Category: Predictions

WWE Fastlane 2019 Analysis & Predictions

Alright, let’s get this out of the way I guess.

I said last time that I don’t really think there should be any Pay-Per-Views between the Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania, but I understand that WWE need to make its money and please its shareholders and Elimination Chamber does have a unique appeal to it so I can live with it. Fastlane however, is very different.

When there were still split PPVs I could understand why there’d be two (one for each brand), but now all the PPVs are interbrand, why have two of them? None of the stories have progressed very much at all to warrant another big match, so we instead have a bunch of throwaway and makeshift feuds that everyone knows the result of. Even worse, something like this can often worsen the lengthy feuds that are either just getting started, or right in the middle, since you now have to force some big “moment” at the PPV, even when the story so far might not need it.

I can complain until the cows come home, but it’s not going to change the fact that Fastlane is happening this Sunday, and there’s a whole bunch of matches that need predicting, so let’s get to it.

Rey Mysterio vs Andrade
(Kickoff Show)

When will they stop putting these cruiserweights on the pre-show? (I know Andrade’s 209lbs, but I thought it was funny).

On the ever-increasing list of things that baffle me with regards to this PPV, we have arguably the hottest feud from this year so far, being pushed to the pre-show. Not only that, but you could’ve put the US title on either of them two weeks in a row, but instead you decide to go with Samoa Joe, which is fine, except Samoa Joe isn’t even on the damn show at all.

I get that you’ve got to have a pre-show match, but this is a fairly empty PPV so far, and these two could put on a match of the year if you let them go instead of artificially putting shackles on them by only giving them about 10 minutes when no-one’s watching. It’s like they’re not even trying to make new stars.

They’ve buried this enough as it is, so not having Andrade win here would be such a huge mistake, and potentially destroy one of your existing potential stars at a key point of the year.

The Shield vs Baron Corbin, Drew Mcintyre & Bobby Lashley

So we’re not even going to wait and build up to this one, are we?

I’m of two minds when it comes to The Shield reuniting this soon after Roman’s return. On the one hand, it seems like it could’ve been built to a lot more, with the eventual reunion being a huge moment at Wrestlemania when Seth defeats Brock. However, we’ve been through this whole “will they, won’t they” thing three times now, and since we know it’s always going to end up with The Shield reuniting, why make us sit through it again?

It does make me wonder though, if they’ve thrown them together again this fast, could they also be breaking them up just as quickly? It doesn’t seem like much of a stretch to say that Dean once again turns on The Shield here in order to have Roman vs Dean at Wrestlemania, as it was quite weird that Roman didn’t really seem to care about Dean taking the piss of his leukaemia.

While it’s possible we get a turn here, I’m going to go with The Shield since it just seems like a fairly safe bet to say that the top heels of Raw are being thrown to the hounds for a quick win to make The Shield look good.

Asuka(c) vs Mandy Rose
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)

So, now Asuka has left the shadow of the Becky/Charlotte storyline, you’ve got a big chance for Asuka to break out on her own and show her stuff going into Wrestlemania. Smackdown is filled with a whole bunch of great female athletes so you can pick from almost any of them. We’ve got Naomi, Sonya Deville, The IIconics, hell if you want a throwaway feud, Zelina Vaga would be a great opponent for Asuka. So with all the choice in the world WWE picks…Mandy Rose.

Now, I have nothing specifically against Mandy Rose. She’s yet to put on a performance that truly wowed me, but she’s certainly not a bad wrestler by any stretch of the imagination. She just really doesn’t feel like she’s the right fit for the spot, she’s had an on and off story with Naomi for a couple months where I guess she won? It was pretty vague, but she doesn’t really feel like she’s been built up at all, I get that she used cheap tactics to get the opportunity, but I feel like you could’ve spread this out a little longer and perhaps involved Sonya Deville on at least some level.

Ultimately, it all goes back to having two PPVs at this time of year so close together, there’s no time for anything to build because just 2 weeks ago Mandy was busy for the build to the Chamber match.

There are a whole host of shenanigans that could take place here, with Lacey Evans, Sonya Deville and Naomi all having some reason to get involved, but whatever happens, I’m confident that Asuka will walk away with the title.

Sasha Banks & Bayley(c) vs Nia Jax & Tamina
(Women’s Tag Team Championships)

Maybe, they should have stuck with the “Roadblock” name instead, because that’s what this match feels like.

The announcement that these Women’s Tag Team titles will be defended on all three of Raw, Smackdown and NXT is absolutely wonderful news. Many are currently claiming that the NXT women’s division is quite shallow, with Baszler, Sane and Sharai are the only top-level talents, but this is the way to showcase how great the rest of the division is, by having them go head to head with Banks & Bayley and put on an amazing match with them.

However, for us to get to that land of wonder, we have a rather large roadblock in the form of Nia Jax & Tamina. They shouldn’t win the titles here, and almost everything points to the fact that they won’t, especially with a probable face off against Trish & Lita is on the horizon for Wrestlemania, but this is WWE so they might.

Either way, this match should be ok. Nia and Tamina really are among my least favourite wrestlers right now, but Bayley and Sasha are great at bringing the best out of their opponents, especially bigger opponents like these. As for a pick, I’m going with what needs to happen and say Sasha Banks & Bayley are going to retain here.

The Usos(c) vs Shane Mcmahon & The Miz
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

Remember when Shane Mcmahon first came back in 2016 and we were all really excited? Those were fun times, now I really just want him to go away for a while.

So far with this story, WWE have so far gone with the exact opposite of what I’ve predicted, but as I always say: If I keep bashing my head against this wall, it will eventually break, so let’s go again.

When this whole thing first started, I didn’t want Shane & Miz to win the titles, and then once they won them, I didn’t want them to lose the titles. So I don’t think I’m going to surprise anyone when I flip-flop once again and say now Shane & Miz have lost the titles, I really don’t think they should win them back.

