WWF 150. Summer Slam 2024.

The Build.

Summer Slam comes to you from Cleveland.  

(Dark: AJ Styles wins 20 man battle royal)

Zayn/Walter is the main event - but you probably know that to get from here to WM41 would require someone else to be in the title picture, given the limited availability of those two guys.  Hence, Styles. Any of the important future acts to the promotion (Evans, Williams, for ex) are in this match.

Alexander is the Dark Ride Champ, he's eliminated by Tozawa, who was not in the match. That should propel those two to their final blow off.  Some level of friction with The Culture, small friction, should start with this match, as come January there will need to be a swap out, Alexander leaving the promotion and Ricky Starks joining.  

While this is the final event I'm posting, it's not the final post, I haven't missed a month in 20 years and will have something in each month headed to the final post on December 10, the 20th Anniversary of the Counterfactual.  The October post will be links to all 150 PPVs, I will be linking that both here and at the end of this post, essentially replacing my cutting together another highlight package of great moments.  However, in this event, there are two packages, the one now to Dream On.

Announcers - Joe Tessitore (1st PPV) and Steve Regal (30th)

1. Parejas Increibles: Walter/Punk (w/Heyman) d. Rhodes/Zayn

-Cody and Punk brawl pre-match while in the ring, when that calms down, they never enter the actual match, Walter/Zayn do a fast paced 5 minutes, like late period IRL Lesnar matches.  Zayn throws everything at Walter, and Walter eventually submits him. 

2. WWF 150 Cup Round One: Bron Steiner d. Logan Paul (w/McAfee)

-Steiner blasts McAfee through the retaining barrier, ending McAfee's run, and then is able to get the fall on the former IC Champ Paul, his biggest win yet. Paul doesn't work Survivor Series, he's largely in the same spot when the calendar turns to 2025.  

3. #1 Contender: Rhea Ripley (w/Defiance) d. Bayley

-Postmatch Defiance surrounds Bayley, leading the Sheamus emerging to defend her - leading to Priest coming to the ring as the leader of Defiance - leading to McIntyre coming to stand with his one time partner Sheamus and good friend Bayley - and that confrontation gets us to the next tournament match. Ripley will go onto face the Womens Champ Sky at Survivor Series and is likely positioned around the top level of the womens division through Mania.  Bayley returns to the tag division, she and Belair are the women's champs, they'll start a feud with the Horsewomen, (Stratton/Rodriguez/Baszler).  The blocking for this segment should permit both Belair and Sky to make an appearance to confront Ripley.

4. WWF 150 Cup Round One: Damien Priest d. Drew McIntyre

-Priest holds the tights and gets the fall; the match needs to be laid out such that the lesson Drew takes away is he let himself get soft in trying to defend Bayley - that Hooligans version of McIntyre was the one he left behind, for the clear better in his view, and that "dont get soft" self admonishment should drive his run for through Mania.  

5. Solo Sikoa (w/Jimmy) d. LA Knight

-Squash, postmatch is the debut of the next Samoan faction, Jacob Fatu with the Guerrillas of Destiny, they wipe out Solo and Jimmy.  On the road to Survivor Series - Fatu and GoD will then attack Roman/Jey, as they aren't aligned with either side of the family divide.  Jimmy is the IC Champ, and he should be defending it at Survivor Series outside of this feud.  Knight's strictly enhancement, he and Miz are a likely act.  Roman/Jey are visible in this segment, either in a locker room shot or better, a skybox, enough to make clear they did not expect Fatu to arrive.

6. WWF 150 Cup Finals: Bron Steiner d. Damien Priest (w/Defiance)

-Steiner overcomes the numbers and goes over, he's presented a trophy postmatch by the Rock, who gives a speech about Steiner being a big part of the much brighter future of the WWF.  Defiance will look for revenge in the build to Survivor Series, and who will stand with Steiner in that conflict is Sheamus (both because Sheamus has been in this back and forth with Defiance during the Bayley program and also because Sheamus/Steiner had a TV program which ended in a dark match at Mania).

7. Dog Collar Match: CM Punk (w/Heyman) d. Cody Rhodes

-As violent as they can do, this match has a workrate burden given the balance of the card; the IRL output equivalent is ideally Drew/Punk in the cage.  References in this match to the rest prior Cody/Punk match at the Rumble and the Piper/Valentine dog collar match at WMI. Color everywhere, Punk goes over.

8. WWF TITLE: SAMI ZAYN d. WALTER (w/Heyman)

And - your main event of the evening.  

Sami Zayn becomes the 67th WWF Champion in an epic, 30 minute+ match, the goal being very simp;e to have the best professional wrestling match they can possibly have.  The only piece of booking is at some point, probably 2/3 of the way through, Punk emerges on the ramp carrying a glass light tube - he's going to be fought to the back by Steen, who is, of course, here after all, and postmatch, after Zayn gets the fall, gets his belt - Steen returns - there's a brief "wait - what's going to happen here - is Kevin about to turn on Sami" tease - but he does not, he fastens the WWF Title belt around Zayn's waist, the two men embrace, the confetti comes down, and the final shot of WWF 150 is Zayn and Steen, arms upraised, triumphant and together, forever frozen in time.  

