Image via Complex Original
11.
The period between WrestleMania and Summerslam can be a dud. There’s no other way to put it. From the Mania rematches at Extreme Rules, to the pointlessness of Payback and Battleground, the summer can drag and drag until we get to the second biggest show of the year in August. Sure, there’s Money in the Bank, the unofficial 5th Big PPV, but that’s usually more of a long-term setup than anything else. Outside of that one glorious night, WWE plays it safe, setting up Summerslam stories rather than using the time to create powerful short-term feuds that showcase their talented roster.
It doesn’t have to be this way, however. In order to get the best possible product out of the next few months, WWE just needs to make some decisions that are staring them right in the face. Some of these decisions are so obvious that they probably will do them; others would incorporate some brave booking to create new stars in advance of next year’s WrestleMania—already set to be the biggest and most important event in WWE history. In order to achieve that, here are 10 Things That Need to Happen in WWE This Summer:
10.Daniel Bryan Needs To Get Healthy
It’s almost unfair to start off with the one point on this list that is completely out of anyone’s hands, but that’s how life goes. Daniel Bryan has not been fully healthy in more than a year, and his return to win the Intercontinental Title might end due to a new injury sustained this past month. The best thing they can do for his career is to let him take another extended break and do his return correctly this time. Even if that means missing WrestleMania 32. WWE has seen many stars, including its biggest ever in Stone Cold Steve Austin, end their careers early due to neck problems. They can still save Bryan’s, and that’s why he should go home to Washington to rest after Extreme Rules.
Chance of this happening: no way of knowing.
9.Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose Need to Feud
It’s hard to believe that just 12 months ago, Reigns and Ambrose were preparing to steal the show (alongside Seth Rollins, of course) in a six-man tag against Evolution. In the present day, Ambrose is stuck in a pointless feud with Luke Harper, and yet that makes infinitely more sense than Roman’s continued clashes against the Big Show. Since WWE seems adamant to not turn Reigns heel, have Dean attack his old friend for [insert reason here that probably will be stupid], and kick off a hot feud for the summer. They can fight at Payback, have moments in the Money in the Bank ladder match, and culminate it at Battleground. It also allows WWE creative room to set up for the long-awaited Shield triple threat match, which at latest word seems set for WrestleMania 32.
Chance of this happening:about 40 percent this summer, 99 percent before WrestleMania 32.
8.Damien Sandow Needs To Find His Own Identity
We all loved Damien Mizdow. It’s true; for a brief period, there was no one more over than Mizdow when he first began parodying the Miz, both with smarks and live crowds. However, WWE blew the momentum of the feud by not having a proper blow-off match at WrestleMania, as fun as their showdown was in the battle royal. It looks like they won’t even have a match at Extreme Rules, following Miz’s win in the Battle of the Miz Brand on Monday.
So, what WWE needs to do here is repackage Sandow and see how he can do as a midcard face, a role he never really played when he was the Intellectual Savior of the Masses. Unfortunately for that beloved gimmick, it’s hard to get over as a face, so I don’t foresee him coming back with it. Sandow is a great character actor and an adequate in-ring performer, so it would be a shame to completely waste all of the good will he earned the last 8 months or so.
Chance of this happening: 50 percent. He could also just go back to doing nothing important.
7.John Cena Needs to Retain The U.S. Belt Until Summerslam…
Here’s something that I never thought I’d say: John Cena fucking rules right now. Between his open challenge every week (which has done a better job of elevating the U.S. title than anyone had in ages) and his newfound “older face whose kind of a heel with how he treats younger guys,” Cena has been on fire since beating Rusev at Mania. Maybe more importantly, he has been nowhere near the main event picture, allowing for some injection of new blood there (and also, Kane and Big Show). WWE should keep this going, with Cena going full Super Cena mode for the rest of the summer; he needs to beat Rusev on Sunday, and follow it up with 3 strong PPV title defenses and a string of weekly ones. Keep building up John Cena, Super Champion, to the point where he thinks no one on the roster can beat him for his belt...
Chance of this happening: 99 percent. There’s no one that would really benefit from beating Super Cena right now.
6....Where Finn Balor Debuts and Beats Him
...and then someone from NXT beats him. Finn Balor is ready to be a superstar right now. He’s got the look, he’s got the moves, and he’s got that amazing entrance. What better way to instantly rocket him into the uppercard than to beat the Unstoppable John Cena? The fantasy booking here is simple: Brooklyn is going to have a smark-heavy crowd at Summerslam, so have Cena say that he will have his first PPV open challenge at the best party of the summer, or whatever. Have him stand in the ring waiting for a good amount of time, before the lights turn off and in comes Balor, full entrance and demon-paint. The pop would be enormous, and the match could be even better; Balor’s agile style should work well with Cena’s powerhouse move set. And in the end, the Demon should stand tall.