When they won the titles, I thought we were going to get a long storyline where The Miz would use Shane to get to the WWE title at some point this year before inevitably dumping him when he outlived his usefulness, but now they’ve dropped the titles, it’s become obvious they’re going for the short term story, most likely ending at Wrestlemania.

I’m not really sure what The Usos are going to do come Wrestlemania, but I do know that they’re going to have the Smackdown Tag Team Championships around their waists.

The Revival(c) vs Aleister Black & Ricochet vs Bobby Roode & Chad Gable
(Raw Tag Team Championships)

So this is how Vince intends to “make new stars” is it?

So, Black & Ricochet have been going back forth between Raw and Smackdown for a couple of weeks beating The Revival and The Bar repeatedly, until suddenly Roode & Gable show up and put a spanner in things for some reason and now we have this match.

The thing is, Black & Ricochet have stood tall week in and week out since they showed up on the main roster, including last Monday, so wrestling logic dictates they have absolutely no chance of winning. This is the problem with bringing these four guys up at this time of year, they’re only going to get damaged by doing nothing of note (because let’s be real, the Raw Tag Team Titles are nothing of note) and then Vince has the gall to come out and wonder why he doesn’t have any superstars on his roster.

While it’s possible Ricochet & Black could pick up the win here, I don’t really think I want them to0 since the Raw Tag Titles seem like things that could hold them down instead of launching them to stardom, so I’m picking The Revival to retain.

Becky Lynch vs Charlotte Flair
(If Becky wins, she’s in at Wrestlemania)

Oh yeah, Charlotte’s involved in all of this.

I know the build to this match has been mostly brilliant so far, but I do find it quite weird how Charlotte’s been a bit of a non-factor since she was thrust into the match, mostly has a punching bag for Becky Lynch, but still.

This match is one of those ones that has an obvious result, – Becky Lynch is going to win – but it’s obvious because it’s what needs to happen. I know there’s pretty much no doubt in anyone’s minds that the triple threat is happening at Mania, but this is WWE, so I refuse to trust them. I think the best way to avoid this being such an obvious win, is to have Ronda get involved. Except have Ronda make Becky win.

Not accidentally, but on purpose screw over Charlotte so Becky gets her way in at Mania. The whole point of the story the past few weeks is that Ronda has been wanting to fight Becky at Wrestlemania, and Ronda is very much the type of character to fight ALL OF THEM to quote Asuka. Having Ronda cause Charlotte to lose here gets Becky in without compromising Charlotte’s integrity for the main event of Wrestlemania since she didn’t lose clean. There’s no downside to it.

Daniel Bryan(c) vs Kevin Owens
(WWE Championship)

So the build for this match has been pretty interesting, as it’s taken the opposite progression to almost everything else on the card.

With all the other feuds on this card, I started off pretty interested, but the build (or lack thereof) has made me not care about them at all, but with this match, I initially thought it was weird and didn’t make sense, but after this week’s Smackdown I’m pretty into it.

For one thing, Bryan vs Owens should be a brilliant match provided it isn’t hampered by WWE branded bullshit, but also I think they’ve done a pretty good job of building it given the limited time they’ve had. It was pretty weird that they inserted Owens into the match essentially by copying the women’s storyline over on Raw, but the promos that have been cut since then have been pretty fun to watch.

Owens feels like he’s got this renewed sense of vigour behind him, and while I doubt this face turn will last long, for this feud at least, it’s working. I’m not looking forward to this PPV as a whole much, but I chose to hold out hope that this match will have some good stuff behind it.

As for a winner, it’s slightly harder to pick than I thought, because of Kofi Kingston. While it wouldn’t be out of character for WWE to completely forget this Kofi story and hope everyone forgets about it, that doesn’t feel like what’s going to happen here. I’m not sure if he’ll get directly involved, but it wouldn’t surprise me if this segment ended with Kofi being involved in some way. For that to happen though, Daniel Bryan idealistically has to retain, so that’s what I’m going with here.

And those are my predictions for Fastlane 2019! Let me know what your thoughts are, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. As always watch this space over the next week as my review of the show will be coming up early next week!

WWE Elimination Chamber 2019 Predictions

I’ve never really liked having a PPV between the Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania. Sure, in the attitude era it would actually wrap up long-running storylines and set things up for Wrestlemania that actually felt important; but nowadays it just forces some half-assed storylines where everyone knows the outcome before they’ve even begun. So this year we’ve got two of them…Ok then.

That said, even when an Elimination Chamber is predictable it’s usually quite fun, so having two of them on the show (one of which for a brand new championship) gives at least some part of the show exciting stakes; not sure that can be said for the rest of the card, however.

Let’s take a look at it then shall we? I think we shall, here are my predictions for WWE Elimination Chamber 2019.

Braun Strowman vs Baron Corbin
(No Disqualification)

How quickly we revert to old habits.

When WWE came out and spouted out about it being a new era with new matches and new faces, I was one of the voices saying “give it time”. I felt they needed a month or so to end all the current storylines and tie up loose ends before moving on. Yet here we are in February, and Corbin, Drew & Lashley vs Braun “and friends” is still a thing we apparently need to deal with.

Quite frankly, this match shouldn’t be longer than a minute, as I don’t really think anyone wants to see it go much longer, matches like the Cruiserweight Championship shouldn’t be bumped to the pre-show in order to make room for this bollocks.

Oh yeah, Braun Strowman will win here, because he needs some sort of win after he got the wind taken out of his sails before the Royal Rumble before both mean likely end up in the battle royal at Wrestlemania.

Bobby Lashley(c) & Lio Rush vs Finn Balor
(2 on 1 Handicap)
(Intercontinental Championship)

How the mighty fall…

Remember as little as two months ago where the IC title was the most hotly contested title in the company? Fun times. As it stands now though, the prestigious title sits upon the shoulders of arguably the most boring wrestler in the entire company. That being said, Balor is talented enough to get at least a decent match out of Lashley, and with Lio Rush being in the mix as well, it’ll be a great opportunity for him to show off the awesome stuff he can do on a big stage.

