Another Match Set for WWE SummerSlam
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Kurt Angle announced in the opening segment of tonight’s RAW that Brock Lesnar would be defending his WWE Universal Championship title in a Fatal 4-Way at SummerSlam against Roman Reigns, Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman. Here is the updated card:
WWE Universal Championship
Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman vs. Samoa Joe vs. Roman Reigns
SmackDown Women’s Championship
Naomi vs. Natalya
WWE SummerSlam will take place on August 20, 2017, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. As always, we will have live coverage of the event.
Taz opens today’s show by speaking about the second of four straight press conferences, promoting the upcoming boxing match between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather. He calls these press conferences riveting entertainment, but if they continue to do the exact same thing it’s going to get old rather quickly. He believes that these two are going to have to get physical at the last press conference, just to give the fans something to hold onto as they build towards the fight in August.
A listener calls into the show and says that he wishes WWE would just turn Roman Reigns heel, and he believes that even Reigns wants to turn heel at this point. Taz agrees with the caller, and says that for the longest time he thought Reigns was determined to get over as a babyface, but as of late it sure seems like Reigns has embraced the heel overtones of his character.
Taz wonders if we’ve seen the last of Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns, because if WWE wanted to keep Strowman off television for a while they wouldn’t have shown him walking out of ambulance at Great Balls of Fire. The caller says that he has heard rumours that WWE if preparing for a Fatal 4-way match at SummerSlam for Universal Title between Strowman, Reigns, Samoa Joe and Brock Lesnar. Taz says he’ll be surprised if that happens.
Taz expects we’ll see Strowman back on RAW by next Monday, and then we should get some answers as to where WWE is heading with him creatively moving forward.
Coming out of Monday’s RAW, there is speculation that the main event for next month’s SummerSlam will see Brock Lesnar defending his WWE Universal Title against Roman Reigns, Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman in a Fatal 4-Way match.
Dave Meltzer discussed the possibility of the match being a 3-way for the championship on Monday’s installment of Wrestling Observer Radio, however those those plans may change. The belief is that Braun will make an appearance on next week’s RAW during the #1 contendership for the Universal Title match between Joe and Roman. This will play into storyline and setup the 4-Way at SummerSlam.
One of the reasons WWE would want setup a multi-persons match is because it would allow them to have an “out” for either Lesnar or Roman. Basically, Lesnar wouldn’t have to pin Roman and Roman wouldn’t have to pin Lesnar with other competitors in the match.
Kurt Angle announced on tonight’s episode of RAW that Samoa Joe will face Roman Reigns on next week’s episode of RAW. The winner of that match will face Brock Lesnar at the upcoming WWE SummerSlam event for the Universal Championship.
As of this writing, no other matches or segments have been announced. We will keep you updated if they announce anything.
While the current betting odds favor Braun Strowman to defeat Roman Reigns at tonight’s WWE Great Balls of Fire event, Dave Meltzer claimed on Wrestling Observer Radio that the plan is still for Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar at this year’s SummerSlam event.
As previously reported, original plans called for Reigns to walk out of WrestleMania 34 as WWE Universal Champion, however WWE made a decision to move the match to SummerSlam instead. These plans were changed sometime around the time Braun Strowman returned to WWE programming.
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Russo mentions that he can’t stop thinking about the new Kevin Owens documentary, where Owens was shown backstage after his Universal Title win crying with Sami Zayn, Triple H and others. He talked about this on his show yesterday, and it’s been stuck in his head ever since. He can’t believe that ‘professional’ wrestlers are crying backstage over being scripted to win a fake Title.
Russo informs that he has worked with some of the biggest stars the industry ever produced. King Kong Bundy, Hogan, The Rock, Austin, they were all professionals. They came to work every day, did their job, and went home at the end of the night. They carried themselves perfectly, and they knew that they were working in the entertainment business.
Somewhere along the line, the wrestlers became marks. He knows that this doesn’t apply to all the performers, because he doesn’t picture guys like Braun Strowman or Roman Reigns acting this way. For the most part however, today’s generation of wrestlers are taking themselves and the business so seriously that they forget about the actual important things in life.
WWE announced that Big Cass will face Enzo Amore at the WWE Great Balls of Fire Event. Here is the updated card:
WWE Universal Title Match
Samoa Joe vs. Brock Lesnar
RAW Women’s Championship
Sasha Banks vs. Alexa Bliss
Ambulance Match
Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman
Cruiserweight Title Match
Akira Tozawa vs. Neville
Bray Wyatt vs. Seth Rollins
Big Cass vs. Enzo Amore
Great Balls of Fire takes place on July 9th from the American Airlines Center in Dallas. As always, we will have live play-by-play coverage of the event.
There is speculation that the Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar match that was previously scheduled to take place at WrestleMania 34 could be taking place at SummerSlam this year instead.
This move is being taken to increase the presence of the Universal Title on weekly RAW shows in order to increase the poor TV ratings. The speculation holds a lot of relevance since Reigns announced that he was next in line to challenge Lesnar for the title on this week’s Monday Night RAW episode.
Additionally, Dave Meltzer mentioned in a recent installment of Wrestling Observer Radio that plans may have changed because Braun Strowman returned from injury much earlier than expected. With his early return, some planned matches have been switched around.
What are your thoughts on this match-up? Sound off in the comment box below…
Coming out of Monday’s episode of RAW, the following matches are expected to take place at the upcoming WWE Great Balls of Fire event:
WWE Universal Championship
Samoa Joe vs. Brock Lesnar
Ambulance Match
Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns
WWE Intercontinental Championship
The Miz vs. Dean Ambrose
WWE Tag Team Championship
The Hardy Boyz vs. Cesaro & Sheamus
WWE Cruiserweight Championship
T0zawa vs. Neville
Finn Balor vs. The Drifter
R-Truth vs. Goldust
In regards to the women’s match on the card, Dave Meltzer speculates that it will probably be another multi-persons match, presumably a three-on-three match.
WWE Great Balls of Fire takes place on July 9th. As always, we will be providing live play-by-play coverage of the event.