Smark Out Moment

Welcome to another edition of Triple Threat from Smark Out Moment, where three of us get together to discuss three questions based on one big topic going down in the week of professional wrestling.

This week, Dallas Allsopp, Ben Williams and Robert DeFelice will be previewing SummerSlam 2020.

SummerSlam 2020 will be held at the Amway Center as WWE finally looks beyond the Performance Center. The biggest event of the summer actually feels like a strong show considering the lack of top tier names such as Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar. But who will be the shining light of the event? Will Asuka win a title or two? Will Braun Strowman vs The Fiend be a solid match? And just who will end the show as the WWE Champion?


ALLSOPP: I'd like her to capture the SmackDown Women's Championship, only so we can progress to Bayley vs Sasha Banks over the Raw Women's Championship. The reason I say she wins the blue title is simply to freshen up the women's division on SmackDown, whilst keeping the big feud on the biggest show. Besides, Banks deserves a decent run with a title. All three women have been such strong parts of WWE programming that I cannot begrudge the lack of diversity in the women's title picture.

WILLIAMS: Whilst it would be nice to see Naomi or Bianca Belair get a shot at one of these titles, it can't be denied that Asuka, Sasha Banks and Bayley have been the only noteworthy part of WWE during the COVID-19 era. They’re the acts creating any sort of buzz, so it makes sense that WWE is pushing them so hard. As to whether Asuka will actually win, I'd like to see her win the SmackDown Women’s Championship purely to rid us of Bayley as champion, and so Sasha Banks doesn't lose her fifth consecutive title in her first defence!

DeFELICE: I think that the insistence on Asuka challenging for not one but both Women's Championships illustrates WWE's lack of confidence in their women's division, in spite of how much depth the division continues to show. That being said, this whole angle seems to be building towards more of a divide between Sasha Banks and Bayley. I think it only makes sense if Sasha Banks loses the Raw Women's Championship due to the incompetence of Bayley, setting up for their rift to turn into a full blown split next week at WWE Payback on August 30.


WILLIAMS: The only thing I'm looking forward to is The Fiend taking that title away from Braun Strowman. Strowman has been the weakest champion in 2020, and considering he's supposed to be a World Champion, I wouldn't even book him as an opening match wrestler at this point. His reign has been awful and has only hurt others around him. The Fiend for the win!

DeFELICE: I'm looking forward to it in the sense that I feel like the Alexa Bliss inclusion has added a new wrinkle into this story that I never expected to be there in the first place. I fully see Bliss joining Bray Wyatt as the Harley Quinn to his Joker, but at the same time, Braun Strowman is showing character depth for the first time in years and I'm not sure if that should be rewarded with a loss of a championship. Gun to my head, I am going to pick Wyatt to win this match, as we try to reset the course of history that was completely turned on it's head by COVID-19.

ALLSOPP: Am I looking forward to this match? No. It'll stink up the joint. But am I looking forward to the storyline within the match? Hell yes! I fully expect The Fiend to win because, let's face it, The Fiend is almost unstoppable. A heel Strowman running over the blue brand would be a fascinating sight, but he doesn't need the WWE Universal Championship. He's not as big a name as Bray Wyatt is, so I fully expect The Fiend to win with relative ease, potentially with a cameo from Alexa Bliss. The feud has kept me interested from a storyline perspective, but sadly not from an in ring perspective.


DeFELICE: Because this question clearly asks if Randy Orton deserves another championship win, my answer is unequivocally yes, he absolutely does. I feel a sense of sadness for Drew McIntyre as he truly may never get to be WWE Champion in front of a live physical audience. However, you cannot deny the absolute tear that Orton has gone on since turning heel this past January. His work on the microphone, especially opposite Ric Flair, has been nothing short of a masterclass in how to properly get an audience invested into a story. Barring RETRIBUTION completely stopping the show, I think Orton gets his 14th WWE World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam 2020.

ALLSOPP: I'm torn here, as Drew McIntyre has been the face of WWE since WrestleMania 36, but Randy Orton is on the best run of his life. This is a different Orton to the last time he was WWE Champion, simply because he is interesting and cold blooded. He is not answering to an authority figure, which means his actions are purely his own. And his actions remain fascinating. He deserves a run with the top title for his efforts, but McIntyre deserves to prove why he is the immediate future of WWE. Weighing that up, I have to say the smart money is on McIntyre retaining by the skin of his teeth. Both men can continue to feud past SummerSlam, but let's give McIntyre the SummerSlam moment he deserves.

WILLIAMS: I haven't been fully sold on Drew McIntyre as of yet in all honesty. The guy is a solid wrestler and people are definitely behind him, but he doesn't feel like a top guy in the same way somebody like Randy Orton or Seth Rollins does. I think this match will probably be quite good, and I think Orton has a big chance of walking away as WWE Champion. Honestly, I wouldn't be mad with that. Orton has been the male MVP of 2020, so I think he fully deserves a 14th WWE Championship reign!