Category: Predictions

WWE Elimination Chamber 2020: Predictions & Analysis

No rest for the wicked and this is WWE so…

Once again, the Saudi Arabia shows have a weird knock-on effect, because despite the fact that this happens EVERY TIME and we end up building to two PPVs right next to one another, WWE never learn their lesson and schedule their shows just a little bit further apart for once, do they?

As it stands, this is looking up to be a pretty inconsequential show. The only match that promises to have a direct effect on the Wrestlemania card is arguably the easiest to predict on the whole show and everything else is just wheel spinning. At the very least, I’m confident that at least a few of the matches will be good ones to watch, so at least it might not be a total waste of time.

Daniel Bryan vs Drew Gualk

Well, if it gets Gulak on Pay-Per-View, I suppose I can’t argue.

I’m not entirely certain what the point of this story is. Are we finally trying to get Gulak over as a serious competitor, or are we just reminding everyone that Daniel Bryan exists ahead of Wrestlemania? I know Bryan has reportedly been pushing for some of the guys lower down the totem pole to get some feature matches, so is this a part of that?

Regardless of the motivation behind it, the match should be brilliant, even if it only lasts 10 minutes or so. I stand firm in the belief that Gulak is the best technical wrestler WWE’s revived Cruiserweight division ever saw and I’ve made my feelings about Daniel Bryan very clear of the years, so these two technical masters meeting in the ring should be a real treat.

Given that it’s a fresh storyline, there’s a chance that some shenanigans will happen here in order to set something up for Wrestlemania, but I’m leaning more towards this being a stop-gap for something bigger that WWE has in store for Bryan, maybe an Intercontinental title match? Please? Either way, I’m pretty confident that Daniel Bryan is going to come away with the win on this one.

Aleister Black vs AJ Styles
(No Disqualification)

This is a bad idea.

Don’t get me wrong, I adore both of these wrestlers and I’m sure that given the chance they could put on a match of the year contender, but this is just such a bad time to have them clash like this and I really don’t see a positive outcome here. Styles has a match with The Undertaker on the horizon and needs to look good, but Black has barely had room to breathe on Raw and a loss here could totally destroy his credibility and start a long descent into Cedric Alexander territory.

I’m not even sure they’ll be given all that much of an opportunity to show their stuff in this match either. The no DQ stipulation likely means Black will be fighting off Gallows & Anderson the whole time and the match will be generally much slower than it needs to be in order to play to the strengths of these two.

For a winner, I’m picking Aleister Black, but it’s not going to be clean. I think the most likely scenario is that The Undertaker gets involved somehow, maybe physically, but it’s more likely that towards the end of the match, a gong will go off, which will distract Styles and let Black get the win. This whole thing isn’t an ideal scenario, but I think that’s the circumstance that lets both men get away with as little damage to their credibility as possible.

Andrade(c) vs Humberto Carrillo
(United States Championship)

Want a United States title opportunity? It’s easy! Just lose a match on Pay-Per-View and it’s yours!

I like Humberto Carrillo, I honestly do, but I really think it’d be a mistake to have him win the title here. Not only has Carrillo already lost to Andrade at Royal Rumble, but he also lost just over a week ago to Angel Garza, a wrestler who is much more deserving of this opportunity at the present time.

Hopefully, the match will be pretty good as long as it doesn’t get dumped on the pre-show. These two have proved before that they can work extremely well together and I have every faith in them that they’ll make the most of whatever time they get to put on a compelling contest. I’m not too sure on the winner, but Andrade retaining feels right to me, especially going into Wrestlemania, where I think it’s likely we’ll have some sort of multi-man affair, hopefully in ladder form.

The Street Profits(c) vs Seth Rollins & Murphy
(Raw Tag Team Championships)

Oh…I’ll be honest, I thought the Rollins & Murphy thing was going somewhere.

WWE have really done their job of compressing this feud into basically no time at all. I thought it was likely that we’d see this match again on this show, but I certainly didn’t expect The Street Profits to be walking in as champions. It’s nice that they’ve won the titles, but I’m not entirely sure it was the right move for the story, especially if they’re just going to drop the titles right back again.

As much as I think The Street Profits are great, the story and the momentum is with Rollins & Murphy right now. I know that he’s likely going to finally get his big singles match with Owens going into Wrestlemania, but I thought it would’ve been cool with Rollins & Murphy still had the titles during that time.

If Rollins weren’t about to be fighting Owens, then I’d pick him & Murphy to win, however, I think The Street Profits are going to slip away with the titles in this one. I’m not sure what they’re going to do with the belts and I have a horrible feeling that the titles are going to return to their status as the least important belts in the entire company, but at least this match will probably be a good one.

Braun Strowman(c) vs Shinsuke Nakamura & Sami Zayn & Cesaro
(Intercontinental Championship)
(3 on 1 Handicap)

Oh boy, time to make three of the best wrestlers on the planet look totally worthless.

From a story standpoint, I’ve mostly enjoyed this stuff with Nakamura & Zayn. It’s a bit weird how Cesaro had been thrown in with little explanation, but Zayn is easily one of the best managers we’ve seen in WWE for a long time and as for Nakamura, it’s just nice to see him on TV regularly for a change.

