Leighty’s Live Thoughts From WWE SummerSlam 2024

-Welcome to a recap of my adventures in Cleveland for WWE SummerSlam. At some point I will likely go do a full review of the show once I sit down to watch it on Peacock. This here is more of observations and high points of the trip I look with 3 of my friends from Uniontown, PA to Cleveland, OH. Let’s get to it!

-As mentioned, I went with my best friend, his brother, and another friend. My best friend has family in Cleveland and though he lives in SW PA, he is a massive Cleveland sports fan. Because of that I have made the 3-hour trip with him many times for Cavs Basketball, Browns Football, and Indians Baseball. I try to go every 8 years when the 49ers play in Cleveland because it is a much easier and cheaper to get there than when my Niners play in Pittsburgh. We left at 7 AM and it’s just an easy drive to his Aunt and Uncle’s home. They are just outside Cleveland, and we arrived at their home around 10:30 AM after stopping for breakfast on the PA Turnpike.

-In the past we always drove into the city and would park at Tower City and walk to the Stadium or search for parking near the stadium. This time his Uncle brought up we could ride the Rail System for a $5 all day pass. My best friend said he will never park in the city again after using the rail system. The first train took us to Tower City and as you would expect, wrestling fans were everywhere. The Indians had a home game at the same time, so it was crazy in downtown Cleveland. The second train took us right to Cleveland Browns Stadium.

-I tried to scan the crowd and see what shirts were most popular. I was wearing my CM Punk “Knees 2 Faces” shirt. CM Punk shirts were by far the most popular I saw with the crowd. Cody Rhodes was in second and I am sure someone will make fun of AEW for those two guys being the most popular. The Usos/Roman/Yeet shirts were quite popular as well. For older stars, The Rock, Austin and nWo were represented well. For most obscure wrestler shirt, that goes to my man who was rocking an Earthquake shirt. Props to the half dozen or so guys I saw wearing a Randy Savage shirt.

-Stadium entrant was pretty easy even with a mass of humanity squeezing their way into the Stadium. As mentioned, I have been to that stadium several times and I have always found an enjoyable place to watch an event. Our seats were in the Upper Deck 19 rows up on what would be the 50 yard line opposite the hard cam. For 118 after fees, I was happy with the seat. As for the attendance, I saw the last number from Wrestle Tickets was around 55,000 tickets out. They had the Upper Deck on the opposite side completely covered, but the middle section below had half tarp and half with fans which seems to be an improvement over what happened at Nashville and Ford Field the last two years. I felt it was a very strong crowd that was into everything the entire night.

-We arrived about 45 minutes before the 7:00 Bell Time. I didn’t want to spend money on food at the stadium, but I was hungry. I was cool with the prices as I was able to get a hot dog (STADIUM MUSTARD FOR THE WIN), Soft Pretzel and Water for $16.00. I had just wished I bought more than one water as we all weren’t getting up once the show started.

-The weather was wonderful as far as temperature. It was low 80s to start and dropped as the sun went down, but it was a humid day/night meaning my Punk shirt was sticking to my due to sweat. The main thing was no rain as it had poured early in the morning in Cleveland, but we were good.

-Show time as the announcers got their entrance and McAfee got the loudest entrance of the three. HHH came out to a big pop and introduced Jelly Roll (who also did God Bless American) to perform his song. I had to take pictures as my wife and people at my work all are Jelly Roll fans.

-To set the stage, my three friends are not massive wrestling fans like me. One follows pretty regularly while the other two are fringe fans. It’s fun being at events with fans like that as you can see what is working with them and what they think sucks. The opening match with Rhea and Liv was received very well and man, does the crowd hate Dom. Liv has a lot more fans that you would think, but both women were treated like stars by the fans. The pop when Dom picked up Liv and kissed her was insane as people gasped, cheered, and then realized what happened and booed Dom out of the building. Stuff like this works as all three of my friends were into this one.

Image Credit: WWE

-Next was Zayn vs. Breakker and it was the weakest match on the card though they weren’t given a lot of time. Breakker winning was the right call obviously and maybe the decision was that this didn’t need to be an epic and it was just time for Bron to run through Sami. My best friend is not a Zayn fan so he was happy with this result.

-Next up was Logan Paul vs. LA Knight and the crowd is still crazy behind Knight. Paul was decked out in Browns’ colors since he is from the Cleveland area, but he was BOOED out of the building. There was even a “Fuck You Logan,” chant from the crowd. For me, I booed the crap out of MGK, but that is the Eminem fan in me. I was hoping Knight would put him through a table. I enjoyed this match and it was a good moment for Knight. As a side, my friend’s cousin (who we saw at the house we stayed) told us he wrestled Logan in high school and pinned him. My best friend called bullshit on that one, so who knows.

