WWE SummerSlam 2024 Wishlist: 9 Things We Need To See

WWE SummerSlam 2024 Wishlist: 9 Things We Need To See

Summary SummerSlam 2024 is poised to be one of the best WWE cards with championship bouts and heated rivalries at Cleveland Browns Stadium.

Dominik Mysterio's pivotal role in the Women's World Championship match between Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley adds intrigue to the event.

Excitement grows for the return of Roman Reigns at SummerSlam in a high-stakes showdown that could shift the landscape of WWE.

SummerSlam is WWE's Biggest Party Of The Summer, and 2024's edition has a lot riding on it. Alongside WrestleMania, the Royal Rumble, and Survivor Series, it forms the original Big Four PLE events and serves as perhaps the second biggest show of the whole year and 2024's edition is shaping up to be one of the best cards ever put together for the PLE mainstay.

Championships are on the line and long-running rivalries are ready to be settled at the Cleveland Browns Stadium in Cleveland, OH on Saturday, August 3rd. With the rumor mill in overdrive about the return of Roman Reigns, the new look Bloodline looking to take down Cody Rhodes, CM Punk and Drew McIntyre settling their differences in the ring, with Seth Rollins overseeing it as Special Guest Referee or waiting for Dom to do someone Dirty, the outcome of SummerSlam 2024 is certain to have serious implications for everyone on the WWE roster.

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9 Dominik Mysterio Makes His Choice

It's crunch time for the most hated man in WWE

Dominik Mysterio and Liv Morgan ahead of SummerSlam 2024

Love triangles have been a long-running staple of WWE. Whether it’s classics like Macho Man Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan at war over Miss Elizabeth, Kurt Angle and Triple H fighting it out over Stephanie McMahon, or the real-life crossover of Edge, Lita and Matt Hardy, rivalries that exist in the name of love are plentiful. At SummerSlam, 2024’s love story for the ages comes to its conclusion as Dirty Dominik Mysterio sits at the center of the Women’s World Championship contest between Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley.

Liv Morgan’s desire to take “everything” from Rhea Ripley as part of her 2024 Revenge Tour has been delicious. She already scored the World Championship that Ripley had to vacate through injury back in April, and has been a regular fixture in The Judgment Day’s Clubhouse in the months Mami was forced to sit on the shelf. At SummerSlam, will Dominik and Mami ride into the night once more, or will Liv Morgan steal Mysterio’s heart and rule the Women’s division on Monday Night Raw?

Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan unsuccessfully challenged for the WWE Women's Tag Team Titles together back in 2022.

8 Bron Breakker – Intercontinental Champion

The dogs will be barking in Cleveland, OH

Bron Breakker’s blockbuster opening months on WWE’s main roster has lived up to or outstripped every possible expectation made of him. Considering this comes fresh after this rabid dog tore a hole in NXT, dominating as both a face and heel champion, before signing off with a killer tag-team reign with Baron Corbin was remarkable.

There is undoubtedly pressure to translate that level of build-up to Monday Night Raw. Breakker has already proven he is not only great television, he (alongside Ilja Dragunov and Lyra Valkyria) has made both wrestlers and fans believe in the NXT graduation process once more.

Sami Zayn has been great as Intercontinental Champion since dethroning Gunther at WrestleMania, helping to fuel Chad Gable’s big 2024 and having great encounters with Bronson Reed and the aforementioned Dragunov. His work merited his victory over Breakker in their first encounter at Money In The Bank last month but, at SummerSlam, it’s time for Bron to continue the excellent run of champions the IC belt is enjoying.

Other WWE superstars to win the Intercontinental Championship in their first year on the main roster includes Kerry Von Erich, The Ultimate Warrior, The Rock and Kevin Owens.

7 LA Knight For United States Champion

LA Knight to taste gold for the first time on the main roster

LA Knight 2024

Logan Paul’s transition from moonlighting WrestleMania celebrity to member of WWE’s active roster has worked far better than anyone could’ve predicted. Criticism is rife that his in-ring appearances are too infrequent, but buying into that too much is to be way too shortsighted. Paul is not only a credible US Champion who puts on great matches, but this stint with this belt has made him a realistic future WWE Champion. That has to be enough to make his tenure as United States Champion a successful one.

The best heel champions should feel like an evil force has been dethroned when their reign ends and Logan’s final bow as US Champion is going to feel like Luke taking down The Empire. There’s only one man for the job of White Knight in this situation too.

Nobody’s popularity over the last 12 months has warranted a Championship more than LA Knight. Reactions to his catchphrases and entrance music shake every building he enters. Beating the polarizing loudmouth Champion and taking his gold at SummerSlam could be the zenith of his career to date. Yeah.

Logan Paul is 7-7 in his 14 WWE matches to date.

6 SummerSlam Is Time For Tiffy

Both Nia Jax and Tiffany Stratton could walk out champ

Tiffany Stratton 2024

Bayley is a generational talent who manages to be lovable as both a goody-two-shoes babyface and a Michael Cole-baiting mega heel. Whisper it quietly, though, but her current Women’s Championship reign, while incredibly warranted as the conclusion of her fantastic Damage CTRL story at WrestleMania, has largely passed audiences by. She has plenty to work with at SummerSlam though, as this year’s Queen Of The Ring, Nia Jax, and this year’s Money In The Bank winner, Tiffany Stratton, await in Cleveland.

