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In this episode, we give our instant reactions to Night 1 of WWE Summer Slam 2025 with match-by-match analysis!
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00:00Pro Pro Pro Wrestling Podcast
00:06Pro Pro Wrestling Podcast
00:13Pro Wrestling
00:17What?
00:18What?
00:20What?
00:21What?
00:22What?
00:23Bang!
00:25I'm going to fight with him, he's broken in half!
00:28Pro Pro Wrestling Podcast
00:31Just when they think they got the answers, I change the question.
00:36Rep through rep.
00:38Yeah!
00:40Woo!
00:41U.D.A.! U.D.A.!
00:46Who am you to doubt L-Fan?
00:48Because this guy's a serious professional.
00:50Can he do it?
00:52Oh!
00:53Oh!
00:54Unbelievable!
00:56Don't do my table in too cold though.
01:01And I am...
01:03...Macho King Luke Savage.
01:05Hey!
01:06Hey!
01:07Hey!
01:08Hey!
01:09Hey!
01:10Oh!
01:11Austin Podcast!
01:13Such a mag-a-thon-wearing fatty!
01:16I said WWE stands for...
01:18Austin!
01:19Austin!
01:21It's me Austin!
01:24I will never retire!
01:27What?
01:28What?
01:29What?
01:30What?
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02:41Hello everybody.
02:42Welcome to this post-SummerSlam night one episode of the Fro Wrestling Podcast.
02:46If you've got questions, comments, something you want me to touch on in a future episode,
02:51drop us a line at the Fro Wrestling Sound Off line 267-642-1160.
02:56We will get to those questions, comments, and concerns in a future episode.
02:59Tonight it is all about SummerSlam night one.
03:02Instant reactions to the show.
03:04I'm not going to take the time to go through all the pleasantries.
03:08Let's jump right into the card.
03:09The show started with a shocker opening the show.
03:12Roman Reigns and Jey Uso taking on Bron Breaker and Bronson Reed with Paul Heyman.
03:18The match itself, a little lackluster for me, not going to lie.
03:21I still thought it was a solid match, but certainly not as great as I thought these guys would put on.
03:26I really was hoping that they would find a way to really showcase Bron Breaker and Bronson Reed in a way that makes them look like main event, main event talent.
03:36I actually, all along I had the feeling that Bronson Reed would be the one to pick up the pinfall loss here, which did happen.
03:42I thought Roman would get the pin and I'm actually thrilled for Jey Uso that they gave him the opportunity because it almost elevates him in a way that he's able to go in there and take the pin in.
03:55I mean, let's, let's say it this way.
03:57The last time Roman Reigns is in the ring, he loses at WrestleMania.
04:01He finally makes it back.
04:03And when he finally makes it back, he does not pick up the win for his team.
04:06Now, look, it's still a win, but he's not the one who got the pin.
04:09And I think that speaks volumes about, there was a report earlier in the week, some people on different shows questioning whether or not WWE has lost faith in Jey Uso.
04:18I heard that on Busted Open and things of that nature.
04:20I think at this point, giving Jey the pinfall victory instead of Roman here tells me they still believe in Jey Uso as a singles superstar, which he is.
04:29Look at the reaction he got when he came out tonight coming through the crowd.
04:33Talk about a long walk to the ring.
04:35What a beautiful entrance for him.
04:37Roman always epic.
04:39I actually thought it was really nice to see the graphic for Braun Breaker and Bronson Reed.
04:43I thought that was really nicely done.
04:45It's kind of weird to me to see Paul Heyman come out with a different spray paint job on the Money in the Bank briefcase constantly, but whatever.
04:54In the end, decent match.
04:55We get to match number two, Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss challenging the Judgment Day Raquel Rodriguez, Roxanne Perez for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship.
05:04As predicted, Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss pick up the win and win the Tag Team Championship.
05:09I don't feel like that was a surprise.
05:11What I loved here was the moment where Alexa Bliss goes for the punch, misses and hits Charlotte.
05:16Charlotte, she then drags her to the corner, tags herself in.
05:20Charlotte's out of the picture for a hot minute.
05:22And when it gets to where Alexa Bliss is setting up Roxanne Perez for Sister Abigail, Charlotte slides into the ring.
05:30It looked very heelish.
