WWE SummerSlam 2015: How to Fix Least Promising Storylines so Far

Thank goodness for Paul Heyman.

On the August 3 episode of Raw, Heyman did in 10 minutes what WWE Creative could not do in the previous two weeks: plug the holes in the Brock Lesnar-Undertaker feud while selling SummerSlam’s main event to fans.

If only Heyman could do that for the entire card, which is finally being fleshed out with only 11 days until the event.  

A flurry of bookings in the last five days, including three announced last night on Raw, have finally shaped the card. Yet like the SummerSlam main event prior to Heyman’s sales job, there are holes in nearly every match.

Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt had a good story going, as Wyatt's "Anyone But You" campaign resonated with both the Reigns apologists and the Internet Wrestling Community. But that angle has been seemingly dropped in favor of a Shield-Wyatt Family redux, thanks to the returns of Dean Ambrose and Luke Harper back into the fold.

That direction doesn’t move any of these wrestlers forward. Rather, it keeps them stagnant at a time when many of the company’s other divisions could use the presence of the four wrestlers involved in the story.

And that example isn’t even the most egregious storyline error committed by WWE Creative in the build to SummerSlam.

Intercontinental Championship Match

Ryback’s staph infection hasn’t just pained the wrestler—it’s caused agony for the entire WWE Universe.

If it weren’t for the unfortunate medical issue, fans could have quickly forgotten a Ryback-Big Show-Miz feud after Battleground. Instead, we’ve been forced to suffer through an unnecessarily long program between these three.

Did you realize that this angle has been going on since June? Did you even care? The answer is likely "no" to both of those questions. Since capturing the title at Elimination Chamber, Ryback has been involved with The Miz and Big Show exclusively. This dynamic has done nothing to increase the exposure of either the title or its holder.

Fixing this storyline is easy: Make it go away. Have Ryback dominate the match and end it quickly. There’s no need for a drawn-out battle between these three, since WWE has booked both of Ryback’s competitors so weakly, especially The Miz.

The worst thing WWE could do is give extended time to this match, even with SummerSlam being a four-hour show.

It might give someone the crazy idea to let this feud continue instead of giving Ryback a worthy opponent at Night of Champions.

Fatal 4-Way for the Tag Team Championship

If there's ever a match to put on a pre-show for SummerSlam, this is it.

Prior to Battleground, I wrote about the dynamic between the two teams atop the tag team division. I believed we were going to see these titles flip-flop between them throughout the summer.

It appears, however, that WWE Creative has no idea what to do with this entire division. Instead of having the top teams duke it out and allowing the others to try to topple each other for a spot in the pecking order, everyone’s being lumped together.

There has been no buildup for the inclusion of Los Matadores and The Lucha Dragons in the championship picture. Apparently, a single win via distraction is what gets you a title shot in the tag team division these days.

Such haphazard booking proves that WWE Creative was banking heavily on the Cesaro-Tyson Kidd and Harper-Erick Rowan teams—along with The New Day—to lead the division. Following injuries to Kidd and Rowan, WWE was left without two of its most dynamic teams. Now they’re left scraping for anything they can get together.

The New Day, Titus O’Neil and Darren Young have been diamonds in the rough and probably only got their chance in the sun thanks to those injuries. But the rest of the division is a veritable wasteland.

Fixing this storyline isn’t so simple. We have to believe there’s a chance Los Matadores can even compete, let alone win. We have to feel like The Lucha Dragons can match up against O’Neil’s power.

WWE needs to focus more on those teams to give fans a reason to root for them. Otherwise, this match will be nothing more than filler for a four-hour extravaganza.