Thus far, seven matches are advertised for the Sunday pay-per-view with four championship bouts set to take place. The New Day vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and Cesaro for the WWE Smackdown Tag Team titles will likely be added to the card; however, I won’t give a prediction for the match as the bout wasn’t made official as of this writing. Let’s examine the full card below. Remember, these are just predictions as I have no inside knowledge of what’s going to happen. Let’s get started.
WWE Championship match: Drew McIntyre (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler (Ziggler chooses the stipulation)
The stipulation could be that Drew McIntyre must wrestle intoxicated after getting beat up by 15 men and the odds of the former WWE World Heavyweight Champion winning would still be at zero. Here’s the thing, I like Dolph Ziggler; however, officials have continuously told us that Ziggler isn’t a main eventer.
Just like his title matches against Kofi Kingston last year, the 39-year-old is simply the challenger of the month, though to be fair, giving away a big match before Summerslam would be a mistake. It would’ve been nice if creative took a risk and given Aleister Black an opportunity at the WWE title. The former NXT Champion has been on the roster for over a year now and he still hasn’t been given anything of substance.
There was his feud with Murphy; however, even then, the rivalry was more about delivering hard hitting matches than character development. Anyways, McIntyre and Orton is most likely the destination for Summerslam; however, don’t count out a Brock Lesnar return. Vince still considers “The Beast Incarnate” a huge ratings draw, so it wouldn’t be too surprising if the Chairman decides to bring Lesnar back to bump up the ratings.
Winner: Drew McIntyre retains the WWE Championship
Swamp Fight: WWE Universal Champion Braun Strowman vs. Bray Wyatt (non-title match).
I’m going to assume that the Swamp fight is going to be similar to the New Day/Wyatt Family compound cinematic that officials showed back in 2016. On the surface, this match screams a win for Bray Wyatt; however, I find it interesting that “The Fiend” character isn’t the one fighting the battle this time.
The Wyatt character is usually booked as the weaker of the two, thus Braun Strowman beating him again would actually make sense. Granted, it would instantly kill the need to have Wyatt vs. Strowman III at Summerslam, but there are interesting ways to get that match, especially if “The Fiend” is the one challenging for the WWE title. I’ll go for the challenger here due to the non-title nature of the match, though Strowman getting the better of Wyatt again wouldn’t be too surprising either.
Winner: Bray Wyatt
WWE RAW Women’s Championship match: Asuka (c) vs. Sasha Banks
The real story of this match-up is the role that Bayley will play. Will Bayley accidentally cost Banks her opportunity at being a two-division champion? Or will the Smackdown Women’s Champion purposely ruin Banks’ opportunity due to selfishness over wanting to be the only woman to hold two belts right now?
The latter scenario wouldn’t be straight up turn as Bayley would most likely play it off as an accident, with her finally snapping once the duo drop the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles during the road to Summerslam. It would surprise me if this match is a straight-forward contest as I feel officials are going to start the next chapter of the pending Bayley/Sasha Banks feud; however, the end result is never in doubt.
Winner: Asuka retains the WWE RAW Women’s Championship
WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship match: Bayley (c) vs. Nikki Cross
Like Dolph Ziggler, Nikki Cross is the challenger of the month. More tension can be teased between Sasha Banks and Bayley here. Perhaps Sasha accidentally clocks Bayley and almost costs her the women’s championship? Bayley would take it personally and feel that it was on purpose, though the blow-up between these two will still happen once they drop the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles.
Who knows, should Banks vs. Asuka play out first, then maybe “The Boss” will hit Bayley purposefully in response to Bayley’s mistake in the RAW Women’s title match. Banks would then play off any notion that she hit Bayley intentionally. Either way, Nikki Cross is not walking out as the new WWE Smackdown Women’s Champion.
Winner: Bayley retains the Smackdown Women’s Championship
WWE United States Championship match: Apollo Crews (c) vs. MVP
While I see Apollo Crews dropping the U.S. title very soon, that win will most likely go to Bobby Lashley, not his manager. MVP winning is a possibility, though it wouldn’t make much sense as the purpose for Lashley these past couple of months is to build him up strong; If the end goal isn’t going to see Lashley win the WWE Championship then the 44-year-old will need to capture the U.S. title to get over his new persona since joining MVP.
Winner: Apollo Crews retains the WWE United States Championship
Eye for an Eye match: Seth Rollins vs. Rey Mysterio
I’m intrigued to see how WWE is going to pull off a man gouging another man’s eye out in the PG era. In terms of the result, I don’t see Mysterio walking out with both eye balls in tact (that is a sentence I never thought I would write). The former WWE Champion is expected to be leaving the company following his Extreme Rules match-up, though Mysterio returning down the line has not been crossed out.
Honestly, if this is Mysterio’s last run then he should hold his head up high as Mysterio's latest run was fantastic. The 45-year-old had stepped his game up inside the ring and on the mic, and it’s a shame that officials won’t simply give the man a raise (if the rumors are true). Anyways, this match is another credible win for Seth Rollins, though I don’t know where the former WWE Universal Champion goes from here.
Winner: Seth Rollins
Bar Fight: Jeff Hardy vs. Sheamus
Sheamus got the win over Hardy last month, so the former WWE Champion will hand “The Celtic Warrior” his comeuppance at the pay-per-view. I maintain that Jeff Hardy vs. AJ Styles for the Intercontinental Championship is the likely destination for Summerslam, though I don’t know where Sheamus will go from here.
Winner: Jeff Hardy
That’s it! If you have your own predictions then feel free to do yours in the comment section. Thanks for reading!