In terms of quality, I’m not sure which way this match will go. If it’s a bit of a clusterfuck with Cesaro, Zayn & Nakamura constantly moving in for the kill while Strowman desperately tries to fend them off from all angles, it could actually be a lot of fun and something we don’t see very often. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s going to be that interesting. I think what’s more likely is the trio use the numbers advantage to pummel Strowman for a while until he makes a comeback, destroys all three of them before probably pinning them all at once.

Speaking of, Braun Strowman is absolutely retaining his title here, not only has he not had any chance to do anything with the title yet, but it’s one of those situations where the odds have been stacked SO heavily against him if he didn’t win it’d seem like a gigantic anti-climax. While I’m not happy about having Nakamura, Zayn & Cesaro treated like chumps, if this is what we have to go through in order to get Strowman into a credible position for a great Wrestlemania match (hopefully against Daniel Bryan), then I think I’m willing to make that sacrifice.

The Miz & John Morrison(c) vs The New Day vs The Usos vs Heavy Machinery vs Dolph Ziggler & Bobby Roode vs Lucha House Party
(Smackdown Tag Tema Championships)
(Elimination Chamber)

I always think these tag team chamber matches are going to be confusing messes, but then they never are.

I’m actually quite excited to see how this one plays out, New Day, Usos and Niz & Morrison are all great in-ring tag teams and the other three teams are certainly nothing to turn your nose up at either. There are a nice few interlinking stories going into this one too. The Usos have been trying to get up in The New Day’s grill the past couple of weeks, while New Day seek revenge for Miz & Morrison stealing their titles. Add on top of that the surprisingly compelling stuff between Otis & Ziggler and we’ve got a recipe for a very entertaining match ahead of us. Oh, and Lucha House Party are also there I guess.

As entertaining as this should be, I don’t think there’s much argument to be made about the winner. The Miz & John Morrison only won the titles 9 days ago and they’ve still got so much that they can do with the belts going into Wrestlemania. It would make no sense if they lost the titles this soon, so I think they’re going to find a way to sneak of the chamber still champions.

Asuka vs Shayna Baszler vs Liv Morgan vs Ruby Riott vs Natalya vs Sarah Logan
(Winner faces Becky Lynch at Wrestlemania)
(Elimination Chamber)

Look, I know it was always going to be obvious, but it would’ve been nice if WWE had at least pretended someone other than Shayna stands a chance of winning this.

I don’t think many people will disagree with me when I say that this match’s only purpose is to show off how much of a beast Shayna Baszler is ahead of her Wrestlemania match with Becky. Hopefully, we’ll get a little bit of action between the three former Riott Squad members, but the spotlight here should be firmly on Shayna as she rips everyone apart.

In case you hadn’t already worked it out I think Shayna Baszler is going to win this one. As much as I love them, Riott, Morgan & logan just haven’t been built even nearly enough to have a featured Wrestlemania spot against WWE’s most popular star. Natalya & Asuka would both be legitimate contenders, however, they’ve already had big matches with Becky over the past year, so they’re out. Baszler is white-hot, has already started talking to Becky like she’s got the match and still had outstanding beef with Becky from Survivor Series, everything points to her and nothing will convince me otherwise.

So there you have! Thank you very much for taking the time to read these predictions, please, let me know what you think is going to happen on Sunday, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure to come back on Monday, where I’ll be recapping the show!

WWE Super ShowDown 2020: Predictions & Analysis

The problem with these Saudi shows happening twice a year is that I’m sort of running out of things to say about them. I will say the placement of this one is really weird. I’ve said plenty of times that I don’t think there should be a PPV between the Rumble and Mania, but to put one of the big “Wrestlemania-sized” shows in there? Seems a little bit redundant if you ask me.

As it stands, the card for this show actually looks pretty decent for the most part. I’m sure it’ll fall victim to the usual issues of these shows, but I’m going to maintain a cautious optimism about the quality of the show because…well for the sake of my own sanity to be perfectly honest.

Let’s get predicting, shall we?

Andrade vs Bobby Lashley vs AJ Styles vs Rey Mysterio vs Erick Rowan vs R-Truth
(Tuwaiq Trophy Gaunlet Match)

Jesus Christ, talk about pointless…

Seriously, what is the point? It’ll be mentioned for one, maybe two weeks after the fact (if that) and then we’ll all move on completely forgetting about it so very quickly. Couldn’t it have at least been for the US title or something instead of a totally pointless trophy? I looked up what Tuwaiq is and while I don’t understand the exact geological terms, it’s essentially a big canyon, it’s like having the “Grand Canyon” trophy, or the “Death Valley” trophy and while that second one actually sounds pretty awesome, my point still stands that this whole thing is pointless and stupid.

I’m not even sure the match will be all that interesting to watch either. If Andrade & Styles get some time in the ring together that should be pretty good and I imagine Rey & Andrade will also go on a bit of tear against each other, but I expect this to be more along the lines of the Tag Gauntlet match from Crown Jewel last year. A bunch of quick pins with little action between until someone inexplicably wins.

Speaking of winners, I’m not overly confident but given the rumours that a match with The Undertaker is on the horizon, I’m going with AJ Styles.

