So Triple HHH has confirmed the winner of the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments gets a WWE/World Title match (obviously depending on brand) at Summerslam. Good, raises the stakes more and makes the tournaments feel even more important.
Anyway with the event tomorrow and the card seemingly locked in, time to give my predictions:
Pre-Show
Jade Carghill and Bianca Bel Air vs Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell - Women's Tag Team Championships Yeah I'm not gonna waste any time on this last minute filler, that spits in the face of Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark who had to earn a title shot in a fatal four way match while these two jobbers get one for free.
Jade and Bianca retain clean, moving on.
Main Show
Sami Zayn vs Chad Gable vs Bronson Reed - Intercontinental Championship Bronson is taking the L here regardless of who wins, something which will ultimately be determined by weather or not Otis actually helps Chad or if this is gonna be where he gets fed up of his shit and turns on him. I do think this Sami vs Chad feud is gonna keep going after this so I's say Sami pins Bronson to retain the title.
Sami Retains, Pins Bronson, Otis turns on Gable
Lyra Valkyria vs Nia Jax - Queen of the Ring Finals Classic David vs Goliath underdog story in every sense of the word right here. I do like that BOTH have had confrontations with the women who will (presumably in Liv's case) be the champions by Summerslam so we can easily do either winning. A Summerslam title match does seem a bit much for Lyra having just been called up unless they're really going all in on her and it IS over 2 months away so there's time enough to build it up in the meantime. Nia winning is more likely but I'm not ruling out them completing the Cinderella story with the upset victory.
60/40 in favor of Nia Jax
Gunther vs Randy Orton - King of the Ring Finals I mean this has now become a question of what the WWE is more likely to put on Summerslam? Gunther vs whoever the World Champion will be at that point, or Randy Orton vs Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed Championship with again a full 2 months to build up to it. Adding that title match benefit has pretty much guaranteed that Orton is going to win this, I can't see them passing up a Rhodes vs Orton main event on the #2 show of the year.
Randy Orton Wins.
Becky Lynch vs Liv Morgan - Women's World Championship Basically everything we've seen in the build up to this match kind of tells me that Liv is winning this. Obviously they want her to be champion by the time Rhea Ripley returns to action so they can get that feud going. We also already have Liv cheap-shotting Lyra on Raw so...
New Champion, Liv Morgan Wins.
Cody Rhodes vs Logan Paul - WWE Undisputed Championship I do like this better than it being title for title because THAT pretty much undoubtably would have ended in Logan just getting himself DQ-ed to keep his title which is lame. Now at least the can have Cody simply go over him clean BUT they have also started acknowledging the QR codes that keep popping up for Uncle Howdy and his faction so there is a chance they debut in the main event and lay them both out.
Cody Rhodes Retains Clean with possibility of Uncle Howdy debut.