Notable Superstars Missing from the Card
Note: This is not a full list of everyone on the roster who is not scheduled for the show. It excludes some people who wouldn’t have normally been expected to appear on the show for some fashion, such as some jobbers, injured talent, etc.
RK-Bro and the Raw Tag Team Division = Card subject to change, right? Randy Orton and Riddle were supposed to face Bobby Lashley and MVP for the tag titles on Raw prior to Orton vs. Lashley at this event. That got scrapped, the singles match took place, Big E’s champion and now, MVP’s injured and there’s no tag title match. If I were WWE, I’d have probably booked some other No. 1 contender’s match to set up any challengers against RK-Bro, since also missing from this card are AJ Styles and Omos, Angel Garza and Humberto Carrillo, Jinder Mahal with Veer and Shanky, Lucha House Party, Mace and T-Bar, Mansoor and Mustafa Ali, The New Day and The Viking Raiders.
Big E / Bobby Lashley = How was this not a given? Monday Night Raw ended and there was no announcement of a rematch for the title. That’s insane.
Elias = Where’s this guy been? WWE just stopped airing the vignettes for his repackaging.
Drew McIntyre = For a minute there, it seemed as though The Scottish Warrior was going to be in the United States Championship hunt. Then, he was promptly replaced by Jeff Hardy.
John Morrison = Johnny Drip Drip isn’t very moist-see when The Miz is busy with Dancing with the Stars, I guess.
Karrion Kross = Week by week, they’re killing this guy. Wrestling on Main Event, which nobody watches, doesn’t do him any favors.
Keith Lee = Copy and paste what’s going on with Kross, for the most part. How they’re sitting on Lee with nothing for him to do is beyond me.
Doudrop / Eva Marie = Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad this isn’t a match on the card. However, after doing so many of these segments between the two seemingly rinsing and repeating the same thing, you’d think they probably would have put this on the kickoff or something and tried to sell it as if it were worth checking out.
Nia Jax / Shayna Basler = Now this match could have been on the card. This could have been a gimmick match (like Extreme Rules should be) wherein Jax wanted to beat Baszler into submission, while The Queen of Spades knew full well submissions are her forte.
Nikki A.S.H. and Rhea Ripley / Natalya and Tamina / Nox and Shotzi = Remember when Nox and Shotzi won multiple matches to become the next in line for title shots, only to be pushed to the sidelines for seemingly no reason? Strange, right? That’s the type of thing I’d love to see WWE follow up on with an actual excuse. This would have been an easy Triple Threat match if you wanted to go with the least effort option possible.
Apollo Crews (and Commander Azeez) / Shinsuke Nakamura (and Rick Boogs) = WWE booked this match for SmackDown instead of the pay-per-view. Typical “do something on the TV show and if we don’t have enough for the special event, oh well, it’s not as though any of this matters anymore” philosophy.
Cesaro = Creative’s got nothing, I guess. It’s a shame WWE adamantly didn’t want to follow up on the main event train he had going on earlier this year. That was his opportunity to get to that level and stay there. Instead, WWE promptly said “but we don’t want you to” and pushed him back into obscurity.
Baron Corbin / Kevin Owens = This feud has little gas left in it. A gimmick match could have happened, maybe with some money on the line or something. Nope.
Dominik Mysterio & Rey Mysterio / Sami Zayn = As far as I’m concerned, I’m more than okay with this feud not having a presence on this card. Overall, Zayn is there to be a foil to drive a wedge between these two and set up an inevitable feud between Dominik and Rey. If that had already happened, this could have been Dominik vs. Rey in a match with Rey’s mask on the line or something. Right now, it’s too soon for that.
Sasha Banks = WWE doesn’t like to talk about COVID, but that had to have been the issue stopping The Boss from wrestling at SummerSlam. Since then, she’s apparently been around, but WWE just hasn’t bothered to do anything with her. I guess we’re supposed to forget that she had a title match and move on.
Naomi / Sonya Deville = Naomi keeps getting snubbed by Sonya Deville, but said she’s determined to get a match on SmackDown. Maybe this is better off as a television feud, but there’s at least room for a small discussion that Naomi could say “if I can’t get a match on TV, I’m getting one on the pay-per-view, and it’s against you.”
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