05:32It looked like she was going to take out Alexa Bliss.
05:34Alexa Bliss even looked back at her.
05:35Great camera shot of Bliss looking, knowing the kick is coming.
05:39And then instead, she takes out Raquel Rodriguez and you see a Sister Abigail for the win.
05:45What a great ending to the match.
05:47Some hot, you know, Charlotte still able to do the flips, the back flip, all that stuff.
05:52After all she's been through with the knee injuries and things like that.
05:55This was quality, especially considering it's the Women's Tag Team Championship match.
06:01We're not talking about the Women's World title or anything like that.
06:03This is the Women's Tag Team match and I thought it was fantastic.
06:06Sami Zayn, Karrion Kross, not going to lie.
06:09This match, okay, let's go with the good first.
06:13The good, I loved the reaction from the crowd when Scarlett handed Sami the pipe.
06:19I thought that was really cool.
06:21The tease of Sami going heel, the tease of him using the pipe.
06:25I thought that was wonderful and I thought he may have actually gone for it
06:28and then Karrion Kross somehow picks up the win and then he'd have to concede.
06:31He was giving in to the dark side.
06:32Now, in a previous episode, I've talked about how I think Sami Zayn has a legitimate chance,
06:36if they play it right, to win the World Championship at WrestleMania next year.
06:40Now, I don't know if that's still the plan based on other things that happen later on in the show,
06:44but if that is the plan, you can't turn him heel and you can't let him succumb to these horrible,
06:49horrible, you know, inner demons and wanting to shift to the bad side.
06:52But I think at some point you have to give him that championship run because it's all they talk about anymore.
06:58Now, switching over to Karrion Kross, look, the match itself, I thought really,
07:02there was nothing in it that really impressed me.
07:05Nothing, even from Sami, like the exploder in the corner at the end of the match and whatnot.
07:10I didn't see anything that really wowed me.
07:12So if you're Karrion Kross trying to put on a show for WWE right before the end of your contract,
07:16unless he's already signed an extension, this was not the performance I was hoping for
07:21from a guy who either just re-signed or was trying to get re-signed.
07:25If WWE was looking to bury Kross with another loss on the way out the door, they succeeded with that.
07:31At the end of the day, they didn't really hype up the admitting that he was wrong about Zayn thing,
07:39which was supposed to be a stipulation in this match.
07:41I felt like we didn't even get that.
07:43And I suspect now maybe there's some truth to the rumors that Kross and Scarlett may not be staying with WWE.
07:50I really don't know at this point.
07:52It leaves a cloud over Karrion Kross' character.
07:55Look, I get it. Sami Zayn, I'm not going to say he's a homegrown guy because he had a long career in Ring of Honor,
07:59but for the majority of his popularity, he's been a WWE guy.
08:05And maybe this is one of those things where they just want to keep pushing one of their homegrown talents.
08:09But when you look at Karrion Kross, I mean, he is so over like Grover with the crowd.
08:14I don't understand how you let that walk away and how you don't book him like just a monster heel.
08:20Or right now, he's almost teetering on becoming a babyface.
08:24Go with it.
08:25He's been trying to turn Sami heel all this time.
08:27Maybe that's what you do.
08:28Maybe you take Sami and have Sami have a conversation with him that flips him face.
08:32Maybe now that Sami at the show he was saying this is over, this is done.
08:36Maybe now is when you take the opportunity to flip Kross face and him align with Sami,
08:42which I would not be opposed to.
08:44They'd be great opponents for the Braun Breaker and Bronson Reed as you move forward.
08:48They would be great to go together with, say, a Jey Uso and Roman going into a match at Survivor Series.
08:56I don't know. We'll have to wait and see how that plays out.
08:58The most disappointing match of the night, my opinion, Tiffany Stratton versus Jade Cargill.
09:04I felt like the match was very low key, very lackluster.
09:08And look, I'm going to be clear.
09:10If you're WWE and you still have the faith in Jade Cargill you did when you hyped up her arriving at NXT way back when she first signed,
09:22you got all those millions of views and all that stuff.
09:24That was awesome.
09:26I feel like she's a star of the future.
09:28I feel like they would have given her the championship here.
09:30I'm wondering if she is just not progressing the way they wanted her to.
