Before I begin, I’d just like to state how pumped I am for this Saturday’s Takeover. Why? Because I’ll be there live and in person. Since I’ve started watching the Takeover specials on the regular, I’ve always wanted to be in an NXT crowd and to feel the energy that seems palpable at times. I just love the energy the crowd brings and I know they’re going to be hot for matches such as Asuka/Bayley and Nakamura/Joe. I’ll be sure to give you all my detailed live experience in my first ever NXT show, and if any of you have been to an NXT live event or Takeover, please feel free to share any details about your experience in the comments. I’d like to hear some feedback from different perspectives. Oh yeah, that’s right, we got another show this Sunday right?
When I look at the Summerslam card, I think it could become one of the greatest shows in WWE history. No exaggeration there. It helps that they have four hours to work with, but the matches that we have here on this card are stacked and if WWE books the show right and gives the matches ample time to tell their respective stories, I see no reason why Summerslam 2016 can’t be a show that we’re talking about years from now. With that said, here are my predictions for each match on the card. A little notes and tid-bits before I start though.
– Summerslam shows why I was against Sami Zayn being drafted to the RAW brand, because he was almost guaranteed to get lost in the shuffle sometime. Zayn had one of the best matches of the year against Kevin Owens at Battleground, not to mention being involved in other match of the year candidates (Nakamura – Takeover Dallas, Fatal Four Way – Extreme Rules), and in the first PPV featuring the brand split, he has no place on the card, which is sad. I certianly hope RAW and Smackdown can negotiate some sort of trade. I don’t think Zayn is in any long term jeopardy, and RAW-exclusive PPV’s will help, but he’s one guy who can get lost in the shuffle easily.
– Bray Wyatt being left off the card wasn’t surprising, but it is disappointing, because he has had great mic work since the draft split. He’ll probably be featured on Smackdown specific PPV’s like Backlash and No Mercy in the fall, but the inter-brand roster shows such as Summerslam and WrestleMania may leave him out of flux unless he’s always in a feud, and Smackdown’s episode suggested that Orton is next after Summerslam.
– My first impression was that RAW was going to be superior to Smackdown because of the vast talent gap, but Smackdown has been superior in almost every way since then. It has given time for good matches, story-telling and character development. But what I enjoy most is that everything serves a purpose. There’s no fluff and there’s really no filler. Everything is always building to something, while on RAW you can burn through 20 minutes of something that won’t be built upon the next week. I just wish the ratings for Smackdown would reflect how they’ve been punishing RAW.
Okay, on to the predictions.
Smackdown Matches:
The Miz (C) w/Maryse vs. Apollo Crews – Intercontinental Championship
There really hasn’t been much build to the feud, with the stock post match and segment beat downs being the main focus of the feud. The Miz hasn’t exactly had a promising start on Smackdown, losing a 2 minute “match” to get Randy Orton momentum, took a finisher to Baron Corbin, and had the segment with Apollo Crews before Summerslam show up on commercial. He’s been really dealt a bad hand as his work since WrestleMania for the most part has been very underrated. With Apollo getting the upper hand this week, I think it’s safe to assume that The Miz will walk out of Brooklyn still as Intercontinental Champion, but I really wish Smackdown would give The Miz more time as well as more ring time. Crews is a good challenger for the IC Championship and I suspect he’ll be the one to take the belt off Miz, seeing as how most of the rest of the roster is involved in some sort of feud. I have The Miz retaining here.
Winner: The Miz
Naomi, Becky Lynch and Carmella vs. Alexa Bliss, Natayla and Eva Marie
We really have three feuds wrapped into one here, as this basically features the entire Smackdown female roster. Eva Marie’s consistent match stoppage gimmick was an interesting course, but I dig it. As for the rest of the characters, WWE really hasn’t explained why each women hates each other, but I suppose they figured doing faces vs. heels would be the best course of action to ring in all of the females as well as set the stage for the new Women’s Championship coming to Smackdown. I really can’t tell you who will win here because there really hasn’t been enough build for each individual female, so I’ll just take a guess here and say that the face team wins. Just because.
