The Road to SummerSlam {And Beyond} - MITB Talk, Too

[Xero]

I don't know. I've been thinking about this for a while, and I just can't see anything of worth happening through SummerSlam. Outside of Lesnar/Triple H at SummerSlam, there is NOTHING that I see on the horizon that's going to make it a "good" SummerSlam. I'm sure Sheamus will defend against Orton, which isn't exciting at all really. Maybe we'll get another Punk/Bryan match, but I'm kinda doubting that. Maybe they'll throw Jericho into the mix if he's available, which would be cool.

Other than SummerSlam, though, who is there for Money in the Bank? The only two that I can really think of at this point are Ziggler and Cody. Other than those two, it'd either be a repeat that doesn't need to happen (have a feeling Del Rio is getting it again, to be honest) or someone that shouldn't get it yet/at all.

Use this thread to discuss the road to SummerSlam {And Beyond}.

[Lock Jaw]

Report on the front page says that Creative is "under pressure" to think of another big summer angle, like Nexus in 2010, and Punk in 2011.

So you never know. We could very well get another awesome angle that eventually fizzles out, but would be awesome for a few months at least.

Maybe combine elements of the last two summer angles. Have Barrett come back, forming Nexus 2000 with a bunch of people, and target CM Punk.

[tjmidnight420]

Man, I just don't know about the state of the 'E' right now. Seems like they're lost for the most part. Last two years big things have been dropping in their lap that could potentially help the product and boost ratings, but it fizzles out more often than not. Feel like losing the steam from the 'summer of Punk' and dropping the ball with Lesnar have done more harm than good. Rock's return match should've been handled better as well.

[Cool King]

For the Money In The Bank match, I can see it including any of these guys:

Brodus Clay
Cody Rhodes
Damien Sandow
David Otunga
Dolph Ziggler
Hunico
Kofi Kingston
The Miz
R-Truth
Santino Marella
Sin Cara
Tensai
Tyson Kidd
Zack Ryder

[Triple Naitch]

Here would be my SummerSlam card

CM Punk vs. Wade Barrett (WWE Championship; kinda like the angle LockJaw was talking about)

Sheamus vs. Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan (World Heavyweight Championship)

Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar

John Cena & Mystery Partner vs. Big Show & Tensai (Maybe Rey return?)

Christian vs. Antonio Cesaro

Cody Rhodes vs. Dolph Ziggler (One of these guys will win MITB)

Some sort of U.S. Championship Invitational

Ryback vs. Kane

Dunno.

[Triple Naitch]

Oh and Beth Phoenix vs. Kharma

[Corporate CockSnogger]

The Rock will be back.

[Corporate CockSnogger]

Oh wait no, when's Summerslam? It might be sooner than I thought it was, in which case The Rock will probably hold off til Survivor Series or something. That's in like October isn't it?

[Ermaximus]

MitB is going to have 2 seperate branded matches for it so I'd guess:

Raw MitB
The Miz
Kofi Kingston
R-Truth
Dolph Ziggler
Jack Swagger
Evan Bourne
Zack Ryder
Rey Mysterio

Smackdown
Wade Barrett
Sin Cara
Brodus Clay
Daniel Bryan
Ted Dibiase
Cody Rhodes
Damien Sandow
Ryback

[Rammsteinmad]

See, I've been saying this for some time now about WWE at the moment, but they can't keep relying on old names to carry to product.

After the roster became heavily thinned out, 2010 was a great 'rebuilding' year, with a lot of the new stars really coming into prominance in 2011. Personally, I thought 2011 was a fantastic year. With the exception of Wrestlemania, I thought every PPV was incredible last year. A lot of guys were used incredibly well, and a lot of new stars were really starting to establish themselves, whilst a lot of old guys who never really got 'the push' were finally being used to their potential and strengths (hell, even Mark Henry was doing good).

But ever since the turn of the year, WWE has done nothing this year but rely on old stars. Now, this is great for nostalgia, and for those special moments, such as Rock's match at Wrestlemania or Brock Lesnar's return, but WWE can't keep relegating all the major spots and angles to legends.

