Never underestimate an outcome's effect on the audience's enjoyment of a show.
A bad finish or unsatisfactory outcome can completely take the fans out of a show and considering the current state of viewership, WWE cannot really afford to lose the loyal fanbase still hanging around for every episode of Raw and SmackDown.
Several high-profile matches are already booked for SummerSlam on August 23, including WWE champion Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton and universal titleholder Braun Strowman vs. "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt.
It is of the utmost importance that WWE pays close attention to the finishes and does not further alienate its audiences in regards to its top stars and stories.
With that said, these are the outcomes sure to ignite fury among even the company's most ardent fans.
WWE fans really hate it when they perceive a certain Superstar is being shoved down their throats. Just ask John Cena, Roman Reigns, Batista or Seth Rollins.
The last name on that list had his entire character altered at the end of 2019, undergoing a heel turn that saw him become The Monday Night Messiah in response to the deafening boos that greeted him in arenas across the country.
That character has seen him embrace a more delusional and dangerous side that was responsible for removing Rey Mysterio's eye at Extreme Rules and will put him in the ring with The Master of the 619's son, Dominik.
After enduring a brutal beating at the hands of Rollins on Monday's Raw, it would make sense for fans to want to see Dominik pick up the win. But fans don't always make sense. They care less about the suitable conclusion of the story and more about the perception of a legend's son coming in, getting substantial television time and beating a former world champion like Rollins.
To them, it stinks of overpushing from the start; a sign of a star of the future being forced on them by a company not at all interested in creating them organically.
A win over Rollins at SummerSlam may satisfy the portion of the audience that still allows itself to emotionally invest in the storylines; for the diehards, though, Dominik's triumph would be another example of the company telling them who to get behind rather than letting them choose for themselves.
Unlike the other outcomes represented here, there is a caveat to the scenario that comes in the form of Samoa Joe. If he rises from the announce table and unloads an ass-whooping on Rollins and Murphy, a Dominik win can be salvaged.
If Mysterio Jr. overcomes the odds in WWE's favorite babyface story trope, though, he will be doomed to the sort of backlash that has plagued some of the babyfaces he grew up on.
If there's one thing WWE fans hate more than being dictated to regarding who to cheer and boo, it is when an established star prospers at the expense of a younger star finding his feet as a main eventer.
Luckily for those fans, they find themselves in a position to watch that very scenario play out as Randy Orton pays off his hottest year since 2011 by challenging Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship at SummerSlam.
While the Scot has been consistently excellent as champion, he still has not firmly entrenched himself at the top of the card. He is still an experimental champion, a fresh face at the top of the card on Monday nights who needs a high-profile victory over someone like Orton to really establish himself as one of the faces of WWE in 2020.
Fans are still sold on his prospects and the idea of a 12-time champion like The Viper coming in, dropping him with an RKO and leaving with the title is not all that appealing.
What does Orton have to gain from it? What about the company? Other than removing the title from McIntyre in a move that would seemingly pinpoint him as the problem with Raw's sagging TV ratings, putting the title on The Viper is a lateral move that does not propel the brand forward or bring in more viewers.
Fans should be angry and disenfranchised if McIntyre's run is suddenly halted for no reason other than to put another unnecessary title on Orton, who has done a phenomenal job of building his title without the championship to prop him up.
Whether the prospect of hurting McIntyre in the long run is enough to get WWE not to make the change at the top of Raw remains to be seen, but booking history suggests "long term" isn't in the creative team's vernacular at this point.
Braun Strowman said those words while addressing The Fiend on Friday's SmackDown, dismissing the idea that he had any sort of emotional connection with Little Miss Bliss.
But what if it was a ploy to lure the masked monster of WWE into letting her go, leaving The Goddess to somehow interfere on behalf of Strowman at SummerSlam and ensure he remains universal champion?
Strowman has already been one of the most uninteresting world champions in recent memory. He's a big guy with a belt, the deepest dive into his character as a whole coming in the Wyatt Swamp Fight at Extreme Rules and that required a full cinematic experience.
We know from watching Friday's segment that The Fiend reacted to Bliss showing him any sort of affection or attention, planting the seeds for her to do so at SummerSlam, taking his focus off Strowman and setting him up for defeat.
That can't be the outcome.
Strowman's run needs to end on August 23, preferably at the hands of a Fiend assisted by Bliss. After all, she and her safety were disregarded by him on Friday. Now is time for his friend to avenge her seeming insignificant to The Monster Among Men and for The Fiend to regain a title he never should have lost.
The alternative is sure to further dismay fans who have been rather unimpressed with Wyatt's booking since his arrival on the main roster in 2013.
Asuka vs. Sasha Banks has been the best match on more than one show...until the finishes, which completely unraveled everything both women created in the minutes preceding them. '
Both at The Horror Show at Extreme Rules and the August 3 episode of Raw, The Empress of Tomorrow and The Legit Boss stole the show with extraordinarily competitive matches. They were every bit as good as fans had hoped they would be but were ultimately marred by WWE's unwillingness to book a clean finish.
At SummerSlam, they will battle one last time with the Raw Women's Championship at stake. Another clunker of a finish—overthought and overbooked to spare either woman a clean loss—would infuriate fans who just want to see two of the best women's wrestlers on the planet have the quality of match they deserve.
And rightfully so.
Banks and Asuka are exceptional pro wrestlers. Taking their greatest tools away from them by shoehorning them into some convoluted finish for no other reason than to continue a feud that doesn't need continuing is lazy writing and inexcusable booking that does more to take your audience out of the program than to get them to invest in it.
That is not something WWE can afford in the slightest at this point.
