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When Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods left WWE earlier this year, the immediate speculation was obvious. Where would they wrestle next? Would they remain together? Which tag teams would be waiting for them? How long would it take before someone found a way to finally give wrestling fans a proper version of The New Day against The Young Bucks?

Those questions are still worth asking. Fightful Select has reported that Austin Creed and Kofi are expected to join AEW soon, although sources stopped short of confirming that contracts had actually been signed. Until they walk through the curtain on Dynamite, Collision or an AEW pay-per-view, that distinction needs to remain in place.

Still, AEW is clearly the destination everyone is looking toward, and it isn't difficult to imagine how the two former New Day members could fit into the current AEW roster. There are obvious matches with FTR, The Young Bucks and any number of other teams. There are years of history with Kenny Omega and the Bucks that could be mined for television. Kofi is a former WWE champion. Creed is a former King of the Ring winner. Together, they are one of the most accomplished tag teams of their generation.

But if Austin Creed does sign with All Elite Wrestling, Tony Khan might be getting something else that could be useful beyond another name on a match card.

He would be getting one of professional wrestling's most established connections to video game culture at precisely the time when AEW should probably start figuring out what it wants its own future in gaming to look like.

Xavier Woods Built a Second Career Around Video Games

Calling Creed a wrestler who happens to like video games undersells what he has built over the past decade.

UpUpDownDown launched in 2015 and grew into something significantly bigger than watching wrestlers kill time with controllers backstage. As Tubefilter covered when the channel first launched, the idea was to combine WWE personalities with the enormous gaming audience on YouTube, with Creed at the center of the project. It eventually grew beyond two million subscribers and became an avenue for WWE talent to display personalities that often had little to do with whatever characters they were playing on Raw and SmackDown.

That was always part of the appeal. Someone might only get a few minutes of television time on WWE programming, but a gaming video could give fans an entirely different reason to become attached to that performer. Friendships, rivalries, jokes and personality quirks could develop naturally without having to be filtered through a wrestling storyline.

Creed's gaming profile also extended beyond WWE's own ecosystem. When G4 was preparing its revival, he campaigned to become part of the network and ultimately became its first announced talent. Variety spoke with Creed about joining G4 in 2020, and he later became involved in a WWE-G4 video game competition series as well.

That's why I wouldn't look at a possible AEW signing and think the only value is sticking Creed and Kofi in the tag team division. If you're hiring someone who has spent years building credibility in gaming, streaming and internet content, why wouldn't you at least pick his brain about a part of your company that has already cost millions of dollars to establish?

Especially when Creed already has a history with some of the people most associated with AEW's gaming side.

Austin Creed, Kenny Omega and The Elite Already Have Gaming History

Long before AEW existed, Xavier Woods and Kenny Omega had their own cross-promotional rivalry through video games. That eventually expanded into The New Day facing Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks in Street Fighter V at E3 2018.

Think about how bizarre that was in context. WWE performers and top stars from another wrestling ecosystem were publicly interacting while representing their respective sides, but they weren't doing it inside a wrestling ring. Gaming provided neutral territory.

Years later, Kenny Omega would become one of the central figures behind AEW's first major console game.

That connection alone doesn't mean Creed should be handed the keys to AEW Games. Being knowledgeable about games does not make someone a game developer, programmer, animator or expert on project management. One of the easiest mistakes wrestling companies can make is assuming being passionate about something is the same as being qualified to execute every part of it.

But there is a huge amount of territory between "make Austin Creed the lead developer" and "ignore everything he knows about the audience."

Creed knows how wrestling fans respond to gaming content. He knows how wrestlers can be incorporated into that content without everything feeling like a corporate advertisement. He understands conventions, streamers, gaming personalities and the value of having wrestlers interact with people who aren't otherwise part of the wrestling bubble.

AEW already has people such as Kenny Omega who understand that overlap. Creed would give the company another person with years of experience actually turning it into content.

AEW Wanted Video Games to Be Part of Its Identity

Gaming wasn't some random licensing idea AEW stumbled into several years after launching. The company talked about making a major wrestling game very early in its existence.

AEW eventually partnered with Yuke's, the developer behind a long list of WWE games, with THQ Nordic publishing what became AEW: Fight Forever. The mission was clear: Don't just make a lower-budget imitation of WWE 2K. Build something that feels more like the accessible wrestling games of the Nintendo 64 era, particularly WWF No Mercy.

That was the right idea.

It may have actually been the best decision associated with the entire project.

THQ Nordic openly promoted Fight Forever around its nostalgic arcade-wrestling approach, and several reviews agreed that the core gameplay had merit. Polygon compared its design favorably to the golden era of wrestling games, while other outlets similarly praised how quickly players could pick it up and start throwing opponents through tables.

The problem wasn't that Fight Forever refused to become WWE 2K.

The problem was that AEW built a game designed around replayable arcade wrestling without providing enough reasons to keep replaying it.

Fight Forever Needed More Than a Good Foundation

If you strip everything else away, Fight Forever can be fun. Matches move quickly. The controls are easier to understand than the increasingly complicated systems in some simulation-heavy wrestling titles. The weapons are ridiculous. The Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch gives the game something that the WWE series can't offer in quite the same way.

But a wrestling game in the 2020s needs to be more than fun for a night when a few friends come over.

Game Informer's review called out the shallow overall package, including the limited creation options and lack of depth beyond the core wrestling. GameSpot similarly landed on the idea of Fight Forever being a midcard debut rather than the main event AEW needed.

Those shortcomings become even more glaring with time.

A wrestling game has a built-in problem that most other games don't. The real-world product constantly changes. New wrestlers sign. Others leave. Championship designs change. Tag teams break up. Someone turns heel. Someone gets new entrance music. Someone who wasn't important enough to make the launch roster becomes world champion a year later.

If your game isn't capable of evolving alongside the television product, it begins feeling outdated almost immediately.

That's where creation tools and online sharing become so important. Wrestling fans have historically filled gaps themselves. Give them enough tools and they will create missing wrestlers, arenas, championships, alternate attires and entire promotions. The more freedom players have, the less dependent the developer is on keeping every single detail perfectly updated.

Fight Forever didn't give its players enough of that freedom.

Road to Elite had some entertaining ideas, but it wasn't expansive enough to carry the game for years. The creation suite wasn't deep enough to compensate for roster omissions. There wasn't an enormous Universe-style sandbox. The game added downloadable wrestlers and new features after launch, including the 30-player Stadium Stampede mode, but the additions never fundamentally transformed Fight Forever into the long-term platform it probably needed to become.

Even when Smark Out Moment looked back on AEW's best and worst of 2023, Fight Forever was part of the broader conversation surrounding what worked and what didn't during that year for the company.

A sequel should learn from all of that rather than simply adding more wrestlers and putting a "2" on the box.

AEW Shouldn't Try to Beat WWE 2K at Being WWE 2K

The biggest mistake AEW could make with another console game would be trying to win a content arms race with WWE.

WWE 2K has too much of a head start.

The current WWE series has had years to rebuild after the WWE 2K20 disaster, expand its modes and refine its systems. WWE 2K26 now advertises hundreds of wrestlers and legends, MyGM, MyRISE, Universe, MyFACTION and an enormous creation ecosystem. Its creation suite alone now supports 200 Create-a-Superstar slots along with expanded image capacity and deeper morphing tools, according to 2K's breakdown of the WWE 2K26 creation features.

AEW isn't realistically going to out-WWE WWE on its second attempt.

It doesn't need to.

Fight Forever was correct to establish a different identity. The follow-up just needs to take that concept much further.

Make the wrestling faster and more accessible. Give players full entrances and better presentation without turning every match into a slow simulation. Expand the creation suite dramatically. Allow community sharing. Make cross-platform play a priority. Update the roster regularly. Give players a proper long-term career or booking mode. Add more distinctly AEW match types. Build online rankings and tournaments that give people reasons to continue playing after they finish whatever single-player content is available.

And maybe most importantly, stop thinking about a wrestling video game as something that is finished when it ships.

If AEW makes another game, the goal should be building a community around it.

Could a Wrestling Game Actually Work as an Esport?

This is where professional wrestling creates an unusual contradiction.

The results of wrestling matches are predetermined. The winner of Jon Moxley vs Kenny Omega isn't decided by which man performs better that night. AEW has writers, producers and Tony Khan deciding where stories need to go.

Put Moxley and Omega into a video game and hand controllers to two players, however, and suddenly the competition is real.

There is no fundamental reason a wrestling game couldn't develop a legitimate competitive scene. The bigger problem is that most wrestling games aren't designed around that goal.

Character ratings can create imbalance. Certain moves inevitably become easier to exploit than others. Created wrestlers can obliterate any concept of competitive fairness if players are allowed to maximize every statistic. Reversal systems can become repetitive. A player who wants to recreate WrestleMania has different priorities from someone who wants to climb a global leaderboard.

Those aren't impossible problems to solve.

Ranked play could standardize attributes while leaving normal exhibition matches untouched. Created characters could be restricted or normalized. Developers could rebalance moves for competitive modes without changing how they function everywhere else. Seasonal ladders could rotate rules and match types. Official tournaments could be streamed through AEW's channels with wrestlers appearing as commentators, coaches or personalities surrounding the competition.