I'm not saying they can't deliver, because they do. But unfortunately it's not enough to 'carry the product' after said moment has taken place. For example, how has the product improved since Lesnar's return? Did Extreme Rules become the huge-selling PPV WWE had hoped for? Did Raw ratings return to the 6 and 7's that they were hitting at the turn of the century? Hell, the Summer of Punk last year was one of the most exciting periods in wrestling over the last decade, with arenas everywhere popping for CM Punk... and what happened to that? It fizzled out into a Triple H/Kevin Nash feud. :nono:

Kinda going off-topic now, but yeah, the reason there's no 'hot angle' for this Summer is because as much as we love guys like Ziggler and Rhodes, all the patterns WWE have shown this year is that when it comes down to 'crunch time', they're more willing to rely on an old star for a quick interest-spike that'll last no more than a week or two.

[Rammsteinmad]

Oh fuck it, probably should have re-read that post before I posted it. Dunno if any of that is relevant to this thread, or if it even makes any sense at all etc.

Basically, I wish WWE would stop fussing about The Rock, Brock Lesnar and Triple H for Summerslam and Wrestlemania etc, and establish the fucking roster full of talent they have now.

[Big Vic]

I'll come up with a summer angle right now.....Someone kidnaps John Cena's son and John Cena must go through 12 rounds of opponents in order to get his son back. The Kidnapper ends up being Kharma and then we have Kharma vs Cena at Survivor Series.

[Emperor Smeat]

Wouldn't be shocked if Ziggler were to win the MitB and Wade Barrett for Smackdown. Barrett was almost a lock for an eventual title feud before getting injured while Ziggler splitting from Vicky might be the start of something huge for him.

[Corndad]

Wouldn't be shocked if Ziggler were to win the MitB and Wade Barrett for Smackdown. Barrett was almost a lock for an eventual title feud before getting injured while Ziggler splitting from Vicky might be the start of something huge for him.

This. This would be my two picks as well. Gives SD an upper Heel for Sheamus to feud with for a while and elevates Ziggler to stay at the Main Event Level. People would have questioned how MITB would keep someone at Main Event but I think Daniel Bryan's win and run after proves it to be pretty important.

[Swiss Ultimate]

The Rock will be back.

The Rock is coming back for his title.

[Wolfpack423]

I think Summerslam could be pretty good. I'd like to see it play out like this
Team Cena vs. Team Laurinits-
John Cena, Christian, Sheamus, Randy Orton, and a returning Rock vs. Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, Cody Rhodes, David Otunga, and Damien Sandow (possibly)
HHH vs. Brock Lesnar
CM Punk vs. The Big Show-WWE Championship
If they don't do the team thing, I don't know what they'll do but I think it's a good idea. I think at least Cena vs. Daniel Bryan could happen which would be cool to see.

[#1-norm-fan]

My SummerSlam Card in a nutshell...

Main Event (Special referee: John Cena)
Brock Lesnar vs Triple H

WWE Title Match
The Big Show vs CM Punk

World Heavyweight Title Match
Randy Orton vs Sheamus

Ryback vs Kane

Tag Team Title Triple Threat Match
Kofi Kingston and R-Truth vs Primetime Players vs Santino and Ryder

WWE Intercontinental Title Match
Christian vs Daniel Bryan

WWE United States Title Match
Dolph Ziggler vs Sin Cara

WWE Divas Title Match
Kharma vs Layla

Handicap Match
Alberto del Rio and Ricardo vs Brodus Clay

Student vs Teacher
Chris Jericho vs Wade Barrett

[James Steele]

They haven't fucking dropped the ball on Brock Lesnar. They only have so many times they can use him, so they are making sure they don't fuck themselves over for the build to SummerSlam and WrestleMania.

Edit: Will Orton be back from his 90 days in time to build a World Title program (especially if WWE is as pissed at him as the interwebz says?)

[Triple Naitch]

I thought it was 60 days?

[James Steele]

Might be. I thought it was 90 days.

Edit: It is 60 days. Well, carry on then. I like #1-wwf-fan's card.

[#1-norm-fan]

I like the idea of them bringing up Lesnar beating the fuck out of refs in his return match and bullying Josh Matthews. Possibly having him attack officals when comes back too. Then Triple H comes out and says "Yeah, you like to beat the fuck out of refs... so to make sure we don't have that problem this time, I've made sure to get a ref that you couldn't keep down." And bring in John Cena.

