WWE SUMMERSLAM 2026 – PREDICTIONS
Are you ready to SummerSlam and Jam?!? No? Well, too bad, because it’s time for WWE’s biggest party of the summer, SummerSlam. One of the company’s three biggest annual shows will go down this weekend, live from the Serena Williams of the Twin Cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota. WWE is currently in a bit of a rut; fan sentiment seems to be down due to the creative direction and subsequent TV product. This could be part of the reason why the company found itself struggling to move tickets for the show. They managed to boost sales over the past couple of weeks, in part by aggressively running ads featuring Vikings star receiver Justin Jefferson promoting tickets for only twenty-five dollars. An even more successful strategy would’ve been to have head coach Kevin O’Connell threaten to start JJ McCarthy at QB this season if the event didn’t sell out.
The two-night premium live event features an exciting 12-match card, but it’s nowhere near as exciting as the 12-match predictions coming your way in this article. The battle for pro wrestling supremacy here at Talent Alone is in full swing as Adam and I are back just a week after predicting AEW’s Redemption pay-per-view. Adam got himself a little redemption at the show, defeating me for the first time this year 7-6, which brings the running total of the competition to Mike: 22-7, Adam: 19-10
I’d write a longer intro, but there’s a strong chance I’m about to go on some unnecessary long rants talking about these matches, so let’s just get into it.
SummerSlam 2026 - Predictions - Night One
The Bella Twins (Nikki Bella & Brie Bella) & Paige vs Fatal Influence (Jacy Jane, Lainey Reid, & Fallon Henley)
MIKE: Fun fact, as of this writing, Lainey Reid does not have her own Wikipedia page. I feel like that says something, and that something tracks with my interest for this match. I’m a lifelong Bella hater who enjoys ranting about WWE lying and over-glorifying the impact they had. Which is exactly why they will probably win. Oh, and here’s a hot take to piss off a part of the internet. Paige is overrated.
THE BELLAS & PAIGE
ADAM: I think the juggling of these titles would be another notch in a relatively down period for the belts, but I also think WWE is enjoying the Paige isn’t on AEW high they’ve been riding for the last 3 months.
THE BELLA TWINS & PAIGE
LA Knight, Solo Sikoa, & Royce Keys vs The Bloodline (Jacob Fatu, Jimmy Uso & Jey Uso)
ADAM: This is a really fun battle of the two constant warring forces in WWE, what the fans want vs what creative wants. Fortunately, despite the Usos’ falloff and them cutting the legs out from Fatu, the fans aren’t as high on LA Knight as they were a year ago. Wait, I think I basically just talked myself into this being a cold match. I hope I’m wrong and I hope we get the Fatu train rolling again.
THE BLOODLINE
MIKE: Everything involving this current Bloodline story has been so muddled, and it shows in the crowd reactions. It’s not clear who the crowd is supposed to get behind, and that confusion has made the crowd less hot overall. For the most part, WWE seems to be keeping Reigns more on the babyface side. Meanwhile, his crew is acting overtly heelish. In the case of Jacob Fatu, it has caused a disjointed dynamic, because the audience still wants to cheer him. On the other side of things, Solo Sikoa has seemingly turned babyface, which I think could work, but once again, people’s uncertainty about how they want to react to the Bloodline has undercut Sikoa. As for the outcome of this match, there is always the chance that the Usos convince Solo to come back to the family at the eleventh hour and he turns on his team. Maybe Fatu says, “screw this” and goes back on his word, turning on the Bloodline. However, I think that moment is likely not to happen until later this year. Unless an aspect of this match is to have LA Knight defeat the Bloodline soldiers as a way to elevate him to getting a shot against Reigns, it’s more likely his team takes the L. As we’ve seen, Triple H and company have no interest in putting Knight in that spot, so Bloodline wins.
THE BLOODLINE
Women’s World Championship:
Liv Morgan(c) vs Iyo Sky
MIKE: As I’ve said before, Liv has come a long way from years back when WWE was trying to push her as this white meat babyface. She’s decent in the ring now, and works best as a heel. With all that said, she has become boring. There’s been no interesting next step or chapter to her story, and while she’s gotten better in the ring, she’s still someone who needs that good story to make it work. I’m going to take Iyo, but WWE really needs to figure out what they are going to do after that, because there’s not much on the Raw side of the women’s roster for Sky to work as champ.
IYO SKY
ADAM: Let’s not forget, Liv Morgan is currently suffering a Danhausen curse. Danhausen has taken down Mysterio, the entire East, and the San Antonio Spurs, so I have my doubts that Morgan can break that. That being said, if they do flip the belt here, it might be Valkyria time next.
IYO SKY
Gunther vs Nick Aldis
ADAM: KAYFABE TIME. How is Nick Aldis going to hang with one of the top wrestlers in the world? Mr. GM hasn’t laced em up in 3 years and before that was wallowing away in B-Tier promotions without making it to the show. This should be Gunther, and I’ll even take Gunther -2.5.
