WWE SUMMERSLAM NIGHT ONE REVIEW

- Rob Crowther, Editor In Chief 

The first ever two night WWE Summer Slam PLE emanating from Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ was a monumental event featuring title changes, a few head scratchers, and history making moments.  

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The opening contest of the night saw The Tribal Chief Roman Reigns and his cousin Jey Uso take on the team we've affectionately named "Bron Bron" here on BCP+. The crowd starts off hot with the always popular entrance of of Jey, chock full of YEETS galore. In fact, Roman Reigns even "ran it back" as he YEET-ed with his fam mid-match. This turned into a top rope crossbody to the pile on the outside by Jey. 

Other notable moments included Bron innovatively stopping a tag from Jey to Roman, by essentially pulling Jey out of the air. I love seeing things that I've never seen before in the ring. Outside the ring Reigns speared Bron through the barrier. Everyone got their stuff in, BUT Bronson Reed and Breakker looked strong here. Heyman with the sneakers around his neck were the icing on the cake.  Roman takes a spear by Bron but Jey gets the dub with a spear of his own followed by an Uso Splash. 

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Up next, The WWE Women's Tag Team Championships were on the line, as The Judgement Day's Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez defended against Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss. We had the opportunity to chat with Raquel and Roxanne, who both seemed very confident heading into this one.  The match really got going once Charlotte got the hot tag and ran through everybody, displaying her incredible athleticism. Unfortunately Bliss accidentally swats Charlotte, which leads to a bit of a misdirect, where it looks like Charlotte is going to kick her later in the match. Instead Charlotte kicks Raquel, and Bliss hits the Sister Abigail on Roxanne to get the win. Your new women's tag team champs are Bliss and Flair. Awkward hug at the end was the cherry on top. 

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Ahead of the next bout, we had the opportunity to interview Karrion Kross a few days before his SummerSlam match against Sami Zayn. Our very own Senior Editor Kelvin Kately painted this as a must win for Kross, which I did ask the former NXT Champion about. Kross had a smirk when he answered, but I did not expect this match to be so short. I've been very adamant about Sami becoming a future World Heavyweight Champion, but I did not think I would see Kross lose here in such quick fashion. The story of the match was tempting Sami and misdirecting him with the use of a steal pipe, which cross had also referenced in our interview. Despite the loss, Kross was the last one to leave the ring with a bit of an ovation from the crowd. Maybe I'm off on this one but in hindsight, it feels like that may have been the last time we see Kross in a WWE ring for some time. And I hope I'm wrong. 

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To the same effect, Jade Cargil lost her WWE Women's Championship match to Tiffany Stratton in pretty quick fashion. I felt these two had something unique in the ring, and I would've liked to have seen more. Big improvement by Jade here who really dominated most of this match. Tiffy hit a few signatures and had some great reversals. Unfortunately, Jade fell victim to a quick Prettiest Moonsault, and everyone was surprised to see her not kick out. This begs the question, what's next for Jade?  

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The celebrity match of the evening featured music star Jelly Roll and Randy Orton VS. Logan Paul and Drew McIntyre. Jelly Roll did well, and I honestly think he has a solid chokeslam. Jelly Roll went out with the medical team but returned to the match after they tried to take him up the ramp. This was after a beautiful high flying splash from the buckle through the announce table by Paul. Paul gets the win with a splash on Jelly Roll. A rare celebrity loss in WWE.  

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The main event of the evening saw challenger CM Punk take on The World Heavyweight Champion Gunther. This was a strike-fest early on with Gunther getting a massive amount of chops in. In fact the first 10 minutes of this match was ALL Gunther. Actually, 80% of this match was Gunther.  Chops, power bombs and even dinosaur dropkicks. However, Punk would continue to kick out. The turning point in this match is when Gunther is busted open from the announce table. Gunther is bleeding everywhere and may have a broken nose. Punk goes for the GTS but Gunther still is able to reverse into a sleeper hold. Punk reverses into a series of two GTS's and gets the pinfall to become the NEW World Heavyweight Champion. 

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An emotional CM Punk wins the big one BUT Seth Rollins returns on crutches with a Money in the Bank briefcase carrying Paul Heyman. Rollins slowly drops the crutches and cashes in. There was nothing Punk could do. Rollins hit a single curb stop after a series of briefcase shots to become the NEW World Heavyweight Champion. The Heist of the century part two!! 

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A dramatic ending setting the stage for Night 2 of SummerSlam tomorrow night at Metlife. 

Keep it here on BCP+ for all your SummerSlam Coverage.