WWE presents Summerslam live tonight on pay-per-view. As always, we’ll have live coverage of the show on the front page of the site and hope you can join us from 8pm EST/1am UK time onwards.

Ahead of tonight’s show, Phil Lowe, Mark Bright and Michael Campbell run down tonight’s card for what potentially could be a very good show…

Hell in a Cell: The Undertaker vs. Edge

Michael Campbell: Edge has got to win this. He just has to in order to continue his run of strong credibility as a heel. His character has also dramatically swung into new territory over the past month or two and a successful conclusion to the Taker feud would really cement his role and lead him back to title contention.

Of course, a Taker win would be completely and utterly unsurprising (and boring - how many feuds has he ended by successfully winning a Cell match?). Losing to Edge shouldn’t be a concern anymore, Edge is an accepted, established main event star now. But Edge did get the better of Taker in the TLC match.

This should be one of the most inventive Cell matches in recent years,and the fans will be off the charts. This will be a worthy main-event and my prediction is more based on what I think should, and needs to take place. Winner: Edge.

Mark Bright: The WWE has done an excellent job over the years of getting across the mythical nature of HIAC as something that’s even bigger than a regular World Title match, as something that changes the people in it forever and takes more to win than a regular match. When you add to that the return of a legendary babyface such as Undertaker and a heel who can take a beating like Edge then you have a recipe for money. And recently Edge has shown a twisted, evil, vicious side as well, which heightened the anticipation for this match to a point where the WWE could afford to make the correct decision to leave Taker off TV until the PPV - a decision which I believe they wouldn’t have made otherwise.

This is the true main event of this show, and I am expecting a great match and a bloodbath. With it being Undertaker’s comeback match you’d think he wins, and that’s what I expect, although Edge’s performances lately have been so amazing that if I was a WWE writer I’d be extremely tempted to capitalise on that by having him win here.

Phil Lowe: The match itself should be very good if not great. In fact, if this isn’t a Match of the Year contender I’ll be surprised. Edge is the best heel in pro wrestling today, bar none. Undertaker is…well, Undertaker. Both will deliver tonight.

The intrigue for me is how they book this. Edge winning makes sense for a number of reasons, and a loss at this stage of Undertaker’s career won’t harm him at all. But having Undertaker go over can add to Edge’s new psycho heel character. What happens after tonight remains to be seen as a Cell match usually means the end of a feud. But there really could be legs in having another Edge-Taker match next month, as unlikely as that is.

John Cena vs. Batista

Michael Campbell: The motorbike accident that occurred last week, involving poor Randy Orton, is a figment of our imaginations. It’s a work.

Before this “incident” occurred, I already felt that the only way this match could be resolved, would be with the return of Orton screwing Cena and aligning with Batista in a new faction. I still believe that’s what will happen. And Orton will then probably feud with Cena, while Dave pursues the World title. Cena, at the next WrestleMania, will then possibly receive his opportunity to claim the gold.

Now, whether or not there will be an actual winner to the match is a different matter. But it’s kinda irrelevant if the new heel unit is created. This is a big, big time match, and while the build-up has been good, it’s been far, far too abrupt, and this dream match is greatly diminished. We aren’t gonna see a proper dream match. That will come. Of course, this elaborate plot could all be nonsense, and I’ll look quite the fool. Winner: Batista.

Mark Bright: The two biggest new stars of the split-brand era of the WWE meet in their first ever match, and that’s a sign that the WWE want this to be a huge and memorable PPV. Or it means they’re panicking and throwing away a match that should’ve been saved for WrestleMania, and time will tell which category this falls into.

One thing I have noticed is that Batista has done several media interviews where he has expressed disappointment in the buildup to this match. And while he has delivered a lot in his main event matches, there are ocassions where Big Dave has been disappointed by his feuds being treated as an afterthought and has therefore put in subpar, uninspired performances that have lead to his matches sucking. If THAT Batista shows up on Sunday, this could be a huge letdown, no matter how good Cena has proved himself to be in a big-match situation.

Of course, the other way it could go is that you see two big stars in their first ever match, and amazing atmosphere plus quality booking could lead to one of the most memorable matches in a long time.

Phil Lowe: Its nice of WWE to give us WrestleMania 25’s main event so soon. Actually, no its not. Its ridiculous. Cena and Big Dave shouldn’t have even hinted at having a match before the Royal Rumble and throwing this together with little build is a prime example why WWE’s reluctance to book long-term hinders them massively.

