5 Reasons Why WWE SummerSlam 2023 Could Be an All-Timer

WWE presents SummerSlam Saturday night, live from Detroit's Ford Field, with a star-studded card featuring some intensely personal match-ups.

From family feuds to grudge matches, a celebrity appearance, and high-stakes championship encounters, the lineup has something for everyone.

Including five reasons why it could rank alongside the 1992, 1998 and 2002 shows as one of the event's all-time greatest.

Potential Showstealers

The SummerSlam card is made of several matches that will receive plenty of hype, pomp and circumstance but there are two championship clashes slated for the show that may prove to be the show-stealers of the lot.

Drew McIntyre will challenge Gunther for the Intercontinental Championship while Asuka defends the WWE Women's Championship against Bianca Belair and Charlotte Flair in a Triple Threat Match.

Gunther and McIntyre gave us a taste of what they are capable of at WrestleMania, where The Ring General successfully defended his title against The Scottish Warrior and Sheamus in a three-way bout that was instantly recognized as a five-star classic and one of the best matches of the entire weekend.

Belair, Flair and Asuka are among the most celebrated and decorated competitors in the women's division and have been responsible for some of the very best wrestling to come out of it over the last decade.

On a card that is currently made up of only seven matches, both will have time to work with and the opportunity to steal the show, eclipsing the quality of other, higher-profile bouts. Gunther and McIntyre will batter each other with punishing strikes while Flair, Belair and Asuka utilize dramatic near-falls and pure athleticism to wow the fans in Detroit.

By the time the show comes to a close and the feed fades to black, do not be surprised if we are ranking either, or both, among the best the show has produced in modern times.

The Social Media Megastar Shows Out

Logan Paul is an infinitely better wrestler than he has any right to be considering he has less than 10 matches to his name, is not consistently performing on a nightly basis, and is a mainstream celebrity.

Yet he enters SummerSlam and a showdown with the superathlete Ricochet with heightened expectations, something that simply does not happen with celebrity guest stars. That can be chalked up to his genuine Match of the Year candidates against Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins in his last two singles bouts.

Those matches stunned wrestling fans with their quality and given the pure athleticism of both Paul and Ricochet, the WWE Universe should probably expect similar results.

There will be high-flying, at least one jaw-dropping spot and several others that captivate the audience and light up social media accounts.

It will be yet another example of Paul seemingly being born to be a professional wrestler and fans will somehow be surprised he was capable of it, despite a growing resume that suggests it is more the norm than not at this point.

Act III: Cody Rhodes vs. Brock Lesnar

The rubber match.

Cody Rhodes defeated Brock Lesnar at Backlash, countering the ferocity of The Beast Incarnate with wrestling intellect, rolling him up while trapped in the kimura and scoring a come-from-behind win.

An infuriated Lesnar responded weeks later, breaking The American Nightmare's arm in a backstage attack and five days later, exploiting both the injury and Rhodes' desire to gut it out to pick up a victory via referee stoppage.

At SummerSlam, they do battle one more time, each looking to settle their difference and score the defining victory in their feud.

No stipulation or match type has been announced as of yet but one would figure that will happen Monday on Raw as the ante is upped. The feud has intensified with every passing week and interaction, leaving their SummerSlam bout to be the hardest-hitting, most intense and aggressive of the bunch.

This will likely be the match where they beat the ever-loving hell out of each other before Rhodes proves his toughness and grit by narrowly overcoming his monstrous opponent.

The drama, the physicality and the high stakes, at least for Rhodes, make this one of the most important and interesting bouts on the card.

Eclipsed only by the night's main event.

A Blood Feud

Hubris can be a costly trait, something Roman Reigns has learned over the course of 2023.

Rising to power as The Tribal Chief, he allowed power to go to his head. He manipulated, gaslit and generally treated his cousins, The Usos, like garbage. He humiliated them, demeaned them following their WrestleMania 39 loss to Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn and held them responsible for any step backward the faction took.

This, despite consistently relying on Jimmy and Jey to help him retain his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.

When it came down to backing up his brother or staying loyal to The Bloodline, Jey made the necessary move and excommunicated himself from the group, laying out Reigns with a superkick that drew a deafening pop and set in motion the events that would lead to SummerSlam and the Tribal Combat match for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship and status as The Tribal Chief.

A story that has been three years in the making, and began with Jey standing up to his cousin, now writes its latest chapter at SummerSlam, the same event where Reigns returned in 2020 with a new attitude and began his ascent to the top of the industry.

This will be the most dramatic, red-hot match on the entire card, thanks to the overarching storyline the likes of which WWE used to build its most prestigious pay-per-view events around. It has encompassed many characters, resulted in unforgettable angles, and has then business as hot as it has ever been.

The Bloodline as we know it will end Saturday in Detroit but whether that means Jey does the unthinkable and dethrones Reigns after 1000-plus days, or The Head of the Table remains at that spot in the Samaoan Wrestling Dynasty, remains to be seen.

The Element of Surprise

In recent years, SummerSlam has been the one premium live event where WWE has pulled out surprises, popping fans and creating excitement for its product into the doldrums that are the fall months.

In 2020, it was the aforementioned return of Reigns as a heel. A year later, Brock Lesnar stalked to the ring for the first time since WrestleMania 36 and laid out The Tribal Chief. A year ago, Bayley, Dakota Kai and Iyo Sky all returned to WWE programming as Damage CTRL and confronted Becky Lynch and Bianca Belair.

Expect more of the same this year.

Could we see the return of Randy Orton? How about Bray Wyatt, who has been conspicuous in his absence since prior to WrestleMania 39.

Maybe a WWE legend makes a guest appearance or Damian Priest cashes in his Money in the Bank briefcase.

Whatever the case may be, expect the unexpected as Triple H and his creative team have consistently understood the value in making premium live events feel like momentous, must-watch programming.