After teaming together on Tuesday, SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley issued a SummerSlam challenge to Ember Moon.
Moon teamed with Bayley to defeat Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville on this week’s SmackDown. In a post-match angle, Bayley was interviewed in the ring by Kayla Braxton and was asked who her next challenger would be.
Bayley challenged Moon, saying she wants to wrestle someone who is worthy of a title shot, someone with charisma, someone she’s never faced before, and someone who would be dedicated to the title if they defeat Bayley for it. Moon accepted the title match.
Charlotte Flair also returned to SmackDown this week and defeated Liv Morgan.
SummerSlam is taking place at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on August 11. Seth Rollins will challenge for Brock Lesnar’s Universal Championship at the pay-per-view, and Becky Lynch will defend her Raw women’s Championship against Natalya.
Ronda Rousey has won her first championship in professional wrestling.
Rousey squashed Alexa Bliss at SummerSlam tonight to win the Raw Women’s Championship. Rousey effectively took the entire match, with Bliss stalling at the start and Rousey being unfazed by the little offense Bliss got in. Rousey hit fireman’s carry slams, punches, judo throws, and submitted Bliss with an armbar.
Rousey celebrated with Natalya and Nikki & Brie Bella after the match. She also embraced her husband — UFC fighter Travis Browne — who was sitting at ringside.
The Bellas did a backstage interview earlier in the night setting up that they would be front row for Rousey vs. Bliss, with them saying that they were there to see Rousey make history and become champion. Dave Meltzer reported on last night’s Wrestling Observer Radio that Rousey vs. Nikki was being planned for WWE’s Evolution pay-per-view as of early last week. Evolution will take place at the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York on October 28.
This was the second time that Rousey had challenged for the Raw Women’s Championship in her career. Bliss interrupted her match against Nia Jax at Money in the Bank and cashed in the Money in the Bank briefcase to win the title from Jax.
Elias has been feuding with Bobby Lashley during the build to SummerSlam. On last night’s Raw, Lashley laid out “Ricky Roberts” with a spinebuster after Roberts tried to hit him with a guitar. Roberts’ character was a local musician from Greensboro, North Carolina who was Elias’ biggest fan.
Elias will also be performing at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City at 5 p.m. Eastern time this Saturday.
The SummerSlam pre-show will begin at 5 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, with the main card starting at 7 p.m. Here’s the lineup for the show:
Universal Champion Brock Lesnar defending against Roman Reigns
Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss defending against Ronda Rousey
WWE Champion AJ Styles defending against Samoa Joe
Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz
SmackDown Women’s Champion Carmella defending against Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair in a triple threat match
Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler (w/ Drew McIntyre) defending against Seth Rollins (w/ Dean Ambrose)
United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura defending against Jeff Hardy
Braun Strowman vs. Kevin Owens (If Owens wins, he gets Strowman’s Money in the Bank briefcase)
Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin
SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Bludgeon Brothers defending against The New Day
WWE Cruiserweight Champion Cedric Alexander defending against Drew Gulak (pre-show)
Rusev & Lana vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas & Zelina Vega in a mixed tag match (pre-show)
Raw Tag Team Champions The B-Team defending against The Revival (pre-show)
The Raw Tag Team titles will be on the line on the SummerSlam pre-show.
The B-Team defending their titles against The Revival was added to the SummerSlam card on tonight’s go-home edition of Raw. It was announced after Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas retained their titles against The Revival and Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt. Axel blind-tagged himself in near the finish, Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder hit the Shatter Machine on Wyatt, and Axel threw Dawson out of the ring before getting the pin.
There will also be two other matches on Sunday’s kickoff show. Rusev & Lana will face Andrade “Cien” Almas & Zelina Vega, and it was officially confirmed tonight that Cedric Alexander’s Cruiserweight Championship defense against Drew Gulak will be on the pre-show.
There are now 13 matches announced for SummerSlam. The pre-show will begin at 5 p.m. Eastern time, with the main card starting at 7 p.m.
Here’s the updated card:
Universal Champion Brock Lesnar defending against Roman Reigns
Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss defending against Ronda Rousey
WWE Champion AJ Styles defending against Samoa Joe
Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz
SmackDown Women’s Champion Carmella defending against Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair in a triple threat match
Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler defending against Seth Rollins
United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura defending against Jeff Hardy
Braun Strowman vs. Kevin Owens (If Owens wins, he gets Strowman’s Money in the Bank briefcase)
Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin
SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Bludgeon Brothers defending against The New Day
WWE Cruiserweight Champion Cedric Alexander defending against Drew Gulak (pre-show)
Rusev & Lana vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas & Zelina Vega in a mixed tag match (pre-show)
Raw Tag Team Champions The B-Team defending against The Revival (pre-show)
The card for SummerSlam is now up to 12 announced matches.
