Wrestlemania 33 is fast approaching, just 5 weeks away as of writing (I’ll be there in person!) So far there are some interesting potential matchups, and despite the Royal Rumble having being won by Randy Orton, the WWE World Heavyweight Title match is far from set in stone.
The rumoured matches weeks ago were head scratchers, because just after the Royal Rumble it was heavily reported that the WWE World Heavyweight Champion, John Cena, would be teaming with his real life love interest Nikki Bella to take on Maryse & The Miz. At the time this was quite bizarre due to the fact that Cena was champion, but since losing the title at the Smackdown Live only pay per view, Elimination Chamber, those plans seem more realistic.
The wheels have actually already started to set in motion this past week on Smackdown Live, with Maryse attacking Bella during her match with Natalya, and then Cena & later Miz both eliminating each other from the #1 contenders battle royal.
The question is, what next? After Wrestlemania Cena is rumoured to be leaving to film another movie, whilst Nikki Bella will be taking some time off to heal an injury. Logically WWE would surely go with Miz & Maryse as the victors at Wrestlemania, because they’ll be sticking around after the Orlando event to reap the bragging rights and benefits.
Take one of the most frustrating feuds in recent memory, Brock Lesnar & Goldberg. The plan for weeks now, even so far back as when Goldberg debuted, has been to have Lesnar & Goldberg feud for the WWE Universal Title, but neither of them held the title, or won the Royal Rumble, so how would that be possible?
Well apparently despite only having wrestled in 2 matches for over 10 years, all Goldberg needed to do was simply challenge current champion Kevin Owens to a match (if only the other superstars on the roster had done that right?)
The thing that bugs me the most though, is storyline wise, why would Goldberg want to face Lesnar? He made quick work of him in his first match back at Survivor Series, which could easily be labelled a squash match. He then eliminated Lesnar from the Royal Rumble in January, so again, logically, why would not only Lesnar be in line for any sort of title match, but why would Goldberg have a reason to face him?
Will both superstars be around after Wrestlemania? I really disliked Lesnar’s previous WWE Title reign where we sometimes didn’t see the prestigious title defended at PPV’s, or even appearing for weeks at a time. It devalued the title so much.
I’d be quite happy if whoever came out of the match victorious committed to a long term WWE contract meaning they would appear every week, I’d be ok with that, but realistically that’s not going to happen.
I’m not a fan of the alternate weeks promos they’re cutting on each other, and sometimes not even in the arena. I feel like it drags out the storyline and fades interest.
Another match that has really gained momentum recently is Chris Jericho against former best friend Kevin Owens. My major problem with this at the moment, is that Owens is the Universal Champion, and Jericho is the United States Champion. This feud has enough steam and hard work over the last few months to be able to be a big attraction on it’s own, I don’t think this match needs any title at all. The two are very good workers, and would have no problem making this one of the most must see matches on the card as the tension of two former best friends boils over into a heated battle following the turn on Jericho by Owens.
I think it’s set in stone that Goldberg will be beating ‘KO’ at the final pay per view before Wrestlemania, Fast Lane, but what about the United States Title? I fear if that will become a side piece to their storyline, and quickly become devalued with any feud basing around the title will not have the same intense level that a title match should have.
An easy way around this which is my personal idea, Chris Jericho will cost Owens the match against Goldberg as I fear Goldberg going over clean against KO wouldn’t get as many cheers, where as Jericho finally getting some revenge would sort of ‘kill two birds with one stone’ and fans would love it.
You then have Owens cost Jericho the United States Title the next night on RAW, and there’s your fire, your heat and your intensity for this match to run with heading into Wrestlemania.
With Jericho set to take time off sometime after it would only make sense for Kevin Owens to continue his momentum and walk out of Wrestlemania as the victor, and use that to really establish himself as an important part of the main event scene, which whilst entertaining at times, his partnership with Jericho had detracted from.