Winners: Naomi, Becky Lynch and Carmella
John Cena vs. AJ Styles
These two had a pretty good outing at Money In The Bank, and I’m inclined to believe they’ll top their performance at Summerslam. This isn’t an underlying part of the feud between these two, but John Cena is in a bit of a Summerslam rut. You see, he hasn’t won a singles match at Summerslam in over 9 years (Randy Orton in 2007) and his last victory came in an elimination tag team match where he, well, buried the Nexus. Will the losing streak continue? Styles is probably your top heel on Smackdown, and Cena’s taking another hiatus from WWE to film American Grit, and I can only assume that he’ll give AJ the rub before he leaves. Now, if any of you have seen Cena, you’d know that Cena almost always has the last laugh, and many believe AJ will be another victim and most of the Internet community would be in an uproar if Styles doesn’t beat the face that runs the place. I say AJ wins, but there’s this small part of my brain that believes Vince will just give a big FU to most of the smark fans and give Cena the win. It would make sense in the fact that Cena hasn’t beaten Styles one on one on PPV. However, Cena did get the upper hand on Smackdown, and following WWE’s formula, it would appear as though AJ is being set up to get the biggest victory of his brief WWE career. Coming into Smackdown this Tuesday, I had this match as the flip of the coin, but now I’m 80/20 sure that AJ is winning, and I think he’ll win cleanly to build up for a feud with Dean Ambrose in the fall for the WWE Title.
Winner: AJ Styles
Dean Ambrose (C) vs. Dolph Ziggler – WWE World Heavyweight Championship
So are they calling it WWE Championship or WWE World Heavyweight Championship? They can’t seem to make up their minds. Anyways, I saw many people burying this feud the moment Ziggler got the win because it wasn’t Styles. I told people, however, that they should give the feud at least one week before completely bypassing it because of the main reason that it was different. Ziggler hasn’t been in the main event scene since 2013, so him coming back, was a decent surprise. Lo, and behold, this title match now feels important. These two had phenomenal back and forth on the mic, even more so on the go-home Smackdown. The stakes in the match feels real, and Ambrose’s dissection of Ziggler’s past and his ability to win a big match has been wonderful to see. Ziggler’s rise from obscurity to this moment can be seen on his facial expressions and the way he’s been building this match. Now, as WWE has shown us, upsets do happen, but let’s be honest. Ziggler has no real chance here. Dean Ambrose is coming off the biggest victory of his career, beating his former Shield brethren Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns in a triple threat match. Meanwhile Ziggler has lost 2 out of 3 pre-show matches to a guy that’s not even on the card. Why are we supposed to believe that Ziggler has any chance to win? Now, if WWE turned Ziggler heel, it may have changed the dynamic of the match. But if this is about who is the better man, Ambrose wins a thousand times over. I expect a spirited effort from both of these men, and I hope that WWE has a video package featuring Limp Bizkit’s My Way before the match starts, because that’s what it feels like. In spite of that, this looks like it may be a flash in the pan title shot for Ziggler. Lunatic Fringe is here to stay.
Winner: Dean Ambrose
RAW Matches:
1st of Best of 7 Series – Cesaro vs. Sheamus
Cesaro and Sheamus are two men that have great chemistry in the ring with each other. Watch their match at Night of Champions 2014 if you have about 15 minutes to burn. This match would feel much more important if they had, you know, stakes. However, seeing as how there is no longer a US title match on the line, it seems they’re fighting just for the sake of fighting. Not that I mind it happening, but we haven’t seen a best of 7 series in about a decade where Booker T (who has more than one experience in this type of contest) was fighting Chris Benoit over the United States title. Perhaps they should have waiting until Summerslam to have a second, or even first version of this match, with the winner facing the US Champion at a later date. Oh well. Anyways, Cesaro has gotten the better of Sheamus two straight times on RAW, so I naturally suspect third time won’t be the charm and Sheamus starts off with the win here.
