By: Bodyslam Guest Contributor
July is the peak of the summer and a lot of sports take a break, in order to recharge their batteries for the long winter to come. Not wrestling, though. The WWE has a lot of matches of paramount importance scheduled for the month. As wrestling and fighting enthusiasts know too well, there are a lot of can’t miss bouts marked in red on every fan’s calendar.
It all begins on Saturday 12th, when NXT will show his anticipated Great American Bash Premium Live Event, showcasing the superstars of tomorrow. On the same evening, we will be treated with the Saturday Night’s Main Event evening, where Goldberg will fight Gunther in a match-up for the ages. It would already be enough for a single weekend but these events are just an appetizer for a Sunday night full of catfights between the strongest female athletes in the company.
Not quite the weaker sex
Finally, female superstars have their own place in wrestling. In previous eras, they were slightly more than models fighting in bikinis to please an audience completely made by males. Today they still care a lot about sex appeal, but are bona-fide fighters exactly like their male colleagues. The WWE Evolution All-Women night, scheduled for the 13th of July, will show the best of the best in the women’s division fighting against one another to win glory and belts. The main event will be the Women’s World Championship Match. Two of the most popular female athletes in the WWE universe, Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky, will go head-to-head for the most important belt a woman can wear in wrestling.
This fight, obviously, represents one of the most anticipated matches of the summer. The major operators are already proposing bonus bets and sportsbook promos to all those who want to bet on the outcome of the match and the victory of their favorite athlete. Ripley is the favourite but we are not sure on how many bettors will take Miss WarGames too lightly in a time frame like this one, when she is beating each and every opponent the WWE puts in her same ring.
During WWE Evolution, The Man Becky Lynch will take on her former protège, Lyra Valkyria, in a match for the Women’s Intercontinental Title. Lynch has been absent from the scene for some months, after giving birth to a child with her husband, Seth Rollins, but is now back in the game and she seems more determined than ever, at least that is what is showing in her promos. Another highly anticipated match is the one between Liv Morgan and Nikki Bella, a fan favourite from the past who recently un-retired. However, Morgan injured herself on the 16th of June, during Monday Night RAW, and she will be sidelined for some weeks. While we write this, the match hasn’t been cancelled but it could be in the next few days.
The wait for Summer Slam
After this busy weekend, the WWE will move to Mexico, in order to put on a couple of shows South of the border, in Mexico City (on the 26th) and in Monterrey (on the 27th). These soirees won’t be televised and are exclusively meant for local audiences. It shouldn’t come as a surprise. This 2-week hiatus (during which the regular shows will obviously air as usual) will take us to the most important event for WWE during the hot season: Summer Slam. This year, the PLE will take place in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on the first weekend of August. As always, it will be an amazing event, just as last year’s one (we wrote all about it in our dedicated review). We are still waiting for Summer Slam’s matchcard but, on those nights, we will certainly see the winners of the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments in action.
