WWE SummerSlam 2026: Draws & Duds

WWE SummerSlam 2026 is officially upon us, as the two-night event comes your way this weekend from Minneapolis, Minnesota! Six matches are currently listed for each night — half of those will be contested for championships, while the other half range from high-stakes contests with title implications (like Finn Balor vs. Sami Zayn) to non-title grudge matches and blood feuds (like Oba Femi vs. Brock Lesnar).

But here's the real question: Which of these matches make their respective cards look like a rollicking good time, and which are dragging things down? That's what the WINC staff are here to find out. From Danhausen's "Human Monies on a Pole" match to Roman Reigns' decade-long vendetta against Seth Rollins, here are WINC's biggest draws and biggest duds for WWE SummerSlam 2026!

In a different world, or even on a different show, the upcoming Hell in a Cell Match between Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi at WWE SummerSlam 2026 would be the main event. It's a clash of two behemoths inside WWE's most demonic structure (sorry Elimination Chamber but you have mats now), and from a sheer metric standpoint, it is one of the most anticipated matches of the entire year in any wrestling company. There was absolutely no way we were going to leave this one out of the draw section.

To be clear, the build to this has been a bit bad. The fact that Femi went through the entire King of the Ring tournament, won it, earned a title match at SummerSlam, and at the end of it all just said "No, I'm good thanks," is ridiculous. This business moves extremely fast so him giving up a title shot just to have one more match with Lesnar made him look like an idiot. Plus, the recent weigh-in on "WWE Raw" didn't exactly land either, with Lesnar locking himself outside of the cell while Triple H was trying to literally direct the segment Hollywood style in the ring. 

Having said all of that, this is still a match that will have everyone glued to their screens.

WWE is open to a little bit of the red stuff these days when it comes to big moments like this — just look at CM Punk and Drew McIntyre from two years ago as an example. The idea of two real-life monsters beating the blood out of each other is the kind of stuff WWE, and wrestling as a whole, was built on. Obviously, if the match doesn't have blood it wouldn't be the end of the world, but it would help. 

The most interesting thing about this match is the result, because for as much as we all think Femi will win the rubber match and beat Lesnar, this is Lesnar we're talking about. Despite his controversies, people still show up when he's involved, and to make it even more daunting for Femi, SummerSlam is taking place in Lesnar's hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota. There is every chance WWE pull a fast one and give Lesnar the win, regardless of whether we all believe Femi being crowned as the the 2026 incarnation of "The Next Big Thing" is the right move. We're all hoping this will be a passing of the torch moment, and maybe even Lesnar's last match. Either way, the world will be watching.

Written by Sam Palmer

Dominik Mysterio and Danhausen will hopefully wrap up their woeful feud this weekend with a stipulation hatched from the comedic demon himself, a Human Monies on a Pole match – presumably because Danhausen should win but the company doesn't want him to pin Mysterio, even though half of the roster already has.

Where did this all start? While Mysterio was preparing to face Oba Femi in the semi finals of the King of the Ring tournament back in June, he had cottoned onto Danhausen's curse as a means to defeat "The Ruler" in exchange for $100,000. For his part, Danhausen had cottoned onto the fact that Femi was hardly one to trifle with, and cursing him on behalf of Mysterio would land him in his crosshairs.

Mysterio lost to Femi after all, and then attempted to reclaim his financial investment. But Danhausen doesn't do refunds and thus ensued weeks of Judgment Day pursuing him. Danhausen wound up cursing Liv Morgan after she tried to offer an assist to her on-screen beau, thus allowing Iyo Sky to beat her in the Queen of the Ring final, and then beat JD McDonagh in a No Disqualification match at Saturday Night's Main Event.

This past week the match was set up with Danhausen and Joe Hendry's cursed concert, joined by abusive bigot boxer Ryan Garcia, who then attacked them to align with the Judgment Day. After which, Danhausen called on Adam Pearce to make a Human Monies on a Pole match with Mysterio, and thus it became official.

This feud has been a weekly slog of stupor, throwing one of the most earnestly entertaining acts in the garbage disposal where 2026 Judgment Day resides. Mysterio could barely wrestle a Snickers out of its wrapper even when paired with the best of them, and thus relies on his shtick of unbridled interference and cheating in every way possible. Danhausen, entertaining as he may be, has never been one to blow the crowd away with his in-ring work.

