8 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SummerSlam 2023 (Results & Review)

3. An Endorsement From Brock

Cody Rhodes Brock Lesnar
WWE.com

Well, who could have seen that coming before this match?

Brock Lesnar turned heel on the Raw after WrestleMania 39, attacking Cody Rhodes and kicking off their feud. He tried everything in the lead-up to SummerSlam and during their match to put the American Nightmare down, including attacking Cody in his hometown in front of his mother. During their match, Brock kept tossing Rhodes to the floor, imploring him to stay down and save himself.

When it was all over, Lesnar removed his gloves and the two went head-to-head, only for Brock to offer a handshake, then a hug, then raised his arm to the crowd. It was an endorsement from the Beast after failing to keep Cody down, a rare acknowledgement that he had been bested in the heat of combat.

Because you don’t see this from Lesnar, it actually meant something. And given that Brock had just turned heel to feud with Rhodes, it’s believable that he went back to his villainous roots to get an edge, and when that failed, he owned it.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.