In WWE, everyone is scratching and clawing for an opportunity to prove themselves and hopefully make a good enough impression to the point where they’re the person everyone is talking about at the end of the night.
Even though there’s an extra hour added to SummerSlam this year, there’s still a limited amount of time for these men and women to steal the spotlight. When you factor in how WWE is going to book them, there’s even less of a chance someone will stand out in a big, positive way.
That being said, there’s inevitably going to be some people that will make the biggest impact on the night. At the end of every pay-per-view, I always look back and examine who those names were, but for this big show, I figured I would make an attempt at predicting who they would be before it even happens.
Which stars do I think will top the power rankings of SummerSlam 2015?
Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose
The feud between the former Shield brethren and the newly reformed Wyatt Family is a big match, but has seemingly been pushed aside to an extent. It isn’t getting anywhere near as much coverage as it would have had someone like Sting been involved as rumored. Despite this, the four men involved are definitely going to try to steal the show as best they can.
If WWE is smart, this match will be No Holds Barred in some fashion to allow for lots of brawling on the outside and the use of weapons. Any time this group has faced off in the past, it’s been significantly better without having to follow the standard rules of a tag match. Plus, there are other tag matches on the card, so this needs to stand out in some fashion.
In the end, I think Wyatt and Harper are going to lose, so it will be Reigns and Ambrose standing tall around the midway point of the night. This could very well be the sleeper best match of the night, so if that happens, these two will definitely be a talking point going into Monday Night Raw the next evening.
Ryback
Poor Ryback has had a terrible run so far with the Intercontinental Championship. In fact, the Intercontinental Championship has had a terrible year in general as injuries continue to plague it. After Daniel Bryan was forced to relinquish it, it appeared as though Ryback could take charge, but WWE decided to stall and drag out the triple threat feud involving The Miz and Big Show. That came to bite them in the ass, as it also had to be pushed aside for Battleground due to Ryback’s staph infection.
Now that The Big Guy is healed up and ready to get back into the ring, it’s WWE’s responsibility to make sure that he is viewed as a big deal. If this match is booked as nothing but filler to eat up time between two more important matches, it’s going to put such a huge stain on this Intercontinental Championship reign that Ryback may not be able to clean up.
Think about it: if the IC title spends most of the year inactive and it finally comes back to nothing much more than a dud, what does that say about the champion? People will view Ryback as a lame title holder and it will reflect poorly on him. History has shown that when this happens, WWE panics and plays hot potato with the belt for a few months before settling on someone else, or they ignore it completely for a while and act as though it’s not a priority.
Here’s hoping WWE acknowledges the mistakes that have been made and can be made here, and instead, pushes Ryback as someone who fans will not forget about by the end of the night.
Charlotte
WWE is not doing a good job hiding who they view as the main attraction with the “Divas Revolution” that is going on, as Team PCB—in particular, Charlotte—is continually featured as the focal point.
Even Becky Lynch seems to be relegated to sidekick status when it comes to Charlotte, while Paige is given a bit more of the spotlight since she’s the most established of the trio, who are burdened with the ridiculous name “Team PaigeCharlotteBecky” or PCB since WWE didn’t think to Google Submission Sorority ahead of time.
Sasha Banks will get her time to shine as the standout for Team B.A.D., but nobody in this match will end up having as good of a night as Charlotte, who will most likely be responsible for the final elimination and have her hand raised by the referee.
Stephen Amell
It’s a general rule of thumb that 99 out of 100 times a celebrity shows up in WWE in any capacity more than just sitting in the stands and waving to the camera, they are going to be the star of the segment. Sometimes, it can backfire, like how most people looked more fondly back on Ricky Steamboat at WrestleMania XXV than Mickey Rourke, or how Pete Rose can’t catch a break if Kane’s in the arena, but those are rarities. It’s pretty much a guarantee that every celebrity will get the special treatment and the honors of putting heels in their places.
Those heels in question for SummerSlam are King Barrett and Stardust, who are going to lose to Neville and Stephen Amell.
I wouldn’t go so far as to expect Amell to get the knockout blow, since Neville will probably hit the Red Arrow for the finish, but he may end up tagging Amell in to be the one responsible for the pinfall itself. Still, it’s not an impossibility for Amell to do even more than this. He’s more than capable of pulling off impressive athletic feats, having performed as many of his stunts as possible on Arrow.
Rest assured, in some fashion, Amell is going to be THE star of this segment and WWE would be absolutely stupid to not feature him as one of the biggest, most featured people of the night due to the exposure they’ll get in response.
The Undertaker
There’s no question the match WWE wants to focus on the most as the biggest selling point of the night is The Phenom vs. The Beast. Your mileage may vary on whether or not this is the one you’re most anticipating, but it’s undoubtedly the match on the card from WWE’s perspective. Can you blame them, though? Two of the biggest attractions in WWE history are going at it, which is not something we see often considering how infrequently they appear.
As such, the winner will be given an immense amount of attention, and I have to assume that’s The Undertaker. There doesn’t seem to be much of a reason for Brock Lesnar to win this match after defeating Taker at WrestleMania, as a follow-up victory would do a lot of damage to The Deadman’s credibility going forward for next year’s event. Lesnar does not need a win here, while Undertaker, in some eyes, might need one in order to help erase the previous loss (to an extent).
This match will likely also be better than their other encounter, as it can be assumed that The Undertaker is feeling healthier since he normally doesn’t appear for the rest of the year. Clearly, if he were really banged up, he wouldn’t be wrestling and WWE would have gone a different route for building SummerSlam. That makes me believe that Lesnar will fall and Undertaker will be promoted as the unstoppable force he’s pretty much always been, which will in turn tie somehow into WrestleMania 32’s build when the time comes.
Seth Rollins
The situation with the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and United States Championship both being on the line is surely going to ruffle a lot of feathers no matter who wins, as there is a lot at stake. Is John Cena going to not only tie Ric Flair’s record as a 16-time world champion, but also do it while simultaneously holding the United States title? Is Seth Rollins going to win the US title and dissolve it into the world title, eliminating one of the midcard belts from the company?
There’s a huge chance that this match ends in some kind of ridiculous double count out or draw where neither belt changes hands, which will most likely just upset the audience, because they’ll be cheated out of a proper finish. However, if that doesn’t happen and one of them comes out on top, there’s a much better chance it’s Seth Rollins.
Rumblings have been going on for months that Rollins would eventually face Triple H for the title at some point in the summer, which could very well take place at Night of Champions after Rollins retains here at SummerSlam. The more matches Rollins wins against high profile opponents, the bigger his ego gets. With the winner of Undertaker vs. Lesnar probably not showing up on Raw the night after due to their limited amount of appearances, Rollins will be able to hog a lot of the spotlight and bask in the glory of retaining the title and winning another accolade.
Who do you think will stand out at SummerSlam? Which stars are going to be the biggest talking points after the show’s over with?
Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
