SummerSlam Predictions?

[The Chief]

This might deserve it's own topic, but they have to be running out of time on these heavy part-timer supercards, right?

 

Once a year for Taker is too much right now, let alone in a few years.

Rock came back and had his fun.

We've seen Sting.

HHH will most likely always be a presence and can still go, so I guess we've got him.

Shawn is retired but thats still a question mark.

If Austin could physically go it would be for MAYBE one or two matches.

Foley is cooked.

Flair won't get cleared.

We probably haven't seen the last of Batista but Marvel will keep him busy until he's what, 50?

Lesnar will continue to work whenever.

 

I'm curious to see what their main events will look like in 2018. Hopefully we won't be bringing back Kane and Jericho for nostalgia runs cuz they haven't really created any significant stars to replace these guys.

[Loss]

Regardless of how good the show is or what the match outcomes are, it's par the course for WWE to get really boring or actively bad from September-December until they start building to Wrestlemania in January. They aren't exactly hot right now anyway, so hang on tight.

[Mad Dog]

There's always the Hardy Boyz nostalgia run after TNA finally dies.

[Loss]

It's interesting that these are the months that have over the last few years cooled off Nexus, CM Punk, Ryback, Daniel Bryan and Dean Ambrose. Who will be this year's victim? Cesaro?

[The Chief]

It's interesting that these are the months that have over the last few years cooled off Nexus, CM Punk, Ryback, Daniel Bryan and Dean Ambrose. Who will be this year's victim? Cesaro?

Could Cesaro even be considered hot now though? It would be more like getting rid of a hiccup.

[Mad Dog]

They nailed Owens already. They seem he'll bent in damaging Brock as well.

[Loss]

 

It's interesting that these are the months that have over the last few years cooled off Nexus, CM Punk, Ryback, Daniel Bryan and Dean Ambrose. Who will be this year's victim? Cesaro?

Could Cesaro even be considered hot now though? It would be more like getting rid of a hiccup.

 

No, he's not, really. It's just that he's the closest thing to the other names listed.

[Johnny Sorrow]

 

It's interesting that these are the months that have over the last few years cooled off Nexus, CM Punk, Ryback, Daniel Bryan and Dean Ambrose. Who will be this year's victim? Cesaro?

Could Cesaro even be considered hot now though? It would be more like getting rid of a hiccup.

Well, based on the TV Shows I'm watching, yes Cesaro is totally hot right now.

[Bierschwale]

It's interesting that these are the months that have over the last few years cooled off Nexus, CM Punk, Ryback, Daniel Bryan and Dean Ambrose. Who will be this year's victim? Cesaro?

 

They used 2009 to screw around with the Legacy and 2008 to screw around with Jeff Hardy.

[Strummer]

last year there was some interest in the Survivor Series stip but yes the fall into early winter is usually the doldrums for WWE

 

and don't forget they were supposed to shoot the Rhonda/Steph angle for Mania at HITC in LA in October, so...umm... who knows?

[Badlittlekitten]

Not much of interest on this card for me. I predict Cesaro beats Owens and (fingers crossed) Ambrose heel turn. Grumpy old men and Raw rematch no.5932 I couldn't give a shit about.

[DMJ]

I think the main events are pretty exciting, personally. I know on Monday morning everyone and their mother is going to find some way to say "Same old shit!" or "It was so predictable!" but right now, I'm really not sure how things are going to end in either of those matches.

