Previewing The Summerslam 2017 Main Events

Speaking of lackluster feud development, how about that Jinder Mahal vs. Shinsuke Nakamura feud? This is the WWE Championship match. The two don't even look like they are really feuding. This is terrible. The WWE should have put a lot more work into Nakamura.

Let me go back to another Summerslam title change. In 2004, Randy Orton defeated Chris Benoit for his first World title. I was a big Orton fan back then. I watched that PPV and was glad he won. Thing is, looking back, the feud development was not that great. Most would also say that Orton's reign flopped. There are many reasons why it was not better, including Triple H still being the centerpiece back then. Point is, many might argue Orton was not ready to be Champion back then. Keep in mind, however, that he did have a good run with the Intercontinental Championship prior to his bigger push. He also had a memorable feud with Mick Foley that included a great match that some might say helped him to break out.

What does Shinsuke Nakamura have to say for himself? Let's ignore NXT. Too much attention is often put on the WWE's developmental brand, which the general audience does not even watch. What has Nakamura done since coming to the main roster? No title reigns. His PPV performances and booking have not been that spectacular. He just doesn't look like a big deal. You can say his match with Cena a few weeks ago was supposed to be where he broke out. Even ignoring the terrible botch in that match and whose fault it was, it just didn't feel like that match accomplished what it was supposed to do. And there is a chance this guy might actually win the title this Sunday? It would be an even worse decision than Randy Orton in 2004.

Speaking of bad decisions when it comes to title wins, the alternative to Nakamura winning the title is Jinder Mahal retaining the title. I have seen fans get upset with the WWE having Mahal lose cleanly recently, and I'm not even talking Indian fans or Canadians. Why shouldn't Jinder Mahal lose cleanly to faces that are above him? He's a heel. He's a non-monster heel. There is no excuse not to have him lose now and then, especially cleanly. If that hurts his appeal and WWE Network subscriptions with certain demographics, so be it. It would have to happen eventually. That makes these kind of pushes even more questionable. They won't be sustained. And what happens then? The WWE is going to hope that the Mahal fans might get interested in something else, but when the whole product is so terrible and stars are not built and featured right, the WWE is still underachieving. And while the WWE is so busy pleasing these demographics, they are making bad decisions that turn away other fans.

This match is pretty much about appealing to Japanese and Indian fans. Who will win? Jinder Mahal to sell tickets for an Indian tour? Or Shinsuke Nakamura to help his merchandise sales? That seems to be the WWE's driving mentality these days. It sure isn't proper feud development and building stars properly. Jinder Mahal should retain the title. It could be by DQ or something like that.

Four big men will go at it for the Universal Championship. There was a time when smarks hated big men getting pushed so much. I don't see too many complaints for this feud. These fans love Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman, especially when he's killing Roman Reigns. And this is just a ripe situation for Brock Lesnar to drop the title. There is a good chance he will leave. Multi-man match, which means he does not have to be pinned. Which of the three challengers should get it?

Let me start with Braun Strowman. Since Summerslam last year, five men have won their first top title in the WWE. Finn Balor and Kevin Owens won the Universal Championship. AJ Styles, Bray Wyatt, and Jinder Mahal won the WWE Championship. The WWE definitely needs to slow down. The only reason for Strowman to win the title would be to drop it to Reigns, which might make storyline sense. Reigns has gotten knocked around by Strowman for a while now. Not only can Reigns finally get a decisive win against him, but he might win the title in the process.

Samoa Joe is another guy that stands a chance to win his first top title in the WWE. I am not counting NXT. Once again, I will say the WWE needs to slow down. This guy just debuted a few months ago. I have heard the rumors that certain people in the WWE want Samoa Joe to get the title. Smarks would love it. It was one thing for AJ Styles to win the WWE Championship in his first year on the main roster, but not every smark favorite needs to do that. Samoa Joe could do it at Summerslam, as well as Nakamura. Bobby Roode might be rushed to a title reign when he debuts. It is all disgusting.

