The main event of WWE SummerSlam 2019 saw Seth Rollins defeat Brock Lesnar to win the Universal Championship from “The Beast” for the second time in four months.
Moving forward, Raw and SmackDown Live will now focus on the build-up to WWE’s next pay-per-view, Clash of Champions, which will take place in Charlotte, North Carolina on Sunday, September 15.
As of the time of writing, WWE is yet to announce any matches for the show. However, per the PPV stipulation, every main-roster title will be defended at the event.
To recap, that means the following 11 titles will be on the line: Universal Championship, WWE Championship, Raw Women’s Championship, SmackDown Women’s Championship, United States Championship, Intercontinental Championship, Raw Tag Team Championship, SmackDown Tag Team Championship, Women’s Tag Team Championship, Cruiserweight Championship, 24/7 Championship.
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With five weeks to go until Clash of Champions, let’s take a look at five matches that could realistically headline the PPV.
#5 Roman Reigns vs. Daniel Bryan
Despite not appearing at SummerSlam, Roman Reigns is certain to be one of the most prominent Superstars on WWE programming over the next month.
The four-time WrestleMania main-eventer narrowly avoided injury after attempted attacks on the July 30 episode of SmackDown Live and August 5 episode of Raw, leading him to confront Buddy Murphy in the locker room in an attempt to find out information about the incidents.
Murphy accused Rowan of being responsible for the attacks, only for Daniel Bryan to deny that his tag team partner had anything to do with it.
With Reigns absent from SummerSlam, the only development in this storyline at the PPV came on the kickoff show when Bryan watched on from backstage as Rowan attacked Murphy during the former 205 Live star's match against Apollo Crews.
Assuming that Bryan really is the culprit, it looks as though he could face Reigns in one of the few non-title matches at Clash of Champions.
A battle between the former WWE Champions is worthy of headlining any show, even a PPV which is certain to be full of title matches.
#4 Seth Rollins vs. Brock Lesnar
One of the biggest surprises at SummerSlam came when Seth Rollins defeated Brock Lesnar in the main event to reclaim the Universal Championship.
Going into the pay-per-view, it seemed unlikely that the former Shield member would defeat his long-term rival. However, after delivering a frog splash through the announce desk and multiple stomps, “The Beastslayer” lived up to his name to pick up the 1-2-3.
In previous years, Lesnar has been known to take an extended break after competing in a high-profile match at a big PPV. But, as he has shown throughout 2019 so far, “The Beast” has increased his number of WWE appearances over the last seven months, participating in a total of six PPVs.
Regardless of the quality of their match at SummerSlam, another month-long build to a Rollins vs. Lesnar main event is not going to appease the majority of WWE fans, especially as their go-home segment on last week’s Raw fell so flat, but it cannot be denied that Lesnar has a strong case to have a rematch.
#3 Kofi Kingston vs. Randy Orton
In 2018, the WWE Championship encounter between AJ Styles and Samoa Joe at SummerSlam had fans on the edge of their seats until Styles got himself disqualified and the match ended in controversial circumstances.
Fast forward to 2019 and a similar thing happened when Kofi Kingston and Randy Orton’s entertaining WWE Championship match resulted in a count-out draw, leading to groans and unrepeatable chants from the frustrated Toronto fans.
It was made clear by the match finish that WWE is planning to extend this rivalry to another PPV, with Orton guaranteed to be granted a rematch following his impressive showing at “The Biggest Party of the Summer”.
Kingston even mentioned the feud on Twitter after the PPV, commenting that he is “not satisfied” with the finish and his rivalry with Orton is “not over by a long shot”.
The question now is whether WWE’s decision-makers want to continue pushing the Universal Championship as the main title that headlines PPVs, or whether the Kingston vs. Orton storyline is worthy of going on last at Clash of Champions instead.
#2 Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre
Seth Rollins has faced Brock Lesnar, AJ Styles and Baron Corbin in Universal Championship matches over the last four months, and he now finds himself without an obvious opponent heading into the Clash of Champions pay-per-view in September.
Will Lesnar stick around and receive another opportunity to become a four-time Universal Champion? Or will another Superstar be given the chance to move up the card and face Rollins in the main-event scene?
If WWE takes the latter approach, then Drew McIntyre is destined to be one of the names in the running to go one-on-one with “The Beastslayer” in a title match in the not-too-distant future.
The Scot has regularly been involved in storylines since returning to the main roster in April 2018, with his list of high-profile opponents including Kurt Angle, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns.
Rollins and McIntyre have great in-ring chemistry, as they proved during the storyline between The Shield and McIntyre & Dolph Ziggler in 2018, so it would not be at all surprising if “The Scottish Psychopath” entered the Universal Championship picture.
#1 Multi-man Universal Championship match
Although Drew McIntyre has built up enough momentum over the last 18 months to be considered a legitimate threat to the Universal Championship, there are other members of the Raw and SmackDown Live rosters who are just as worthy of receiving a world title opportunity in the near future.
Braun Strowman, for example, has overcome a rocky few months to re-establish himself as one of WWE’s most dominant Superstars. Despite not appearing at SummerSlam, his Last Man Standing win over Bobby Lashley at Extreme Rules was impressive enough to warrant him being considered for another title opportunity.
And when you take both main-roster brands into account, the likes of Kevin Owens, Cesaro, Aleister Black and Ricochet are likely to receive new opponents after SummerSlam, and all four men would be elevated by featuring in a main-event Universal Championship storyline.
Are any of those guys likely to win the title from Seth Rollins? No, but as we have seen from multi-man main events in the past (e.g. SummerSlam 2017 and Fastlane 2018), the chaotic matches are usually well-received regardless of how predictable the outcome may seem.