09:34I'm wondering if they're losing confidence in Jade.
09:37Maybe this was an investment they are regretting at this point.
09:40I hope not. I hope she's doing very well.
09:42I hope she still has a world championship in her near future.
09:45But I don't see it when you give her this prime opportunity and didn't pull the trigger on it.
09:50Stratton, the flip side to Tiffany Stratton, I love that she picks up the win,
09:55even though I predicted otherwise.
09:56I'm thrilled for her because I think she's an incredible talent.
09:59But she could have done so much more.
10:02And if you're not going to push Jade, at least let Tiffany Stratton look better than she did tonight.
10:07I was not impressed with the match.
10:08It's not a knock on the girls, okay?
10:10Because they've got the talent.
10:11They've got the ability.
10:12This is whoever planned this match.
10:14I thought they could have planned so much more.
10:16The match went seven minutes and five seconds.
10:18That's very short for a program that's coming out of a queen of the ring tournament,
10:23for a world championship at a two-night major PLE.
10:28It just surprised me.
10:29I mean, if you think about the times of all the matches tonight,
10:31Roman Reigns, Jey Uso's win was 21 minutes, 10 seconds.
10:34Charlotte and Alexa was 13 minutes, 30 seconds.
10:37Sami Zayn and Karrion Kross, that was eight minutes, 10 seconds.
10:40This was 7.05.
10:41I mean, the matches were not going very long tonight.
10:45They just weren't.
10:46And this is a major, major PLE.
10:48So you would expect something more out of that.
10:50Now, when we get to the Drew McIntyre,
10:53Logan Paul versus Randy Orton, Jelly Roll match.
10:56Ahead of time, I thought Jelly Roll, Randy Orton was going to win.
10:59That did not happen.
11:00McIntyre and Logan Paul pick up the win tonight.
11:02I'm okay with it, to be perfectly honest with you.
11:05And here's why.
11:06Normally, the celebrity picks up the win.
11:08But in this situation, one, the highlights of the match.
11:13And there's a lot of them.
11:14This match was so much better than I expected.
11:1717 minutes plus.
11:18And you got to see Jelly Roll do some things.
11:21Black hole slams.
11:22You got to see him do choke slams.
11:24You also got to see him take the shooting star,
11:29whatever you want to call it, the frog splash off the turnbuckle,
11:31out of the ring from Logan Paul.
11:35That was absolutely amazing.
11:37And at the end of the match,
11:39you see Jelly Roll ends up taking the frog splash in the ring for the pin.
11:43And he sold it wonderfully.
11:45Now, the big highlights for me, obviously, those two moves.
11:48And then the other thing is, almost in a Mick Foley,
11:51Hell in a Cell kind of way,
11:53when Jelly Roll sees that Randy Orton is in trouble
11:56and needs his tag team partner,
11:58the way he calls off the medical and goes back to the ring,
12:02the reaction he got from the crowd.
12:04This is a guy who, I get it, mainstream musical artists,
12:06and I'm sure that's going to stay his primary job.
12:09But this is a guy, much like Bad Bunny, much like Logan Paul,
12:13I wouldn't mind seeing come back sporadically with him.
12:16I wouldn't say every week, but sporadically,
12:18and doing something with somebody every now and again.
12:21Logan Paul, at this point, I'm sorry.
12:23You can love or hate the guy, his character,
12:25some of the things he did in his youth.
12:27And we got to be honest about things.
12:29He made some really horrible decisions,
12:31and they were a very long time ago
12:33when the guy clearly wasn't mature enough
12:35to understand the severity of his decisions.
12:37But at this point, if you're looking at his professional wrestling career,
12:41that guy does not put on a bad match.
12:45He has never had a bad match.
12:48I'm not saying that because I'm a mark for Logan Paul.
12:50I think he's got horrible character just like everybody else does.
12:53But that doesn't take away from his ability.
12:55Drew McIntyre, Randy Orton, legends.
12:57Both. I love everything they do.
12:59I don't think they can do any wrong.
13:01I really don't.
13:02For those who have been following the show for many, many years,
13:05you know the year that Drew McIntyre beat Brock for the World Championship.
13:08There was nobody who's a bigger fan of Drew's than myself.
13:11I love Drew McIntyre.
