Here’s what matters today in wrestling 👇
TOP STORY 🔥
Kevin Owens Admits He Wondered If Wrestling Had Passed Him By During Injury-Related Hiatus
Image Credit: WWE
There were a ton of interesting news stories to come out of this past weekend’s SummerSlam in Minneapolis. We saw Oba Femi defeat Brock Lesnar in Hell in a Cell and send the Beast back to the Alumni portion of WWE’s website. CM Punk & Roman Reigns defended their championships. Nick Aldis had a good showing against Gunther and got to use an Oasis song as his theme music. Randy Orton returned to attack Cody Rhodes, but for my money there wasn’t a bigger story to come out of SummerSlam than Kevin Owens returning to the ring after a seventeen-month absence.
A lot of people thought Owens might be done, and whenever anyone is out with a neck injury for as long as he was it’s fair for people to draw that conclusion. Even in today’s wrestling world where people are returning from career-ending injuries more often, it seemed like either Owens was done or we’d have to wait several years before a potential return. Owens adds to a SmackDown main event picture that already seems much fresher since CM Punk interjected himself into things and Finn Balor made the move over to Raw. Owens seems in line to face Punk, and a matchup with Gunther down the road sounds very interesting. There’s also long-simmering issues with Rhodes & Orton, and it’s not like we ever get tired of Owens either teaming with Sami Zayn or feuding against him.
SummerSlam might not have been a huge success from an attendance standpoint, but I have to say I’m more interested with where WWE is going now than I have been in months. Owens’ return plays a role in that.
WRESTLING HEADLINES 👊🏽
•Chelsea Green Talks About How WWE Unreal Got Her to the Top
Image Credit: WWE
Chelsea Green’s always been one of the best in the business at self-promotion. Even when things weren’t going as well in her career as they are now, she found ways to keep herself relevant. Giving her time on WWE Unreal was always going to lead to good things one way or another, she’s got an entertaining personality and won’t bore you during her time on screen. It doesn’t surprise that WWE fans getting to see more of Chelsea made them more interested in her endeavors, and it’s cool that WWE is rewarding her for that by giving her a Women’s Championship run. “Interim” or not, there’s still a belt involved and Chelsea will do her best to make it a good time.
I kind of feel bad that Michael Hayes has become the heel and the object of ridicule here, mostly because I loved the Freebirds/Von Erichs feud and he was one hell of a talker back in his day. He still is, as his comments against pushing Chelsea to the top certainly got him over as a heel with Unreal viewers. Hayes is closer to the end of his tenure with WWE than the beginning, this whole deal might end up being what he’s remembered for with the current generation of WWE fans. Kind of wild when you think about it.
Image Credit: WWE
The whole situation with WWE Radio is emblematic of the situation with the American media ecosystem here in 2026. The right-wing billionaires already have their own media outlets to spread their self-serving agendas, and now they’re buying up all the other ones to make sure that average folks only hear one side of a given issue and they don’t need to think as much. WWE Radio is less serious of a problem because it’s the pro wrestling business and not American democracy, but as usual, pro wrestling reflects life. Knowing what I know of the crew that does the Busted Open show, I don’t think they need to be told to stop being critical of WWE or to stop talking about AEW & other promotions that WWE isn’t friendly with. They’re smart enough to know what to do if they want to keep playing that game and keep getting that front row treatment from WWE.
I've never been much of a Busted Open guy since I don't do the satellite radio thing. Would you believe me if I told you that the first time I heard of the show was in a e-mail from some hot girl working on the show at the time that ended up marrying Matt Hardy? I don't even want to look up how long ago that was, it would just depress me.
MORE MUST-READ LINKS FROM 411MANIA
→Hall's WWE Raw Review 8.3.26
→The Great Eight: Top 8 WWE SummerSlam Main Events
→Leighty's Retro Review: NXT TakeOver London
Thanks for reading,
– Steve Cook