GUNTHER
MIKE: I think it discounts Nick Aldis’ pre-WWE run to not point out that, while he was in lesser promotions, he was doing very good work. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing the former NWA champion get back into the ring. It was always interesting that, even though he was only in his mid 30’s at the time, he came into the company as a producer behind the scenes before becoming the SmackDown GM. While he’s not an elite in-ring talent, he’s good enough, carries himself well, and has a good presence about him. Those factors lead to his matches being good when it’s been built up by a good story, and the build to this match has been very good. As a matter of fact, it probably has been the best built match on both nights of Summerslam. Aldis will have his moments, while a big part of the story around the match will be how he hasn’t wrestled in a long time and is rusty. He’ll come out of the gate hot, get cut off, Gunther will dominate him for a stretch until Aldis makes a fiery comeback, before Gunther takes back over to pull out the win. That’s been the usual format when Gunther has faced someone a step below him.
GUNTHER
Hell in a Cell:
Oba Femi vs Brock Lesnar
MIKE: I’m surprised Lesnar would agree to do this match. If you remember, after he defeated Femi back at Backlash, he said off camera while walking off the ramp, “One and One, you’re done,” To which we all replied, “um…sure, okay.” It will be interesting to see who the crowd is more behind in this match because, while currently residing in Saskatchewan, Canada, Lesnar is a Minneapolis native and was a standout collegiate wrestler at the University of Minnesota, winning an NCAA Wrestling Championship. There’s a strong chance that doesn’t matter because all of WWE’s Gen Z snowflake fans aren’t students of the game. As for the match itself, it won’t be the usual long, drawn-out war we usually get in Hell In a Cell, but it should be a car crash filled with big spots. The outcome isn’t that hard to call; it’s the rubber match between Femi and Lesnar. Oba wins to continue cementing his arrival as a top guy.
OBA FEMI
ADAM: You know how when they have a battle royale outside of the Royal Rumble it’s a battle royale, and if it happens during the Royal Rumble it’s a Royal Rumble? I feel like we should have the same rules for Hell in a Cell. Yeah, if it happens during Hell in a Cell, it’s a Hell in a Cell match, but when it happens at the tippity top of August, it should be just a cell match. Anyways, Lesnar will get a huge pop, and I’ll be disappointed in all of us for it, but not as disappointed as I’ll be at the end of the match.
BROCK LESNAR
Undisputed WWE Championship:
CM Punk(c) vs Cody Rhodes
ADAM: The winner of this match should get to hate the Young Bucks the most imo. This should be a stellar in-ring match with a lot of callbacks to previous matches. Rhodes got very stale and… is still stale. I can’t imagine a reason to go back to Rhodes on this, especially after they had to go through an intermediary to get the title on Punk to begin with.
CM PUNK
MIKE: The build up to this match has been a good example of how to make babyface vs babyface work. While neither of them has been heelish, they’ve done the little things to create tension. I really like the part of Cody’s promo on last week’s Smackdown where he pointed out that everything Punk talked about in the past, Rhodes actually went out and did it. Sure, it’s something that casual WWE-only fans might not get, but it was a good layer to add. I agree that there’s not a strong argument to be made for a title change. Taking Cody out of the title picture for a while opens up different stories for him to be involved in, which is for the best. If you’re someone who thinks we could be headed for a Cody heel turn, stop it. He’s taken a page out of the John Cena playbook and will never turn heel. Meanwhile, CM Punk turning would be a great outcome, as he’s done most of his best work as a heel. However, I’ve been hoping to see that for what seems like years, so I’m not holding my breath. Punk turning or not, The Best In the World wins this match.
CM PUNK
SummerSlam 2026 - Predictions - Night Two
Human Monies on a Pole Match:
Danhausen vs Dominik Mysterio
MIKE: When it comes to everything surrounding this match and Danhausen, I want to tell WWE, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, F*CK YOU. Don’t get me wrong, Danhausen has worked in the past in small doses as a palate cleanser in between the more serious things, but the way WWE has had him all over TV, all over promotional stuff, even on ESPN, has been terrible. His little concert with Joe Henry on the go-home Raw for SummerSlam was the type of god-awful stuff that turns people off from pro wrestling and fuels speculation that Vince is shadow booking behind the scenes. Not to go fool K-Dot, but when it comes to Danhausen in WWE, I hate his terrible theme song, I hate his stupid tank he drives to the ring, I hate the gang of tiny Danahusens that Michael Cole constantly reminds me prefer to be called midgets, and I hate this match. This company can take that pole and that bag of money, shine’em up, turn them sum bitches sideways, and shove’em straight up there candy ass!
DANHAUSEN
ADAM: The intel on this one is that Danhausen is a heavy favorite, but it literally doesn’t matter if Danhausen wins or loses any match. The reason he is famous is that he’s on Sportscenter or doing viral videos with Kid Cudie or whatever else they have him doing. On the other hand, Mysterio has hit a bit of a skid after dropping the Intercontinental belt, and a win here on the biggest party of the summer could be the first step to set him right.
