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We are approximately one week away from Extreme Rules. The WWE is giving us a compelling main event - a Fatal Five Way Match for the right to face Brock Lesnar for the title at Great Balls of Fire. Who will emerge victorious in this match is very much up for debate. Any of the participants squaring off with Brock Lesnar at GBAF make for an exciting non-major PPV main event. So what’s the problem? None of them have any business facing Brock Lesnar in the Summerslam main event. This shouldn’t have been an issue. Up until a month ago, all roads led to Brock Lesnar v Braun Strowmann at Summerslam. This was an incredibly anticipated showdown. Alas, Braun’s elbow imploded and he’s out of action for the remainder of the year. Braun’s absence leaves a gaping to fill. Fear not though. I, being The Eternal Optimist, am a solutions oriented guy. With that in mind, I present to you: Problem #1: Bray Wyatt If I have to explain to you the issue with running Brock Lesnar v Bray Wyatt at the second biggest show of the year, you haven’t been paying attention. Bray has been everyone’s whipping boy. He’s become the jobber to the stars. It looked like the WWE turned a corner on him when they had him beat John Cena for the WWE title. It was a mirage. He ate an RKO at Wrestlemania, and it has been nothing but downhill since. Furthermore, our portion of the fan base seems to want to overlook the glaring fact that his body of work isn’t all that impressive. He’s a unique interview and has a ton of charisma. However, his speeches have become repetitive and his in ring work isn’t very good. More often than not, he’s underperformed on big stages. With Lesnar’s unwillingness to bump, that could be a recipe for disaster. Problem #2: Seth Rollins Seth Rollins is the man. He’s the total package. He’s had a tremendous amount of success in the WWE. You won’t find many fans that don’t have a strong appreciation for the skills that he brings to the table. With all of that said, he’s not currently over on a main event level. Seth Rollins is not working as a face. He was an unbelievable heel during the height of his run. His mic skills make for a great bad guy. He’s got a snarky emo tone to his voice. It makes the average fan want to boo. That same personality type doesn’t translate well to being a top baby face. He’s floundering right now with lukewarm crowd reactions. Seth Rollins still hasn’t recovered from being forced to turn face without the WWE giving us any reason why we should be cheering for him. While I have no doubt that a one on one match between Rollins and Lesnar would be an amazing in-ring spectacle, Rollins simply doesn’t have the momentum behind him to warrant inclusion in the second biggest match of the year. Problem # 3: Samoa Joe There is a contingent of the audience that believes that Brock Lesnar v Samoa Joe at Summerslam is the best match that can be made. I vehemently disagree with this position. The basis behind this line of thinking is that it would pit monster v monster. This reasoning is flawed. The truth is, Samoa Joe hasn’t been the monster people claim him to be for a very long time. I loved Samoa Joe in his TNA days. His feud and subsequent world title matches with Kurt Angle were amongst my favorite in my thirty year history of being a fan. That Samoa Joe was a badass. That Samoa Joe was such a monster that he inspired the fans to chant “Joe is gonna kill you” every time that he wrestled. That Samoa Joe is long gone. Instead, we have an older, watered down version of that guy. He hasn’t been booked as a monster. He’s been booked as “just another guy”. He’s still “pretty good”, but “pretty good” isn’t nearly good enough to warrant the Summerslam spotlight against Brock Lesnar. Problem #4: Finn Balor Finn has the best chance of actually landing the spot against Lesnar at Summerslam. This would be a tremendous mistake. What I’m about to say will upset our portion of the wrestling community. Anyone who criticizes Jinder Mahal’s push but gets behind Finn Balor is a hypocrite. Here’s the truth. Any success that you’ve had in NXT or NJPW means nothing to the national audience. The percentage of WWE main roster fans that watch either or those two promotions is microscopic. Only the die-hard fans knew who he was prior to his main roster debut. He received a massive pop upon his debut, but his crowd reaction has had diminishing returns ever since. He’s not over. He’s not deserving of an immediate main event push. His strongest quality, his in-ring work, is the LEAST important when making the determination of who makes a capable main event player on the main roster. Finn Balor is not a credible threat to Brock Lesnar in any way, shape or form. A Summerslam main event between the two might make the internet wrestling fan squeal with delight, but the majority of the audience won’t care. It would be an utter disaster. Problem #5: Roman Reigns Roman Reigns is awesome. I love Roman Reigns. Roman Reigns is already an all-top top 25 wrestler. All hate mail regarding this can be directed to [email protected]. Roman Reigns v Brock Lesnar is undoubtedly the biggest match that the WWE can make, and absolutely should headline Wrestlemania 34. Their Wrestlemania 31 encounter was a massive draw, and it rates amongst the best Wrestlemania main events in history. There is no reason to think it wouldn’t do as good or better business than it did the first time around. While this match is absolutely worthy of being the main event of Summerslam, the WWE cannot make this move. I’m a huge fan of long term booking and the WWE cannot sacrifice the best option for next year’s Wrestlemania simply because they are in a short term bind. The Solution: A.J. Styles I challenge anyone reading this to tell me why they wouldn’t be excited about A.J. Styles v Brock Lesnar as the headliner for Summerslam. Styles has two things going for him that cannot be questioned. First, he’s the best in-ring wrestler in the business today. One of my all-time favorite matches pit Brock Lesnar against CM Punk at Summerslam 2011. CM Punk was the perfect opponent for Lesnar for two reasons. He was light enough where Lesnar could easily toss him around yet his offensive move set was realistic enough where people thought he had a chance to win. That describes A.J. Styles to a T. Second, Styles is the most popular wrestler in the WWE today. He gets massive face reactions everywhere he goes. The fans are constantly chanting his name. No matter who is holding the title on Smackdown, he is the unquestioned #1 guy on the show. There is huge business to be made by having The Beast take on the face of Smackdown. Some may say that it would be a stretch to have Lesnar defend his title against a Smackdown competitor. I scoff at that idea. Big 4 PPVs of the past are littered with inter-promotional matches. An easy storyline tie-in would be to rekindle the issues between Lesnar and Shane McMahon from Survivor Series 2016. As the face of Smackdown, it would make perfect sense for A.J. to stand up for both his boss and his brand. In the end, A.J. Styles is the only solution to the Brock Lesnar Summerslam dilemma. Instead of giving us a match that isn’t Summerslam main event worthy simply because it involves a Raw Superstar, the WWE should give the fans a dream match they deserve. That’s all kids. If you have a minute, please check out JSR13’s debut column on the main page – “The LOSERweight Champion of the World”. His writing is a lot of fun and deserves the clicks. Thank you for reading. Sound off below!
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