Roman Reigns vs King Corbin
(Steel Cage)

Oh, thank the lord! I thought we were going to get a break from this feud for five fucking seconds, you had me worried there WWE, good to know you’re still pushing on with this.

I made a big song and dance in the last entry about it being a pointless match, but when it comes to this one, I mean come on, who’s honestly still invested in this story? At least with their match at the Rumble, I could understand the desire to cap it off with Roman getting his win back so he could move on to bigger and better things, but at this point, what is there for anyone to gain from winning this match? If Roman wins, then it means basically nothing because he’s already beat Corbin several times over in various forms of matches and if Corbin wins, it’ll feel like a massive anti-climax and we’ll probably have to suffer through more of this bollocks until Elimination Chamber.

On top of that, it’s in a Steel Cage, which means it’s virtually guaranteed to be a snooze fest and an absolute cluster fuck with all kind of people needlessly getting involved. Roman Reigns is going to win, because if he doesn’t then I may sigh so hard that all of the gas in my body gets expelled at once and I’ll suffocate.

Seth Rollins & Murphy(c) vs The Street Profits
(Raw Tag Team Championships)

Well, there’s not going to be a great deal of tension in this one, but it should at least be fun.

When Rollins & Murphy first won the Raw tag titles, I was a bit sceptical. I thought it would’ve served AOP better to have the titles and I worried that it would continue the descent of the titles to be totally forgotten amongst a singles feud between Owens & Rollins, but actually, I think things have been going pretty well. Rollins is doing a great job of making his heel persona this time around feels different to what it was during his initial turn in 2014/15, he’s still got that slight cowardly edge, but it doesn’t dominate his character and it feels a lot more calculated. He’s surrounded himself with other tough guys, not because he doesn’t want to fight his own battles, but because it protects him from babyfaces like Owens getting one over on him every week, and most importantly, it’s actually working.

Compare this to Corbin’s alliance with Ziggler & Roode and you can see exactly why that doesn’t work. It’s partly because Roman is out-smarting them at every opportunity, but also it feels like there’s no cohesion between them as a unit. They’re not brothers in arms fighting for a common cause, they’re just three people who don’t hate each other at the moment. Looking back at Rollins, Murphy & AOP, it’s clear to me that there’s a lot more thought behind this and at least some semblance of a long-term goal, so I’m quite happy with how things have been going.

…what was I here to talk about again? Oh yeah, the match. Not really much to say if I’m honest, Seth Rollins & Murphy are definitely winning and it wouldn’t surprise me if it ended up being a glorified squash. That said, if Street Profits are actually given a chance to make this competitive, then I think it could easily be a match of the night contender; fingers crossed, I guess.

The New Day(c) vs The Miz & John Morrison
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

Don’t get me wrong, I like John Morrison, but was bringing him back just for this really worth it? I understand that there isn’t exactly much room for him in the singles division at the moment, but when I envision John Morrison’s return, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.

I’ll admit though, I’ve enjoyed watching his reunion with The Miz and it’s clear there’s still some great chemistry between them. Whether that chemistry extends to the ring remains to be seen, but I have confidence that these guys will pull something great out of the bag. As it stands, I don’t think there’s a better team for them to go against right now than The New Day. From a character perspective, they have that comedic edge that Miz & Morrison can bounce off of so well and when it comes to the ring, they’re easily the best in WWE right now, so a good-to-great match is all but guaranteed.

When it comes to picking a winner, I’m not as confident as I probably should be, but I’m going with The Miz & John Morrison to pick up the titles. Morrison losing his first big opportunity following his return would make the whole thing feel extremely pointless and it’s not like The New Day have anything to lose right now and in fact, having them chasing the titles going into Mania might make for a more compelling story.

Bayley(c) vs Naomi
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)

After Crown Jewel last year where Saudi Arabia finally allowed a women’s wrestling match to take place in their country, I can only hope that they’re going to slowly but surely loosen up the restrictions on what these women can do in the ring. Nevermind the fact that WWE are congratulating Saudia Arabia for doing this, even though they’re still a number of centuries behind the rest of the world, I’m hoping that this will actually get to be a match, rather than an over-glorified training routine.

Don’t get me wrong, the match between Evans & Natalya at Crown Jewel was absolutely an important and necessary first step, but you can’t deny that they wrestled an extremely safe, by-the-book and boring match that was entirely designed to be as inoffensive as humanly possible. If this happens here it would be an incredible disservice to these two great performers who I think, given the chance could put on a really great match.

I have absolutely no idea what the plans are for the Smackdown Women’s Championship at Wrestlemania (and if the dirt sheets are to be believed, neither do WWE) but I think it would make the most sense to have Bayley go in as champion. I know Naomi has the heat of the return, but there’s been basically nothing in the way of build to this match, so a Naomi win would seem very strange and out of nowhere.

Brock Lesnar(c) vs Ricochet
(WWE Championship)

You know that scene from the first Avenger’s film where The Hulk smashes Loki into the floor over and over? Yeah, that. That’s what’s going to happen.

I’d love to live in a fantasy world where Ricochet gets a chance to look competitive against Brock and essentially spends 10 minutes flipping circles around the Beast, but let’s be real, it’s just not happening. This match isn’t going to last very long and it’s going to consist of Ricochet’s internal organs being turned to paste before Brock Lesnar walks out with his title.

