Hightides August 2025

What’s up everyone! Here we are again, looking back at the hightide moments from the past month. I'm writing this up on this holiday Monday before we get the first RAW of September. Let’s look at all the PPV and PLE’s August had to offer, then tackle the weekly programming!

WWE kicked off August hot, bringing us two nights of Summerslam with both nights' main events delivering in their own way. 

Night one ended with CM Punk being victorious in a clash against Gunther, winning the World Heavyweight Championship. Right as Punk is celebrating, Seth Rollins makes his presence felt and teases that he will cash in the Money In The Bank briefcase when he is healed from his injury (okay kinda lame ending). Then BOOM, Seth reveals that he was never even injured in the first place and runs down to the ring to cash in right then and there (okay fire as fuuuuck ending). Why Punk didn’t just run away is a mystery but nonetheless, Rollins is successful in his cash in and walks away with the championship to close the night. Talk about a rollercoaster of events! The ol Punker got cashed in on in a similar fashion to how Drew McIntyre was cashed in on, poetic indeed. 

Night two’s main event received the best John Cena match we’ve got during his retirement tour, losing his Undisputed WWE Championship to Cody Rhodes. This match was a street fight, so it got all the bells and whistles to really make this match something special. The babyface turn Cena did on the previous Smackdown sort of rubbed me the wrong way but the good guy vs good guy dynamic actually made this match more enjoyable. Both men are loved dearly by their fanbase and it was great to have people able to cheer for Cena and have it fit in the context of the storytelling. After the match, Lesnar returned as a huge shock to completely destroy Cena. In hindsight, this led absolutely nowhere for the rest of the month so Lesnar returning isn’t really considered a hightide for me at this point - it would just be impossible not to mention it.

Summerslam also got an insane TLC match from the Smackdown tag team division. July saw the tag division on fire and it all led to this insane early august match. Joe Gacy and Dexter Lumis of the Wyatt Sicks, Andrade and Rey Fenix, DIY, Fraxiom, Motor City Machine Guns, and The Street Profits all provided a match with nonstop action. The tag division has slowed down in August compared to July, but they are still absolutely holding it down - including Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss bringing the women’s tag titles over to Smackdown.

I decided to check out Triplemania, which was an easy choice considering WWE put it on their youtube channel for free. The battle royal kicking off the show was such a smart move. The display of fun AAA characters, combined with surprise WWE wrestlers entering the match, got me absolutely bought in. The size comparison between Omos and Microman was hilarious and it was great to see Omos winning the whole thing. I understand wanting to keep Omos a special attraction, but to do absolutely nothing with him for this long is crazy. AAA is honestly a fantastic stage for him and he could be a huge star for that crowd.

From the moment I saw Nino Hamburguesa, I knew a star had fallen from above and landed on our television screens. He immediately inspired the ‘Beach Boy Of The Week’ series on our instagram account because I just had to honor this guy in some way.  

AEW continues to deliver with their PPV events. Now before I say anything about the event, I do want to say I didn’t watch the Zero Hour matches and therefore I have nothing to say about them. Anyways… Forbidden Door was extremely enjoyable, even if some of the outcomes were a little predictable. For example, I never bought that Nigel McGuinness would win the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship belt from Zack Sabre Jr BUT I found it to be a fantastic match. Nigel getting to be in a world champion match, when he was deemed retired due to injury not too long ago, is truly amazing. Having Bryan Danielson on commentary was a great touch too. 

A not so predictable win goes to Brodido claiming the AEW Tag Team Championships. I thought for sure FTR would win so the titles could be on the line for the eventual showdown against Cope and Christian. I thought the pairing of Brody King and Bandido was too random for my taste at first but I’ve grown to really like them as a tag team. Their aesthetic seems to have gelled together well. Brody King gets another partner while Buddy Matthews is out injured and Bandido gets to put on great matches on AEW TV while duel promoting the ROH World Championship.  

It was a true and welcome surprise to see Wardlow returning at the end of Okada vs Swerve Strickland, but I won’t lie to y’all - the fear of him becoming another background guy is very high. The Don Callis Family is running pretty thick right now and it’s becoming harder for the non title holders of the group to stand out. 

The lights out match was disgusting. I’m not sure what else to say about it other than it was pure chaos. The Darby Allin “fork stabbing the ear” spot was as nasty as it gets. Like honestly, was anyone able to match that without turning away? I was mad that Jetspeed weren’t included in this match because of how they lost to Deathriders every week, but on second thought maybe it was best for their health to not have been included!

