Predicting the match order at SummerSlam 2018

It’s one thing to predict the winners and losers at SummerSlam 2018, but how about taking a guess at the match order on that card?

WWE has announced 11 different segments for the main card of SummerSlam 2018, excluding the three Kickoff matches.

Here is my subjective view of how important each of these 11 segments rank on the SummerSlam card, ordered from most important to least important.

1. Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns
2. Alexa Bliss vs. Ronda Rousey
3. AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe
4. Carmella vs. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair
5. Dolph Ziggler vs. Seth Rollins
6. Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz
7. Braun Strowman vs. Kevin Owens
8. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Jeff Hardy
9. Bludgeon Brothers vs. New Day
10. Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin
11. Elias musical performance

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.

This is yet another PPV where the WWE Championship match feels like it is missing something, and one could argue that it should be ranked as low as 6th on this list. Then there is Daniel Bryan versus Miz, which is a match some might rank towards the very top of the list.

The way I see it is that Lesnar and Rousey have the two most important matches of the night, while the next 4 matches on my rankings list have similar levels of importance and could be ranked in any order. Nakamura’s match would be ranked lower if Randy Orton wasn’t part of the story. Corbin’s match with Balor stands out as the least important match on the main card of SummerSlam.

Main event

The main event match comes down to Lesnar or Rousey. There has been so much speculation about how WWE is going to handle the finish of Lesnar’s match that it feels like it should be the main event. However, the crowd in Brooklyn will almost certainly be more receptive to a main event match featuring Ronda Rousey. Rousey is going to main event a WWE PPV soon enough, but ultimately I think the Lesnar story takes that spot on this card.

Working Backwards

I think the WWE Championship match and Ronda Rousey will both be placed towards the very end of the night. I’ll slot in Ronda after the WWE Championship match since she is the biggest star in the company. It seems reasonable to just end the night with these two matches and the main event.

There should probably be a cool-down segment right before this trio of major championship matches, and so I’ll throw Elias into Segment 8.

There should also be a major match in Segment 7 that warrants a cool-down segment afterwards, so I’ll place Bryan versus Miz into that slot.

That gives me the following card:

Segment 1:
Segment 2:
Segment 3:
Segment 4:
Segment 5:
Segment 6:
Segment 7: Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz
Segment 8: Elias musical performance
Segment 9: AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe
Segment 10: Alexa Bliss vs. Ronda Rousey
Segment 11: Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns

Opening match

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

WWE seems to have ruined my strategy here on some recent PPVs by using the first hour to feature some of the least important matches of the night. But I think SummerSlam is a different beast, since the pre-show already includes 3 unimportant matches. Therefore I’m going to open the main card with Becky’s match, rather than settle for matches towards the bottom of my rankings.

Rollins versus Ziggler could also fill that role, but the return of Ambrose feels like something that will be saved for later on.

That gives me the following card:

Segment 1: Carmella vs. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair
Segment 2:
Segment 3:
Segment 4:
Segment 5:
Segment 6:
Segment 7: Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz
Segment 8: Elias musical performance
Segment 9: AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe
Segment 10: Alexa Bliss vs. Ronda Rousey
Segment 11: Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns

Everything else

After opening the main card with an important match, I expect WWE to get a few of the least important matches out of the way. So I’ll go straight into Balor versus Corbin and then the Bludgeon Brothers versus New Day.

That gives me the following card:

Segment 1: Carmella vs. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair
Segment 2: Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin
Segment 3: Bludgeon Brothers vs. New Day
Segment 4:
Segment 5:
Segment 6:
Segment 7: Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz
Segment 8: Elias musical performance
Segment 9: AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe
Segment 10: Alexa Bliss vs. Ronda Rousey
Segment 11: Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns

There are three matches left to choose from when filling out Segment 4 through Segment 6: Strowman, Rollins, and Nakamura. After getting some dead weight out of the way in the previous two segments, Segment 4 is a good time to throw in something important, which means it will be one of the Raw matches. I still don’t think Ambrose will be placed this early on the card, so I’ll stick with Strowman and Owens in Segment 4.

I’ll save Ambrose for Segment 6, which means Nakamura goes in Segment 5.

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: Carmella vs. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair (15 minutes)
Segment 2: Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin (10)
Segment 3: Bludgeon Brothers vs. New Day (10)
Segment 4: Braun Strowman vs. Kevin Owens (9)
Segment 5: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Jeff Hardy (12)
Segment 6: Dolph Ziggler vs. Seth Rollins (16)
Segment 7: Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz (19)
Segment 8: Elias musical performance
Segment 9: AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe (18)
Segment 10: Alexa Bliss vs. Ronda Rousey (7)
Segment 11: Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns (13)

11 segments means this card should easily surpass 4 hours in length. A total match time in the 125 to 145 minute range seems plausible for the 10 matches, and these times add up to 129 minutes.

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