts three.

The finish advances every relationship but makes the match feel busier than it needed to be. McIntyre gets the first official victory, Punk receives protection through referee chaos, and Rollins leaves with a reason to hate Punk more than he already did. It is compelling television with a wrestling match inside it, rather than the definitive Punk-McIntyre fight the feud would later produce.

Gunther and Damian Priest wrestle the match SummerSlam needs before an interference-heavy main event. Priest is defending the championship he won at WrestleMania, Gunther is cashing in the opportunity earned through the King of the Ring tournament, and both men carry themselves like the belt is supposed to make a person more dangerous rather than more decorative. The tone is serious from the opening exchanges.

Priest's power keeps Gunther from dictating everything. South of Heaven produces a major near fall, and the champion repeatedly fights through the challenger's strikes and submissions with the desperation of someone determined to prove his reign was more than a successful cash-in. Gunther responds by attacking the body, controlling space and making every return to the sleeper feel more inevitable.

Finn Bálor's betrayal provides the story turn without erasing the match. He places Gunther's foot on the rope to break a Priest pin, and Priest sees enough of the replay to understand what happened. The champion's anger sends him after Bálor, creating the opening Gunther needs to reapply the sleeper and eventually force the referee stoppage.

The interference keeps the match from being perfectly self-contained, but the title change still feels earned. Gunther spends most of the bout proving he can physically match the champion, then capitalizes when Priest's personal war becomes impossible to ignore. It is the best combination of wrestling, stakes and consequence on the show, and a convincing beginning to Gunther's first world-title reign in WWE.

Cody Rhodes and Solo Sikoa inherit the least subtle stipulation in WWE. Bloodline Rules means the championship match will eventually become a census of allies, enemies and relatives, so the early wrestling is less about pretending interference will not happen than establishing enough structure before the doors open. Rhodes carries the match with the confidence of a champion who has already survived this kind of chaos once.

The first waves arrive predictably. Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa attack Rhodes, Kevin Owens and Randy Orton answer them, and Jacob Fatu enters later to restore the Bloodline advantage with the kind of violence that immediately separates him from the rest of Solo's group. The sequence is excessive, but excess is the stipulation's native language.

Then Roman Reigns returns. The stadium reaction changes the match before he touches anybody, and his target makes the scene more important: he attacks Solo Sikoa, not Cody Rhodes, then gives the champion a brief acknowledgment before stepping away. Cody finishes Solo with Cross Rhodes, but his eyes remain fixed on Roman during the pin because everyone understands the return matters beyond this result.

As a pure match, the interruptions keep Rhodes and Solo from producing a fully coherent championship fight. As a stadium main event, it succeeds because every cameo has a clear allegiance and the final one launches the next major Bloodline chapter. Cody retains, Solo's claim to leadership is challenged, and Roman Reigns closes SummerSlam without needing to say a word.