Final Picks and Predictions for Every Match on the WWE SummerSlam 2019 Card
The Biggest Party of the Summer is about to get underway, with WWE SummerSlam 2019 set to air at 5 p.m. ET Sunday.
As one of the most important events of the year, WWE has stacked the card with a WrestleMania's worth of matches to likely make the show last for more than seven hours, for better or worse.
Kevin Owens will put his career on the line against Shane McMahon, and championships will be up for grabs when Brock Lesnar faces Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch locks horns with Natalya and more.
Before the first bell rings, let's take a look at the card as advertised and break down every match with some predictions on who will walk out the winners and losers for SummerSlam 2019.
Cruiserweight Champion Drew Gulak vs. Oney Lorcan
1 of 10
Drew Gulak and Oney Lorcan have it in them to put on an intense match, but WWE has dropped the ball in terms of momentum for this feud, if you can even call it that.
As The Boston Brawler became the No. 1 contender in the final moments of the go-home episode of 205 Live, there was no time to set up any kind of build to help increase anticipation of the match. Instead, all the pair did was stare down each other as the credits faded to black.
Worse still is that the past month has largely been focused on hyping Humberto Carrillo as the next big thing. If he is so great that people like Lince Dorado specifically want to face him, why wasn't he in the Six-Pack Challenge?
The answer to that is because he's likely going to be the next challenger after Lorcan, which means Gulak is essentially guaranteed to retain his title here.
Gulak has spent the past few years slowly but surely developing a mean streak, and that finally paid off when he dethroned Tony Nese at Stomping Grounds in June. WWE won't throw away the credibility gained via that triumph this quickly.
The lack of focus on Lorcan doesn't suggest he has much of a chance of scoring an upset and ending Gulak's reign prematurely. Rather, he's just the next in line to come up short against The University City Stretcher before Gulak moves on to face at least Carrillo, if not also Jack Gallagher, Chad Gable and others.
Prediction: Gulak retains the title.
Goldberg vs. Dolph Ziggler
2 of 10
Throughout his career of being booked as an unstoppable juggernaut with a streak dependent upon destroying his opponents, fewer than 10 people have pinned Goldberg.
Surely Dolph Ziggler is not going to be the next person to earn this honor.
He is much smaller than Goldberg, not a priority to push into a world title scene or anything super important anymore, and he's the heel who has been running his mouth this entire feud. This is about shutting him up and making him eat those words.
The bigger focus is on guessing whether this match will consist of more than a spear and a Jackhammer or if these two will try to wrestle in order to wash away some of the stink from Goldberg's match against The Undertaker at Super ShowDown.
In either scenario, the result will be the same, with Ziggler looking up at the lights after being humbled. This is a guarantee. It's the easiest match on the card to predict.
Prediction: Goldberg wins.
United States Champion AJ Styles vs. Ricochet
3 of 10
The average United States Championship reign this year has been under 30 days, as every time someone starts gaining momentum, WWE switches gears and moves on to someone else.
It happened with Rusev, Shinsuke Nakamura, R-Truth, Samoa Joe, and Rey Mysterio, and that curse struck Ricochet too.
After only 21 days, Ricochet dropped the belt to AJ Styles, not because it was past time for a new champion but in order to add fuel to the fire with this newfound push of The O.C. stable.
That unit is obviously a priority, and they will inevitably lose some impact if they drop their gold.
With Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson by Styles' side, whether it's with a distraction or some more direct interference, the numbers game will be too much for Ricochet to overcome.
Prediction: Styles retains the title.
Kevin Owens vs. Shane McMahon
4 of 10
Whenever someone's career is on the line in WWE, it's a safe bet to assume that person will win their match, so it's easy to predict that Kevin Owens will defeat Shane McMahon.
Granted, there have been instances when WWE has purposely shocked audiences by having someone quit, only to bring them back in the near future—sometimes even the following night—but that doesn't seem to be the case here.
Owens had plenty of time off from injuries over this past year, so it's doubtful WWE would want to cast him aside even longer unless necessary.
If he were to lose this, the feud would drag itself out, with Owens doing more of the same stuff by just attacking McMahon. But it would make no sense for him to be allowed to get away with it if he's no longer employed.
By sheer logic, Owens has to win. And this storyline either needs to end or McMahon has to then strike back to carry them past SummerSlam.
Prediction: Owens wins.
SmackDown Women's Champion Bayley vs. Ember Moon
5 of 10
In a move few would have seen coming, Ember Moon went from relative obscurity on the SmackDown roster to being declared the No. 1 contender for the SmackDown Women's Championship as effortlessly as Bayley simply naming her as the challenger.
Since then, WWE has tried to portray Moon as an underdog who is capable of overcoming the odds and becoming the new champion.
Fans of her work in NXT know that Moon can get the job done, but she hasn't exactly been booked strongly in the past, even as champion. She was unable to defeat Asuka and only won the title after The Empress of Tomorrow left for the main roster. Moon then dropped the NXT Women's Championship fairly quickly to Shayna Baszler.
Bayley may not be some unstoppable force, but she does have more clout and momentum on her side, as well as two built-in opponents waiting for her in Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks if WWE decides to go down either of those paths.
