The 7 Most Jaw-Dropping Moments from WWE SummerSlam 2018

When Dolph Ziggler returned to WWE Monday Night RAW on April 16, he brought the fierce Scotsman Drew McIntyre with him for some added muscle and protection. Since then, the duo have dominated RAW and used their friendship to outnumber opponents. With more than a little help from McIntyre, Ziggler beat Seth Rollins for the Intercontinental Championship in June. 

In their rematch at SummerSlam, Rollins evened the odds by calling on his Shield teammate Dean Ambrose, but looked to be in serous trouble when the challenger took a spill to the outside and sailed headfirst into a ringside rail. Moments later, Rollins was suplexed outside of the ring by Ziggler. Despite this punishment, Rollins was able to call on his great physical conditioning to stay in the contest. 

Using cat-like agility, the challenger then rocked the IC champ with a stunning sequence that had 16,169 pro wrestling fans on their feet. Drew McIntyre, seeing that his friend was in trouble, responded by interjecting himself but Dean Ambrose soon took the cheater out of commission, allowing a bleeding Rollins to curb stomp Dolph Ziggler and pick up the win. Seth Rollins is once again your Intercontinental Champion. 

As reigning WWE champion for almost 300 days, The phenomenal A.J. Styles entered the Barclays Center to face his biggest threat yet by way of the 282-pound juggernaut, Samoa Joe.

The challenger had made the match personal in the days leading up to SummerSlam by talking trash about A.J.’s family, all in an effort get into the head of the champ, but the strategy seemed to fail as Styles managed to keep a lid on his emotions. 

After a hard-hitting battle, Styles planted his larger opponent with a devastating Styles Clash, but shockingly failed to pick up the pin. Joe then came back with his own offense but he too soon grew frustrated that he couldn’t put the champion away. So in desperation, Samoa Joe picked up a microphone and berated Styles’s family once again, referring to himself as the “new daddy.” This proved to be a step too far, finally sending Styles into frenzy. He attacked Joe and anyone else who got in his way. Because of his actions, A.J. was disqualified, but that didn’t stop him wielding a steel chair like a man possessed. Still your WWE champion for now, Styles has unfinished business with Samoa Joe.

As a relative newcomer, Carmella had surpassed all expectations since dethroning Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown women’s championship back in April. By hook or by crook, the Princess of Staten Island managed to hold on to her belt, but at SummerSlam under Triple Threat rules, her crown would finally slip. 

Defending against Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch, ‘Mella would get taken to school by her more experienced challengers. The moonwalking Princess wisely stayed outside of the ring during the early going, hoping that her opponents would weaken each other whilst she simply watched on, but it wasn’t long before the fabulous one found herself in the thick of the action and was locked into a figure eight submission hold by Flair. Becky Lynch broke the hold to keep the match in play, but then found herself in danger when the champion executed a high-risk dive to the outside. Charlotte proceeded to take both girls out with a spinning backflip from the top rope. 

Back in the ring, all three superstars traded near pinfalls until Charlotte was able to get the three-count on Lynch, legally earning her the SmackDown women’s championship without actually pinning Carmella. Instead of celebrating her friend’s victory, Becky Lynch then threw etiquette out of the window and attacked the new champion, making a statement heard loud and clear that the Fighting Irishwoman is now gunning for Charlotte’s gold. 

Kevin Owens had everything to fight for against the Monster in the Bank, Braun Strowman at SummerSlam. If he could beat his larger foe in any capacity, Owens would walk away with Strowman’s guaranteed title-shot contract. Unfortunately for Kevin Owens, the monster had no plans to relinquish his contract and turned Owens inside out with a football tackle in the opening moments of their frighteningly short contest. 

Braun’s brutal onslaught included a vicious choke-slam onto the steel entrance ramp, making a deafening thud as the challenger’s head bounced off the floor. Looking to make quick work of Owens, Braun then hoisted his opponent up on to his shoulder and crushed him with a running powerslam to pick up the pinfall and hold on to his Money in the Bank briefcase. 