[Triple Naitch]

Or Josh Matthews.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton would actually make a pretty good SummerSlam match. I know that Brock vs. Triple H is going to happen, but they can do that and pop the buyrates of another PPV. Having Brock face Orton at SummerSlam would pit the youngest WWE Champion of all-time against the youngest World Heavyweight Champion of all-time, at the event where they each achieved this. Plus, with Orton now having two strikes against his name, Lesnar could be put over quite strongly, and that could be used to remind people as to why Triple H should be shitting himself, which would make him appear all the cooler when he returns with sledgehammer to go to war with Brock. In fact, with Hell in a Cell coming up soon after SummerSlam, you could keep them apart until then and have them face off in that environment.

As for the WWE Title -- I can't think of a bigger match than CM Punk vs. The Rock. It'd pretty much run off the same dynamic as Cena vs. Rock, but that worked, didn't it? The last we saw of Rock, he said he wanted to be WWE Champion after beating the face of the company. That's a pretty good case for The Rock to be given a shot at a guy claiming to be "The Best in the World" at SummerSlam.

It's hard to choose an opponent for Sheamus, but why not go the superhero babyface vs. superhero babyface route, and have Sheamus defend the World Heavyweight Title against John Cena? It'd have been a while since Cena was involved in a World Title match by this point, and that alone could be a bit of an interest-stirrer to the casual fan. Looming in the background could be the Money in the Bank winner, whoever that may be.

I really want to see Christian vs. Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental Championship at SummerSlam, too. I feel that these two could add another classic Intercontinental Title match to SummerSlam's history. There's so much history between these two, and I feel that Christian and whichever heel the WWE chooses to beat him would get so much from Christian winning here. Plus, Christian could bring Trish Stratus to ringside with him, which would be a bonus and play into the history of both men. This would be the perfect opener for the PPV.

Rey Mysterio will be back in time for SummerSlam, and I can't see him being left off the card. Why not have him team with Sin Cara at the event? A lot of people are calling Rey Mysterio eventually putting over Sin Cara -- this would be a great way to start building towards that. In trying to choose opponents for Mysterio & Sin Cara, the best team I can think of is Alberto Del Rio & Daniel Bryan. Del Rio is pretty much the career rival of Rey Mysterio, while Daniel Bryan is one of the more reliable workers on the roster to get in there at such an event with Sin Cara. Del Rio & Bryan could be slipped into a tag team after they move out of their World Title programs, both wanting to be champions but needing to climb up the ladder again. You would then have them defeat Kofi Kingston & R-Truth to become the new WWE Tag team Champions, leading to this match here. I could see a Tag Title loss causing Truth to "snap" again, by the way. Truth could turn on Kofi, win the US Title and then defend it against Kofi Kingston on the YouTube pre-show.

Big Show will no doubt be a part of the PPV, and I'd actually like to see him go against a babyface Dolph Ziggler. I feel that Ziggler could be a successful face if given the chance, and that he could dump Vickie and beat Swagger and be pretty much instantly over. He could face The Giant at SummerSlam to prove that he can take on anyone in the company. Ziggler works well with larger men, so I think this would be a surprisingly good match, as well.

I like the idea of Ryback continuing his streak of dominance against Kane at SummerSlam. Both men will likely make the PPV, and this is a pretty effective way to use both of them.

I'm unsure what to do with the Divas. You have quite a few that are involved in storylines at the moment. Let's just go with AJ beating Layla with the Divas Title on the line, and then Kharma returning to destroy her. That seems pretty standard. So you'd end up with:

WWE Championship
CM Punk (c) vs. The Rock

World Heavyweight Championship
Sheamus (c) vs. John Cena

Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton

Big Show vs. Dolph Ziggler

WWE Tag Team Championship
Alberto Del Rio & Daniel Bryan (c) vs. Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara

Kane vs. Ryback

Intercontinental Championship
Christian (c) vs. Chris Jericho

Divas Championship
AJ (c) vs. Layla

YouTube Pre-Show Match for the United States Championship
R-Truth (c) vs. Kofi Kingston

[James Steele]

That would be a hell of a card, Noid. Needs more Triple H though.

[Mr. Nerfect]

That would be a hell of a card, Noid. Needs more Triple H though.

I originally had Triple H facing Big Show with control of the WWE on the line (Big Show would be representing John Laurinaitis), but it's just a tight fit, and I had Ziggler bumped from the card and it all didn't feel right. Also, with the tension between the two, having Triple H and Brock Lesnar in the same place not killing each other would not make sense -- although I guess you could have Johnny Ace place some sort of rule in place to prevent it.