As for whether the title will change hands, it’s a bit of a coin flip but I doubt it. Balor’s got to pick up that title, either before or at Wrestlemania, but we’ve already had some quick title changes and WWE don’t generally like letting babyfaces win the title on their first shot. So I’m going with what I feel is the safe option and pick Bobby Lashley & Lio Rush to win here.

Buddy Murphey(c) vs Akira Tozowa
(Cruiserweight Championship)

I’ll be honest, out of all the people in that Fatal 4 Way from the Rumble, Tozowa was not the one I was expecting to get a singles feud.the one hand, I want to say that they’re just spinning their wheels until Wrestlemania, but at the same time, I have absolutely no idea what the plans for Wrestlemania could possibly be. I don’t really see anyone on 205 Live that could be that a big a deal for a Wrestlemania match.

I’m sure this match will be pretty good, but I’m not expecting anything that special, especially since it will probably be bumped to the pre-show yet again. As for a winner, Buddy Murphey to retain seems like a pretty solid pick, Tozowa’s time has been and gone, it’d take a lot to build him up again in my eyes.

Shane Mcmahon & The Miz(c) vs The Usos
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

Ok, this has gone too far.

I wasn’t happy about Miz and Shane beating The Bar, but once it happened I could live with it, but if Miz and Shane beat The Usos, I may actually blow my lid.

I decided that once they won the title, I’d give the story a chance to breathe and show what it’s really all about, but over the past month, there hasn’t been a hint of anything interesting with the two of them. This was something I didn’t want to see in the first place, and I really don’t want to see any more of it.

Having said all of that though, I really don’t see them losing the titles here. The Usos have been in the Smackdown Tag Title scene for such an extended amount of time, with very small breaks and I really can’t see them going back to that well just yet. So, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Shane Mcmahon & The Miz retain their titles, via some form of dirty finish, just to give this story some form of intrigue.

Ronda Rousey(c) def. Ruby Riott
(Raw Women’s Championship)

Ronda Rousey, next question.

Seriously though, two years in a row now, Ruby Riott has got a title match in a situation where there is absolutely zero chance she wins. WWE is already going so hard building the Ronda, Becky, Charlotte storyline that there is absolutely no way that Ronda is losing that belt anytime before Wrestlemania.

The match will hopefully be pretty good, but I am fully confident in saying that Ronda Rousey will win.

Nia Jax & Tamina vs Naomi & Carmella vs Absolution vs The Riott Squad vs The IIconics vs Sasha Banks & Bayley
(Elimination Chamber)
(Women’s Tag Team Championships)

This is such a weird one to predict because honestly, you could make a good case for any of these teams to win. So let’s go through them all and analyse their chances, shall we?

Naomi & Carmella – This is pretty much the only team I can’t make a solid case for. It feels like a really thrown together team that exists for sole purpose of filling a spot in the chamber. I’m sure we’ll get a dance break or something fun like that, but I don’t imagine they’ll last very long and I certainly don’t expect them to win.

The IIconics – In my heart, this is the team I want to win, and while it’s possible, I seriously doubt it. These two will probably be the heels that dominate the early sections before getting eliminated in a big “shock”.

The Riott Squad – Part of me wants to say that these guys have a chance because of Ruby getting murdered by Ronda earlier on in the show (plus Sarah Logan is an awesome person), but I seriously doubt that’s the case. The whole Riott Squad have been getting the shaft since the moment they showed up on the main roster, which is tragic, but it’s the way it is so I don’t think they stand much of a chance.

Absolution – Weirdly, I do feel that these guys stand a small chance in this match. I don’t quite know why, but Mandy Rose has been such a central focus Smackdown this past month that I feel like it’s got be leading somewhere right? Then, I gave it a second thought and realised it’s probably just going to lead to Naomi pinning Mandy Rose and being the first ones eliminated.

Sasha Banks & Bayley – I refuse to call them “The Boss ‘N’ Hug Connection” because that’s an awful name. They’re one of the two that I keep going back and forth on to win this match, and I think their night will go one of two ways. Either they’ll fight through the whole match and pick up an unlikely but feel good win to pay off all the struggle both women have gone through over the past year, OR, they’ll fight all the way through to the final two only to have their dreams shattered at the last second and maybe one will turn on the other.

I’m leaning towards the latter, unfortunately, although I doubt we’ll see a heel turn from either woman just yet.

Nia Jax & Tamina – Yeah, these two winning just feels right doesn’t it? I’m not really a fan of either woman as a wrestler, but I’ve kind of liked what Nia Jax has been doing character wise recently. Generally, it seems like a decent idea for these two to win here, only to be conquered by some heroic babyfaces (probably Banks & Bayley) at Wrestlemania.

I’ve gone back and forth while writing this section a lot, but in the end, I think Nia Jax & Tamina is the right choice.

Daniel Bryan(c) vs AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe vs Kofi Kingston vs Jeff Hardy vs Randy Orton
(Elimination Chamber)
(WWE Championship)

I was quite surprised that we were getting a WWE title match at this show since traditionally the Elimination Chamber has been used to determine the Wrestlemania opponent for the opposite title to the Royal Rumble winner, but I guess they want to do that at Fastlane instead.

Either way, let’s go through and look at the chances of each competitor here.

Jeff Hardy – I think it says a lot about how badly things have gone for Jeff Hardy recently, that I completely forgot he was in this match and had to look it up, even though I’m writing this on Wednesday, about 4 hours after I watched the go-home Smackdown. I’m sure he’ll do a Swanton off the top of a pod, but I imagine he’ll be eliminated pretty soon after that moment.

