Rasslin’ Roundtable — WWE SummerSlam 2012 PPV (John Cena, CM Punk, Sheamus)

Features, Roundtables, Top Story

Santino Marella (c) vs. Antonio Cesaro
United States Championship

Matthew Harrak: As Roddy Piper once said, the only people who need a “strap” are ones who can’t get over on their own. Cesaro fits that description perfectly.
Winner: Antonio Cesaro

Rhett Davis: Let’s face it. Santino has done absolutely nothing to help the prestige of this title and has made it even more of a prop (as if it needed the help). Antonio Cesaro winning will at least give the title to someone who is on the up instead of someone like Santino that I’m not even sure ever defended it. Except against maybe David Otunga. And I thought he was supposed to win this title from him? Well anyways, I hope Antonio hits him with another solid uppercut for the three count.
Winner (and NEW United States Champion): Antonio Cesaro

Mike Gojira: It’s about damn time Santino defended this belt.  I really wish they’d bring back the 30-day defense rule for television purposes.  In any case, we’ll know once and for all if the WWE thinks Cesaro has that It Factor if they pull the trigger on him winning the title tonight.  If he doesn’t win, I’m not too keen on his future.
Winner and NEW Champion: Antonio Cesaro

Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar (with Paul Heyman)

Matthew Harrak: If they are smart, they will re-establish Brock Lesnar as a monster threat. If he loses to Triple H after losing to Cena, his character just might be too damaged to be worth anything.
Winner: Brock Lesnar

Rhett Davis: The Game versus The Big Thing. This is supposed to be a huge feud, but generally it really feels slowly developed and dragged out. Plus I don’t want to see the same promo over, and over, and over like we have been involving these two. As for who wins? I have my picks on Brock. He needs it to re-establish him as an ‘Ass-Kicker.’
Winner: Brock Lesnar

Mike Gojira: The only outcome of this match MUST be Lesnar’s domination of The Game.  Anything else makes zero sense and is an insult to our intelligence.
Winner: Brock Lesnar

CM Punk (c) vs. The Big Show vs. John Cena
Triple Threat match for the WWE Championship

Matthew Harrak: There’s been so much talk about John Cena facing The Rock at the Royal Rumble, which makes perfect sense. But IT’S AUGUST! There’s plenty of time to get the belt on Cena before then while still giving Punk credibility as champion. Plus, I’m expecting the new rumored WWE title at Summerslam or the more logical, Night of Champions, next month.
Winner: CM Punk

Rhett Davis: Well Big Show is there to pick up the pin. They ended last year’s Punk/Cena angle with controversy and they want this year’s SummerSlam to end with controversy surrounding it again? Weird. Oh! And be happy… this is the first PPV in awhile that Cena will not be main-eventing. Thank Brock and HHH for that one.
Winner (and STILL WWE Champion): Chris Masters’ Punk

Mike Gojira: Yawn.  Punk’s right about wanting to cancel the Triple Threat, but not for his heelish reasoning.  It should be cancelled because NO ONE wants to see Cena or Big Show in the title hunt anymore.  Contrary to popular opinion, I don’t see a Rock run-in tonight.  If he did, the next time he’d show up would be prior to the Royal Rumble (four months away), so any heat he’d have with Punk would dissipate by then.
Winner: CM Punk

Kane vs. Daniel Bryan

Matthew Harrak: Kane doesn’t need the win at all but Bryan is getting even MORE over with this paranoid, crazy character, loses could actually help him. I can see AJ getting involved and costing him the match.
Winner: Kane

Rhett Davis: Ugh. I hate to see Daniel Bryan getting used in this angle instead of being in a legitimate feud where there is no celebrity interruption. Kane wins thanks to either interference or Sheen actually attack Daniel Bryan while the ref isn’t watching.
Winner: The Big Red Monster

Mike Gojira: Charlie Sheen.  That is all.
Winner: Kane

Dolph Ziggler vs. Chris Jericho

Matthew Harrak: Jericho has the reputation of feeling the most useful by putting over new talent that has a future in the WWE. That man is Dolph Ziggler and I honestly can’t see him losing.
Winner: Dolph Ziggler

Rhett Davis: This is definitely my vote for MOTN, but I also feel the outcome is easy. Jericho wins and disappears for awhile only to come back to challenge the World Champion Dolph Ziggler. See if Jericho wins then he already has a claim on why he deserves a shot at Ziggler. Jericho wins after Sheamus runs down and distracts Ziggler like Dolph has done to him. Dolph will then act as if he is cashing in in the World title match leading to Del Rio winning.
Winner: Y2J

Mike Gojira: The match of the night and, in my opinion, the last step before propelling Ziggler into the main event spotlight.  Based on what’s happened for the past week, Ziggler has been one-upping Y2J in each encounter which would lead one to believe that Jericho gets his revenge tonight.  However, Jericho has been known to put over his rivals even if he’s earned the right to get some payback (see: Triple H, John Cena).  Based on his recent comeback attempt, Jericho needs the win more since he hasn’t won on PPV at all this year.  Ziggler can lose gracefully with a Codebreaker or get cheated out of a victory by the wily veteran.
Winner: Chris Jericho

The Miz (c) vs. Rey Mysterio
WWE Intercontinental Championship

Matthew Harrak: Why the hell would Rey Mysterio win the Intercontinental Championship?
Winner: The Miz

Rhett Davis: I feel like they just looked at the roster and thought who was a face who they could use to put over The Miz and came to Rey Mysterio who has done absolutely NOTHING since returning. Anyways, I have a lot of heels winning so I’ll probably be wrong on a lot of these.
Winner (and STILL I-C Champion): The Miz

