Predicting the match order at SummerSlam 2017

It's one thing to predict the winners and losers at SummerSlam 2017, but how about taking a guess at the match order on that card?

WWE has announced 10 different matches for the main card of SummerSlam 2017.

Here is my subjective view of how important each of these 10 segments rank on the SummerSlam card, ordered from most important to least important.

1. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman vs. Samoa Joe
2. Jinder Mahal vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
3. Cesaro & Sheamus vs. Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins
4. AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens
5. John Cena vs. Baron Corbin
6. Alexa Bliss vs. Sasha Banks
7. Randy Orton vs. Rusev
8. Big Show vs. Big Cass
9. Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt
10. Naomi vs. Natalya

It is important to come up with a list like this to get an idea of which matches are going to be placed in the key spots on the card or take up the most time, and which matches might end up in the cool-down spots or be given the least amount of time.

Main event

Lesnar’s defense of the Universal Championship is the clear front-runner to headline this event, and the only other match that even has a small chance to supplant it in the main event slot is Nakamura’s quest for the WWE Championship.

Opening match

The opening match of the night is usually one of the mid-level attractions with good work rate that normally doesn’t require a dedicated video package ahead of time to hype it up.

Using my list from above, I think any of the matches from the Ambrose tag all the way down to Balor’s match could open the card, with the exception of KO’s match. Making a choice between these 6 matches will not be easy.

If WWE really wants to start the show hot, they could immediately go for the tag championship match featuring Ambrose and Rollins. My main hesitancy with choosing this match for Segment 1 is that there is definitely material here for a dedicated video package, and this match might be needed later on to keep the crowd invested during an event that is way too long.

I think Corbin’s cash-in failure opens up the possiblity that he could actually open the show with a quick and decisive loss to John Cena, to really hammer home the point that Corbin is a loser and that Cena is ready for newer challenges on Raw.

There are a couple other decent choices in there, but ultimately I am going to settle on the return of the Demon King for the opening match. The return of the Demon King would be a cool way to start the show and get the crowd hot for a match that could otherwise be lost in the shuffle if it took place later on in the night.

That gives me the following card:

Segment 1: Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt
Segment 2:
Segment 3:
Segment 4:
Segment 5:
Segment 6:
Segment 7:
Segment 8:
Segment 9:
Segment 10: Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman vs. Samoa Joe

Everything else

For the second straight year the WWE Championship match at SummerSlam feels pretty lackluster, and I don’t think WWE needs to put a cool-down match in between the WWE Championship match and the Universal Championship match. I am very comfortable ending the show with those matches running back-to-back, and so I’m putting Mahal’s match in Segment 9.

On a typical WWE PPV that includes 7 or 8 matches, Segment 2 is usually reserved for one of the shortest or least important matches of the night. It’s harder to say whether or not that is also the case for a PPV with 10 matches; ultimately I think there’s a good chance that Segment 2 or 3 will be used for a lesser match before a more prominent bout is pulled out right after that.

Naomi or Big Show seem to fit the bill for a quicker match in Segment 2. I’ll choose Naomi’s match for that slot, creating more distance between the two women’s championship matches.

That gives me the following card:

Segment 1: Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt
Segment 2: Naomi vs. Natalya
Segment 3:
Segment 4:
Segment 5:
Segment 6:
Segment 7:
Segment 8:
Segment 9: Jinder Mahal vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
Segment 10: Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman vs. Samoa Joe

While Balor and Naomi’s matches could both include some very memorable moments, I think at this point the card needs one of the juicier matches of the night to bridge the first two hours. That means either the Ambrose tag match or KO’s match could wind up in Segment 3. I’ll choose AJ and KO to run early in the night because the feud has been a little underwhelming; the Ambrose match feels like a more appropriate choice for a segment in the latter half of the card.

At this point I am just going to take the lazy approach of alternating Raw and SmackDown matches the rest of the way because it at least puts in place some kind of logic, as opposed to just random guessing.

AJ and KO could have a really long match, so I’ll follow it up with a short match between Big Show and Big Cass in Segment 4.

I’ll use Segment 5 for a SmackDown match, and it seems wrong to put Orton’s match later in the night than Cena’s match. Therefore I’ll put Orton in Segment 5, with Cena in Segment 7.

The final two Raw matches I have left are Alexa’s match and the tag team championship match. I’ll just choose the simple method of slotting the more important match later in the night, so that means Alexa gets Segment 6 while Ambrose gets Segment 8.

Finalized card

So here is my final prediction for the match order at SummerSlam, along with guesses on the bell-to-bell match times.

Segment 1: Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt (13 minutes)
Segment 2: Naomi vs. Natalya (10)
Segment 3: AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens (18)
Segment 4: Big Show vs. Big Cass (8)
Segment 5: Randy Orton vs. Rusev (14)
Segment 6: Alexa Bliss vs. Sasha Banks (12)
Segment 7: John Cena vs. Baron Corbin (13)
Segment 8: Cesaro & Sheamus vs. Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins (15)
Segment 9: Jinder Mahal vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (16)
Segment 10: Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman vs. Samoa Joe (15)

These predicted times add up to 134 minutes, which is more match time than a typical 4-hour WWE PPV contains. In its current form I think this card could run close to 4.5 hours, and WWE could easily stretch it to 5 full hours by adding a few minutes here and there to the top matches on the card.

That's my prediction for the match order at SummerSlam. What's yours?