It’s one thing to watch SummerSlam 2025. It’s another to watch it in the same week that Donald Trump and Triple H stood side-by-side to announce the return of the Presidential Fitness Test. In a political moment where healthcare access is being stripped away for many Americans, this kind of stunt lands like performance art. Kids don’t need mile times: they need care.
But here we are: a wrestling executive helping a twice-impeached president push a “stronger America” photo op with chin-ups and squat jumps. And all the while, having Linda McMahon run the Department of Education. It’s bizarre. It’s exhausting. It’s a bit too real.
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Which is why this year’s SummerSlam 2025 main event felt so vital. Because for a few minutes, the noise faded. We weren’t watching politics. We weren’t watching billion-dollar branding. We were watching a bruised John Cena, a hungry Cody Rhodes, and the myth of Brock Lesnar circling overhead like a ghost in a cowboy hat.
Cody Rhodes winning the WWE Championship was always going to happen.
What mattered was how it happened. John Cena, fully heel and still wrestling like it’s 2012, gave Cody everything: the spotlight, the story, and, most importantly, the struggle. The crowd was with Rhodes, but not mindlessly. Cena still drew split chants. There was tension. But when Rhodes won, it felt earned. He didn’t outlast the moment: he rose to it.
This wasn’t clean hero vs. villain storytelling. Both men fought dirty. Both pushed their limits. But by the end, Cody stood tall as the kind of champion WWE hasn’t had in years: one that feels like he actually belongs there. He is the kind of champion John Cena never got to be, and we should be cheering him for it.
John Cena’s 17th World Championship may have been historic on paper, but the way he won it — with interference from Travis Scott and every heel trick in the book — left fans divided. It felt like WWE was manufacturing a legacy without earning it. Just days before SummerSlam 2025, Cena turned face on SmackDown, promising to “protect the business.” At SummerSlam 2025, he didn’t talk. He wrestled. And that made all the difference.
There was no buildup to Brock Lesnar’s return during SummerSlam 2025.
If you weren’t watching SummerSlam 2025 closely, Brock Lesnar’s return might’ve felt like a fever dream. There was no buildup. No Paul Heyman. Just that music, the crowd reaction, and a man in a cowboy hat and full beard walking toward the ring with a smirk. That’s what made it worse.
Lesnar didn’t storm the ring during SummerSlam 2025. He strolled into it. Calm. Cool. Collected. And then he dropped Cena with an F5 like it was just another Sunday. No motive. No follow-up. Just violence. This isn’t new. Cena has never beaten Brock clean in a singles match. Not in 2003. Not in 2012. Not in 2014. And now, not in 2025. Even when Cena technically won at Extreme Rules 2012, it took a chain-wrapped punch and an Attitude Adjustment onto steel steps.
For Cena, it’s a recurring nightmare—one that always seems to arrive at his most pivotal moments. And for those of us who have ridden with him for decades, it’s just as painful to watch. No matter how far Cena climbs, Brock is always there to remind him that what gets broken can break again.
John Cena and Cody Rhodes’ rivalry exists in and out of the ring.
Wrestling might be scripted, but Lesnar and Cena as people aren’t. Their feud lives in both the ring and the reality around it. It’s as much about who they are when the cameras stop rolling as it is about the storylines we’re told. And if this really is their last ride, it deserves an ending that’s more than just another Brock Lesnar hit-and-run.
If this is the beginning of John Cena’s final run — if his last match is in December — then this feud needs a real ending. Cena doesn’t need another belt. He doesn’t need another Hollywood-style promo. He needs to finally face Lesnar one last time. No title. No interference. Just one final match to settle the score.
Right now, the business side of WWE is as messy as ever. But for one night, they got it right: they gave Cody the belt, they let Cena work, and they unleashed Brock Lesnar with no agenda other than mayhem.
And if this is how John Cena goes out? Let him finally beat the Beast. Because in 2025, with Lesnar facing serious allegations, ending this rivalry with Cena victorious would be more than just good booking. It would be the right thing to do.