Samoa Joe – It feels just a little too late for Joe, unfortunately. I’m sure Samoa Joe will win a world title eventually, but I don’t see it coming any time in the first half of the year. he was quite heavily damaged by the AJ Styles feud that went on far too long, and he needs a series of CLEAN wins over high calibre opponents to build him back up. Regardless, Sunday isn’t going to be his night.

Kofi Kingston – When I heard that Kogi would be replacing Ali in the match, I didn’t really care, but then I watched the Gauntlet match on Smackdown and holy crap I want Kofi to win so badly now. He’s been in a tag team for so damn long, that I think we all forgot that Kofi is an amazing singles wrestler too, and he I hope he gets more of a chance to show his stuff here. That said, he’s not going to win, as much as I’d love for the New Day to have a world title, now’s really not the time for it to happen.

Randy Orton – Every part of my brain is telling me he has zero chance, but it’s Randy Orton, and I live in constant fear that he’s going to win the WWE Championship again at any moment. That said, they made such a big deal of Orton being the last man to enter, and I can see them arguing about it for roughly 30 minutes on the pre-show panel, that there’s no way he can possibly win.

AJ Styles – This is the only man that I could potentially see winning the title here, and weirdly, it’s the only man I don’t really want to win the title here. I’ve said this before, but I’m pretty done with WWE Champion AJ Styles, it got really stale towards the end of the run and I really don’t think there’s anyone I’d like to see him face come Wrestlemania, so he’s to hoping it doesn’t happen.

Daniel Bryan – Yeah, there’s no way that titles changing hands. I just can’t see any scenario for Wrestlemania where Daniel Bryan isn’t WWE Champion going into it. He’s the best character on Smackdown live right now (if we count Becky Lynch as being above brand right now), and he’s just got a new lacky in the form of Rowan so I don’t see that title going anywhere for quite a while.

I’m sure this match will be great, as I usually quite enjoy Elimination Chamber matches, but the result is pretty inevitable and Daniel Bryan is walking out of there with that beautiful championship over his shoulder.

So there are my predictions! Thank you very much for taking the time out to read this and sharing it around on social media would be very much appreciated. Follow me on Twitter @10ryawoo for live tweets of the event, and make sure to come back early next week for my review!

 

WWE Royal Rumble 2019 Predictions

The new year may bring some the depressing realisation of being yet another year closer to the grave, however to wrestling fans it means the excitement, anger and general confusion that comes with the Royal Rumble event.

How predictable a Rumble is, generally varies widely. Either it’s ludicrously obvious like in 2013, or completely unpredictable like in 2017, and this year we seem to have one of each. As usual the undercard seems pretty easy to call, however, the matches themselves look to be fantastic.

Rusev(c) vs Shinsuke Nakamura
(United States Championship)

Oh, this is still happening?

It’s not been officially confirmed as of the time of writing, but I imagine this will end up on the pre-show, and while these are both guys I like very much, I can’t say it deserves any better.

Rusev winning the US title on Christmas Day (which was also his birthday (which was also Rusev Day)) was a great point on that feud which felt like it had been going on forever. Instead, they decided to artificially extend the feud by having Lana take the world’s weakest bump and having it take her out of action for over a week (despite being an active wrestler herself).

The US title really needs something to save it soon because right now no-one has any reason to care about it. With any luck, someone like Almas will win it soon and make it matter again, as for now, I’m going to pick Rusev to retain here, mostly because I don’t see a reason for Nakamura to win it back any time soon.

Buddy Murphy(c) vs Kalisto vs Akira Tozowa vs Hideo Itami
(Cruiserweight Championship)

Oh hey, I remember when these guys used to have any sort of on-screen presence in WWE.

Believe it or not, I have actually been watching the occasional episode of 205 Live this month so I’m not just blindly guessing at what’s going on for once. Personally, I’ve been really enjoying Murphy’s title reign, putting on great match after great match, and I don’t really want to see it end anytime soon.

That said, I also really love Hideo Itami and all the stuff he did pre-WWE and in NXT, so finally giving him a platform where he gets to wrestle in front of an audience that actually cares about his existence. Kalisto is long past being worth anything in the cruiserweight division, and while I like Tozowa, his opportunity had come and gone if you ask me.

It boils down to a choice between my heart and my head, and realistically it doesn’t make sense for heel Itami to take the title off of heel Murphy, so I’m going to pick Buddy Murphey to retain.

The Bar(c) vs Shane Mcmahon & The Miz
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

I don’t very often define a creative decision in WWE as “wrong”, because any creative decision tends to have some pretty sound ideas behind it and could end up leading to something great. However, Shane and Miz winning the titles here would very much be the wrong decision for this match.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad The Miz isn’t just floundering about doing shit-all until Daniel Bryan is ready to fight him again, but using Shane Mcmahon to do it really doesn’t feel like the right way to go. Miz obviously still has some beef with Shane from the World-Cup-To-Determine-The-Best-In-The-World™, and he’s obviously going to turn on him eventually, I just really hope they don’t win the titles before then.

The Bar has been looking really strong in this title reign, taking out The New Day, The Usos and AOP with relative ease and to have it end with them losing to Miz and Shane would be a disaster.

Unsurprisingly I’m picking The Bar to retain because I don’t want to imagine the alternative.

Asuka(c) vs Becky Lynch
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)

Yes please.

This is the match that I’m planting my flag in for the match of the night. The Smackdown women’s division has been absolutely brilliant ever since Summerslam and this is the perfect way to keep the ball rolling. Taking the most popular wrestler and making them fight your second most popular wrestler, it’s booking at it’s simplest, yet most effective.

As for who should win, I think it’s pretty simple, but picking who will win is slightly more difficult. Personally, I think Asuka has to retain otherwise she may as well have never won the thing in the first place. The problem is, given that a Triple Threat between Ronda, Charlotte and Becky is what’s currently on the cards for WrestleMania, I think there’s a chance WWE will want both titles to be on the line, so Becky could win it back any day now.

