WWE SummerSlam 2026 Night 1 Winners, Live Grades and Reaction

After weeks of buildup—and in the case of at least one feud, years of waiting—we have finally arrived at the annual SummerSlam weekend.

The two-night premium live event kicked off on Saturday at the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis with six matches. Here's a look at the card from Night 1:

• Oba Femi vs. Brock Lesnar (Hell in a Cell)
• LA Knight, Solo Sikoa and Royce Keys vs. The Usos and Jacob Fatu
• Gunther vs. Nick Aldis
• The Bella Twins and Paige vs. Fatal Influence
• Liv Morgan vs. Iyo Sky (Women's World Championship)
• CM Punk vs. Cody Rhodes (Undisputed WWE Championship)

Let's take a look at what went down at Saturday's half of SummerSlam.

Liv Morgan vs. Iyo Sky (Women's World Championship)

Georgiana Dallas/WWE via Getty Images

Last time in action: Sky defeated Roxanne Perez (Raw, July 13), Morgan lost to Sky (Night of Champions)

The first match of Night 1 saw Liv Morgan finally defend her world title after holding it for over three months, and her challenger was none other than Queen of the Ring Iyo Sky.

These two have faced each other in several singles, tag and six-woman tag matches over the last couple of years, so they have built up a lot of chemistry in that time. You could see how familiar they were with each other's style.

The champion took control right out of the gate, but The Genius of the Sky didn't let her keep it for too long. The match quickly turned into a competitive back-and-forth fight with both women leaning into their strengths.

Sky used her speed and agility, while Morgan tried to take some shortcuts to keep her title. Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez showed up to give Liv an unfair advantage.

There were times when it felt like it took a little too long to set up certain moves, but it wasn't enough to ruin the match. It just slowed them down a bit too much in places.

The final few minutes were the best part of the match. Sky was definitely the star of this match, but in the end, Morgan prevailed to retain her title. Not to take anything away from Morgan, but The Genius of the Sky was responsible for all of the best moments.

Result: Morgan defeated Sky

Grade: C+

Notable Moments and Observations

• You can really tell Morgan loves her custom entrance music.
• It's always a little weird at first when a wrestling show takes place in the sunlight.
• The way Sky hit a double knee in the corner looked painful for Morgan. She sold it well with her facial expressions.
• Sky got caught up in the ropes at one point, but she recovered quickly.
• Sky's moonsault to Rodriguez and Perez looked good.

The Usos and Jacob Fatu vs. Royce Keys, Solo Sikoa and LA Knight

Rich Freeda/WWE via Getty Images

Last time in action: The Usos lost to MFTs (SD, May 1), Fatu defeated Knight (Raw, July 20), Keys lost to Finn Balor (SD, July 24)

The ongoing Bloodline side quest continued on Saturday with this six-man match featuring Jimmy and Jey Uso, Fatu, Knight, Keys and Sikoa. Gears of War was the sponsor for this match, so there were some props on the stage to advertise the game during the entrances.

These six men have been fighting for several weeks, and in the case of some of them, several months, so it was hard to feel like this was going to settle anything.

However, all six of these guys are talented performers, so we knew we would get some solid action in this bout. It started off with a little chaos before they settled into things.

Unfortunately, they slowed down a bit too much, and you could feel the crowd waiting for something exciting to happen to have an excuse to cheer. Even when the pace would pick up a bit, it never felt like there was a sense of urgency to anything.

Keys and Fatu took each other out at ringside. With a little help from Sikoa, Knight was able to hit Jey with the BFT for the pin and the win. This match had its moments, but it fell short of expectations.

Result: Knight, Keys and Sikoa defeated The Usos and Fatu

Grade: B-

Notable Moments and Observations

• Mark Henry was shown sitting in the crowd. He looks like he has slimmed down a lot.
• The Gears of War stuff felt so tacked on. There were so many ways they could have incorporated it into the entrances in a more interesting way than having a few props on the stage. Fatu's mask was kind of cool, though.
• Sikoa doing the encore of Jey's music instead of Jey was hilarious.
• Keys having so much trouble getting Jimmy up in the corner for an avalanche slam was unfortunate.
• The way Keys slammed Fatu over the barricade looked good.