13:12I think he belongs in the World Championship picture at all times.
13:15Randy Orton, in my opinion, never gets mentioned enough on the Mount Rushmore.
13:20Possibly the best professional wrestler in the history of the business.
13:25And that's not just me saying that.
13:26It's a lot of other people who say that.
13:28And then you get in the Mount Rushmore conversation,
13:30his name never seems to be brought up.
13:31It's always Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels.
13:34You know, things like that.
13:35The Undertaker.
13:36And I understand all of them.
13:37But can somebody please tell me,
13:39what is the knock on Randy Orton to not be the greatest professional wrestler?
13:44Meaning, the promos.
13:46The in-ring work.
13:47Being able to work with anybody from Rey Mysterio to The Big Show and all points in between.
13:51Randy has always had it all.
13:52And tonight was just another performance where he did everything he could possibly do
13:56and came out looking amazing.
13:58And we have to get into the main event of the evening.
14:01CM Punk, Gunther, World Heavyweight Championship.
14:04The longest match of the night.
14:05Over 30 minutes, 30 minutes, 20 seconds.
14:07And when they go at it, it is so physical.
14:10And at the end of the match, the part where Punk swipes the legs out from under Gunther
14:15and he hits his face on the table.
14:17And when he comes up, he is a bloody mess.
14:19And I don't know if he bladed, if they did it the hard way.
14:23When he swept his legs, did he fall on top of something?
14:25I tried to go back and look at it and I couldn't see it.
14:27Gunther genuinely looked concerned.
14:30And then after the match with the white towel and everything sitting there,
14:33he may have some serious damage to the nose.
14:35I hope not because I want to see him back in action as soon as possible.
14:38I have so much love for the Gunther character.
14:41He is, wow, a throwback to like the Fritz Von Erich era of professional wrestling.
14:46Amazing wrestler.
14:47And all the respect in the world of Gunther.
14:49Because he is, again, much in the way I was talking about Logan Paul,
14:52talking about somebody who is a pro wrestler.
14:54Gunther does not know how to have a bad match.
14:57Gunther is amazing.
14:58CM Punk, this is one of his best matches since being back.
15:01Congratulations to Punk becoming the new world heavyweight champion.
15:04I feel like it was genuine emotion in his face,
15:07realizing that he was allowed to be world champion.
15:10And no matter what happens, you cannot change the record book.
15:13CM Punk beat Gunther for the world heavyweight championship.
15:17CM Punk has now been the world heavyweight champion.
15:22I apologize once again.
15:24Now, of course, moments later, hit the music.
15:27Seth Rollins and Paul Heyman come to the top of the rampway.
15:30Rollins on the crutches.
15:31As soon as he came out, here was the issue for me.
15:34He was acting too crippled.
15:36At this point, it's been far enough after the injury, even if he had knee surgery,
15:40let's go down the rabbit hole of if he legitimately is injured,
15:43he wouldn't still be walking around like an 80 year old man,
15:46holding onto the crutches like he can't stand.
15:48That wouldn't happen.
15:50So when I saw that, I was like, oh, my God, he really is going to cash in.
15:53And then when he does, you know, he talks and it's like, oh, you know, you know, it's a matter of time.
15:58You kind of wonder, is he out there just so you don't forget about him?
16:02And at some point, he'll be the one to take the title from Punk.
16:05He turns around, he goes to leave.
16:06If they would have rolled credits there, I wouldn't have been surprised.
16:08But when he stopped, as soon as he stopped, man, that place erupted.
16:12He pushed the crutches away, turned around, took off the brace, took off his shirt, went to the ring,
16:18cashes in the Money in the Bank briefcase, pummels Punk with the briefcase first,
16:24cashes in, hits the stomp, wins the World Heavyweight Championship,
16:28celebrates in the ring with the rest of the faction, the bronze coming back to celebrate with him,
16:32sitting cross-legged next to Paul Heyman in front of a fallen Punk.
16:37It was a great end to the pay-per-view.
16:40My only concern is this.
16:42It seems like it's a foregone conclusion whenever Seth wins the briefcase, he's winning a championship,
16:48which I get it to a degree, but he's now done it at WrestleMania, at SummerSlam, Money in the Bank.
16:53Like the guy just, he always wins.