Ultimately, I’m going with Asuka since I just can’t see why they’d have her win the title if they were going to take it off her before Wrestlemania, especially as soon as this.

Ronda Rousey(c) vs Sasha Banks
(Raw Women’s Championship)

Remember the days when Sasha was treated as a megastar in the women’s division? Good times.

That said, Sasha has been made to look pretty damn good in the build to this match, which is quite impressive considering how much of a chump she’s looked al lthroughout 2018. With any luck, Sasha will be able to carry this momentum into the Elimination Chamber next months where she’ll probably be fighting for the women’s tag titles. Who knows, maybe she’ll even stay this level of a star for the rest of the year.

This is one of those matches that doesn’t immediately spring to mind when you think of dream matches for Ronda Rousey, but now it’s being presented to me, I’m very happy to see it indeed. I spent all of 2018 singing the praises of Ronda Rousey as an in-ring competitor and I stand by that, so I’m expecting a fantastic match here, provided no shenanigans occur.

It’s not exactly hard to pick a winner though, Ronda Rousey is going to retain for reasons that should be obvious to anyone who knows who these women are.

Daniel Bryan(c) vs AJ Styles
(WWE Championship)

While I’m sure this will be a great match and I’m happy to see it, I can’t help but be a little bit disappointed this isn’t Bryan vs Ali.

I still love Styles as much as I did when he first joined WWE, but I think I’m done seeing him in the world title picture for quite a while now. His reign was long and filled with a lot of great matches with awful finishes, so once this is done I hope to see him try something new and interesting for a little while before sniffing around a world title again.

Bryan, on the other hand, should carry that title forever. His character since turning heel has been a brilliant heat magnet that crowds seem to love so much that they want to boo him. A heel that actually gets boos for doing heelish things, crazy I know.

I’m going with what I think should happen here and pick Daniel Bryan to retain and carry that thing into Wrestlemania to have a brilliant match with literally anyone on the Smackdown roster.

Brock Lesnar(c) vs Finn Balor
(Universal Championship)

I have but one simple request, which is for Finn Balor not to die please.

There’s a lot of fear out there regarding this match right now, that all of Balor’s momentum from winning two matches in one night and pinning John effing Cena will be wasted when Brock beats him easily in about 8 minutes. I was fearful of this too until I heard the news that apparently Brock requested Finn as Braun’s replacements since he likes to wrestle the “David vs Goliath” style of match.

Hearing things like this and looking back at matches such as Brock vs AJ and Brock vs Bryan have restored my hopes that this will actually be a pretty good match.

You don’t need me to tell you who’s going to win though. You can root for Finn all you like, but Brock Lesnar is winning.

Women’s Royal Rumble Match

I thought this one would be pretty hard for me to call until I read the list of participants.

For those who are unaware, the current match that is planned for Wrestlemania is Ronda vs Charlotte vs Becky. Now obviously plans can change at a moments notice in WWE, but I know many fans (myself included) will be a little disappointed we aren’t going to get Ronda vs Becky one on one.

As for the Rumble match itself, I’m looking forward to it. I was rather underwhelmed by the inaugural women’s Rumble last year, as I thought it relied too heavily on women from the past and didn’t focus on the current stars. However there are significantly more women on the main roster this year, so we should get some effective storytelling involving modern-day stars instead of the past this year.

Normally for a Rumble, I’d got through all the people who had a chance of winning but this time around there really seems to be only one choice for me. There is still a tiny part of me that is holding out hope that Becky will make a surprise entrance and win the thing, but I’ve got to go with my head here and pick Charlotte Flair to win this.

Men’s Royal Rumble Match

I’m really excited about this one.

I feel like last year’s euphoric win for Nakamura has restored my faith in the Royal Rumble match, even if what happened after wasn’t amazing. Even bad Rumble matches are fun to watch for the most part and I’m feeling pretty confident that this years will be a good one too.

While I think Drew Mcintyre does have an outside chance here, realistically this match is between two men for me:

John Cena – It’s generally never a good idea to count Cena out of any match like this, but this year, in particular, I think he’s one to watch. There isn’t really any of note on Smackdown right now that Bryan could face at Wrestlemania, and personally, I’d really like to see him fight Cena.

Cena is the antithesis to everything Daniel Bryan has been preaching these past few months, add onto that Cena’s 17th world title reign, their previous match at Summerslam 2013 and whatever drama is going on over on Total Bella’s and you’ve got yourself one hell of a story right there.

I’m fairly certain Cena vs Bryan will be the match at Wrestlemania, but I don’t think Cena’s going to go through the Rumble to get there.

Seth Rollins – You have no idea how badly I want this to happen. Seth Rollins has had arguably the best year of his career this year, putting on the best match of almost every major show he’s been on this year (TLC excluded). In process of making the Intercontinental Championship the most hotly contested title in WWE last year, he also built himself up to be the only man who could really take down Brock Lesnar in Roman Reigns’ absence.

Getting a Rumble win under his belt would be a fantastic way to go full steam ahead into Brock Lesnar and have a brilliant run with the Universal Championship, taking on all comers until the summer at least. It seems the most logical choice to me, and I really want to see it happen, so Rollins is the man I’m picking to win this year.

That’s all folks! Thank you very much for reading these predictions, follow me on Twitter @10ryawoo for live reactions to the Rumble on Sunday and NXT: Takeover on Saturday, and stay tuned for my review of the Rumble early next week!

NXT Takover: Phoenix Predictions

I’ve been wanting to start doing this for some time now, but I’ve never really found the time.

I’ve mentioned it a lot in the past and this isn’t exactly a hot take, but I adore NXT. There’s a reason a good 50% of my match of the year list was filled with NXT matches, as far as I’m concerned, it’s where the best wrestlers in the world do the best wrestling in the world.

