Greg DeMarco’s Bold Predictions for WWE SummerSlam

411Mania’s Greg DeMarco gets you ready for Sunday’s WWE SummerSlam in style with his B.O.L.D. Predictions!

On Sunday, August 23rd, the WWE presents their annual SummerSlam pay-per-view, shockingly enough the 28th of its kind! It’s been a full five weeks since our last WWE pay-per-view, BattleGround, began to lay the foundation for the company’s second-biggest event—and biggest party of the summer!

It was at BattleGround that John Cena finished off his feud with Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins narrowly escaped a Mortal Kombat fatality at the hands of Brock Lesnar, thanks to The Undertaker.

Now The Deadman steps into the main event against the man who you can argue is the WWE’s true Phenom, former WWE and UFC champion Brock Lesnar. John Cena? Oh he turned the best year of his career into another SummerSlam main event (his third in a row) against WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins. Looming large over this match is, of course, the opportunity for Cena to tie Ric Flair’s record 16 World Championship reigns.

Oh, and the aforementioned Kevin Owens? He fell forward into one of the best surprises of this 5-week build: a match against Cesaro that I can not-so-boldly say will steal the show after seeing a better than expected set-up.

So precisely what is going to happen at SummerSlam? For answers to that question you should check out our 411Mania Roundtable Preview!

Because contained below are bold predictions for the event. Not likely to happen, these are indeed B.O.L.D.: Bullheaded, Outlandish, Lascivious, and Deplorable. But if (when?) one hits, I can promise you’ll never hear the end of it!

And NEWWWWWWWWWW…

Here we have John Cena, the 15-time world champion who has defined an era in the WWE. He’ll stand opposite Seth Rollins, a 29 year old who already has 13-years of wrestling experience under his belt. Rollins is in the midst of his first world championship reign, one that has been entertaining when Rollins is allowed to be a strong chicken-shit heel (if that makes any sense), but has been often maligned by The Authority.

Wait, did I say Rollins was in the midst of his reign? My bad.

That shit’s over. At SummerSlam, John Cena is tying Ric Flair’s record (the official one, not the real one that stands at like 22 reigns). And it has as much to do with John Cena as it does Ric Flair. We all know that Triple H once idolized Flair, and that Vince McMahon has a lot of respect for the man. But John Cena is, in the WWE’s eyes, the greatest performer of all time. In their eyes he should hold that record, and he will.

And I honestly think he deserves to do it. Who has had a better 2015? That’s a rhetorical question, yes, but it’s rhetorical because the answer is obvious: John Cena. While he’s been in the ring with some great opposition, he’s stepped his own game up to prove that it truly still is his yard.

John Cena is 38 years old. He’s been on top of the world for over a decade now, and that takes a toll on one’s body. There’s money in movies if he wants it, and I’d bet he does. I don’t think he’ll go as far away as The Rock did, but within two years we’ll see John Cena lace up the tennis shoes about as often as Triple H laces up his wrestling boots. He will be the part time performer we all love to hate, and he’ll do it as the “former seventeen time world champion.” He’ll reach that milestone by, or at, WrestleMania 32.

One big step in reaching reign #17? Having reign #16 last but a few moments…

And NEWWWWWWWWWW…

John Cena’s true milestone is seventeen world title reigns, not sixteen. That’s when we have the celebration and finally anoint John Cena as the greatest “sports entertainer” of all time. But save that for Dallas, because this is New York City, where the fans will love to hate on the new world champ.

Enter the famous redheaded fella who is gonna get the biggest face pop of his career, despite being a heel. We are in NYC, after all.

Sheamus is going to “shock the world” and become WWE World Heavyweight Champion. It’ll be Sheamus’s fourth overall world title, to go along with the United States Championship, King Of The Ring, Royal Rumble victory and Money In The Bank briefcase.

Yeah, I’ll save the “Is Sheamus a Hall Of Famer” article for another time.

