TJRWrestling WWE SummerSlam 2024 Preview
It’s WWE SummerSlam with six title matches taking place on the show along with the massive Drew McIntyre-CM Punk grudge match.
This year’s WWE SummerSlam PLE comes from Cleveland Browns Stadium in Cleveland with over 50,000 fans in attendance in a big football stadium. It’s only about a five-hour drive from me, but I’m staying home to review it. The weather has been really hot over the past few weeks and it looks like that will continue on Sunday with a chance of rain as well. I hope it doesn’t rain, but in this part of the world you just never know.
I like that WWE is advertising seven matches on the card. Most of the PLEs this year have had just five matches, which is fine, but also leaves me wanting to see more. I think it’s smart to add a couple of more matches to a bigger show like SummerSlam. As of this writing, all seven matches are singles matches, which is a bit strange because I would have liked to see a tag team match or something else to switch it up a bit. Perhaps they’ll add a battle royal like last year, but as of this writing, that’s not on the card. Let’s get to it.
Intercontinental Championship: Sami Zayn (c) vs. Bron Breakker
This should be fun and also a match with a predictable result. I picked Bron to beat Sami at Money in the Bank last month and it didn’t happen. The reason for it appears to be that WWE wants to give Bron a bigger moment by having him win the IC Title at a major show like SummerSlam. If that’s the case, why book Bron to lose clean at Money in the Bank? I get that Sami is a main eventer and a top guy, but I think it would have been better to not book Bron to lose clean in a match like that. If they did a triple threat or four-way it could have been a way to have them in a match without Bron getting pinned.
Sami Zayn has done a great job of being a fighting babyface champion for the last four months. However, it is Bron Breaker’s time now as the young man with a bright future captures his first main roster championship. I think they’ll have a very good match with Zayn kicking out of a lot of power moves before Bron hits a devastating Spear for the win. It should be fun to watch.
Winner AND NEW Intercontinental Champion: Bron Breakker
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WWE Women’s Championship: Bayley (c) vs. Nia Jax
This is another match where a title change is possible since Bayley has been WWE Women’s Champion since April and Nia Jax is coming into this with momentum as the Queen of the Ring. Jax has improved quite a bit in the ring over the last year, so kudos to her for working hard and getting better. I think in the past, people criticized her for perhaps not putting in the work, but now you can see she’s improved. Bayley is doing okay as the WWE Women’s Champion although I wouldn’t call it a great title run by any means. Bayley was more interesting as a heel. As a face, she’s basically just out there wanting fans to cheer her because of what she’s accomplished in her career rather than anything interesting that she is doing now.
I think there could be some Tiffany Stratton involved in this match. By that I mean, I can see a situation where Jax dominates most of the match and then Bayley finds a way to escape with the title. However, Bayley will be so beat up during the match that Stratton will cash in Money in the Bank on Bayley right after her win. That means I am predicting a Women’s Money in the Bank cash in by Stratton, who I believe will beat Bayley to become the WWE Women’s Champion. It’s going to be Tiffy Time, my friends.
Winner: Bayley over Nia Jax
Winner AND NEW WWE Women’s Champion: Tiffany Stratton
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United States Championship: Logan Paul (c) vs. LA Knight
This is one of those matches that they probably could have booked two or three PLE’s ago, but WWE took their time setting it up so that it could happen at SummerSlam. We know Logan Paul grew up in the Cleveland area and like most wrestlers who grew up in Cleveland, he doesn’t live near there. Just saying. Anyway, I doubt the Cleveland fans are going to be supportive of Paul and I think Knight is going to be cheered heavily throughout the match.
Paul has held the US Title for over 270 days, yet he’s only had two title defenses. That makes this one of the worst title reigns in a long time. I know we have seen some absentee champions with other titles, but only two title matches in 270 days? That’s weak. I think it’s time for a title change. Knight has had a lot of momentum for over a year and I think he should be a champion. This is a good spot for a title change. I think Paul is going to try to cheat, Knight will be ready for it, Paul will mess it up somehow and Knight will win.
Winner AND NEW US Champion: LA Knight…yeah
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Women’s World Championship: Liv Morgan (c) vs. Rhea Ripley
This one is all about the story. Liv Morgan has barely defended the title on television since winning it while it will be Ripley’s first match in over three months after coming back from a shoulder injury. The story involves Dominik Mysterio, who we know has been linked with Ripley as a “boyfriend” of sorts for the past two years while Morgan has aggressively gone after Dominik and even kissed him too. I assume that Dominik will be in Ripley’s corner for the match, which should lead to some kind of creative ending.
I think that there are several different options that they could go with here and I’m sure that you reading this can come up with ideas too. We saw recently that Rhea and Dominik appear to be on the same page while Dominik trashed Morgan, who was in tears. As soon as I saw that, I thought that Liv was going to beat Ripley in this match because of Dominik. That doesn’t mean I think that Dominik is going to turn on Ripley, which could happen. That’s not my prediction, though. My prediction is that Dominik is going to accidentally mess things up to make it look like he was helping Morgan and Morgan is going to capitalize to beat Ripley. I think Dominik will officially turn on Ripley in a future match. However, if it does happen here then that’s fine too. I’m going with Morgan to win here. In terms of storylines, this is probably the best or second best match on the card based on how it has been built up. Great job by everybody involved.
