Views From The Turnbuckle: SummerSlam Preview, Predictions, And More

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of WrestlingInc or its staff.

SummerSlam is typically revered as the biggest event of the summer, and this year WWE has delivered on that promise. Summerslam doesn't have the months-long hype that Wrestlemania does, but this year's Summerslam is arguably more marketable than Wrestlemania. You don't have to look any further than the main events of each event. Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar was less of a match and more of WWE crossing their fingers and praying that the fans didn't rip apart Reigns. The Undertaker vs Brock Lesnar? Say what you will about part time wrestlers and The Undertaker being old and brittle, but that match is bigger than any Wrestlemania match in how long? Since the first Rock vs Cena match?

Brock vs 'Taker has probably been the most well-orchestrated build for a big match in a very long time. They have only been together for three segments in the last year, but those three segments have been tremendous. There was the 'Taker run-in at Battleground and then the following night on Raw when Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker had their now-famous brawl. On Monday, The Undertaker took Brock down again in another brilliant segment. Heyman cut another great promo on The Deadman, but The Undertaker got the better of Brock by delivering another low blow. The psychology displayed in that segment was fairly brilliant. WWE has done a good job selling the low blow from 'Taker at Battleground, and having him deliver another one sends the message to fans that The Undertaker can toss around Brock Lesnar, but he essentially has to cheat in order to do so. It adds a whole new dimension to the match, especially because The Undertaker managed to get booed tonight.

As for the boos, I doubt we would see that many at Summerslam. Raw was in Minneapolis and it was billed as Brock's "Homecoming." Heyman also cut a great promo beforehand hyping Lesnar up as the hometown conquering hero. Neither of those variables are in play this Sunday in Brooklyn. I think Lesnar will certainly have his supporters in the audience on Sunday, but the majority of the fans are going to be cheering for The Undertaker. The fans love Brock, but getting a chance to cheer for The Undertaker is such a rare opportunity (how many of those do we have left?) that I think the majority of the fans in New York City will side with The Deadman.

WWE is billing the match as being "Too Big for Wrestlemania" with irony being that in all likelihood these two will be meeting again at Wrestlemania. I think that Brock has to be the heavy favorite in this match, in part because if The Undertaker wins on Sunday, there isn't a really good reason for the feud to continue. If Brock wins it will create even more doubt in The Undertaker's ability to defeat him, which is something incredibly rare because The Undertaker has been favored in every match he has wrestled in since 2004. WWE has sold fans on two ideas: Brock Lesnar is unstoppable and owns The Undertaker, and that The Undertaker is old and cannot defeat someone the caliber of Lesnar. Those are the two ideas that captivate the audience and are what makes this feud special and a worthy main event for "The Biggest Event of the Summer."

The WWE World Heavyweight Championship is on the line, with Seth Rollins defending against John Cena. WWE has done a decent job capitalizing on Rollins' mistake of breaking Cena's nose and having Rollins milk that incident for all that is worth. Rollins and Cena had a pretty good segment on Monday when Cena made his first appearance on Raw since the injury. I feel like this feud would have been better if Cena had been on the show every week to help build it. Without Cena, for the last couple weeks Rollins has been forced to carry the feud by himself, cutting promos on Cena and not getting any backlash from it. Maybe fans would have gotten sick of it if they had been going face-to-face every week, but if Monday's segment was any indication, these two guys can sling it against each other.

Having both championships on the line has confounded the predictions for the show, as many fans don't believe that Rollins will be the United States Champion and many fans don't WANT to believe that Cena is going to hold both championships. In addition, WWE just released Cena's T-shirt that has him labeled as the "15x Champion" and WWE loves Cena's merchandise so much that it would seem dumb if they released the shirt and made him the 16x champion six days later. The most likely predicted outcome has been a schmoz finish with a DQ, a run-in, etc. Normally WWE would like to stay away from a finish like that for the World Championship match at a major PPV event, but with Brock Lesnar vs The Undertaker in the main event slot, they could convincingly do that.

I'm going to make a bold prediction for SummerSlam and that is that John Cena will win the world title on Sunday, clean and in the middle of the ring. I know there are a lot of factors that would hedge bets against that happening, but one thing I have learned in watching John Cena is that the regular rules when it comes to predicting stuff don't really apply to him. If it makes no real sense for Cena to win a match, he can still easily win the match. All of those little things like logic and the chance to build a stronger feud go right out the window when it comes to John Cena. Rollins has done a solid job as champion despite getting very little help from management, but I think his time as champion is up and they want to get the championship back on Cena. Like it or not, we are going to hear JBL say "John Cena found a way to win another big match!" for the 10,000th time on Sunday.

The undercard is filled out with eight matches of varying importance. Perhaps the most important match on the undercard is the tag team match between Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper vs Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose. Since Reigns' failed to win the world title at Wrestlemania, he has pretty much fallen into mid-card mediocrity. Management believes in him so he is always going to have a storyline and a match on PPVs, but he is clearly presented as being a step below the major stars. In a lot of ways he is very similar to Sheamus pre-injury, where Sheamus was a mid-card babyface who won most of his matches and always had a presence on PPVs, but his ultimate significant to the product was not that great.

