- January move of Monday Night Raw to Netflix
- Last Saturday WWE delivered a record breaking SummerSlam
- Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque set the table for what will likely be a huge 2025 for WWE
“I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days, before you’ve actually left them”.
Beginning with an Andy Barnard quote from the US Office may not exactly be the most profound way to open an article, but in this case it feels very apt as, this past Saturday, WWE delivered a SummerSlam that will no doubt be talked about decades into the future.
The 37th annual ‘Biggest Party of the Summer’ was very much a ‘moments over matches’ sort of card. The in-ring work was still, for the most part, solidly stellar, but this was the type of event where seismic creative shifts were made in order to evolve several of the biggest storylines of the already history making Paul Levesque era into truly can’t miss television, as WWE approaches it’s multi-billion dollar Netflix debut in January.
At an event custom made for the water cooler, longstanding alliances were irreparably ripped apart, giving rise to white-hot new babyfaces and villains now despised at an almost heroic level. Multiple new champions were crowned, next big things firmly strapped into their rockets to main event superstardom and, of course, there was THAT box office breaking return.
Between the Judgement Day’s Finn Balor and Liv Morgan-led metamorphosis, Bron Breakker’s five-minute Intercontinental Title vanquishing of Sami Zayn, GUNTHER’s World Heavyweight Championship coronation and Roman Reigns’ Bloodline battering return, Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque set the table for what will likely be a nine-month run that will be reflected upon with the same nostalgia-laden pining for the olden days that the Attitude Era of the late ‘90s/early 00’s and the Golden Era of the mid-late ‘80s receive on a daily basis across social media and countless documentaries.
Several of the matches on the SummerSlam card polarised opinions, none more so than the melodrama-soaked CM Punk vs Drew McIntyre grudge match, officiated by Seth Rollins. And while Levesque has, more often than not, aimed to deliver on both moments and matches in his role as WWE’s Chief Content Officer, SummerSlam was a show in which the between-the-ropes action was merely a backdrop.
The impending move of Monday Night Raw to Netflix in January is a debut of such magnitude, the 14-time World Champion had to make sure enough pieces were cemented into place for WWE to hit the ground running when their franchise programme says goodbye to cable television in the new year.
With the streaming giant having both a break-clause in their multi-billion dollar contract with WWE, allowing them to ditch the proposed 10-year contract after only half that time as well as an extension clause that allows them to double it to 20 years, Levesque knows that first impressions have never been more vital. Given the historic nature of the move (Raw will become Netflix’s first ever foray into weekly live events), Netflix will undoubtedly be throwing a heavyweight amount of promotion behind their new marriage with sports entertainment as we edge closer to 2025. True crime documentaries and Emmy-baiting original series will take a back seat to Cody Rhodes, Rhea Ripley, Roman Reigns and, very likely, a returning Final Boss.
So here we are, with Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley now fully formed babyfaces, out of the Judgement Day and staring down the barrel of a lengthy, twist-and-turn filled rivalry with their former family. The group’s dominance as Monday Night Raw’s premiere heel faction over the previous two years now segueing beautifully into one of two civil wars within WWE from which countless bouts and angles can be crafted and replayed time and time again for years to come. Priest and Ripley are marquee players now, scorned by the betrayals of Balor and ‘Dirty’ Dom Mysterio, and more popular than ever with every sellout crowd they perform in front of. The reactions to both on Raw this past Monday did more than whet the appetite for the hysteria that will be emanating from the stands in the next few months as the newfound Terror Twins go to war with the new Judgement Day.
Spinning out of Balor’s betrayal of Priest, was the former Senor Money In The Bank dropping his World Heavyweight Championship to GUNTHER, at SummerSlam. The Ring General made history with his near two-year reign as Intercontinental Champion. Now, the Austrian has been coronated with world title gold and carries with him a reputation as one of the greatest wrestlers on the planet. He will main event the upcoming Bash In Berlin at the end of August in the German capital against Randy Orton – a first defence that signifies a tremendous amount of faith in the former IC champ. In placing the ten pounds of gold around GUNTHER’s waist, Levesque has purposefully made the all-conquering Austrian the Raw brand’s Everest for the Netflix premiere. The casual, lapsed and first-time fans curiously tuning in to see what all the fuss is about will be greeted with the blood, thunder and brutality of the World Heavyweight Champion and be left wondering who could possibly bring his reign to an end. Classic pro wrestling booking 101.
