WWE SummerSlam 2017: What we’re looking forward to the most

Once coined “The WrestleMania of the summer”, SummerSlam returns tonight to Brooklyn, NY, part of a big weekend that already included a hot TakeOver event and Raw and Smackdown this week.

We asked our writers what they were looking forward to the most tonight. Here’s what they had to say:

Jeremy Peeples (WWE 205 Live recapper) —

The Universal Title match is easily the most interesting part of the entire weekend. The NXT event felt cold going in, but SummerSlam itself feels exciting thanks to this match. Braun Strowman, Roman Reigns, and Samoa Joe stole the show on Raw in a triple threat and then Braun and Roman did it again with the office chair-throwing last man standing match.

The build for this has made everyone involved feel like they are on Brock’s level to some degree which is the highest possible level a non-McMahon can have in WWE. The result is also going to be interesting because with the stipulation being added that if he loses, he leaves Brock seems like a dead ringer to win. This wouldn’t be bad, but with Joe having so much momentum and a limited time to really be a top-level guy, it still feels like the time to pull the trigger on a title win for him.

Joseph Currier (Website editor) —

I’ll be at SummerSlam live, and the match that confirmed that I was buying a ticket was the Universal Championship main event. I’ve had mixed/negative feelings on a lot of Brock Lesnar’s singles matches over the last few years, but it’s almost always great when he’s in a multi-man. Lesnar gets to add his offense to a match instead of completely taking it over.

This may have the most potential of any of Lesnar’s multi-man matches since returning. Raw has been pretty good for a while due to the mix at the top of the card working. Samoa Joe, Strowman, and Reigns are all credible threats and should mix in well with Lesnar.

The stipulation of Lesnar and Paul Heyman leaving WWE if they lose may have been more of a negative than a positive, but Lesnar winning isn’t as much of a lock given the history of “loser leaves” stipulations in pro wrestling. Either way, it should be a fantastic match if everyone works as well together as expected.

Steve Khan (WWE SmackDown recapper) —

The thing I’m most looking forward to at SummerSlam is the reunion of Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins. The Fatal Four-Way main event should be tremendous, but I’m not that emotionally invested in it. Perhaps because they’ve negated the meaning of the Universal Title, and all the titles, or perhaps because we have a pretty good idea of who’s winning.

A year ago, I wrote about Ambrose finally becoming WWE Champion and why it was significant. His feud with Seth Rollins, after Rollins broke up the Shield, was memorable, and a rarity in today’s WWE programming. Something that had real stakes. The fans wanted nothing more than to see Ambrose get revenge on Rollins. The feud had an unsatisfactory end, but here we are years later, and they’re finally on the same page again.

This is good for Sheamus and Cesaro as well. They’re a good team, but this could catapult tham as a top heel group, as the team preventing the Shield from fulling regaining their glory. Ambrose and Rollins are often at their best when they’re involved with each other, and this should make for an interesting direction for two-thirds of the Shield.

Paul Fontaine (Wrestling Observer MMA recapper) —

Since I imagine everyone will say the Raw main event, I’ve got to be a bit different and go with Ambrose and Rollins again Sheamus and Cesaro. I think these guys will have a sleeper of a great match and there’s the potential for the elevation of the tag titles if two main eventers and former World champion can take the belts.

Follow along with our SummerSlam coverage tonight.