As I have pointed out before, Roman Reigns has not held a top title in over a year. All he has had is a midcard title run. Also take into account his PPV losing streak. Even before Wrestlemania, his year was not that great. He lost twice at the Royal Rumble, once to Kevin Owens and then losing the Royal Rumble. This guy does not look like a centerpiece at all. If you are going to hype him like he is the centerpiece, it would make sense to push him as the centerpiece. If not, move on to someone else. If this weak treatment is not working in shutting up his haters, many of whom seem ignorant to the fact that he hasn't been pushed that hard in the last few months and for most of the past year, then stop doing it.

I do feel like a title change will happen. I would say it should be Roman Reigns. I am not a fan of the guy. But if you are going to push him as the centerpiece, he needs to get back on track. They are just damaging him, even if it is unintentional. There are some fans, usually kids, who will buy into the hype, even if the booking does not match the hype. But there are a lot of other fans that will hear the WWE talk about how great Roman Reigns is, see Reigns put himself over, see other wrestlers put him over, and then see the guy just lose every big match he has had in the last few months and not hold a top title in over a year. What are they going to say? That this guy is overrated. I wouldn't be too surprised if the WWE gives the title to someone else in the match and Reigns wins it down the line, but the WWE should just stop the poor booking now and put the title back on him.

Randy Orton Finally Beats Jinder Mahal

Randy Orton defeated Jinder Mahal in a non-title match on Smackdown last week. It was in Toronto, Mahal's hometown. I see some fans unhappy with the result. They say it made Mahal look weak.

I do not see a problem with it, in terms of making Jinder Mahal look weak. Randy Orton lost to him three PPVs in a row. Jinder Mahal was going to put him over eventually. It is only fair. As for it being in his hometown, Jinder Mahal isn't exactly someone that deserves to be treated like royalty. If he wasn't getting his monster push, most people in Toronto, and even India, would not care too much for him.

I will say that I do not like that the WWE has not invested more in Jinder Mahal vs. Shinsuke Nakamura. That is the title feud. It is not the title feud I would have went with, but they went with it. If that is the way it goes, at least put better work into it. This is the last week before Summerslam.

Meanwhile, Randy Orton is feuding with Rusev. Rusev attacked Orton after his match. Once again, however, I feel like the WWE could have done more with this feud. These two could have had a proper feud, but I feel it was just tossed together the way the WWE handled it. Poor feud development just seems to be a theme for Summerslam this year.

Shinsuke Nakamura Vs. John Cena

Some people like to complain about everything. Yes, they sometimes make a good point in their complaints. Some of the time, however, you just have to let some things go. I see a lot of complaints with Shinsuke Nakamura vs. John Cena to decide who faces Jinder Mahal at Summerslam for the WWE Championship.

First, a lot of fans are unhappy that the WWE is wasting this match so soon. This is a dream match for a lot of wrestling fans, and the WWE is hyping it as such. I don't see a problem with it. The WWE still needs to draw in viewers. I will say, however, that thinking this match will draw great numbers is a stretch. Nakamura has not really broken out at all. Could the WWE have spent a little more time developing him so that his first singles match against John Cena might look a little more impressive? It might have been nice. At the very least, it is a fresh main event.

Going by what I just said about Nakamura not breaking out yet, I would say that could be a reason to complain. He did not exactly look like a winner at his last PPV match against Baron Corbin. He didn't lose, but he didn't get a decisive victory. And yet, this is the guy one win away from challenging for the WWE Championship at one of the biggest WWE PPVs of the year. Speaking in terms of momentum, I would not say he deserves to be in this spot. Either just give Cena the title shot or create some other situation for him to win it. I would even say his match against Rusev recently could  have been for a title shot. Remember, Rusev was complaining about wanting a title shot a while ago. That angle was dropped too easily. Nakamura just needs more time and to be developed better. Don't rush him.

Fans are also dreading John Cena beating Nakamura. It does not have to be a burial. Kevin Owens didn't exactly die after he lost his feud to John Cena. In fact, I have seen some fans complain recently about Kevin Owens getting so many needless title reigns. Yes, there is a history of Cena beating people and those people being demoted. But most of those situations are feuds in which the other person was just being built up to put over Cena. They only look great because the WWE wanted them to look great to serve a purpose. Once they were done serving that purpose, demoted. That is not going to happen here. Cena is no longer the centerpiece. And Nakamura has not exactly been developed well to be worth beating and burying. His stock is going up. Even if he loses, the WWE will still push him.

