Thursday 26 July 2018 11:10, UK
It has been a historic week for WWE, with the announcement that the first ever all women's pay-per-view will take place on October 28, but the women were not the only superstars who were on form this week as the build-up to "The Biggest Party of the Summer".
Good Week
Roman Reigns (RAW)
Somehow Roman Reigns was able to defeat Bobby Lashley this week in the main event of Monday Night Raw, to guarantee himself a match against Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at SummerSlam. Reigns and Lesnar have already main evented WrestleMania and collided at The Greatest Royal Rumble earlier this year, but it could be third time lucky for the former World Champion as he hopes to finally overcome the threat of The Beast Incarnate.
Lesnar will be in attendance on Raw next week, which will begin the build-up to their third meeting in five months and it will be interesting to see if Reigns has learned from his previous two losses.
Samoa Joe (SmackDown)
After not even being part of the card at Extreme Rules, Samoa Joe has been able to land on his feet after he was announced as the number one contender for the WWE Championship by SmackDown General Manager Paige. Joe attacked AJ Styles and locked on the Coquina Clutch to send a message ahead of what is set to be Styles toughest task to date.
Both Styles and Joe have history stemming back to their time in TNA, but this will be their first ever meeting in WWE and could easily be one of SummerSlam's stand out matches.
Tomasso Ciampa (NXT)
Tomasso Ciampa has had a rough couple of months ever since he returned and continued his feud with Johnny Gargano but he definitely got the spoils of this war this week when he picked up the NXT Championship in his match against Aleister Black.
The referee took a bump before Gargano came to the ring and attacked his former friend, which meant that he was not disqualified based on interference. Ciampa was then able to recover and pin Black to win his first singles Championship in WWE and become the new face that runs the place down in NXT.
Bad Week
Jinder Mahal (RAW)
How far has Jinder Mahal fallen? This time last year he was the WWE Champion heading into a marquee match at SummerSlam and now by some cruel twist of fate, he is being used as a punch bag for Braun Strowman. Mahal has not been in a meaningful storyline for months and his new gimmick does not seem to be getting over with the WWE Universe.
Since Strowman's SummerSlam match has already been announced, it is unknown where this leaves Mahal heading into The Biggest Party of the Summer, but he could easily be missed off the card.
James Ellsworth (SmackDown)
James Ellsworth only returned to WWE at Money in the Bank when he helped Carmella to retain her Championship in a match against Asuka, but just weeks later it appears that he has overstayed his welcome. Ellsworth once again helped Carmella to retain her title at Extreme Rules, but this week on SmackDown Live he insulted General Manager Paige and was fired from the company.
It was well known that Ellsworth was on a short-term deal with WWE but it was thought that he would last longer than a few weeks. This also leaves Carmella in a worrying position since she now has no backup ahead of her Women's Championship match with Becky Lynch at SummerSlam.
Aleister Black (NXT)
Aleister Black has defeated all challengers for his NXT Championship over the past few months, including Lars Sullivan who was arguably his toughest task, but when Tomasso Ciampa turned his attention to the Champion a few weeks ago, Black did not realise this meant that he would be made part of the feud between Ciampa and Gargano.
This week on NXT it was Gargano who ended up costing Black the Championship when he ran out to the ring and attacked both men, Ciampa took advantage of this and was able to make the pin and win the title. It was a huge shock to the Champion, who will be hoping to extract some revenge in Brooklyn.
