5 Early Bold Predictions for WWE Summerslam 2018

#3 Samoa Joe will challenge AJ Styles for the WWE Championship

After another successful WWE Championship defence at Extreme Rules, the assumption is that Styles will move on to bigger things heading into SummerSlam, and that bigger thing will be Samoa Joe.

There really aren't any main event level heels on Smackdown at the moment. Nakamura had numerous chances to win the belt and failed and is now United States Champion. The Miz has no direction at the moment as he waits to begin his feud with Daniel Bryan.

That leaves Samoa Joe, who also has had no direction, but he teased a match with Styles a couple of months ago, and in the #1 Contender Gauntlet Match, he lost to Daniel Bryan via count-out, which I believe was done to keep Jow strong for a future WWE title program.

Rumors have been swirling that Styles will not be dropping the belt anytime soon and that he will be having major programs with Samoa Joe and Daniel Bryan, and at this moment in time, the Styles-Joe feud looks to be kicking that off. I see Styles retaining at SummerSlam, but it won't be a decisive finish so that WWE can continue their feud heading into the fall.