Probably, this is not the last we've seen of Steen and Punk, probably, this is not the last we've seen of Zayn and Walter.  But this is the last we'll see of the Counterfactual.  

As mentioned at the top of the post, there will be something next month; in October, links to all 150 PPVs, there will be something in November (but not Survivor Series) and the final new post is December 10, the 20th anniversary of the Counterfactual.  The final clip in this package as WWF 150 ends is, of course, Ricky Steamboat pinning Hulk Hogan at War to Settle the Score.  

Everlong

Road to WWF 150: Summer Slam 2024

WM 40

WWF 150 is coming next month from Cleveland.  Here's the card.

WWF Title: Walter (w/Heyman) v. Sami Zayn

Dog Collar Match: Cody Rhodes v. CM Punk (w/Heyman)

Number One Contender: Rhea Ripley (w/Defiance) v. Bayley (w/Belair)

Solo Sikoa (w/Jimmy) v. LA Knight

WWF 150 Cup Matches:

Logan Paul (w/McAfee) v. Bron Steiner

Drew McIntyre v. Damien Priest (w/Defiance)

Winners Match

Parejas Increibles: Walter/CM Punk v. Cody Rhodes/Sami Zayn

WM 40 was the big spectacle, including the dark matches there were 16 matches, most in promotion history, 4 title changes, 40 former title holders tossing a million dollars to the crowd, CM Punk joining his nearly career long nemesis Paul Heyman.

WWF 150 is not that.  It's 8 matches, back to the roots of WWF PPV, one dark match.  

Only one title up for grabs, it's the WWF Title, the fans vote on a challenger for Walter - and Zayn wins.  This creates friction with Steen, he and Zayn are tag champs and the word comes down that if Zayn wins, that will mean they vacate those titles.  Further, Parejas Increibles was once a Summer Slam staple, it returns here, and when Zayn is placed in that tag match with Rhodes, that continues the friction with Steen. Finally, it's clear Steen is not on the card - and there's a promo when Zayn tells Steen essentially to let him fight Walter on his own, without Steen seconding him, Steen says not to worry, he's not booked, so he's not coming to Cleveland.    Walter is a monster, since joining the promotion he has only suffered one pinfall, Zayn is a Triple Crown Winner chosen by the fans to compete in the main event at WWF 150.  There's no heat up angle - they are positioned as the best wrestlers in the promotion wrestling for the title.  

The Dog Collar match is all heat up; its one more Summer of Punk, he doesn't work at all, still recuperating from his injury at the Rumble, but he's all over TV, cutting promos, doing color commentary, even one in ring talk show episode (the guest is Steen, who oozes what feels like legitimate disdain for Punk, a lot of the Zayn friction comes from points Punk makes in that appearance)  There should be more than a little Roddy Piper here; Punk is a full gleeful heel, without a friend seemingly in the world, save for a business relationship with Heyman and some sideways glances from Walter; they aren't stablemates, Heyman is attempting to balance them individually.  There's a suggestion made to Walter that its only a matter of time before Punk turns on him, and so there's a little friction between them headed to the opening tag match at Summer Slam.  Cody returns at some point later in the summer to attack Punk with a glass light tube, lot of color - they do a few very personal promos, have more physical altercations.  The fans pick the stip for their match - and it's the same stip that Piper and Valentine had back at WM and that WWF has not done since then, they are putting on the dog collars.  

Iyo Sky won the Womens Title at Mania, Ripley, backed by Defiance, takes on Bayley, one half of the women's tag champs. If Bayley wins this match, that will result in the tag belts being vacated, to avoid taking the belts out of play unto a possible Bayley/Sky title match - unlike Steen, Belair is understanding as will be seconding Bayley.  The Priest/Drew tournament matchup dovetails into this one; Priest and Drew are both heels, but Drew has maintained a friendship with babyface Bayley since their days when Bayley was aligned with Hooligans.  And there's some segment where Defiance looks like perhaps they will attack Bayley (not hard to imagine, given their attack on Charlotte) - and that leads to a defense by Sheamus and McIntyre, standing on the same side for the first time since their breakup, albeit uneasily.  Drew remains a heel, but within the context of this match with Priest, he's going to get the crowd support largely based on this Bayley defense.  

The other tournament matchup is Paul v. Steiner; they are positioned as "the future" - as there is a clear and obvious point of demarcation occurring at WWF 150.  Paul's a cocky heel, Steiner a nearly out of control babyface.  

Finally - Solo returned after nearly a year away and aided Jimmy in taking the IC Title from Jey at WM; babyface Solo will be taking on heel Knight.

Only one dark match - a select battle royal.  

And that's it.  Throughout the summer, "Dream On" is the soundtrack for highlight packages looking back at the prior 149 PPVs.  There were 3 songs that I've had on deck for a few years as part of a wrap up, we had one to end WM, "The Final Bell" that's the song that played over the end credits of Rocky - then "Dream On" which will be the opening theme for Summer Slam - and finally, "Everlong" which will play over the final highlight package at the end of the show.  

That show - next month.  Rounding third, heading for home.