Summerslam 2006 is little over a month away with it being scheduled for August 20, 2006. The 19th edititon of the summer PPV will be from TD Banknorth Garden in Boston, MA, which was formally known as the Fleetcenter and held such PPVs as WrestleMania XIV and Royal Rumble 2003. This will be the first pay-per-view event to be a joint production from the RAW, SmackDown!, and ECW brands. The tagline for the event is the “Biggest Party Of The Summer,” which fits the theme of the official poster. The poster depicts various WWE Superstars like Rey Mysterio, John Cena, & Booker T in a summer party with D-Generation X at the forefront grilling hot dogs. To see this official poster, just click here.
As it stands right now, three of the four main events are practically written, with the last being debated on. First, it has been reported and is basically all but confirmed by WWE that Hulk Hogan will face off against Randy Orton in a match and storyline to hype up Hulk’s daughter Brooke’s new CD that will be released in September. While logic would point to Hulk Hogan putting over Randy Orton, that is up in the air at this point and it’s almost entirely up to Hulk Hogan. The storyline has already started and will gain a lot of steam at tomorrow’s Saturday Night’s Main Event show as Hulk & Brooke are expected to show.
The other non-title main event at the PPV will be Vince & Shane McMahon going up against D-Generation X of Triple H and Shawn Michaels. This match has been building since WrestleMania 22 when the two members of DX started teasing the reunion and is the continuation of Shawn Michaels’ feud with Vince McMahon that started in December of 2005. This is expected to be the blow-off match with DX going over clean solidfying Triple H on top as a babyface and sometime after this match, Shawn Michaels will leave WWE TV to get needed surgery on his knee that he has been putting off.
As far as the title matches go, John Cena is expected to go up against Edge, though the plan is to not have him win the belt at Summerslam. The mindset in WWE right now is that John Cena chasing Edge as champion will do a lot more money and bigger ratings than the other way around (as many saw from the ratings and crowd reactions to the formula in January). Edge is planned to have a long title reign, but many champions have been planned for a long reign and things just happen that you can’t predict such as a new star exploding on the scene, injuries, suspensions, or something else.
The last main event which will be the World Heavyweight Championship match is up in the air and really depends on how things go at Great American Bash. As the plan stands now, Booker T will defeat Rey Mysterio to become the new champion and be a short one month champion only to lose the belt to Batista at Summerslam. The feeling with Batista is that everyone backstage knew he would get the title back when he returned because he was a strong ratings draw (his return last week boosted Hispanic viewers by 18%). While there is no heat on Rey Mysterio currently, Rey has needed knee surgery dating back to before Judgment Day (where he was rumored to lose to JBL, but JBL’s injury was far more significant) and this would be the ample time for him to get the surgery. WWE is hoping to play off the highly publicized fight between Batista & Booker T that made WWE.com as well as most any worthwhile news site. After losing the belt, it is not expected that Booker T will last much longer in WWE as he has said that he is close to retirement many times, but the only thing stopping him is the WWE Belt eluding his waist. Of course, with Judgment Day as an indication, plans in WWE (SmackDown! most notably) change every day and we could see Rey Mysterio defending the belt at Summerslam.
The rest of the card is undecided as it is, but after SNME and Great American Bash, the rest of the card will unfold as it always does.
Credit: Pro Wrestling Torch