 

In Cena/Rollins, you have Super Cena (who "never loses") going against Seth Rollins, who is not lighting the world afire as champion. It seems cut-and-dry that Cena should win, except Cena already has the US Title and, as we saw on RAW, the WWE just came out with a "15x Champion" tee-shirt that will be pretty meaningless if Cena wins on Sunday. You have Sheamus waiting in the wings with his briefcase but he's less over than Rollins so if the belt find its way to him, one has to figure they'd be "hot potato-ing"it back to Rollins in September (maybe in a 3-way with Cena). I'm not sure Rollins dropping the title for a month to Sheamus does anything for anyone, but its a possibility. I predict that Rollins retains through shenanigans, but betting against Cena has been a pretty foolish gamble for a decade now. If there is concern about flagging ratings and Lesnar won't be around to lift all ships beyond Sunday, it wouldn't surprise me to see Cena get brought back to the main event. I mean, where else does Rollins even go as champion? Reigns/Rollins was a "gimme" after the Mania finish, but 4 months later, with Reigns in a ho-hum feud with the Wyatt Clan, I'm just not seeing it as the big Fall program.

 

 

Then, in the match I expect will close the show, you have Lesnar and Taker. Again, its hard to be 100% confident in either guy winning. Lesnar should win, no doubt, but Taker dropping two-in-a-row to the Beast is hard to see when you consider that WM32 might be Taker's "Last Ride." Undertaker winning will make the "rubber match" necessary, but it would probably hurt Lesnar more than the Mania loss (which came across exactly as intended - the opportunistic Rollins screwed Lesnar, Reigns, and the fans). Lesnar/Taker III is also going to be a tough sell if their match is as disappointing and "humanizing" for the Deadman as their last one was. After that match, the general feeling among my friends was that we never wanted to see Taker wrestle again - win or lose, I'm afraid we'll have the same thoughts after Sunday.

 

If Lesnar wins, they could still run Taker/Lesnar III, but man, talk about a waste of Brock's talent. It was brought up multiple times during Lesnar's title reign that simply standing up to the Beast will get someone over - that, at the peak their 2014 popularity, Ambrose or Ziggler losing to Lesnar would have made them bigger stars. A year later, that's still true. Of all he's done since winning the title, Rollins mattered most when he was Lesnar's target. There's also big potential in Reigns/Lesnar. If Lesnar wins, there's multiple directions you can go with him - but there's only two directions you can go with the Undertaker: retirement or revenge. That's it. Taker needs to win if they ever want to tell a story with him that doesn't involve the Streak (like, say, Taker/Cena at WM32).

 

So, yeah, I expect to hear that everyone and their mother knew what would happen at SummerSlam on Monday morning, but right now, I'm pretty unsure how things will pan out.

[JaymeFuture]

Brock kills Taker again, Taker out the next night to feign a retirement speech saying he has doesn't see a way to save his legacy or some shit, Sting comes out. Place would go nuts and you tease for Mania.

 

If Kane returns on this show and this leads to heel Taker/Kane like it's 1998 again at the expense of Brock, I'll literally cry my eyes out.

[Russellmania]

Regarding Cena/Rollins, with everyone expecting a screwy finish or a Cena win, I really think the boldest thing they could do is have Rollins go over clean (or relatively clean).

 

Rollins has been such a lame duck champ and they seem to think he's one of their future aces so why not actually make the guy look strong for once? Show us why he's "the architect". I think a story where Seth actually rises to the occasion and outruns/outthinks/outfights Cena is more compelling than any other option here. The Brooklyn crowd would eat it up too.

 

The sad thing is that I know this will never happen since it would be a complete waste to have Rollins be the guy to end Cena's US title run. They have really painted themselves into a corner with this one. I still think they should have had Owens win the US title from Cena and then transition Cena back to the world title picture. I just don't see how Cena keeping the US title and then going after the World title on top of that helps anyone in the long run. It just really limits their options and I think Cesaro/Owens could have benefited from being for the US title.

 

Austin on his podcast defended the idea by saying Cena's the top guy and they have to keep him strong but I think history has shown that Cena can absorb a loss no problem.

[JaymeFuture]

True, but I agree with Austin (who seems to have a more traditional approach in wins and losses for a top guy, having never been liberal with jobs in his peak) in the sense that - if Owens had beat Cena, and then was going on to Cesaro, then it's a wasted job for Cena since it didn't elevate Owens in the process, Cena is the guy moving up. Which you can do, but it's also not the best way to build Cena for this spot, and since they clearly got cold feet when his numbers went down a bit after the first Owens job, that probably weighed into their thinking.

