Read on for my thoughts on last night's Smackdown.
I was really impressed with the opening match. It felt like they all wanted to make an impact. I hope Big E and Cesaro in particular have big futures based on their showings here.
Cool video for Brock and Reigns. I'm pretty caught up in the hype here. I'm honestly leaning toward the opinion Reigns should go over.
That was a great Divas segment! Both sides got to cut pretty deep and add some real heat. Plus, it acknowledged the long history of AJ's character, as well as her work with Paige.
It makes sense to do the battle royal and the tag team title match on the Kickoff show with it being two hours. That gives more time for the top matches, which should be pretty good.
Really awesome main event! I think WWE has some really solid competitors working the top matches at Mania. Hopefully they can work magic with the older names who are there, too.
More wrestling coming up.
Mania predictions:
ReplyDelete- Usos win back the tag team titles to do a babyface win to get people into things early.
- Sheamus returns to win the Andre battle royal
- AJ and Paige beat the Bellas. I sure hope so, anyway. Nikki will still be champion and both Bellas will still have momentum.
- Orton beats Rollins to continue his big return
- I can definitely see Bryan or Ziggler winning the IC Title, depending on who WWE favors more
- Cena wins the U.S. Title
- Taker gets a win after losing last year
- Sting beats HHH to get things rolling for Sting vs. Taker next year
- There are multiple possible scenarios for the main event, and they likely won't choose until the day of. I see Reigns winning and Rollins cashing in either at WM31 or the night after. I can see Heyman siding with Rollins to screw Brock if they want a big surprise.
All of those predictions make sense. My only oddity is if Rollins loses to Orton, it would be a bit of a stretch for him to win the title. I remember a few years back when Daniel Bryan lost clean to Cody Rhodes on Smackdown a few nights before the pay-per-view and cashed in MITB, but it seemed a bit illogical in that he just lost to a mid-card guy clean just a few nights before. Not saying that Orton is mid-card or anything, but it would kind of lose its power if Rollins did lose to Orton though successfully cashes in MITB.
ReplyDeleteThe main event is definitely the toughest match to call - even compared to the battle royal - but I'll say Brock will retain in some screwy finish. This may be more along the lines of me not thinking Reigns is ready, but Brock's re-signing definitely helps his cause here. With the way Rollins has been booked of late, he's been a bit off the map. One week he will win against Rollins - albeit not clean - yet the next week he will lose to guys like Ziggler or Ryback. I may not agree with this, but I think WWE wants to give Rollins more time before giving him the title.
Then again, anything is variable at this point with that match. You're probably correct in that the actual scenario that happens will probably be decided just hours before the match.
Any dark horse predictions aside from what you mentioned?
One week he will against Reigns***
ReplyDeleteIf done right, it would set the stage nicely for Orton vs. Rollins for the title, since Orton already beat him at WM31.
ReplyDeleteWWE likes to test people before having them win the title. It can be really counter-productive, but they like to do it. They also really like the "heel can only win via interference or weapons" angle. That's about all I can come up with.
In some ways, it's smart for WWE to get a feel for how things are before deciding on a finish a month in advance. It's REALLY rough on the writers, though, to go through that many drafts.
I think WWE might save the surprises for tomorrow's Raw. I suspect we'll see an NXT debut and/or a title change. I definitely expect more talents to come up in the next few months, which is exciting.
One more thing: I know some fans are speculating on/hoping for a Shield reunion at WM31 in the main event. That could be pretty cool, although I don't think it would really make a lot of sense.
ReplyDelete