#WWE SummerSlam predictions: Champions are in trouble

Sunday at SummerSlam (7 p.m., WWE Network) could be a bad night for WWE’s current title holders — especially at the top — with six championship matches scheduled on the eight-match card at Orlando’s Amway Center. WWE champion Drew McIntryre faces his toughest challenge yet in Randy Orton and Universal champion Braun Strowman will finally come face to face in the ring with “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt. Sasha Banks and Bayley could both lose their respective titles to Asuka on the same night. Don’t be surprised if an Intercontinental championship rematch is added late after Jeff Hardy took the title from A.J. Styles on Friday’s SmackDown.

Here are predictions for how every match on the full SummerSlam card could play out:




Sonya Deville over Mandy Rose in a hair vs. hair, no DQ, loser leaves WWE match

Rose and Deville have done a fantastic job with this storyline. It deserves a fitting ending after the stakes got even higher on Friday’s SmackDown. Deville made it a no disqualification match and the loser leaves WWE. It completely changed how this will likely go.

Deville is in her comfort zone with her new persona from her outfits to her promo’s conviction. No reason to mess with that now. She will go over Rose, make good on all her promises and give WWE an extremely believable new heel. After having her haircut, Rose will go away for a while. Her eventual return will be a big deal. One fan’s theory suggested Otis should find a way to bargain with Deville to bring his on-screen love interest back — maybe with his Money in the Bank contract.

Apollo Crews over MVP to retain the United States championship

The feud runs deeper than just MVP and Crews. MVP, Shelton Benjamin and Bobby Lashley have an issue with Mustafa Ali, Ricochet and Cedric Alexander as well. So there are a lot of moving parts here, including MVP trying to recruit Alexander — the 24/7 champ — to his Hurt Business stable. MVP has also insinuated Crews has a hand in the group Retribution. Unless Big E has a match added, this feels like the perfect opportunity to insert Retribution. They cause some chaos that allows Crews to retain and fuel MVPs assertion.

Street Profits over Andrade and Angel Garza to retain the Raw tag team championship

The Street Profits are one of the most entertaining things on Raw right now and there is no reason to stop it. The “poisoning” of Montez Ford, revealed to be done by Zelina Vega, is even more reason for the babyfaces to go over here. WWE will now need to find new challengers for the Street Profits amid the thin Raw tag team division. Maybe Lashley and Benjamin go after the straps as The Hurt Business is lacking gold.

Dominik Mysterio (with Rey in his corner) over Seth Rollins in a street fight

With Dominik’s father Rey back, this feud has more matches left. Dominik will get dominated for most of the match and ultimately get a small assist from Rey — who has already “lost an eye” to Rollins — for a stunning win. An irate “Monday Night Messiah” will want to get revenge, leading to either a tag match — which will include Murphy — or a true, pure single match between Rollins and Rey. Maybe we get both with “Monday Night Raw” the next night and the Payback pay-per-view a week away.

Bayley over Asuka to retain the SmackDown women’s championship

Bayley will face Asuka first after losing the beat-the-challenge to Banks on Friday’s SmackDown to determine the order. The role model was pinned by Naomi, so she has a potential title feud waiting after this. Banks did enjoy her friend’s misfortune.

Triple H recently mentioned a WWE draft is coming soon, but Asuka is technically a Raw superstar and she has a feud and friendship with Shanya Baszler brewing there. Yes, this removes the chance of Asuka becoming a double champion, but the Golden Role Models could leave Asuka severely hurt to let her overcome the odds later in the night.

Asuka over Sasha Banks to win the Raw women’s championship

Asuka won’t leave SummerSlam empty-handed as Banks’ history of unsuccessful title defenses continue so it can become a storyline later. Bayley will enjoy her friend’s loss a bit and eventually tweak her about being unable to hold onto belts.

Asuka becoming champ along with her and Baszler beating Banks and Bayley earlier this week on Raw will set up a tag team championship at Payback. Asuka can still become Asuka Two Belts and deepen the cracks in the Golden Role Models’ on-screen friendship.

“The Fiend” Bray Wyatt over Braun Strowman (c) to win the Universal championship

The last time we saw The Fiend in the ring he was losing his Universal championship to 53-year-old Bill Goldberg. Beating Fiend back-to-back times makes very little sense. Having him go over Strowman — who was an emergency champion anyway and now the heel in the feud have attacked Wyatt on SmackDown — will be a good way to restore this iteration of Wyatt to his rightful place. His entrance will continue to be must-see in WWE’s ThunderDome.

Randy Orton over Drew McIntyre to win the WWE championship

McIntrye has described Orton as wrestling’s “Joker” and the Viper gets the last laugh here with some next-level plotting. Ric Flair, who he just punt-kicked a few weeks ago on Raw, returns, acts like he’s going to help McIntyre, but aids Orton in claiming his 14th world championship. Don’t mess with “the dirtiest player in the game”, who said he wants to help Orton break his record.