Murphy’s Blog: WWE SummerSlam Predictions – Cody Rhodes vs. Solo Sikoa for the WWE Championship, Damian Priest vs. Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship

Cody Rhodes vs. Solo Sikoa in a Bloodline Rules match for the WWE Championship: As hard as they’ve tried to turn Solo into a credible threat to win the title, it just hasn’t worked. I’ve enjoyed the creating of the new Bloodline and Solo plays the leadership role well. While his promos are good (not great), he’s been sorely damaged from all the losses he’s taken after his showcase win over John Cena at Crown Jewel in November. Cody gets a lot of credit for trying to put him over – it just hasn’t gotten there for me. To add to this, there’s a good possibility that Roman Reigns returns at some point this weekend. If he doesn’t return on Smackdown, this will likely impact the crowd’s involvement in this match as they’ll likely be less enthusiastic until we get near the end of the match – looking up the aisle for Roman to emerge. In any case, there’s no reason to expect a title change here.

Damian Priest vs. Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship: This is another case where WWE tried to get someone over without really hitting the mark. They tried to establish Priest’s background as a way to connect him to the audience. And to his credit, Gunther has tried to put heat on himself by coming off as arrogant. The match will be good, but I think is Gunther’s night to win the title. I don’t think we’ll see The Judgment Day play a role in the finish, but the official breakup of the group is not far away.

Liv Morgan vs. Rhea Ripley for the Women’s World Championship: I would have liked it better if WWE didn’t revert to the standard trope of having the babyface look clueless and not see what everyone else sees. Of course, there could be a swerve, but it’s highly likely that Dominik Mysterio will cost Rhea the match and align with Liv. I was hoping that this would have been established before the match without Rhea having to look naïve before being betrayed. That said, Rhea in chase mode should be fun and there should be a nice build to when she finally gets her hands on Dom.

Bayley vs. Nia Jax for the WWE Women’s Championship: With Jax being Queen of the Ring and Tiffany Stratton teasing a Money in the Bank cash-in, this match should be more interesting. Unfortunately, Bayley has been cooled off since her great run in 2020 and 2021, resulting in a flat title reign. Assuming Jax wins the title, the interaction with Stratton moving forward should be fun.

CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre with Seth Rollins as special referee. Drew and Punk have done an excellent job of building this match since January. There’s been some mixed opinions about Seth’s involvement and how it impacts the build. I actually don’t have an issue with it as I know it’s the first match in what will likely be a series, while building to the showdown between Seth and Punk, likely at WrestleMania. We’ll likely see Seth cost Punk as payback for Punk’s involvement in Seth’s title match with Damian Priest last month.

Logan Paul vs. LA Knight for the U.S. Championship: Logan Paul has had a fine run as U.S. Champion, but Smackdown would benefit from a full-time champion. And the LA Knight fans have been waiting for the big win that they’re likely finally going to get, despite Paul appearing to get the better of Knight in verbal exchanges.

Sami Zayn vs. Bron Breakker for the Intercontinental Championship: I was surprised that Zayn won clean when the two met last. Breakker is likely being groomed for the main event picture so it’s interesting that they started him out with a loss. I think the outcome will be different this time with Breakker winning his first main roster title while Zayn likely transitions back into the Bloodline storyline.