WWE SummerSlam 2016: The full rundown and why you should care

WWE has tried to build SummerSlam up as something of a second WrestleMania. In 2015 they were successful with this, building an entire weekend of events and shows around the Sunday anchor of SummerSlam. This weekend, once again in Brooklyn, they hope to repeat that success. The card certainly has the potential to do so, as a number of matches could be instant classics, and there is going to be at least one new champion thanks to the introduction of the WWE Universal Championship.

There are 12 matches at SummerSlam — wait, they just added another, so there are 13 — so let’s not delay. SummerSlam airs Sunday, August 21 on the WWE Network, with a two-hour pre-show beginning at 5 p.m. ET, followed by the start of SummerSlam itself at 7 p.m.

What am I looking at here? Sami Zayn and Neville are both amazing and somehow not anywhere on this card until Friday. That’ll happen when you split up your deep roster into two, create stories for both shows, then attempt to squeeze all of them onto one show again. They’re here now, though, even if it’s just in kickoff form, and they’ll get to go against the Dudley Boyz, who are busying themselves with losing to younger wrestlers and building internal tension that leads to a breakup of the most-decorated tag team in WWE history.

Why you should care: There’s no real storyline reason to care about this match, but as said above, Sami Zayn and Neville are both amazing performers, and they will likely do a thing or two or three that amazes you should you tune in early.

What am I looking at here? Cesaro is the dapper and handsome Swiss man in a suit who will then tear off that suit and throw elbows and perform moves you assumed only worked in Street Fighter. Sheamus is the Irish dude with a mohawk who will be looking to kick Cesaro’s head in. The two have been ruining each other’s matches for a couple of weeks now, and RAW general manager Mick Foley got tired of it and put them in a best-of-seven series so that they could get all of this out of their system.

Why you should care: Cesaro and Sheamus matches are always good, and often great. They just tend to lack the stakes that let you invest fully in them. This best-of-seven series should be wonderful, then, as it will feature two big dudes beating the mess out of each other for the next month-plus, beginning with this key opener.

What am I looking at here: An opportunity for American Alpha to crush the competition, or find a worthwhile competitor from among the five other tag teams in this match. American Alpha is amazing, and they deserve someone wonderful to feud with for the eventual SmackDown tag titles.

Why you should care: You just watched this match on Tuesday on SmackDown, so it’s okay if your interest level is relatively down. Look on the bright side, though: American Alpha is on a WWE pay-per-view, so now you can watch Jason Jordan suplex up to 10 different guys in one match.

What am I looking at here? This was supposed to be a three-on-three tag match of SmackDown’s lady faces vs. their lady heels, a showcase match that would likely help kick off what’s coming next for the show: the road to SmackDown’s Women’s Championship. It still might be those things with a surprise return, but as far as we know, this is a 3-on-2 match now thanks to the 30-day suspension of Eva Marie for violating WWE’s wellness policy.

Why you should care: Without Eva Marie here, whom SmackDown has been building up as a wonderful heel each week since the brand split, this match might have lost part of its original purpose. It could now serve a new purpose, though, as it could be used for the return of the Queen of Strong Style, Nikki Bella. Bella had a career-threatening neck injury, but she’s worked her way back and was cleared for a return Friday.

What am I looking at here? Miz is the one with the punchable face wearing the weird rich-people clothes who will eventually kiss his beautiful wife Maryse and it will be gross and cause you to question whether love is truly something everyone should experience. Apollo Crews is the one with as many muscles as flips.

Why you should care: Miz is an amazing bad guy, which means you want him to get the heck beat out of him whenever possible. Apollo Crews has been picked on a bit by other WWE superstars -- mostly out of fear of his talent and youth and the whole New Era thing — so seeing him lay into Miz should be a good time. Plus, it could also mean the first title in WWE for Crews... so long as Maryse doesn’t get involved to make sure her husband remains champion.

What am I looking at here? Enzo Amore and Big Cass are the fan favorites with the catchphrases, and they’ll get a thunderous ovation in their return to New York. Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens are the two rolling their eyes at them, attempting to convince everyone that Enzo and Cass are stupid idiots who can’t spell.

Why you should care: Four of the best performers in WWE, all in one match, and it’s unclear just who is going to win. If we are truly #blessed, Jericho and Owens — or JeriKO, if ya will — will pick up the victory if only to extend their life as a tag team. They have been doing such entertaining work together in interviews and vignettes these last few weeks, and the world needs more of them.

What am I looking at here? The weakest version of the New Day — Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods, minus Big E while he recovers from a ring post-related groin injury — will take on The Club, comprised of Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows. Anderson and Gallows are the reason Big E is hurt, and while Woods and Kofi are plenty great on their own, there is no question that E is their star player, and now he’s on the DL.

Why you should care: The New Day are super popular, but it might be time for a shakeup that allows Big E’s singles career to begin again in earnest. Losing the tag titles while he’s on the shelf could give them a reason to refocus as a group, or maybe for Big E to go off on his own. The Club picking up the tag titles would be huge, as it would allow for fresh match-ups — the New Day have been tag team champs since SummerSlam last year, and that was the second time in 2015 that they won the belts.

What am I looking at here? Sasha Banks is the face of women’s wrestling in WWE, and the current Women’s Champion after defeating Charlotte for the title on the first RAW after the brand split draft last month. Charlotte is a true heel, ready to cheat and put you down but also fully capable of destroying opponents without cheating, too.

