WWE SummerSlam 2025 Preview ~ 8/1/2025

WWE’s 38th annual SummerSlam premium live event (fka pay-per-view) will take place over two nights this weekend, the first time WWE’s mid-year showcase will get the multi-day treatment (WrestleMania has been a two-night event since 2020). With New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium playing host and Cardi B MC’ing, SummerSlam will see multiple championships on the line and more than one feud looking to get settled.

Night 1 (on Saturday August 2) will see Tiffany Stratton defend her Women’s Championship against Jade Cargill, the reigning Queen of the Ring. Cargill has been on the championship track ever since returning from injury earlier this year, and she may prove to be Stratton’s toughest foe yet, especially with Cargill’s rival Naomi busy defending her own title on Night 2.

Similarly, World Heavyweight Champion Gunther may have met his match against the unrelenting CM Punk, who has a long history of standing tall against brutal opponents like Drew McIntyre and Roman Reigns. Whether or not he can take the belt off the Ring General remains to be seen, but he will doubtless give Gunther a run for his money.

On the Women’s Tag Team front, Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss have forged an uneasy alliance, taking on much of the tag team division on their way to a championship match against titleholders Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez of The Judgement Day. Flair and Bliss will have to put aside their tumultuous history long enough to win the belts, and then even longer if they want to hang on to them.

Sami Zayn has had Karrion Kross on his back for months now, enduring mental manipulation and backstage assaults from Kross (and his wife/soothsayer Scarlett), who claims Sami isn’t the good guy he’s cracked up to be, urging him to embrace his inner heel. If Kross defeats Zayn at SummerSlam, the latter will be forced to admit that Kross is right, but if Zayn wins, Kross will have to admit he was wrong… something Kross’ ego may not allow him to do, even if it means playing dirty to win.

Logan Paul has allied with fellow heel Drew McIntyre to take on singer Jelly Roll, whom Paul publicly insulted on SmackDown last month. Jelly Roll found a defender in Randy Orton, which has culminated in a tag team match at SummerSlam: Paul and McIntyre vs. Jelly Roll and Orton. It’s a classic heel vs. face tag match, with Paul and McIntyre eager to take Jelly Roll and Orton down a peg, alongside the fans that cheer for them.

The likely main event of Night 1 is another tag match, this time centering around two men who won’t even be in the ring. After betraying Roman Reigns and allying with Seth Rollins, the “Wise Man” Paul Heyman helped Rollins recruit Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed to his cause. With Rollins injured for the time being, Breakker and Reed set their sights on Reigns. Putting aside their somewhat unresolved family drama, Reigns and his cousin Jey Uso agreed to team up to face the seemingly unstoppable duo. Undoubtedly, Heyman is hoping Breakker and Reed will remain enough of a barrier between himself and an angry Reigns looking to settle a few scores.

On Night 2 (Sunday August 3), more Bloodline drama will be addressed as United States Champion Solo Sikoa will take on his former ally (and the man who he beat for the title), the “Samoan Werewolf” Jacob Fatu. Both men are known for their ferocity in the ring, so it comes as no surprise that the match will be fought inside a steel cage. First man to pin the other or escape the cage is the winner. And while Fatu is borderline unstoppable in a fight, he’ll have to reckon with the likely interference of Sikoa’s allies, Talla Tonga, Tonga Loa and JC Mateo.

Intercontinental Champion (and certified cowardly heel) Dominik Mysterio has been ducking AJ Styles for weeks, waving a doctor’s note and claiming he’s not cleared to wrestle. But Mysterio’s luck ran out in time for SummerSlam, and Styles will finally get his championship match. And worse, Mysterio may not be able to count on backup, thanks to the ongoing Judgement Day friction between himself, Finn Balor and JD McDonagh.

Weeks of feuding come to a head on Sunday as Women’s Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch hopes to put former champ (and Lynch’s former protege) Lyra Valkyria in her place. In a No Disqualification, No Countout match (meaning anything goes until someone gets pinned), Lynch and Valkyria will face off once more for the Intercontinental belt, with the added stipulation that if Valkyria loses, she can’t challenge for the belt again as long as Lynch is champ.

The men’s Tag Team Championship is up for grabs in a Table, Ladders and Chairs Match (where all three will be used liberally as weapons). Current champs Joe Gacy and Dexter Lumis of the Wyatt Sicks will take on five other tag teams… luchadors Andrade and Rey Fenix, #DIY (Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa), The Street Profits (Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins), Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) and Fraxiom (Axiom and Nathan Frazer). Regardless of who wins, these sort of matches guarantee high-flying, hard-hitting chaos, which will make for a good show for the crowd at MetLife and the viewers at home.

SummerSlam Night 2 will likely wrap up with a rematch between current and former Undisputed WWE Champions John Cena and Cody Rhodes, the latter of whom lost the title to Cena at WrestleMania. At their contract signing on Smackdown, Cena attempted to back out of the rematch due to various other commitments and alleged injuries. Rhodes, incensed, brutally attacked Cena (a sign of good guy Rhodes holding back less and less with every passing match), forced him to sign the contract and then revealed that it would be a Street Fight for the championship… no count outs, no disqualifications and weapons like chairs and Kendo sticks would be allowed. It will be a knock-down, drag-out conclusion to a SummerSlam likely full of knock-down, drag-out battles over the course of the weekend.