Mike Gojira: As I’ve stated before, there’s no story here; Rey’s in his home state so he gets this match.  I don’t think hotshotting the belt is a good idea here, so either The Miz wins via cheating and gets his comeuppance after the match, or Rey wins via DQ.  Hmmmm……..
Winner: The Miz

R-Truth and Kofi Kingston (c) vs. The Primetime Players (Titus O’Neil and Darren Young)
Tag Team Championship

Matthew Harrak: I don’t care for either of these teams but I think they are finally realizing that Kofi and Truth aren’t getting over as a team whereas O’Neil and Young are as heels, even without AW.
Winners: The PTP

Rhett Davis: They finally get their match with the tag team champions. It seems like forever since I’ve actually seen R-Boom team together. I know they teamed in a 8-man tag a few weeks ago, but forget about that. I mean just a two-on-two tag match. Maybe I’m forgetting something. Anyways, the PTP have been going on strong so it’ll be interesting to see if they go ahead and give them the gold. I think they will.
Winners (and NEW WWE Tag Team Champions): The ‘Unstoppable’ Team

Mike Gojira: With the loss of their mouthpiece, the PTP has become just another generic tag team.  However, if Triple H is as high on the tag scene as I’ve heard, they need the win here and a big push to remain credible.
Winners and NEW Champions: The Primetime Players

Sheamus (c) vs. Alberto Del Rio
World Heavyweight Championship

Matthew Harrak: Sheamus has defeated Del Rio cleanly numerous times already and there’s no reason to put the belt on a heel while a heel (Dolph Ziggler) carries the Money In The Bank briefcase. Honestly, I can see Del Rio losing, beating up Sheamus post match and Ziggler successfully cashing in the briefcase.
Winner: Sheamus

Rhett Davis: *Yawn* Is this over yet? I really hoped that they would at least add a stipulation to this match after cancelling it, but nope. They just left it a singles match. Everyone seems to be thinking that Dolph will cash in after this match, but I’m thinking they will let Mr. Ziggles hold on to that for a little while later. Sheamus should win this, but they were discussing that ADR wanted a title run so why not give him the title here? He could win through shenanigans and then have Sheamus chasing and earning a title match.
Winner: (and NEW World Heavyweight Champion): Alberto del Rio

Mike Gojira: It will be interesting to see where the company places this match on the card.  If it’s toward the end of the night, we could be in for a cash-in of the briefcase.  Wouldn’t it be hilarious if it opens the show, Ziggler cashes in, and his match with Jericho becomes a title match so he can attempt to literally “win the big one”?  Even better: what if del Rio wins only to get screwed out of the belt by Ziggler?  Imagine the crowd reaction!  Regardless, I think we all know Sheamus will retain and then…..
Winner via Cash-In and NEW Champion: Dolph Ziggler

Brodus Clay vs. Damien Sandow

Rhett Davis: Two men that have really been on a roll this year, but neither has really had a legitimate PPV match. I don’t count Brodus’ pre-show match. It’ll be interesting to see if they give Brodus a little nudge after totally forgetting about his undefeated streak and having him lose to Big Show easy. Or if they continue to give Damien Sandow the push by having him go over the behemoth that is Brodus Clay. I vote the later. Or better yet just have Damien Sandow destroy Brodus, but lose by DQ.
Winner (By DQ): Funkasaurus Clay

Kevin Rudolf Concert

Mike Gojira: No Divas match, no Brodus Clay vs Damien Sandow, no Randy Orton, and no Cody Rhodes vs Sin Cara.  We get stuck with the theme song for Summerslam shoved down our collective throats.  Hey, maybe he’ll wear a trashbag like Cee-Lo did last year.  That would make this more entertaining.
Losers:
All of us.

Closing Statements

Matthew Harrak: It would be interesting if the World Title match took place before the Ziggler/Jericho match and then changing that match to a World title match. If that was the case, I would absolutely see Jericho winning the World title (especially after all this talk of “winning the big one”.) While this would suck for Ziggler, he could very easily win the title back at Night of Champions, running Jericho out of the WWE and moving onto a feud with Sheamus who never got a rematch.

Although we’re supposed to think Brock Lesnar vs. Triple H is the biggest match, Triple H won’t take the stiff shots Cena took at Extreme Rules and I think a lot of people will be let down. Extreme Rules was not a wrestling match for Lesnar so he’s going to be rusty and as good as Triple H is, he is over 40 and carrying a rusty, MMA trained Lesnar through a decently long match might be too much.

CM Punk/John Cena/The Big Show is going to be the story of the night. While I still hold firm that this storyline would have been stronger without Big Show, CM Punk’s recent teases of a heel turn have added the intrigue this match needed. Punk’s character is already pissed that he hasn’t been in the main event for months and now the first time he is in the main event, it’s with John Cena. It’s time to pull the trigger and bring back the CM Punk of last summer and let the fans choose whether or not boo him. I think we’ll be seeing a CM Punk standing tall over a beaten down Cena by the end of the night.

Rhett Davis: Overall it looks like an OK SummerSlam with about half of it looking great and the other half just looking really dry. I guess we’ll see what happens!

Mike Gojira: There’s not much to go on in the way of excitement, apart from the Jericho/Ziggler match, but we could possibly see a number of title changes.  Definitely NOT one of my favorite Summerslam cards.

Kelly has been with Inside Pulse since 6/2010, beginning with just her 10 Thoughts on WWE Superstars column. Now she brings you her 10 Thoughts on Smackdown weekly, and constructs the Rasslin' Roundtables for PPV's. In her spare time, she works with indy fed, Future Stars of Wrestling - AZ, wrangles children for her day job, and is generally and exceptionally awesome.