WWE’s mid-summer showcase is on the horizon with 12 matches over two nights, featuring 7 championships on the line, one massive grudge match inside Hell in a Cell, and whatever this Danhausen match is going to be on Sunday.
Fresh matches, old scores to be settled and probably a smidge of blood to be spilled over the two-night extravaganza.
Night 1 brings us the showdown between Cody Rhodes and CM Punk over the WWE title, Liv Morgan defends for…. somehow … the first time against Iyo Sky, and Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi go to hell in a cage match. A couple of multi-person tag matches round out the night, and finally we’ll see the in-ring return and WWE debut for Nick Aldis against Gunther… who will probably, most very likely maim him for most of the match before losing.
With no further ado, let’s have at it. After this past weekend’s AEW show Redemption our predictions record is sitting at 61-19 (61/80; 76%) for the year. So let’s see how this goes because I’m long overdue for a hard crash.
The Bellas and Paige vs. Fatal Influence (Jacy Jayne, Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid)
I’m going to guess this doesn’t open the show. I frankly don’t see a lot of value in this trios match so quickly after Brie Bella and Paige dropped the tag team titles to Henley and Reid. Maybe this would have been served better as a whole as a tag team title rematch to cement Fatal Influence as the new tag team champions while consequently letting the Bellas and Paige trio go their separate ways toward whatever the original plan would have been had Nikki not been injured ahead of WrestleMania. I’d fully expect Fatal Influence to again go over the former champions and Nikki. It would otherwise be some strange booking for Paige and Brie to drop the championships only to then win the trios encounter. It just doesn’t make sense for either Henley or Reid to eat the pin because it straight away discredits the title victory, and I just don’t see Jayne taking a pin unless she’s being spun off to feud with Paige specifically. Winners: Fatal Influence
LA Knight, Solo Sikoa and Royce Keys vs. The Bloodline (The Usos and Jacob Fatu)
I’m no expert or anything, but it’s an odd choice to stick both trios matches on the same night but have night 2 mostly consist of singles matches. I’m assuming we won’t actually see these back-to-back because that would just be some odd pacing. All that aside, for the match itself I have a hard time making the call against the Bloodline. I think this version of the group is arguably the most cohesive it’s been since the beginning of this story, even if there is dissension between the Usos and Fatu. I would argue they need a win as a group to cement that status and I look at their opponents and have a hard time seeing Knight or Keys picking up a win over any one of the Bloodline. I think if the former team wins it’s going to be Sikoa taking a “W’ over his cousins. However I’m still leaning toward the Bloodline. Winners: The Bloodline
Gunther vs. “The National Treasure” Nick Aldis
We know Gunther’s backstory and recent history. There’s not much left to say at this point about him, but the same can’t be said about his SummerSlam opponent.
Nick Aldis is going to mostly be known as just a suit who runs the show on Friday, but prior to his arrival he was very present on the indies and carried NWA on his back from 2017-2022. Bookending that period he had two stints in Impact Wrestling/TNA. He is a former two time NWA world champion where his two reigns combined for about 1,309 days. His two reigns were only broken up by Cody Rhodes’s own short reign in 2018. Beyond that he is a former TNA world and tag team champion, a former IWGP tag team champion, and a former GHC tag team champion in NOAH. Is he going to blow you away? No. Is he going to hold his own and demonstrate why he was trusted with multiple world championships and carried one of the most storied titles in wrestling history for over 1,000 days? Yes.
