11:05 p.m.: The match was ended because of Orton’s “injury.” If this was something planned, it’s stupid, but we guess it sets up a rematch. Officially, Lesnar wins by TKO.
They could’ve done this hours ago and ended with Cena and Styles, the match of the night, or even Rollins and Balor.
Anyway, Shane McMahon, the Commissioner of Smackdown, came into the ring to check on Orton but was greeted by Lesnar, who blocked his path and — while his manager, Paul Heyman, pleaded for Lesnar not to — delivered an F5 to McMahon before walking out of the ring.
Seems like we might be setting multiple future matches up now.
One has to wonder if maybe Orton actually was bleeding (doubtful) and they really did have to stop the match. Did McMahon come out just to save a bit of face at the end (probable)?
Only time will tell, but that’s it for SummerSlam 2016. Thanks for joining us.
11:02 p.m.: Randy Orton is making a bit of a comeback here.
Orton got thrown onto a table and then took a seventh suplex, but he surprised Lesnar with an RKO outta nowhere into a table. He added a DDT for good measure.
But Lesnar rebounded and hit Orton with an F5 before opening up his head and bloodying the mat, temporarily stalling the match.
10:54 p.m.: Brock Lesnar is just such a freakish athlete. There’s nobody like him.
Orton attempts to hit him with an RKO but just gets brushed off. So far, he has hit six German Suplexes.
10:46 p.m.: And it’s time for our main event of the night.
Brock Lesnar, The Beast Incarnate, makes his way into the ring to face Randy Orton in a match everyone has been waiting their entire careers for.
10:40 p.m.: Roman Reigns and Rusev started brawling before the match even became official, and then the match was suspended because of an injury to Rusev.
Here’s the end of it all and the only thing you really need to see.
10:32 p.m.: Roman Reigns vs. Rusev for the United States Championship is up next.
While you watch, relive the match that made Finn Balor champion.
And the Coup de Grace finisher.
Let the party begin.
10:24 p.m.: Woah. Finn Balor just beat Seth Rollins after hitting a Coup de Grace to become the inaugural WWE Universal Champion.
We’re honestly shocked. Balor becomes the first wrestler in WWE history to win a world title in his pay-per-view debut.
It felt like this belt literally was made for Seth Rollins, yet Balor walks away the champ. Incredible.
10:05 p.m.: WWE fans chanting “That belt sucks,” in reference to the new Universal Championship.
We tend to agree — this should be for whatever championship belt WWE wants to have. Instead, it’s for the second one.
10:03 p.m.: Sorry, Seth, but Finn’s entrance is waaaay cooler than yours.
Enter The Demon King.
9:57 p.m.: Seth Rollins makes his way into the ring. He’ll battle Finn Balor for the new WWE Universal Championship.
9:45 p.m.: Nikki gets the pin in her return, leading teammates Natalya and Alexa Bliss to victory.
9:40 p.m.: Nikki can’t use her trademark finisher, The Rack Attack, anymore because of her neck injury. Looks like this is one of her new moves. We like it.
9:35 p.m.: Nikki Bella is back!
The former women’s champion has been out for almost a year after a serious neck injury, but she replaces the suspended Eva Marie in this six-woman tag match.
Pretty cool.
Click for more on Nikki’s return >>
9:26 p.m.: Dean Ambrose retains his WWE World Championship.
The crowd just wasn’t into this match. With no energy from the fans, and the title itself watered down because of the new Universal Championship, this just wasn’t very exciting. It’s too bad.
Ambrose and Ziggler had an OK match, but Ambrose won without much resistance.
Click for more on the WWE World Championship title match >>
9:10 p.m.: Dean Ambrose. Dolph Ziggler. We’ve got a belt on the line!
Ambrose and Ziggler face off and are competing for the WWE World Championship, which currently belongs to Ambrose. It previously was the World Heavyweight Championship and the main championship in the company. Now it’s the main title for the Smackdown brand.
This should be a great match.
9:05 p.m.: John Stewart — shocker — interfered in the match.
With Kofi Kingston knocked out and Xavier Woods about to be, Stewart hopped in the ring and served as a distraction. Just as Gallows and Anderson were about to drag Stewart (and his manhood) into the post like they did to Big E a few weeks ago, Big E himself showed up and ran down to the ring to save the day.
The bell was rung at that point, Stewart’s groin was spared, and The New Day retain their WWE Tag Team Championship.
Also, Kofi did this, and it was really cool.
8:47 p.m.: John Stewart announces that he’ll join The New Day in the sted of injured member Big E.
He also poked some fun at himself for hitting Cena with a steel chair at SummerSlam last year and then later taking an Attitude Adjustment from him on TV.
8:41 p.m.: A.J. Styles picks up a victory over John Cena after one of the best WWE matches you’ll ever see.
After 20 minutes of back-and-forth action, Cena hit a Super AA off the ropes, stunning Styles, who somehow managed to kick out of the pin anyway.
When Cena finally went for another Attitude Adjustment, Styles squirmed out of it, hit a Styles Clash and then ran over to the ropes, only to leap off and nail Cena with a Phenomenal Forearm.