The Fiend Bray Wyatt(c) vs Goldberg
(Universal Championship)

No! Not again. Please don’t do this to us again.

This match is in a weird position because my perspective on whether or not it’s a good idea depends entirely on the outcome. If this is a chance for The Fiend to get a really strong win before facing off with Roman at Wrestlemania, then I think it’s fantastic and will benefit The Fiend even past him inevitably losing his title to Roman at Mania. However…if the result of this is Goldberg carrying the title in Wrestlemania, then I’m absolutely against it.

I actually think Goldberg vs Roman could be a pretty fun match for Wrestlemania, but it’s not worth sacrificing everything that has been built up around The Fiend for. I’ve said this so much over the past 8ish months, but The Fiend is something unique and special and has all the potential in the world to go down as one of the all-time great gimmicks in wrestling, but it won’t happen if he’s unceremoniously sacrificed to Goldberg here.

As for match quality, it could go either way. I don’t think it’ll be very long, but we’ve seen a whole host of short but good Goldberg matches since his 2016 return. Maybe it’s just denial, but I refuse to accept the fact that Goldberg could be Universal Champion TWICE in the space of 4 years in the modern era. I’m going with what I believe must happen, which is The Fiend Bray Wyatt retaining.

And there you have it! Thank you very much for reading these predictions, be sure to leave your own predictions either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure to come back here Friday, where I’ll be running down all of the matches

 

NXT Takeover: Portland: Predictions & Analysis

It’s been far too long since we’ve had one of these. I know World’s Collide happened and it was a very good show, but it just didn’t have the same feel or level of pure quality that a good old fashioned NXT Takeover event does. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but something about that show just didn’t quite click for me. Regardless, we’ve got this to get excited about, so let’s not spend too much time complaining.

Tegan Nox vs Dakota Kai
(Street Fight)

If I’m remembering correctly then I’m pretty certain this is the first time in quite a while that an NXT Takeover event has had more than one women’s match on the show. For a while, this was understandable, as there wasn’t much in the way of talent depth, but now looking at NXT Women’s division, the whole damn show could be women’s matches and it would be brilliant.

This match, in particular, has got me quite excited. I don’t really know much about Kai & Nox, but I’ve been getting quite invested in them since their feud began at Wargames. Now Shayna Baszler seems to be bowing out of NXT, there’s a lot of room up at the top for heels in the women’s division and I think Dakota Kai is going to be a great fit for that role. As for Tegan Nox, I just hope that NXT management has learnt from the mistakes they made with Io Shirai and keep Nox going as a believable face because as much as I’ve like Io since her heel turn, it very much felt like a move born out of desperation.

When it comes to picking a winner, this is a simple situation of picking who I think has the most to gain from the win right now, which is easily Dakota Kai. Although her heel turn was a good few months ago now, this is the first major match she’s had since it happened and it would be a bit of disaster for her to start taking major losses this early and there’s all the potential in the world of Tegan Nox to have a Gargano-Esque redemption story following a loss or two in the coming months.

Johnny Gargano vs Finn Balor

Out of all the matches on this show, I think this one has had the best build.

It was disappointing that we had to wait a couple of months longer than we expected to get this match thanks to Gargano’s injury, but they were able to recover the story well and I think a great deal of intensity has been added to the feud thanks to Balor’s new shift in character and Gargano’s hunger to re-prove himself. The history of Balor in NXT has been played into it, but what I think is most surprising is how starkly different Balor’s character is this time around, he truly feels like a different person to the one we’ve seen on Raw & Smackdown for the past few years.

Naturally, this match should be brilliant. While I’ve never been blown away by a Finn Balor match, I always find them very enjoyable and when he’s matching up with a wrestler like Gargano, I’m certain we’ve got a potential match of the year on our hands.

It’s a tough call as to who will win this one. Balor needs a solid win to cement his return, otherwise, he could quickly fall back into old routines. Though at the same time, I think Gargano is going to be a major part of major storylines going into Wrestlemania season (I’ll talk more on that in a little bit) and he really needs a big win after spending the past year having a bit of an underwhelming time. I’m picking Johnny Gargano because, unlike Balor, I actually have a pretty clear picture in my mind of what I think the next couple of months are going to look like for him and it requires a win here.

The Undisputed Era(c) vs Pete Dunne & Matt Riddle
(NXT Tag Team Championships)

It seems like such a weird thing to say given the men involved, but I’m really not feeling this match. Don’t get me wrong, I think Fish & O’Reilly are a fantastic tag team and both Dunne & Riddle are among my favourite singles guys in WWE right now, but I just don’t really buy them as a tag team. Unfortunately, there’s not much else they can be doing right now and if the Dusty Rhodes Classic achieved anything, it was highlighting the fact that NXT US has literally only one decent tag team in their ranks at the moment, so it was kind of necessary.

I’m sure this will be a brilliant match, but after so many years of the NXT Tag Team division being full of cohesive teams that felt like natural partners, to have two guys whose characters don’t align in the slightest (and not even in an “opposites attract” sort of way) seems like such a letdown.