This should be an ok match. Both are capable of delivering on their day, especially Cena. I think Batista needs the win more of the two and I think he’ll get it. Whether its a clean win, I’m not sure. I’m calling an Orton return tonight. When we reported the WWE.com story that he’d been injured in a motorcycle accident, I called that as a work. Since then, I’ve not seen one since media story - including local press - of Orton being involved in an accident. Weird, considering Orton was quoted as saying earlier in the week that it could have killed him.

WWE.com dumbass work/shoot BS aside, if Orton does return tonight, I really hope its to align himself with Dave in a heel stable alongside a couple of young guys such as Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes.

World Title Match - CM Punk © vs. JBL

Michael Campbell: This is an absolutely crucial match for the young Champion, Punk. If he loses here to JBL, he loses to one of the least credible main eventers on the roster. Worse, it legitimizes every single derogatory comment that JBL has said uttered since Punk raised the World title a couple of months ago. A loss would be a character assassination almost on par with Booker T’s loss to HHH at Wrestlemania 19.

But, for once, I have the utmost faith in Mr McMahon. It appears that the evil MrMcMahon does indeed see the current value in having the strap around the slender waist of the former Ring of Honor star. And more significantly, I don’t think he see’s JBL as championship material anymore. I’d also imagine that this bout will benefit from some good crowd heat, aided by the superb segment between the two on Raw last week. Shouldn’t be anything special, but should still impress. JBL will undoubtedly lay an audience-rousing beat-down on Punk for much of this, and there may be a little sympathy inducing blood. The finish has to be clean though, and dominant for the champ. Winner CM Punk.

Mark Bright: The usual “go over on Monday, lose on Sunday” PPV rule would suggest Punk is losing here, but I really can’t see it. Although their drinking contest promo gave Punk significant mic time infront of the live crowd and allowed him to look like a top star, I worry if they go down the straight edge route with Punk too much, because the last thing he needs to do right now is turn heel.

JBL, for all his excellent promo work, has been a disaster in the ring since his comeback, and in 2004 was the lowest drawing WWE Champion in history. If Punk can have a good match and a decisive, clean win, that will help him and his prospects for a few more months with the belt. The worst thing that could happen for Punk here is to have a bad match with another screwy finish, followed by a Batista heel turn in the Cena match, because then you have your title change for September right there.

Phil Lowe: Punk needs to win and he needs to win well. Forget about technical wrestling, this needs to be a brawl to a) give Punk a convincing win over a big guy, and b) to prevent this from being a total trainwreck due to JBL’s involvement. Although he needs the win, Punk doesn’t have to go over clean, in my opinion. A good showing and a DQ win will suffice and I wouldn’t be surprised if this leads to a rematch with a stipulation on PPV next month.

WWE Title Match - Triple H © vs. The Great Khali

Michael Campbell: Are you f***ing kidding me? Hunter is retaining here, to perhaps eventually drop the strap to Edge, or even the Undertaker. In fact, I would imagine he’ll defend the belt against Edge on the first Smackdown on it’s new network. But he certainly won’t be putting over Khali.

Trips has had a generally uneventful title reign and Khali is an imposing enough monster to add a little steam to that run. I cannot foresee this being anything other than awful, but it will very interesting, and revealing, to see how the crowd respond to Hunter when he’s forced to carry such an uninspiring performer (whom Big Baps Dave recently described as “regressing” when speaking of his abilities). Winner: Triple H.

Mark Bright: It’s HHH playing Ric Flair, with Great Khali as the modern El Gigante. And while Khali, for all his faults, is better than Gigante was - the fact is that he still sucks, and HHH is not Ric Flair, nor will he ever be. The angles on SmackDown between these two have done a good job of building up the spot where HHH pedigrees Khali, so you’d assume that’s the finish here, and if they haven’t gone long enough to lose the crowd by that point, it’ll get a significant pop.

Phil Lowe: Keep it short and this could be watchable. Actually, if I get ‘watchable’ from this tonight, I’ll be happy. Khali dominates, Trips makes his comeback, pedigree, possible sledgehammer shot, and get the hell out of there. If you think Khali is going over here, you’re nuts.

