Kevin Owens returned at SummerSlam and took the No. 1 contender’s spot from his oldest friend. Sami Zayn spent the week complaining that he had to earn a title shot. He walked out of Minneapolis with nothing.
Nick Aldis opened Night 2 of SummerSlam by dismantling the No. 1 Contender’s match. He came out before the bell and added Gunther, who had beaten him the night before.
Then he added a fourth. Kevin Owens walked out to the loudest reaction of the weekend, back for the first time since March 2025.
Owens went straight through everyone. He hit Gunther and Bálor with cannonballs in the corner, then found Zayn. The two came face to face, embraced, and started throwing punches at each other seconds later.
He kept going. A dive off the top to the floor took out the field, and a Swanton Bomb followed inside the ring. He sold the neck between spots, a year on from the fusion surgery that kept him out.
The closing stretch belonged to him. Bálor caught him with a head kick and Owens answered with a brainbuster off the middle rope. Gunther pulled Zayn into a sleeper and Bálor stomped him for two.
Owens hit a Stunner on Bálor, then another on Gunther. Zayn avoided one and powerbombed him for a near fall.
It only delayed it. Owens hit Zayn with the Stunner and pinned him.
Owens is the new number one contender for the Undisputed WWE Championship. Punk retained against Cody Rhodes on Saturday with a returning Randy Orton doing the damage, then spent the post-show listing challengers. He did not mention this one.
The Wrestling Observer reported this week that Orton and Owens were both expected back very soon, and that Owens had dropped weight during a long and frustrating recovery. Both returned inside 24 hours of each other.
