Booking WWE WrestleMania 31 - The Results

So while last year, I tried booking Mania in October, this year I felt that last year’s fairly poor predictions where something that needed work. So instead, I sat down on the eve of the Royal Rumble and tried to pick a path through to WrestleMania 31. I wanted to predict the card, not the outcomes.

I should note: as with all predictions, I enjoyed being utterly, unreservedly wrong as much as I am pleased at being even remotely right.

John Cena v Rusev – ding!

What I said then - “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.”

First one right, but an easy one by anyone’s standards. In fact, you’d have to be pretty blind to have missed this one.

Sting v Triple H – ding!

What I said then - “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.”

Everyone knew this was the deal. Another safe bet.

Randy Orton v Kane in a loser leaves the company/career match – WRONG!

What I said then – “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.”

Well. Lunacy? Maybe. I still think Kane is probably nearing the end of his time in the ring with WWE and there’s only so much more that you can do with him. He’s been neutered so often, he’s no longer the monster he once was and, let’s be frank, looks really quite old on TV – and heaven knows Vince doesn’t like old people being on his TV show.

Anyway, Kane is in the Battle Royal and Randy has Seth.

Brock Lesnar v Roman Reigns – ding!

What I said then - “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.”

Now this one was a bigger call than it probably reads right now. When I predicted this, there was a genuine feeling amongst the wrestling writing community that WWE were going to have  to let Daniel Bryan into this match and wait on Reigns. It was a case of Reigns not being ready and I suppose that was why The Rock had to put him over at the culmination of the Rumble and Bryan had to lose to him at Fast Lane. Of course, now that Lesnar has resigned, this match just got infinitely better. 

Daniel Bryan v Seth Rollins – WRONG!

What I said then – “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.”

I guess you can always dream book and that’s certainly what I did here. I picked two missing pieces and put them together. Instead, inexplicably, they have completely demoted Bryan to mid-card hell and have placed Seth with Orton who was always going to return and needed a big match.

Dean Ambrose v Cesaro – WRONG!

What I said then – “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.”

Still wrong, but maybe slightly less wrong than above? Cesaro of course finds himself in a title match elsewhere and Ambrose and Barratt are part of a much bigger match that should probably steal the show.

Undertaker v Bray Wyatt – ding!

What I said then – “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?”

Easy to say now but as you can see I wasn’t sold on the match, nor am I still. Wyatt did also go on to dominate in the Rumble – as predicted – playing Steve Austin in 1999. For what It’s worth, this isn’t going to be very good. Retirement match for Taker in Texas next year?

A MUCH better showing than last year on my part, but it just shows you that two months out from the show, so much was still up in the air. Why is that? Partly the change in WWE’s mentality, partly due to the Network and the slow death of ppv.