She’s the daughter of Ric Flair, but even he wasn’t heel enough for her eventually, and he was cast out in favor of Dana Brooke. Brooke is banned from ringside to keep her from interfering, but all it will take is a downed referee for that to change and tip the scales in Charlotte’s favor.

Why you should care: There are two plausible outcomes here: Sasha retains, and the Brooklyn crowd makes it known how thrilled they are to still have the Legit Boss as their champion. Or, Charlotte and Dane Brooke manage to defeat Banks, take the championship back, and the Brooklyn crowd doles out boos at such a degree that WWE will be able to point back at this moment as a career-defining one in a future documentary.

Either way, it’s going to fantastic, as these two have excellent chemistry dating back to their days at NXT, and are just coming off of an incredible championship match on RAW a few weeks back, too.

What am I looking at here? In storyline, Rusev is the bad guy, but there is no justification for why. He’s a proud champion who wants his bosses to give him the respect he deserves, he loves his wife, Lana, and he correctly pointed out that Roman Reigns just keeps getting handed opportunities whether he deserves them or not. Reigns interrupted Rusev’s and Lana’s wedding reenactment, crashed Lana into the wedding cake, and goaded Rusev into attacking him so he could justify getting a title shot.

Consider how much the Barclays crowd is going to boo Reigns, and you are going to feel like Rusev is the good guy here even if you didn’t know all of the above.

Why you should care: Story setup issues aside, Rusev and Reigns are a perfect match, as they’re both big, strong dudes who are going to believably beat the hell out of each other. We already saw them compete on RAW this past week, and it was a great match even without the stakes of the United States Championship present. The fascinating question now is how they’ll one-up that performance, and if Reigns will be able to wrest the title from Rusev, or just be another challenger who ended up crushed.

What am I looking at here? Styles vs. Cena at Money in the Bank was glorious, as it was a match-up of two wrestling legends who didn’t understand what made the other great in the way they claimed. Styles dominated early as Cena underestimated him, and Cena later shocked Styles by proving that his being difficult to put away was what helped make John Cena who he is. Now, the two know each other very well, and we might be in line for a lengthy, memorable — and very different -- rematch because of it.

Why you should care: It’s AJ Styles vs. John Cena, one-on-one, during one of the most significant wrestling shows in the world. The two are at the peak of their powers, arguing over legacy, and they’re going to put everything they still have into this meeting.

What am I looking at here? Fans feared Dean Ambrose was a transitional champ, just holding onto his first WWE World Championship long enough to lose it back to Roman Reigns or Seth Rollins. Instead, Ambrose defeated his former Shield brothers to become his own man in a way he hadn’t yet seen before, and it’s been one of the best parts of WWE television over the last month. One of the beneficiaries of this is Dolph Ziggler, who is often miscast and misused by WWE, but over just a few weeks’ time has become a major player again and is now in the most important match of his entire career.

Why you should care: Ambrose vs. Ziggler is a fascinating match-up, as you could believe in either man winning and becoming WWE’s primary champion — that might seem normal now, but even a month ago it would have sounded ridiculous, which goes a long way of explaining just how good of a job they’ve done propping these two up over the last month.

Will Ziggler win his first-ever WWE Championship? Will Ambrose retain in his first title match against someone besides a former Shield member? Is this a one-time match-up or the start of a longer feud, the kind of moment where a face-on-face slowly becomes heel vs. face as one party gets desperate? We might not get answers to all of those questions Sunday, but that’s when the first answers will be revealed.

What am I looking at here? Finn Balor vs. Seth Rollins is the equivalent of two kids battling to see which one their dad loves more, and in this analogy dad just happens to be their boss, Triple H. Balor was the face of NXT, meaning he was the handpicked guy Triple H selected to represent the promotion he runs. Seth Rollins was handpicked by Triple H to become the champion of the Authority, and his wife, Stephanie McMahon, kept that relationship alive by drafting Rollins to her show, RAW, first-overall in last month’s brand split draft.

They’re also fighting over RAW’s brand-new primary title, the Universal Championship. Balor just debuted a few weeks back, but won a mini-tournament to become number one contender, while Rollins was gifted his spot by Stephanie.

Also, Finn Balor is inhabited by an Irish demon king that he brings out during big matches in the form of body paint.

Why you should care: Rollins was champion for much of 2015 before ripping every ligament in his knee, while Balor spent much of 2015 and 2016 as NXT’s champ. These are two of the top performers in the world vying for a championship that didn’t exist until now, but will need to start with a powerful legacy behind it in order to compete with WWE’s historic primary championship, the WWE World Championship. Depending on how these two decide to wrestle each other, this could be a fast-paced, theatrical classic. Let’s hope they have the chemistry to pull that off.

What am I looking at here? This is a battle between legends that time and circumstance kept us from seeing over a decade ago. Orton is the youngest World Champion in WWE history. Lesnar is the youngest WWE Champion in company history.

Orton is the Legend Killer, Lesnar the Conquering Beast. Lesnar hasn’t truly lost a match since defeating the Undertaker at WrestleMania 30, and Orton has a finisher, the RKO, that might be just what is needed to change that.

Why you should care: This match is not only a legend-on-legend affair, but it could end up having implications for either the RAW or SmackDown title scene depending on whether Lesnar or Orton, respectively, come out on top. There’s a reason this is the likely final main event on a night when WWE’s new championship, WWE’s classic championship, and the Women’s Championship are all on the line.

Need more convincing? The above link is a feature dedicated entirely to why this match is significant, and what it could mean. You know, since you didn’t just read pages and pages of SummerSlam content to get to this point.