Block 3:

Getting into some SummerSlam talk, Taz says that he believes Nakamura is going to defeat Jinder Mahal at SummerSlam, and then will go on to enter into a program with Baron Corbin. Ross thinks that’s an interesting prediction that he hadn’t thought of, but he likes the concept. Ross adds that in his opinion we haven’t seen that typical Nakamura match yet in WWE that fans grew so accustomed to in NJPW.

Ross says that if he’s produced correctly, Nakamura can talk for himself and doesn’t need a Manager. Taz adds that Nakamura is a strong babyface, and those type of characters rarely have Managers. Johnson believes that Nakamura is battling some growing pains in his transition to the main roster, and once he really settles in there he’ll be just fine.

Ross points out that Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman are consistently able to generate big pops from the audience because they aren’t overexposed. He believes overexposure is a big issue in the business today, and he recalls keeping Steve Austin off of RAW from time to time during the attitude era, just to protect the character from overexposure. Johnson points out that WWE can’t really do that right now as they’re trying to sell the WWE Network and they need all hands on deck for every show.

Speaking about the notion that Baron Corbin is getting buried due to the way he lost his cash-in attempt on Smackdown, Ross thinks Corbin’s going to be just fine. Although he lost his cash-in attempt he’s facing John Cena at SummerSlam and that’s a pretty hefty payday. Ross also believes those two guys will have a great match because Cena has too much pride to ever phone in a match.