SummerSlam played host to one of WWE’s biggest dream matches in recent memory when Daniel Bryan faced off against his former NXT mentor, The Miz. It was a personal grudge match that many fans thought they would never see. Now cleared to wrestle by WWE doctors, Bryan found himself in a position to finally get payback for the many times that The Miz had belittled and criticized the Yes Man over the years. 

In this must-see match, Bryan looked lean, mean, and ready to go by nailing The Miz with a flurry of hard kicks and trading submission holds with the self proclaimed A-lister. The Miz tried to use some of Bryan’s own moves against him and also managed to pick up a major advantage by clotheslining Bryan into next week. 

Despite landing on his head, Bryan refused to stop fighting and the two grapplers continued to battle it out, swapping some stinging chest chops in the process. Bryan delivered a back suplex to The Miz from the top rope and followed up with his patented YES Kicks, but Miz countered and almost scored a three-count. Bryan struck out again when he attempted to kick Miz but instead connected with the solid ring post, allowing The Miz to apply a figure four leg lock for the submission, but Bryan would not quit. 

Unable to put his former protégé away fair and square, The Miz cracked Bryan with a set of brass knuckles to get an undeserved victory. The instant replay revealed that Miz’s wife, Maryse, had passed him the weapon. 

Since destroying Bill Goldberg back at WrestleMania 33 to regain his universal championship, Brock Lesnar’s title defenses have been few and far between. While the Beast Incarnate has now held the title for more than 500 days, his reign has been anything but impressive, and the big man has rarely shown up on Monday Night RAW or on WWE PPV events.  

With Lesnar intent on returning to UFC to face Daniel Cormier and hold a title in both, he would first need to get through number one contender, Roman Reigns, in the main event of WWE SummerSlam 2018. 

Before the match could even get underway, Braun Strowman made his way to the ring and made it clear that he would be watching the action with his Money in the Bank briefcase close to his chest. Reigns tried to get a quick victory on Lesnar, blasting him with a succession of spears and superman punches, but the universal champion withstood the punishment and locked Reigns into a choke hold. 

The Big Dog weathered the submission attempt but when the two men took the action outside the ring, Strowman ended up tasting the wrong end of Lesnar’s F5 finisher. Back in the ring and still distracted, Roman Reigns capitalized on the situation and speared Lesnar for the pinfall and the WWE universal title. With Braun Strowman still out cold from the Lesnar’s attack, Reigns was able to celebrate his victory… for now. 

As for Lesnar, his dream of taking the WWE belt to the UFC is over. The big story now is the upcoming match between new champion Reigns and the freakishly strong Strowman. Given how quickly the Monster dispatched Kevin Owens earlier in the night, Reigns’s run with the gold may be very short indeed. 

Rowdy Ronda Rousey failed in her bid to beat Nia Jax for the WWE RAW women’s championship back in June when Alexa Bliss decided to stop the match and use her Money in the Bank contract to win Nia’s title from right under Rousey’s nose. After months of waiting in the wings, the former UFC champ finally got her shot at Alexa’s WWE gold at SummerSlam, and it wasn’t pretty.

Looking deadly focused in all black and with war paint on her face, it quickly became obvious that the “Baddest Women on the Planet” had shown up to win. In the early going, Bliss didn’t even want to lock up with her challenger. Ronda’s strength and intensity had the champ reeling. The Rowdy one employed a combination of her Judo and MMA skills to dominate, hyper extending Bliss’s elbow and scoring a submission within minutes.

Ronda Rousey’s tireless hours spent in the gym and at WWE’s performance center learning the ropes has certainly paid off. In defeating Alexa Bliss, Ronda Rousey became the first woman ever to have earned both the UFC and WWE women’s championship. Following such a one-sided victory, just one question remains: Who can provide Rousey with a worthy challenge going forward?