13 Match Quality Predictions For WWE SummerSlam 2018
A fittingly ominous number.
Is this the least-anticipated SummerSlam event in history?
Consider the quality main events of the show's illustrious recent history.
In 2013, John Cena vs. Daniel Bryan wrestled a seminal styles and philosophy clash, delivering a changing of the guard in the process. It lasted about two minutes, but then, so do other moments of euphoria. In 2014, WWE delivered an unprecedented and unreal headliner in order to present Brock Lesnar as the single most powerful storyline force in WWE history. Over the next two years, Lesnar reinforced that rep by making The Undertaker a mere pitiable mortal and excavating Randy Orton's head, something, as it turns out, the Viper does himself.
SummerSlam '17 boasted a headlining match of such fearsome demolition derby potential that the inevitable winner barely mattered. The sight of four massive men smashing and somehow flying into one another from all angles promised and delivered an exhilarating blur of brutality. SummerSlam '17 threatens a literal and spiritual dilution of both that match and the pairing itself. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns IV is less anticipated than the second, and the fans treated a beach ball in much the same manner as the Beast worked the Big Dog's skull.
There is potential for excellence elsewhere on Sunday, though the insipid build and the slog of a duration may make the sole "dream" match, for UK viewers at least, an ironic reality...
13. The B Team Vs. The Revival - RAW Tag Team Title Match
Why is this match even happening?
The last thing SummerSlam 2018 needs is more filler, and this is precisely that. It makes even less sense as a fictional proposition than a practical one; on this week's RAW, Curtis Axel outwitted the Revival (read those words again), winning the Triple Threat Tag Team Title match for his jobber tandem (!) by using their own blind-tagging tricks. The Revival cleanly lost a title match, and have been rewarded with another. This is nonsensical even by WWE's nothing-means-anything standards.
Will the match be any good?
It's on the Kickoff, so nobody's going to care about it. It requires the team formerly known for being godd*mn masterminds as hapless geeks outmatched by an increasingly unfunny comedy act. It's also meaningless. Even if The Revival win, what have they won? A title that means less than the Divas title did back when John Laurinaitis used masturbation as a recruitment tool?
Why is this match even happening?
So WWE execs can cite minutes viewed as a metric of the Network's success. That's it.
Predicted Star Rating: *1/2