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

by Scott Carlson

1. Cody Triumphs

Cody Rhodes Brock Lesnar
WWE.com

Cody Rhodes continues to be the kind of guy who can pull you into almost any match and make you rally to his side, and Saturday was no different.

Rhodes managed to defeat Brock Lesnar in the final match in their trilogy, but it was how he persevered against the Beast and refused to stay down – as Lesnar repeatedly yelled at him – and kept getting back up that won over the crowd and Brock himself.

Brock repeatedly hit Cody with a suplex or clothesline and sent Rhodes to the floor, trying to get a countout win. He kept yelling at Rhodes to make it easier on himself, but the American Nightmare was too stubborn to stay down. Fans continued to flock to his aide, until Cody managed to put Brock down with three Cross-Rhodes.

While it might not have been an epic match, it still was very, very good and put a period on this feud with the right man winning and coming out of it with a purpose and actual momentum.

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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.