Wrestle Review: Slammin' Summer Submitted by Andy Sullivan on 08/10/2019 at 11:54 AM
NXT Takeover Toronto is tonight. I won't be able to watch it live but you can bet I will catch it! I mean, look at this card. And I'll tell you how I think it might go.
Io Shirai is beating Candice LeRae. The way they've been building Shirai up since her heel turn, I really don't see her losing her first high profile match as a heel. I figured they'd put a title match on the line here, though. Let's continue.
Shayna Baszler will retain the women's championship against Mia Yim. I don't see anyone beating Shayna. I think her transition to the main roster will be like Asuka where she has to give up the title.
Street Profits will be losing the NXT tag team championships to O'Reily and Fish of Undisputed Era. Street Profits have been entertaining in their backstage segments on Raw. While it might be a bit early to call them up(we don't need another War Raiders situation), these guys are proving that they are good anywhere they go. I do think the Profits and UE could start a good feud for those titles. Let's hope that's the case.
Velveteen Dream vs Roderick Strong vs Pete Dunne for the North American title would steal the show if not for Cole/Gargano's 2 out of 3 falls match headlining the card. While it might be the trendy pick to peg Dunne to win this, I'm going to say that Dream finds a way to retain. They seem to be in the positive habit of building their champions on NXT as of late instead of having a new champ every week. I like that. It makes the title change mean something when it does occur.
Adam Cole defending the NXT title against Johnny Gargano in a 2 out of 3 falls match is the main event here. !. wrestling match, 2. street fight and a third, if it gets that far, chosen by William Regal. I hope it gets to 3. I want to see what Regal would pick. I think they split the first two falls and Cole wins the third, retaining the title.
After all the rumors that SummerSlam was going to be about 12-16 matches, they had Black/Zayn on Smackdown, doing a couple tomorrow night and now we're down to a more manageable 10-match card.
Drew Gulak will successfully defend the cruiserweight title against Oney Lorcan. In the match with the most obvious winner category, "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt will defeat Fin Balor. AJ Styles defending the United States Championship against Ricochet should be absolutely outstanding! These two tear it up every night no matter what organization they've competed in. This will be no different. I pick Styles to retain. I mean, he has backup.
We all wanted the rumored Miz vs Dolph SummerSlam match. It was even announced by WWE on one of their social media updates. That quickly turned into Goldberg vs Dolph. Excitement all around went from 100 to about 10. It'd be easy to say Goldberg wins in a squash. I mean, Dolph used Goldberg's entrance Tuesday. That alone is grounds for a beating, right? Oh, he'll get a beating. Dolph could win by DQ.
Kevin Owens vs Shane McMahon-if Owens loses, he quits WWE. Obviously Kevin isn't losing this match. Since Elias and Drew McIntyre aren't even on the card(unbelievable as that is), I say they interfere on Shane's behalf. This could get somebody like Big E and Xavier involved since they don't have a match. This could lead to Elias and Drew getting a tag title shot against New Day sometime. But I'm getting ahead of myself. In true Stone Cold fashion, KO will find a way, hit Shane with a stunner and get the 1-2-3.
Bayley will retain her championship against Ember Moon. Could it be thanks, in part, to a returning Sasha Banks? I don't know. I don't think Ember wins here, though. Charlotte Flair is beating Trish Stratus. This should be good, really good. I'm thinking they brought Trish in to (A) give Charlotte a match and (B) have a hall of famer put her over.
Kofi Kingston will probably lose the WWE Championship to Randy Orton. I'd like to be surprised with Kingston retaining. After all these years, he should have a longer reign than 4 months, in my opinion. I wouldn't be shocked or surprised to see Orton win here, though.
Becky Lynch defending the Raw women's title against the hometown Queen of Harts, Natalya should be as close to the top of the card as possible. Will their be a Montreal Screwjob in Toronto? I think it'd be pretty cool to have Natalya win the title in her home country. WWE likes to go the other way thee days and have people humiliated in their hometown. Look at all the beatings Jerry Lawler has gotten when WWE would go to Memphis or Knoxville. Becky retains.
Finally, the main event that almost nobody wants to see: Brock Lesnar successfully(and probably easily) defending the Universal Championship against Seth Rollins. If you think Seth is beating Brock again like at WrestleMania, you haven't been paying attention. The question now is...who's next to challenge Brock? And now, I didn't mean that to be a nod to Goldberg being Brock's next challenger.
There you have them: my NXT and SummerSlam predictions. I'm really glad nothing's riding on these! Enjoy the weekend of wrestling!
