Tuesday, August 18, 2015

The Stars Are Out for SummerSlam

Stewart will make his WWE return as SummerSlam's host
Photo Credit: WWE.com
WWE is not messing around with making SummerSlam its second marquee event of the year this year. In addition to the four-hour run-time and rolling out Brock Lesnar, the Undertaker, and Stephen Amell, the company has confirmed two big mainstream guests for the periphery, both of which have history with the company.

The first is a confirmation of some rumblings I collated yesterday. Jonathan Coachman will be at Barclays Center covering SummerSlam for ESPN. While SportsCenter will not be setting up shop at Barclays for a full, on-the-road broadcast, Coachman will be a correspondent for the Worldwide Leader at the event, which in and of itself is still huge.

Secondly, SummerSlam will have a guest host this year, and his name is Jon Stewart. WWE.com "broke" the news yesterday that the now-former Daily Show host will make his return to the in-character WWE world, one he entered ceremoniously March 2 when he interviewed Seth Rollins before kicking him in the groin. Rollins, of course, will be defending his WWE World Heavyweight Championship in a "Winner Take All" match against United States Champion John Cena. My guess is Rollins and Stewart will have an interaction before the match at the very least, although I admit, seeing Stewart play the role Rock did at WrestleMania XXVII and Cena getting to be The Miz in this scenario would be absolutely hilarious in retrospect.

Finally, one guy who probably won't be more than a spectator at SummerSlam will be Jushin "Thunder" Liger. The iconic junior heavyweight will make his grand WWE debut the night before at Takeover: Brooklyn against Tyler Breeze, but so far, WWE has no plans on utilizing his talents at SummerSlam or RAW. He's just going to be there to watch, which isn't a bad plan of action. Liger's had a long, illustrious career. He's earned a shot at getting the catbird seat for WWE's second-biggest show of the year after a hard night's work against Prince Pretty.