Both competitors got their butts whooped, and Cena sat in the ring for a while, still stunned at his loss, and soaked in some cheers from the crowd.
He then took off his “Never Give Up” armband in the center of the ring before exiting. Uh, what? Is this the beginning of the end for Cena?
8:34 p.m.: If anyone ever questions why you like professional wrestling, show them this match. It. Is. Everything.
8:31 p.m.: Man, we’ve seen everything. Styles went for a Phenomenal Forearm, but Cena moved and grabbed his leg to lock him into an STF. Then Cena tried to hit another AA, but Styles reversed it into a calf crusher. Cena then reversed from that into another STF.
Seriously, this match has it all. It’s amazing.
8:24 p.m.: This has been a great match so far, to no one’s surprise.
We’ve seen a Styles Clash, Five-Knuckle Shuffle and an Attitude Adjustment. Styles even hit Cena with his own move (an AA). Really great stuff from these two.
8:17 p.m.: About that atmosphere at Barclays.
8:16 p.m.: By the way, we got quite a tease from Finn Balor and The Club, earlier.
8:15 p.m.: What an atmosphere. The Barclays Center is rocking.
It’s the third consecutive PPV in which Cena and Styles have faced off. We’re still just as excited, and clearly fans at the arena are, too.
8:10 p.m.: A.J. Styles makes his way to the ring. He’ll face John Cena, hopefully in a clean match, to possibly end a feud 15 years in the making.
Heel Styles hasn’t been quite as enjoyable as Styles himself normally is, but his ringwork still is, ahem, phenomenal. This one should be a heck of a match.
8:04 p.m.: The Miz pins Apollo Crews and retains his Intercontinental Championship.
Not really surprising. Not really exciting.
So we’ve had two title fights and one title change so far. Not bad.
7:51 p.m.: Wow. We have a new women’s champion.
Charlotte defeated Sasha Banks in a grueling 16-minute championship match, eventually rolling Sasha out of her trademark Bank Statement to pin the champ for a three-count.
We’re speechless.
For more highlights from that match, click here.
7:35 p.m.: We’re underway. It’s a rematch between Sasha Banks and Charlotte for the WWE Women’s Championship.
7:33 p.m.: We got a Jon Stewart appearance following the opening match before the women’s championship is put on the line.
Stewart talked a bit of trash about Stephanie McMahon before being whisked away by The New Day. Will we see him interfere in that tag team championship match later?
7:25 p.m.: Well, that was a nice way to kick off the show.
Jeri-KO (Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens) ruined the homecoming for Enzo and Cass after Owens launched Enzo into a Code Breaker from Chris Jericho.
Here are some highlights.
7:22 p.m.: Kevin Owens mocking Enzo Amore is the greatest thing you’ve ever seen.
7:09 p.m.: Nothing pops a show from kickoff like Enzo and Cass.
How you doin’?
Enzo comes out wearing pinstriped pants and a blue varsity jacket with a New York Yankees logo on the chest. There’s also a picture of Brooklyn’s own Biggie Smalls — The Notorious B.I.G. — on the back.
The two quoted a couple New York-based artists — Biggie, Frank Sinatra, Jay-Z — in their opening promo. We were pretty convinced UFC star Conor McGregor would join them at that point, as we mentioned in our five bold SummerSlam predictions, but so far nothing.
Jeri-KO have arrived and the match is underway.
7 p.m.: Here we go.
If you’re just tuning in, welcome in to NESN.com’s coverage of SummerSlam 2016. We’ve had a decent kickoff show with three matches in the past two hours, so feel free to scroll through and see what’s already happened.
You can watch SummerSlam online for free here.
Click for five bold SummerSlam predictions >>
Click for full SummerSlam card preview >>
Here’s the card for tonight’s event, including six championship matches.
MAIN CARD
— Natalya, Alexa Bliss and TBA vs. Carmella, Naomi and Becky Lynch
— Enzo Amore and Big Cass vs. Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens
— John Cena vs. A.J. Styles
— Randy Orton vs. Brock Lesnar
WWE Tag Team Championship Match
Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson vs. The New Day (champions)
WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
Apollo Crews vs. The Miz (champion)
WWE United States Championship
Roman Reigns vs. Rusev (champion)
WWE Women’s Championship
Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks (champion)
WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Dolph Ziggler vs. Dean Ambrose (champion)
WWE Universal Championship
Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor
(Winner is crowned inaugural champion)
6:52 p.m.: We’re awake!
Cesaro just climbed onto the ring post and used the top rope as a launching pad to hit Sheamus with a diving crossbody slam.
… And then Sheamus won. Boo.
6:49 p.m.: Brogue Kicks, lots of punches, the Cesaro Swing … it’s nothing we haven’t seen, especially because we’ve already seen it numerous times on “Monday Night RAW” for a couple weeks.
Yawn.
6:36 p.m.: Sheamus makes his way to the ring and will be followed shortly by Cesaro as their best-of-seven series begins.