So the wrestlers in the match barely belong on pay-per-view, the feud itself has done very little to remedy that, and as a result of the feud the stipulation is one to make Vince Russo proud. That's without considering this is supposed to be one of the "Big Four" events on the calendar.

If one had the book then one would practice Konmari – it doesn't kindle joy, in fact it kindles the opposite, so discard it. Alas, one does not. So it is a dud and sure to be an optimal bathroom break at best.

Written by Max Everett

It has been a decade and some change since Seth Rollins drove a Shield chair into the Shield back of his Shield brother, Roman Reigns. But like any rivalry worth its salt in the world of professional wrestling, they will standing opposite one another yet again for a grudge match for the World Heavyweight Championship — the title Rollins never lost, now sat on the shoulders of the "Tribal Chief" as he looks to recapture the lightning in a bottle that was his record-setting Undisputed WWE Universal Championship run. 

Reigns' evergreen hatred of Rollins is arguably what put that title run to bed in the first place, given he opted to bury a chair in Rollins' back rather than focus on his opponent that night in Cody Rhodes. But even before that, Rollins was the splinter that burrowed itself beneath Reigns' epidermis, from cashing in Money in the Bank at WrestleMania 31 and thus winning the WWE Championship on a night seemingly designed to be Reigns' coronation to being the first to beat Reigns in a Universal title match during that record run after drawing him into a disqualification. 

Rollins will claim Reigns has never beaten him, which is untrue. But it is true that Reigns has never been able to beat Rollins when it truly matters. When the lights shine brightest, it is Rollins that gets the better of Reigns for the same reason they're fighting to begin with: he has leased a sizable plot in Reigns' head through years of betrayal and one-upmanship. That creates a compelling hook for the match as Reigns looks to evict that problematic tenant, while Rollins looks to exercise his squatter's rights and reclaim the title he might still have had it not been for an untimely injury. 

There's a reason for both to win, and there's more than enough precedent for this to be the main event. It's two faces of the company for the past decade facing one another for a world title. It's the latest chapter in a story of brotherly betrayal. And it's sure to be a really exciting match. 

There is a reason this match was booked, whether the build has lived up to the billing or not. It's this generation's Rock and Austin, Triple H and Shawn Michaels, Cena and Orton. Simply put, it's a draw.

Written by Max Everett

Everyone wants to get on a card like WWE SummerSlam 2026 — it's the biggest party of the summer, after all. It's the second or third biggest show of the year for WWE depending on who you ask, a lot of the storylines that have been built up after WrestleMania end at this event, and it usually sets up the rest of the year's stories with some shocking and viral moments. 

Then there are matches that are just there to get a few extra people on the show. This is one of those matches.

Due to Rhea Ripley suffering a knee injury a few months ago, a five-woman Ladder Match was booked for this year's SummerSlam — a reasonable decision in fairness. But then it was announced that the five women involved wouldn't be competing for the vacant WWE Women's Championship because Ripley wasn't actually dropping the title, and instead, the first-ever interim title in WWE history will be introduced, and that just adds so much more fluff on top of a situation that should have been so simple. 

Interim belts don't really work in wrestling despite the concept being simple. The closest it ever came to working was in AEW when Jon Moxley had the Interim AEW World Championship while CM Punk was injured, but even then it wasn't well-received because why wouldn't Punk just vacate it? He's literally injured. It's never fully worked in wrestling and I don't expect it to work in WWE either, regardless of how simple a champion vs. champion match is to book. On top of this, the qualifying process has been a mess as well; Nia Jax has been in two qualifying matches and failed both times and you're supposed to make me believe that she isn't going to try and squeeze her way into the Giulia vs. Lash Legend match on Friday to make it a hat-trick when all of those opportunities could have gone to literally any other women in the locker room? Please.

Ladder matches have also been overdone to the point where a stipulation that once had people jumping for joy is now making people groan because it's so lazy, no matter what company does it. It's literally the "Break Glass In Case Of Emergency" match that bookers love to get themselves out of trouble because it can just be a car crash and people will be entertained. Do something else guys, you have the talent to do so many interesting things, especially with something like an interim title which, again, isn't hard to book despite everyone messing it up.

Written by Sam Palmer