{"id":158844,"date":"2026-04-23T06:30:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T10:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=158844"},"modified":"2026-04-23T04:13:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T08:13:02","slug":"wwe-summerslam-2026-predictions-full-match-card-after-wrestlemania-42","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/04\/23\/wwe-summerslam-2026-predictions-full-match-card-after-wrestlemania-42\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE SummerSlam 2026 Predictions: Full Match Card After WrestleMania 42"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/04\/20\/wwe-wrestlemania-42-sunday-full-review-highlights-grades-cm-punk-tricked-roman-reigns\/2\/\" target=\"_self\">WWE WrestleMania 42<\/a> is in the books. In the main event of WrestleMania 42 Night 1, Cody Rhodes retained the WWE Title against Randy Orton, and Liv Morgan dethroned Stephanie Vaquer to win the World Women&#8217;s Title. In the main event of WrestleMania 42 Night 2, Roman Reigns dethroned CM Punk to win the World Heavyweight Title, and Rhea Ripley dethroned Jade Cargill to win the WWE Women&#8217;s Title. The biggest surprises in both nights that weekend were returns from Paige, Bron Breakker, and Bianca Belair.<\/p>\n<p>Paige returned to win the tag titles with Brie Bella, who started the Brie Mode trend, all because Paige took her on a girls&#8217; night out to drink and party on a random episode of Total Divas.<\/p>\n<p>Bron Breakker returned to screw Seth Rollins in his match with Gunther and get his revenge for recruiting masked men from his wrestling school to ambush him and screw him out of the Rumble. Bianca Belair made a major announcement, revealing that she is pregnant and is expecting a baby. John Cena was there too, but you can&#8217;t see him.<\/p>\n<p>WWE is now on the road to SummerSlam, which is another major 2-night event that will take place in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on August 1 and 2, 2026. It is expected that most champions coming out of Mania will be the champions walking into SummerSlam. And that means it is not too early to foresee what could happen at the biggest party of the summer. Without further ado, here are the full SummerSlam 2026 match card predictions after a historic &#8216;Mania 42, starting with Brock Lesnar&#8217;s retirement match in his hometown.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"WWE PPV Predictions - Mark Justice\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/videoseries?list=PL4Cbox4S9rfPQAIqd77dztP3geVc0ymXs\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Gunther vs. Brock Lesnar &#8211; Retirement Match<\/h2>\n<p>Many fans believe that Brock Lesnar retired at WrestleMania after losing to Oba Femi. This belief is valid since Lesnar left his gloves and boots in the ring before walking away. However, this could also be a storyline angle to garner babyface sympathy for Lesnar before battling the heel Gunther in his final match. There is no way that SummerSlam is going to be in Brock&#8217;s hometown this year, and he won&#8217;t be there for it.<\/p>\n<p>Also, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/04\/12\/wwe-wrestlemania-42-gunther-should-use-seth-rollins-as-a-bridge-to-brock-lesnar\/\" target=\"_self\">Gunther<\/a> asked Paul Heyman for a favor. Since he got the job done against Heyman&#8217;s rival, Seth Rollins, at &#8216;Mania, his favor should be granted. And that favor should be a retirement match against Lesnar so that he can kill another career. Heyman will have to ask Lesnar to come back for one more match, or else he will be in for a rude awakening with Gunther.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prediction: Gunther<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2>Paige &amp; Bella Twins (c) vs. Jade Cargill, Michin, &amp; B-FAB &#8211; Women&#8217;s Team Tag Title Match<\/h2>\n<p>Paige and Brie Bella shockingly dethroned Irresistible Forces in a fatal four-way with Charlexa and BayLyra. Charlexa could be on the verge of breaking up, as Alexa Bliss has been left high and dry by Charlotte Flair at Rumble, Chamber, and &#8216;Mania. Meanwhile, WWE dropped the ball with BayLyra, who should have had their &#8220;full circle&#8221; storyline moment at Mania after Becky Lynch made Bayley miss Mania the prior year.<\/p>\n<p>When Bayley&#8217;s contract expires in October, and she goes to AEW to reunite with Mercedes Mone, Lyra Valkyria would have to go on a solo heel run to the world title. Whenever <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.fightful.com\/wrestling\/nikki-bella-defends-nia-jax-she-didnt-injure-me-she-helped-me\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nikki Bella<\/a> returns from injury, she can implement the free-bird rule with Paige and Brie and drop the titles to Jade Cargill&#8217;s trio as a consolation prize for losing the world title to Rhea Ripley.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prediction: Jade Cargill, Michin, &amp; B-Fab<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Trick Williams (c) vs. Drew McIntyre &#8211; U.S. Title Match<\/h2>\n<p>Trick Williams dethroned Sami Zayn at WrestleMania 42 to become the new U.S. Champion. KFC told WWE to push Trick Williams to the moon, and that&#8217;s exactly what WWE did. Now is the time for Trick to prove himself as a champion. There were a lot of teases thrown towards a potential double turn in that match with Zayn to the point that Trick could turn babyface this summer.