It doesn't need to become the next League of Legends, Street Fighter or Counter-Strike. That's an absurd standard to set.

Even a comparatively small competitive wrestling-game community would give AEW possibilities that Fight Forever never fully tapped into. Livestreams, rankings, sponsored competitions, personalities, tournament brackets, championship events, eSports odds and all the surrounding conversation can turn a multiplayer game into an ongoing community rather than something that disappears from everyone's hard drive three months after launch.

Wrestling might actually be particularly well suited to making that presentation entertaining.

You already have professional talkers on the roster. You already have commentators. You already have performers who understand how to create rivalries and make audiences care about personalities. A tournament between anonymous usernames isn't particularly compelling to a wrestling fan. Put those players into teams coached by AEW wrestlers, let those wrestlers talk trash for them and build toward a tournament final at Starrcast, a gaming convention or an AEW pay-per-view weekend, and suddenly you have something much easier to promote.

Which brings us right back to Austin Creed.

Austin Creed Could Be More Useful Behind a Controller Than AEW Realizes

If Creed joins AEW, nobody should expect him to walk into Tony Khan's office with the design document for Fight Forever 2 under his arm.

That isn't the point.

His value would be understanding how to connect the pieces AEW already has.

Kenny Omega understands gaming. The Young Bucks have already participated in crossover gaming events. AEW has a roster filled with wrestlers who stream, play games and interact with gaming culture. The company has an existing game engine that it reportedly owns. It has the remnants of the AEW Games branding. It has years of feedback from Fight Forever showing what wrestling fans liked and what they thought was missing.

What AEW doesn't appear to have right now is a clear gaming strategy.

In 2025, Tony Khan acknowledged that gaming remains important to AEW fans while also making it clear that wrestling, television and pay-per-view were the company's core priorities. He suggested that AEW could eventually return to games on different platforms without laying out a specific next project, as Cageside Seats covered from Khan's comments.

That uncertainty still exists. In May 2026, Sean Ross Sapp said he had not heard about a new AEW video game being developed, while also noting AEW owns the engine created for Fight Forever, according to 411Mania's coverage of the Fightful report.

Maybe that's actually an opportunity.

AEW doesn't need to announce a $40 million video game the morning Creed signs his contract. Start smaller.

Let Creed host an AEW gaming show. Organize tournaments between wrestlers. Bring in gaming creators. Revisit some of the chemistry he already has with Omega. Experiment with competitive Fight Forever events. Partner with existing game publishers when AEW wrestlers appear as crossover characters. Increase AEW's visibility at conventions. Find out what the audience actually responds to.

If those experiments work, then use what you've learned when deciding what the next AEW wrestling game should actually be.

That's a much smarter approach than deciding "we need Fight Forever 2," spending years and millions of dollars developing it and hoping the audience will still be waiting at the finish line.

AEW's Next Gaming Move Should Be About Building Something That Lasts

Fight Forever doesn't need to be remembered as proof that AEW shouldn't make video games.

It should be remembered as the first attempt.

The core gameplay had enough going for it that throwing the entire concept in the garbage would be unnecessary. The bigger lesson is that an arcade wrestling game needs depth just as much as a simulation does. That depth simply doesn't have to come from the same places.

WWE 2K can have the enormous simulation package.

AEW can focus on speed, accessibility, ridiculous match types, online competition, constant updates and community interaction. Let people create. Let them share. Let them compete. Give them reasons to come back. Build something with a distinct identity instead of selling nostalgia for WWF No Mercy and assuming nostalgia itself will provide longevity.

And if Austin Creed and Kofi do eventually show up in AEW, the obvious wrestling possibilities will receive most of the attention. That's understandable. The matches are why they would be there in the first place.

But one of the smartest things AEW could do would be recognizing that signing a talent sometimes means acquiring more than another wrestler for Dynamite.

Austin Creed spent more than a decade building a recognizable identity at the intersection of professional wrestling and video games. AEW has already spent years trying to establish itself in that exact same space.

If those two paths are about to cross, AEW should see where they can go next.

WOULD YOU WANT TO SEE AUSTIN CREED INVOLVED WITH AEW GAMES? WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE ABOUT A POTENTIAL FIGHT FOREVER SEQUEL?

LEAVE YOUR THOUGHTS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!

WWE SummerSlam 2026 takes place this weekend, with 12 matches now confirmed across the two-night premium live event at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota on August 1 and 2. Six matches are scheduled for Saturday and another six will take place on Sunday, with both nights beginning at 6 p.m. ET.

The finalized WWE SummerSlam card features three world championship matches, Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar settling their rivalry inside Hell in a Cell, an interim WWE Women's Championship Ladder Match and several other bouts that were added after the initial lineup started taking shape.

The Hell in a Cell match and the three world title bouts remain the biggest attractions across the weekend. However, Chad Gable challenging for the Intercontinental Championship in his home state, Gunther facing Nick Aldis and several late additions have given WWE enough material to fill out both nights without relying entirely on the four original headliners.

This will be the second consecutive SummerSlam presented across two nights, continuing WWE's expansion of its biggest stadium events. ESPN first reported the Minneapolis announcement, while Sports Illustrated has a breakdown of the event details and announced lineup.

Smark Out Moment will have complete SummerSlam 2026 results coverage for both nights of the event. Until then, we can take the complete card and estimate the probability of each winner leaving Minneapolis with a victory.

These percentages are personal confidence levels based on WWE's recent booking, the direction of each storyline and what would make the most sense coming out of SummerSlam. They are not live betting lines and should not be interpreted as guarantees.

Oba Femi vs Brock Lesnar - Hell in a Cell Match (Saturday)

Projected favorite: Oba Femi - 90%

Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar have already traded victories during this rivalry. Femi defeated Lesnar at WrestleMania 42, seemingly driving The Beast into retirement when Lesnar left his gloves inside the ring. Lesnar later returned, attacked Femi and defeated him in their rematch at Clash in Italy.

Femi then won the 2026 King of the Ring tournament at WWE Night of Champions, earning the right to challenge for a world championship at SummerSlam. Instead, he chose to put that opportunity on hold so he could finish his business with Lesnar.

As noted in ESPN's Night of Champions preview, Femi's WrestleMania victory over Lesnar was already one of the defining moments of his rapid rise through WWE. Defeating him again inside Hell in a Cell would establish that the first result was not a fluke.

There is an argument for Lesnar winning because SummerSlam is taking place in his home state. WWE could give the Minnesota audience a victory from one of the most successful wrestlers the region has ever produced, particularly if the company wants to continue the feud beyond SummerSlam.

However, the entire point of this trilogy should be to establish Femi as the next dominant force in WWE. He has already been presented as someone capable of standing across the ring from Lesnar without being intimidated. Defeating him inside the Cell would be far more valuable than simply winning their first encounter.

Lesnar winning the second match created enough doubt to justify a decisive finale. Unless WWE has a fourth match planned, Femi should survive the environment, put Lesnar down and move on to the world championship opportunity he earned by becoming King of the Ring.

The stipulation also allows WWE to give Lesnar a protected defeat. Femi does not need to dominate him from beginning to end. He only needs to endure the punishment, capitalize on the Cell and emerge as the wrestler who was finally able to bring the rivalry to a conclusion.

Bleacher Report's analysis of the SummerSlam developments also questioned some of the unusual creative decisions that led to the match, including Femi temporarily passing up his guaranteed world title opportunity. That decision only makes sense if beating Lesnar is supposed to accomplish something equally important.

Roman Reigns vs Seth Rollins (Sunday)

Projected favorite: Roman Reigns - 95%

Seth Rollins has long been one of the few wrestlers Roman Reigns cannot consistently defeat. WWE has leaned heavily into that history during the SummerSlam build, repeatedly reminding viewers that Rollins holds a slight advantage in their singles record.

Their last one-on-one premium live event match took place at the 2022 Royal Rumble. Rollins technically won by disqualification after Reigns refused to release the Guillotine, allowing The Tribal Chief to retain the Universal Championship without actually defeating his former Shield brother.

That unfinished business is now one of the central elements of their latest rivalry. As covered in Sports Illustrated's Raw results, Rollins used that history to convince Reigns to accept the challenge. Reigns admitted that beating Rollins was something he needed to accomplish rather than merely another title defense.

That is also the clearest reason to expect a successful defense. Rollins' history against Reigns does not necessarily make him the favorite. It gives Reigns a specific obstacle to overcome during his World Heavyweight Championship reign.

Rollins was forced to relinquish the title due to injury and can reasonably claim he never truly lost it. That gives him a legitimate motivation for wanting the championship back, but WWE has not built Reigns' reign around the idea that it should end this quickly.

A Rollins victory would create another major championship change only a few months after WrestleMania. It would also leave Reigns without the decisive victory that this entire match has been constructed around.

Interference from The Bloodline or someone connected to Rollins can never be ruled out. WWE could protect Rollins while still giving Reigns the victory, especially if the match is designed to launch another chapter rather than provide a completely clean conclusion.

Still, the most logical outcome is Reigns finally defeating Rollins in a major singles match. Bleacher Report also argued that Reigns should defeat Rollins decisively, rather than relying on assistance from the rest of The Bloodline.

