Every Five-Star WWE Match So Far In 2025 After SummerSlam Main Event Makes The Cut

Many fans declared Cena's retirement tour was back on track after the fantastic match he had against Rhodes at SummerSlam, some labeling it the departing star's best showing since his legendary match with AJ Styles at SummerSlam nine years prior. Clearly, Dave Meltzer agrees, as the Wrestling Observer Newsletter editor awarded the SummerSlam main event five stars.

No other match on the card made it into the five-star club, although the six-pack TLC match came close with a 4.75 rating. Unsurprising that there weren't two five-star matches on the same card, as Cena and Rhodes' main event is only the fourth match to have been awarded the rating so far this year.

Every WWE Match Awarded Five Stars So Far In 2025

Meltzer may have been reluctant to award the fantastic tag match a perfect score, as one of the other three bouts to have been given five stars in 2025 is one that features a lot of the Superstars who were in that Tag Title match. The three-way match between Street Profits, DIY, and Motor City Machine Guns in April, which really should have been on the WrestleMania card days earlier, is one of the other three matches to have been awarded five stars.

That seven-day stretch was a particularly good one for WWE and five-star matches, as there was a showdown on the WrestleMania card that earned five-star status. That honor went to the triple threat between Iyo Sky, Bianca Belair, and Rhea Ripley. The fourth and final WWE match (so far) to earn five stars from the Wrestling Observer in 2025 was Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn's brutal battle at Elimination Chamber.

• Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn (Elimination Chamber)
• Bianca Belair vs. Iyo Sky vs. Rhea Ripley (WrestleMania 41)
• Street Profits vs. DIY vs. Motor City Machine Guns (SmackDown)
• John Cena vs. Cody Rhodes (SummerSlam)

Four matches in seven and a half months might not sound like much, but there was a period in recent WWE history when Meltzer didn't award any WWE matches five stars. The journalist dubbed Rhodes' iconic match with Seth Rollins inside Hell in a Cell, the one where The American Nightmare wrestled with a torn pec, a five-star affair. It was the first WWE match given five stars by WON since Cena and CM Punk's Money in the Bank main event in 2011, 11 years prior.