I’ve been really impressed with how WWE have booked Baron Corbin over the last several weeks. He faded out for a while but he’s really turned things around and managed to get the WWE creative team behind him and picked up some important wins. His match against John Cena a few weeks ago attracted attention, and now following the Battle Royal on Smackdown Live this week, it looks like he’s be entering a programme with Dean Ambrose for the Intercontinental Title heading into Wrestlemania.
I’m all for this, firstly because yet again for some reason WWE have seemed reluctant to have Ambrose defend a singles title, instead placing him in matches for the WWE Title whilst holding the Intercontinental, which is one of my pet peeves in the company.
I’d welcome Baron Corbin as the Intercontinental Champion, which would probably mean going forward that Ambrose could head in pursuit of the WWE Title again. I think (and not just because I’m a huge fan of his) but they could reignite the flame of his feud with Dolph Ziggler at Summerslam 2016 which I felt could have been better.
The problem with that match was that there were two popular faces against each other, and the fans didn’t know who to cheer for, so it left them quite flat. Ziggler should have played the heel role in that match, even if it was just for one night. It would have been great to see Dolph pulling out all the stops, desperate to become WWE Champion.
This is what we could potentially see following Wrestlemania somewhere down the line. Of course Ambrose would have to actually win the title first.
Which brings us nicely to the WWE World Heavyweight Title. Randy Orton won the Royal Rumble, but then forfeited his opportunity once his ‘leader’ Bray Wyatt became WWE Champion, however, I would be very surprised if we didn’t see Randy Orton competing for the title at Wrestlemania.
The ending of the Battle Royal match (so much happened in that one didn’t it?!) from Smackdown Live this week saw the good old ‘who’s feet landed first’ angle with Luke Harper and AJ Styles both staking a claim to being the victor. As surprising as it would be to not have AJ Styles in a high profiled championship match at Wrestlemania, you can’t help but feel WWE are planning a Wyatt Family triple threat match for the WWE World Heavyweight Title between current champion Bray Wyatt, Randy Orton and Luke Harper.
It does feel a bit rushed to have Harper in the title picture, but to be fair, he got a pretty strong crowd reaction on Tuesday night, and against AJ Styles of all people who struggles to get fans to boo him despite being one of the top heels in the company.
I will put my neck on the line and say once Orton has turned on Wyatt, we will see Bray still leave Wrestlemania 33 as WWE Champion, because I don’t think for someone who has been as overdue a title reign as him, a 1 and a half month run with the strap is worthy of his hard work and ability.
There are many questions left unanswered at the moment, such as who will AJ Styles face at Wrestlemania?
Could Finn Balor be back in time? Speaking of which, will Seth Rollins recover from his injury in time to face Triple H?
One that many fans will groan at but I will personally be looking forward to seeing is the potential Undertaker v Roman Reigns feud, which we first got a taster of at the Royal Rumble with Reigns eliminating Undertaker, shocking the crowd and leaving ‘The Deadman’ looking on equally as stunned.
That moment was perfectly executed by Roman, who looked back at ‘Taker with zero sorrow, regret or sympathy, which gave us a very brief glimpse of him as a heel. I’d very much enjoy Reigns as a heel, but he already sort of is, as lately he’s snapped back at fans, shouted at face superstars and declaring ‘I don’t care what anybody thinks of me’.
You could book the outcome of this match either way, with either Reigns winning via some heelish tactics, or Undertaker going over with Reigns beating him down post match, which I think I would much prefer. Gives Undertaker the win so Lesnar still has the bragging right of being ‘the 1’, but the real story will be the aftermath which will do wonders for Roman going forward.
Fans just need to see a different side to Roman, and as a heel going forward he could take on Goldberg, he could take on Finn Balor and he could even rediscover his rivalry with Seth Rollins, however this time with the roles reversed.
This years Wrestlemania 33 is so important for a number of superstars, but beyond Wrestlemania there is a LOT of potential.
Recent Comments