WWE is once again taking over Brooklyn, New York with the annual SummerSlam event this Sunday, and since the card seems to be finalized, it’s time to do another breakdown of predictions for which superstars are going to shine the brightest, win their matches and steal the show. Not everybody can be the standout performers, but this is the last cross-branded event until Survivor Series, so it should be a good indicator of who are the most important men and women on their respective rosters.
Which wrestlers will make a bigger name for themselves at this particular event? Let’s start breaking down the top couple of likely options.
Seth Rollins or Finn Balor
The cop out answer here is that it’s a guarantee whoever wins the Universal Championship will be the top star of the night and to leave it at that. But that’s no fun, is it? So which one of the two choices will get that distinction?
I keep changing my mind back and forth, as there are plenty of reasons to see both as the favorite. Finn Balor represents change, keeping things fresh, pushing the new era and doing something that would elicit a huge pop. Seth Rollins represents stability, he’s trustworthy to withhold the responsibilities as champion, and he’s something different in comparison to Dean Ambrose as a babyface figurehead of SmackDown.
On the one hand, it’s good to have Balor as the champion because the Rollins title reign might end up being too similar to what we’ve seen with his first WWE World Heavyweight Championship run, but on the other hand, fans tend to like watching the babyface chase for the title rather than defend it.
At the time of writing this article, I’m leaning more towards Balor winning, as he can feud with Rollins, Sheamus, Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens, while there aren’t as many babyfaces to go up against Rollins outside of Cesaro, Sami Zayn and the retread of Roman Reigns, which people won’t be too receptive of.
Randy Orton
Ever since Brock Lesnar was scheduled to fight for UFC, I’ve been harping on the concept that WWE needs to have Randy Orton defeat him in order to gain something positive out of it. Lesnar beating Mark Hunt and then losing to Orton would only make The Viper look stronger, and if Lesnar had lost and then beaten Orton, it would by proxy make him look weaker. Now that there’s a whole scandal about failing his drug tests, the idea of Lesnar winning makes sense less sense than before.
It’s kind of a shame, as Randy Orton is not the type of person who needs a win over Lesnar to help out his career—at least, nowhere near as much as a handful of other people. This spot would be better utilized for someone like Cesaro who could make something out of the bump. Still, Orton’s been missing in action for a long while and has been relatively stale for quite some time, so maybe defeating Lesnar will reinvigorate him and allow him to carry some extra momentum into the SmackDown brand post-draft.
I see no positives coming out of a win for Lesnar, and I can’t figure out a way to justify having him coming out on top other than “because he normally does.” That’s rather weak, as it’s only useful to build someone up if they can in turn put someone over. Lesnar has yet to do that since coming back, as he’s only properly lost to John Cena and Triple H, while being screwed out of matches with The Undertaker, Seth Rollins, etc. If Lesnar wins, he’s not going to be anything special in regards to the rest of the people on the card, as it’ll be just another win to ignore next week and not bring back up until he wrestles again at Survivor Series or later. If Randy Orton wins, though, he’ll be easily one of the most talked about performers on the show.
Dean Ambrose
It may not be a popular opinion all across the board, but I’m still a big fan of Dolph Ziggler. Sure, he’s not in as good of a position as he once was, but that doesn’t mean it makes him a less entertaining performer in the ring, and I’ll argue that he should never have stopped being taken seriously to begin with.
That being said, I don’t have any faith at all that he’ll win his match against Dean Ambrose, so I have to give their spot to the champion. However, there’s a caveat: there’s great potential to many upswings to happen here for Ziggler. One in particular is that he may turn heel, and if that happens at SummerSlam itself, plenty more people will be talking about that rather than Ambrose merely retaining, but I’m inclined to believe a heel turn won’t happen until SmackDown.
