Like most WWE fans, I’m preoccupied at the minute with trying to second guess how they are going to book WreslteMania this year and where they’re going given the current poor showing on Raw. But, like most years, there are some things that even by this point you already know are pretty much guaranteed.
Last year, I tried booking Mania in October. Despite Dean from @WrestlingMANIAx
maintaining that I called the end of the streak, this had pretty dire results
and a shockingly poor success rate. So this year, on the eve of the Royal
Rumble, I’m going to try to pick a path through to WrestleMania 31.
I should note: as with all predictions, I enjoy being utterly,
unreservedly wrong as much as I like being even remotely right.
But I suppose this year I am again looking at things differently.
Apart from attempting to book this much closer to March than I did in 2014, I
also have a vested interest because I will actually be in San Jose to watch the
event, live. Therefore, as much as these are what I *think* will happen, given
what I know at time of press, there’s probably a little of my subconscious that
is telling me that some of this is just what I *want* to happen.
John Cena v
Rusev
I think this one is the easy build. Cena comes off looking like a
huge all-American hero against the Soviet threat – Rusev is one of those heels
who doesn’t get ironic support or respect from the marks because his gimmick is
so hateful to American fans. Lana is the key to that. Unfortunately, there’s a
far less partisan crowd at Mania but I still think Cena is less likely to get
booed out the building here.
What will be interesting is whether they make this about the US
title. How would Rusev lose it between now at Mania? Cena going for the US
title? I don’t think so…
The great thing for fans will be to see whether Cena puts over the
monster heel or whether he does what he always does – and wins. Last year at
Mania he should never have beaten Bray Wyatt but they just couldn’t do it. They
just didn’t dare beat Cena in front of the kids. Of course, if they wanted to,
Rusev has never been pinned and you could protect that and have Cena win but
Rusev tap out instead, to the STF.
Sting v
Triple H
Pretty much a definite, wouldn’t you think? I don’t think it will
be much of a match but god knows if you’re going to have Sting work with
anyone, the ring general HHH is the man for him to work with. It books itself
and I have to say that WWE have done a great job with Sting so far. As long as
they don’t use him too much in the run up, and keep his appearances surprises
and sparse, this will at least have a great build – even if the match doesn’t
live up to much.
Triple H doesn’t actually have a very strong win tally at
WrestleMania so I can see him putting Sting over here, but that will all depend
on how many more matches Sting feels he has in him. Being in the building for
Sting’s first ever WWE match is going to be the thing that they really push
but, I have to admit, doesn’t really excited me all that much.
Randy Orton
v Kane in a loser
leaves the company/career match
I’ve been wondering what they do with Orton when he comes back.
The strong feeling is that he’s coming back as a babyface. If that’s the case
you’d have to assume that they have to address his time under Authority rule
and that might lead to him facing Kane. Ordinarily, I’d say that this would
suck. And it still probably would. But if you look at how old Kane is (47) and
think that they could work in an angle whereby Randy has to face him with
something on the line that is as definitive as Kane’s career then they could
deliver a really interesting match. Or at least give us something to give two
hoots about.
Brock Lesnar
v Roman Reigns
If you look at history with this company it generally teaches you
that they change plans a lot. But what it also teaches you is that if they have
a direction for WrestleMania they tend to stick to it, regardless. Last year no
one wanted to see Dave Batista win the Rumble and main event WrestleMania
against Randy Orton, but he did and they did. Thankfully, the company listened
to what we were saying and they put Daniel Bryan in there too.
This year, the plan all along has been for Lesnar to lose the
title to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania. Whether the title is still involved may
change but I think the match is still going to happen. In this instance, plans
won’t chance. Reigns wins the rumble. Only issue is that if Lesnar is leaving
we’ll all know by March 29th and there lies one disinterested crowd
for your WrestleMania main event.
Yet what I do figure is this: if Lesnar, the conqueror of the
streak, the only man who could beat the Undertaker and destroy John Cena , is
going to lose then only a huge superhero can do it. They see that man as Roman
Reigns. I don’t buy that Lesnar is now a babyface, I think that may be a swerve
and we still get plan a) after all.
Daniel Bryan
v Seth Rollins
Has anyone else seen how much media Bryan has done since his
return pushing how much he’d love to fight Lesnar? I think it may be all in
vain. But this would make me very happy. Not to mention a lot of others. This
could be the title match, who knows. I think it could form the dénouement of a
year-long Daniel Bryan v The Authority story. Seth fights for The Authority and
Bryan fights to overcome his injuries and injustices for everyone else. They’d
tear the house down.
Dean Ambrose
v Cesaro
You could interchange Cesaro for Barratt and it would still work.
After all, Barratt is the IC champion. But Ambrose and Cesaro would have a
great match.
I feel sorry for Ambrose. He lead the company while people were
off or out injured and cut some mighty good promos – “on no, they’ve sent out
the Cruiser weight division” – but now he’s at the bottom of a
recently-shuffled mid-card deck and feels like an after-thought. He shouldn’t
be. But let’s face it, he wrestles in a t-shirt, is going bald under his mop of
hair and isn’t conventionally attractive, so there’s only so much that Vince will
allow him.
Cesaro is the greatest but they refuse to do anything with him. If
the Battle Royale returns, then scrap this.
Undertaker v
Bray Wyatt
I don’t think this is a) going to happen; is b) going to be very
good; and c) would be a match the people would care about. But there’s some
talk of it that I can’t ignore. Selfishly, I’d like to see The Undertaker
wrestle. I actually think Wyatt will be the last one in ring with Reigns at the
end of the Rumble but I don’t know who he’d go against this year if this one
doesn’t come off. There aren’t many spare parts if you look at the above. He’s
faced Cena. He’s beaten Ambrose. Orton? Bryan?
There are too many singles matches in the above: even with the
addition of the preshow, WrestleMania is typically a 8-9 match card. We still
don’t know if they’ll be a Battle Royale. There could of course be a celeb
angle - I’d assume against The Miz/Mizdow. The Divas will get a match. And the
tag titles will need to be represented – I’d hope in a turmoil or 4-way match.
All told this has the potential to be one of the worst
WrestleMania’s since The Miz faced Cena but, equally, if booked right and built
right, this could end up being a great show.
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