Opinion: SummerSlam 2018 is doomed to fail
This year's edition of SummerSlam is just a week away from Sunday. It's really ludicrous to me that WWE has terribly booked the prelude to SummerSlam. The build-up to the event has been stale, dull, boring and uninteresting to say the least.
WWE hasn't built up many of its marquee matches for the event that well, like Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns. This week's editions of Raw and SmackDown Live were mostly fillers, with little of note occurring on both shows.
Although the card boasts long-awaited dream matches like AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe and Daniel Bryan vs The Miz, there is nominal interest heading into the event. The lackluster build to SummerSlam has endangered the event's chances of success.
SummerSlam 2018 should be renamed; 'The Rematch Galore'. The majority of matches taking place at this year's event are rematches that have been done multiple times in the past.
Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler will fight for the Intercontinental Title for the umpteenth time, Baron Corbin and Finn Balor will face off in a rubber match that has no one excited, Jeff Hardy will face Shinsuke Nakamura for the US Championship in a standard rematch that is likely to be ruined by Randy Orton, and Roman Reigns will face Brock Lesnar for the Universal Title for the third time this year.
Not to forget, Braun Strowman will be facing Kevin Owens in a singles match with his Money in the Bank briefcase on the line. The Bludgeon Brothers will also defend their titles against The New Day once again after squaring off numerous times earlier this year.
Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar is set to main-event the show. Although the crowd is slowly starting to accept Roman Reigns, fans will definitely hijack the show if Reigns and Lesnar main-event.
These two have had the spotlight on them for far too long, and the fans want to see new names in the spotlight. Fans want to see AJ Styles and Samoa Joe go on last, but that is extremely unlikely.
Moreover, many deserving full-time talents like Bobby Roode and Asuka aren't booked for the show. Furthermore, many popular stars like Finn Balor and Seth Rollins have been booked in underwhelming rematches that have lost their luster.
This year's event doesn't include many big names. The only draws on the card are Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey. John Cena will be missing out on SummerSlam this year, The Undertaker is nowhere to be seen, and The Rock's busy schedule means that he is unlikely to make an appearance this year.
SummerSlam still has three matches that fans are genuinely excited about - Ronda Rousey vs Alexa Bliss, AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe and Daniel Bryan vs The Miz. However, other than these three matches, there's nothing to be excited about. WWE is likely to ruin these dream matches by not giving them the spotlight they deserve, and by booking them in odd ways.