Road to Summer Slam 2023 - Part 2

Part 1 is here.

Here was part 1, set up last month

WWF Title: Cody Rhodes v. Prince Devitt

IC Title: Logan Paul v. Tyler Black

Tag Titles: Dangerous Alliance (Walter/Lesnar) v. Triple Crown (Styles/Nakamura)

Womens Title: Ronda Rousey v. Asuka

Charlotte Flair v. Bianca Belair

And here's the rest of the card.

Roman Reigns v. Chad Gable

Union of Crowns (McIntyre/Dunne w/Bate) v. Sheamus/McDonagh

Ricochet (w/BWI) v. Jey Uso

Shayna Baszler (w/Horsewomen) v. Iyo Sky

Tommaso Ciampa (w/Gargano) v. Santos Escobar (w/TSG)

Bronson Reed (w/Defiance) v. Apollo Crews

Viking Raiders v. The Clique (Riddle/Knight w/ HBK)

The breakup of the Holy Roman Empire discussed in the first part of the build completes here; Lashley/Gable stay home in the first half of the summer with injuries suffered at Mania, Roman demands that both return for a specific RAW or be fired - Gable does, Lashley doesn't, Roman, to camera, tells Lashley not to ever bother returning.  Gable's back for a main event segment involving Jason Jordan.  In a prior build, Roman did chairshot spots on Nemeth and Benjamin, both former Gable stablemates, to run both from the promotion and have Gable demonstrate his loyalty,  Same spot here, but with Gable's old American Alpha partner, whose career was cut shot by injury - McIntyre drags a laid out Jordan from the back, Roman hands Gable a chair - demands that Gable chairshots him -- and Gable turns, hits Roman with the chair.  McIntyre doesn't aid either Roman or Gable - instead taking the dented chair and sitting on it.

That gets us to Roman/Gable; McIntyre says the problem with HRE wasn't the idea of HRE, the problem was the R.  McDonagh has been in a long on again/off again program w/ British Strong Style, McDonagh also has developed a relationship with Sheamus; he becomes part of that program over the summer - and near the very end, when Bate is injured - McIntyre swoops in, convinces Dunne and Bate to join him in a new stable Union of Crowns (UoC) and he and Dunne will face Drew's longtime partner Sheamus and McDonagh.  

Jey turned heel following the Usos breakup, he goes after Blood Warriors International, culminating in making the match against Ricochet.  

Sky beat Asuka at Mania and now goes up against the Horsewomen; tension over Stratton's joining continues all summer, Ripley's dissatisfaction evident.  Baszler and Sky hook up at Summer Slam.

The Kings of Wrestling are both healthy, back together - they feud over the summer with Twisted Sun Gods, Ciampa/Escobar to go at it at the PPV.  

The night after Mania, Defiance (Priest and Dom) announce that Solo has left the group with creative differences (he prevented an attack on the Usos at Mania) and they wish him well in his future endeavors (Solo will be gone for awhile) and that he's replaced with Bronson Reed - Defiance then dominates the lower ranks for the summer until settling on a former member, Apollo Crews, who steps up to take on Reed.  

And finally - Riddle/Knight make up the current version of the Clique, they are babyfaces fronted by Michaels, and they take on Viking Raiders at Summer Slam.  

12 matches on tap - Summer Fest is going to be a happening!

Road to Summer Slam 2023 (Part 1)

Wrestlemania 39.

Summer Slam 2023 will come to you from Detroit in August - it's a 12 match card, here are the 4 title matches, +1.

WWF Title: Cody Rhodes v. Prince Devitt

IC Title: Logan Paul v. Tyler Black

Tag Titles: Dangerous Alliance (Walter/Lesnar) v. Triple Crown (Styles/Nakamura)

Womens Title: Ronda Rousey v. Asuka

Charlotte Flair v. Bianca Belair

Some announcing Changes as the new WWF season begins.

Steve Regal returned at Mania, he and Vic Joseph are the new Dark Ride commentary team; Samantha Irvin becomes only the third lead ring announcer in the Mania era.  

Two segments on the post Mania RAW, Cody Rhodes has his Triple Crown ceremony (Undertaker appears, Orton makes his first appearance since the injury nearly a year prior, there's a backstage thing with he and Defiance where Priest believes he has retired Orton) and also the appearance of the 45th President of the United States, Linda McMahon.  

