4 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SummerSlam Night 2 (Review & Results)
2. An Air Of Unpredictability
One of the biggest criticisms leveled at WWE during its decline this past year-plus is that they have gotten incredibly stale, boring, and “safe.” They don’t step outside their comfort zone, and they don’t inspire fans with a creative product.
For one brief moment Sunday night, we got a callback to brighter days when reinstated SmackDown GM Nick Aldis shook up the Undisputed WWE Championship number one contender’s match by inserting not one, but two surprise entrants. He first added his opponent from Saturday night, Gunther, as a gesture toward being fairer.
But Aldis wasn’t done yet: he then revealed that the second additional participant was a returning Kevin Owens, who had been out injured for 17 months.
That bit of chaos to open the show injected an air of uncertainty and unpredictability, a feeling that anything can happen. The fact that the first addition made storyline sense and the second was a legit feel-good shock made this even better. It harkened back to WWE in 2023 and early 2024, when they seemed to fire on all cylinders all the time.
Of course, that “anything can happen” sentiment faded by the next match and we sunk back into the creative morass that has engulfed WWE programming, but it was refreshing to feel that excitement and energy again, even for a brief moment.