I am more worried about Nakamura winning. He shouldn't. He just debuted on the main roster a couple months ago. He has not been that impressive. Whether the majority of the blame goes to the WWE or him, it is just the way it is. Throwing him into a big push is just unnecessary. He should still be feuding with Baron Corbin. You can say there is no way he wins this match, but the WWE has done things like this in recent years. Some said that there was no way Finn Balor would defeat Roman Reigns last year to go to Summerslam to compete for the Universal Championship. He did. Some said that there was no way Finn Balor would be booked to beat Seth Rollins. He did. Then you have Jinder Mahal. No one could believe the reports when they first came out that he was going to get a title shot. He did. Many did not believe he would actually win the title. He did. Fans want the WWE to push new guys, but I think a lot of these same fans might admit the WWE is getting carried away. Even though it seems like it will not happen, there is still a real chance Shinsuke Nakamura wins this match, or it ends in a way in which both Cena and Nakamura go to face Mahal at Summerslam.

Regardless, I will go with Cena winning. He will face Jinder Mahal. Nakamura will still have options. This one loss won't kill him. I am sure Cena will be putting him over sooner or later.

Previewing The Battleground 2017 Men's Matches

It is sometimes amazing how the WWE can hype a crappy kickoff match like it is something special on their website. Tye Dillinger faces Aiden English. I don't care. Dillinger wins.

Climbing the ladder of relevance, Mike Kanellis vs. Sami Zayn. This is just a rematch. Nothing too special. But this is another match I just don't care about. The gimmick Mike and Maria have might have some potential, but boring feuds against a midcard jobber like Zayn won't bring that out. I will say Mike Kanellis wins.

Baron Corbin faces Shinsuke Nakamura. The fact that Corbin has the briefcase means nothing. The WWE has a history of having the person with the briefcase lose a lot. On the other hand, the WWE has a recent history of overpushing people they are grooming to be main-eventers, like Jinder Mahal. But I don't think that happens at the expense of Nakamura this Sunday. He wins.

New Day get another title shot against The Usos. The tag divisions are just so terrible on both shows. There probably won't be a Twitter movement to turn things around. The WWE might as well let New Day win the titles. If The Usos do retain, who is left to take the titles off them? They could go back to Tyler Breeze and Fandango. They have been gaining momentum. But New Day will likely get a reign before them.

Kevin Owens tries to win back the United States Championship from AJ Styles. No reason for Styles to drop the title so soon. That is, no GOOD reason to do it. The WWE might do it if they want a lame excuse to prolong this feud. Just end it either here or Summerslam. Create some fresh feuds with these midcarders many people, including myself, don't care about.

John Cena takes on Rusev in a Flag match. I'll give them credit for a gimmick match. But these two? Again? They feuded with each other before. The rivalry just isn't fresh. I am going to tell you what I would have done with both guys a little later. As for this match, Cena wins.

And inside the Punjabi Prison, Jinder Mahal defends the WWE Championship once again against Randy Orton. This feud should have been over already. And it just wasn't heated enough to deserve this gimmick match. Some people are speculating The Great Khali will return to help Mahal. We'll see. If nothing else, this match should give Jinder Mahal further credibility. He should be retaining.

How would I have done things with the last two matches I just talked about? Switch the opponents around. Jinder Mahal could have been entering a feud against John Cena. It could have been the same pro-USA feud you have in Rusev/Cena. Meanwhile, Rusev feuds with Orton. That is a fresh feud. These two have never feuded. Rusev was wanting a title match a couple months ago. Just have Randy Orton go out there after losing to Jinder Mahal at the previous Smackdown PPV and start talking about wanting another shot. Instead of getting it, however, Rusev shows up to continue his angle of wanting a title shot. Those two then feud. If the WWE wanted to put a title opportunity on the line, fine. It would have taken things in a fresh direction and not messed up the storylines that were going on too much.

Previewing The Money In The Bank 2017 Men's Ladder Match

Whether the WWE puts the men's briefcase match in the main-event slot or Orton/Mahal, this is the main match of Money In The Bank. It features two guys that were WWE/Universal Champions just a few months ago. It features guys that may very well be on their way up to main-event status. AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens vs. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin vs. Sami Zayn vs. Dolph Ziggler.