Sheamus cashing in at SummerSlam accomplishes many things. Firstly, it actually minimizes Cena’s sixteenth world title, setting the stage for his seventeenth at WrestleMania 32. Second, and more importantly, it gets rid of that darn briefcase for a while. In a storyline sense (and maybe in actual number of days) Dolph Ziggler held onto his longer than anyone by waiting for the night after WrestleMania 29 to cash in. Seth Rollins held his briefcase one day less, famously cashing in at WrestleMania 31 (the first ever WrestleMania cash in).

Much like 2013, we can benefit from taking a good ten months with no briefcase. It’ll keep the gimmick fresh when it comes back next year.

There are a lot of directions you can head with Sheamus as world champion. You have John Cena and Seth Rollins both seeking to regain “their” championship. You have the continued rise of Roman Reigns, as a face or a heel. You have Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, even Brock Lesnar and dare I say Randy Orton (who beats the Money In The Bank briefcase holder right before he cashes in yet again!) that he could feud with. The ultimate benefit to him is that Sheamus doesn’t have to be a face or a heel, he can be a tweener, and could actually be a very entertaining world champion, even holding the title until WrestleMania 32.

”You Want A War? You GOT ONE!”

That famous quote was, of course, from Scott Hall as he appeared on WCW Nitro and kicked off the build to the NWO, wrestling’s strongest and ultimately most annoying stable, ever.

Right now, NXT vs WWE isn’t the war anyone is begging for. We’re enjoying both, to varying degrees, and while we’re ready to see NXT grow we’re not ready to see the student battle the teacher.

That’s why the time is now.

Do you remember when The Rock returned for RAW 1000? He declared himself the challenger for CM Punk’s WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble, which was at that time 6-months away. Punk balked at the notion that The Rock was getting this title shot, and by the end of the night Punk turned heel.

It wasn’t a heel turn anyone was begging to see, it wasn’t even the heel turn anyone was asking for. And that’s why it worked so damned well. It was a surprise—wrestling is better when it’s surprising us.

In the current era, SummerSlam sets the stage for the rest of the WWE-year, the one that runs from WrestleMania to WrestleMania. In 2013, it started Daniel Bryan’s path to WrestleMania XXX, and one of the best WrestleMania moments of all time. In 2014, it started Brock Lesnar’s path of destruction, and another one of the best WrestleMania moments of all time. See a pattern?

While I don’t think this leads to one of the best WrestleMania moments of all time (although it could), I will BOLDly predict that we’re kicking off a full blown war at SummerSlam.

WWE vs. NXT.

Vince McMahon vs. Triple H.

C’mon, you don’t think they can do this without the McMahon Family, do you? Of course they’ll be involved, and it’s perfect storytelling. The casual fans obviously know Trips and Vinnie Mac well. Over the past year they’ve come to know NXT fairly well, too. The “war” can work on so many levels if done now.

But there’s another reason to do it—the talent. It pains me to say it, but NXT is better than it’ll ever be, right now. When the Finn Balors, Hideo Itamis, and Tyler Breezes of the developmental territory move up to the main roster, there is a drop off. Apollo Crews is going to be great, but he’s not at their level. Samoa Joe isn’t the future, and while Sami Zayn is the key to the NXT future, he’s also got main roster drawing potential.

As the old saying goes, you strike while the iron is hot. And the storyline potential is there. What does Kevin Owens do? Was he just using NXT? Does he side with WWE and then turn later? Does he do the opposite? What about those who built their WWE careers coming from NXT, like Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, Neville and Cesaro? What about the new Divas? Does Sasha Banks side with the new boss, or the old one? How does Daniel Bryan fit in? Because tell me supporting NXT isn’t the perfect on-screen role for the guy if he isn’t wrestling.

Plus you have Finn Balor and Samoa Joe ready for the main roster, and ready for the fight.

It makes perfect sense to do it now. I am not saying you have to, but why not give them Smackdown as part of this? Or maybe they “win” Smackdown, and we have a full on brand extension?

