SummerSlam finally begins next Sunday night on the WWE Network, and the company has been going all out in order to make the show as big and as loaded as possible. The show will likely be headlined by a WrestleMania rematch between Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar in what may be “The Beast Incarnate’s” final WWE match, and other top matches for the show include Ronda Rousey vs. Alexa Bliss for the Raw Women’s Championship and Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles for the WWE Championship. As usual though, there will be a Kickoff show that takes place in the Barclays Center hours before SummerSlam starts, and the first match for the pre-show has just been confirmed by WWE.
As reported earlier this week, one of the planned matches for SummerSlam that had been in the works was a mixed tag team match between four Smackdown competitors. Several days later, WWE has now announced that Rusev and Lana will be teaming up to take on Andrade “Cien” Almas and Zelina Vega during the Kickoff show before SummerSlam officially begins. The fours of them have been feuding on SmackDown for a number of weeks now and will settle the score during the pay-per-view next Sunday night. SummerSlam returns to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York for the fourth year in a row on August 19th at 7pm ET, and the Kickoff show for this year’s event will begin at 5pm ET.
BREAKING NEWS: @RusevBUL & @LanaWWE will join forces to battle @AndradeCienWWE & @Zelina_VegaWWE in the #SummerSlam #Kickoff, streaming LIVE on @WWENetwork! pic.twitter.com/S8ZE0DQ2cM
— WWE (@WWE) August 11, 2018
The Mae Young Classic has already been taped from Full Sail University, but the show still has yet to air on the WWE Network. Episodes of the tournament will begin airing on the network every Wednesday night starting on September 5th, but WWE is keeping fans hooked with some videos and updates between now and then. The company has just uploaded a short video on their social media accounts wherein each of the 32 competitors involved in this year’s tournament introduce themselves to the viewers. Though most of the tournament has been taped, the finals of this year’s show won’t be taking place until the all-women’s Evolution pay-per-view that will be airing live on the WWE Network this October.
Who are YOU rooting for in the 2018 @WWE #MaeYoungClassic? pic.twitter.com/PKmr8ZPGhp
— WWE (@WWE) August 11, 2018