Winner: Liv Morgan
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World Heavyweight Championship: Damian Priest (c) vs. GUNTHER
The World Heavyweight Title match features two big dudes who can really go in the ring. Both guys were heels going into the match, but after several weeks of promos, Gunther has been established as more of a heel while calling Priest “street trash” on multiple occasions. It’s a bit of a weird story since Priest has been part of the heelish group known as The Judgment Day for two years, yet now they want us to cheer him? I don’t think Priest should be a face long term, but I think it’s a case of WWE turning him face just to give the fans somebody to root for in this match.
My pick is Gunther in this match. In four weeks, there’s the Bash In Berlin PLE in Germany. Gunther is Austrian, but he lived in Germany and will likely be very popular with the fans over there. It makes sense to have Gunther walk into that show as the World Heavyweight Champion rather than the guy who lost the World Title match at SummerSlam. I’ve picked against Priest before and got it wrong, but I think in this case a title change makes a lot of sense. I expect a very good match because Gunther is incapable of having a bad match and Priest can certainly hang with him. Gunther is my pick to win a very physical match.
Winner AND NEW World Heavyweight Champion: GUNTHER
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CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre (Seth “Freakin” Rollins is the special guest referee)
This is the most highly anticipated match on the card, in my opinion. In terms of story, they have had over six months of build since Drew gave Punk a Future Shock DDT in the Royal Rumble, Punk tore his triceps muscle and Drew said he was happy that it happened. Ever since then, it’s become one of the most personal feuds in WWE in many years due to Punk screwing McIntyre out of the World Heavyweight Title on multiple occasions. That has led to McIntyre beating up Punk as well. After more than six months, we can finally see the match happen with the fans getting very loud for the entire match. I don’t see how the crowd can be quiet during a match like this.
I didn’t mention Seth “Freakin” Rollins yet, but he’s a major factor in a match like this. Rollins has wrestled McIntyre a lot of over the last year and even lost the World Title to Drew at WrestleMania this year as well. We know Rollins was supposed to face Punk at WrestleMania, but Punk was hurt so Drew stepped into that spot. Now we have a situation with Rollins as the special guest referee because of the story that Drew beat up referees and the referees are scared to be in a spot like this. I think it’s smart booking, quite frankly.
When it comes to a finish, I think Punk winning makes a lot of sense in his first televised singles match since coming back to WWE at Survivor Series last year. However, my pick is McIntyre getting the win because of Rollins as the referee. I think something is going to happen where Drew pisses off Rollins, then Rollins goes to strike him, Drew will avoid it and Rollins will hit Punk by accident. That will lead to Drew hitting a Claymore Kick for the win. I think that will lead to Punk facing Rollins in a match and we’ll get back to Drew facing Punk again in the future, which could be a Hell in a Cell Match at the Bad Blood PLE in October. I’m just throwing it out there, but it makes sense to me. As I said for other matches on this card, there are a lot of scenarios that I think we can all come up with in a spot like this. I’m excited about this match.
Winner: Drew McIntyre
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Undisputed WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Solo Sikoa
(On Smackdown, they announced this would be a Bloodline Rules Match. I wrote this preview before Smackdown and I’m not going to change it.)
The main event will likely be this match because it’s the WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, who is the most popular wrestler in the company and I think it’s a worthy main event match. Solo Sikoa pinned Cody in the six-man tag team match at Money in the Bank to earn this title shot, which is a simple way to book it to give Solo a title shot.
Do I think Solo is going to win? Absolutely not. I think WWE has booked this in a smart way with Solo and The Bloodline taking out Cody’s friends like Randy Orton and Kevin Owens to paint the picture that Cody might be alone without any backup in a match like this. They’ll probably do a spot where Jacob Fatu interferes in the match to give Solo a two count that will make it seem like Cody won’t be able to survive. What I think will happen is Jimmy Uso is going to show up to try to get revenge against The Bloodline. I think that’s going to be enough for Cody to beat Solo to win the match.
After the match, I think The Bloodline is going to attack Cody and I think Roman Reigns will make his triumphant return with Paul Heyman. I think Reigns is going to get a massive ovation from the fans when he comes back, and I think he’s going to confront Solo Sikoa to reveal that he never appointed Solo as The Tribal Chief. I think Cody and Roman are going to fight off The Bloodline together so that Roman is cheered by the fans to end the show.
Winner: Cody Rhodes
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BONUS TOPICS!
The Match I’m Looking Forward To The Most
There are a lot, but picking just one I’ll go with Drew McIntyre vs. CM Punk.
The Match I Care About The Least
I like the card a lot. However, I need to pick one so I’ll go with Bayley vs. Nia Jax because it’s not as interesting as other matches on the card.
Longest Match
Cody Rhodes vs. Solo Sikoa about 20 minutes.
Shortest Match
Bayley vs. Nia Jax about 13 minutes.
Excitement Level on a Scale of 1-10 (1 being low, 10 being high)
I’m at 8 out of 10 for this show. I love the card. Maybe it could have used something other than singles matches, but I think all of the matches are going to be very good at worst and some top matches will be outstanding too. Great matches from top to bottom and so many strong storylines going into those matches. A crowd with 50,000+ people is going to be very loud for most of it, so it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch.
I’ll be back with a review of WWE SummerSlam on TJRWrestling.net on Saturday night, so check that out live or after it’s over. You can also tweet me on X/Twitter at @johnreport as well.
If you want to send an email, send it to me at mrjohncanton@gmail.com. Thanks for reading.