Smark Out Moment

Welcome to another edition of FANTASY BOOKING where we discuss what we would do if we were given the power to control what happens when it comes to WWE Creative and the planning of events.

As it's the second-biggest event of the year, our next event to rewrite the book for is WWE SummerSlam 2018.

The event is coming up soon and the card is starting to get packed, but it may not be shaping up the way you specifically would have preferred. If you were in a position to change things, how would it go down?

What would you do if you were in charge of creative control and could pick the matches scheduled for the biggest party of the summer?


The Rules:

1) You need to justify your choices within a reasonable mindset of what WWE has in store. Just because someone is a favorite of yours does not mean WWE would be pushing them to the title in any realistic fashion.

2) You cannot include people who are not a member of the roster, whether they are retired, working for another company, or obviously deceased. You can, however, work under the assumption that injured stars might possibly return in time for certain events (if it is within reason). Also, be realistic when it comes to bringing NXT stars up to the main roster. Don't flood the market.

3) The earliest time frame you can begin planning from as a reference point is the night after this year's WrestleMania.

4) The brand split cannot be undone.

5) Keep time constraints in mind. This cannot be a 10-hour event.



This is a two-hour pre-show, so we have plenty of room to play around with for at least two matches, if not three, while also dedicating time for promos, recaps, panel analyst activity and so forth.

Extras

Spread between the panel analysis, the video packages and the social media lounge, there would be an Elias musical segment and maybe some other stuff if there's time and any ideas floating around, but this certainly is only extra and not a priority by any means, including the recap material.

Mixed Tag Team Match: Andrade "Cien" Almas and Zelina Vega vs. Rusev and Lana

Rusev and Lana would be full-fledged babyfaces. This feud establishes some of the midcard status of these two, as they're in contention to be fighting for that United States Championship. Almas and Vega come out with the victory.

Women's SummerSlam Scramble Match: Bayley vs. Becky Lynch vs. Ember Moon vs. Nia Jax vs. Sasha Banks

This is your answer to the "every big pay-per-view has a clusterfuck to get people on the card" scenario. Normally, I would put the Money in the Bank ladder matches on here, but since that's a pay-per-view of its own, let's go with a scramble. The winner receives a title shot for their brand at the next event, and the winner for this would be one of the Four Horsewomen.


Cruiserweight Championship Match: Cedric Alexander (c) vs. Lio Rush

In my mind, Alexander has some matches against Hideo Itami, TJP and some others (possibly Buddy Murphy, or I might save him for something better down the line). Drew Gulak is a babyface, not a heel, so he doesn't have a program with Alexander. In the meantime, Rush comes up right after WrestleMania and by SummerSlam, he's firmly set to take the title from Alexander. Eventually, Rush will drop it to either Gulak or Mustafa Ali.

Raw Tag Team Championship Match: The Broken Trio (c) vs. The Authors of Pain

Strowman and Nicholas vacate the titles. The Hardy Boyz and Bray Wyatt are a team and win the belts at the Greatest Royal Rumble. Jeff never goes to SmackDown in the Superstar Shake-up. Here is where The Authors of Pain win the titles and go down a dominant path that leads them to still holding the tag titles by WrestleMania 35, unless there's a hiccup along the way. We'll see. But AOP will probably drop the belts to The Revival or a renewed American Alpha.

United States Championship Match: Finn Balor (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

Finn Balor wins the United States title from Jinder Mahal before the Superstar Shake-up, not Jeff Hardy. He moves over to SmackDown and Shinsuke Nakamura eventually starts a feud with him. Balor retains here, probably, but he's going to turn heel down the line, too, so we can have him against AJ Styles at WrestleMania. Alternatively, if we can hire Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks, Balor doesn't turn heel and we get Styles, Balor and The Good Brothers against The Bullet Club.


SmackDown Tag Team Championship Lumberjack Match: The Bludgeon Brothers (c) vs. SAnitY

In the interest of keeping things from getting too far out of hand, The Usos, The New Day, The Bar, The Good Brothers, whoever you have on SmackDown surround the ring for this heel versus heel match. Everything goes to hell and the match ends in a no-contest when SAnitY values the chaos more than winning the tag titles, and possibly even form an alliance with Harper and Rowan, as those five men take out all of the lumberjacks.

Intercontinental Championship Match: Seth Rollins (c) vs. Kevin Owens

The crowd is confused and tired, so let's give them another regular wrestling match just to cleanse their palates.

Seth Rollins retains here. He's going to hold the title until Dean Ambrose is ready to return, and will take it off him when he starts going a bit tweener, but not full heel. They'll be involved in a Triple Threat match at WrestleMania that also involves a heel Roman Reigns, so Rollins is the babyface of the trio.

SmackDown Women's Championship Handicap Match: Asuka (c) vs. The IIconics

Carmella cashes in Money in the Bank soon after WrestleMania. She retains against Charlotte Flair at Backlash. Asuka wins the title from Carmella at Money in the Bank, retains against her at the next event rather easily as well, and we slowly start to see her get a big head about herself. Asuka will be going down a similar path to NXT, where she's so confident in her abilities, even though she's lost to Charlotte Flair, and gets very upset about it. Eventually, she'll be a heel, and will work against Ember Moon, who will be able to get her justified victory over Asuka.


Men's SummerSlam Scramble Match: Daniel Bryan vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Drew McIntyre vs. The Miz vs. Roman Reigns

This is simply the men's version of the women's scramble. Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre aren't a tag team. If anything, they're in a feud, but I'm not even sure where I'd balance the rosters. The match ends with The Miz screwing Daniel Bryan out of a win in some way, being more concerned with making sure Bryan doesn't win rather than that he himself does win.

I wish I could have gotten Chad Gable, Tye Dillinger or some other names in here, but there would be too much confusion if it was more people.

WWE Championship Match: Bobby Roode (c) vs. AJ Styles

Bobby Roode stays on SmackDown instead of moving to Raw. He turns heel and beats AJ Styles for the WWE Championship at the previous event to this, setting up their rematch here.

Styles is attacked by Randy Orton, who starts to do his current Legend Killer Returns gimmick and will feud with Styles for the next few months.

Roode will eventually drop the belt to Daniel Bryan, who will be pretty much immediately cashed-in on by The Miz, setting up Bryan's Royal Rumble win and taking the belt off The Miz at WrestleMania 35.

Raw Women's Championship Match: Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Ronda Rousey

For this match, Mickie James would be ringside in Alexa's corner and Natalya would even the odds by being in Ronda's corner.

You know how this would go down. Ronda wins the title. Simply put.


Universal Championship Match: Bobby Lashley (c) vs. Samoa Joe

Bobby Lashley returns with actual purpose and beats Brock Lesnar for the title at the Greatest Royal Rumble. He then feuds with Baron Corbin, Jinder Mahal, Roman Reigns, it doesn't matter.

Samoa Joe wins the title here. They have a rematch at the next event and both move on to other feuds after that. Eventually, Joe starts dodging Braun Strowman. He even goes out of his way to screw Strowman out of the Royal Rumble, but Strowman last eliminates Reigns in the Elimination Chamber to earn a title shot for WrestleMania 35, where he defeats Joe.

Loser Leaves Town Match: Braun Strowman vs. Brock Lesnar

After losing the Universal Championship to Bobby Lashley, Brock Lesnar is furious and tries to play hot shot and prove that he's still the big bad wolf. He picks a fight with Strowman and the two cause so much destruction that an ultimatum is put out there with the loser having to leave WWE.