CM Punk and Real Winners and Losers of WWE SummerSlam 2025 Night 1 Match Card
WWE delivered its second-biggest show of the year with SummerSlam 2025, starting with a Night 1 that included multiple title changes.
CM Punk completed his journey back to the World Heavyweight Championship by dethroning Gunther in the main event.
However, The Best in the World was not ready for Seth Rollins to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase to immediately dethrone him.
Jelly Roll worked to make the most of his celebrity spot, falling just short in his tag team match with Randy Orton against Logan Paul and Drew McIntyre.
Tiffany Stratton retained the WWE Women's Championship, defeating Jade Cargill clean, while Sami Zayn made Karrion Kross admit he was wrong by defeating him in their final match.
Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss dethroned The Judgment Day, taking down Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez to capture the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship.
Roman Reigns and Jey Uso found a way to work it out, successfully defeating Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed in the opening match.
Throughout the night, certain stars stood out clearly as either real winners or losers of the show.
Losers: Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed
1 of 7
Without Seth Rollins, WWE set the stage for Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed to raise their standing as Paul Heyman's top guys.
Instead, at the first major hurdle, Breakker and Reed fell short. They were unable to defeat the makeshift duo of Roman Reigns and Jey Uso.
It was not a surprising result, but it was a disappointing one, especially if the plan is to push Breakker to a top level.
He spent the entire match running scared from The OTC and hardly challenged him. Reigns even countered his Spear multiple times.
While The OTC and Uso are former world champions, their tag team chemistry is limited at best. They tried to work together but mostly just focused on protecting each other in key moments.
Breakker and Reed could have used this win to establish themselves as the most dangerous tag team in WWE.
Now, even if they win the World Tag Team Championships, they will stand as second best to Reigns and Uso, who likely have no aspirations for a real run together.
Winners: Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss
2 of 7Charlotte Flair had a rocky start to her 2025 return, but everything has improved since WrestleMania 41.
In particular, Alexa Bliss aligning with The Queen has helped both women define their roles on the roster.
They have become the most popular women's tag team in the company by a solid margin, and for that reason, they are now the WWE women's tag team champions.
It's likely this Flair-Bliss storyline was never supposed to reach this point, but both women have committed fully to the angle and made the most of it.
The Women's Tag Team Championships in the hands of two popular wrestler with prolific championship legacies makes the whole division a much bigger deal.
It will be interesting to see who steps up to challenge The Queen and The Goddess as there is plenty of room for fresh names in the division.
Loser: Karrion Kross
3 of 7What was the point?
Karrion Kross spent months telling the world he saw a darkness in Sami Zayn that he could bring to the forefront.
However, after multiple uninspired matches, The Herald of Doomsday walked out of SummerSlam a major loser in the ring and failed to prove his point.
This felt like WWE intentionally and loudly embarrassing Kross for getting over with this angle.
Even if that was not the intention, this did no good for the former NXT champion.
This angle fully established Zayn as an incorruptible babyface, but that was established better in his first encounter with Seth Rollins after WrestleMania than any point in this feud.
Kross will again start with nothing on Raw, and it's hard to figure out where he goes from here.
Loser: Jade Cargill
4 of 7
WWE has generally protected Jade Cargill since she joined WWE. She has beaten multiple big names and almost never lost clean.
After running through the field to become the 2025 Queen of the Ring, The Storm was set up to be the one who could dethrone Tiffany Stratton.
Instead, she lost clean in just seven minutes to The Center of the Universe, who looks untouchable at this stage of her run as WWE women's champion.
This puts Cargill in an awkward place. After winning her feud with Naomi only for The Glow to move to Raw and win the Women's World Championship, The Storm is left on the back foot.
While there is still plenty of time for her to rebound, this was a tough night for Cargill, who will not even be a major part of the conversation coming out of SummerSlam due to her mostly forgettable match with Stratton.
Winner: Jelly Roll
5 of 7Jelly Roll's match at SummerSlam could have been a one-off moment for the country singer.
Instead, through a focused story-driven match, he was set up by WWE to look like the ultimate fan slowly proving his worth.
It came off as only the beginning of his WWE journey, and the crowd bought into what the company was selling.
While he took the pin in his in-ring debut, that likely only got him more respect with the fans as he stayed in the action despite an injury angle that could have taken him out of the finish.
The match itself was not great technically, but it's likely to be one of the most memorable of the weekend due to the story.
This sets the stage for a future Paul vs. Jelly singles match, likely at WrestleMania 42, and might even give the musician future opportunities if he wants to keep working with WWE.
Winner: CM Punk
6 of 7
Since returning to WWE, CM Punk has made two goals clear: Main-event the big shows and win the world championship.
He has now main-evented both WrestleMania 41 Night 1 and SummerSlam Night 1 as well as winning the World Heavyweight Championship.
Gunther was the ultimate test for Punk at this stage of his career, and it was a rousing success, not just in terms of the result but also delivering the obvious best match of the night.
Even if Seth Rollins ruined his chance to run with the world title, The Best in the World has further solidified his legacy as a top man in WWE. He is a six-time world champion and likely to get a seventh before it is all over.
Punk vs. Rollins will be the biggest angle on Raw for the foreseeable future and likely to deliver a huge WrestleMania 42 moment as well.
Winner: Seth Rollins
7 of 7
Seth Rollins supposedly suffered a major knee injury at Saturday Night's Main Event. It was supposed to keep him off TV for "an extended period of time," according to The Visionary himself.
However, it was all a ruse. CM Punk dropped his guard and was not ready for Rollins to cash-in on him after his match with Gunther.
While the idea of this injury angle is odd, the end goal is clear: Rollins is back on top.
The Visionary also managed to stop Punk from running with a world title again, "saving WWE" at least in his own eyes.
All eyes are back on Rollins, who is going to be almost impossible to dethrone as world heavyweight champion.
The Best in the World will throw everything at him to get the gold back, but he is going to need significant help to take down not just The Visionary but also Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed.
