Rumored Match and Winner of WWE Championship at SummerSlam

On this week’s Smackdown, we all saw John Cena come down to the ring to confront WWE Champion Jinder Mahal. It was later announced that Cena will be taking on Shinsuke Nakamura on next week’s Smackdown in order to determine the new number one contender for Mahal’s championship. Ever since John Cena returned a few weeks ago with a renewed appreciation for the United States, fans have believed that Jinder Mahal’s fate as WWE Champion would not last beyond this year’s SummerSlam. For weeks now, it seemed like a near-certainty that Cena would go on to face and defeat Mahal for the WWE Championship at the show.
Surprise! Apparently not. A new report from Sportskeeda is now claiming that the plan is indeed for John Cena to defeat Nakamura on next week’s Smackdown. However, while Cena is set to challenge for the title, he does not actually appear to be winning the belt at SummerSlam. Cena could still technically win the match by countout of disqualification, but the belief is that Jinder Mahal is not going to be losing the title in his very first defense against John Cena. The report does mention that Mahal is definitely going to be facing Cena at the pay-per-view though, which would mean that Nakamura is set to be handed his very first singles loss on WWE’s main roster next week.
If John Cena were to win the title from Mahal at SummerSlam, or any other show down the line, that would give Cena his historic 17th world title reign. It’s also been reported that whoever does dethrone Jinder Mahal is expected to lose the title immediately via a Money in the Bank cash-in from Baron Corbin. Under these circumstances, it does seem unlikely that Cena’s big 17th run as champion would end so abruptly. It is also entirely possible that Cena will move over to Raw for a feud since he has yet to take advantage of his free agent status. While he could win the title at a pay-per-view down the road, John Cena is now not expected to defeat Jinder Mahal at SummerSlam.