Gunther vs. Nick Aldis

Rich Freeda/WWE via Getty Images

Last time in action: Gunther and Zayn lost to Punk and Rhodes (Saturday Night's Main Event), Aldis lost to Eric Young (Impact, July 16, 2023)

Aldis stepped into the ring for the first time in three years to take on the man who has been a constant thorn in his side recently, Gunther.

Even though this has turned into a bitter feud, they started with some simple chain wrestling. Gunther tried to play some mind games, but it seemed to fire Aldis up more than annoy him.

They slowed the pace down once The Ring General took control and started to dominate the SmackDown GM. Much like the six-man tag that came before it, they may have slowed down a bit too much.

The most surprising thing was how good Aldis looked for someone who hasn't wrestled for a while. He wasn't doing everything he used to do, but he didn't have much ring rust, as you would expect.

Aldis did a good job making it look like he had a chance to win toward the end, but we all knew how this would play out. Gunther got the win with a sleeper. This was a decent bout, but it would have been nice if they had a bit more time.

Result: Gunther defeated Aldis

Grade: B-

Notable Moments and Observations

• You could see that Aldis was excited to get back into the ring.
• The list of people who can claim they made their in-ring debut for WWE at a major event is very short. Most people start on TV and in dark matches.
• Gunther did a lot of work to make the kip up by Aldis work. Aldis would have fallen on his back if Gunther didn't pull him up.
• Mickie James was in the crowd to cheer her husband, Aldis, on with their son and was in the ring to embrace him after the match.

Fatal Influence vs. The Bellas and Paige

Melina Pizano/WWE via Getty Images

Last time in action: Fatal Influence defeated Brie and Paige (Saturday Night's Main Event)

Paige, Nikki and Brie took on Jacy Jayne, Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid in the next matchup. This was Nikki's first official match back after returning from injury.

Henley and Brie started for their teams, but all six women were fighting each other within the first couple of minutes. The ref wasn't able to watch everything, so she missed when Fatal Influence used some dirty tricks to get an advantage.

The weirdest thing about this match was how two of the women with less experience looked much better in the ring than the three veterans. Jayne and Henley looked smoother and more confident with everything they did.

Reid is much newer than everyone else, and you could see that gap in experience in a lot of places. They all tried to make this a chaotic encounter, but it seemed way too choreographed to feel like mayhem.

Jayne took out Paige with the Rolling Encore to get the win for her team. After the match was over, the Bellas turned on Paige and attacked her to turn heel and break up their alliance for good.

Result: Fatal Influence defeated Paige and The Bellas

Grade: C

Notable Moments and Observations

• The Bellas and Paige coordinated their gear, so both teams actually looked like groups instead of random people thrown together, which was a nice touch.
• Paige's thrust kick looked like it had no power behind it.

Cody Rhodes vs. CM Punk (Undisputed WWE Championship)

Rich Freeda/WWE via Getty Images

Last time in action: Punk and Rhodes defeated Gunther and Sami Zayn (Saturday Night's Main Event)

The penultimate match of the night saw Rhodes challenge Punk for the Undisputed WWE Championship. Both men wore special gear that had different meanings, and both received warm welcomes from the crowd.

As soon as the bell rang, they got into it. They didn't try to ease into things and picked up the pace immediately. Once Rhodes looked like he may have injured his arm, Punk started to focus on it to set him up for his submission finisher.

They did a good job incorporating some old-school wrestling moves with their modern styles. It wasn't a high bar to clear, but this quickly became the best match we had gotten up to this point in the show.

This was a solid back-and-forth fight with some good fundamental pro wrestling. It was such a different feel from every other match on the card. They got enough time to make this an enjoyable encounter without feeling like they had to rush.