Liv Morgan vs IYO SKY (Saturday)

Projected favorite: Liv Morgan - 98%

IYO SKY earned this championship opportunity by defeating Liv Morgan in the Queen of the Ring final. Rather than selecting another champion, SKY immediately chose to face Morgan again at SummerSlam with the Women's World Championship at stake.

Fightful covered SKY's SummerSlam decision following Night of Champions, where she made it clear that defeating Morgan once was not enough. She wanted to do it again with the championship on the line.

On the surface, SKY already defeating the champion should strengthen her chances. She has proven that she can beat Morgan, and tournament winners have generally been treated as serious threats when cashing in their guaranteed SummerSlam opportunities.

The problem is that having SKY defeat Morgan again would make the championship reign feel remarkably brief and ineffective. Morgan losing a non-title match can be used to establish the challenger as dangerous. Losing the rematch with the championship on the line would turn the first result into a direct preview of a title change.

WWE has also continued presenting Morgan as one of the leading figures in Raw's women's division. Her alliance with Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez gives the champion several potential ways to escape with the title, even if she cannot defeat SKY without assistance.

That outside involvement may be the key. SKY can lose because of interference without suffering significant damage, allowing the rivalry to continue or sending her into another program with one of Morgan's allies.

The Judgment Day has already used its numerical advantage during the build. Fightful's July 13 Raw results detailed Morgan, Rodriguez and Perez attacking SKY after her victory over Perez, with Morgan eventually striking her challenger with the championship belt.

The safer prediction is that Morgan finds a way to prevent SKY from repeating her Queen of the Ring victory when the championship is on the line.

CM Punk vs Cody Rhodes (Saturday)

Projected favorite: CM Punk - 60%

CM Punk vs Cody Rhodes is the most difficult of the three world championship matches to predict.

Sami Zayn captured the Undisputed WWE Championship by defeating Cody Rhodes and Gunther at Night of Champions. Rhodes then defeated Jey Uso to become the No. 1 contender, but Gunther attacked him before his championship match with Zayn could take place. Punk stepped in as the replacement and ended Zayn's reign after only nine days.

Rhodes could reasonably argue that Punk took the opportunity that belonged to him. Punk did not steal anything or break any rules, but he benefited from Gunther removing Rhodes from the situation. That gives The American Nightmare a valid reason to challenge the new champion without either wrestler needing to become a straightforward villain.

Their SmackDown confrontation was covered in detail by PWTorch, with Rhodes interrupting Punk's first championship celebration and making his intentions clear.

Anyone comparing these editorial projections with published wrestling markets can check operators such as Lucky Rebel Sportsbook ahead of SummerSlam weekend. Individual listings and prices may still change before the opening bell.

Published odds are not necessarily identical to the confidence percentages used in this article. F4WOnline reported on early SummerSlam markets, but those numbers can continue to move as the event approaches.

Punk is the slight favorite because WWE just put the championship on him. Taking it away less than one month later would make the victory over Zayn feel like little more than a device to transfer the belt back to Rhodes without booking a direct rematch from Night of Champions.

At the same time, Cody remains one of WWE's most protected stars. He has already held this version of the championship twice and would not be receiving another SummerSlam match if WWE did not view him as a credible possibility to win.

Gunther and Sami Zayn have since been assigned separate SummerSlam matches, removing two of the most obvious candidates to interfere. That makes the choice more direct: either Punk retains and establishes his reign, or Rhodes regains the championship less than two months after losing it.

Punk retaining is the more likely outcome, but this is nowhere near as secure as the projected victories for Reigns, Morgan or Femi. Rhodes winning clean would not be shocking. Neither would outside involvement costing one of them the championship match.

Penta vs Chad Gable (Sunday)

Projected favorite: Chad Gable - 75%

Chad Gable returning home to Minnesota and winning his first televised singles championship in WWE feels like one of the easiest stories on the SummerSlam card to understand.

Gable earned the opportunity by surviving an Intercontinental Championship No. 1 contender's gauntlet on the July 13 episode of Monday Night Raw. After entering late in the match, he defeated Rusev and forced Ethan Page to submit to secure the title shot.

Bleacher Report's live Raw coverage documented Gable's gauntlet victory and the subsequent confrontation with Penta. The champion came to the ring afterward to acknowledge his new challenger.

The victory continued Gable's attempt to repair the damage caused by his previous actions and reestablish himself as a legitimate singles competitor. Defeating Penta would be the clearest sign that this latest chapter is more than another temporary change in direction.

Penta should not be dismissed. He remains one of the most popular wrestlers on the roster, and WWE may decide that retaining the championship is more valuable than creating a hometown title change. Gable could also lose and continue chasing the belt if the company wants to stretch the program into the fall.

SummerSlam is the moment that makes the title change feel special, though. Gable winning in Minneapolis would give the audience an obvious emotional payoff while adding a championship accomplishment that has been missing from his WWE career.

Bleacher Report has also identified Gable's championship victory as one of the clearest potential outcomes coming out of the final stages of the SummerSlam build.

Gunther vs Nick Aldis (Saturday)

Projected favorite: Gunther - 95%

Nick Aldis has spent most of his WWE run enforcing the rules as the SmackDown general manager, but Gunther has pushed him far enough to return to the ring. Aldis cost The Ring General another opportunity at the Undisputed WWE Championship at Saturday Night's Main Event, turning their escalating conflict into a SummerSlam match.

Aldis has the experience and credibility to make this more competitive than the average authority figure stepping into the ring. He was a world champion outside WWE and is not being presented as someone who has no chance of defending himself.

That does not mean he should beat Gunther. The former world champion remains one of WWE's most protected wrestlers, and a loss to someone returning from a lengthy absence would be difficult to justify unless the company has a major surprise planned.

Aldis can earn Gunther's respect by surviving longer than expected and refusing to stay down. Gunther should still win decisively enough to reestablish himself after failing to leave Night of Champions with the championship.

If there are plans for a future follow-up to this—such as the two of them competing against each other again at WWE Saturday Night's Main Event—a win for Aldis could keep Gunther hot. However, that's a rather large assumption, so the easier call is to just assume this is a one match feud and Gunther will be standing tall after a hard-fought fight. 

Interim WWE Women's Championship Ladder Match (Sunday)

Projected favorite: Charlotte Flair - 70%

Out of the five women competing for the interim title, it's essentially down to just two of them.

Lash Legend is not a realistic option to jump that far up from the tag team division to the world title. Chelsea Green is tied in with Tiffany Stratton, who both lost on SmackDown to B-Fab and Michin. Plus, Blake Monroe has her eyes on the Women's United States Championship, which could very well lead to her interference to cost either/both of them the match out of spite.

That leaves just Jade Cargill and Charlotte Flair, and since Cargill was just the prior champion and doesn't have tons of fresh opponents on the roster to feud with, Flair holding the gold to set up a future match against Rhea Ripley is a better choice than simply repeating Ripley vs. Cargill. 

Quick Thoughts on the Other SummerSlam Matches

Trick Williams vs Baron Corbin - 50/50: This is the hardest match on the card to call. Trick has the championship and the stronger recent momentum, but Corbin's surprise return only carries real weight if WWE intends to push him immediately. Either result is easy to justify, so there is no clear favorite. There's also a good chance Carmelo Hayes interrupts and leads to Corbin losing or a no-contest, but since he's been largely just relegated to Main Event against Ricky Saints and hasn't factored as much into this feud, WWE might have simply moved on, for whatever reason.

Danhausen vs Dominik Mysterio - Danhausen at 99%: This is a comedy match whose payoff depends on Danhausen getting The Judgment Day's money. Having Dominik retrieve it would generate boos instead of delivering the funny moment the entire angle has been building toward. Barring an intentionally frustrating swerve, Danhausen is essentially guaranteed to win.

The Bella Twins and Paige vs Fatal Influence - The Bella Twins and Paige at 95%: The non-title stipulation gives WWE an easy way to deliver the returning babyfaces' victory without immediately taking the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship away from Fatal Influence. The most obvious follow-up is Brie and Nikki Bella using this win to secure a tag team title opportunity, which can most easily happen with a win here.

LA Knight, Solo Sikoa and Royce Keys vs Jacob Fatu and The Usos - Jacob Fatu and The Usos at 60%: The Bloodline remains the slight favorite because it is the more established team, but Fatu refusing to follow orders from The Usos could create the opening that Knight, Sikoa and Keys need to capitalize. It's more interesting if the momentum carries with someone like Sikoa than if The Bloodline just beats down the opposition and has nowhere to go.

Sami Zayn vs Finn Balor - Finn Balor at 70%: Zayn cannot keep leaning into his increasingly aggrieved complaints if he wins the No. 1 contender's match and immediately gets what he wants. A loss gives him another legitimate reason to insist he has been mistreated, while Balor receives a meaningful singles victory and a fresh world championship direction.

SummerSlam 2026 Favorites Ranked by Confidence

1. Danhausen - 99%
2. Liv Morgan - 98%
3. Roman Reigns - 95%
4. Gunther - 95%
5. The Bella Twins and Paige - 95%
6. Oba Femi - 90%
7. Chad Gable - 75%
8. Charlotte Flair - 70%
9. Finn Balor - 70%
10. CM Punk - 60%
11. Jacob Fatu and The Usos - 60%
12. Trick Williams vs Baron Corbin - 50/50

Danhausen and Morgan carry the highest confidence levels for very different reasons. Danhausen's match is structured around an obvious comedy payoff, while Morgan retaining remains the clearest championship result. Reigns, Gunther and the Bella Twins with Paige are also heavy favorites, whereas Trick Williams vs Baron Corbin is a genuine toss-up.

