SummerSlam 2016 Preview: Your Guide to WWE's Big Summer Blowout

We’re just a few days away from WWE‘s second-biggest event of the year: SummerSlam. If you’ve been watching week in and week out since Wrestlemania in April, you’re aware of what to look forward to on Sunday night: a stacked card emblematic of WWE’s ample roster of stars. If you haven’t paid attention since Mania but want to tune in for what is being billed as “the biggest party of the summer,” you’re going to need a bit of a refresher. This will hopefully do the job.

The most important thing to know is that there was a draft last month and the brands are now split. What does that mean? Wrestlers are now exclusive to Raw or Smackdown, and they’re not supposed to cross over to the other program. (Though they still do on occasion.) In theory, this will allow each promotion to build stars that wouldn’t have had enough time to shine with the bigger names working two nights a week. The WWE is still feeling through this new world, but so far, so (pretty) good, especially over on Smackdown. There’s a chance the league could dilute the product by creating too many titles (we’re already seeing the debut of a new championship Sunday night) and too many special events, but for now, this is just a really fun time for wrestling fans.

Oh, one more important note: Almost everything that happened at WrestleMania didn’t end up mattering in the long term. Remember how Shane McMahon was supposed to leave the WWE after losing to the Undertaker? Well, he showed up the next night on Raw and has been around since, now with control of Smackdown. Remember how 18-plus months were spent building up Roman Reigns to be champion, culminating in his slog of a victory over Triple H? He has since dropped the belt and more (at least temporarily) down the hierarchy thanks to a 30-day suspension for a drug violation and the fact that fans still actively dislike him.

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On to the 2016 SummerSlam card. At least one of these matches is going to appear on the preshow, but as of Wednesday morning, the WWE hadn’t differentiated which would be going on earlier. Also, it’s been announced that Jon Stewart will be making an appearance at the Barclays Center for the second straight August. Last time he directly interfered in one of the biggest matches on the show, so we’ll see how much of a role he plays this time around.

Randy Orton vs. Brock Lesnar: Randy Orton’s back! He made his 2016 debut last month after a long layoff recovering from shoulder surgery, and so far it seems like he’s reenergized and having a blast playing the returning hero. The WWE’s gamble with letting Lesnar fight at UFC 200 seemed to pay off beautifully (he won!) until it didn’t (allegations of doping!), so it’ll be interesting to see the direction they go here, as Orton’s enthusiasm over the last few weeks has made this potentially ponderous match seem far more appealing. Will the WWE look at the doping allegations and part-time status and give Lesnar his first clean loss since April of 2013 (to Triple H, obviously), or will they keep building him as an unstoppable beast for a younger superstar to potentially conquer? At some point in this match, Lesnar’s F5 is getting reversed into an RKO; it’s just a matter of whether it’ll be good enough for the win.

WWE title: Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler: Dean’s the champ! It’s been a strong 2016 for the Lunatic Fringe since his clean defeat against Lesnar in a lackluster WrestleMania match. At the Money In the Bank event in June, Ambrose won a contract for a title shot and then cashed it in later in the evening, winning the title from his old friend/current mortal enemy Seth Rollins, who had just won it from Roman Reigns. (All three former members of The Shield held the belt in the same five-minute span, and it was very cool.)

Ambrose has done nice work with the belt, serving as the first purely babyface champion since Daniel Bryan in 2014. He’s added some very mild heel elements to the formula for this feud with fellow good guy Ziggler, who’s also flashed the ability to go dark side if it might get him the title. The former two-time world champion won his title shot in a six-man match on Smackdown, an early attempt from the blue brand to elevate a few more stars on its smaller roster.

Early promo and match work from both men has been really great thus far, but it’s crucial for Ambrose, Ziggler, the WWE title and Smackdown as a whole that this match is given a ton of time and treated as important, regardless of where it is on the card. (Remember at last year’s SummerSlam, Seth Rollins and John Cena fought in a title-versus-title match that went on in the middle of the show with the nonchampionship Lesnar vs. Undertaker in the main event.)

Possible wildcard in the proceedings: Bray Wyatt has been tormenting both men and attempted — unsuccessfully — to win the title shot away from Ziggler. I could see some Wyatt interference at the end to set up a multiple-man match at a future event.

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Universal title: Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor: Lot of ground to cover here if you haven’t watched since Mania. Let’s start with the easy one: Rollins is back, having recovered from his knee injury. Despite the crowd desperately wanting to cheer him, he immediately returned to the same role he held at the time of his injury: Oleaginous, sniveling heel beloved by all evil authority figures. He’ll be competing against Balor, a former NXT champion who was one of Raw’s highest draft picks when they split up the rosters last month. Balor won two matches (a four-way, then a one-on-one main event with Reigns) on his debut night to earn this opportunity. Oh, and most importantly: a big part of Balor’s character is that there’s an ancient Irish demon inside of him that comes out for big matches. This basically means Balor paints most of his body above the waist and barely ever loses.

They’re fighting for the new Universal title, which was created by Raw so they would have their own top title, with Ambrose having taken the WWE title to Smackdown. It is an almost impossibly dumb name for a belt, but this should be a very good match.

