Welcome to another edition of WWE Heat Index, wherein we discuss the interest level for the various feuds heading into the pay-per-view events. This time around, we’re focusing on SummerSlam 2019 coming this Sunday night.
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!
Universal Championship Match: Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Seth Rollins = FRIGID Cold
I rant about this all the time. You know how much I hate Lesnar’s title reigns, feuds, and matches. I have no reason to invest 1 minute of my time on this feud when I know Rollins stands no chance of winning the title back and the belt will disappear into nothingness for the large part of the next few months leading up to what will probably be an uninteresting match at WrestleMania 36.
Prediction: Brock Lesnar wins.
WWE Championship Match: Kofi Kingston (c) vs. Randy Orton = Hot
Kofi Kingston has had the best title reign out of everyone this year, I think, and I’m not questioning his ability to put on great WWE Championship matches that are believable at the top level. He’s proven himself.
Likewise, even though Randy Orton can have some stinkers once in a while with some headlock fests and whatnot, The Viper is one of the better performers if he’s properly motivated, and I get the sense this is one of those cases.
This may very well be the best match of the night that people shouldn’t be sleeping on, and I’m excited about this more than anything else on the card.
Prediction: Kofi Kingston wins.
Raw Women’s Championship Submission Match: Becky Lynch (c) vs. Natalya = Hot / Lukewarm
Very neat that they’re making this a submission match, as that’s spicing things up!
At face value, I rolled my eyes at this. Natalya has done nothing to justify her being the top contender for the Raw Women’s Championship over the past few months with her lack of momentum, and she’s only really getting this title opportunity due to SummerSlam’s location.
Also, I think they’re trying way too hard to make this feel like it’s an epic encounter and suddenly a bitter rivalry, and I’m not buying into that one bit like they want me to. Sorry. In fact, what they’ve done since the original segment of Nattie being declared the No. 1 contender has actually hurt this build for me. I started off writing this as Hot and over the weeks, I’m almost ready to put it down as Lukewarm.
But I do think this will be a good match and a big step up from what we’ve been seeing between Becky and Lacey Evans, and there’s a chance the crowd is super hot for it and can help push this along even further.
Prediction: Becky Lynch wins.
SmackDown Women’s Championship Match: Bayley (c) vs. Ember Moon = Hot / Lukewarm
The feud has been lacking, I’ll say that right out of the gate. It’s interesting that Ember Moon has gotten this title shot entirely from Bayley pointing at her and saying she wants to fight her, which is something different, but I don’t get the feeling that Moon has been written well enough as someone who needs to prove herself worthy of that title shot.
If I were writing things, I would have put more emphasis on Moon feeling like she doesn’t want to come off as a charity case, and the build for this would have consisted of her beating other people to illustrate that she does indeed deserve a championship opportunity.
But this is something pretty fresh, and a babyface vs. babyface feud between these two is much better in essence than going to the well of Bayley against Flair, so WWE gets a thumbs up from me, overall.
Prediction: Bayley wins.
United States Championship Match: AJ Styles (c) vs. Ricochet = Lukewarm / Cold
Seen it enough times by now to know that they’ve probably given it their all, and even though they are two of the most entertaining in-ring performers in this company, I haven’t been wowed yet like I thought I would.
Since this has no stipulation to shake things up, or a gimmick involved to differentiate it from their previous series of generic singles matches, what’s the hook? “See these guys have their fourth or fifth match in the past month and hope that they don’t just repeat what you’ve seen before” isn’t really the best selling point to me when I’m overloaded with too much wrestling.
I would have rather seen these two split into other feuds and wrestle some other people. Copy and paste rematches do nothing for me and have dwindling interest that is multiplied more and more each time it’s repeated.
Prediction: AJ Styles wins.
Cruiserweight Championship Match: Drew Gulak (c) vs. Oney Lorcan = Lukewarm
I feel so bad for these two, because I can tell that they have to be frustrated with what they were given to do with this “feud”—or, let’s be honest, the complete lack thereof when it comes to a storyline.
They are talented in the ring and have it in them to put on a great match, yet they have no momentum on their side. 205 Live is the forgotten child second only to Main Event, and Lorcan wasn’t even declared the No. 1 contender until the final minutes of this last episode, so their entire program has been one single stare down.
It’s hard to imagine anybody being super excited for this when WWE clearly doesn’t value it, so it’ll be just skipped over on the pre-show. But I’ll be watching it and likely enjoying it more than a lot of other things on this card (cough*Wyatt/Balor, Lesnar/Rollins and more*cough)
Prediction: Drew Gulak wins.
