By Don Murphy, ProWrestling.net Contributor (@DonThePredictor)
If you’re a regular reader of the site, you’re going to be seeing a lot of content from me this weekend, as we have four big shows to predict. In addition to my usual coverage of Collision on Saturday, I’ll be subbing for John Moore on Sunday in covering NXT’s Great American Bash, as he will be attending AEW Forbidden Door. Enjoy the shows this weekend, and we’ll have you covered throughout it all.
WWE will hold its Night of Champions premium live event on Saturday in n Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, at Kingdom Arena. I’ve written in the past about how WWE and ESPN decide which matches are simulcast on ESPN for the first hour. I’ve had issues with some choices, particularly simulcasting Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi at WrestleMania. I heard the counterargument, and it makes sense. I have a bigger issue with this show, which I’ll save for when we get to the match breakdowns and predictions. Let’s run down the card!
Cody Rhodes vs. Gunther vs. Sami Zayn in a Triple Threat for the WWE Championship. I won’t leave you in suspense. This is the match that will close the show. I can listen to the argument that the WWE Championship match should always close the show, and I would agree with you. But WWE has abandoned that philosophy a long time ago. Putting this on last, in my mind anyway, makes the outcome highly predictable because the final match for the men’s King of the Ring Tournament will happen before it. We’ll get into that match in a bit, but given that they’ve highly foreshadowed the winner of the tournament, it leaves little doubt in my mind that Cody retains. They can always do a swerve and tell a compelling story leading to SummerSlam, but I don’t see that happening. As an aside, Sami Zayn has been doing stellar work, and I’ll be interested to see what his SummerSlam path is coming out of this show. The same goes for Gunther, as they seem to have abandoned his “retiring legends” storyline for the time being.
Don Predicts: Cody Rhodes defeats Sami Zayn and Gunther in a Triple Threat to retain the WWE Championship.
Bron Breakker vs. Seth Rollins in a steel cage match. This one is a toss-up. On the one hand, Rollins keeps dropping Roman Reigns’ name, so I can’t rule out a SummerSlam showdown between the two. On the other hand, we know WWE is high on Breakker, and he’s already taken losses to both CM Punk and Rollins. That’s not to say that he’d be buried with a loss here, but it would make the road to the top a bit harder. And we all know that while the purpose of the steel cage is to keep people out, it never works out that way. So, I’ll go with a Breakker win due to some outside chicanery from Logan Paul and Austin Theory. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see a return by either Paul Heyman or Bronson Reed. I have no idea what Reed’s injury status is, so that’s a long shot. But, I’ll just throw that out there.
Don Predicts: Bron Breakker defeats Seth Rollins in a steel cage match.
Tiffany Stratton vs. Jade Cargill for the Women’s U.S. Championship. Stratton’s run has been flat, while Jade has steadily improved over the past year. I think this will be fine with Jade taking the title. In turn, that will set up a showdown with Charlotte Flair at SummerSlam for the title, as they’ve been building to that match for some time. They could always have Charlotte interfere here and cost Jade the match, but I think it would be more interesting to have Charlotte in title chase mode. And, even better, it keeps her away from one of the main titles a bit longer. There will be a time for her to return to that picture, but I’m fine with it not happening now. As for Stratton, she’ll either form an official alliance with Chelsea Green to go after the Women’s tag titles, or she can turn on Green for an undercard feud.
Don Predicts: Jade Cargill defeats Tiffany Stratton to win the Women’s U.S. Championship.
Trick Williams vs. Ricky Saints for the U.S. Championship. I like that WWE is holding off on having Williams face Carmelo Hayes. Save that for SummerSlam and a bigger stage. My concern is that I don’t see Williams dropping the title, which will put Saints in limbo. I think he has an upside, and they can always add him to the SummerSlam match as a Triple Threat, but unless Hayes costs him the match here, I’d be concerned about his path forward should he take a clean loss.
Don Predicts: Trick Williams defeats Ricky Saints to retain the U.S. Championship.
(ESPN) Oba Femi vs. Jey Uso in the King of the Ring tournament final. To round out my earlier thought, I feel like WWE has highly foreshadowed the outcome of this, and putting it on before the title match makes the outcome of the title match highly predictable. Roman Reigns has ordered Jey to bring the WWE Championship back to the Bloodline, particularly Cody Rhodes. Jey also has history with Sami Zayn and Gunther, but they’ve done Jey vs. Gunther many times before, and Jey vs. Sami just doesn’t scream “SummerSlam main event.” It would have to be Jey vs. Cody to have any kind of significance. As for Femi, he is the red-hot act right now, but he is wrapped up in a feud with Brock Lesnar that will likely culminate in a rubber match at SummerSlam. Therefore, I think we see Brock interfere and cost Femi the crown. Femi even alluded to anticipating Brock’s interference during his match with Dominik Mysterio. Finally, Femi vs. Cody or Roman will be a big attraction down the road, and I don’t see them moving ahead with that just yet.
Don Predicts: Jey Uso defeats Oba Femi to win the King of the Ring tournament.
(ESPN) Iyo Sky vs. Liv Morgan in the Queen of the Ring tournament final. This one is strange since Morgan is the champion. I suspect that this was done as Rhea Ripley is dealing with an injury. I don’t know what her status is, but for me, this is Iyo’s tournament. If Rhea can work SummerSlam, they can continue the story between her and Sky, as Ripley has not been able to defeat her. Or, they can have Sky challenge Morgan for the title, which would make her a potential threat since she will have already beaten her once. I also can’t rule out interference from either Raquel Rodriguez or Roxanne Perez that goes wrong, which would further the rift in the Judgment Day.
Don Predicts: Iyo Sky defeats Liv Morgan to win the Queen of the Ring tournament.
Join Jason Powell for his live review of Night of Champions as it streams Saturday afternoon on ESPN Unlimited (or Netflix internationally) at 12CT/1ET. Jason’s same-day audio review will be available for Dot Net Members (including our Patreon patrons).
I’ll be back with predictions for TNA Slammiversary, NXT Great American Bash, and AEW Forbidden Door, in addition to coverage of AEW Collision and the NXT show. Enjoy the weekend and enjoy wrestling!
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