So, what better opportunity to start writing about my favourite wrestling brand than it’s first major show of 2019?

Matt Riddle vs Kassius Ohno

Well, this one should be fairly simple.

Matt Riddle seems to be getting the fast track to the top in NXT, and Ohno is a surprisingly good introductory feud for him. His surprise 6-second match at Wargames seemed like it should’ve been a one and done, but I’ve actually been enjoying this whole feud quite a lot.

I imagine we’ll get more of an actual match this time around since Riddle does need an opportunity to showcase his many talents on a big stage like Takeover. It’s hard to tell where exactly Riddle will go from here, but I think we’ll see him competing for the NXT title fairly soon.

To the surprise of no-one, I’m picking Matt Riddle to walk away with the win here.

Ricochet(c) vs Johnny Gargano
(NXT North American Championship)

My body is ready.

Gargano was a 5-star match machine last year, featuring in a rather large number of my favourite matches from 2018, and it looks like he’ll be kicking this year off with another one.

Ricochet has been on fire since he got to NXT as well, with some brilliant matches against Adam Cole at Brooklyn, Pete Dunne on NXT’s weekly show and a death-defying performance at Wargames. These are two men who’s styles should blend excellently to create a memorable match that I imagine will be the stand out an already loaded card.

NXT’s storytelling can often be a lot more unpredictable than the main roster’s, so as much as it feels to me like both Gargano and Ciampa need to be holding titles going into Wrestlemania season, a better story might actually come from Gargano adopting Ciampa’s style and attitude and STILL failing. That said, I think Ricochet has done enough with the title to justify dropping it now to serve a bigger story, and it just feels right to me that Johnny Gargano picks up the title here.

The Undisputed Era(c) vs War Raiders
(NXT Tag Team Championships)

Talk about a size miss-match.

That’s the beauty with how Undisputed Era have performed during their time in NXT though, they go into matches where they have absolutely no chance and come out on top without making themselves look super weak. Sure, they’re bastards who cheat to get their way, but they also put on a damn good performance and show that they’re capable wrestlers in the process.

While I haven’t been overly impressed by what War Raiders have done in NXT so far, they’ve certainly shown promise and I’m not one to write wrestlers off very quickly, so I’m confident this will be a massive showcase for their talents as a team.

As much as I’d love to see Undisputed Era to carry on their role as sneaky heel champions that can actually wrestle, I think their time in NXT might be coming to a close rather soon. I also think a loss really wouldn’t do Hanson and Rowe any favours, so I’m picking War Raiders to pick up the titles here.

Shayna Baszler(c) vs Bianca Belair
(NXT Women’s Championship)

I’ll be honest, I’m not really huge on this match.

I’ve talked about it plenty before, but Baszler and Sane were so perfect for a feud with each other, that anything else feels pretty wrong. This is amplified by the fact that this match is heel vs heel, so it’s kinda hard to get invested.

That said, I’m sure that match will still be great. The way Shayna attacks and beats down her opponent can make you feel sympathy for pretty much anyone who suffers it, and I expect Belair here to look properly victimised at some points in the match.

I don’t think there’s any real doubt of who’s winning though. Shayna Bazler is absolutely on fire right now and her momentum doesn’t seem to be slowing any time soon, so not picking her to win here would be a pretty silly decision. I’m not entirely sure what’s going to happen with the NXT Women’s title in the next few months, but whatever it is, the title needs to be over Baszler’s shoulder.

Tommaso Ciampa(c) vs Aleister Black
(NXT Championship)

I know we say this almost every time, but this could be one of the best Takeovers ever.

These two have got to be my two absolute favourite wrestlers in the world right now and I’ve been praying for this match for so long. Both men have this aura of invinsibility around them, everything they do seems so brutal and I just know this is going to be one hell of a fight. My only worry is that Gargano could get involved, I know they’ve been teasing a heel #DIY reunion for a little while now but I really just want to watch what happens when these two smash into each other at full speed for 30 minutes.

I would love to see Black win back the title here and reign over NXT forever, but I know realistically Ciampa needs to win here. I’m really not sure where this whole story is going, which is a wonderful feeling for me personally, but I know that Tommaso Ciampa has to win here to keep things rolling.

Thank you very much for reading my Takeover predictions, I’m not sure if I’m going to write a review of the show just yet, but if I do it will come out after my Royal Rumble review, so make sure you follow me on Twitter @10ryawoo for updates. Come back tomorrow for my Royal Rumble predictions, and I’ll see you there!

WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2018 Predictions

Well, we made it, another year of WWE programming. We may have all become slightly more sarcastic and jaded, but we’re all still here. This means it’s time to sit back, relax and enjoy a weapons based show (ugh), with *checks notes* TWELVE Matches?!

Survivor Series last month only had 8 matches (including pre-show), and that show got an extra hour than this one. This will probably mean a lot of matches won’t get even nearly the time that they need, or this will be the most packed pre-show in history (they haven’t announced which ones are on the pre-show at time of writing).

So settle it, as I break down all twelve (sigh) matches on the TLC 2018 card.

Rey Mysterio vs Randy Orton
(Chairs Match)

I remember when Randy Orton would fight people from the current generation.

I know Orton’s whole thing was “The Legend Killer” but that really only worked back in ’02-’05 when he was a young upstart in the WWE, not so much when he is a legend himself. I get that he’s trying to tear down all the people the fans love, but I think it would be a much more interesting story if his goal was to prove he was the greatest legend from his generation by beating them all up.

While chairs matches don’t have a history of being the greatest, *cough*Kane vs Ryback*cough*, I think it’s certainly the least limiting of the gimmicks, chair spots tend to be very quick to set up, and can usually be implemented in a match without breaking the flow too much. Although generally the “flow” in a Randy Orton match is pretty darn slow.

