As SummerSlam looms, July was WWE's most TKO month yet ... and that's a problem

It was the best of months, it was the worst of months. Well, actually it wasn't either of those things. But July did at least achieve one distinction: it was the most TKO-ified month in WWE's existence.

There have been strong contenders in the past of course. There was this past April’s WrestleMania month, with the hours upon hours of commercials and the whole botched Pat McAfee angle. There was last year’s June, when WWE confirmed the rumors that it was taking WrestleMania away from New Orleans in order to make more money for a second go-round in Vegas. Then there was last September, with the expedited launch of the ESPN deal, the shafting of Peacock and the painfully-poor Wrestlepalooza.

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Still, none of them quite match the dizzying heights of this July, which has to take the prize as the most commercially-ruthless month we've seen since the world's biggest pro-wrestling promotion became part of Ari Emanuel's entertainment empire.

First off, we saw Saturday Night's Main Event return to MSG only to become a forced crossover with the NBA universe. A star-studded tag match pitting Cody Rhodes and CM Punk against Gunther and Sami Zayn ended up getting shunted from the main event slot for an "acknowledgment ceremony" for the New York Knicks' Jalen Brunson. That's right: an NBA star was given the top billing over a match featuring four WWE world champions.

He was indeed acknowledged.WWE via Getty Images

What was the reason for the whole Roman Reigns and Brunson love-in in the first place? It certainly didn't exactly add anything to the build of Reigns vs. Rollins for this weekend's SummerSlam. It didn't exactly involve any wrestling. But it did allow WWE to do exactly what TKO likes to see: which is to put non-wrestler A-listers front and center as a way of drumming up more buzz for the product on social media. Job done on that front.

Of course, it also helped that the whole NBA crossover (which also featured appearances from Karl-Anthony Towns and Tyrese Haliburton) could play well with ESPN, a company which pays $300 million for some WWE broadcasting rights and obviously has a massive stake in basketball too. That kind of crossover is always going to please the networks, even if it doesn't play so well with the fans.

But it wasn't just basketball players who got the red carpet treatment this month. When it came to rampant TKO-ification, we also had the massive celebrity celebration at Fanatics Fest, something that received its own highlights package on "Raw." How many times have we seen the clips of Tom Brady and Justin Bieber now? Is it more or less than the "Club WWE" trailer? You could get a good Vegas line out of that question.

Then there was "Raw" itself, which wasn't much to write home about. Indeed, the last two shows in July were widely judged to be among the worst of the year — something else you can partly blame on TKO.

What does the notorious Slophausen concert have to do with TKO, you might ask. Well, surely it can't be a coincidence that the payoff was a cameo appearance from Ryan Garcia to take out Joe Hendry and ally himself with the Judgment Day ahead of SummerSlam. In other words, the whole point of the segment was to promote Zuffa Boxing, the Saudi-backed venture in which TKO has a significant commercial stake.

Just TKO things.WWE via Getty Images

The celebrity stuff and commercial crossovers might be easier to stomach if we weren't seeing constant reminders of the old WWE drifting away in front of our eyes. This month was a biggie on that front, with the sudden release of Sheamus, one of the most reliable workers in the company and a man who still had a strong personal story left to finish to cap off his 25-year WWE career.

The latest reports are that he refused to take one of TKO's notorious pay-cut deals. That's not exactly the sort of thing that is going to endear the fans to the new management.

Yes, of course: not everything is terrible. There are still plenty of positives on the horizon. We're about to see Chad Gable win a singles title, for example. Grayson Waller just delivered a bombshell promo over on NXT. Bron Breakker is probably going to run riot on Logan Paul and Austin Theory before long. And we might get Rhea Ripley vs. Iyo Sky at Crown Jewel. By anyone's count, that's enough to keep watching this fall.

But all of the positives are still happening in a wider ecosystem where everything is pointing in one direction: filling up TKO’s coffers as quickly as possible.

Obviously WWE isn't some kind of community sports league. It has to keep making money. But can anyone really look at what's transpired over the past few weeks and say this is the best way to do it?

As the dust settles on a thoroughly frustrating month for pro-wrestling fans, I can't help but think nervously about that old meme of Homer and Bart Simpson. Will July end up being the most TKO-ified month of our lives — or just the most TKO-ified month of our lives so far?

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