Weirdly though, I kind of think they might win. It seems like Undisputed Era’s reign at the top of NXT is starting to crumble, so taking those titles away from them might be the direction they’re going in right now, not to mention that if Undisputed Era retains, then who have they got left to fight? Unless we’re just going to keep bringing in NXT UK teams for them to fight, the only direction we can go at this stage is rehashing old matches. The other possibility is that Riddle turns on Dunne, in order to inject some life into Riddle’s quickly stagnating character, not to mention there’s a bit of a lack of heels at the top of NXT right now thanks to Undisputed Era being the be-all and end-all of the division.

There are compelling arguments for both scenarios and I honestly can’t say that I think either one is more likely than the other, so I’m instead going to go with what I want to happen and pick The Undisputed Era to retain.

Keith Lee(c) vs Dominic Dijakovic
(North American Championship)

For the longest time, I was not a fan of Dijakovic he seemed to me like just another hoss that didn’t bring much to the ring other than a fairly impressive physique. Over the last few months, those assumptions I made of him have been utterly destroyed as he’s put on some great matches with wrestlers of all shapes and sizes.

Combine a guy like Dojakovic with someone like Keith Lee who, I don’t think it’s much of an exaggeration to say, has it all. He was criminally underused for the longest time in NXT and Survivor Series finally woke everyone (myself included) up to the fact that he’s an absolute beast and a brilliant wrestler that deserves the world. Now Lee has himself a championship, I can’t think of a better way than to show off just how good he can be than by putting up against one of his best opponents in NXT right now.

These two have fought several times before and it’s always been great stuff, their chemistry is impeccable and they’re always able to add something new to their matches so that it doesn’t feel like they’re stepping over old ground. Now they’ve finally been given the opportunity to put it all on a much bigger stage, I can’t imagine they’ll waste it. I’m expecting big things from this one, both from a literal and metaphorical standpoint.

That said, I think it’s quite easy to pick Keith Lee as the winner here. He’s only just won the title and he’s got all the momentum in the world right now, so losing the title like this would be an absolutely terrible move. Admittedly Dijakovic does need a big win to fully legitimize him, but that win can’t be at the expense of Lee.

Rhea Ripley(c) vs Bianca Belair
(NXT Women’s Championship)

When this match was first announced, I really wasn’t interested. I adore Rhea Ripley and thought her title match against Baszler was one of the best matches of last year, but this felt like such a placeholder match it’s believable. I mean, I still stand by that a little bit, there’s no way Bianca’s winning this match, but the build has been exciting enough so that I am actually interested in seeing the match play out now.

A large chunk of this switch in opinion was Belair’s great performance in the Royal Rumble a few weeks ago, she went on an absolute tear and reminded me that she is actually just as good a talent as any other wrestler in the NXT women’s division at the moment. There was also that great promo on NXT TV last week where she inserted herself in-between Charlotte & Rhea’s bickering and reminded everyone that, despite Charlotte’s insistence that she wasn’t a threat, she’s could easily take that title from Ripley and be staring Charlotte down at Wrestlemania soon.

That said, there’s absolutely no situation in which she takes the title away from Ripley on Sunday. Ripley is absolutely the biggest star in NXT right now, she’s only just won the title and now she’s got a Wrestlemania match against Charlotte Flair looming in a couple of months. Rhea Ripley is keeping that title around her waist and nothing anyone says will convince me otherwise.

Adam Cole(c) vs Tommaso Ciampa
(NXT Championship)

Ooooh boy, this is gonna be a good one. Ever since Ciampa returned I have been gagging to see this match, so now it’s finally happening, I am sufficiently excited.

Cole has been a fantastic champion during his reign, all of his matches have been must-watch and this will absolutely be no exception. WarGames proved that Ciampa hasn’t lost a beat during his time away from the ring so this match should do nothing but reaffirm his status as the best of the best. The build to this match has been great too, it’s clear that Cole and The Undisputed Era can sense that Ciampa might spell the end of the Golden Prophecy so they’re attacking with all their might to try and beat him down before the match and hopefully that’ll carry over into the match itself too.

While I’m not entirely confident in this pick, I feel fairly certain Tommaso Ciampa is going to pick up the win here for two major reasons. For one thing, it feels like the culmination of his return & redemption story to sit atop the NXT throne once again, but also, with an NXT Women’s title match already being planned for Wrestlemania, I think it’s likely that we’ll see the men’s title get the same honour and quite simply there is no bigger NXT Title match for Wrestlemania than us finally getting the finale in the Ciampa vs Gargano saga, one year after the match was cruelly taken away from us. I think seeing that match at Wrestlemania would mean so much to both guys and everyone like me who’s seen the whole story unfold from the beginning and in order for that to happen, Ciampa has to take the win here.

WWE Royal Rumble 2020: Predictions & Analysis

Rejoice one and all! It’s Royal Rumble time again!

I don’t think it would be surprising for me to say that the Royal Rumble is perhaps my favourite Pay-Per-View of the year. The nature of the stipulation means that it’s always a really fun match to watch, even when it’s not actually all that good in terms of quality. It also means we’re going to finally start to get an idea of where the company is headed for Wrestlemania this year, as it seems management is leaving their decisions a lot later than usual this year.

As it stands, I’ve not been following the world of wrestling as closely as I normally do this past month; and that goes double for Raw & Smackdown. I don’t know whether it’s just the hecticness that comes with restarting everything following the holiday season, but either way, I’ve done my best to catch myself up so I can get predicting!