I’m finding it a little difficult to pick a winner, since Randy’s been on a bit of a roll recently, even if I don’t really see much reason for him to win. Given that Rey did get a win over Orton at Crown Jewel, I’m going to say Randy Orton manages to walk away with this one.

R-Truth & Carmella vs Jinder Mahal vs Alicia Fox
(Mixed Match Challenge Finals)

Ok, I haven’t been watching the Mixed Match Challenge this year, what the hell happened?

What happened to AJ Styles, Charlotte, Braun Strowman, Ember Moon, Finn Balor, or any of the other awesome performers in it this year? They all got replaced due to injury/sickness? Oh…well ok then.

That said, I can’t rag on this too much, the MMC may have been an even bigger afterthought than 205 Live this year, but from the small amount of stuff I’ve seen it’s looked alright. R-Truth and Carmella seemed to have formed a pretty entertaining rapport with each other and while the “Dance Break” thing is unbelievably stupid and I hate it, I think it’s more down to me being grumpy than anything else.

I also like that they’ve actually put something tangible on the line this year, getting a guaranteed, number 30 spot in the Royal Rumble is something that really should be on the line every year, since it’s technically the best position to be in, even if it is going to go to someone who has an absolute zero chance of winning the thing.

I’m pretty confident in picking R-Truth & Carmella to win here, since they’ve actually built up pretty fun characters and seem to work really well together, as opposed to Jinder & Alicia, who can be pretty accurately described as “two people”.

Buddy Murphy(c) vs Cedric Alexander
(Cruiserweight Championship)

I’m starting to think that there may only be three people on 205 Live.

It’s really hard to tell where the Cruiserweight title goes once all this is over, because it really doesn’t feel like there’s anyone up to it on 205 Live. I imagine they’ll probably just have a 4-Way Number 1 Contender’s match, like they seem to do pretty much every month, but I’m not entirely sure it’ll work this time.

Regardless, that’s something we don’t have to worry about until Wednesday in the mean time, let’s take a look at this match. Well, it’s pretty much the same match we’ve been seeing for a good few months now with the Cruiserweight Championship. Not that the match will be mad, both of these men are very talented, but seeing a match too many times really does take the shine off of it. For example, all I do is mention the possibility of another Rollins vs Ziggler match and everyone groans collectively, despite all their matches being good-to-great.

It certainly wouldn’t surprise me if they stuck the belt back on Cedric, but I think I’m going to go with Buddy Murphy this time, since I’d like to see his run continue, just so he can fight some new people for once.

Elias vs Bobby Lashley
(Ladder Match)

Really? This one got the ladder match stipulation? Alright.

While I love Elias, I don’t really get what this face turn has done for him. Before his heel turn, he just lost to Bobby Lashley a lot, and since he’s turned face he’s….lost to Bobby Lashley a lot. It’s really hard to tell what management think of Elias, they treat him like a star all the time, but I can’t even remember the last time he actually won a match.

I don’t really know what this match is going be like, ladder spots tend to be pretty contrived and slow, and I also don’t know what either of these guys are like in weapons matches. I’m going to hold out some hope for a fun match, but I won’t be surprised if I end up crapping all over it in my review.

As for a winner, I don’t really think it matters, and while my head says to pick Lashley, I’m gonna pray to the Nine Divines that Elias actually picks up a win for once.

Finn Balor vs Drew Mcintyre

Ireland vs Scotland, as an Englishman I’m looking forward to watching them implode.

I’m quietly optimistic for this one, I love both these guys and they’ve  put on a whole host of brilliant matches in their time in WWE/NXT, I really think they’ll have the chemistry they need to put on something great…if they get more than 5 minutes that is.

I don’t really have a whole lot else to say here, and it’s pretty obvious to me that Drew Mcintyre is going to win here, since they’re really trying to build him up as a big monster to take out Strowman (and maybe even Lesnar).

Natalya vs Ruby Riott
(Tables Match)

Hm, not really sure what to think of this one.

On the one hand, it’s never a good thing when WWE uses real life tragedy in order to further a storyline, especially something as contrived as this one seems to have been. While, on the other hand, WWE haven’t actually handled this one that badly, and it’s nice to see a story in the women’s division that isn’t about the title get some pretty high-profile PPV time.

Out of the three weapons on this show, tables matches tend to be the worst when it comes to breaking the flow of a match and contrived set ups. Also they normally quite suddenly and unsatisfying.

Given the subject matter it’d look a bit dodgy for the heel to go over here, so I’m going to pick Natalya to win the day in honour of her father.

The Bar(c) vs The New Day vs The Usos
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

I’d complain about there not being a Raw Tag Title match on this show, but this match is pretty much all the explanation you need.

I generally don’t get aboard the bandwagon of saying which show was better all the time, because I can’t be bothered with it all really, but there’s just no case to be made for the Raw Tag division when you look at this match. All of these teams are great performers and have so much chemistry together that this match is pretty much a sure-fire win for this show.

While it could quite easily become a victim of the lack of time on this show, even a cut down version on this should still be one of the better matches on the card and it’s also quite hard to pick a winner.

As I keep saying, New Day seem to be the default setting for the Smackdown Tag Titles, and could realistically win them at any time. The Bar have had a pretty decent title run so far, and it certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing to see them keep going a little longer. However The Usos seem to me like they’re where the titles are headed eventually, and that might just happen on Sunday.

The logical part of me says to pick The Bar to retain, but I’m going to go with my gut here and say The Usos are picking up the titles.

Becky Lynch(c) vs Charlotte Flair vs Asuka
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)
(TLC Match)

Decisions, decisions, all of them interesting.

First of all, this match is going to be absolutely incredible. I know I normally dunk on weapons stipulations, but in a Triple Threat match, the pace can keep going how it should while the big spots get set up, they tend to feel less contrived and these are arguably the three most talented women in all of WWE right now.