DOMINIK MYSTERIO
Interim WWE Women’s Championship Five-Way Ladder Match:
Tiffany Stratton vs Jade Cargill vs Chelsea Green vs Charlotte Flair vs Giulia vs Lash Legend
ADAM: Come on, guys. An interim belt? Who are you, AEW? Put the belt on someone or no one, but this half-measure is crap. We’re all here off the Rhea Ripley injury, and she will probably be returned as champ when she comes back, so this is probably going on someone they like but don’t care about pushing to the moon.
LASH LEGEND
MIKE: You can eliminate Chelsea Green and Giulia as potential winners right off the bat, along with Jade Cargill, because it’s unlikely WWE would go back to that so soon after Ripley beat Jade twice. I’m also glad to say Stratton has cooled off since her return and won’t win. That narrows it down to two. Legend is a good dark horse pick, as it would create a rare matchup where Ripley’s foe is bigger than her. Still, I’m going with my heart here by picking the Queen to win and add another chapter to the Flair vs Ripley rivalry.
CHARLOTTE FLAIR
WWE United States Championship:
Trick Williams(c) vs Baron Corbin
MIKE: I remember a time way back in the ancient years of the mid 2010’s, during Corbin’s time in NXT and early main roster run, that I thought he could work as a top guy. That unfortunately faded as they made him a hokey character. Whether it was his Sad Corbin or Happy Corbin gimmick, it had a concrete ceiling impossible to break through to get into the main event scene. If WWE was going to bring him back, I’m at least happy that it was once again as a more serious character. The best option to establish him as someone legitimate following his return would be him winning the belt off Trick Williams.
BARON CORBIN
ADAM: If we’ve learned nothing from the cast of angry people returning to WWE or AEW in the last several years, it’s that nothing will bring frustrated wrestlers back home like a suitcase full of money. Corbin has never been used well and will never climb that high; on the other hand, Trick Williams is incredibly popular, has a great entrance song, and is 9 years younger than Corbin.
TRICK WILLIAMS
WWE Intercontinental Championship:
Penta(c) vs Chad Gable
ADAM: This will be a very particular kind of match that you either will fuck with or not. Gable is coming off a match of the year candidate bout against Ludwig Kaiser (which Gable lost); now is the time for the Gable push. I think the Intercontinental belt would look pretty good on the artist formerly known as El Grande Americano.
CHAD GABLE
MIKE: Between his charisma and in-ring ability, Penta is awesome. Unfortunately, this will be where his Intercontinental title reign ends. WWE wants to capitalize on Gable’s momentum coming off the highly touted Mask vs Mask match between El Grande Americanos in Triple A. Minnesota apparently just cranks out good amateur wrestlers. Gable is also a Minneapolis native and former Olympic wrestler.
CHAD GABLE
Undisputed WWE Championship #1 Contender Match:
Sami Zayn vs Finn Balor
MIKE: Not a lot to say about this one. They’ve been doing a lot of backstage segments to foreshadow Balor getting a title shot. I think “The Hottest Ting in the Business”(does anybody remember that promo anymore?) gets the win here while another loss continues the Sami Zayn crash-out.
FINN BALOR
Does anybody also remember way back when they referred to Balor as, “The extraordinary man who does extraordinary things?” That was extraordinarily stupid.
ADAM: Yeah, it doesn’t make a ton of sense for them to put the belt on Zayn, take the belt off Zayn, then give him the #1 Contender spot. Either guy here is getting fed to a wood chipper.
FINN BALOR
World Heavyweight Championship:
Roman Reigns(c) vs Seth Rollins
ADAM: You know how you have like 1 shirt you think you look best in, so whenever you have a particular need to feel good, you wear that shirt? That’s what Reigns/Rollins is. I think this will be a very good match by two of the best talents of their generation, but there doesn’t seem to be much question about the outcome.
ROMAN REIGNS
MIKE: I know it’s been awhile since Reigns and Rollins last faced off, but it feels like it hasn’t. WWE has been treating their audience like they’re dumb and have the memory of a golden retriever. Throughout the build to this title match, they’ve been hammering the lie that Roman has to win this match for his legacy because he’s never been able to beat Seth. Really? You sure about that? Because many people online have produced video evidence of Reigns pinning Rollins in the middle of the ring on a multitude of occasions during the two wrestlers careers. It’s also funny because the last time we saw The Architect and The Tribal Chief in the ring together was back at WrestleMania XL. If you’ve forgotten, night one of that show saw Roman and The Rock beat Cody and Seth in a tag match. Then, on night two, Seth attempted to interfere in the Rhodes vs. Reigns title match only to immediately get cracked in the jaw by a superman punch from Roman and taken out. That punch must’ve given Rollins partial amnesia, because per his words on Raw, he feels Roman is his bitch. Lastly, how many times are they going to do a callback to Rollins turning on the shield and hitting Reigns in the back with a chair. It’s been 12 years, move on guys. As for the outcome of the latest battle between to, there is a 0.0000% chance of Rollins winning. There are only two possible men to eventually take the World Title off Roman, those being Jacob Fatu or Oba Femi.
ROMAN REIGNS…OOH AAH
12 matches, 4 disagreements, 2 nights. SummerSlam is a two day event, but this is a year long battle for us at Talent Alone. Thank you, as always, for reading our predictions and be sure to come back next time for another slate of them.
