With SummerSlam 2019 coming up this Sunday night, the go-home shows of Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live have given us an indication of what talent is booked for the pay-per-view and who is not currently scheduled. Of course, the card is always subject to change and WWE may end up making alterations to this lineup, but at the moment, the men and women in this breakdown are not currently advertised as being part of this event.
In some cases, this may be justified, or even a purposeful plan to set up a surprise. In other cases, it may be ridiculous. That is up to you to decide as we take a look at which superstars aren’t being promoted for this show.
From the Raw Men’s Division
— The Ascension (Konnor & Viktor): I honestly can’t even remember the last time we saw these guys. Of course they’re not on the card. They’re barely employed, it seems.
— The Authors of Pain (Akam & Rezar): For some reason, since Akam’s return from injury, AOP haven’t been utilized in any real sense. Either WWE is waiting for post-SummerSlam to get the ball rolling with them, or there are no plans to use them at all, and they’re just waiting in the wings.
— Baron Corbin: The Lone Wolf made a big splash the past few months and seems to be back on the sidelines, as he’s done nothing heading into SummerSlam that would justify having him be on this card, especially with Brock Lesnar as universal champion.
— Bobby Lashley: Supposedly, Lashley is injured until around November. That return date is up for speculation, though.
— Braun Strowman: Why was Strowman just grunting at Maria for the 24/7 Championship? That’s all they have for him to do on the road to SummerSlam? Very strange.
— Cedric Alexander / Drew McIntyre: These two are in a feud right now, which is kind of strange, considering how WWE hasn’t really pushed Alexander too much and consistently seem to think McIntyre isn’t worthy of that top spot. However, they keep not having matches, rather than going somewhere tangible. This could be an impromptu thing added to the card, but I’d lean more toward it not happening until at least Raw.
— Cesaro: Any hopes that Cesaro would be able to shoot up the totem pole and main event a pay-per-view are gone, I think, now that Lesnar is champion. Cesaro vs. Rollins could have been great. Instead, Cesaro seems to be stuck in that range of being an upper-midcarder who they use only when they can’t figure out someone else to fill in a role.
— Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder: It was a shock when these two won the Raw tag titles, but they weren’t booked to do pretty much anything with them. Since they lost them, they’ve reverted to the back of the line.
— EC3 / Eric Young / Heath Slater / Mojo Rawley / No Way Jose / Robert Roode / Titus O’Neil: This is your standard group of people who chase after the 24/7 champion. That’s all they ever seem to do. If that becomes a factor for SummerSlam, they’ll probably be backstage doing that, but WWE probably wouldn’t bother flying them out to begin with.
— The O.C.’s Good Brothers (Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows) / The Revival (Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson) / The Usos (Jey Uso & Jimmy Uso): ….Raw Tag Team Championship match? No? Okay. There’s a chance Anderson and Gallows have some sort of match with The New Day, but I’m not expecting it. They’ll probably be ringside for the United States title match to help AJ Styles, while The Usos and The Revival will just do nothing.
— Lio Rush: Radio silence from Lio Rush, who hasn’t been seen in quite some time, for whatever reason.
— The Miz: Originally, he was advertised to face Dolph Ziggler, but that was a ruse to set up the Goldberg switch and get people buzzing on the go-home week. The Miz will supposedly face Ziggler on the Raw following SummerSlam, at least until they change the script midway through the episode.
— Rey Mysterio: Mysterio had a chance to earn a title shot for the United States Championship, but lost in the gauntlet match. At the very least, that’s a rationalization for why he isn’t booked for this event.
— Samoa Joe: Here I thought he was going to be the one to fight Roman Reigns. I guess I was wrong.
— Sami Zayn: They were definitely leaning into the idea that Zayn would have a match with Aleister Black at SummerSlam, but someone must have woken up Monday morning and realized too many matches were on the card and needed to be cut. This explains the Fatal 4-Way for the women’s tag being on Raw and how Black and Zayn had their match on SmackDown instead, bumping them off the SummerSlam event.
— The Viking Raiders (Erik & Ivar): These guys are in the standard booking zone of squashing local enhancement talent until WWE is ready to do something more substantial with them.
From the Raw Women’s Division
— Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross: These two would have won the Women’s Tag Team Championship at SummerSlam if there weren’t already a dozen+ matches that made it so that match had to be cut.
— Dana Brooke / Sarah Logan: Brooke and Logan tend to live on Main Event with their feud happening there every week.
— Lacey Evans: She just was in the main event of Extreme Rules, and arguably shouldn’t have received three title shots in a row that she lost. Now isn’t the time to keep pushing Evans, as there isn’t anything for her to do at the moment.
— Naomi: Naomi is almost always a guarantee to be not involved in anything big unless there’s a multi-woman match. WWE gives her some of the spotlight here and there, but largely is concerned with other talent more than her.
— Nia Jax: Jax will remain out with her knee injuries for the coming months and isn’t expected to return to action until 2020.
— Ronda Rousey: Rousey is still inactive due to her broken hand and her wishes to start a family. It is unknown when or if she’ll be returning.
— Ruby Riott: Riott’s shoulder injury will keep her on the shelf for the next few months.
— Sasha Banks: Who knows what’s going on with Sasha Banks at this point?
— Tamina Snuka: Injury reports supposedly have her down as “TBD” going forward.
From the SmackDown Men’s Division
— Aleister Black: Black defeated Zayn on SmackDown instead of at SummerSlam. Time constraints with too many matches scheduled for Sunday forced them to bump this off the card and move it to Tuesday instead.