WWE revealed this morning that Rusev & Lana will be teaming against Andrade “Cien” Almas & Zelina Vega in a mixed tag match on the SummerSlam pre-show. It’s the first match to be officially confirmed for the pre-show.
Vega has defeated Lana twice on SmackDown over the last two weeks. The story of their matches has been that, amid dissension between Rusev, Aiden English, and Lana, English has come out to try and help Lana, but it’s backfired and led to her losing.
Rusev wasn’t with Lana at ringside on the July 31 episode. Almas got on the apron to cause a distraction, English ran out to stop him, and Vega rolled up Lana for the pin.
This week, Rusev said they forgave English but suggested that he shouldn’t come out for Lana’s match. He ran down while Rusev and Almas were fighting, with English accidentally tackling Almas into Lana while she was climbing the top rope. Vega hit a double knee strike in the corner for the win.
Almas also defeated Rusev last month after English trying to break up a fight between Lana and Vega backfired.
SummerSlam will be held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on August 19. Here’s the updated lineup:
Universal Champion Brock Lesnar defending against Roman Reigns
Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss defending against Ronda Rousey
WWE Champion AJ Styles defending against Samoa Joe
Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz
SmackDown Women’s Champion Carmella defending against Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair in a triple threat match
Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler defending against Seth Rollins
United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura defending against Jeff Hardy
Braun Strowman vs. Kevin Owens (If Owens wins, he gets Strowman’s Money in the Bank briefcase)
Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin
SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Bludgeon Brothers defending against The New Day
WWE Cruiserweight Champion Cedric Alexander defending against Drew Gulak
Rusev & Lana vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas & Zelina Vega in a mixed tag match (pre-show)
The SmackDown Tag Team Championship match for SummerSlam is now official.
It will be The New Day challenging for The Bludgeon Brothers’ titles at the August 19 pay-per-view. New Day were confirmed as Harper & Rowan’s challengers when Big E & Kofi Kingston defeated Cesaro & Sheamus in the SmackDown tag team tournament finals tonight.
New Day defeated SAnitY in the first round of the four-team tournament, while Cesaro & Sheamus beat The Usos.
The Bludgeon Brothers were also back in action on SmackDown this week. In their first televised match since retaining against Daniel Bryan & Kane at Extreme Rules last month, Harper & Rowan squashed an enhancement team.
The updated SummerSlam card is listed below:
Universal Champion Brock Lesnar defending against Roman Reigns
Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss defending against Ronda Rousey
WWE Champion AJ Styles defending against Samoa Joe
Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz
SmackDown Women’s Champion Carmella defending against Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair in a triple threat match
Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler defending against Seth Rollins
United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura defending against Jeff Hardy
Braun Strowman vs. Kevin Owens (If Owens wins, he gets Strowman’s Money in the Bank briefcase)
Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin
SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Bludgeon Brothers defending against The New Day
WWE Cruiserweight Champion Cedric Alexander defending against Drew Gulak
Finn Balor and Baron Corbin are set to face off on pay-per-view for the second straight month.
Balor vs. Corbin was added to the SummerSlam card on tonight’s episode of Raw. Balor won their match at Extreme Rules in July, while Corbin defeated him in the rematch they had on Raw last week.
Their storyline has been built around Corbin mocking Balor and his height. On tonight’s episode, Balor prevented Corbin from bailing on his match against Roman Reigns. After Corbin lost, Balor dropkicked him and gave him the Coup de Grace.
SummerSlam will be held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on August 19. Here’s the updated card:
Universal Champion Brock Lesnar defending against Roman Reigns
Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss defending against Ronda Rousey
WWE Champion AJ Styles defending against Samoa Joe
SmackDown Women’s Champion Carmella defending against Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair in a triple threat match
Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler defending against Seth Rollins
United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura defending against Jeff Hardy
Braun Strowman vs. Kevin Owens (If Owens wins, he gets Strowman’s Money in the Bank briefcase)
SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Bludgeon Brothers defending against the winners of SmackDown’s tag team tournament (either The New Day or Cesaro & Sheamus)
Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin
WWE Cruiserweight Champion Cedric Alexander defending against Drew Gulak
WWE’s cruiserweight division will be represented on the company’s next pay-per-view.
