By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE is advertising the following match for the SummerSlam event that will be held tonight in Nashville, Tennessee at Nissan Stadium.
-Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar in a Last Man Standing match for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship
-Bianca Belair vs. Becky Lynch for the Raw Women’s Championship
-Liv Morgan vs. Ronda Rousey for the Smackdown Women’s Championship
-Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso vs. “The Street Profits” Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Titles with Jeff Jarrett as the special referee
-Bobby Lashley vs. Theory for the U.S. Championship
-Pat McAfee vs. Happy Corbin
-Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio vs. Finn Balor and Damian Priest in a No DQ match
-Logan Paul vs. The Miz
Powell’s POV: The Seth Rollins vs. Riddle match was removed from the card following an injury angle on Monday’s Raw. SummerSlam will stream on Peacock in the United States, WWE Network internationally, and will also be available via pay-per-view. Join me for my live review of SummerSlam beginning with either a Kickoff Show match or the main card at 7CT/8ET. Jake Barnett and I will co-host a same night audio review for Dot Net Members (including our Patreon patrons).
The card on it’s own upfront doesn’t come across as being Summerslam worthy but with the recent change in leadership this could be a spot for a big shake up or two to happen. I’m interested to see how this event will unfold.
From Reigns v Lesnar down to Lashley v Theory has the potential to be very interesting and maybe give some insights into post Vince WWE. The only match in the opening 3 I don’t care at all about is the Mysterios v Judgement Day, but if that leads to the return of Edge it could at least be newsworthy.
The two most interesting things to me are the tag title match and the Smackdown women’s title match. Do they transition the belts back to the Street Profits, and if they do what does that say about the main event? Does Liv retain, and if she does how do they do that without ruining what remains of the mystique of Ronda Rousey?
Finally, would they dare hot potato the heavyweight belt by having Theory cash in only to lose to McIntyre and then have whoever their next pick is to run with it take the belt during the fall?
Hopefully Gunther will have something since the Intercontinental Championship is not being defended in one the big 5 PPVs. What I liked in NXT under Paul was the fact that every title would be defended in a TakeOver. I hope that is the approach that will be taken for all big 5 PPVs going forward.
There is a lot of upper-tier talent that is conspicuously absent from the show. AJ Styles, Dolph Ziggler, Edge (might be returning) Kevin Owens, Drew McIntyre. Others like Sasha Banks and Bray Wyatt are possible show up candidates. Of course now Riddle and Rollins are supposedly not part of the show due to an injury angle. I don’t see this show going to form, that’s for sure.
It would be a good move to use this PPV to generate some unexpected twists, motives, and turns signifying a new era and generating anticipation with the benefit of a viewership bump going into Raw.
The Vince drama delivered some intrigue already, and using tonight to go “off script” a bit could be a nice way to transition to the new creative direction.
Since they aren’t traditional PPVs anymore with the Peacock deal, maybe now is the time that they cut the monthly schedule down to just 5-6 “Premium Live Events.”
Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, WrestleMania, Money In The Bank, SummerSlam, and King of the Ring or Survivor Series. Make Hell in a Cell a stipulation match that occasionally finishes off a big feud.
I don’t see it happening. Guessing they are contracted to deliver a certain number of shows to Peacock. Plus, they’re not going to stop running the two Saudi shows.