[Loss]

I love Austin, but he's very critical of the wrestlers for not taking the top spots and seems in denial about wrestlers having far more freedom to take chances in his day than they do now. Jim Ross does the same thing. They blame the wrestlers instead of the people in management (read: person in management) who fosters that environment.

[Matt D]

I don't think they're going back for Taker vs Brock III at Mania.

[Parties]

It’s been said here already many times, but this is a disappointing card. You could have done practically the same TV and still booked the show as Brock/Reigns II, Taker/Rollins, Cesaro beating Cena for the US title, Sheamus/Orton, Owens beating Ryback for the IC title, and Wyatts winning the tag titles.

Taker/Brock: Main event in year one of “Summertime Wrestlemania” is a lukewarm rehash of a D+ match from two years ago. The perception of Meltzer and co. that this is a hot feud just because they did one pull apart seems really overstated. If Taker starts botching stuff, it would not surprise me at all to see a Brooklyn crowd boo him mercilessly. Logical booking would have him lose again and then challenge Brock in his retirement match. Which means he’ll instead be booked to win and make it a parity booked 1-1 tie going into Mania. People are now expecting Kane to interfere, which is really just icing on the cake.

Cena/Rollins: This is honestly much worse booking than Taker/Brock. Jesus, they did this match on RAW what, three weeks ago? And how many times in the last two years prior to that? Such a waste of both titles after Cena’s great US title run - there’s genuinely no pairing I’d like to see less in either spot. I expect a no contest and continuation of the feud.

Shield/Wyatts: People keep saying that Reigns or Ambrose will turn. Ambrose seems far more likely, but I really don’t want either of them to do so. Could not care less who wins, so I’ll say Wyatts take it in some kind of unclean manner, be it a heel turn or some supernatural distraction idiocy. Hoping they just let them do a crazy tornado brawl that saves the show.

Orton/Sheamus: They pair well together, so I’m actually happy to see this again. It even has a solid - if never properly stated - race against time storyline to see which one of them can beat the champ first as they Terminator each other out of every opportunity. Some people have predicted Sheamus cashes in, but that would both flat and overwrought on this show. Just bad timing and too close in time/style to Rollins’ cash-in. That said, I would actually like them to just get Sheamus’ title match over with, as MITB is so stale that it would be good to get it off the table for nine months. I’ll say Sheamus gets his win back since he won’t cash in here.

Tag Title 4-Way: Hey, remember the Ascension? New Day deserves to win and I expect them to. Depending on what Reigns gets to do in the fall, ND may be the company MVPs this year when all’s said and done. All three should win “Most Improved” for sure, though Big E was always great.

IC Title: Awful title booking continues. Ryback should/will retain in a match that the crowd boos while going into business for themselves via chants.

Cesaro/Owens: Cesaro is on the ascent, Owens clearly in the doghouse. Match will be good but not nearly as good as everyone wants it to be, triggering “bloom is off the rose / he was brought up too early” backlash online to Owens.

Cosmic King/Stardust vs. Neville/Arnell: I go to the concession stand to buy largest possible version of pretentious Brooklyn microbrew, run into an acquaintance from college. We realize that we had little in common, but still appreciate each other warts and all. I return in time to see Neville and Arnell celebrating while standing on the second rope of opposite corners.

Bellas/Fox vs. PCB vs. Team BAD: I haven’t really been keeping track of who’s rising/falling in this feud. but feels like they’ll do another PCB win as there’s no reason not to, unless Banks gets a decisive pin on Nikki. I’ll say Charlotte pins Banks to keep Nikki strongish.

Dolph/Rusev: Rusev needs the win more than Dolph right now, but I don’t understand where they’re going with this feud anymore, and don’t think the writers do either. Flip a coin, but I’ll optimistically give it to Rusev, to make this a show with 5 babyface wins, 4 heel, and a no contest.

