10 Shocks WWE Could Pull At SummerSlam 2018

10. Samoa Joe Wins The WWE Championship

The Shock:

After a middling WWE Championship reign pitched as something more grandiose than that, AJ Styles wrestles at too frantic a pace with too much emotion - just as Samoa Joe intended - and succumbs to the Coquina Clutch. Joe picks up a very rare clean heel win in a moment that his superb work warrants, while, at the same time, AJ's reign finally means something in defeat. From Kami to Shinsuke Nakamura to Rusev, it's all ranged from silly to stalling to filler, albeit very good filler (albeit not Phenomenal filler).

The Likelihood: 75%

With Hell In A Cell next up on the pay-per-view calendar, prolonging the feud, a WWE staple trope, seems inevitable. Since Samoa Joe is already a heel, a clean AJ win is the worst possible means of getting there, but it's not entirely beyond Creative to simply have Joe attack him on the following SmackDown.

So not very likely, then.

But this would make Joe the legit monster he has done impeccably well to project himself as. Moreover, the shock is something synonymous with big shows in 2018, and a clean Joe win would add to the canon of SummerSlam's growing latter-day reputation as more comedown than party.

Since AJ's reign is fading, don't bet against it.