Women’s title: Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte: Charlotte held onto the championship from Wrestlemania until late July, when Banks finally climbed the mountain. In a nontitle tag match at Battleground, Banks forced the women’s champion to submit. For her effort, she was granted a championship match the next night on Raw, where she again submitted Charlotte with the Bank Statement to take the title. As far as potential interference, Charlotte traded out her dad (the legendary Ric Flair) to a protégé (recent NXT call-up Dana Brooke), but Brooke is banned from ringside during the match. This is just two of the best wrestlers in the company — male or female — battling it out for the top prize. Should be a whole lot of fun.

John Cena vs. A.J. Styles: After his WrestleMania cameo to help The Rock, Cena made his permanent return from injury on the Memorial Day edition of Raw, where he was greeted by Styles, who was quickly becoming one of the most popular stars in the company. That didn’t stop the WWE from turning Styles on Cena, commencing in a minutes-long beat-down that led to the men trading wins at the last two network events (Styles pinned Cena after interference, Cena pinned Styles in a six-man tag match). Storyline here is this: Perhaps the best wrestler of the past decade inside the WWE going against perhaps the best wrestler of the past decade who was working elsewhere. Cena was still knocking off a bit of ring rust in their first one-on-one contest, so this has a good chance to exceed that.

Intercontinental title: The Miz (c) vs. Apollo Crews: The night after WrestleMania was a big one for both participants of this match. The Miz began his current title reign by taking the belt from Zack Ryder with the help of a returning former Diva’s champion, Maryse, The Miz’s real-life wife. Crews made his debut on that same show and has sort of floated around in the ensuing months, with a character best described as a nice guy who smiles a lot and is very good at doing wrestling things. The Miz is a great foil for Crews, and hopefully we get another couple months of this, culminating in a more seasoned rookie winning his first WWE belt.

Also worth noting is the incredible work The Miz has been doing lately; he could 100 percent be a Hall of Famer if he retired today. WWE champion, Money in the Bank winner, WrestleMania main eventer and multitime winner of the Intercontinental, United States, and tag titles. He’s the absolute best at being the worst.

United States title: Rusev vs. Roman Reigns: With the League of Nations group now mercifully defunct, Rusev is back to what made him great last year: A dominating United States champ with Lana, now his real-life wife, at his side. New Raw general manager Mick Foley made this match after Reigns interrupted Rusev and Lana’s wedding celebration, which is a sign that perhaps Foley is still adjusting to this whole general manager thing because that seems like a terrible reason to grant a title match. Monday’s Raw main event was a 20-minute preview of this match, which Reigns won. On one hand, pinning the champ legitimizes Reigns’s title shot. On the other, they just gave away a 20-minute version of this match six days before SummerSlam. This could go all kinds of different ways.

Tag team titles: New Day vs. The Club: The New Day’s tag reign will have nearly reached a calendar year when this match takes place, and it feels like a title change is almost certain (which, as this is wrestling, could mean that the exact opposite unfolds). The Club consists of Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, two very large, very strong, very bald men who made their mark in Japanese wrestling working with the likes of Balor and Styles before debuting in the WWE back in April. The pair has already storyline-injured Big E, meaning it’ll be up to Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods to retain the straps. Whatever happens here, let us all say a prayer that they do not start a New Day breakup, as I think they can still continue doing their great work in a hunt for singles titles.

Enzo Amore and Big Cass vs. Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens: Enzo and Cass debuted the night after WrestleMania, two NXT favorites who can perhaps best be described as a fast-talking provocateur teamed with a seven-foot monster, a skill you cannot be taught. They’ve become one of the most popular acts in the company, including teaming with Cena for his six-man tag against Styles and The Club last month. It feels like they are going to be put on a track to take the tag titles, but first they’re going to deal with a couple of experienced Canadian curmudgeons. This feud ostensibly started because Jericho salted Enzo’s game when he was flirting with the WWE Women’s champion, but it’s probably best to ignore that and focus on four of the most entertaining wrestlers on the roster being in one match.

Cesaro vs. Sheamus (match one, best-of-seven series): Booked on Monday night’s Raw, this has the potential to be a good matchup of power wrestlers or a series with no stakes created just because they needed something for both of these wrestlers to do. How did this feud escalate to best-of-seven status? Cesaro beat Sheamus three weeks ago, then again two weeks ago (so yes, this is basically best-of-nine), followed by Sheamus costing Cesaro the United States title later that night. On Monday the Swiss superman got a small measure of revenge, costing his Irish foe a match against Sami Zayn, who isn’t even booked on the SummerSlam card. (Important aside: How do you do three hours of programming a week and not find anything for Zayn to do?) This seems destined for the preshow.

Becky Lynch, Carmella and Naomi vs. Natalya, Eva Marie and Alexa Bliss: Another match booked just this week, this is a showcase for most of the women’s division on Smackdown. Despite the fact the women’s title is on Raw, the ladies have all been given a little time post-brand split. Becky is holding up her end of the bargain as a high draft pick and top face, Natalya is her heel counterpart, and Carmella and Bliss already have singles wins over them, which helps establish some early credibility for the NXT rookies. Naomi debuted a new entrance and ring attire on Tuesday night, while Eva Marie is earning boos as the overhyped, overproduced company favorite who keeps finding excuses not to wrestle. Hopefully they get some time at SummerSlam.

SummerSlam airs Sunday, Aug. 21, at 7 p.m. ET on WWE Network.