There is then the other new champion on the red brand. Bron Breakker. The Steiner brother for the modern era. An athletic freak of nature who the bulls in Pamplona would run away from. Breakker’s rise over the past two-and-a-half years has been as breathtaking as it has been meteoric. The new Intercontinental Champion’s speed is even scarier than his strength. In Breakker, Triple H has his 2024 Goldberg. A charisma-soaked battering ram who can achieve inside five minutes what most can’t in 20. Breakker has been lifting crowds off their seats on a weekly basis ever since he tore into NXT as a greener-than-goose s**t rookie in 2021. By working with a series of experienced guiding hands, including an all-timer like his most recent foe Sami Zayn, Breakker has pieced together his act in a way that is mature beyond his years. Saddling the young gun up with Intercontinental gold is a surefire sign the main event is beckoning. His rocket-propelled journey to the top will be appointment viewing for those watching on Netflix next year.
And, of course, it would be remiss to not mention the hate-triangle between CM Punk, Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre. While the bout between Punk and McIntyre in Cleveland last weekend divided fans, one opinion remained unanimous and that is these three men’s story is only just beginning. Since January they have traded barbs on the mic and on social media, each more personal and cutting than the last. No subject, it would seem, is off the table when it comes to getting heat, making the fans invest more and more with each passing week. At SummerSlam, in reviving Punk and Rollin’s unabashed hatred for one another, while also leaving Punk with a legitimate call for a rematch against McIntyre, there is now legs being given to this triumvirate to send them crashing into the new year in a brawling, bloody, mess that will, once again, keep Netflix users answering affirmatively to ‘Are You Still Watching?’.
Finally, the Original Tribal Chief, Roman Reigns, returned in the main event of SummerSlam, aiding former arch-nemesis Cody Rhodes so the American Nightmare could preserve his WWE Title reign, at the expense of Reigns’ own cousin, Solo Sikoa. While SmackDown is heading to the USA Network in the United States, it will in fact be heading to Netflix along with Raw and the entire WWE library in most other international territories in the new year, including the UK, Europe and Australia. So in bringing back the Head of the Table at SummerSlam, Levesque ensured his two biggest stars were spearheading two separate but seismic moves on home soil and abroad.
Rhodes and Reigns are the current generation’s Austin and Rock, with Reigns now, after five years of failure between 2015-2020, an elite-level babyface. The generational heel run the Tribal Chief undertook, until he dropped his WWE Title to Rhodes at WrestleMania 40 in April, left no doubt in any fans’ mind that he belonged in the same pantheon as the great champions who had come before him; Austin, Rock, Cena, Hogan, Hart, Michaels, HHH etc. As a good guy, Reigns is standing opposite to the Bloodline, now under new leadership in the form of Reigns’ cousin Solo. Bloodline 2.0 is unidentifiable to the one Reigns led so memorably for four years, with Sikoa enlisting Tama and Tonga Loa as well as ‘Samoan Werewolf’ Jacob Fatu. Jimmy Uso is on the shelf, Jey Uso is thriving and Yeeting on Monday Night Raw and Reigns’ beloved ‘Wiseman’ Paul Heyman was annihilated by Solo and co. weeks ago.
So Reigns will now have to rally the troops ahead of a Bloodline civil war. He will have to once again gain the trust and reunite the estranged Usos. He may even need the help of honourary Uce, Sami Zayn. And if we do indeed learn that Solo’s actions since WrestleMania have been directed by a High Chief of the Anoaʻi family, then WWE will be cookin’ the Roman vs Rock match so many fans have been longing to see, at next year’s WrestleMania in Las Vegas. Although, let us not forget, the Final Boss still has unfinished business with Cody Rhodes to attend to upon his return. The Rock fighting both his family and the WWE Champion may even eclipse the career-best character work he displayed on the road to WrestleMania.
After binging what the remainder of 2024 has to offer between now and December 31, we will be seated when Rock, Reigns, Rhodes and co. arrive on Netflix in 2025.