— Ali / Shinsuke Nakamura: WWE loves to put a title on Shinsuke Nakamura and then forget about it. It used to be the United States Championship, and now, it’s the Intercontinental Championship. These two easily should have been on the card, based on the belt’s lineage and the setup they established with Ali’s victory, yet that isn’t the case, partially because they already did the match at Smackville.
— Andrade: El Idolo has not quite bounced back from his recent family losses, which is understandable. He was at least factored into the No. 1 contender’s match for the United States title, though, and since he came up short in that, it explains his absence, but he might be getting the ball rolling again soon.
— Apollo Crews: He has his ups and downs, but at the moment, Crews isn’t a focal point. Since he isn’t being prioritized and there are much bigger fish to fry, he simply falls too low on the hierarchy to be able to get a spot on this card, and the same will likely continue for Clash of Champions, Hell in a Cell and onward, until at least Survivor Series, maybe.
— The B-Team (Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel): B-Team, B-Team, go go go…away for a while, because since you’re a jobber team, you’re not needed for SummerSlam.
— Big Show: While technically still listed as a member of the SmackDown roster, Big Show is much more of an ambassador than an active wrestler.
— Buddy Murphy: When the most surrounding Buddy Murphy since being moved in the Superstar Shake-up from 205 Live to SmackDown is that he might have been in the background of the horribly done Roman Reigns equipment disaster segment, that’s not good.
— Chad Gable: Is he on 205 Live from now on? Is he going to team with Apollo Crews? Is he now feuding with Elias instead of Gallagher? Who knows? WWE doesn’t seem to.
— The Colons (Epico Colon & Primo Colon): I feel like these two are Milton from Office Space, where payroll doesn’t know they’re still employed and getting checks, and everyone’s just assumed they were fired a long time ago.
— Daniel Bryan and Rowan / Roman Reigns: Rowan was implicated in the Roman Reigns situation, but no match has been made official as of the end of SmackDown.
— Elias: There isn’t time here for a musical performance, but Elias could definitely pop up to help Shane McMahon against Kevin Owens.
— The Hardy Boyz (Jeff Hardy & Matt Hardy): While Jeff Hardy remains MIA from an injury (supposedly with a November return in mind), Matt Hardy is basically left with nothing to do.
— Heavy Machinery (Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight): Otis and Tucker got close to winning the tag titles a few times, yet since they came up short, now wasn’t the time to give them another chance.
— Jinder Mahal: Mahal suffered a ruptured patellar tendon injury in a match against Ali on June 15th and will be out several months.
— Lars Sullivan: The Freak will be out of action until 2020 due to a knee injury.
— Luke Harper: WWE is just paying Harper to not go to AEW at this point and stretching out his contract as long as possible while he sits at home. At least he gets to rest, right?
— The New Day (Big E & Xavier Woods): How the SmackDown Tag Team Championship is once again not factored into plans for a big show like this always makes me shake my head. That tag team division will always be one of the first things on the chopping block, won’t it? Maybe they’ll be ringside in support of Kofi Kingston or have a match against The O.C., but they’re currently not advertised for anything, that’s for sure.
— R-Truth: If there are any 24/7 Championship shenanigans set to take place, we’ll see R-Truth. Otherwise, there isn’t room on this card for him.
— Rusev: The Bulgarian Brute has been doing absolutely nothing for such a long time that I’m genuinely starting to believe his contract will expire and he’ll go to AEW.
— Sheamus: The Celtic Warrior has been out of action quite some time due to injuries, and WWE has not given a timetable as to when or if he will be returning to the ring. He may even return as a referee, instead, but I doubt that will happen at SummerSlam.
— Shelton Benjamin: Who would have thought a gimmick of looking nervous and saying nothing wouldn’t be something worth investing in for SummerSlam? Oh. That’s right. Everybody knew that would happen.
— Sin Cara: When was the last time he was on television? I honestly cannot remember, and I doubt anybody else can, off the top of their heads.
From the SmackDown Women’s Division
— Carmella: If there are any backstage antics with R-Truth, Carmella will be there.
— Fire and Desire (Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville) / The IIconics (Billie Kay & Peyton Royce) / The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka & Kairi Sane): These three teams, along with Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross, would have had their Fatal 4-Way from Raw on the SummerSlam card if there was another hour to the event and they could fit all the matches. Since that isn’t the case, and it’s already overloaded, they were bumped up to Monday night.
— Lana: See Rusev’s section. Same thing.
— Liv Morgan: After losing to Charlotte Flair, Liv Morgan promised she would take some time off and come back “real”, so she’s on hiatus until the repackaging takes place.
— Mickie James: James is out of action with a knee injury and will be out for the next several months.
— Zelina Vega: No Andrade, no Zelina Vega. That’s what happens when you’re mostly a manager.
From the 205 Live Cruiserweight Division
— Mostly Everybody: With Drew Gulak defending the Cruiserweight Championship against Oney Lorcan, that takes up the one spot the 205 Live roster will have on this card. As such, the other cruiserweights who will be missing in action are Akira Tozawa, Ariya Daivari, The Brian Kendrick, Gentleman Jack Gallagher, Humberto Carrillo, The Lucha House Party, Mike Kanellis, The Singh Brothers and Tony Nese.
Do you think these men and women or any others not on this list should have been booked on the card in some fashion? How would you have utilized them if given the opportunity? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