The current SummerSlam lineup is now set with six matches scheduled for Saturday and six for Sunday. Check the complete WWE premium live event schedule and return to Smark Out Moment for results coverage and the major storyline developments coming out of SummerSlam weekend.

Editor's note: This article's projected percentages represent the author's personal analysis and are not official sportsbook odds.

WWE is being squeezed for every dollar TKO can possibly wring out of it, and the fans are expected to pretend this is all normal because "that is how sports work." Ticket prices are obscene. Sponsorships are being jammed into everything. The ring, the announce desk, the tables, the graphics, the entrances, the match names, the premium live events, the fan experiences, the pre-shows, the press conferences, and the commentary itself all feel like they are up for sale...because they are.

This is not some natural evolution of WWE's future, but the company being bastardized into a cash machine to prop up the rest of TKO's sports-entertainment empire.

It is not that people suddenly discovered WWE is a business. Everyone knows WWE is a business. WWE has always had sponsors, merchandise, licensing deals, media rights agreements, and ridiculous corporate partnerships, but the TKO corporate structure has made the whole thing feel more aggressive, more centralized, and more willing to sell off every visible inch of the product. The difference now is that the business side is no longer sitting behind the product. It is standing in front of the product, waving a logo in your face, and telling you to stop complaining because other sports have even more advertising.

That attitude is exactly why this TKO era feels so gross.

When Mark Shapiro addressed criticism over WWE's increasing commercial integration during TKO's Q1 2026 investor call, he said WWE is "truly new to commercial integration and sponsorship" and that change would be "more glaring for some" as the company continues to commercially integrate. In other words: get used to it. The ads are not going away. They NEVER do. Can you think of any example of a company ever decreasing their prices without decreasing what they offer you, or toning down the number of advertisements they have once they break a certain threshold? The product is going to keep being carved up into sponsor-friendly pieces, and fans are supposed to accept that as progress.

That is not progress. That is a warning sign not even of what is to come, but what is already here. If you had any gullible hope that things won't get worse, just look at the PRIME logo in the middle of the ring. That sponsorship was supposed to be it, with promises that it wouldn't expand, only to very quickly turn into logos all over every aspect of the ring. They couldn't wait to jump into that next stage of it, they knew they would, and any smart fan saw the writing on the wall the moment it happened. Remember how cable had no ads because you paid for it? Then, it had commercials. Then, it had advertisements in the lower-third of the screen during the show itself. Then, those lower-thirds became bigger and bigger? 

Look at what WWE has become under this mindset. The center of the ring mat has been sold and is no longer sacred. The barricades are covered. The LED boards are constantly pushing sponsors. Matches are "presented by" brands that have nothing to do with the story. The announce desk feels like another advertising surface. Prime Hydration gets prime placement ringside during every event for years.

Even a sponsorship like Slim Jim, which has long been tied to WWE, has gone overboard. These days, all the tables have that logo slapped on top of them, with WWE openly promoting the idea of Superstars "snapping" through branded tables. That is not subtle sponsorship. That is product placement stapled directly onto one of wrestling's most iconic weapons. Tables used to mean chaos. Now they mean brand activation. Someone crunching some numbers is saying "We need to have someone go through a table during this segment of the show in order to meet our quota" instead of one of the wrestlers thinking a table spot is the best thing for the match itself.

And it is not just the props. WWE has been pushing ticket prices into absurd territory, especially around WrestleMania. Premium experiences, VIP packages, travel packages, exclusive clubs, and luxury access have become a bigger and bigger part of the pitch. The regular fan is slowly being priced out while the company courts corporate clients, influencers, wealthy tourists, celebrities, and rich people who want to be seen at the cool event.

The most insulting example was WrestleMania 42, where Adam Weitsman was seated at the commentary desk during the WWE Women's Championship match. He appeared on the broadcast beside Michael Cole and Wade Barrett, had a headset, received a chyron, and then said nothing. Is that better than if he would have talked and ruined the match? Sure. But whether it was a paid package, a VIP favor, a sponsor-adjacent perk, or some other corporate arrangement, the optics were embarrassing. One of the most important matches on the show had some wealthy douchebag guilty of 86 felony counts of bank fraud randomly inserted into the commentary presentation like the broadcast itself was another luxury suite. Then again, considering WWE's embarrassing association with the deplorable MAGA cult and all of their disgusting politicians and exceedingly wealthy but morally bankrupt puppeteers, why should that be a surprise?

That is what WWE is selling now: access, proximity, branding, and status. The wrestling is still there, and there is arguably more talent on the roster than ever before, but it keeps having to share space with people and companies who bought their way into the frame.

Meanwhile, TKO gets to point at the numbers and act like fans are being unreasonable. The company's Q1 2026 report report showed revenue growth across WWE, UFC, and IMG. WWE revenue was up. UFC revenue was up. TKO is not some starving little operation. But the same report also listed $4.671 billion in gross debt as of March 31, 2026. That is the context fans should be paying attention to. This is not just WWE trying to make money. This is a debt-heavy corporate structure with every incentive to extract more, sell more, integrate more, and squeeze more out of every asset it controls.

And WWE is one of its best assets.

That is why it feels like WWE is overcompensating. Because it is. The company is not merely trying to be profitable. It is being pushed to become maximally profitable in every visible way possible. If that means uglier shows, worse fan experiences, more intrusive ads, more Saudi events, higher prices, branded weapons, sponsor-cluttered broadcasts, and rich-guy vanity cameos, then fans are expected to swallow it.

That brings us to UFC, which is the other half of this mess.

UFC is powerful. UFC is popular. UFC makes money. But UFC is also tied to an ugly political and cultural machine that WWE fans should not be thrilled to be associated with. The upcoming UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House is the perfect example. It is being staged on the South Lawn around Dictator-in-Charge Donald Trump's unfortunate 80th birthday and the America 250 branding, with Reuters reporting on the estimated $60 million cost, legal controversy, political symbolism, and Trump/TKO business optics surrounding the event.

Call it what it is: a MAGA spectacle wearing sports gloves. It's the type of over-the-top pseudo-masculine garbage that speaks to the fan base that thinks owning a big truck is going to compensate for their incel negativity. Hence the sponsorship with RAM trucks, by the way. Right on the nose with that one!

This is not just a fight card. It is pomp, propaganda, ego, access, and corporate sportswashing rolled into one grotesque photo op. The whole thing reeks of authoritarian pageantry: powerful and gross men using public symbolism, combat sports, patriotic branding, celebrity access, and media spectacle to glorify themselves. UFC should be ashamed to be attached to it, but Dana White's a jackass who will never have that kind of clarity. TKO should be ashamed to be attached to it, but all of those executives are clearly compromised as well. WWE fans should be embarrassed that the company they follow now shares a corporate roof with this kind of garbage, and it's a shame they have to put up with that in order to try to enjoy the product they have loved without all of that for decades.

MAGA politics have always thrived on cruelty, grievance, intimidation, and turning everything into a loyalty test. Attaching UFC to that movement so openly does not make the company look strong. It makes it look compromised. The White House is not supposed to be a branded combat-sports venue for a president's birthday flex to compensate for his incalculable inadequacies. Fans can escape into the grandiose nature of sports entertainment all they want, but these companies are not supposed to be a backdrop for a self-congratulatory tough-guy spectacle.

WWE and UFC are being packaged as sister properties in a sports-entertainment empire that is obsessed with spectacle, access, influence, and monetization. WWE is the cleaner, more advertiser-friendly machine. UFC is the louder, uglier, more politically useful machine (minus, of course, how WWE has just gotten worse with that and all the clips of Triple H involved with Trump specifically, let alone Linda McMahon's batshit A1 nonsense making a mockery of the Department of Education. Together, they give TKO a way to sell everything: family-friendly wrestling, violent combat sports, VIP access, international site fees, media rights, gambling-adjacent engagement, brand integrations, celebrity partnerships, and political proximity. Scummy.

That is why WWE's over-commercialization feels connected to UFC's White House circus. They are different symptoms of the same disease.

The modern TKO model is not just about putting on shows. It is about turning every part of fandom into an ecosystem. Fans do not simply watch anymore. They are nudged into prediction contests, fantasy booking, VIP packages, event travel, digital experiences, watch parties, brand activations, mobile games, social-media campaigns, collectibles, sponsored segments, betting-adjacent chatter, and online casinos. The audience becomes something to process, segment, monetize, and resell.

That is the real complaint. WWE is not just making money from wrestling. WWE is turning wrestling into a storefront for everything else.

And yes, fans should be angry about that. Fans who follow the WWE pay-per-view schedule and predictions on Smark Out Moment are not doing that because they want to track quarterly shareholder value. They are doing it because they care about the stories, the matches, the title changes, the surprises, the booking, and the wrestlers. They care about the product. TKO keeps acting like the product can absorb unlimited commercial abuse because wrestling fans are loyal enough to come back anyway.

That may be true in the short term. It is also an incredibly cynical way to treat your audience.

