Hey yo, it's a big weekend of wrestling with WWE presenting their King & Queen of the Ring premium live event that airs in a couple hours while AEW comes back with Double or Nothing on Sunday. As a result, there's plenty of noteworthy news items to discuss today.
- The finals of the men's King of the Ring tournament has come down to Gunther vs. Randy Orton and you really can't go wrong with either guy as the winner. Triple H dropped a pretty significant stipulation on us earlier this week by indicating that whoever becomes "king" goes on to face the champion of their brand at SummerSlam. On one hand, if WWE goes with Orton, they have a ready-made main event of Orton vs. Cody Rhodes for their summer spectacle with an impressive backstory while on the other hand, with Gunther, he is coming off a record breaking Intercontinental title reign and naturally seems ready to be elevated into the World title picture. I'm going to go with Gunther winning this one and facing whoever is the Raw champion at the time of SummerSlam. I phrase it like that because Clash at the Castle takes place first and will have major title implications with a Drew McIntyre win over Damian Priest quite possible. Perhaps we see McIntyre win the title, face Gunther at SummerSlam where CM Punk costs him the title again and this leads to Gunther going into Bash at Berlin at the end of August wearing the gold.
- Over on the women's side, we have somewhat surprising finalists in Nia Jax and Lyra Valkyria, the latter going on a bit of a Cinderella run against all odds to make it this far. If the SummerSlam stipulation wasn't announced, I think it would have helped Valkyria's chances but as it is, Jax vs. Bayley is something that has not only been teased but makes a lot of sense as one of SummerSlam's top women's matches.
- The other matches on the card will see Cody Rhodes defend against Logan Paul. Once WWE announced that Paul's US title wasn't going to be on the line, it locked in Cody as an overwhelming favorite and let's face it, Rhodes didn't complete his story only to drop the belt a month later. Sami Zayn defends his Intercontinental title in a triple threat match against Bronson Reed and Chad Gable and I don't think he's losing while Becky Lynch defends her WWE Women's title against Liv Morgan in a match that could conceivably go either way. I wonder if Lynch's contractual status (she is reportedly days away from free agency) factors into WWE's decision but I still feel she isn't going anywhere.
- I've already admitted in a previous update that I'm not that well versed in the happenings within AEW and have very few contacts there so I won't offer up any predictions for Double or Nothing. However, this is an important PPV for AEW as it essentially marks their five year anniversary. The promotion has had its share of ups and downs, starting off white hot and at times, looking like they would seriously challenge WWE, but in recent times, the script has flipped and WWE has not only maintained their sizeable gap, but pulled away. I would say Vince McMahon's departure from WWE coupled with the internal turmoil within AEW that culminated with CM Punk's termination and subsequent return to WWE are two of the biggest contributing factors in each promotion's current trajectory. AEW's creative woes have also come to the forefront and I found it interesting that Dave Meltzer, who has largely been very pro-AEW wrote in his newsletter that "AEW went from the fun place to work with the great backstage camaraderie when WWE talent for the most part were walking on eggshells, to a place with a lot of frustration from wrestlers making a nice and even great living but not getting anywhere near the ringtime nor upward mobility hoped for." A good example of how very different these promotions are is to look at WWE bringing in Jade Cargill from AEW while Mercedes Mone went the other way. Mone, as Sasha Banks, was the far bigger name and better wrestler, but it's Cargill who has exploded into a potential future game-changer simply based on presentation. You could make the same case comparing Cody Rhodes and Adam Copeland too, I suppose.
- WWE announced that SummerSlam 2026 will head to Minneapolis, Minnesota in what will be a two-night event - the first time that any WWE event aside from WrestleMania will be staged across multiple days. A couple of things to take away from this. Minnesota has long been a candidate to land WrestleMania and in fact, was a heavy favorite for WrestleMania 41 next year before WWE's change in leadership led to a complete pivot. Las Vegas was always a personal favorite destination for an Endeavor-led WWE and internally, I'm sure there was also considerable hesitation in hosting WrestleMania in an open-air stadium in Minnesota in April. In a way, giving Minnesota SummerSlam is a bit of a consolation prize but they upped the prestige by expanding it to two nights. Ultimately, this means Minnesota won't be getting WrestleMania anytime soon and the quick announcement (in fact, before WWE has even announced the 2025 SummerSlam location) was probably partially to pacify the city. What this means for WWE PLEs in terms of whether WWE will expand them to two nights remains to be seen. Personally, SummerSlam works and possibly even the Royal Rumble but I don't think the other events are going to be moving from their current structure.
- Also, a two-day SummerSlam in Minnesota in 2026 very much increases the chances that WrestleMania that year could be held overseas, whether it be Saudi Arabia or United Kingdom or wherever.
- In other news, Endeavor merged the live events departments of WWE and UFC and very soon after that, news broke that several WWE employees lost their jobs. No talents were affected but it is believed that the cuts are not over as Endeavor looks to streamline their operations and eliminate redundancies. People working in divisions that overlap are obviously the most in jeopardy.
- AEW moved the date of All Out back about a week to September 7, citing its previous closeness to All In that takes place in London. That's a very good reason as the two PPVs were initially just one week apart and even now that there is two weeks between them, it still seems like very little time to build and promote matches. Another reason, though not explicitly stated, is that everyone expects WWE to run an event on the Labor Day weekend (September 1) and AEW obviously doesn't want to run head-to-head against WWE.
- Even though she has yet to make her in-ring debut for WWE, former Stardom standout Giulia has been all over the news. Expected to join WWE later this summer, matters have gotten complicated with the launch of the new Marigold promotion as well as a wrist injury that Giulia suffered in the debut event of the new promotion. The story differs depending on which source you want to believe as some are pointing to the July 7 Heatwave as the destination where she will wrestle Roxanne Perez while others feel like it will be after that due to the injury and her prior commitments as well as some necessary paperwork to be completed so that her family (mother, boyfriend) are able to come live with her in Florida.
- Brian Gewirtz was recently on Busted Open radio and had some interesting insights into The Rock's return to WWE as well as how a match against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39 was discussed but never happened and how things evolved rapidly in regards to the WrestleMania 40 main event where plans for the main event changed multiple times. Gewirtz is a former WWE head writer and a close associate of The Rock's so he would definitely have inside knowledge of what happened though he also dropped that he's looking to write another book and will probably spill more details there. You can read about what he said on the podcast here and here.
- Anyone notice Finn Balor's "Demon" memorabilia on Raw during the backstage Judgment Day clubhouse segment?
That's it for now, back next week. Email me at news@rajah.com with feedback, thoughts, criticism or tips. Bye.
