Hiya!

It’s going to be a busy weekend for me. I was already hunkering down and planning my viewing schedule for the upcoming EVO fighting game tournament happening this weekend when I suddenly realized WWE was going to be holding SummerSlam on the same weekend! Well, that does mean double the watching work for me but it’s a task I’ll happily take!

There are a few barnburners I’m expecting in this year’s SummerSlam and it does seem like the WWE has the card all laid out already. So why not run thought the list of matches and try to predict the outcomes?

Let’s start off with the most recent match announced: the SummerSlam Battle Royale. I guess this is a fine way to include a bunch of guys from RAW and Smackdown to get in on the SummerSlam festivities who don’t have anything on the card to do. Honestly, it doesn’t matter who are the competitors who are going to be in this Battle Royale. All fans need to know is LA Knight will be one of the participants and it would be stupid if the WWE still made LA Knight not win it seeing how white hot he is right now.

Okay, there is a chance Hit Row will screw over LA Knight and this could enhance the storyline. However, fans are already upset how their hero didn’t win Money in the Bank a couple of months ago. It doesn’t make good business sense to have LA Knight lose this one, especially since this Battle Royale does feel so inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Let the fans have their hero win, WWE. Please?

Next, we have Ronda Rousey vs. Shayna Baszler. This one is strangely difficult to predict the outcome because, normally, I would pick Ronda Rousey to win over Shayna Baszler. The thing which throws me off is the rumor of the Baddest Woman on the Planet leaving the WWE to return to UFC. If the rumors are true, then Shayna Baszler has more than a good chance of beating Rousey as it’ll push her as the woman who beat the Baddest Woman on the Planet, instantly returning her to the monster status she had during her NXT days.

Unfortunately, I don’t think Ronda Rousey’s ego will allow someone to beat her during what might be her final pay-per-view event in the WWE. So I do think Rousey will be getting her hand raised at SummerSlam. Here’s hoping the WWE can prove me wrong because Baszler severely needs this win to really jump start her career back on track.

We then have Logan Paul vs. Ricochet and I’m oddly intrigued by this match. Both of these competitors have shown they have great chemistry together and I will admit Logan Paul hasn’t really had his ego get into his matches where he had to go super over with the crowd and embracing the hate he’s been getting.

This does feel like a toss-up between Ricochet and Logan Paul regarding who’s going to come out on top for me. On one hand, Ricochet really deserves a win for all his loyal service he’s done as well as because he has the fans on his side. On the other hand, giving Logan Paul the win also would make sense to really blow up his ego for his WWE persona. In the end, I do think Logan Paul will eke out the win but he’ll have to cheat to get the pinfall victory.

We then get to the rubber match between Cody Rhodes and Brock Lesnar. I’m honestly surprised we’re still doing this and I thought we got past this when Cody Rhodes feuded briefly with Dominik Mysterious at Money in the Bank. Oh well. Hopefully this will be the last match the two have against each other so we can all put this feud to bed.

This is a match Cody Rhodes has to win. If the WWE wants to position him as one of the biggest faces of the company, having him lose to Brock Lesnar for a second time would destroy all the work they’ve done to build him up. I get Cody Rhodes is kind of floundering as putting him a feud against the current World Heavyweight Champion isn’t feasible with The Judgement Day feuding with Seth “Freakin'” Rollins right now. However, let’s not destroy any of Cody’s momentum by handing him another major loss.

Speaking of Seth “Freakin'” Rollins and The Judgement Day, Finn Balor will be challenging for the aforementioned World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam against The Visionary. Throwing a wrench into the storyline is the current Money in the Bank holder, fellow Judgement Day member Damian Priest. It’s possible he could try to cash in during the aftermath of the match, which, in all honestly, I would love to see happen.

With that in mind, I do think Seth Rollins will get the victory over Finn Balor in a long and grueling match. This is when Damien Priest will try to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase, much to the disdain of Balor. He won’t be able to complete the cash-in for one reason or another but Balor will see the attempted cash-in, extending the storyline for the foreseeable future.

The next match to talk about would be Gunther defending the Intercontinental Championship against the returning Drew McIntyre. Now, Gunther has been doing a fantastic job holding the IC title and Drew is more than a worthy challenger for the belt. This should be a good match regardless of the outcome.

As much as I would want to see Drew McIntyre get some gold around his waist again, it’s simply not time for Gunther to drop the belt. I said he’s been doing a good job as the current Intercontinental Champion and I don’t see this era ending anytime soon. I might change my mind if Gunther takes on someone small and fast like Rey Mysterio or even Ricochet, making it an upset. However, for the Ring General to lose to another big body simply doesn’t work in my mind.

We now get to a Triple Threat match for the Smackdown Women’s Championship with Asuka taking on both Charlotte and Bianca Belair. I’m not really sure how this match will go as, as good as she is in the ring, Asuka feels like a placeholder for the real champion at this point. However, I don’t really feel it’s time for either Charlotte or Bianca Belair to regain any kind of championship at SummerSlam as well.

Here’s the thing: this is all a smokescreen to make you all forget about Iyo Sky, the current Women’s Money in the Bank holder. My official prediction is Asuka will manage to steal the victory because Charlotte and Bianca Belair will be too busy beating each other by the end. Then, after the bell is rung, Iyo Sky will come running to the ring and cash in her Money in the Bank briefcase and get the pinfall victory against Asuka, becoming the NEW Smackdown Women’s Champion. This will launch a feud between the two Japanese WWE Superstars while Charlotte and Belair can continue theirs.

We finally get to the final match of the night with the current Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, Roman Reigns, taking on Jey Uso in Tribal Combat, which is just a fancy way of saying No Holds Barred, with the added stipulation that the winner will be declared the Tribal Chief of the entire family. This does kind of feel like a rehash of their feud way back in 2020, doesn’t it? Heck, they even admitted it on Smackdown!

As much as it would be a catharsis for Jey Uso to win the match, become the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion and become the new Tribal Chief, that’s not going to happen. I don’t think Jey Uso is going to become the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion and the “Head of the Table” so to speak. I’m of the theory that SummerSlam is a “heel” pay-per-view with the bad guys winning the big title. So it goes to reason Roman Reigns is going to come out on top. Sure, Jimmy Uso is going to come out and seemingly even the odds to take on Solo Sikoa but it’s still not going to be enough. It might be a bummer of a way to close it out but that’s how it’s going to go down.

Byee!

What do you think is going to happen at SummerSlam 2023? Let me know in the comments section below!