<\/p>\n<p>The fans are on his side, as they love his antics surrounding those Lemon Pepper Steppers and his gingerbread man jokes. Once Trick finishes his feuds with Sami Zayn and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/04\/21\/carmelo-hayes-vs-trick-williams-for-the-united-states-title-isnt-just-likely-its-necessary\/\" target=\"_self\">Carmelo Hayes<\/a>, Drew McIntyre, who teased a future feud with Trick on SmackDown, will come back from filming Highlander, be the big bad heel to stop babyface Trick, and win his Grand Slam since the U.S. Title has eluded his career.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prediction: Drew McIntyre<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2>Tiffany Stratton (c) vs. Chelsea Green &#8211; Women&#8217;s U.S. Title Match<\/h2>\n<p>Tiffany Stratton has already become the number one contender for the United States Championship and will inevitably dethrone Giulia. While Giulia and Kiana James get relegated to the tag division, Stratton will continue her story with <a  href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/chelsea-green-shares-injury-ahead-201055448.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chelsea Green<\/a>. They teased a partnership recently after Stratton admitted that she needed help from Green and the Secret HERvice to dethrone Giulia.<\/p>\n<p>Once Green helps Stratton win the U.S. Title, she will want her &#8220;re-re-rematch&#8221; in return after healing from her ankle injury. Indeed, Green is a two-time U.S. Champion, after &#8220;hot potato-ing&#8221; the title with Giulia, and still has not received her rematch. Since Stratton is from Minnesota, it would be a good time to finally put the Women&#8217;s U.S. Title on PPV for the first time and have her defend it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prediction: Tiffany Stratton<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Seth Rollins vs. Bron Breakker<\/h2>\n<p>After <a  href=\"https:\/\/itrwrestling.com\/news\/bron-breakker-bleeds-profusely-after-botched-chair-shot-to-the-head-on-raw-after-wrestlemania\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bron Breakker<\/a> screwed Seth Rollins in his match against Gunther at &#8216;Mania, they will inevitably go to war in a trilogy this summer, with its finale taking place at SummerSlam. Hopefully, Breakker&#8217;s head injury from that chair shot from Rollins on Raw won&#8217;t ruin this trajectory, as the Vision storyline has been plagued with injuries enough. The story is simple here.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 610px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBUmzGk97T\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 3000px; aspect-ratio: 3000\/2000;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>Rollins took Breakker under his wing to mold him into his star pupil and the next big megastar. Still, Breakker decided to betray Rollins and run the Vision on his own after Rollins got injured and had to be written off television. Rollins will get his revenge in the first match of the trilogy, but Breakker needs to win the trilogy altogether, as he is a rising star who needs to move back up to the world title picture.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prediction: Bron Breakker<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2>CM Punk &amp; AJ Lee vs. Liv Morgan (c) &amp; Dirty Dominik Mysterio &#8211; Mixed Tag Team Match<\/h2>\n<p>While Seth Rollins has nothing to lose since he still has a rematch clause for the World Title he never lost, CM Punk also has nothing to lose after losing the World Title to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/04\/21\/mapping-out-roman-reigns-run-as-wwe-world-heavyweight-champion\/\" target=\"_self\">Roman Reigns<\/a> at WrestleMania because he is the untouchable &#8220;best in the world.&#8221; While Reigns has another dismal three-year world title reign, Punk will have more compelling storylines outside the title picture.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 610px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"a61405551f80e72f675225f083759bb9\" image-id=\"fwuQcjEZOiW4\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 3216px; aspect-ratio: 3216\/2400;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/411mania.com\/wrestling\/liv-morgan-wants-team-dominik-mysterio-aj-lee-cm-punk-wwe-summerslam\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Liv Morgan<\/a> actually stated in an interview that her dream match would be to team up with Dirty Dom and battle the power couple of CM Punk and AJ Lee. Now that Morgan has the World Title, this &#8220;power couple&#8221; match would set up AJ Lee to feud with Morgan for the World Title as a way of graduating from the mid-card and essentially moving on from losing the IC Title to Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 42.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prediction: CM Punk &amp; AJ Lee<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Becky Lynch (c) vs. Stephanie Vaquer &#8211; Women&#8217;s I.C. Title Match<\/h2>\n<p>Speaking of Becky Lynch, she will undoubtedly walk into SummerSlam with the IC Title, as she has been the most prestigious champion since its inception. However, she won&#8217;t be wrestling referee Jessika Carr. Stephanie Vaquer could seek a consolation prize after losing the World Title to Liv Morgan. Feuding with Lynch would do wonders for Vaquer&#8217;s career, as Lynch brings the best out of everyone she works with by getting under their skin.<\/p>\n<p>Her feuds with Lyra Valkyria, Maxxine Dupri, and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/fannation\/wrestling\/wwe\/aj-lee-addresses-her-future-after-losing-womens-ic-title-at-wrestlemania-42\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AJ Lee<\/a> have exemplified that. Henceforth, Vaquer would benefit immensely in her character development and storytelling abilities due to working with Lynch. Since this match has not happened yet, it is a dream match worthy of taking place at SummerSlam, where Vaquer should walk out with gold.