WWE SummerSlam 2025 preview -- Cena-Rhodes headlines two-night event - ESPN

As a service to fans who have a general interest in WWE but might not have watched a match in months, we're happy to provide this FAQ as a guide to SummerSlam at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Saturday and Sunday.

The WWE listens to the Universe, and apparently the Universe said it was willing to fill MetLife Stadium with over 45,000 fans twice in the same weekend to watch professional athletes lose painfully. So they're basically now honorary Jets and Giants fans.

This is the first two-night SummerSlam, and next year's event in Minneapolis will be a two-nighter as well. It makes sense: No other WWE event besides WrestleMania gets the kind of build that SummerSlam does. There's even a special celebrity host: Cardi B, who once name-checked Eddie Guerrero in a song and thus earned a lifetime membership wrestling cred card.

This year's event is notable for another reason: It's the final SummerSlam for John Cena as an in-ring performer, as the undisputed WWE champion once again faces Cody Rhodes, this time in a street fight. (Can one even have a street fight at MetLife? Would it be a Parking Lot Punch-Up? Turnpike Tussle? Route 1 Ruckus?)

The clock is ticking on Cena's retirement tour. Will he retire as a heel champion, or can Rhodes (or someone else) take the title from Cena before he departs?

Please recall that Cena won the title from Rhodes in April at WrestleMania 41 thanks to a low blow, a belt shot and interference from The Rock's emissary, rapper Travis Scott, whose name we doth not speaketh of any longer. That gave Cena his record 17th world championship. Since then, he has won matches against Randy Orton in May and CM Punk in June thanks to outside interference, defeated fan favorite R-Truth a