16:56And it would be really nice to see the guy not successfully cash in at one point, you know?
17:02But congratulations to Seth.
17:04Again, if you followed the show for an extended period of time, you know, I'm an incredibly huge Seth Rollins fan also.
17:10I think he is probably the workhorse of the wrestling world right now.
17:14And I think the guy really deserves so much respect for all he's done the last several years.
17:19Really, in a lot of ways, carrying the company by being the most consistent
17:22and the most visually upfront, there-every-week-he-can-be guy.
17:26The only time he's not is when he's injured.
17:28And when he's injured, he comes back early.
17:30I mean, think about it, WrestleMania 41.
17:32He comes back early.
17:34I apologize, 40.
17:36He comes back early.
17:37He injures his knee.
17:38He comes back early.
17:39He still defends his championship against Drew McIntyre.
17:42You know, he got injured earlier in the year.
17:44He ends up barely crippled walking to the ring to help Cody with the big, you know,
17:48Avengers Unite finale to the main event against Roman.
17:52I mean, the guy is always giving.
17:54And I don't want people to forget that.
17:56I was watching one of the podcasts this week where somebody was talking about how they feel like he's stale.
18:01He's not stale.
18:02He's amazing.
18:03The difference between he and Roman, and this is what some people were debating,
18:07is that Roman is almost never on TV, right?
18:10And I'll hearken it back to the sad news last week of Hulk Hogan passing away.
18:14Roman Reigns, much like Hulk Hogan, is rarely on television.
18:17And when he is, it's a promo.
18:19It's not usually getting physical.
18:20It's certainly not usually having a match.
18:22Hulk Hogan, back in the day, you never saw him wrestle a match on free TV.
18:25Saturday night's main event was the only time he would.
18:27Otherwise, it was at premium events.
18:29Before that, you'd see him.
18:31He would work the shows.
18:33You'd see him at the Philadelphia Spectrum in my area.
18:35He'd go to the Garden and things like that, but those weren't on television.
18:38And most shows, he'd have a match, but you wouldn't see it on TV.
18:42His television time was usually setting up feuds, talking, and things like that.
18:46Roman Reigns, many of the times he's on television, it's talking.
18:49It's not actually performing.
18:50And when you see him, it's special because you almost never see him.
18:53With Seth Rollins, he's so consistent, he's always there.
18:56So when he's always there, it's like he's oversaturated and people almost get,
19:00I don't want to say get tired of seeing him because I never get tired of seeing Seth Rollins,
19:04but they don't feel the same mystique around him.
19:07In a lot of ways, he's as good or better than anybody else in WWE right now,
19:12especially the way he carries the company.
19:14He's another one that you could debate where he falls in the pantheon of professional wrestlers in history
19:20and trying to rank those guys is very difficult.
19:23But congratulations to Seth Rollins and to CM Punk, both winning world championships tonight,
19:28even if one was very short for I think they said like five minutes or so.
19:31But I thought the show was pretty solid top to bottom.
19:34One of the things I think could have been better.
19:35But all in all, solid night one.
19:37And let's be honest, a two and a half, three hour show was great because you don't feel fatigued at the end of the show.
19:43We get to come back tomorrow night and do it again.
19:45This was a great, great start to the SummerSlam weekend.
19:49And I thought WWE really hit it out of the park.
19:52That's all the time we have for this episode.
19:54We'll be back with us next episode.
19:55We'll be running on the latest wrestling news and rumors.
19:57Special thanks as always to Suno AI for generating music and sound effects we use in the show.
20:01Today's show is sponsored in part by Bezel Games, bringing a new friend to family game night.
20:05It's easy with sketchy people.
20:06Showcase your artistic side in this game from Bezel Games by going to thegamecrafter.com and pick up your copy today.
20:12If you're looking for your next career move, you're considering college, university life, maybe you just need some formal training for your next career decision.
20:18Go to our website at frolifeplanning.com for all your higher education needs as FroLife Educational Planning is for today, for tomorrow, and for life with FroLife.
20:27I'm Fred Froelich, better known as Dr. Fro.
20:29I want to thank you for taking a few moments with us today.
20:31Until next time, take care everybody.
20:32Have a great night.
20:33We'll see you next time.
21:03Bye.
21:33Bye.
21:34Bye.
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