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EditorialWWE SummerSlam 2017 Heat Index: What's Hot and Cold for Sunday's PPV?

WWE SummerSlam 2017 Heat Index: What’s Hot and Cold for Sunday’s PPV?

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Hey everybody, welcome to a new segment I’ll be tackling called WWE Heat Index, wherein I’ll be trying to gauge people’s interest for the various feuds heading into the pay-per-view events.

With a name like that, what better event is there to start off with than SummerSlam 2017?

The way this works is a pretty simple three-way breakdown of Hot, Lukewarm and Cold. If you like something and you’re very interested in how WWE is setting up the program, it’s Hot (aka Good). If you’re a bit on the fence about it and see some problems, but it’s not awful, then it’s just Okay or Lukewarm. The ones that are the most problematic that you have no interest in are Cold (aka Bad).

Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments section to let everyone know what your thermometer reads for each feud as I tell you what my thoughts are below!

Without further ado, let’s get started!

Pre-Show Kickoff Matches and Missing Elements = Cold

I’ve already written up two posts on the Raw and SmackDown wrestlers who aren’t scheduled for the event (part 1 and part 2) so I’ll spare you my repetitive thoughts on those, but part of the reason I’m cold on this is because I feel like we’re missing some legitimate people who could have added something fun to the mix, like Chad Gable, Sami Zayn and Nia Jax.

I also don’t think it’s crazy to be disappointed that there’s yet to be an Intercontinental Championship match announced between The Miz and Jason Jordan, as enough time and resources have been invested in that feud that it seems strange for it to be an omission.

Does that mean WWE isn’t set on having it at all, in which case they pulled the plug? Does it mean they don’t value it enough to announce it ahead of time and forgot about it? Does it mean they specifically want it to be a surprise match added at the last minute? Does it mean they still haven’t figured out which matches are going to be on the pre-show and they have to sort that out before they place this on the card?

I have my suspicions that what they’re going to do instead is have The Miz, Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel face off against Jason Jordan and The Hardy Boyz in a six-man tag team match on the pre-show to help stall the title match (which could happen on Raw or at No Mercy) while also making sure Matt and Jeff got on the card in some capacity as The Revival is no longer available for that role.

They can do better, and we only have a few days for them to announce something that can heat things up again.

SummerSlam

Universal Championship Fatal 4-Way Match: Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman vs. Samoa Joe = Hot

Don’t get me wrong, I’m paranoid about the outcome of this match, but just because I have pessimistic ideas of how WWE is going to handle it doesn’t mean I can deny that it’s undoubtedly the single biggest match on the card. In some ways, it’s a one-match card in my mind as you’ll see how few feuds get the Hot option below.

What I’m nervous about is that Brock Lesnar will retain the title and effectively hurt the future of the next 9 months or so, since we’ll have seen him already beat the three top guys to challenge his title (making it less interesting for me to see Lesnar vs. Strowman or Lesnar vs. Reigns at Survivor Series and such). Also, in that scenario, Lesnar will remain off television for a long period of time again, and there’s always the risk that they keep the belt on him all the way until WrestleMania, which I don’t want.

However, the optimist in me looks at this match as the 4 biggest behemoths (save for Big Show) in the company colliding in what could be a brutal brawl where we possibly have a regime change with someone new being crowned the champion—two of those options being people who have never won a world title in WWE (and the other being someone who has, but has never held this particular belt).

In more ways than one, I can see this being the only thing that matters to most people and the main or only reason they’re watching. While I’m not going to be happy if five hours of this event sucks and then this match is good, it’s still the biggest and most important thing that can make or break this show for me and I’m excited for it.

SummerSlam

Baron Corbin vs. John Cena = Cold

Why did Baron Corbin attack John Cena instead of Shinsuke Nakamura? Because they wanted to have John Cena against Baron Corbin at SummerSlam and the hell with trying to figure out a better way to start that feud.

Uh oh, we’ve ran out of time and this feud has no steam to it. What do we do? How about we have Corbin lose his cash-in. That way, he can blame Cena and then we can say that it’s a bitter rivalry!

What pisses me off about this is that it can’t possibly be what WWE had in mind when they were trying to sort out the pay-per-view schedule earlier this year. From what had been told, Raw had no idea what to do with Money in the Bank and SmackDown had an actual plan, so they lobbied for it.

You mean to tell me the plan was for Baron Corbin to win it and to lose his cash-in as a mercy ploy to try to give a reason for him to feud with Cena like this, and for the women’s match to be marred in annoying “controversy” where you repeat the exact same outcome two weeks later on SmackDown?