Heatwave was put on the same day as Forbidden Door, which obviously was a petty tactic by WWE to divert attention away from their competitor. My biggest issue with that is, why would you put that type of pressure on your development brand to compete against an event as big as Forbidden Door? WWE is trying to take eyes off the AEW product but in reality, they are making it easier to compare the two products. And one of the products is much better than the other. That’s not even tribalism, I’m talking case to case basis and the London crowd was an incredible sight. I really enjoy NXT but if WWE wants to counterprogram, they need to do a better job (which they already have with a main roster PLE streaming on ESPN going against AEW All Out. Hilarious stuff honestly. The war is real.)

Anyways, my favorite moments coming out of Heatwave were the wins of Lola Vice and Ash by Elegance. I have hope that we are slowly building towards a NXT vs TNA vs AAA event. Survivor Series is just a few months away and this could be a huge opportunity to put these three promotions on the main stage with a women’s wargames match. I may be overreaching with the wargames match part, but hey - let’s get something okay? Chelsea Green getting a win and Ricky Saints coming out at the end of the PLE both get quick shoutouts.  

Clash in Paris really only had one true hightide moment: A classic Cena match. This honestly should have been the first match in Cena’s retirement tour. If Cena’s whole reasoning of joining the Royal Rumble was because he needed a quick win to secure the win due to losing all the time over the past couple years, he should have instead put on great matches like this with people outside the title picture (Yes I know Logan is a title contender at any given moment but look past that for the point I’m making here!!). The way this match was a back and forth with Cena winning by falling on Logan at the end was perfect. This early part of the retirement tour could have been wins against Logan and Dominik Mysterio on Cena’s way of building momentum towards his 17th championship win. Maybe I will take my stab at booking Cena’s retirement for our fantasy booking series. Needless to say, this match delivered. Logan Paul deserves the credit for playing his part as well.

The main event fatal four way for the World Heavyweight Championship was fun but the involvement of Becky Lynch to save Seth Rollins was disappointing considering I was heavily expecting the rumored “third man” to join The Vision. It kind of unsold the match for me. However in hindsight, Becky coming to save her man seems so obvious. Like the answer was right there - She was on the card so she was already in the building, Seth’s Vision was banned from ringside, and she was in on the fake injury angle as well.  

With the PPVs and PLEs out of the way, let’s look at some of the big moments from the weekly television

WWE kicked off August with a Smackdown hightide as Los Garza issued an open challenge for the AAA Tag Titles. Seeing those belts on WWE TV was huge, and the surprise challengers—Mr. Iguana and Psycho Clown—got a big reaction. I’m not too familiar with Psycho Clown, but Mr. Iguana has been all over social media.

Bronson Reed stealing Roman Reigns shoes has been a great gag all month long. “The Tribal Thief” and “The Shoe-La-Fala” coming out of this is pure gold.

Bayleys low points and losses resulting in a mental breakdown and “voices” in her head is beyond intriguing. I can not wait to see how this develops in September, but August saw the foundation for an exciting character development.

Naomi and Big Jim are having a Little Jim! (Or Jimette! (Or Little Naomi would’ve made more sense I guess!)). Congratulations to the couple!

The Speed Championship is coming to NXT. The purpose of the Speed Championship was to showcase wrestlers on the X platform. NOW it has the opportunity to to be a showcase for TNA, AAA, or Evolve Wrestlers to get a quick, fun match on NXT television. Or those promotions get a Sol Ruca match for their show. I have high hopes this championship could be an extremely fun tool. 

AEW brought us promo gold with Big Stoke’s promo of “I’m short, I’m bald, I can’t get any hoes - I’ve been fighting my whole life!”. This could go down in history as a top ten “best things ever said in a promo”. The following match against Cope was also legendary as well. Big Stoke is the Big Dawg.

Killswitch’s return caught me by surprise. Unfortunately it came from the injury of Nick Wayne but great to have the big guy back. Hopefully he rebels against Kip Sabian and becomes a solo monster.  

My favorite of all the television hightide moments has been the Deathriders / Jon Moxley vs Darby Allin storyline. The transition from the title scene has been seamless and Darby is matching, and exceeding, the Moxley energy of being a menace.

Hologram "malfunctioning” and then the tease reveal of an evil clone is so intriguing. It ends the month with excitement and I am hopeful we get some big developments in September.   

Well gang, that wraps up this month. August honestly came and went pretty fast, but provided some fun moments along the way. September will bring us WWE Wrestlepalooza, NXT No Mercy, and AEW All Out. I won't always be covering AAA but I am interested in seeing how they follow up Triplemania, so I will be covering Worlds Collide as well! Check out our instagram page to see the Hightides the night of the show (sometimes morning after depending on scheduling. Logistics are boring). 

Peace and love, keep ya tides high.