But Triple H would definitely be a part of SummerSlam. After Lesnar's match with Orton, he'd either attack Lesnar with a sledgehammer, or he could just go out there and stare face-to-face with Brock if Laurinaitis' law against the two touching is passed. I'm imagining something like Triple H's music hitting and him walking out and getting in the ring with an exhausted Lesnar, who is begging Triple H to hit him. Triple H just gets right in Brock's face as Johnny Ace pours out with security and referees to keep these two separate, even though no one is making a move yet. Brock could even mouth something to Triple H to try and get him to snap, striking Lesnar and ruining any shot of ever facing him. Maybe even something about Steph.

I think you could really milk the build for Lesnar vs. Triple H.

[K.Smoke]

If the WWE get back to quality matches every card will look good no matter whose on it. The potential is definately there. Agreed the object is sells and the biggest draw is Cena. Not only that, but the WWE has made a lot of money off gimmicks so to drop gimmicks completely in favor of wrestling though this is a wrestling show would just plain be nuts. Only resolution is a good young stable. Every1 mentioned Wade I remember he hurt his arm in I think it was a lumberjack match or over the top rope match someone was thrown into him, when he comes back things should start to come into form.

[#1-norm-fan]

Wait... Rock isn't coming back til the Rumble, right?

[Rock Bottom]

Wait... Rock is back, and never ever going away again, right?

[Shadrick]

lmao

[Rammsteinmad]

So it looks like the hot match going into Sumemrslam will be Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar. I'm sure it'll be a good match, and I'm sure it'll do wonders for "the product" when both men immediately vanish from our screens the night after the PPV.

At least if the event doesn't pull in a billion views, they can't blame it on the Miz.

[James Steele]

So it looks like the hot match going into Sumemrslam will be Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar. I'm sure it'll be a good match, and I'm sure it'll do wonders for "the product" when both men immediately vanish from our screens the night after the PPV.

At least if the event doesn't pull in a billion views, they can't blame it on the Miz.

Oh, shut the fuck up. How dare WWE put on a "dream match" at SummerSlam with months of build while not taking away from young rising stars.

[Damndirty]

I think WWE's problem now is that they're having too small of a circle in the main event feuds that are supposed to be the big draws. In that circle, there's Cena, Show, Sheamus, Punk, Bryan, Del Rio, and Kane-- these guys have been the only ones in this circle for a long damn time. More people need to be involved, they have alot of talents who need to have a place in the company, and the company's acting like there's no room for them anywhere but to be jobbers at best.
With Ziggler involved now, and judging from the fan's reaction to him, I think this proves that this has been the problem (added that Ziggler was just well liked all this time). They need to shake things up a little more instead of having the same feuds reoccuring involving some who people don't give a damn about. Why isn't Zack Ryder in one of these feuds when he's got the popularity aspect working in his favor? Why not try out new competition in the main event area, or even give the mid carders and low carders a primary title shot once in a while, to not only make the champion look more like a real fighting champion, but to make the champion's arch-nemesis look better (thus showing why those other talents are usually on the card where they are)? You may think this will kill the vitality of the nemesis, but I see that it will solidify that talent because it makes them look tougher than the other failed competitors if they keep regaining the #1 spot and are becoming a real challenge for the champion, but at most, they should have two chances, any more than that, it will grow old.

[Rammsteinmad]

Oh, shut the fuck up. How dare WWE put on a "dream match" at SummerSlam with months of build while not taking away from young rising stars.

I hope Triple H loses. :foc:

[James Steele]

I hope Triple H loses. :foc:

http://cache.jezebel.com/assets/images/39/2011/11/d3e0b6a057948996aee8d9e70daae100.jpg

[Malfeitor]

What are the odds that Cena main events SummerSlam even though HHH vs Lesnar appears to be going down?

[#1-norm-fan]

No way. Unless they put him in a title match, HHH and Lesnar main events. I can't imagine any opponent in a non title situation that Cena could have to push them from the main event.

Barring The Rock of course, and that's not gonna happen.

[Damndirty]

Forgive me, James Steele, but I don't wanna see more than one HHH vs. Lesnar matches. Two HHH vs. Undertaker Wrestlemania matches were necessary, but not this. Hunter needs to hammer Lesnar's head in like a railroad spike, and make that nub between his shoulders shorter, and make this final.

http://www.renders-graphiques.fr/image/upload/normal/Render_hhh.pnghttp://www.softcom.net/users/abingham/brocklesnar.jpg