I think the time might be right for Reigns' heel turn. WWE has made a big deal about Ambrose and Reigns being "family" which is a telltale sign that a group or tag team is going to split. If Reigns were to turn heel on Ambrose he would have a sympathetic babyface to pick on and WWE would no longer have to take extra precautions to make sure Reign's doesn't get booed in front of a hostile audience. Reigns turning heel wouldn't launch him to superstardom like some believe, it wouldn't give him more charisma, make him a better worker or give him better promos, but it would put him in a better position to succeed than where he is right now.

Sheamus and Randy Orton will continue their feud on Sunday, in a match that doesn't have a lot of momentum. Despite a feud spanning a couple months, Sheamus and Orton haven't really done all that much outside of a couple beatdown segments. Orton has been very good recently, but a lot of that good stuff has come in segments and matches that haven't really involved Sheamus. Sheamus' heel turn was seen as a breath of fresh air for his character, but he hasn't done a whole heck of a lot to stand out, other than a Money in the Bank victory, a move which seems more questionable each and every day. The idea of Sheamus cashing in on Sunday has been floated around, but does Shemaus really seem like world championship material right now? There is a list of 6-8 guys that would make a better WWE World Heavyweight Champion than Sheamus would at this time. He has some serious work to do or else he is going to lose that briefcase.

The latest match to be added to the card has been Rusev vs Dolph Ziggler, which is really all about Lana and Rusev. Despite their best efforts, Ziggler and Lana haven't really clicked as an on-screen couple and most of their segments come off as very awkward. If the goal of all this is to make Lana a bigger star, she was much more impactful as Rusev's manager than whatever she is doing with Ziggler. Rusev for his part, has been very good in his role as the jealous ex-boyfriend and has shown huge improvements on the mic and in the ring. I think the most logical thing to do would be to have Lana turn on Dolph and have her get back together with Rusev. It would get a lot of heat on both of them and it would help Rusev get out of the hole that all those clean losses to Cena put him in.

In more Diva news, WWE has decided to put all of the Diva's that are part of the "Revolution" in one big match at SummerSlam. Again, this is a result of WWE failing to put together any real storyline for the division other than that the women are committed to change. When the NXT call-ups first debuted on Raw, they all got in a big brawl with each other. Now, weeks and weeks later, they are essentially going to do the same exact thing. It will be a Triple Threat Nine Women Elimination tag match with the each team being eliminated after one pinfall. In theory, Alicia Fox and Tamina could get pinned for their teams, PCB would win and we would be no closer storyline wise than before. Ideally, and WWE has striven far from ideal booking when it comes to this Revolution, the match would end with someone pinning or submitting Nikki Bella to set up a title match down the road, but who knows?

Perhaps the best match on the card is going to be Kevin Owens and Cesaro. After debuting on the main roster and pinning John Cena cleanly in his first match, it has been all downhill for Owens. Despite the fact that he has clearly displayed the ability to be a main-eventer in WWE right now, WWE made the decision to pump the brakes on Owens a bit and reduce him back down to the mid-card. At the same time, Cesaro has seen his stock rise once again, although he has reached a similar zenith before and WWE has never capitalized on it. These are two of the five or six best workers in the entire company, so this should be a good match regardless of the outcome and could very well end-up stealing the show.

The Tag Team Championships will be on the line in a Fatal Four Way match as every team in the division except for The Ascension has somehow managed to earn a title shot. The New Day keeps getting better and they are even starting to get some face pops from the live audience, and there is really no reason why they shouldn't win the championships, unless of course WWE needs some more PSAs to be filmed, which would mean that the Prime Time Players are going to retain. Either way, the match is filled with good workers and the pace will be fast with a lot of outside dives, making it an ideal opening match.

I'm generally against celebrity involvement in matches because usually the celebrity has no crossover appeal to wrestling fans (Marina Menounos) lowers the believability of the event (Snooki) and just overall seems like a waste of money for WWE. Stephen Amell is going to be an exception because he does supply many of those things. He is in great physical shape so it at least appears that he can take/dish out a beating. He plays a popular superhero on television, and wrestling does have a large crossover audience with fans of comic books/superheroes. And lastly, WWE is using him in the appropriate way. This isn't Jay Leno or Dennis Rodman main eventing a WCW PPV, this is a guy working a tag match with some lower card guys that will be the third match on the card and go under ten minutes. It also should be mentioned that Stardust has been killing it these segments, he is a better bad guy than half of the villains on Arrow.

Finally, at the very bottom of this massive card (yes, behind the match with the actor in it) is the Intercontinental Championship. This feud between The Big Show, Ryback and The Miz has been garbage so far. The champion is Ryback, who had been out with an injury for a majority of his reign, and despite posting a photo of his leg quad swollen to twice its normal size, came back last week on Raw, so god knows how he got healthy enough to do that. Then there is Show whose gimmick is literally now that he changes from heel to face and back again multiple times per week. And then there is The Miz, who has been portrayed as a loser and a dork for the entire feud, which means he is probably going to win on Sunday. It isn't stopping the decline in prestige for the IC title, that's for sure.

Even if SummerSlam isn't a great show, WWE has accomplished its goal of making the event seem like their second biggest show of the year. It is 4 hours, which is longer than usual and it has 10 matches which are more than usual. It is in their biggest market and it has a huge main event. Even if you don't love the card or question a lot of the booking, this is an event that is more must-see than every other show on the calendar except Wrestlemania and maybe the Royal Rumble, and that is WWE's main goal for SummerSlam.

You can follow Jesse Collings on Twitter @JesseCollings