The worst part is that WWE does not need to be this tacky. The company can make money without making everything look sponsored to death. It can have advertisers without slapping brands onto every surface. It can offer premium experiences without making regular fans feel like peasants outside the castle. It can expand internationally without making every major event feel like a transaction with the highest bidder. It can grow as a business without making the show feel like a corporate hostage video.

But that requires restraint, and restraint is not what TKO is selling.

TKO is selling scale. TKO is selling growth. TKO is selling integration. TKO is selling synergy between WWE, UFC, IMG, On Location, sponsors, media partners, governments, celebrities, and anyone else willing to pay for proximity to the machine.

That may impress investors. It does not automatically make wrestling better.

That is the point WWE fans should not let them bury under buzzwords. The most profitable version of WWE is not necessarily the best version of WWE. The most sponsor-friendly version of WrestleMania is not necessarily the best WrestleMania. The most expensive ticket is not proof of the best fan experience. The most commercial integration is not proof of mainstream success. Sometimes it is just clutter. Sometimes it is just greed. Sometimes it is just a company testing how much ugliness fans will tolerate before they finally admit the product they love is being sold off one ad placement at a time.

TKO is bleeding WWE dry because WWE is too valuable not to exploit. UFC gets its White House spectacle. Executives get their investor-call talking points. Sponsors get their logos. Rich fans get their access. Politicians get their photo ops.

Wrestling fans? They get told to suck it up, "stop bringing politics into it" and just accept a sliding scale of more advertisements and less of their actual sports entertainment under the guise that that is the future.

If that is what the future has in store, why would anyone want to support the present and build that up?

Reuniting always feels so good. Especially in WWE.

The global leader in sports entertainment is no stranger to hosting familiar faces after they leave the company. These returns actually become part of the draw. Fans get so used to seeing certain marquee headliners weekly. When they do leave for other endeavors or retirement, that absence increases interest in watching them inside the ropes once more.

Go ahead and name an iconic wrestler who left WWE, either permanently or just while taking a break. From The Rock and John Cena to The Undertaker and Kane, the wait for their prospective returns took on a life of its own.

Given the number of legendary reunions the WWE has hosted over the years, we thought it'd be a good time to take a look at some of the most iconic. Whether they were planned well in advance and known to the public or a secret as part of a twist ending, all of these moments are tattooed to memory for diehard pro wrestling fans.

Priority for this list will be given to the returns that actually caught us off-guard. This is a roundabout way of saying none of The Rock's highly anticipated, famously predictable returns will be making the cut.

The Undertaker, Judgement Day (May 2000)

Few WWE members are as recognizable as The Undertaker. He was a brand unto himself. Adults of a certain age most definitely had some version of his action figure, and it was most likely that one that played his infamous entrance music when swiping the medal plates on his fate across a compatible titan tron.

Back in 2000, The Undertaker had been on the shelf for around eight months with a torn pec. During the waning moments of an hour-long iron man match main event between The Rock and Triple H at the pay-per-view event Judgment Day, he returned in a way that's still talked about decades later.

Riding down the entrance ramp in Harley, The Undertaker sent fans into a feeding frenzy. As ESPN's Sean Coyle would later note, this reemergence marked the beginning of The Undertaker's "American Badass" persona interregnum. It wouldn't last long, as he returned to his tried and true "The Deadman" character by 2004. But it was a special period all the same.

Triple H - RAW (January 2002)

Though high-profile returns were often saved for pay-per-view events, the sudden appearances at RAW or SmackDown are some of the most memorable.

It is easier to disarm fans, both in the arena and at home, with these returns. Something seismic is supposed to happen at a pay-per-view event. The weekly cards are more standard. They set up and play out the lion's share of storylines needed to make riveting pay-per-view events.

Not surprisingly, Triple H, of all people, delivered one of the most easy-to-recount returns at RAW. The superstar had been recovering from a torn left quad he suffered during a 2001 match...that he finished, because of course he finished it. Once he was ready to rock, the company thought it would behoove him to return at Madison Square Garden, the arena in New York City that hosted the first-ever WrestleMania.

Despite playing the part of a widely loathed heel at the time of his quad injury, Triple returned to a thundering applause in front of the MSG crowd. What's more, this reemergence served as the then-up-and-comer's path to securing the main event at WrestleMania 18 later that year, alongside Chris Jericho himself.

John Cena - Royal Rumble (January 2008)

John Cena is arguably on Mt. Rushmore of WWE superstars. This is to say, keeping his 2008 return a secret was considered a no-go. Mind you, this is largely because it wasn't supposed to take place. Not this soon anyway.

At the time, Cena was nursing a torn pectoral muscle. In the WWE space, this is an injury that usually guarantees a five- or six-month absence. Heck, depending on the severity of the tear and whether surgery is required, it can often be much longer. Cody Rhodes missed more than seven months after having surgery on a torn pectoral in 2022.

Cena is apparently his own species, though. He returned at the Royal Rumble in 2008 less than four months removed from his pec tear. That is absolutely bonkers. Unbelievable, even. Almost 20 years later, it still sounds like a folktale. You want to know what US sportsbook is the best? Try to find out who had it pegged ahead of time that Cena would come out at #30, since nobody saw that coming.

Suffice it to say, the Madison Square Garden fans attending the event were beyond shocked. Cena made his return in surprising fashion on the final entrant, immediately racked up four eliminations, including that of Triple H, and won the event.

CM Punk - Survivor Series (November 2023)

CM Punk's path back to WWE in 2023 was long and winding. He initially left the company in 2014 while battling injuries and burnout galore. Still, he continued to sprinkle in a few guest appearances, which led many to believe he'd eventually return.

And return he did. Just not how many expected.

After spending the better part of the decade away from the sport, CM Punk joined AEW, which he called home for two years. Just a few months following that stint, though, he rejoined the WWE at the Survivor Series: WarGames in his hometown of Chicago.

The return was handled perfectly. While speculation had run rampant, WarGames appeared to be cutting out for the evening. Just when you thought it was over, CM Punk's Cult of Personality music hit, and the fans in attendance went truly bananas.

This return is doubly sweet because it's among the ones that didn't act as a goodbye. At the age of 47, CM Punk is still with the WWE today. And it is this return that set the stage with some of the sport's most iconic rivalries in recent vintage, including his storylines opposite Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre.

A bad PPV card isn't just a bad night. No, it's a booking philosophy failure that the crowd feels before the first match even starts.

This is how WWE actually constructs a pay-per-view from top to bottom, why match placement matters as much as match quality and what separates a card that builds momentum from one that runs out of steam by the co-main event.

The instinct when evaluating a WWE pay-per-view card is to treat it like a playlist. A collection of matches ranked by importance, slotted in descending order of star power. That's how a casual viewer reads it. It's not how WWE builds it, but rather, how the live crowd experiences it.

A well-constructed PPV card functions as a single continuous narrative. Each match sets an emotional temperature for the next one. The opener establishes energy. The mid-card either sustains or recovers it. The co-main resets the crowd for a peak. The main event delivers the payoff the entire night has been building toward. When that architecture works, the crowd is exactly where WWE needs them to be at every stage. When it doesn't, no individual match quality saves it.

This is why booking order is a creative decision with real consequences, and why the history of WWE pay-per-view supercards shows a clear evolution in how the company thinks about pacing versus star power.

What the Opener Actually Does

The opening match on a WWE pay-per-view carries more responsibility than its position suggests. It's not where the biggest names go, but it's where the entire night's energy gets established, and a crowd that doesn't engage early is a crowd that takes time to recover.

WWE has historically used the opener for one of two purposes: a high energy athletic match that gets the crowd on their feet immediately, or a mid-card title match with enough stakes to feel meaningful without burning the emotional investment needed later. Tag team matches and ladder matches appear in the opener slot with notable frequency for exactly this reason. They generate crowd noise quickly and don't require deep character investment to pop.

The worst version of an opener is a match that belongs lower on the card but got moved up for logistics reasons. The crowd hasn't fully arrived mentally, the match asks for emotional investment that hasn't been earned yet and the night starts flat. It's recoverable, but it costs the show something.

The Mid-Card Problem Nobody Talks About

The middle of a WWE pay-per-view card is where most booking failures actually live, and it's the section that gets the least analytical attention because nothing catastrophic happens there. The damage is quieter.

A mid-card slot done right serves as either a pressure valve or a momentum builder. A well-placed comedy segment or a shorter decisive match gives the crowd a chance to reset before the next emotional peak. A mid-card title match with a clean finish gives a secondary storyline a proper conclusion without overstaying its welcome.

The mid-card problem is overloading it. When WWE has too many matches of equal weight sitting in the middle two hours of a four-hour card, crowd fatigue sets in before the co-main event even starts. The live audience (and the television audience) has a finite amount of sustained investment to give. Spending it all in the middle means the final hour is fighting an uphill battle regardless of what's booked there.

This is something sharp wrestling fans track instinctively when a card gets announced, and increasingly, it's something that sportsbook analysts factor into PPV match betting lines, with platforms behind a DraftKings promo offering odds across individual match outcomes and championship changes that reflect not just the expected result but the narrative logic of where each match sits on the card. A title match in the mid-card slot with short odds toward the champion retaining reads very differently from the same match in the co-main position.

The Co-Main Slot Is Harder to Book Than the Main Event

Counterintuitive but consistent: the co-main event is the most difficult slot on the card to book successfully. The main event has one job: close the show, deliver the payoff, send the crowd home satisfied or talking. The co-main has to do something harder: peak without finishing.

