We’ll eventually get Kevin Owens vs. Shane McMahon, and that’s okay!

Shane McMahon is going to have a match at one of the Big Four pay-per-views, if not more than one of them. At SummerSlam, he’s just going to be the referee between Kevin Owens and United States Champion AJ Styles, as Owens feels like he’s been treated unfairly after yet another controversial finish. You know that this match is going to end up leading to an eventual KO vs. Shane-O showdown, because there’s zero chance Owens is happy with the job his boss does as ref. And really, that’s fine.

McMahon is still a big deal to WWE fans, so even if you’d prefer to see Kevin Owens facing off against John Cena again or seeing his lifelong feud against Sami Zayn takes its next step or any number of other things he could be doing, there’s nothing wrong with Owens facing McMahon. If it’s a feud that spans Survivor Series, Royal Rumble, and WrestleMania 34, then yeah, sure, let’s all be annoyed together at that use of the entire Big Four. But if we’re getting McMahon vs. Owens at Survivor Series as one of the few singles matches on a card built around elimination tag matches, cool.

Shane vs. AJ Styles was widely derided until it happened and was a giant ball of dumb fun that helped set the tone for WrestleMania 33. Putting Owens, who is historically tremendous in violent gimmick matches, in a match with a guy who will do literally anything to himself or allow anything to be done to him in order to put on a show, is capable of upstaging that.

Plus, it’s not like Owens has lacked time at the top or in the title scene. He’s been Universal Champion or United States Champion for most of the last year, and a feud with Shane McMahon is a good sidestep sideshow until it’s time for Owens to dig into something a little more long-term with meat on it.

• SmackDown’s big “dream match” probably would have gone a lot better if there had been any build to it whatsoever and Shinsuke Nakamura hadn’t spent months making Dolph Ziggler look good.
• Catch up on the week in WWE and its wrestlers social media with Wednesday’s edition of Social Slam.
• Wednesday’s Rumor Roundup delves into what John Cena might be doing at SummerSlam now that he’s lost to Nakamura.
• Nakamura suplexed Cena right on his head near the finish to that match, and apologized for it. Cena is legitimately superhuman and shrugged it off, because of course he did.
• WWE is reporting that Bayley hurt her shoulder on RAW, which could put her SummerSlam plans in jeopardy. It’s worth pointing out that Bayley is so good at selling injuries that it’s tough to know if she’s actually hurt or if this is a story. It might end up being both!
• Akira Tozawa will take on Neville at SummerSlam in another attempt to be the first person to take the Cruiserweight belt off the King.
• We also get Rusev vs. Randy Orton at SummerSlam, which has the potential to be great or oh god please make it stop.
• Smacking Talk has already been canceled, so I guess now it’s time for Daniel Bryan and Renee Young to start Tacking Smalk.
• The Battleground announce team said “structure” 64 times during the Punjabi Prison match.
• Dave Bautista opened up about his childhood and social anxiety.
• ESPN has a feature on the G1 Climax reaching its midway point.
• Here’s Colette Arnaud over at Paste writing about the revolutionary potential of Kenny Omega.
• Oh good, more whispers about potential budget cutbacks to WWE’s product.