Kevin Owens vs. Shane McMahon = Cold
When a feud revolves around how it’s frustrating that a certain character has been overused and played out on television for the past 9 months, it’s hard to really want to watch anything more associated with it. Being hooked on this feud is an oxymoron.
It’s also bothersome whenever someone has a stipulation that they’ll quit, because it either means we know that person isn’t going to lose (because, let’s face it, Owens isn’t leaving) or that person does lose and WWE renegs on the consequences and renders it a pointless stipulation. Remember the lock box with Shane against Undertaker?
On top of this, I have to point out that this feud kind of started with just a random KO promo where he inserted himself into the circumstances out of nowhere, proving that the babyface and heel and face turn was sloppy, the transition between McMahon feuds (Miz, Reigns, Owens and more) is not great writing and I don’t feel like this is a good storyline, nor do I think the match will be particularly great.
Prediction: Kevin Owens wins.
Bray Wyatt vs. Finn Balor = Cold
Bray Wyatt has a different coat of paint on him and nothing more. The character is basically exactly what we’ve seen for years, so I’m not any more intrigued that I would have been if this feud went down before Wyatt turned face and teamed with Matt Hardy.
Oh, wait a minute, we DID see this feud before. Silly me, how could I forget about the problematic way they tried to drag that out in the past? Why would I want to draw comparisons to how it seems as though they’re literally trying to repeat themselves in the hopes to do the same feud again, starting from scratch, with even less story or build to it?
Because that’s something that needs to be said. This is lazy. It’s someone saying “Balor is kind of a dark character, I guess, with the whole demon thing that really doesn’t amount to anything but a VERY slightly tweaked entrance, so let’s do that again.” Then, in response, someone else says “But we need to drag that out. Let’s not put too much effort into this. Let’s have the most minuscule mind games and one attack out of nowhere be the impetus and entire build for this feud, and then let’s try to stretch it as long as possible. That means, we can’t have the Demon Balor gimmick just yet, cause that’s clearly match #2.”
And that’s how you get this. What a waste. Wyatt could have had something interesting with this Firefly Fun House thing. Instead, they waited an entire year of his absence to turn the clocks back to 2017 and say “do that again.”
Not only do I have no interest in this feud or this match, I wish it were cut entirely from the card to save time, even if it weren’t split between other matches, but would just end earlier.
Prediction: Bray Wyatt wins.
Charlotte Flair vs. Trish Stratus = Hot
They went out of their way to treat this like it’s Trish’s retirement match, with the “if you could have just one final match” proposal—which is odd, because they had already established that Flair planned on wrestling at SummerSlam and had a big opponent already lined up, so they didn’t need to do that whatsoever.
Fundamentally, this is a match that is a big deal. Stratus is in the upper-echelon of female superstars from WWE history and there’s no better person to challenge her for a marquee match than Flair, the golden girl.
I have my reservations that the match will go down as a classic, though. I think this will end up being one of those scenarios where the potential and the hype surrounding it causes people to overrate the end result, but I’ll happily be wrong if they have a banger. It’s certainly a possibility.
Prediction: Charlotte Flair wins.
Goldberg vs. Dolph Ziggler = Lukewarm
After Goldberg’s last match, it’s hard to go into this with any high expectations. However, Ziggler is not 2019 Undertaker. Ziggler can definitely work a much different, easier style than Taker.
Not only is Goldberg going to have a much easier time tossing Ziggler around the ring as far as his size goes, Ziggler is also a selling machine. He’ll do a damn good job flopping around for Goldberg to look like he’s a beast in the hopes to wash out the stink from the last match.
But here’s where a conundrum comes in. Do I have this at Lukewarm because I’m curious if they’ll wrestle a match more than 30 seconds in order to “prove” that Goldberg can “wrestle” more than just do his two moves, or do I put it closer to Cold because I naturally assume it’s going to be a 30 second squash?
I’m leaning more toward Lukewarm. After all, this is a gauge of interest, and since WWE has me asking that question, I should be more on the optimistic credit side of things and give credit where it’s due that I’m intrigued.
Prediction: Goldberg wins.
Roman Reigns vs. TBA = Lukewarm / Cold
I commend WWE for trying to do something a little different, but this story has been laughable in the way they’ve executed parts of it. It’s been cheesy in how it’s been shot, the acting has been hokey, the pacing has been off and the way they built to the revelation of Rowan being involved was so rushed and disjointed that it killed this for me.
If you’re into this kind of feud and you want to see something done much better, the attack on Aleister Black from NXT was SIGNIFICANTLY higher quality. This just pales in comparison.
I’ve also not been fond of everyone having multiple feuds going on at the same time, just for elements to be dropped. Samoa Joe has bounced around more since WrestleMania than a pinball.
Prediction: Roman Reigns wins.
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!