Shorty G vs Sheamus

It’s been a little while since his return now and I still can’t work out if I’m excited to see Sheamus or not.

I thought he was absolutely fantastic with Cesaro as one half of The Bar and absence does make the heart grow fonder, but I’ve never really cared for him as a singles star, especially when he’s running through guys I enjoy watching more, which is unfortunately where I think this one is going.

I think this match has the potential to be a fun one though, Gable tends to have great chemistry with bigger guys and as long as he’s not booked to be totally annihilated by Sheamus here, he should look pretty impressive in defeat. I think I’ve made it pretty clear already, but I’m picking Sheamus to win here. Sheamus has just returned and looks to be starting out a tear, it’s possible that Shorty G could sneak a rollup win and enrage Sheamus, but that just seems like taking the long way round to the same destination.

Andrade(c) vs Humberto Carrillo
(United States Championship)

As was expected when Lesnar moved over to Raw, the United States title has suddenly become a much more heavily featured title on the red brand, however, I can’t say I’m thrilled by this being the match that makes it onto Pay-Per-View.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Humberto Carrillo, but we saw him unsuccessfully fight Styles for the title so recently that I don’t feel like he’s built up enough credibility in order to be challenging for the title again and I highly doubt he’ll be winning it. I’m confident it’ll be a fairly enjoyable watch, since these are two guys that have similar styles, unfortunately, I think it’s probably going to land on the pre-show, meaning it likely won’t get the time it needs to be properly special.

Either way, Andrade is leaving with the title in tow, he just had a big (but rather condensed) feud for it with Mysterio and I think doing a quick switch over to Carrillo would squander this new-found credibility Andrade has built up for himself; and ultimately, I value Andrade’s credibility more than I do Carrillo’s at this point.

Roman Reigns vs King Corbin
(Falls Count Anywhere)

Oh yeah, this feud.

After TLC gave us exactly the crap we expected, I can’t say I’m all that optimistic about this match’s prospects. With The Usos recent return and Reigns & Corbin’s entries in the Royal Rumble match later in the night, I would’ve preferred to see some sort of 6-man tag match instead of another one on one affair. That said, if TV this month is anything to go by, it’s likely this will devolve into another clusterfuck anyway.

After Corbin got the win last month, I’d like to say picking Reigns to win here was an easy decision, but given that Reigns is one of the top contenders to win the Rumble this year, WWE might want to cast doubt on his ability to compete before appearing in the match; not to mention, if anyone’s going to inexplicably win for no real reason, it’s King Corbin. I’m sticking to my guns though and saying Roman Reigns picks up the win here, perhaps with a post-match beatdown in order to cast that doubt I was talking about.

Bayley(c) vs Lacey Evans
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)

Wait really? A heel vs heel ma- wait, what do you mean Lacey Evans is a face now, that can’t be right…*furiously checks notes* Well I’ll be…

Having watched a lot of Lacey’s efforts as a face, I can’t say I’m all that convinced and neither are the crowds. Bayley & Sasha have done as good a job as they can to get heat by going after Lacey’s daughter, but I just don’t have any motivation to care about Lacey after spending most of the year as a heel who always loses and turning face without anyone even realising it for a couple of weeks.

Lacey’s definitely improved as a performer since her matches with Becky earlier in the year, but I’m still not overly confident this match is going to be all that great. Bayley’s title matches always tend to be the ones that get cut short and on a PPV like the Rumble, where we’ve got to squeeze in two separate hour-long matches, I don’t think this one is going to get the time it really needs to be more than mediocre.

As for a winner, it’s gonna be Bayley, I’d say this was an easy pick regardless because I don’t see Lacey Evans picking up a title this close to Wrestlemania. Additionally, there’s the fact to consider that Lacey beat Bayley clean on Smackdown in a non-title match and wrestling logic dictates there’s absolutely no way she’s winning on Sunday.

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

Ok, so apparently Royal Rumble 2020, just copied Royal Rumble 2019’s homework.

Not that I’m complaining though, this match was brilliant last year and I expect it to be brilliant this year too. I also think there’s a much better story going into the match this year, the whole thread of Asuka being the one person Becky’s never beat is something I wasn’t expecting to come up but they’ve used it to good effect and manages to make Becky seem like an underdog, which is something I haven’t felt about her since this time last year.

Unfortunately, the outcome of this match is a lot more predictable than last year, since it’s pretty clear that whatever the planned match is for Wrestlemania, it involved Becky Lynch going in as champion. As I said, I’m sure this match will be great and give us that reminder of why we all route so hard for Asuka to succeed, but I would be very surprised if Lynch didn’t get her win back in this one.

The Fiend Bray Wyatt(c) vs Daniel Bryan
(Universal Championship)
(Strap Match)

Oh, so Royal Rumble 2020 also copied Royal Rumble 2014’s homework? I guess there are worse events to copy.

While I enjoyed the storytelling aspect of their Survivor Series match, I found the action itself to be a bit disappointing. I know now that it was necessary to tell this story to its full potential, but it felt quite one-sided and boring until The Fiend suddenly won out of nowhere. However, now that the story has been told, I’m confident this match will be different from the previous one.