It needs to be significant enough to justify its position, emotionally involving enough to keep a crowd that's been sitting for three-plus hours fully engaged and structured to hand the main event an audience that's energized rather than spent. That's a narrow window to thread, and you can see exactly how WWE attempted to manage it by looking at how the WrestleMania 42 card was constructed, with multiple title matches distributed across the card specifically to avoid stacking the emotional weight in one place.

Why the Main Event Has the Easiest Job on the Card

By the time the main event starts, WWE's booking job is largely done. A crowd that has been correctly managed through the opener, mid-card and co-main arrives at the main event already invested. Truth is, the match doesn't have to manufacture stakes from scratch. Not at all. At the end of the day, it just has to deliver on them... one way or another.

This is why main event quality is often overstated as the primary driver of a PPV's success. A genuinely great main event on a poorly constructed card still feels anticlimactic, meaning the crowd has already spent itself and no amount of in-ring quality fully compensates for that. A good-but-not-great main event on a well-built card can feel like a classic simply because the crowd is where it needs to be emotionally.

The cards that get remembered as all-time great shows (not just great main events) are almost always the ones where the architecture held up from bell to bell. The main event gets the glory because it closes the show, but the real work happened hours earlier. That's the actual craft of pay-per-view booking, and it's the part that gets the least credit when it works.

Roman Reigns is once again on top of WWE. The Tribal Chief beat CM Punk in a thrilling WrestleMania main event at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas back in April to secure the World Heavyweight Championship. The triumph marks the first time since his iconic 1,316-day Undisputed WWE Universal Championship reign came to an end two years ago that the OTC has held championship gold, and he has already made the first defense of that title.

Reigns successfully defeated real-life cousin Jacob Fatu at the recent Backlash Premium Live Event in Tampa, Florida, surviving the Samoan Werewolf's onslaught to somehow emerge still clinging on to the title. However, Fatu's dominant display in defeat in that contest suggests that the rivalry between the pair isn't yet over.

Fatu was supposed to "acknowledge" Reigns as his Tribal Chief in the aftermath of that Backlash defeat, with the "Acknowledgement Ceremony" set for the Monday, May 11th episode of Raw. Instead, however, the Werewolf proceeded to beat down both Jimmy and Jey Uso before putting Reigns through the commentary table with a vicious powerbomb. Now, the feud appears set to continue through to the upcoming Clash in Italy set for May 31st.

So, will Fatu dethrone Reigns in Turin? Or are some other names considered more likely to end the World Heavyweight Championship reign of the Tribal Chief? Let's take a look.

Oba Femi

Considering WWE's scripted nature, one might think that online betting sites aren't interested in professional wrestling. Far from it. In fact, this popular online sportsbook was offering a $50 free bonus to players who followed them on X — formerly known as Twitter — and commented with what they thought the match of the weekend would be. And while the Canadian bookmaker hasn't yet published odds on next January's Royal Rumble match, when they do, they are expected to place the name Oba Femi at the top of the list.

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The Ruler was somewhat of an unknown commodity when he made his debut on WWE's main roster at this year's Royal Rumble. Then, he proceeded to go on a tear and became one of the hottest acts in the entire company, beating one of the all-time greats, Brock Lesnar, at the Showcase of the Immortals. Now, a title victory could be just around the corner.

Many consider Oba the favorite to dethrone Reigns, perhaps even as soon as August's SummerSlam event in Minneapolis. Should that come to fruition, then the former NXT Champion's rise to the top would resemble that of the man he beat at Mania, Lesnar. The Beast famously became WWE Champion within three months of debuting on the main roster way back in 2002, dethroning The Rock at SummerSlam to claim the gold. Could Femi be on the cusp of a similar rocket-ship to superstardom?

Well, if recent WWE storylines are anything to go by, not just yet. In recent years, WWE has been very hesitant to put any of its new titles on a newer star, no matter how hot they get. LA Knight was the top superstar in the entire company, only to be fed to Roman Reigns and lose back in 2024. It took Cody Rhodes two years of being on top before he was entrusted with championship gold. Oba's impending coronation is exactly that. It will happen, but don't expect it as soon as SummerSlam.

Bron Breakker

One man who could dethrone Reigns as soon as SummerSlam, however, is Bron Breakker. The "Badass" has been in the midst of a monumental push for over a year now, and WWE brass could well feel that he is primed and ready for his crowning moment, maybe even in Minneapolis.

Breakker shocked the world when he joined forces with Seth Rollins and Paul Heyman on the Raw after last year's WrestleMania, and that story was supposed to culminate in the 28-year-old ultimately dethroning "The Visionary" to become champion. Unfortunately, though, injuries, first to Rollins and then to Breakker himself, scuppered those plans.

Both Breakker and Rollins have since returned to the ring, with the former defeating the latter at Backlash. Many now consider him in pole position for the next shot at Reigns once his feud with Fatu comes to its conclusion. And considering the fact that he has spent the last year headlining episodes of Monday Night Raw and live events, all while learning behind the Oracle Heyman, WWE Creative could feel that the time is nigh to pull the trigger on a Breakker championship run.

Roman Reigns vs Bron Breakker is thought to be penciled in as the main event for SummerSlam. Considering that the title challenger has his own crew of co-horts, namely Logan Paul and Austin Theory, to cancel out Reigns' Bloodline brethren of Jimmy and Jey Uso, outside interference likely wouldn't be the defining factor in their proposed match. So, it begs the question: Could Breakker actually dethrone Roman Reigns at SummerSlam? We wouldn't bet against it.

From underused fan favorites to prospects stuck on pause, some WWE and AEW wrestlers have fans and bettors talking, and not always for the right reasons. Here's a look at who might need a change of scenery and why the rumor mill just won't let the subject drop.

Wrestling used to be all about loyalty: Stay in your territory, run the same loop and make your mark, which consequently made betting a safe and sound scene. Not anymore. Now, hopping from one major company to another feels like part of the story. Every time a contract runs out or a surprise release hits social media, fans jump on the same question: Where do they go next?

It's not just speculation, either. We've watched huge names like Cody Rhodes and Adam Copeland leave one promotion and instantly shake up another. Guys like Andrade El Idolo and Aleister Black have done the round trip, not once, but multiple times. These moves don't just fill headlines; and in some cases, they completely revive careers. It's proof that sometimes, it's not about whether a wrestler's got the chops, but whether they're in the right place at the right time.

And while WWE and AEW both give their wrestlers big stages, pay-per-views and arenas full of chanting fans, the way they go about it? Night and day. WWE is all about stories and spectacle, while AEW leans on in-ring work and giving wrestlers more creative freedom. Both strategies have a huge impact on the fan experience.

So, here's the million-dollar question: Who feels out of place now? Who just doesn't click where they are?

When Great Talent Gets Left Behind

Both companies have packed rosters; so many stars, so little TV time. Sounds like a good thing, but it leaves some performers competing for little more than scraps. That's where things get messy. Even the best can end up forgotten, lost in cluttered storylines and low betting odds. Or some might be coming back just in time for a pay-per-view pre-show and then vanishing again.

Right now, fans keep repeating the same few names: Wrestlers who, by all rights, should be doing more. It's like they're stuck watching the train instead of driving it.

Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae: WWE isn't letting them shine

No other duo in wrestling clicks quite like Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae. They're a team both in and out of the ring, with skills and storytelling chops that make crowds care. Anyone who's ever watched their NXT run, or even random highlights, can see it.

Yet, their spot in WWE right now? Barely a blip. They aren't just good; they're the kind of versatile performers who can carry divisions and anchor storylines. Gargano delivers must-see matches. LeRae can blend into any division and immediately make it better. Together, they've got the kind of chemistry other teams can only wish for. But instead of featuring front and center, they're off to the side, like extras in someone else's story.

You look at AEW, and the picture changes. That fanbase knows them, loves their style and remembers the old rivalries too, especially with names like Tommaso Ciampa. FTR is just waiting for a classic tag team feud. And for LeRae? AEW's women's division needs a vet with her skill set. On paper, it makes too much sense, but they just aren't getting that shot in WWE right now.

Hook: AEW's Prospect Losing Steam

Hook exploded onto the AEW scene with a presence that didn't need words. He had that quiet confidence, and the mystery worked. With Taz's name behind him, fans didn't need convincing, he felt important from day one.

These days, not so much. His group is drifting after Samoa Joe stepped away, and Hook himself seems left out with nothing interesting to do. The fire's gone cold.

WWE, surprisingly, could snap him out of this rut. They love building up second-generation stars. Hook isn't short on talent, but he could use the structure and momentum that the WWE system, especially NXT, can provide. Let him find himself, tell a clear story and sharpen his act. Right now, he's stranded, which is never a good place for a rising star.

Shinsuke Nakamura: A World-class Talent Lost in the Mix

Shinsuke Nakamura has done it all elsewhere: Japan, global spotlights and classic matches. When he stepped into WWE, fans expected something huge.

Now? Feels flat. Everyone knows WWE values Nakamura, but the spark that made him feel larger than life isn't there anymore. He's playing a part, not owning the stage. Fans wonder: What if he went somewhere that actually let him be Nakamura?