Whatever renewed vigor may happen with Ziggler is up in the air, but if it all boils down to Ambrose still walking out with the championship, then that means he’ll be the victor who can hold his head high, carry momentum into the next event, and be viewed as the bigger star by the bulk of the audience as well as in a storyline sense. Ziggler can say that he tasted the main event again and wants more, but Ambrose will be able to shove it back in his face that he proved The Showoff wasn’t as good as he claimed to be.
Sasha Banks
Charlotte wasn’t dethroned of the Women’s Championship by Sasha Banks just to win it back at SummerSlam, particularly if we’ve been expecting Banks to win that belt for months. When it didn’t happen at WrestleMania, SummerSlam seemed like the most obvious pay-per-view for it to take place, and now that it happened on Raw, this is just a rematch to try to squeeze out anything else this feud might have.
Sasha is the it-girl and Charlotte winning the title again would be a catalyst for nothing but what we’ve already seen since she defeated Nikki Bella. Unless there is some grand master plot afoot with Bayley coming to the main roster or a Charlotte face turn or anything like that, I’d be utterly shocked to see anything happen here other than a solidification that Sasha Banks is THE woman in the company and will continue to be for a while.
John Cena and AJ Styles
Not a single card goes by without John Cena being one of the featured performers—it’s just how things work. When you factor in AJ Styles as well, these two are going to put on one hell of a show and try to steal as much of the spotlight as possible just to make sure they aren’t overlooked by the two primary title matches and Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton.
If there’s any truth to the rumors that Cena may take some time off, look for Styles to take the win and get a slight edge over him as the more prominent of the two, but history has shown that the safer bet is to bank on Cena. “Lul Cena wins” could be in full effect here, and it wouldn’t be surprising in the least.
A big percentage of what determines which one of them is victorious depends on the plans for Dean Ambrose going forward. If Bray Wyatt is the next in line to challenge Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler doesn’t turn heel, then Styles may win to ride the momentum into a program with The Showoff. If Ziggler turns heel, it might be Cena who his next feud is with, so he’ll be the victor instead. Then again, Ambrose could keep fighting Ziggler or even have a triple threat with Wyatt as well, and we could see Cena and Styles go at it again at Backlash.
Gun to my head, I’d give my vote to Cena overtaking Styles for the spot on this list, but I’m hoping I’m wrong—not out of any hate for Cena, but just to be surprised.
Rusev
Before Roman Reigns defeated Rusev on Monday Night Raw, I was of the mindset that his punishment for his suspension was going to consist of taking the fall at Battleground and being demoted to the midcard here, but that WWE would be too afraid to really hurt his character too much, and in turn, would give him the championship.
Now that he has a victory over The Bulgarian Brute, I think this is a classic case of misdirection. More often than not, the person with the momentum heading into the pay-per-view ends up losing to shock the newer audience. Rusev has the champion’s advantage of being able to retain by winning or losing by disqualification or being counted out. With Lana as an outside factor, there are too many opportunities for Reigns to pick up the victory but not the title, Rusev to cheat and score a quick pinfall, or something along those lines.
While Reigns will look like the rightful winner, Rusev will be the one with the championship and the ability to gloat that he didn’t succumb to the Superman punch and spear.
Enzo Amore & Big Cass
Even though there are far more important matches scheduled, I can’t help but feel as though this is going to be one of the most entertaining portions of the night. Enzo and Cass have consistently been killing it with their promos for too long to be able to track back to, and the team of Jeri-KO has struck gold as well. This could be just a talking segment and it would probably be more fun to watch than some of the matches with more on the line like the two midcard championship defenses.
All four men involved could be justified as potential show-stealers, but when victories count quite a bit in this list, Enzo and Cass have the advantage. As the babyfaces who are a legitimate tag team and could very well be the next champions after Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows dethrone The New Day, it would make sense for them to celebrate while the bromance between Jericho and Owens breaks up.
Of course, there are a ton of other men and women set to compete at SummerSlam who could definitely steal the show and usurp some of the positions on this list, but those are the ones I feel will stand out the most among the crowd.
How do you think things will go down? Are there any particular superstars you think will shine?
Tell us your predictions in the comments below!