[Russellmania]

I love Austin, but he's very critical of the wrestlers for not taking the top spots and seems in denial about wrestlers having far more freedom to take chances in his day than they do now. Jim Ross does the same thing. They blame the wrestlers instead of the people in management (read: person in management) who fosters that environment.

That's not really true...Austin has been super critical of Vince on that very point, but I think he has a somewhat valid point that the wrestlers need to be less afraid of stepping on toes also.

[El-P]

Cosmic King/Stardust vs. Neville/Arnell: I go to the concession stand to buy largest possible version of pretentious Brooklyn microbrew, run into an acquaintance from college. We realize that we had little in common, but still appreciate each other warts and all. I return in time to see Neville and Arnell celebrating while standing on the second rope of opposite corners.

 

Ah ah ah !

[Matt D]

Sheamus cashing in at the end of the night is the way they solve the duel belts issue, right? It could even be the way they keep the US belt on Cena if they want to.

[Grimmas]

Sheamus cashing in at the end of the night is the way they solve the duel belts issue, right? It could even be the way they keep the US belt on Cena if they want to.

What boring booking though.

 

I wish they would just ditch the MITB altogether.

[Russellmania]

 

Sheamus cashing in at the end of the night is the way they solve the duel belts issue, right? It could even be the way they keep the US belt on Cena if they want to.

What boring booking though.

 

I wish they would just ditch the MITB altogether.

 

I advocated early this year for having Brock make his return from suspension as a surprise entrant at MITB, winning the contract and then cashing it in the same night.

 

That would have put the whole gimmick on hiatus for a full year. I really wish they'd done it. The execution of the whole "guy teases cashing in" trope has gotten more and more stupid every year. I'm so over the whole thing.

[Parties]

They would never do this, but I've thought of late that a babyface should win the next MITB, and decide that they will do the honorable thing and announce ahead of time that they would like to "cash in" their briefcase on the main event of the next PPV (Battleground, Summerslam, whatever). Champ (be they heel or babyface) agrees. Then in the opening segment of the go-home episode of RAW on the week of the PPV, the champ is cutting a promo predicting their victory this Sunday at _____, when suddenly the challenger jumps them from behind, cashes in early and wins the title, thereby turning heel by having gone against their word and stolen the belt. You have the match that Sunday, but the dynamic has changed so much that it can believably end in a vengeful double DQ, thereby launching a hot feud with guys in fresh roles. It seemed like an option they could have done with Reigns had they wanted to do a double turn with Rollins, but it could work with anyone you wanted to turn.

 

Come to think of it: what have the most recent turns in the company even been? Naomi going heel? Lana turning face? New Day? Emma? Feels like Sheamus at the end of March was the last big one, and Orton prior to that back in November.

[Coffey]

I'm overly excited for this Pay-Per-View & I have no idea why. I feel like I'm just setting myself up for a fall at this point. I don't really care about Brock/'Taker as a match, I'm more concerned about 'Taker going over to set-up a rubber match at 'Mania which is the complete opposite of what I want. I also think it would be hilarious if after all the U.S. Title Open Challenge stuff, John Cena just won the world title again anyway.

 

WWE has been hyping & acting like this is such a huge PPV deal & I'm not entirely sure why. The fourth hour is really going to make this show drag I feel.

 

I do think that Dean Ambrose will turn heel on Roman and join the Wyatt Family.

 

Right now, I'd like to see Lesnar as the champion in a Bret Hart role where he'll give title shots to anyone as a "fighting champion" so he could help establish guys like Rusev or Cesaro, instead of it just being The Undertaker, John Cena or Triple H all the time. I thought they were going to use him to do that with Roman. I don't feel like Seth Rollins has gotten over the hurdle & parity booking has really hurt guys like Wyatt, Owens, Ambrose & Ryback.

 

So I guess I'm more interested in the booking than the matches.