With AEW's ties to NJPW, it's easy to dream up fresh rivalries, imagine him going up against Konosuke Takeshita. That's a main event with international buzz, just waiting to happen. Sometimes a wrestler just needs new surroundings to remind everyone why they're world class.

Lance Archer: AEW's Muscle, but Not the Main Event

Lance Archer looks the part: Intimidating, powerful and with an edge most guys would love to have. And yet, in AEW, he's never quite reached the top.

He's always around, but look closer and the story says it all: Few big wins and barely any moments to define his career. The way AEW books its biggest wrestlers, too often they're the heavy for someone else's story. Archer ends up being just the guy in the background, not the destroyer in the spotlight.

Going back to WWE could turn things upside down. His last run there was a lifetime ago, and he's a much better performer now. With the right story and booking, WWE could present him as a force, not just another role player.

Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen: Private Party is Getting Left Behind

Private Party started out as one of AEW's fresh faces; young, high-energy and with tons of potential. Fans were in from the start.

But after dropping the AEW Tag Team Titles in early 2025, they all but disappeared. Two matches on TV in a year? For a team this good, that's rough. If they hit WWE's tag division, the landscape would change. Teams like The Street Profits have set the bar, and Private Party would bring something new. They've got charisma and style, and above all, crowds get hyped whenever they're on.

At this point, nobody questions their talent. They need opportunity, and right now, AEW isn't giving it to them.

Why These Moves Go Beyond Dream Matches

When wrestlers switch companies, it's not just about ticking off fantasy matchups. There's a ripple effect that hits everything: fans get fired up and might switch sides, TV ratings shift from one company to another, even betting markets, such as those related to online sports betting PA, can change as odds react to major roster moves, and merch flies off shelves as fans get heated. The impact of these switches can be felt across multiple areas, ultimately shaping fan engagement around matchups.

It all comes down to something basic: fans want to see wrestlers used right. When they're not, everyone starts dreaming up where they'd fit better.

With WrestleMania 42 on the horizon, many WWE fans are using sports betting to enhance their experience by turning the high-stakes action into an immersive, analytical competition. By analyzing storylines and odds to predict the possible winners, bettors and fans can add personal stakes to each bout, creating a deeper sense of investment in the matches and potentially winning money on specific matches or specials.

When it comes to entertainment, WrestleMania never fails to deliver. The cinematic entrances, captivating storylines, and legendary rivalries have been keeping viewers glued to their screens for years. But in recent years, WWE fans have been adding another layer to the anticipation of this epic tournament through sports betting.

By analyzing the WWE betting odds, viewers can gain a deeper understanding of what they can expect in this ever-unpredictable event by observing the general consensus of fans and experts from around the globe. They can even take it a step further and place a few bets themselves, making the matches even more nail-biting than they already are.

Turning Predictions into Participation

With WrestleMania 42 scheduled for April 18th and 19th and returning to Allegiant Stadium this year, fans are buzzing about what's going to happen. Will Roman Reigns manage to unseat CM Punk? Will the old adage about the student surpassing the master ring true when Cody Rhodes takes on Randy Orton?

Every die-hard WWE fan is sitting on the edge of their seat, eagerly anticipating the outcomes of these deep-seated rivalries, knowing that these bouts are bound to be explosive. However, sports betting enables you to turn your speculations into potential cashouts by allowing you to put some skin in the game.

By betting on WWE matches, you become more invested in the action. Instead of just making casual predictions, you start to:

• Analyze storylines more closely
• Consider booking patterns and momentum
• Pay closer attention to match outcomes

Despite the outcomes already being predetermined, there is still a level of uncertainty around things like finishes, interference, and unexpected twists.

Major Rivalries Heating Things Up in the Ring

Going into this year's WrestleMania, there has been a fair share of personal animosity and shocking betrayals that are certain to make the tournament unforgettable.

CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns

Reigns won the 2026 Royal Rumble to set up this must-see clash. This Original Tribal Chief vs. Best in the World showdown is fueled by deep-seated hatred. The build-up toward this bout has also been extremely personal, with insults being flung back and forth constantly.

Reigns has been very vocal about his disapproval of CM Punk's time at the company and has consistently dismissed the WWE legend as an "old man." In response, CM Punk has made numerous references to Reigns' family, further exacerbating the resentment between the two wrestlers.

Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton

Following Rhodes' reclamation of his title from Drew McIntyre, his former mentor and friend Randy Orton turned on him, delivering a brutal chair shot in a shocking act of betrayal that sent shockwaves throughout the WWE Universe.

This "student vs. teacher" storyline has become the definitive headliner for Night 1 of the upcoming WrestleMania.

Jade Cargill vs. Rhea Ripley

This epic match has been billed as the "Clash of the Titans" and is the first time these two dominant forces have faced off in a singles match, making it a bout that is not to be missed.

Brock Lesnar vs. Oba Femi

The Beast issued an open challenge that was answered by the undefeated former NXT Champion, Oba Femi, who previously dropped Lesnar with a "Fall from Grace" in a famous bout on RAW.

As you can see, the tournament is set to be an intense battle with some major clashes on the card that could potentially result in career-defining moments.

Fan Favorites and Momentum

According to the latest WrestleMania 42 betting insights, fans are heavily backing a few of the wrestlers going into the tournament, with odds showing that the consensus is clearly skewed in their favor.

Several specific superstars are expected to have game-changing moments:

• Rhea Ripley is heavily favored to dethrone Cargill, owing to her "Mami" persona remaining at peak popularity among fans.
• Roman Reigns has emerged as a fan favorite despite the villainous history of his "Tribal Chief" era. It appears that his current "Original Tribal Chief" run has made him a top choice for Night 2.
• Trick Williams has also been slated as a favorite to win his first main-roster title by defeating Sami Zayn for the US Championship.
• Liv Morgan is being backed by massive fan support to win the Women's World Title from Stephanie Vaquer.

With fans showing such a clear preference for certain wrestlers, it will be interesting to see how accurate the sports betting community has been in its predictions.

A Deeper Look at Storylines

As much as the outcomes of the matches are scripted, betting on WrestleMania changes your perspective from that of a passive viewer to that of an analytical producer. This pushes you to deconstruct the storylines in a way that casual viewing would not.

Analyzing booking logic means evaluating the creative momentum of a superstar. Take a character like Trick Williams, for example. If he appears to be receiving a massive push, you need to recognize the company's long-term investment in developing his character arc before betting on him, and not just his skills in the ring.

Deconstructing the prop bets is also a way to gain deeper insights. Look at odds for:

• Method of victory
• First move or finisher
• Royal Rumble longevity

Now, instead of just predicting who will win, you are thinking about how. Will Randy Orton win via disqualification to extend the feud, or will he win clean to establish dominance? This deepens your engagement and investment in the bouts beyond just their results.

More Than Just a Title

At the end of the day, people will always be captivated by WWE, even knowing that it is scripted. This is because the storylines are so compelling and the characters are so engaging that you want to keep watching to see how their careers develop and what shape their journeys take.

This investment extends into the world of betting, where the odds heavily favor specific wrestlers based on fans' opinions of them and predictions of how they are expected to contribute to the WWE Universe. Analyzing the WWE betting odds can help you gain a fresh perspective, a deeper understanding of the bouts, and a stronger basis for making informed predictions going into this exciting tournament.

While not for any kind of championship, one of the biggest matches scheduled to take place at WWE WrestleMania 42 will be a battle of the behemoths as Oba Femi faces Brock Lesnar on The Grandest Stage of Them All.

WrestleMania XLII will take place Saturday, April 18, 2026 and Sunday, April 19, 2026 from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, and given the location as well as the importance of the event, a lot of people will be placing bets on who they think will walk out of that match the victor.

So how do you pick between The Beast Incarnate and The Ruler—two dominant WWE Superstars who can decimate nearly everyone on the roster? What happens when the irresistible force meets the immovable object?

Let's break down this rivalry and toss out some predictions for Femi vs. Lesnar at The Showcase of the Immortals.

Foundations of the Feud

At the moment, this has not yet become a deep personal rivalry or an intricate storyline in any means. In fact, it's as bare bones and simplistic as it can get. Part of that can be blamed on WWE Creative simply not caring to do anything more than the bare minimum, and/or possibly just not having the skills and mental load to be creative enough to do something more, but it could also be due to the chaos of this year's WrestleMania.

It isn't an excuse, but it is a cause and effect that many injuries have been causing shifts to The Road to WrestleMania and most of this card feels like a Plan B, if not a Plan C or lower on the backup plan totem pole. There's no telling what WWE had planned originally for this event and how that would have influenced things differently, but regardless of the "what if" situation, this feud is what it is right now and we have to judge based off that.

With that in mind, the storyline here is that Lesnar put out an open challenge and Femi answered it. Lesnar's advocate, Paul Heyman, said that someone just needed to step up to Lesnar, and after Femi powerbombed him and placed his foot on Lesnar's chest to signify an easy pin, that's sparked this match being confirmed.

As soon as tonight's episode of WWE Monday Night Raw, there could be new twists implemented into this story, but it might very well stay as basic as knowing the fans want to see these two powerhouses collide. Sometimes, you don't need a story to sell a match, and since this is likely to be a one time affair, WWE might not even be interested in trying to get into any character work or progression beyond this.