AJ Styles has already been WWE Champion. But there is more for him to do in the WWE. Will he one day win the Royal Rumble? How about that United States Championship he was going after a few weeks ago? Right now, he has the chance to win the briefcase, which is certainly a pretty big accolade. Some might say he does not need the briefcase to chase after the title because he has already been WWE Champion. That didn't stop John Cena, Kane, Sheamus, and other former World Champions from winning the briefcase. AJ Styles definitely stands a chance.

Kevin Owens has had more title success in the WWE than AJ Styles. He is holding a title right now. He has never won the briefcase. Would the WWE let him hold a title and the briefcase? It could happen. But I just don't think he needs it at all. He was Universal Champion just a few months ago. He won the United States Championship shortly after that. He lost it and won it back. There is no need to always keep this guy in the title scene.

Shinsuke Nakamura just debuted a few months ago to a lot of hype. His debut match was not as great as some would have liked. But he is finding his place. One thing I hate about the WWE these days is that they just rush certain people. They don't give them a proper chance to get established and they do not work out. American Alpha is an example of that. They just handled them the wrong way when they first debuted, killed their push for a while, still gave them a title run, and they have not been featured that well since losing the titles. Go slow with these new guys. Help establish their characters. Pro wrestling should be more about entertaining, not overrating. Will giving Nakamura the briefcase be going too fast with him? Well, it isn't like he will have to cash in immediately. They would still have time to build him, while he holds the briefcase.

I see a lot of people thinking Baron Corbin is a favorite to win. I think that would be a terrible idea. This guy is a midcarder. He is a midcarder that deserves a good push in the midcard, including a midcard title. The problem with giving him the briefcase, and possibly the title, is that they would be rushing too many first-time World Champions. Jinder Mahal just became a first-time WWE Champion a few weeks ago. Nakamura will eventually be a World Champion on the main roster. You are going to end up with main-eventers all over the card. That means less good opportunities for the pure midcarders. And because it often looks pathetic to have a former World Champion hanging around with nothing to do, the WWE will have pressure to give these guys things to do. The WWE needs to slow down on giving titles to new guys and be more selective.

I can repeat a lot of what I just said now for Sami Zayn. He does not need the briefcase and a big main-event push. Give him a midcard title. Worry about a main-event title next year and beyond.

Dolph Ziggler has been a World Champion before and he has won the briefcase before. I would say he is least likely to win here, but at least giving him the push would not be creating a new World Champion. He already has some credibility. Maybe if his storyline about him being a loser had worked out better, this would be the point where they turn things around and started pushing him well again. But I don't think it would be right to do it now.

I will say Shinsuke Nakamura wins. He is not the person I would want to win, but the WWE does have that recent history of rushing people, so I would not be surprised to see him get the briefcase this quickly and eventually cash it in down the road.

One last thing to consider, will the winner of the ladder match cash in that same night? Why bring this up? The card is so thin, the WWE might try something special to take up space. The ladder match would obviously not close the show in this situation. But I don't think it will happen. The WWE will wait a while.

How Did Nakamura Do?

Outside of all the drama with Jinder Mahal, the big story for Backlash was supposed to be Shinsuke Nakamura making his official in-ring debut on the main roster. He faced Dolph Ziggler. He won. That was to be expected. But there is more to it than that. How did he actually look?

Looking around, I see a lot of fans were disappointed by the performance. I am not going to say I watched the match. I didn't. But I can get the sense of what happened from what I see fans saying. They feel it was a lackluster performance from Nakamura. The issue isn't sloppiness or a huge botch ruining the match. The wrong story was just told in the ring. I often talk about the story in a match. Will it be a squash? Will a particular spot come up? Things like that. I didn't really do that for this match. I guess I expected WWE to handle it properly or smarks to not be too demanding with this.

Specifically, I see fans unhappy because they feel the match was too much about Dolph Ziggler or he looked too good. That's the story of a lot of matches. The person that will end up losing looks good, which is supposed to make the other guy look good for overcoming such a tough opponent. Over the years, however, I have seen fans talk like the person on the winning end sucks or doesn't deserve to win. They talk like the loser is the better wrestler. It is just how the match is booked. And this match made Nakamura look too human for some fans.