More importantly, I really don’t mind who wins. If Becky wins, then she continues her fantastic run as champion; if Charlotte wins, then Becky’s free to win the Rumble and Charlotte can rematch Asuka; and if Asuka wins, then it means she finally gets her time in the sun and the title she should’ve won at Wrestlemania this year.

However because of this, it makes it quite hard to actually make a prediction. I know Becky vs Ronda is the current rumour, but those can change very easily, especially before the Royal Rumble. Charlotte is one of those wrestlers that could quite easily win the title at any point and it’d make sense, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she won.

I’m not very confident in saying this, but I think Asuka is going to be the one to pull the title down from atop the ladder, and finally claim her prize.

Ronda Rousey(c) vs Nia Jax
(Raw Women’s Championship)

Another one I’m pretty in the middle on.

I feel pretty confident in saying that when Nia won this opportunity at Evoltuion, no-one thought it was going to be quite the saga that it has been so far. Firstly, Nia turned heel again, which I guess was to be expected but she’s turned so many times this year it doesn’t really feel like it matters. Then, with one swift punch she broke Becky’s face and robbed us of the Ronda vs Becky match we were all so desperate to see and became the single most hated wrestler on the face of the Earth.

So naturally, WWE did what WWE did best and fanned the flames, and made her the sole survivor of Team Raw, just to make sure that everyone hated her. I’d love to say that this was classic WWE, misreading their audience, but it really wasn’t. Genuinely hated heels are a rarity in the modern wrestling landscape, so I can’t really blame them for jumping on this chance when it presented itself.

Hopefully this match will be a fun one to watch, their encounter at Money in the Bank was really good so let’s hope that chemistry has stuck around all these months. Regardless of the story, this is Ronda Rousey, and she’s not losing that title until at least Wrestlemania, and probably will still hold onto it past then.

Braun Strowman vs Baron Corbin
(TLC Match)

There’s always one…

On pretty much every WWE PPV, there’s one match, where fans go crazy with speculation about all the twists and turns that could happen, and that’s no different on this show. People have been going crazy coming up with theories as to how this match might resolve itself.

No matter what happens, this match is going to be a short one; like, under a minute kind of short. People have been suggesting run-ins like Kurt Angle, Bray Wyatt, or Heath Slater, and while those would all be fun, I don’t think any of them are going to happen.

Corbin has already stated he’s going to win the match via forfeit and become permanent GM of Raw, so that is at least going to be teased, whether Strowman shows or not. Corbin will come out and tell the referee to start counting to ten to win the match, then one of two things will happen.

Either: at the very last second, just as the referee is about to count the ten, Strowman’s music hits, he hit Corbin with a single powerslam and that’s the end of that; OR, the referee counts to ten, Strowman doesn’t show up, Corbin becomes permanent Raw GM, and we’re all sad forever, take your pick.

As of writing this, I have no idea whether Strowman is cleared or not, so I’m going to lean-to the boring end of the spectrum and say Baron Corbin takes the boring win here, since, even if Strowman does show, there’s a chance Corbin could use heel bullshit to get his win.

Seth Rollins(c) vs Dean Ambrose
(Intercontiental Championship)

Oh please God, just let this be good.

While this hasn’t quite been the epic storyline that we’d all envisioned, it’s certainly been simmering quite nicely. They spun their wheels for a few weeks while we got Survivor Series out-of-the-way (and a little bit after that) then we were given a vague explaination about Seth Rollins’ ego being the reason Dean hates him.

It just seems like such a basic reason, there was so much more you could’ve done with it, you could’ve weaved a careful story about Dean having to emotionally deal with Roman’s illness. Or maybe suggest the idea that Dean only tolerated Seth because Roman liked him, so now with Roman gone, he can’t hold himself back. Even if you wanted to run with the whole “ego” thing, at least give some link back to when Seth originally betrayed The Shield so that this feels justified, and not like the writers didn’t know what to do with Roman gone. Despite all of that, there is a kernel of a good story in here, and if given a bit more time to grow, this could be something really good.

As long as this match is given enough time then I’m hopeful it’ll be one of the better matches of the night, these two have wrestled each other so many times over the past 4 years that we’re pretty much guaranteed a good match at the bare minimum.

When a story is just starting like this one, it can be hard to predict who gets the first victory, but given where this story feel it’s going, and the rumours of Seth vs Brock being the planned Wrestlemania match this year, I’m going to pick Dean Ambrose to capitalize on his new-found momentum and pick up the Intercontinetal Title.

Daniel Bryan(c) vs AJ Styles
(WWE Championship)

Just typing that feels good.

It’s weird how, even though we’ve already seen this match twice in the past two months, I’m still very excited to finally see it on a PPV. This whole “new Daniel Bryan” thing they’ve been running with is one of those things that would fall flat on its face with anyone else, but Daniel Bryan’s performance just makes it so entertaining to see.

If you’d ask me two months ago if a Daniel Bryan heel turn was a good idea, I never would’ve agreed with you in a million years, but goddamned if the Smackdown writing team haven’t proved me wrong. It goes without saying that this should be one of the best matches of the night (again, provided it’s given the time it needs), but I’m pretty doubtful we’ll see a clean finish.

One of the key points of Daniel Bryan’s heel turn has been the fans not deserving to see great matches, so it’s entirely possible that he’ll be deliberately trying to crap all over the match just to piss the fans off which, while effective, would be a shame.

Irrespective of any of that, Daniel Bryan is definitely going to walk out of this one with the win, no matter what he has to do. I’m not entirely sure what the endgame of this whole thing is, but my hope (and I can’t believe I’m saying this) is Bryan vs Cena at Wrestlemania, and a crooked win for Bryan would be a great way to build towards it.

And there you have it! Thank you very much for reading, if you want more opinions about wrestling and other nonsense, make sure to folow me on Twitter @10ryawoo; and make sure to come back next week for my review of the show!