Winner: Sheamus
Jeri-KO (Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens) vs. Enzo Amore and Big Cass
Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens were practically made for each other. They both have that cocky, intelligent arrogance that I think is missing from heel tag teams nowadays. When I see Kevin Owens talk side by side with Chris Jericho, it’s like I’m seeing a younger version of Jericho in a reflection. Now, I don’t know when Jericho’s leaving for his next WWE hiatus, because I certainly hope that Jeri-KO isn’t a transitional thing and gets a little run, perhaps at the tag titles. According to this feud, Cass got angry that Jericho hit a post-match Codebreaker on Amore and Kevin Owens said that he would have Jericho’s back. Just because. And now they are a tag team, because they would totally, like never turn on each other. Enzo and Cass were both left on the ground to end their segment on Monday, and they’re in their hometown this Sunday, so I suspect that they’ll win this Sunday because Jericho and Owens can’t keep their egos in check, and I suspect that it will be Kevin Owens who will sabotage. If this is what happens, then it appears as though this whole thing with Jericho would be nothing more than a placeholder experiment until they move on to bigger things. I’m rooting for Jeri-KO, but I suspect Enzo and Cass get the win, and perhaps that will propel them to a future shot at the tag titles.
Winner: Enzo and Cass
The New Day (C) vs. The Club – WWE Tag Team Championship
Are you at all surprised WWE managed to make a title feud about testicular pain? Please don’t say no. If The New Day manage to retain the titles, they will surpass the one year mark of their tag title reign that they started at Summerslam last year. Only this time, their third element, Big E won’t be there. So the question is does WWE pull the trigger on The Club now, or let the New Day hold the titles past next week and give it to them at a later date? I’m leaning towards the latter. The bottom line is there have been more than one occassion where The New Day could have lost the tag title belts. I don’t think WWE would have allowed them to hold the belts that long if they weren’t high on them. I think The Club or Enzo/Cass will be the team to take the title belts off of them. The New Day had the upper hand on RAW so naturally I’d assume that without Big E, The New Day would collapse and The Club would win, but I think The New Day gets to the one year mark and loses in a rematch. Then again, The Club could just beat The New Day straight up as opposed to when they have all three of them here. I’ll lean towards New Day retaining, but don’t be surprised at a Club victory.
This Summerslam match is about more than the titles. It’s mostly about testicles. #WorryAboutYourOwnNuts
— ShinigamE (@WWEBigE) August 16, 2016
Winners: The New Day
Rusev (C) vs. Roman Reigns – United States Championship
Roman being demoted to mid-card title status might be what’s best for him for now, as he could certainly elevate a mid-card title, I think the same way John Cena could. However, at the moment, I think it’s Rusev’s time. First off, the build to this feud has been for the most part, well, reprehensible. The wedding segment was complete garbage and to top it off, they gave away a damn near half an hour version of this match for free on RAW! Now, I’m not behind how much time each match is going to get, but I suspect Rusev/Roman will get about half the time they got on RAW for Summerslam. Rusev losing cleanly also signifies to me that he will retain this Sunday, probably with some sort of screwy finish. Or it could just remain undecided to protect Roman even further. You must never underestimate how much WWE would get behind certain guys, but the invincible aura that Roman once had has now dissipated as he’s taken recent clean pinfall losses to the likes of Seth Rollins, Finn Balor and Dean Ambrose within the past couple of months. This would be the best place for Rusev to retain his belt and Roman can perhaps take the title off of him at a future date. Rusev’s reign has been okay, but he’s been lacking in the quality of his opponents, defending against guys lower on the WWE pecking order with guys like Kallisto, Zack Ryder and Titus O’Neil. Safe to assume that Roman isn’t any one of those guys. There’s obviously always a chance that Roman could win, but I think Rusev gets the rub here. I think a victory would mean much more to him.