In a video that was uploaded today, WWE announced that Cedric Alexander’s Cruiserweight Championship defense against Drew Gulak will take place at SummerSlam. WWE has yet to officially indicate whether or not their match will be on the pre-show.
Alexander defeated Mustafa Ali in the title tournament finals on the WrestleMania 34 pre-show to become the new champion. The Greatest Royal Rumble is the only PPV that the title has been defended on since then.
Gulak was confirmed as Alexander’s next challenger when he defeated Ali, TJP, and Hideo Itami in a number one contender’s fatal four-way match on last week’s episode of 205 Live. Alexander’s televised title defenses since becoming champion have been against Kalisto, Buddy Murphy, and Itami.
The Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York will host SummerSlam on August 19. Here’s the updated card:
Universal Champion Brock Lesnar defending against Roman Reigns
Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss defending against Ronda Rousey
WWE Champion AJ Styles defending against Samoa Joe
Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler defending against Seth Rollins
SmackDown Women’s Champion Carmella defending against Becky Lynch
Braun Strowman vs. Kevin Owens (Owens gets Strowman’s Money in the Bank briefcase if he wins)
SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Bludgeon Brothers defending against the winners of SmackDown’s tag team tournament
WWE Cruiserweight Champion Cedric Alexander defending against Drew Gulak
For the third time this year, it will be Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship.
Reigns defeated Bobby Lashley on Raw tonight to be confirmed as Lesnar’s challenger for SummerSlam. Reigns kicked out of a spear from Lashley before hitting a Superman punch and a spear of his own for the win. Lashley, who defeated Reigns at Extreme Rules earlier this month, shook Reigns’ hand after the match.
Lesnar retained against Reigns in the main event of WrestleMania 34 this April. Their cage match at the Greatest Royal Rumble was then booked to end in controversy as Reigns speared Lesnar through the side of the cage. They also main evented WrestleMania 31 in 2015, with Seth Rollins cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase during the match and winning the WWE Championship.
Lesnar will be appearing on Raw next week to build up the title defense. It will be the first time he’s been on WWE television since the Greatest Royal Rumble.
SummerSlam is taking place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on August 19. Here’s the updated card:
Universal Champion Brock Lesnar defending against Roman Reigns
Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss defending against Ronda Rousey
WWE Champion AJ Styles defending against an opponent that will be announced on this week’s SmackDown
Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler defending against Seth Rollins
Braun Strowman vs. Kevin Owens (Owens gets Strowman’s Money in the Bank briefcase if he wins)
SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Bludgeon Brothers defending against the winners of SmackDown’s tag team tournament
Confirming what we reported last week, WWE has officially announced that Brock Lesnar will defend his title at SummerSlam.
The storyline of Kurt Angle issuing an ultimatum for Lesnar to show up on tonight’s Raw or agree to a date to defend the Universal title led to Paul Heyman appearing instead. Heyman claimed that Angle and the fans have it wrong, Lesnar loves being in WWE and being Universal Champion. Angle asked why Lesnar doesn’t show up then, and Heyman said Lesnar wants to represent WWE and hold the Universal Championship when he challenges for the UFC Heavyweight title.
Heyman compared it to Angle challenging for WWE titles while being an Olympic gold medalist, but Angle said Lesnar has to defend the title at SummerSlam or he’ll no longer be champion. Heyman reluctantly accepted the match.
Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre, Seth Rollins, Elias, Finn Balor, and Roman Reigns then stated their case to be Lesnar’s opponent at SummerSlam, and Angle made two triple threat matches between them for tonight’s Raw. The winners will advance to a number one contender’s match next week.
Reigns defeated Balor and McIntyre in the first triple threat. Lashley vs. Rollins vs. Elias will take place later in the show.
Lesnar has also been advertised locally for the Raw after SummerSlam, and the Barclays Center confirmed today that he’ll be on that August 20 episode.
SummerSlam is returning to Brooklyn, New York for a fourth straight year.
WWE announced last night that the Barclays Center would be hosting SummerSlam weekend again in 2018, with four shows in four nights. There will be an NXT TakeOver special on August 18th, SummerSlam on the 19th, Raw on the 20th, and SmackDown on the 21st.
WWE released the official word to the New York Post before also posting an article on their website. The announcement comes ahead of the company’s upcoming trip to the Barclays Center for NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn, SummerSlam, Raw, and SmackDown starting this weekend.
SummerSlam first took place at the Barclays Center in 2015 and tickets have either sold out or mostly sold out right when they’re put on sale every year that the venue has hosted the pay-per-view. Prior to that, the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California was home to the show for six straight years from 2009 to 2014.