Linda's got some business to tend to:

1. This is a year unlike any other, WM 40 is this year - and the wrestling year will extend 3 extra months, to Summer Slam 2024, which is the 150th WWF PPV.

2. Because of that - every PPV will be special this year - and that will start with this coming Summer Slam which will feature the first ever Womens Main Event - later tonight, Ronda Rousey will name her challenger.  

3. And it's also an important year because this is the McMahons final year in professional wrestling - WWF has merged with UFC, and the McMahons are retiring (perhaps to a country without an extradition treaty).  Linda waves goodbye, and other than HHH, creative has nothing for the family going forward.  

WWF Womens Title: -The full Dangerous Alliance comes out for the main event segment on the RAW after Mania, Rousey announces her retirement from combat sports will come following Summer Slam, she will retain the belt and then hand it over the following night.  She reminds that she's suffered two singles losses in WWF and has avenged one, taking Belair's title the night before - and there's only one left.  

She calls out Asuka, who lost to Sky the night before - Rousey says she doesn't care about that - she wants that undefeated Asuka, that unstoppable machine who beat her in the biggest womens match in WWF history. 

They both leave for the balance of the build for a docuseries "The Last Days of Ronda Rousey", Rousey has a lot of non wrestling commitments that demonstrate her celebrity - Asuka goes back to Japan to work with Kairi Sane, Sane makes it clear that she is not getting involved with her issues with Sky, but if she's going to get Asuka ready for Rousey, Asuka has to promise this will be about competition and not about whatever she's been doing the last year.  

They do a bunch of segments over the summer - eventually there's an old school boxing style weigh in away from the ring that results in a pull apart.

WWF Title: 

-The first half of the summer this program also includes Roman and McIntyre, it serves to set up the break up of the Holy Roman Empire (which will be discussed in part two of the build) and hard launch current IRL McIntyre's heel persona, which is pretty easily the best thing he's done in his career.  Eventually, it becomes the all babyface match (Devitt's a tweener, but he's tweened baby for awhile); Devitt's got some professional jealousy that becomes evident - he started the Bullet Club, he brought it to WWF - but its Cody who has control of its name, winning a match Devitt wasn't even in - Devitt's been breaking his body for years in WWF, including a fractured skull - and Cody walks right in and wins the Triple Crown.  Devitt says he's been the better of the two of them his whole career and now he proves it at Summer Slam.  

IC Title: Paul won an unprecedented 3 matches at WM and comes away cashing in the briefcase and winning the IC Title - he takes it on the road, doing a bunch of social media nonsense, allowing idiots to do idiotic things with the belt - it's insulting.  McAfee turned heel at Mania to join Paul, and he appears a couple of times on WWF TV to cut promos on his behalf. Eventually, Paul comes in, wins an easy match - and is confronted by Black - Black, understandably, is aggrieved at the treatment of the IC Title, given that this is the belt he has been chasing for years as he needs it for the Triple Crown, that's the edge he brings to the program whereas Paul clowns the whole thing - says the title Black's worked for his whole life Paul won as part of his side hustle, Paul's job is becoming a billionaire - he even offers just to hand Black the belt, that's how little it means to him.  Black of course only grows angrier here and the announcers discuss the head games

Tag Titles: The superteam of Walter/Lesnar only appears a couple of times, squashing opponents.  Who appears every week is the new team of Styles and Nakamura, virtually every week they work TV, having the best matches they can have - their goal is really impressive workrate, it begins to draw the interest of Heyman, we see him watching their matches in the back - Styles/Nakamura never speak - until we get to a month out, when AJ says he's sick of hearing that Walter/Lesnar are a superteam - the real superteam is right here, IWGP Champs, WWF Champs - Triple Crown winners.

When reminded that Nakamura has never won the tag belts - Styles says that changes at Summer Slam and he's so certain it changes that they are revealing the name of the team is Triple Crown - Styles hits one of Heymans catchphrases, saying its not a prediction, it's a spoiler.  They can get a brawl among the 4 guys in the go home.

There is no womens tag match - Lynch/Flair are also a superteam, they've blown through the division and essentially announce there's no one left.  They're confronted by Belair who says she'll fight either of them at Summer Slam and if she wins, she'll find a partner and at Survivor Series in Chicago, she and the partner will take their titles.  

5 matches down, 7 left, back in a month