It’s kind of a disappointment to see Cesaro get caught up in this boring feud. Sheamus is a good worker, and he even had another short reign as WWE World Heavyweight champ last year because of it, but his character is just angry and boring. Cesaro, meanwhile, has benefited from his re-branding and already was wildly popular before it.
Maybe one day we’ll get Cesaro on a main card in a feud that means something where he belongs. Until then, we’ll settle for him highlighting this kickoff show.
6:24 p.m.: Zayn hits Bubba Ray Dudley with a Helluva Kick and then watches as Neville climbs the ropes and hits Bubba with the Red Arrow for good measure. That’s easily one of the coolest finishes in the entire business.
6:17 p.m.: Less than five minutes into the match and they’re already taking a break for another promo. Bummer, since this is a great combination of stars.
But, hey, Neville just did a Corkscrew Moonsault off Sami Zayn’s back, so that’s pretty freaking cool.
6:12 p.m.: We’re on to our second kickoff match of the night: The Dudley Boyz vs. Neville and Sami Zayn.
It’s kind of surprising that Zayn didn’t find his way on to the main card, but if he’s going to be subjected to a kickoff show match, teaming up with the high-flying Neville is nothing to complain about. We’re pretty pumped for this one.
6:05 p.m.: Just a side note: As usual, the promos today have been phenomenal.
So far, we’ve seen some pretty great highlight reel promos for Cena vs. Styles, Ambrose vs. Ziggler and Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte, and they’ve all given us chills. Kudos to the people behind those.
5:55 p.m.: Oh look, it’s Baron Corbin.
He won’t be wrestling tonight, as he was scheduled to fight Kalisto, who was not medically cleared to fight after hurting his ankle. Corbin crashed the kickoff show to send a message to Kalisto, telling him to get comfortable next to his wife on the couch because Corbin planned to put him there permanently.
He then spoke in Kalisto’s native Spanish, essentially saying, “I see you,” before storming off the set.
It’s kind of surprising that Corbin isn’t on the card, considering the push he has received since the Royal Rumble. He even won the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 32 and has feuded with World Championship contender Dolph Ziggler for quite a while.
Alas, Kalisto’s ugly injury threw a wrench into those plans, and unless Corbin crashes another match, his SummerSlam debut will have to wait.
5:47 p.m.: The Usos, Hype Bros and American Alpha take home a victory.
An Uso brother (sorry, we can’t tell them apart) pinned The Ascension’s Konnor for the victory. It didn’t come without controversy, though, as American Alpha’s Chad Gable wasn’t pleased with the way the match ended.
It appeared Gable would get the final pinfall on Konnor, but he sneakily was tagged out by his Uso teammate, who climbed to the top rope and hit Konnor with a Samoan Smash before taking the three-count. This could set up a feud for the American Alpha youngsters, who still are fairly new to the WWE roster after being drafted last month.
5:32 p.m.: And as our first match of the night kicks off, we get our first Ryan Lochte joke. Announcer Mauro Ranallo just said American Alpha’s Chad Gable hopes to treat Breezango’s Tyler Breeze like Lochte treats the truth.
Bazinga.
5:28 p.m.: And our first kickoff show match is about to begin. The Vaudevillains, The Ascension and Breezango are making their way to the ring.
The Hype Bros, The Usos and American Alpha follow shortly after.
5 p.m.: Good evening, and welcome in to NESN.com’s coverage of WWE SummerSlam 2016.
The event returns to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center after a hugely successful 2015 weekend, and things kicked off with a bang Saturday night with an epic NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II show in which one major title changed hands and an NXT giant potentially had her final match
But tonight is about the main roster of stars at WWE’s second-biggest event of the year. With only WrestleMania looming larger on the yearly calendar, SummerSlam is a pretty huge deal — whether you’re a wrestling fan or not.
Fortunately for you, we’ll have you covered from first bell to final pinfall with live results and analysis as things happen, including other highlights and anything else you need to know.
One of NESN’s OG wrestling fans, Ricky Doyle, wrote a bang-up main card preview with some pretty great thoughts and analysis. You should give it a read before things kick off.
Click for a full SummerSlam 2016 preview >>
Here’s a rundown of tonight’s card, which includes an appearance from comedian/TV personality Jon Stewart and every championship belt in the company being put on the line.
PRE-SHOW KICKOFF
— The Ascension, The Vaudevillains and Breezango vs. The Usos, American Alpha and The Hype Bros.
— The Dudley Boyz vs. Neville and Sami Zayn
— Sheamus vs. Cesaro
MAIN CARD
— Natalya, Alexa Bliss and TBA vs. Carmella, Naomi and Becky Lynch
— Enzo Amore and Big Cass vs. Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens
— John Cena vs. AJ Styles
— Randy Orton vs. Brock Lesnar
WWE Tag Team Championship Match
Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson vs. The New Day (champions)
WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
Apollo Crews vs. The Miz (champion)
WWE United States Championship
Roman Reigns vs. Rusev (champion)
WWE Women’s Championship
Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks (champion)
WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Dolph Ziggler vs. Dean Ambrose (champion)
WWE Universal Championship
Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor
(Winner is crowned inaugural champion)
Click to watch WWE SummerSlam online >>
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@WWEUniverse