-Bayley vs. Nia and my friends were kind of checked out of this one, but it was fine. We all assumed Nia was winning but I was hoping to see my second ever Money in the Bank cash in, but it didn’t happen. I guess there was too much newsworthy stuff on this show without that.

-Punk/Drew was the match I was waiting for the most. Myself and two others in the group were in Pittsburgh for The Royal Rumble when Punk had his last WWE match before this return. It was great to be back at a wrestling show and see Punk and hear that music again. This match had the most heat of any on the match as everyone got sucked into the fight and then story they were telling with Rollins wearing the bracelet and Punk dumbing himself out of position. I was not bothered Punk losing as Drew needed this win more and needed some get back after Punk cost him at Mania and Clash at The Castle. I thought this would spin to Punk/Seth next but Drew took the bracelet back so I assume the issue isn’t settled yet.

-Gunther/Priest was the other match I was excited to see as I was needing to see GUNTHER become World Champion. This was the only match where the outcome would have annoyed me if Priest had won. My best friend had been saying all night Balor was going to cost Priest. I figured it would happen another time, but they wanted to blow all of Judgment Day up in one night. The upper deck was distracted early by a light that was shining into the section. The light was bright but I could still see the ring. Those to the left and right apparently could not and they let the people know with chants of “Please Turn The Light Off,” “We Can’t See,” and “We Can’t See Shit.” They must have heard as they dimmed the light which got a “Thank You Light Guy,” chant. Balor turning got a good response and Priest seeing what happened on the stadium board made him look smart. That board was out for a few minutes during the match which also had the crowd booing. I got what I wanted with GUNTHER winning and gave the man a standing ovation.

Image Credit: WWE

-Our Main Event closed things and as soon as Solo came out the chants for Roman started and then a “Fuck You Solo,” chant. It’s crazy that the dude I was reviewing on Level Up a few years ago is headlining a Stadium SummerSlam. Everyone popped for Pharaoh though I had to explain it to my friends. Loved Arn Anderson being there and I felt old when kids asked why we were holding up Fingers. Wrestling fans with kids teach them right! With the match being Bloodline Rules we were all just waiting for the run-ins to lead to THE RUN-IN. The crowd was standing once The Tongans hit the ring and didn’t sit back down again. KO and Randy each got a big pop and I was just waiting for the to clear the way for Jacob. We noticed immediately him grab his ankle after the table spot and he seemed pissed as he pushed a chair away from him. Then it happened as ROMAN REIGNS made his return and that Stadium melted! I have been to shows with Roman being pushed as the top face in the company and he finally got the reaction Vince always wanted for him. I also appreciate he didn’t shake Cody’s hand or any of that crap. He should still be pissed at him as well, but Solo is the bigger issue right now.

-It was a thoroughly enjoyable show that flew by live. It was worth the ticket price easily and I can now say I have been to a WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, and SummerSlam. I just need to get to a Survivor Series at some point.

-Getting out of the stadium was not the easiest as you had a mass of humanity filing out of the place. It looked like a herd of zombies walking up the street. We took the train back to Tower City and then things started to suck. It was near midnight as hundreds of people were waiting for the train that was heading back to the airport with 8 other stops prior. Two trains flew by as they weren’t going our route and the crowd booed them. This is where the humidity and all the people gathered in a small area started to take a toll. I don’t know if I ever sweat so much in my life. We were lucky enough to squeeze on to the next train and unfortunately we were the 8th stop, which is about 35 minutes. Ever since I started driving I get motion sick (unless I am driving) and this was a miserable 25 minutes until the train cleared enough people. We finally made it to our stop, hopped in the car and had a 10 minute drive back to the house. I immediately crashed on the couch, but was woken up at 2:30 AM as they decided to watch the end of the show on TV. I watched Roman return and then the start of Major League 2 before sleeping again. Up at 8:30 and spent time with his family before leaving for PA around 11 AM.

-That wrapped up my trip and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Cleveland is apparently building a Domed Stadium at some point, so I assume that means a WrestleMania and Royal Rumble could be in their future and I hope so as it is such as easy drive and I have a free place to stay. I will try to review the show at some point to give a more detailed review on that end, but all I can say for now is I had a blast and it is just fun to go to a show and enjoy yourself. Thanks for reading!