Moon should put up a good fight but come up short, earning only Bayley's respect rather than her title.
Prediction: Bayley retains the title.
Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt
6 of 10
WWE tried to do a feud between Finn Balor and Bray Wyatt in the past, as well as have several other random matches between the two, but problems with dragging out the storyline caused roadblocks and stopped it from ever reaching its potential.
Sadly, instead of building on that history and skipping straight to the good part we never saw, this feud has basically been reset, but there's arguably even less intrigue than before—it's essentially a rehash of the same lighting gimmicks and attacks.
Outside of Wyatt's new mask, there's nothing that stands out as new, meaning this will likely follow the previous pattern in that Balor will need to become Demon Balor in order to take out The Fiend.
For that to happen, he must lose at SummerSlam, particularly as a loss for Wyatt upon his return would firmly establish how nothing has changed from when he used to talk a big game and rarely win anything.
Prediction: Wyatt wins.
WWE Champion Kofi Kingston vs. Randy Orton
7 of 10
The story for the WWE Championship program revolves around Kofi Kingston's previous feud with Randy Orton and how The Viper used his backstage pull to undermine The Dreadlocked Dynamo's push.
Even a decade or so ago, Kingston proved he could hang with Orton and even score some upset victories, but it never amounted to anything close to what he's doing today as the top guy on SmackDown.
A case could be made that Orton would therefore be the perfect person to take the belt off Kingston, if not to reiterate that point and drive the wedge deeper between the two. But that likely isn't the story WWE will go with.
More than anything, Kingston's has been booked strong throughout his reign as champion, as he has taken on all comers and stepped up his game no matter the odds before moving on to a new challenger relatively fast.
Kingston could lose to Orton, and it would feel justified given The Apex Predator's absurd credentials. But it's even more impressive if Kingston yet again proves himself worthy of that top spot, puts Orton in the past and has someone else lined up to face him at Clash of Champions in September.
Prediction: Kingston retains the title.
Submission Match: Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch vs. Natalya
8 of 10
Born in Calgary, Alberta, Natalya isn't quite the hometown hero for Sunday's event in Toronto, but she's as close as she needs to be in order to have that home-field advantage.
That has to be the main reason why she's in this title match, as her past few months haven't exactly been filled with victories to build her to a match of this magnitude. If this event were elsewhere, it's doubtful she would be facing Becky Lynch.
WWE could book an upset by having Natalya surprise everyone by winning the Raw Women's Championship, if not just to pop the crowd. But that's unlikely.
After all, Lynch is the one being promoted as one of the cover stars of WWE 2K20. There's no question The Man is more popular overall than The Queen of Harts, so why would WWE want to downgrade the Raw Women's Championship scene?
Instead, this will play out with both women fighting with all they have in a pretty even contest that ends with Lynch locking in the Dis-arm-her for the victory.
Prediction: Lynch retains the title.
Trish Stratus vs. Charlotte Flair
9 of 10
There are two schools of thought when it comes to a legend facing a younger star, and both have their merits.
Some think the more established former top draw should go over because they are the trail-blazer, and it's a matter of respect. Others feel a Hall of Famer is best utilized specifically to lose in order to make their opponent better by having beaten someone with so much clout.
The two camps can argue back and forth, as they did when Kurt Angle lost to Baron Corbin at WrestleMania. And with Trish Stratus against Charlotte Flair booked for SummerSlam, that debate will reemerge.
If this were Stratus against Alexa Bliss, as was planned for Evolution, it would be easier to assume Stratus would get the win because of her status as a babyface against someone who largely wins via cheating.
The Queen does have her moments of failure, but she typically does what she says she's going to do and has been booked strong since her days in NXT.
WWE always prioritizes her as the top of the women's division and a future Hall of Famer, so beating Stratus isn't a reach for Flair.
If Stratus wins, it's to honor her career and to have a feelgood moment in her hometown. If Flair wins, it's to give her another accolade and put her over with as much heat as possible with the angry Toronto audience.
Prediction: Flair wins.
Universal Champion Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins
10 of 10
Whenever Brock Lesnar is wrestling a match, you always have to bet on him winning. His track record drastically favors a success, no matter his opponent, because WWE has made him nigh unstoppable year after year.
Seth Rollins had to skirt around the rules to win the Universal Championship at WrestleMania, where it was clear that he wasn't the better man, so how is there any hope that this will play out any differently than Lesnar winning outright?
The Beast Slayer earned that moniker via a technicality, and whenever WWE has a priority like Lesnar take a loss, it's inevitable that a win will come back to balance the scales.
That is what this match is: The correction to return everything to the status quo of having The Beast Incarnate as the top champion on Raw so that he can hold the title going into WrestleMania 36, which will please USA and Fox even though Lesnar won't be on television anywhere close to a weekly basis.
But WWE has ignored that logic for years, so we shouldn't expect anything different. And if this is more than a short match consisting of German suplexes and an F-5 or two before Lesnar leaves with the belt, it will be astonishing.
Prediction: Lesnar retains the title.
Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.
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