Bray Wyatt, Rusev and the Heels in Desperate Need of WWE SummerSlam 2017 Win

Bray Wyatt can significantly change his position on the WWE food chain with a win at SummerSlam 2017.

The Eater of Worlds' career has been an up-and-down journey. Just when it looks as if he's going to go on a tear, he loses a huge match. He's won the WWE Championship and defeated future Hall of Famers, but yet he doesn't feel like a convincing threat thanks to timely defeats.

When he threatens to destroy Finn Balor at SummerSlam, the words ring hollow. Wyatt's record suggests that he's no great obstacle for Balor. 

Rusev must understand Wyatt's pain.

Ahead of his SummerSlam clash with Randy Orton, he's starving for momentum, in need of a career-changing win. The Bulgarian Brute has fallen down the WWE ladder over time.

And there's nothing like knocking off a main event star at a major event to change that.

For Wyatt, Rusev, Baron Corbin and Big Cass, Sunday's pay-per-view is a crossroads. Victory would have them soaring out of Brooklyn, New York.

Rusev

Once an unstoppable beast, Rusev has become mortal over time—an ordinary midcarder. 

He fell to John Cena at Battleground in July, to Big Show at Fastlane and came out the clear loser in his feud with Roman Reigns last year.

Rusev has lost his last five PPV matches, per CageMatch.net. It's been since last July that The Bulgarian Brute won a PPV bout. And his one and only SummerSlam victory happened in 2014.

That's a waste of a powerhouse who could easily be a cornerstone of the SmackDown brand. 

His showdown with Orton on Sunday is a major change to revive his momentum. The Viper is a 13-time world champ, a perennial headliner and a future Hall of Famer. Taking him down would be huge for Rusev.

And it would be the ideal starting point for a rise to the WWE title scene.

Baron Corbin

Credit: WWE.com

Corbin's SummerSlam debut is a make-or-break battle.

A win over Cena would be a game-changing moment, one of the biggest of The Lone Wolf's short career. A loss would significantly damage his aura and deepen the booking hole he will have to climb out of moving forward.

At times, it has looked as if WWE was going to sell Corbin as a destructive force to be feared. And then it has had him fall to the likes of Dolph Ziggler, Sami Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura.

Winning the Money in the Bank contract in June was supposed to be his launch point to stardom, to the WWE marquee.

That fell away in seconds on Tuesday's SmackDown when Corbin cashed in his Money in the Bank contract, only to lose to Jinder Mahal in six seconds. The Lone Wolf emerged from that moment looking foolish and weak.

A distraction from Cena played a big part in that defeat, and Corbin now has a chance to exact revenge on a grand stage.

If he instead stumbles against Cena, it's going to be hard to take him seriously as a threat. Corbin will begin to feel like the second coming of Wyatt.

Big Cass

Big Cass is writing the early chapters of his story as a solo act.

After breaking away from Enzo Amore in June, The Babe Ruth of Beatdowns is poised to charge up the WWE ladder. He has talked about challenging for the Universal Championship. He looks to be headed for big-time stardom.

It would make little sense to kick off this ride with a loss to Big Show at SummerSlam.

Sunday will mark only his second one-on-one PPV bout. The first saw him devour Amore in a dominant performance at Great Balls of Fire. To follow that up with a defeat at Big Show's hands would be a major blow to his momentum.

SummerSlam is a chance to show how dangerous Big Cass is. It's his first major test. It's his time to pluck the torch from Big Show's hands and announce that it's his era now.

Bray Wyatt

In many ways, 2017 has been Wyatt's most productive year, with wins at Elimination Chamber, Great Balls of Fire and Payback under his belt. But it's been at WWE's signature shows that he can't seem to come out on top. 

Wyatt is 0-3 at WrestleMania and 3-6 at three of WWE's biggest events—WrestleMania, Survivor Series and SummerSlam, per CageMatch.net.

A win over Balor on Sunday would help change the narrative of his career. It would signal that Wyatt is indeed a force to be reckoned with. That's especially true considering Balor will be walking into the Barclays Center as his alter-ego The Demon.

Balor has been booked as a top star from the get-go, as someone extremely difficult to keep down. Wyatt will look quite the monster if he can do just that, notching his second consecutive win against the inaugural universal champion.