Punk tried to hit an elbow drop from the top turnbuckle to put Cody through the announce table, but Rhodes moved and The Straight-Edge Superstar crashed and burned.

After Rhodes accidentally took out the ref, both men hit their finishers, but there was nobody to make the count. Randy Orton came out of the crowd and hit The American Nightmare with an RKO before making a quick exit.

Punk didn't see what happened, so when he got back into the ring, he hit a GTS for the win.

Result: Punk defeated Rhodes

Grade: B+

Notable Moments and Observations

• The Street Fighter intros before the match were kind of fun. Rhodes' skull mask had Guile's hair.
• Punk's gear was a reference to former NHL team Minnesota North Stars, but it looked more like he was wearing Green Bay Packers colors, which would make him a traitor in Chicago.
• Punk used a jumping headscissor takedown, which you don't see much these days.
• The crowd did not seem too into some of this match most of the time, which was kind of strange.

Oba Femi vs. Brock Lesnar

Rich Freeda/WWE via Getty Images

Last time in action: Femi defeated JD McDonagh (Raw, July 20), Lesnar defeated Femi (Clash in Italy)

The Hell in a Cell structure was lowered from the ceiling for the main event of the evening between Lesnar and Femi. Both men had a victory over the other heading into this bout, so this was the rubber match to end the feud for the foreseeable future.

It took an unusually long time for the cage to lower all the way to the ground. Both men circled each other as they waited for the ref to call for the bell. Once the match was underway, Femi cornered Lesnar and started beating on him.

Once The Beast Incarnate managed to avoid Femi, he started taking him to Suplex City, but The Ruler brushed off three German suplexes like it was nothing.

This was never going to be a technical wrestling match. These are two powerhouses inside a cell, so it was always going to be a slugfest. They fought in and around the ring, used weapons, and took some big bumps in an attempt to make it exciting.

Lesnar delivered three F-5s in a row, but it wasn't enough to keep Femi down for the pin. He started to rip up the mat and exposed the wooden boards beneath the thin padding. Instead of another F-5, he hit a Tombstone Piledriver, but it still wasn't enough.

This match was designed to put Femi over, and it worked. He conquered The Beast and survived his best shots. It might not be an instant classic, but it accomplished what it set out to do and had some entertaining moments along the way.

If there was any doubt that WWE sees The Ruler as a future top star, they are gone now. It would be a shock if he wasn't chasing a top title by the end of the year.

After the match, Lesnar embraced Femi and held up his hand in victory. He asked for a mic and called The Ruler the future of WWE.

Result: Femi defeated Lesnar

Grade: B+

Notable Moments and Observations

• It's still dumb that Femi traded a guaranteed title shot for this. WWE didn't do enough to have him explain why he would do that. Wanting a match against Lesnar one more time is not enough motivation, and it made the KOTR tourney feel pointless.
• Each bead on Femi's necklace was the size of a tennis ball.
• The ESPN feed seemed to have some issues during the entrances for some fans. It also took longer for both entrances and introductions than the entire six-woman tag match earlier in the show.
• The way Lesnar went through the table looked brutal. It made a very loud noise, too.

The Final Word

Georgiana Dallas/WWE via Getty Images

Saturday's half of this year's SummerSlam PLE had some ups and downs, but as a whole, it probably won't be remembered for much.

Punk vs. Rhodes was the best match of the night, but the Hell in a Cell contest between Femi and Lesnar had its moments, too.

The most surprising bout was between Gunther and Aldis. The SmackDown GM looked good for someone who has spent the last three years wearing a suit instead of tights.

Everything else ranged from disappointing to mediocre. Once again, the number of ad breaks felt egregious for a PLE, and it doesn't seem like that is going to change anytime soon.

Night 2 appears poised to be the stronger show based on the announced card, so Sunday has every chance to deliver in a big way.

Grade: C+