Chance of this happening: heart says 100 percent, mind says 40 percent.
5.Big Show and Kane Need to Stop Wrestling
This should really have happened years ago, but c’mon: Neither of these guys are at all a credible threat anymore to anyone. Big Show has lost something like 40 matches just to Roman Reigns this year, and Kane hasn’t won since the Stone Age. Both can be great assets to WWE if used right, and plodding matches against younger talent are not part of that. Big Show will be a great commentator one day; few people make me smile as a guest commentator quite like the giant. And Kane has proven in this weird mini-feud against Seth Rollins that he can be a great member of the Authority...until he steps in the ring. Let him retire from wrestling every week to focus on his Director of Operations role, and maybe if he needs to whoop some ass, it will feel more threatening because he hasn’t lost seven other times that month.
Chance of this happening: 1 percent, they will be wrestling forever.
4.Seth Rollins Needs to Get a New Finisher If He Can’t Do the Curb Stomp
Taking the Curb Stomp away from Seth Rollins is the dumbest thing WWE has done this year, and that includes the Royal Rumble fiasco. Rumors are floating around that they don’t want kids doing the move or, even worse, googling it to see that, hey, curb stomps have a pretty horrible history. Here’s the problem with that: Seth’s character is basically built around that move and its brutality. So, if you’re going to take it away instead of renaming it or something, he needs an equally quick and brutal finisher.
The Phoenix Splash should still be his desperation move, so let’s not count that, and that weird DDT thing he did on Monday to beat Ziggler is awful and should never be done again. So, Rollins needs to go back to the drawing board and figure out a move that carries the same strength as the curb stomp but maybe doesn’t evoke decades of real-world violence. Or he should just go back to calling it the Blackout.
Chance of this happening: 100 percent. WWE is smart enough to know that the DDT he busted out on Monday is terrible.
3.An NXT Woman Needs to Be Called Up to Feud With Paige
And when we say “one of,” we mean either Charlotte or Sasha Banks. The Divas division on the main roster has looked better in recent months than it had since before the title was called the Divas championship, but it needs more. It needs some youth leading the way. Paige is the most over diva by far right now, and she needs a counterpart at her level.
Enter NXT. Sasha Banks would be the perfect counterpoint to Paige, a heel that is peaking in terms of both mic work and in-ring performance. Plus, she has the best theme song in WWE right now. However, she’s currently the NXT Women’s champion and she has a lot of unfinished business down there, starting with her upcoming title match against Becky Lynch. Charlotte, on the other hand, is ready now. She had her dominant run as champion, she looks like she could murder anyone in either roster, and she has the family connection to her dad, Ric Flair. Call her up, turn her heel again (a role she was fantastic in, especially in her feud against Bayley), and let her loose on Paige. That’s how you give Divas a chance.
Chance of this happening: 75 percent. Paige will need a feud when she returns from filming that crappy WWE Studios movie.
2.The Money in the Bank Winner Needs to Cash In Quickly
...and it should be Roman Reigns. Hear this out: Reigns has a legitimate beef with Seth Rollins over the Money in the Bank cash-in at WrestleMania, but inside of WWE’s twisted logical world, he has no right to a rematch for the title. We’re almost certainly getting Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins at Summerslam, so Reigns needs to find another way in. That way is to win the ladder match for the MITB briefcase, announce ahead of time that he’s cashing in for a spot in the title match at the 2nd biggest event of the year, and feud with Rollins and co. during the buildup, since Lesnar will most certainly not show up often. That being said…
Chance of this happening: 60 percent.
1.Above All, Brock Lesnar Needs to Be Champion Heading Out of Summerslam
...the Beast Incarnate should win that triple threat. It was a smart choice to elevate Rollins via the best cash-in ever at WrestleMania, but next year’s big show is going to be the biggest one yet and so you need the biggest name you have to hold the belt.
If the rumors of Brock versus The Rock are true, this is a great time to put the belt on Lesnar once more. It also frees up Rollins and Reigns to feud for a title shot at, say, Survivor Series, which helps set up that Shield triple threat mentioned above. If WWE really wants to make WrestleMania 32 as big and star-studded as it can be, the road doesn’t start in January. It starts in Brooklyn on August 23 with a victory by Brock Lesnar.
Chance of this happening: 100 percent, if WWE is serious about wanting to shatter the Cowboys Stadium record at WM32.