Of all the singers in the world you could possibly argue with, you'd think anyone would know better than Jelly Roll. This guy has the voice of an angel, but let's face it, with his size and tattoos, he's Do He seems to be able to handle any kind of fight.
On Saturday night at Cleveland Browns Stadium, the fast-rising country artist not only performed for the crowd at WWE's SummerSlam pay-per-view, but he got in the ring with WWE Superstars and got some revenge after being called out.
To cap off the evening, SummerSlam host The Miz was joined in the ring by Awesome Truth teammate R-Truth. As the duo addressed the 57,000-plus crowd, they were interrupted by Austin Theory and Grayson Waller. Not only did Waller and Theory hurl insults at Awesome Truth and the crowd—known as the “WWE Universe”—they also made the mistake of insulting Jelly Roll, who was sitting in the front row watching the event.
Theo and Waller were so caught up in the swearing that they didn't notice the hunky singer entering the ring with a steel chair and standing behind them. With a little help from Miz and Truth, Jelly hit Theo and Waller with the chair and delivered one of wrestling's most popular moves – the chokeslam – where he grabbed Theo by the neck with his right hand and easily lifted him into the air with one arm and threw him to the floor. Roll, Miz and Truth then paid homage to legendary wrestler John Cena by performing Cena's “You Can't See Me” hand gesture and the “Five Knuckle Shuffle”, as the three ran to the ropes and threw themselves to the floor where Theo was lying down to hit him in the face.
Lesson learned: Don't mess with jelly roll!
Earlier in the evening, Gilley played a more familiar role, kicking off the festivities with a powerful performance of “God Bless America.” After Triple H came out to greet the crowd, he also performed his new single “Liar.”
Another star was also in attendance: MGK accompanied United States Champion Logan Paul to the ring. The media star had risen to prominence as a titleholder and wrestler, embracing the idea of being a “big guy” (meaning he was a bad guy), which led to a huge wave of boos from the crowd.
Cleveland native MGK appeared to provide crucial assistance to Paul during his fight with rival L.A. Knight. With the referee not looking at him, MGK jumped from his front row seat over the barricade and handed Paul the chain with brass knuckles to strike with. Although Paul punched Knight in the face, L.A. recovered and won the United States Championship.
While Jelly Roll and MGK were the highlights of the night, the most stunning moment came from the wrestling team Judgment Day, who turned on each other in two separate matches. Dominik Mysterio interfered and cost his Judgment Day teammate and “girlfriend” Rhea Ripley her match as she competed to defeat WWE Women’s Champion Liv Morgan. Mysterio and Morgan kissed after the match, seemingly suggesting they were in league all along. This is a story that has been building for months since WrestleMania in April, when Morgan injured Ripley in a surprise attack.
Judgment Day's Finn Balor played a treacherous role later in the night in another maneuver. He cost one of his teammates, Damian Priest, the World Heavyweight Championship when Priest faced the fearsome Gunther.
The biggest headline at SummerSlam was outside interference. The crowd, who had been chanting “We want Roman” during the main event between Cody Rhodes defending the WWE Undisputed Championship against Solo Sikoa, got what they wanted. Roman Reigns, back after a hiatus following his title loss to Rhodes in April at WrestleMania, was back.
Roman made his long-awaited return to WWE, and although he didn't get revenge on Rhodes, he did defeat his real-life cousin Sikoa and help Cody win.
Reigns had been the leader of the Bloodline faction as the “Tribal Leader” for many years, during which time Solo had served as his enforcer. When Reigns disappeared immediately after Mania, Sikoa not only began to embody his own Bloodline faction, but also appointed himself the “Tribal Leader” and told everyone in WWE to acknowledge him as the leader or face dire consequences. Fans knew this would not sit well with Roman and had been vocally calling for Reigns’ return since Solo’s appearance.