I hope this isn’t his last WWE match, because he deserves a shot beyond this. As for the match itself I’d expect Gunther to dominate as he should here. Aldis has not wrestled actively since 2023 so logically he should be rusty. What I think they are doing here though is highlighting Aldis’ grit and will to win which I think will override Gunther’s dominance. It’s a staple to his matches at this point where his own ego often gets in the way of success, which is where I think the ending of the match comes in. I’m not expecting to see the King’s Lynn Cloverleaf, but rather a good old fashioned roll up for the win. Aldis should not have the upper hand here for the bulk of the match, but I’m expecting a win from him nonetheless. Winner: Nick Aldis
Hell in a Cell Match – Brock Lesnar vs. Oba Femi
We’ll keep this short and sweet. The average length for a Brock Lesnar match is 10-15 minutes. The average Oba Femi match lasts around 4.5 minutes. Sure, that’s a small sample size, but you get the point. In relation to Lesnar’s match time, weirdly enough his average match lengths for Hell in a Cells are 18 minutes. Both of those were against the Undertaker. I’m definitely expecting something in the lower range in the neighbourhood of 10-12 minutes. I think Lesnar drags Femi into deep water outside the comfort zone of his usual match lengths, but I’m fully expecting Femi to come alive and defeat the Beast in a violent, brutal and short big boy cage match. Winner: Oba FemiÂ
Women’s World Championship: Liv Morgan (c) vs. Iyo Sky
Liv Morgan does not have a single televised title defence since winning it from Stephanie Vaquer at WrestleMania. Her non-televised defences were against Iyo Sky, but those were also multi-person matches that also respectively featured Sol Ruca and Lyra Valkyria. She simply has barely defended since WrestleMania. Her secondary high point for 2026 is the Queen of the Ring tournament where she went to the finals and was defeated by her SummerSlam opponent. This one’s a tough to call because there’s nothing of substance to really form a prediction around logic-wise. Morgan’s lack of activity and her recent tournament loss to Sky kind of leans me toward a Morgan retention if only because the build has been entirely story-based with minimal physicality, and unless Morgan is actually injured I see no reason to think Sky will become world champion at SummerSlam. What is more likely is a Morgan win, post-match beatdown and perhaps either an appearance from Rhea Ripley or former champion and Morgan’s WrestleMania opponent Stephanie Vaquer. Winner: …and “still the greatest women’s champion of all time” Liv Morgan
WWE World Championship: CM Punk (c) vs. Cody RhodesÂ
I outlined some thoughts on this main event-level match recently, so for a slightly deeper look on this you can find that here. I think this is a toss up, but I’m hesitant to commit to Punk losing if the status quo is maintained and they’re just ho-hum chums after the bell. I think WWE is in a danger zone with them in that I don’t think they can occupy the same championship space as faces, but with Punk as a relatively new champion and Cody always seeming to orbit the title, something has to give here. I’m not sure what you do with them if Punk retains and Rhodes remains a good guy. I think either way someone has to turn, and I think you have to consider that Paul Heyman is in play to affect the outcome, or at least what happens post-match.
I truly think it’s a necessity to break the status quo here, but whether that happens or not is the bigger question. I think Cody flipping makes more sense given his recent characterization, and I think you do that post-match as opposed to Rhodes turning heel, winning and being champion to end Punk’s 25 day reign. Leaning into that, you can’t even say, “well, Punk will retain because he’s only had the belt for 3+ weeks.” If you look at Punk’s WWE world championship reigns, historically only his 434 day WWE title reign and recent 169 day world championship reign exceeded 100 days. Even adding on his first World Heavyweight Championship reign in 2008, he only has three reigns in WWE that exceeded 50 days out of 8 reigns total. You can argue the “too soon” point but it’s hardly a guaranteed counterpoint to a Punk loss. Regardless I think this continues past SummerSlam.
I think Punk retains, Rhodes turns (finally), and at some point if not this weekend, Rhodes and Heyman align in what I would call a longshot but not ridiculous outcome of this feud. I don’t think Rhodes and Heyman’s interactions are an accident and I think Rhodes’ character is that desperate. Another factor to consider is the number one contender match between Sami Zayn and Finn Balor on night 2, both of whom have more recent ties to Punk more so than Rhodes. And what’s interesting is that all four can be spliced together into something bigger. So… Winner: CM Punk (will live to defend another day against 1-3 people)