In the past month, Daniel Bryan has once again been able to evolve his character even further than he did in 2018 and despite being the underdog babyface again, he feels like a very different person to the one that faced off against Wyatt before, both in 2014 and from a couple of months ago. As such, I’m hoping that this match will be a lot more competitive, creating a feeling of two equals competing, instead of one man kicking ass until he suddenly gets murdered.

A strap match is a bit of a weird wrinkle to add to the feud. I get why thematically it makes sense, but it still feels a bit out of nowhere and I can’t help but feel like it will hamper both men’s ability to person at their best. I know there’s plenty that can still be done with the formula, but it’s one of those matches where pretty much every spot needs to involve the strap in some way because WWE thinks we’re idiots.

That said, I don’t think the outcome is going to be any different from the previous two times we saw this match. The Fiend is still easily the most popular male wrestler in WWE right now and for him to be defeated here would feel like a huge anti-climax to its story. The match might be a lot closer than last time, but the outcome will be the same, with The Fiend Bray Wyatt holding the Universal Championship aloft.

Women’s Royal Rumble

This is the first women’s Rumble without a clear cut story going into it. With Asuka’s win, it was pretty obvious to most people that she was going to win and last year, although we weren’t sure whether it would actually BE Becky, we knew that story would be a huge factor in the winner of the match. This year though, there’s no such speculation to be found and it’s a bit of an open field in regards to who could win.

Since it would be a waste of everyone’s time for me to rundown all 30 entrants, I’m going to cover the 4 or 5 names that are currently being thrown around the IWC as potential winners and comment on what I think of their chances.

Sasha Banks – One of the longest standing rumours for Wrestlemania matches this year has been a 4-way match between all of the 4 horsewomen, which is something I definitely want to soo and Sasha winning the Rumble would certainly get us on that road. However, given how Sasha has been booked since her return, I’m not sure it would work, Sasha could easily go after Becky, with Bayley backing her up, but given that Charlotte is currently a face, I can’t see how she’d force her way into the match, so I’m saying no to Sasha winning.

Ronda Rousey – This one is pretty unlikely, but more unlikely things have happened in Royal Rumbles before. Ever since she left last April, people have been trying to anticipate when Rousey will return to get her rematch with Becky and this seems as good of a place as any. Given what Rousey has been saying in recent interviews about trying to organise a work/family balance it seems like she’s still in a stage of working out what she wants to do, so I think it’s going to be at least another 6 months or so before we see her back in WWE, but you never know…

Becky Lynch OR Bayley – Ok, this one is actually just me throwing my own theory out there, but hey, why not? Becky has all the motivation in the world to want to go after Bayley’s Smackdown women’s title, since Becky never got her rematch when Charlotte took the title from her in May, not to mention Bayley attacked Becky a few months ago when she officially turned heel. As for Bayley, it makes all the sense in the world for her to try and go for the double gold in order to prove she’s just as good of a champion as Becky, that was the whole theme of their Survivor Series feud.

Out of all of the candidates I’m discussing, this is the one I think is the least likely, but I’d certainly be excited if it happened.

Shayna Baszler – This is the most popular theory currently going around and if we’re speaking purely in terms of what I want to happen, I’m fully behind it. Baszler proved that she’s a big deal at Survivor Series and it’s clear that she and Becky still have unfinished business from that match. In addition to this, Baszler is a ready-made star from her run in NXT and this would launch her right into the main event scene.

Charlotte Flair –It’s going to be this one isn’t it? I don’t think many people will disagree with me that Charlotte Flair is bound to win a Royal Rumble at some point in her career, so why not this year? If the horsewomen 4 way is going to be the Mania match, then I think Charlotte winning the Rumble is the best way to go about setting it up. Have Charlotte go after Becky, only for Bayley and Sasha to heelishly get themselves involved, or something along those lines.

I really hope that Shayna is the one to win, but I don’t have the confidence to pick her, so I’m choosing the safe option and picking Charlotte Flair to win her first Royal Rumble.

Men’s Royal Rumble

My view on this match is much the opposite to the women’s Rumble because as much as there are a couple of people with an outside chance, I honestly think there’s only one real candidate to win this match, still, let’s discuss some others anyway.

Kevin Owens – While I think the chances of Owens winning this match are basically zero, I think it would be the most interesting person to win. Lesnar vs Owens is a money match and you’ve already got a match with Rollins lined up so that he doesn’t have to sit around a twiddle his thumbs because Lesnar refuses to do the February Pay-Per-View. It’s a massive shot in the dark, but if I had to pick who I wanted to win, Owens is my guy.

Seth Rollins – Pretty much just the flipside of the Owens argument, things going into Mania would look pretty similar, only with Rollins coming out victorious instead of Owens. I know we’ve already seen Lesnar vs Rollins twice, with Rollins winning both times, but if the dirt sheets are to be believed, WWE still doesn’t have much of an idea as who Lesnar’s opponent is going to be, so it’s all still up in the air as far as I’m concerned.

Cain Velasquez – Unfortunately, I think his match against Lesnar at Crown Jewel did some irreversible damage to Velasquez, at least in the short term, because I honestly don’t see him as any kind of threat. However, this is WWE and it wouldn’t surprise me if a full-length Lesnar vs Velasquez match ended up being the Wrestlemania plan and having a cross-over star, like Velasquez winning the Royal Rumble, would certainly make some headlines.

