* Bobby Lashley vs. Brock Lesnar for the WWE Title
* Roman Reigns vs. John Cena for the Universal Title
* Edge vs. Seth Rollins
* Rhea Ripley vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch for the Raw Women’s Title
* Drew McIntyre vs. AJ Styles
* Bianca Belair vs. Sasha Banks in a Ladder Match for the SmackDown Women’s Title
* Sheamus vs. Keith Lee for the US Title
* Randy Orton & Matt Riddle vs. Damian Priest & Bad Bunny for the Raw Tag Titles
* Apollo Crews vs. Cesaro for the IC Title
* The Usos vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn for the SmackDown Tag Titles
* Parker Bourdreaux vs. Rey Mysterio
* The New Day vs. John Morrison & Jinder Mahal
* Daniel Bryan vs. Drew Gulak
* Baron Corbin, Dirty Dawgz & Alpha Academy vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, Big E, Rick Boogs & The Street Profits
A multi-man tag to throw a bunch of SmackDown faces and heels on the card. Could be a fun and hectic little match, especially with Gable and Nakamura in there. A win for the faces here wouldn’t go astray.
If Daniel Bryan re-signs, just put him on Raw and let him fucking wrestle. That’s a reason to watch right there. Gulak seems like a simple and obvious program for him. The two could tear it up. I’d probably make this the opener, I’m just too lazy to change it around here. This would be a kick-ass start to the show.
I don’t like Jinder Mahal, but maybe in a light-hearted heel tag team with Morrison he could work. This is obviously so the show gets exposure in India, because the WWE ticks boxes like that, even if I disagree with that level of tokenism. But this would be short, sweet, and see the heels go over when Big E heads out there to counteract Miz and ends up accidentally costing his team the win. #LongTermStorytelling
Parker Bourdreaux debuts with Eva Marie and remains a free agent. Paul Heyman is very interested in the route PB follows on-air. On the SmackDown side of things, he takes out Dominik Mysterio viciously to appeal to Roman Reigns & Heyman and to soften Rey up for The Usos. This leads to PB vs. Rey one-on-one at SummerSlam. If this isn’t fun, then maybe Parker doesn’t have that bright a future in the industry anyway.
Sami Zayn turns quasi-face to team with Owens against The Usos. We’ve never seen these two as a proper tag team in WWE. Not really. I think they’d make a great “star” team for the division to go against The Usos. Doesn’t really matter who wins here, as I could see the belts moving around quite a little bit.
The IC Title seems like a step down for Cesaro at this point, but it’d be a fun little match and a way to get him on the card. He could swing Azeez during this. I’d probably switch the belt for a little while here. Crews can move up or stay in the IC scene, it’s really up to you.
Orton & Riddle can win the Raw Tag Titles and have a little run. I’ve got them going against Priest & Bad Bunny...well, just because. Seems likely BB would be involved in SummerSlam. Going against Orton & Riddle doesn’t seem out of this world. This is where you can do a turn. I’d probably have Riddle turn on Orton though, and he can put together a WWE version of Catch Point with Drew Gulak, Timothy Thatcher and Oney Lorcan.
Keith Lee and Sheamus beat the piss out of each other for a few minutes and Lee wins the US Title.
Bianca Belair retains the SD Women’s Title in a Ladder Match that tries to tap into the spiritual link between other Ladder Matches at SummerSlam and grabbing the brass ring, yadda, yadda.
Drew McIntyre and AJ Styles could have a great wrestling match. Everything would point to Drew going over, but I’d actually put AJ over in a bit of a shocker in order to position him for a match against the WWE Champion.
I really don’t care who wins the Raw Women’s Title. It might seem sensible to put it onto Becky, but I think I’d probably have her not win the belt here, but either Rhea or Charlotte each the pin. Then Becky is frustrated about not eating the fall and Seth basically tells her to shut up because his match is more important. Boo, hiss. That old trick, lol.
Edge and Seth feud because Seth is basically the spiritual successor to Edge, and Edge tries to teach him that there are more important things. Maybe even slip in a line about becoming a father changing Edge, but it hasn’t changed Seth in the slightest. Seth as MITB holder would work here. The briefcase could even be on the line. I’d have Becky help Edge win here to put Seth in his place.
John Cena is probably not winning the belt if he comes back. Another win for Roman Reigns feeds that monster. Maybe Roman can go a step further after the match, allowing some babyfaces, maybe even the Usos to foil him. This could be a fun time for Edge to tease cashing in too.
Bobby has finally reached a point where wrestling Brock is interesting. I’d bring Brock back as a silent killer for this, with Heyman being asked about Brock’s motives but not really having a clue beyond Brock wanting to be WWE Champion. He can also give F5s to Drew and AJ since they seem like top candidates for next contenders. I don’t know if I would put the belt on Brock here, and it depends on his deal, but man — if you could get Brock for more dates... I’d still probably delay the moment of Brock winning the belt. But it could be interesting for Brock to win it, MVP to do something drastic to get a rematch, either at the next PPV or even on Raw, and Bobby to win it back there. I kind of like the idea of a Heyman-less Brock being less concerned about “protecting” himself, and even taking matches on Raw because he doesn’t have Paul there to remind him he doesn’t fight for free. Allows you to dial back on Brock later by simply having Heyman manage him again.