Should the WWE have made Nakamura look better? Probably. I would be the first person to say that Dolph Ziggler deserves better and the WWE screwed up with him in the last few months. But he's a jobber. That is what he is right now. And if that is what he is right now, he should not get in the way of someone like Nakamura that just debuted. At this point, who cares if Dolph Ziggler looks good or is made to look strong? If the situation calls for him to get squashed, so be it. Preferably, a more competitive match would have been enough. Ziggler can always get a better push somewhere down the road. That has been his entire career, up and down.

Nakamura is obviously not ruined. It took CM Punk time to break out on the main roster. Same with Daniel Bryan. Nakamura already has a strong smark following, but if he is going to break out like these other guys, the WWE will either have to let him do something huge, like CM Punk's pipebomb, or he will have to come up with something that really energizes the fans, like Daniel Bryan's "Yes!" and "No!" chants. Plenty of time for that.

Previewing The Backlash 2017 Main Events

I never thought I would live to see the day that Jinder Mahal was getting a WWE Championship match. It is happening at Backlash this Sunday. He will face Randy Orton.

Is there any good reason for Jinder Mahal to win the title? People can talk about appealing to the Indian market and this being a response to TNA going to India, or whatever along those lines. If the WWE really cared that much, it would not have taken depth problems a decade ago for The Great Khali to get a title reign. The WWE has done some terrible things with title reigns recently, so it is not out of the question that Jinder Mahal gets a title win.

I will say Randy Orton retains the title. Randy Orton has not done anything since winning the title at Wrestlemania. He lost to Bray Wyatt in a non-title match. He now finds himself in this feud with Mahal. Yes, John Cena beat AJ Styles for the title a few months ago, then did nothing with it, except lose it to Bray Wyatt. But there is no good reason to do that here for the sake of Jinder Mahal. I would have given the title back to Bray Wyatt. I have mentioned it before. But if they have kept it on Orton this long, there is still more they can do with him. They can soon turn him heel and have him defend against face AJ Styles or Shinsuke Nakamura.

Speaking of Nakamura, he faces Dolph Ziggler. You would normally not consider this match worthy of being the main event of a PPV, but the WWE does whacky things in the WWE Network Era. A non-title match between Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton headlined a PPV last year over a WWE Championship match. Women have main-evented a PPV last year, as well. The WWE might feel this match is more worthy to close the show than the match involving Jinder Mahal.

The WWE has hyped up Nakamura's debut and built up to this match. Aside from house shows and dark matches, he has not had an official match on Smackdown. This is it. I have seen some fans talk like the WWE is testing how much of a draw this guy is by having his debut happen at Backlash. I would not expect too much, but the WWE will likely treat this well and smarks that tend to dominate PPV audiences will likely be very loud for Nakamura.

Is there any reason at all for Dolph Ziggler to win this match? I would say Jinder Mahal has a better chance winning the WWE Championship. Everyone knows Dolph Ziggler is just a stepping stone in this feud. The WWE has done some dumb booking recently, usually to prolong feuds, but there is no reason to prolong this feud. Some fans were unhappy when AJ Styles took his first loss in a singles match just a few weeks after debuting. He still got some wins before that loss to Jericho. I can't say how long Nakamura will be undefeated on the main roster, but there is no reason to start him off with a loss.

On Nakamura & The Undertaker

One of the WWE's problems these days is how they debut people from NXT. Too often, they just have people show up and act like fans should know who these guys are. They just do not ease them in very well. I would say it is one of the reasons a lot of workers are not as over as they could be and the TV audience cannot get as invested into the product to tune in.

The week after Wrestlemania featured the expected returns and debuts. Smackdown got an NXT debut. That would be Shinsuke Nakamura. How did he debut?

He danced.

And that's it. I know it is part of his gimmick, but this was a really poor debut. Nakamura fans will disagree, but that's because they love the guy. Just to make it clear, I know he had a dark match that night, but why should the TV audience care about that? From the standpoint of the viewers, what are they really supposed to make of this guy? Is he a Japanese Brodus Clay?