Winner: Rusev
Sasha Banks (C) vs. Charlotte – WWE Women’s Championship
These two tore it up three weeks ago on RAW when they went out there, busted their respective asses and Sasha finally overcame Charlotte and won the Women’s Championship in a match that reminded me of Lita and Trish main eventing RAW in 2004. If they want to, I think they’ll go out there and try to top themselves. I would have preferred to have Sasha win the title on a bigger stage, but I completely understand wanting to do something big to ring in the new version of RAW. The story telling has been fine and basic, but I would have liked for Charlotte to get a post match beatdown in by herself as opposed to Dana Brooke coming out despite her not being involved in the match this Sunday. I think it would have pegged Charlotte as an actual threat as opposed to a sissy who can only do things with other people. Sasha retains here and moves on to a different challenger. Perhaps Nia Jax.
Winner: Sasha Banks
Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor – WWE Universal Championship
Has anyone gotten behind the Universal Championship moniker the new world title has because I sure can’t. Sounds like something a fifth grader made on Xbox. I really think WWE dropped the ball here in terms of how it has booked this match. If this match was booked half as good as Ambrose/Ziggler, I think it could have been one of the best build-ups to inaugurate a new title. Balor/Rollins, I suspect will still be awesome, but Ambrose and Ziggler’s promos and back and forth could persuade first time viewers to wanting to see that match more. The whole “Rollins calling out The Demon King” (which sounds like Demon Kane if said kind of fast) was pretty stupid, but WWE topped themselves by freaking giving away Balor’s demon entrance on RAW when they couldn’t wait six days. A last minute confrontation with Balor and Rollins would have accomplished much, but they once again jumped the gun because of impatience. That’s the only think I can take from this. Now, as for the winner being predicted, that’s a toughie. Balor has been pretty much protected since his main roster debut, only competing in the fatal four way and match against Roman which he has won. Meanwhile, on the other hand, Rollins is the top heel on RAW and WWE may look to make a statement to have him begin as the face of RAW. Innate wrestling fan instincts say that Rollins wins because Balor got the upper hand on RAW. Another part of me says Balor wins because Vince and the higher-ups are high on him and Rollins losing wouldn’t hurt him here. It is very hard to say, and I don’t want to believe Finn would lose his first major PPV match on the main roster. You may have more luck flipping a coin and choosing who wins from that, but if I go with my gut, I’m going with the Architect. However, remember that crazy possibility I mentioned earlier? What if The Club wins the belts, interfere in this match to cost Seth the belt and we get The Balor Club? Just a thought.
Winner: Seth Rollins
Inter-brand match: Randy Orton vs. Brock Lesnar
As an Orton mark through and through, it would be an understatement to say that I am HYPED for this match. There has been a list of guys I have wanted Orton to face, and Lesnar is one of them, but they always seem to stay away from each other. Until now. I like the video packages showed of these two, highlighting their OVW days and their young journeys into two of WWE’s most gifted superstars. Despite how corny the whole Viperville vs. Suplex City thing sounds, I don’t mind it. I also like how much WWE is putting over each other’s finishers. Now, unless there’s a massive change in heart, I don’t think Orton will be beating Lesnar straight-up. If Orton wins, I think there is bound to be some controversy to end the match. Now, one thing to keep in mind is that the talents are very upset Lesnar hasn’t faced any punishment for his drug mishaps and Vince is said to be very high on Orton since his return because of his attitude and his addiction rehab. Would it do good for the morale in the locker room if Orton were to win? Odds are after this, Lesnar is gone until Royal Rumble season, so does Lesnar leave with a win or does Orton get one of the signature victories of his career? Orton hasn’t done anything of interest since his WM match with Seth Rollins and has looked unmotivated since losing the WWE Title two years ago. I think an Orton win would mean much more and Lesnar can take a loss without losing the unstoppable moniker. Orton has stated that he’s lost to Cena, Triple H and Undertaker. I give Orton the tiniest of edges, but I understand some may have Lesnar firmly as the favorite. Let’s just hope Orton’s rotator cuff doesn’t fly across the ring. Call this a biased pick. I really have no clear indication.
Winner: Randy Orton
That was a mouthful. Until next time.