Nia Jax has had her greatest year to date, showing her best in-ring and mic work and choking people out on their snarky comments from yesteryear. Were Queen Nia to emerge from their match as WWE Women’s Champion, it would be richly deserved. However, there is absolutely no question that a Tiffany Stratton championship reign is in our collective future and SummerSlam might just be the right time to pull the trigger on making every episode of SmackDown ‘Tiffy Time’.

No woman has ever unsuccessfully cashed in the Women's Money In The Bank briefcase.

5 The Next Evolution Of Damien Priest

The next steps are crucial for El Campion

Ever since he chose The Showcase Of The Immortals to cash in his Money In The Bank briefcase and end Drew McIntyre’s World Heavyweight Championship reign before it began, Damien Priest has felt like a conversation magnet. His defenders rightfully argue that he has evolved into a credible leader of The Judgment Day, who has had incredible matches with a returning Seth Rollins and a Drew McIntyre in his home country of Scotland.

His real-life story of overcoming poverty to reach the top of the mountain being the focus ahead of SummerSlam makes him someone very easy to root for, but Gunther feels inevitable. Whether it ends at SummerSlam at the hands of the Austrian or not, the real test of Damien Priest’s championship run will be if he is viewed as a bigger deal afterward.

There seems to be a likable trio silently forming between Priest, his Judgment Day cohort Rhea Ripley and Main Event Jey Uso. Whatever comes next for Priest is crucial. The last 4 months have shown that he is up to any job.

4 A New Look Judgment Day

All rise for the changing face of The Judgment Day

How The Judgment Day looks at the end of SummerSlam is anybody’s guess, but the chances of the group looking the same as they walk into Cleveland feels highly unlikely. Rhea Ripley’s place in The Clubhouse has already been unofficially taken by a bitchier, blonder member in recent months. Damien Priest feels far too noble to be leading a gang of reprobates. Finn Balor has been a source of intrigue for weeks, with snide comments and intense situations feeling like there’s more than meets the eye.

It feels way too soon to consider disbanding The Judgment Day entirely, but it does feel as if these current members have priorities and perspectives that differ too much to make a cohesive unit. One way or another, SummerSlam truly feels like Judgment Day.

3 An End To The Feud Of The Year

Drew McIntyre and CM Punk’s rivalry reaches boiling point

The tricep injury that has sidelined CM Punk since January’s Royal Rumble could, and very well should, have been disastrous for his onscreen presence. That both he and The Scottish Warrior, Drew McIntyre, have maintained and elevated their molten-hot hatred for one another so effectively for over six months is testament to both gentlemen’s consistency and developed skills of storytelling. The time for jibes is over at SummerSlam, however, in what is surely the hottest match of the card.

Prior to his injury, Chicago's favorite son's verbal jousting with Cody Rhodes proved captivating, but it was Punk's mutual disdain with Seth Rollins that would prove the peak of his work since returning. Rollins's inclusion as Special Guest Referee makes this all even more fascinating. Drew McIntyre ending Rollins’ 316 day reign as World Heavyweight Champion means this doesn’t feel as simple as a plot device for Seth to get one over on Punk.

It’s a situation worth salivating over, and though it feels like all three men have already won by being hotter than they were coming into this feud, it’s going to be fun as hell seeing who gets their hand raised.

2 The Bloodline Gets A Reality Check

Solo Sikoa's Summer is about to come crashing down

For the past few months, Solo Sikoa’s new-look Bloodline have dominated Friday night SmackDown. Backed by the ravenous trio of Tonga Loa, Tama Tonga, and The Samoan Werewolf, Jacob Fatu, your new Tribal Chief has made life a living hell for anybody who dared to have any ambition to rule WWE’s blue brand. Primarily, that has been the WWE Champion, Cody Rhodes. The Bloodline’s non-stop forward momentum rolls into SummerSlam with the opportunity to seize back control and the title, when Sikoa and Rhodes compete for WWE’s biggest prize.

Whether or not Solo and his boys walk out of Cleveland with the belt, this version of The Bloodline has built intrigue for their future and a distinct character away from the group’s first incarnation. Colder, and with an intent that feels more sadistic, primal, and menacing than before, the course of their future will look a lot clearer after SummerSlam. The thing is, their problems might be about to get a lot worse.

1 We Want Roman Reigns' Return

Roman Reigns returns to take his place at The Head Of The Table

When Solo Sikoa ordered The Bloodline to attack one of wrestling’s most popular characters, Paul Heyman, and drive him through a table at Madison Square Garden in his hometown of New York, New York at 58 years old, the game changed. It felt like there was no line that they wouldn’t cross as The Wiseman lay broken, beaten, and emasculated in front of the eyes of the world. There will, of course, be consequences to these actions and when retribution comes via the hulking 6’3 frame of Roman Reigns, there will be hell to pay.

Roman Reigns has not been seen on WWE TV since his 1,316 Championship run came to an end at the hands of Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 41. His return instantaneously changes everything for everyone. Should his reemergence come while being caught between the man who dethroned him and the family who decimated his Special Council and desecrated his place at The Head Of The Table in front of a sold-out football stadium in at SummerSlam, this could be an all-time great moment. Long-term storytelling rules, doesn’t it?

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