If there's no climax for the story to head toward, then it's just a matter of smashing two rocks together to see which one breaks.

Oba Femi's Track Record

Femi has been a protected member of the roster since his debut. Coming into World Wrestling Entertainment as part of the WWE NIL program—aka Next in Line, a WWE Recruit subdivision that focuses on training athletes from outside the world of professional wrestling—gave Femi (then just signed under his real name, Isaac Odugbesan) a bit of clout beyond the norm, but that doesn't last for everyone.

While WWE treats some NIL talent like Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson as a pet project from the start, Odugbesan was in a class of 15 with only one other from that group even becoming a member of the roster at all. That other is Joe Spivak, who performs as Tank Ledger in NXT and has won the NXT Tag Team Championship, but is largely a comedic character.

In comparison, Femi was immediately positioned well, going on a 30 match undefeated streak before losing the NXT North American Championship to Tony D'Angelo. In the process, Femi broke the record for the longest run in that belt's history at 273 days.

Femi lost again to D'Angelo a few weeks later, going on to win the NXT Championship before dropping that in his second true pinfall loss to Ricky Saints on September 27, 2025. Femi would regain the title, only to vacate it willingly to allow for a call up to the main roster.

Since then, Femi's only loss has been the Royal Rumble match, wherein he was eliminated by Brock Lesnar himself, adding fuel to this WrestleMania bout.

According to the internet wrestling database of profightdb, Oba Femi's win-loss record currently stands at an overall 80 wins, 4 draws, and 24 losses (Cagematch having roughly the same numbers), with the vast majority of those losses being house shows and live events that aren't broadcasted, meaning they aren't considered truly canon most of the time, and a good number of them are multi-man or tag team matches wherein Femi wasn't pinned or directly taking the loss himself, but just happened to be on the losing team. Essentially, Femi has only 3 real losses in WWE so far that actually count, giving him a great track record to work with.

Brock Lesnar's Rise to the Top and WrestleMania History

Cagematch currently lists Brock Lesnar's win-loss record, in comparison, at 317 wins, 116 losses and 9 draws. For those curious, profightdb has him at 213 wins, 91 losses, and 5 draws, so you have to pay more attention to the specifics and not just the numbers.

Lesnar was also immediately pushed to the top of WWE when he first joined the company in 2000 as part of the Ohio Valley Wrestling organization, which was used as a developmental spot prior to NXT's creation. After around a year in OVW, Lesnar was brought up to the main roster for some house shows before making his on-air match debut at WWF Backlash 2002 on April 21st with a victory over Jeff Hardy.

By June, he had already won the King of the Ring tournament. Two months later, he was WWF Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion, beating The Rock of all people at SummerSlam 2002. Suffice it to say, Lesnar was truly "The Next Big Thing" as he had been designated, and WWE made sure to present him as such.

Lesnar tore through the roster, beating then and future legends like Mark Henry, Hulk Hogan, Rikishi, John Cena, The Undertaker, and more. Virtually everything someone could accomplish was checked off his list in record time, including a Royal Rumble victory in 2003 and beating Kurt Angle at WrestleMania XIX to win the WWE Championship again.

For the most part, in over 20 years, Lesnar has remained virtually unstoppable. While he's suffered some losses here and there, he typically does not get pinned by anyone who isn't also a top of the food chain multi-time world champion such as the nigh-unstoppable Goldberg and the golden child of the past decade plus, Roman Reigns. It's rare to see Lesnar humbled in any capacity, but when it does happen, it's normally to a Hall of Fame caliber Superstar.

This translates to his WrestleMania history as well, where he currently stands at an even 6-6 record.

Lesnar's first appearance was WrestleMania 19's victory over Angle, but that was followed with a loss to Goldberg at WrestleMania XX. He then left the company and would not compete at WrestleMania again until 2013's WrestleMania 29, wherein he lost to Triple H.

One of Lesnar's greatest achievements was at WrestleMania 30 when he defeated The Undertaker to end his undefeated streak, though he lost the WWE Championship the following year when Seth Rollins cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase and pinned Roman Reigns.

Lesnar then defeated Dean Ambrose in 2016 at WrestleMania 32, Goldberg at WrestleMania 33, and Reigns at WrestleMania 34 before losing again to Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 35 in 2019, dropping the WWE Championship once more. He did the same in 2020 when he lost the WWE title to Drew McIntyre and failed in the Winner Takes All title unification match against The Tribal Chief at WrestleMania 38.

Lesnar's most recent WrestleMania match is a fitting one to look at, as it was a non-title bout against another giant of the roster, Omos, who he defeated at WrestleMania 39 in 2023 before taking several years off the card due to his involvement in Vince McMahon's ongoing sex trafficking lawsuit.

What Makes Oba Femi Different from Omos?

Since that match took place before Lesnar's name was brought into that discussion, WWE had no problem putting Lesnar over. Now, that may notnecessarily be the case, although the company's willingness to bring Lesnar back at all should likely prove that morality isn't their top priority, based on their political alignments and anti-consumer business tactics.

TKO operates differently than when Vince McMahon was making all the decisions, but they are still of the same ilk and breed, so any moves toward being more progressive should be taken with a grain of salt. Even the concept of pushing a younger talent over an established and protected name like Lesnar, which should be a top priority for the company as it transitions into an era where more legends are retiring, does not always seem to be their goal—or, at times, may line up without actually being the reason why that booking took place.

Omos was at one point looked at as someone to build for the future as a new Andre the Giant. Over the past several years, though, he has been relegated to a "featured act" that only randomly appears a few times per year at most, if that. He's never been truly pushed to the top and has only won tag team gold alongside AJ Styles. These days, he's an enforcer for AAA star El Hijo del Vikingo, which is far from the position Oba Femi currently finds himself in.

As a record-breaking champion in NXT, Femi is currently in a spot where he is on the cusp of becoming what Lesnar was before, in that he could be the dominant force on the roster if WWE wishes to put that spotlight on him. 

So Who Should You Bet On?

For the numbers folk, Femi is billed at 6'6", 310 lbs, 27 years old, while Lesnar is billed at 6'3", 286 lbs, and is 48 years old. Size and age would go to Femi if this were a real contest, even though someone of Lesnar's freak athleticism puts him in an unknown category given his previous dominance in legitimate sports beyond what we would know Femi of doing, as Odubgesan was an NCAA Shot Put champion as opposed to Lesnar's amateur wrestling and MMA experience.

Some odds makers have Femi at -350 with Lesnar at +225, but that is mostly just one case right now and could change in any number of ways prior to their match taking place.

Readers interested in how odds like these are typically calculated and presented should check out resources like TheLines mobile betting guide and other sportsbooks evaluation tools. While not every market caters to professional wrestling, they do sometimes dip their toes in that pool, particularly for WrestleMania considering its status as the Super Bowl of sports entertainment. In particular, Lesnar's UFC presence opened him up to a lot of odds makers analysis before, so they may be interested in that crossover MMA appeal.

Most of the time Lesnar has lost at WrestleMania, it's been due to a title change, largely in favor of him being the monster who needs to be overthrown so a more regular member of the roster can hold the gold going forward for a new season. That is not happening in this case, so there is no sense of urgency to give Femi the victory. If Femi loses, while disappointing in a number of ways and a creative dampening on him, he doesn't truly "lose" anything—more so, he fails to "gain" the type of status boost he would get for beating someone like Lesnar on The Grandest Stage of Them All.

If you were to poll the viewing audience, most would likely say they hope Femi comes out on top. He's the star to build for the future and the person who could use the win more, while a win for Lesnar keeps things stagnant and brings up feelings that WWE refuses to let go of previous eras to make room for what's coming next.

In an ideal world, Lesnar takes the loss, puts Femi over, and WWE uses that momentum to make The Ruler someone who can be banked on for years to come. However, a fall from grace happens to everyone, and WWE has made countless errors that have ruined careers or been mistakes that offset someone's rise to the top in the past, to the point that there are not only no guarantees the right decision will be made, but almost a surefire bet they are considering repeating the same mistakes as before. It is a continued pattern, particular with Lesnar, that WWE has blinders up with him and will almost always default to having him go over in the interest that it will mean more when someone beats him down the road, even if history has shown that that rarely ever actually happens. But WWE is often less interested in actually accomplishing their goals and more so just presenting them as dangling carrots for the future, hoping to hook the continued viewership to lust for that.

Given all the speculation that Lesnar could be retiring at SummerSlam this year in a match against Gunther, who has beaten Goldberg, John Cena, and AJ Styles in retirement scenarios over the past 12 months, there is a very good chance WWE wishes Lesnar to look stronger heading into that and they will sacrifice giving a win to Femi in favor of that, trying to justify it as already being a good enough push for Femi to have been in this match on this stage to begin with. Coupling that with the possibility Lesnar could cheat to win and do something underhanded like low blow Femi, so the audience walks away thinking that he "had the match won" and WWE can try to have their cake and eat it, too, even at the expense that it doesn't do as much in the long run even remotely close to what a win would mean for Femi.

There are still several weeks before WrestleMania goes down, so anything can change, but at this particular moment, don't be so quick to go with the odds makers. Consider the option that Lesnar has just as much of a chance to win this, if not more.

Be sure to keep checking Smark Out Moment for more news and reports as well as live coverage of WrestleMania 42.