Jeff Hardy vs. MVP

Michael Campbell: This will probably open the show. I’d like to see MVP win the bout, and continue their feud for a couple of months. But I don’t think it’s on the horizon. More likely, is the show will open with a crowd-pleasing Swanton leading to the win. Hopefully it’s a better encounter than their bland effort at Judgment Day. The loss wouldn’t hurt MVP in all fairness, but a win could really benefit him. Winner: Jeff Hardy.

Mark Bright: This is my choice to open the show, and should be something that gets the crowd hyped up for the events to follow. Give them 15 minutes of back and forth action where they can tear the house down. Play off the story of MVP calling out Jeff for destroying himself by having Jeff go for a couple of crazy highspots that don’t work. Have MVP get a cheap win to continue the feud. Easy.

Phil Lowe: This should be the match of the night. Give them plenty of time to get the crowd going, have Jeff hit a crazy spot to pop the crowd, then have MVP steal a cheap win. I think given the way he’s been booked since the awesome Matt Hardy feud fizzled out, MVP needs the win most here.

Winner Takes All - Santino Marella & Beth Phoenix vs. Mickie James & Kofi Kingston

Michael Campbell: This should be a blast. It’s hard to get this sort of mixed tag right, especially these days, on a card with two title matches, a Wrestlemania spoiler and a Hell in a Cell. But I think this is a great addition to the card and sits really well, thanks to the great dynamic between Beth and Santino.

I’d go with the heels to pick up the gold, purely because I reckon a feud between Kofi and Santino could be great, but the Italian needs to be wearing the strap to make it work. There is some confusion here though, in that a lot of people are predicting Santino could walk out women’s champ. I suspect Adamle will make an appearance. I hate the notion that the belts could end up as storyline tools, rather than objectives, but at least there’s two natural feuds in there… unless the belts are flipped between genders. Winners and new champions: Santino & Beth.

Mark Bright: I am loving the Marella/Phoenix team, and think their interactions with each other have been very entertaining so far, and Mickie is good enough and Kofi explosive enough that this filler match will actually be decent, watchable and entertaining, even if in the grand scheme of thigns it’s not too important.

The rules have been kind of unclear too as far as the winning both titles deal. If Santino gets the pin, is he the IC and Women’s champion? What if Phoenix pins Kofi, is she the IC champ and Santino the Women’s champ? If the babyfaces win I guess they both keep their belts? I’m leaning towards the current champions retaining, even though the better comedy value could be used by having Beth and Santino win.

Phil Lowe: I HAVE NO IDEA OF THE STIPULATION! Seriously, does anybody? Everybody appears to be confused by it. Regardless of who wins which belt, I think Beth and Santino go over here. They’re great comedy value together. Kofi will do just fine without the IC belt if booked well enough, so that isn’t an issue. Hopefully, this will be a fun comedy match to pop the crowd.

ECW Title Match - Mark Henry © vs. Matt Hardy

Michael Campbell: I’m not getting my hopes up for this one being any good. But it’s definitely one of the more intriguing ECW title matches since Punk lost the belt at the start of the year. I do think we’ll be seeing that gold around Hardy’s waist, sooner rather than later, but Christ, hopefully not this soon. I think to cut out the chase so soon would be a dire, terrible move. There may well be a DQ in Hardy’s favour though. Winner: Mark Henry.

Mark Bright: I think if this goes around 8 minutes or so they could have a perfectly servicable match. A match going significantly more than that will expose Henry and his inability to work good matches despite 12 years experience and a match going significantly less than that will bury Hardy as a jobber when he loses clean. I doubt you thought you’d see someone on the internet advocate Mark Henry getting a clean pin over Matt Hardy anytime soon, but right now that’s the right finish.

I would still put the belt on Hardy later in the year, but Henry is doing a decent job, and if Hardy beats him here it sends him back to the middle of the card as a failure, and so my attitude is they might as well give him a chance to succeed and extend the feud.

Phil Lowe: Mark Henry’s current run on ECW has been enjoyable - especially by his standards. Keeping this short should enable any weaknesses to be hidden as well as putting him over as a monster. Matt Hardy will be fine without picking up the belt here and they can always go down the rematch road on TV or at next month’s PPV if needed.

We hope you join us tonight for our live Summerslam coverage on the front page of the site from 8pm EST/1am UK time!