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prediction: Stephanie Vaquer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2>Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Randy Orton &#8211; Undisputed WWE Title<\/h2>\n<p>After Cody Rhodes retained the WWE Title against <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.f4wonline.com\/news\/wwe\/reports-original-scrapped-plans-for-randy-orton-at-wwe-wrestlemania-42\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Randy Orton<\/a> at &#8216;Mania, many fans were disappointed, as they really wanted to see Orton break Triple H&#8217;s record and become 15-time WWE Champion. In fact, Orton was the original plan to win the title at Mania, but the crowd reactions to the inane involvement of Pat McAfee and Jelly Roll made WWE call an audible and change direction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 610px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBp7bOYB1p\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 4882px; aspect-ratio: 4882\/3250;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>However, it was made evident that the feud is not over after Orton punted Rhodes in the skull post-match and raised the WWE Title high above his head. Since Aleister Black was originally scheduled to bring Orton back to the dark side and make him hear voices in his head again, WWE can run this back and ensure that Black helps Orton win the WWE Title before dropping it back to Cody before Mania.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prediction: Randy Orton<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h2>Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Queen Iyo Sky &#8211; WWE Women&#8217;s Title Match<\/h2>\n<p>Rhea Ripley will likely battle the winner of the Queen of the Ring Tournament at SummerSlam. Wouldn&#8217;t it be poetic if Iyo Sky punched her ticket to SmackDown by winning the tournament? It would be peculiar to see Sky pick her ally, Ripley, over a rival in Liv Morgan as her pick for a championship match. However, Iyo&#8217;s excuse would be that she missed Ripley and chose her so that she could be on SmackDown with her.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/04\/21\/raw-after-wrestlemania-review-5-stand-out-moments-from-annual-post-wrestlemania-show\/\" target=\"_self\">Iyo Sky<\/a> has Ripley&#8217;s number, as Ripley never defeated her. Now that Rhiyo already had their tag title run, it would be riveting to see them battle one-on-one for the title at SummerSlam. Sky should win to solidify her QOTR victory, and Ripley should snap and turn heel after the match due to the frustration of never being able to defeat Sky in her career.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prediction: Queen Iyo Sky<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Roman Reigns (c) vs. King Oba Femi &#8211; World Heavyweight Title Match<\/h2>\n<p>As for the main event of SummerSlam, it has been reported that the planned opponents for Roman Reigns would be stars like Gunther and Oba Femi. While Gunther continues to get favors from Paul Heyman, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/04\/22\/why-oba-femis-opening-statement-on-wwe-raw-was-effective\/\" target=\"_self\">Oba Femi <\/a>will use his momentum from slaying The Beast to win the King of the Ring Tournament and challenge Reigns, who actually called him out after &#8216;Mania 42.<\/p>\n<p>Reigns essentially said that Femi is not special because Reigns has defeated Brock Lesnar multiple times in his career. Reigns also lost many times to Lesnar in his career and needed many opportunities to finally beat him. Femi only needed one opportunity, and he nailed it. Femi will shut Reigns up at SummerSlam and send him packing to Hollywood with The Rock. Do you smell what The Mark is cooking?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prediction: King Oba Femi<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span>If you\u2019re not down with just that and would like even more WWE PLE Coverage from\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@MarkTBKJustice1327\/featured\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mark Justice<\/a><span>, check out more of his articles right here on LWOS and subscribe to his popular YouTube channel by clicking\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@MarkTBKJustice1327\/featured\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">HERE<\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WWE WrestleMania 42 is in the books. In the main event of WrestleMania 42 Night 1, Cody Rhodes retained the WWE Title against Randy Orton, and Liv Morgan dethroned Stephanie Vaquer to win the World Women&#8217;s Title. In the main event of WrestleMania 42 Night 2, Roman Reigns dethroned CM Punk to win the World [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5747,"featured_media":159982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2192,4,3],"tags":[1374,57,140,98,686,58,3041,77,9723],"class_list":["post-158844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wrestling","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-aj-lee","tag-brock-lesnar","tag-cm-punk","tag-cody-rhodes","tag-drew-mcintyre","tag-randy-orton","tag-rhea-ripley","tag-roman-reigns","tag-summerslam-2026"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5747"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158844"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159984,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158844\/revisions\/159984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}