If that’s what the writers had planned out months ago, they need to be fired.

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Cruiserweight Championship Match: Akira Tozawa (c) vs. Neville = Lukewarm

I have a problem with seeing the same match 20 times and still being pumped for it. Sure, Akira Tozawa and Neville work well together and I like both of them, but what’s different about this compared to all their other matches? The belt is on the opposite guy. That’s it.

I have no problems with Tozawa as champion, but given the option of seeing him defend it against Neville or against someone fresh, I would have chosen a new opponent. If the belt would have stayed on Neville, I would have rather seen him fight Cedric Alexander, Gran Metalik, Lince Dorado or maybe even Kalisto if he could move over to the 205 Live crew.

This is an instance where it’s fine, but it’s not going to matter. Nobody’s going to look at this as the highlight of the night and I feel like WWE played it safe and also ruined part of the fun by having the match just a few days earlier on Raw.

It’s almost like having the same meal every other day in the week. Sure, you didn’t “just eat it yesterday” but you had it enough times that you can be sick of it even if you love that food.

SummerSlam

United States Championship Match: AJ Styles (c) vs. Kevin Owens = Hot

Yes, this suffers from a similar problem to the Cruiserweight Championship feud wherein Styles and Owens have had far too many matches for me to be super into it, but the addition of Shane McMahon has given me enough of a reason to justify putting it at the top of the list.

I can’t help but feel like this is the WWE Championship feud and not the Nakamura / Mahal situation because it seems like Owens and Styles deserve that main event role much more.

Styles and Owens are two of my favorite members of the entire WWE roster and some of the only wrestlers I have faith will put on a good performance every time they go out there, so I’m confident they’ll put on a good match unless things are overbooked. However, there’s a chance McMahon’s involvement is just the right spice to make this extra special and if that goes well, this could be my favorite segment of the night.

SummerSlam

SmackDown Women’s Championship Match: Naomi (c) vs. Natalya = Cold

If you had told me this match was Naomi against Tamina, we’d have a different outcome for sure.

Tamina is the biggest physical threat on the SmackDown women’s roster and as such, she’s the one who will pose the biggest immediate danger to Naomi as far as potentially weakening her enough for Carmella to cash in her title match.

Of course, with Baron Corbin using that up this week, that makes me think that there’s no chance Carmella does so, which rules out the only intrigue I have for this, as I don’t care whatsoever in seeing Natalya fight Naomi.

Nattie is a surefire future Hall of Famer for the women’s division and someone who had been overlooked in the past, but she’s also someone who I can’t ever seem to be super excited about, especially as a heel. Her character is always one of the most boring on the roster no matter what she’s doing and her inability to ever make me feel like she’s an actual villain just bugs me in ways a heel shouldn’t bug me.

This match could be good, but it could just as easily be a quick waste of time and unless I hear Carmella’s music, I doubt I’ll be doing anything but yawning.

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Raw Tag Team Championship Match: Sheamus and Cesaro (c) vs. Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins = Hot

This isn’t so piping red hot that you can fry an egg on the sidewalk, but it’s still on the more positive end of things, for sure.

My problem with this feud has been how laughable the fist bump mechanics have been. As a friend of mine and I were talking about recently, WWE’s writers seem to have just watched a rom-com and are trying to apply the storyline to Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins by how they just needlessly argue and such.

Still, disregarding how hilarious that has been, it’s nice to see some acknowledgement of how Ambrose shouldn’t be so quick to trust Rollins and how The Architect would seek redemption in the eyes of The Lunatic Fringe.

I’m also interested to see if we get a heel turn from Ambrose, as I feel like that’s a distinct possibility. If that doesn’t happen, then I think we get new champions, and that is also something fun as I’m not the biggest fan of Cesaro and Sheamus holding the belts at the moment.

Basically, this is a win/win for me, so I’m down.

SummerSlam

WWE Championship Match: Jinder Mahal (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura = Cold

This is just a random pairing and I don’t understand why WWE went this route.

Jinder Mahal isn’t doing well enough as champion for me. His promos are bland and he’s not improving after months of having first-time jitters as a possible excuse. Likewise, Shinsuke Nakamura can’t cut a promo without the language barrier getting in the way, meaning there’s no substance to this at all.

Tell me what the feud is about, other than “Nakamura won ONE match and is now the challenger for the title.”

Exactly.

Am I intrigued to see how they mesh? Sure, but not more than I’d like to see either of these guys against different opponents, like Nakamura against Cena was. Would I care more if there was a story I liked to go along with it? Absolutely. I’m not getting any of those. This is the equivalent of the Orton/Rusev match but with a title on the line that is far above the pay grade of both guys at their current stage on the main roster. More on Orton/Rusev later.

