7 Huge WWE SummerSlam Missed Opportunities

As it is one of the Big 4 WWE PPVs, SummerSlam is (rightfully) expected to have big, important moments. This year, going in with a little over a week away, the card is full of matches that could deliver on that expectation. Will we finally see a partial reunion of The Shield with Ambrose and Rollins winning the tag titles? WIll the Hardyz be broken? Will Sasha Banks avenge her friend Bayley and become the Women’s champion? Will Shinsuke Nakamura reach the mountaintop and become WWE champion? And will Baron Corbin subsequently cash in? Or will someone finally topple the beast Brock Lesnar, win the Universal title, and exile Brock from WWE?

Well hopefully one of those things will happen at least, otherwise we might be in for a dull show. Of course, given the examples on this list, for every Bret Hart/British Bulldog title change or Savage/Elizabeth wedding, there have been plenty of times WWE have had the chance to deliver a big, important SummerSlam moment, but instead they chickened out and resorted to the status quo, damaging a few careers in the process.

The last twelve months have been up-and-down for Randy Orton. Sure, he and Bray were the sole survivors in their big Survivor Series match. Sure, he won the Royal Rumble. And sure, he won the WWE title at WrestleMania. But aside from those achievements, everything WWE have done has sapped the fans’ enthusiasm for the ‘Viper,’ and moreover, killed his momentum. Just to illustrate: last year, he main-evented SummerSlam against Brock Lesnar, and this year, he’s in a match with Rusev that screams pre-show or curtain-jerker.

Part of the problem is that in the buildup for their first-ever one-on-one encounter, WWE hyped up Orton and Brock’s history, and they tried their damndest to make Randy look like a returning triumphant hero. To their credit, it worked. People were really behind Orton as a babyface for the first time in forever, and many were hoping beyond hope that he would actually be the one to get a clean pinfall win over Brock. Instead, Brock beat him in about 11 minutes via turning his head into a tomato.

Instead of a cheap nostalgia pop with Goldberg beating Brock in two minutes, WWE could have benefitted themselves in the long-haul by rejuvenating Orton and taking him back to his Legend Killer roots. It would have kept his momentum strong, and would have given SmackDown a genuine superstar, something they desperately need with John Cena’s irregular schedule.