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.