(Okay, I’m getting head of myself.)

The point is that we’re headed into a very rough part of the year, and WWE vs. NXT could carry that period of time, build the NXT brand, shake up the main roster without it feeling forced. And above all else it can capture the imaginations of all levels of the fan base in a way we haven’t seen since the Road To WrestleMania XXX.

And if you’re kicking off the WWE/NXT war… that means…

FINALLY!

Finn Balor debuts on the main roster…

…gotta get my shit in.

Show. Stealing. Match.

I know, very bold of me. But we’re talking about a loaded SummerSlam card that currently stands at ten matches. We’re likely to see one or two get moved to the preshow to make room for some special legends appearances (if you smell what I’m cooking, and that is the bottom line, even if these guys are the true showstoppers), and many of those ten matches have some serious potential. This is going to be a great SummerSlam, guys.

And chief among those matches is Cesaro vs Kevin Owens. Look at what both men have accomplished this year. In John Cena’s greatest year, they are arguably his greatest opponents. And they’re hungry. Boy are they hungry. I compare their situation to two past WrestleMania showdowns, where three performers refused to be ignored.

At WrestleMania 21 you had a midcard encounter between Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle, billed as an interpromotional showdown that is now simply known, to me, as the greatest match ever wrestled. They weren’t in either championship match, they weren’t in the first ever Money in The Bank Ladder Match, they weren’t in Piper’s Pit or Hulk Hogan’s triumphant save of Eugene. They were in a match given lots of time and they stole the show.

At WrestleMania 22 you had Edge, a man who lost his first WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble before—after holding it for a mere three weeks. Champion John Cena was headed for the main event against Triple H (when it should have been against Edge) and The Rated R Superstar was headed to…who knows what. Sure, he could have been in Money In The Bank yet again (and eventually he would), but he wanted more. And thanks to Mick Foley he got more, producing a show stealing moment where he speared Foley through a flaming table.

While I don’t see a flaming table in the near future for either Kevin Owens or Cesaro, I do see the opportunity to so what all three men listed above did—steal the damn show.

And that’s exactly what they’ll do.

LOL, Charlotte Wins.

If you’ve been following along on my Facebook, the YES! Wrestling page or my Twitter you’ll know that I find the lady Flair to be vastly overrated.

I’m not saying she isn’t talented—she definitely is. I’m not saying she isn’t attractive. While I’d take Paige, Becky, Sasha or even Nikki over her any way—she definitely is. But take away the Flair heritage and she’s not in the same league as the true NXT talent in Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, Bayley, Paige and Emma, nor can she compare to the likes of Natalya and even Alicia Fox on the main roster.

She’s good, and has the potential to be a star in the division. But she isn’t as amazing as everyone thinks. In fact, she’s a good wrestler who has bene carried to greatness by the performers in NXT. Given the improvements we’ve seen in the past twelve months, I’d even go so far as to say that Nikki Bella is on the same level as Charlotte, and I don’t care if you’re not so happy with that.

But her last name is Flair, and she is going to get a push. To the moon, in fact. She’ll be the one to dethrone Nikki Bella right after Cena’s girl breaks AJ Lee’s record Divas Championship reign, and daddy Flair will be right there when it happens. Soon enough she’ll become the hated Diva, holding down the internet favorites like Paige, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, Bayley and others.

That road starts at SummerSlam, when she pins Nikki Bella to win the Diva’s Three-Team Elimination Match and becomes the Diva the division will soon be built around.

And I’ll be boldly predicting that, LOL, Charlotte wins.

Greg DeMarco is a wrestling fan of over 30 years and has worked on the independent circuit as a promoter, announcer, character and booker. Greg is a weekly contributor at 411Mania.com, applying his opinionated style to the world of pro wrestling as often as possible.

He began writing for 411Mania in October 2010 and has been pissing readers off ever since!

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And as always…