What could the WWE have done? Hit the ground running. Don't just have him dance. Do a better job planting the seeds for his first feud. Have him knock around Miz. Or have him tease attacking Miz, have Miz run away like a coward, and then let Nakamura go back to his dancing.

I do not think this is a sign the WWE is out to screw Nakamura. But good starts can lay the foundation for what will come more easily. Then again, Samoa Joe debuted in a big way a few months ago. I would say he has just been coasting since then. You can blame that on Seth Rollins getting injured, but the WWE has had plenty of time since then to do something proper with Samoa Joe. I do not think that will happen to Nakamura anytime soon. With the way he debuted, he can only go on to better things from here.

Onto The Undertaker. Why have I not made a bigger deal of his loss to Roman Reigns and his supposed retirement? Because I do not feel that is the end of it. Not only did the WWE do a poor job of building this up to be a retirement feud prior to Wrestlemania, but the night after didn't suggest any finality to Undertaker's career. Michael Cole left it open-ended as to whether Undertaker had retired.

People are talking about Taker leaving his gear in the ring after his loss. I remember watching Lockdown back in 2011. Kurt Angle lost to Jeff Jarrett. After the loss, Angle took off his boots. TNA tried to sell it as a possible retirement. Kurt Angle obviously did not retire from wrestling back then. He didn't even retire from TNA back then. TNA has done this kind of thing a lot. A lot of retirements or people being forced to leave the company, only for them to come back. I have seen a lot of videos on Youtube over the years of people thanking Velvet Sky after it looked like she was done with the company. She always seems to come back. Point is, nothing is final yet when it comes to The Undertaker.

If that was his final match, however, it was a terrible match. There were some terrible botches that just make you want his career to not end like that. That is another reason I think he will have another match. Of course, you can't just keep extending his career until he gets the perfect match. He's old. His body can't take too much anymore. He might just have one more good match next year left in him. I think it would be easy to build to that from here.

If the WWE never really intended for his career to end there, what is the point of teasing that it just might be over like this? To try to draw. They did the same kind of thing last year when they made it seem Taker would never wrestle at Wrestlemania again if he lost to Shane McMahon, and some people read that as Taker would be forced to retire. Of course, Taker won. And Shane still got to run Raw for a while. Wins and losses don't matter.

How did the publicity stunt do? The Raw after Wrestlemania this year, featuring the fallout of The Undertaker's possible retirement, Brock Lesnar getting the title back, all the debuts and returns, and whatever else, only averaged 3.8 million viewers, down from last year's 4.1 million and the previous year's 5.4 million. Considering everything they did, that is pretty pathetic.

People want to blame college basketball finals. Okay, but the WWE didn't exactly do nothing on Raw this week. What is the point of treating Brock Lesnar like you do if giving him the title will not draw when he shows up? But sticking with The Undertaker, this is a legend that has been around for decades. He was there during the hot Attitude Era. Why wouldn't fans tune in to see if this was really the end of his career? Maybe the WWE wouldn't have gotten over 5 million live viewers, but they should have gotten over 4 million with everything going on. It looks like 2017 will indeed be a year they fail to reach that benchmark.

Part of the reason they failed to do better is obviously the poor way they sold this feud between Roman Reigns and The Undertaker. It was rushed. It seemed pretty lame. They were fighting over whose yard it is? It just didn't feel epic. But part of the blame might just be the WWE crying wolf too many times and in too many ways over the years. Everyone remembers Mark Henry's fake retirement segment. That was great. But might it have hurt the value of other retirements and retirement angles to come? With just The Undertaker, the WWE have gotten fans to believe it was over or could be over multiple times over the years. They thought it was over when he lost to Brock Lesnar. They thought it could have been over last year. As far as last year goes, I pointed out how the WWE showed that wins and losses don't matter by having Shane still run Raw after losing to Taker. How can some viewers take the outcome to things seriously when you make these kind of decisions too much?

It just goes to show that everyone is underachieving in this era. If the possible retirement of The Undertaker can't draw a huge ratings boost, what can? Obviously, this is not a criticism on The Undertaker. This is all the WWE's fault for not handling things better. I still do not believe this is the last people have seen of The Undertaker on Raw, and I'm not just talking about coming back after being inducted into the Hall of Fame. He will show up again, whether to start his final feud or just make it official that his career will now rest in peace.