SummerSlam

Raw Women’s Championship Match: Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Sasha Banks = Hot

Hot doesn’t apply to just Alexa Bliss and Sasha Banks, but the intrigue of a variety of situations revolving around this title match.

To me, it makes much more sense for Banks to be the challenger than the original intention of Bayley. I have no idea what WWE had in mind for the hugger if that would have come to pass, but after having seen her and Bliss face off before, I didn’t particularly care to see it again, whereas Banks won her last encounter by count out.

Admittedly, this is the first time I’ve ever thought to myself that I wish Nia Jax was involved, too, and this would be hotter on the Scoville scale, but I’m still curious if we’ll see Bliss’s BFF making an appearance in some way.

The supposed real-life heat between Alexa and Sasha is also interesting because whether it’s true or not, it adds a different element to the feud that no other match has going for it.

SummerSlam

Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt = Cold

There’s always been a problem in WWE regarding hyperbole. On this week’s SmackDown, they dubbed John Cena vs. Jinder Mahal to be “arguably the most significant main event in SmackDown history” which is just insane considering how we’ve had titles on the line, the second Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match and far, far more important things than a random non-title match between two people who aren’t even feuding.

This problem carries over into Bray Wyatt and Finn Balor for me on a regular basis, as those two are perpetually spoken of as being super mega awesome amazing and I never really quite see it…ever.

Sure, they’ve had some good matches and I wouldn’t want them to be released or anything, but I’ve never found myself as intrigued about either of them as WWE tells me I am, and it’s become painfully obvious to me with this current feud.

They actually went out of their way to change the graphics and update the match as not being Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt, but “The Demon” Finn Balor against Bray Wyatt. Oooooh, so because he wears face paint, we’re not going to get the same match we just saw on Monday Night Raw?

I’ve seen the entrance before. It’s cool. It was cooler when it wasn’t the same entrance that we’ve seen a thousand times, and now, I have no real value attached to it outside of how it would have been dumb for them not to do it. Seeing an entrance that I’ve seen before isn’t some magical ingredient that will make everything else be great just because that one element was there.

Now that we’ve seen the match, you can basically copy and paste that performance with Balor’s previous demon entrances and we’ve got what we’re likely to get at SummerSlam, so in my mind, this isn’t all that interesting.

SummerSlam

Big Show vs. Big Cass = Lukewarm

I’m being generous with this, as I really lean more towards Cold than Lukewarm, but it’s the completely haphazard way WWE has gone about this feud this past week that is the only thing making me not put it in the colder category.

Why the hell is there a shark cage? Enzo Amore hasn’t been that much of a nuisance. Is it because they think it’ll sell more of those toys and they feel obligated to do that match every few months?

Even more confusing, why are Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson somehow in this feud? Weren’t they having matches against The Hardy Boyz, who are now suddenly feuding with The Miztourage instead???

Big Show vs. Big Cass on its own is something I wanted to see and they’ve been taking away some of my interest by having them interact so much and have Show knock out Cass repetitively, but I do still want to see it and I think it could be monumental for Cass’s career.

Here’s hoping this isn’t one of those weird situations where the game plan is to specifically have an odd segment that the fans are confused about afterward just so they can repeat it all on Raw the next night by having “the real match” happen there.

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SmackDown Tag Team Championship Match: The New Day (c) vs. The Usos = Cold

The New Day is by far my favorite tag team of the past few years and I still think The Usos are underrated by a lot of people, but this feud is dead to me.

We’ve seen these teams face off at the last two events, so why do I care? Because The Usos have a slightly different theme song now?

No effort has been put into this feud in the past few weeks and because of that, I can see this being a bathroom break even though I’m a big fan of the two teams.

Please convince me otherwise in the comments section, because I don’t want to feel so apathetic about these five guys.

SummerSlam

Randy Orton vs. Rusev = Cold

If this was a temperature gauge that included Absolute Zero, it would apply to this. GOOD LORD has this been a lackluster “feud” if you can even call it that.

Rusev’s match with John Cena was so hastily thrown together that I would have rather it not even happened and WWE followed it up with something that required even less attention to detail.

Am I missing something, or has this feud literally consisted of Rusev saying “I want to fight someone” and Orton saying “me” and that’s it?

WWE doesn’t care about this, so why should I? This isn’t good enough to be on the card at all.

Those are my thoughts, but how do you feel about these particular feuds? What’s hot and what’s cold in your mind?

Fill us in on your point of view in the comments below!

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