10 Last-Minute WWE SummerSlam 2018 Rumours You Need To Know
Will Braun Strowman make The List?
Big four pay-per-view or not, anticipation for this Sunday's SummerSlam is running about as hot as Bonfire Night excitement in the Fawkes' household.
It's unlikely anyone will get set on fire, but as this point, that'd liven up proceedings. Instead, we're staring down the prospect of three Extreme Rules rematches, a women's title match sullied by the necessary inclusion of its champion, and a main event sure to play before crickets for its hour-long running time, perhaps designed as such to provide brand synergy with the show's primary sponsor (a certain wireless company, if that's not clear).
Even the promising matches have had the life sucked out of them through context. We all know there's no hope in hell of AJ Styles and Samoa Joe going on last, a potentially superb encounter between Rusev and Andrade Almas will prop up commercials with the presence of two valets beyond their comfort zone, and the surging bad blood between Daniel Bryan and The Miz has been entirely drained to the point of anaemia by WWE's vampiric booking team.
Beyond the card though, there're still a few glimmers of interest - as ever, within the grubby pages of the dirt sheets. The matches may not look appetising, but these spicy rumours are. Will a raft of superstars go rogue? And will a (different, less evil) raft return? Let's see what's been trending ahead of the Brooklyn blow-off.
10. A Fourteenth Match
Adding further substance to the suggestion that WWE Evolution was hastily scheduled to deflect justifiable criticism of the company potentially running a second female-free show in Saudi Arabia this autumn, is the fact that Sasha Banks and Bayley are nowhere near the Barclays Center this Sunday.
After months of build - admittedly, the sort which would wind up on Rogue Traders - it seemed entirely logical that the pair would finally clash in the very building they took one giant leap for women's wrestling what feels like decades ago. Instead, it looks as though that redemptive match is being withheld for Uniondale.
Sasha and Bayley's exclusion is mystifying, not to mention infuriating, so there's every chance WWE will sneak a thrown-together tag bout onto the card at the last minute. After all, it doesn't matter how long the show runs; they don't care about our sanity.