Brock Lesnar – Yeah, like Lesnar’s going to work a full hour. As he’s the WWE Champion, it would be just a tad counterproductive for him to win the Rumble, unless of course Lesnar vs The Fiend is what they have in mind, which I don’t think would be all that good of an idea. The general consensus from the IWC is that Lesnar is just in this match to set up a potential Mania match via whoever eliminates him from the match, which is a consensus that I agree with, there’s just no rationale for him winning.

Roman Reigns – It’s gotta be Reigns, right? What else is there for him to at Mania? The Fiend vs Reigns is a match that’s been rumoured since about September and it makes the most sense from a story perspective. Reigns is really the only face on Smackdown that’s higher up the totem pole that Daniel Bryan, so having The Fiend face anyone else would seem like an anti-climax. Not to mention, Reigns hasn’t even sniffed the world title scene since his triumphant return from his leukaemia in February, so I think it would be a great story to tell.

As for how the fans will react, it’s honestly hard to tell. Personally, I’ll be cheering if he wins, but the wrestling fan-base is a fickle one, so even if they’ve been pretty consistently cheering Roman Reigns since his return, they may suddenly turn on him if he’s going for a world title. I hope that doesn’t happen though because I think Reigns winning is the right move in the long-term.

So there you have it, those are my predictions for WWE’s Royal Rumble 2020! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this, please feel free to let me know what you think is going to happen on Sunday, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure to come back this time next week, where I’ll be running down my rankings of Doctor Who Series 5! (For real this time, I promise).

WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs: Predictions & Analysis

Wow, I’m glad Survivor Series had lots of longterm consequences that weren’t forgotten after a week of programming.

I don’t know if it’s just because it’s the end of the year and I’m tired, or if WWE programming has really just been this bad over the past month, but I’m not looking forward to TLC at all. Looking through the card, there are a few matches that I’m hopeful would be good, but when looking at the storylines building up to them, I can’t help but feel apathetic towards all of them, none of the stories have been interesting and I just don’t care about the outcome for most of these matches.

Still, that doesn’t mean I don’t have opinions on them, so let’s get predicting.

The Viking Raiders(c) vs TBD
(Raw Tag Team Championships)

So let me get this straight, WWE decided to do a segment on Raw where The Viking Raiders issued an open challenge…in order to build to segment on Sunday where The Viking Raiders issue an open challenge. *sigh* fine.

There’s a couple of possibilities here, firstly is that this lands on the pre-show, in which case it’ll probably The Street Profits again and they’ll lose again in a slightly more competitive match than we saw on Monday. If it’s not on the pre-show, then I think it’ll be one of two teams. Either it’ll be the boring option in The OC, since The OC beat The Viking Raiders at Crown Jewel, in a decision that has only become more baffling given how The Viking Raiders have been treated since then.

The much more exciting option is that we see a return for The Usos, which is something I’ve been wanting for a while now because they’re just what the Raw Tag Division needs to spice things up because Viking Raiders have been spinning their wheels for a while now. If it’s The OC, then I’m expecting The Viking Raiders to retain, however, my official prediction is that it will be The Usos to answer the call and they’ll win the titles to boot.

Aleister Black vs Buddy Murphey

So are they actually planning to do something with Aleister Black now? Or is this just like it was in June when he had a pointless match so we didn’t all forget he existed?

I love both of these competitors and Black especially, but given how much build Black has had behind him this year, I can’t help but feel like a match like this with no build behind it is an absolute waste. If you want people to react to the guy, then I’d say keeping him off of TV until there’s something meaningful for him to do is the best idea. The audience aren’t idiots, we’re not going to suddenly forget who he is, he had a Wrestlemania match this year for Christ’s sake. If he was just saved until they were ready to put him in a program with someone like Orton or Styles then the reaction to him finally showing up and kicking ass would be huge.

That aside, this match will be great. Both Black and Murphey can go a mile-a-minute when they want to and I’m sure that both of them will be eager to get a big reaction here. I’m pretty confident Aleister Black is going to get the win though, because quite frankly if he doesn’t, they may as well just release the guy now and stop wasting everyone’s time.

The New Day(c) vs The Revival
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)
(Ladder)

I think it says a lot that this match, a match between two of the best tag teams in the world, is one that I just don’t care about.

Putting aside the fact that we’ve already seen it a bunch of times this quarter, this whole thing has had basically no build and The Revival, along with WWE’s Tag Division as a whole, has been treated like a joke and an afterthought for so long, that I just don’t have any reason to care. Even with The New Day, although I absolutely love them and think they’re amazing wrestlers, they’ve been the “default” setting for the Smackdown Tag Team Championships for so long now that I don’t think there’s anything more they can do in the division that isn’t retreading old ground. So I’m left in a situation where either The Revival win and the tag titles go back to being treated like they’re nothing, or The New Day win and the boring status quo remains.

Like I said, as far as tag team wrestlers go, there are few that can equal these two teams, so I’m sure the match will be a great watch provided they get enough time and who knows, maybe this will be where tag team wrestling in WWE starts to turn around and I’ll be proven wrong, I doubt it though.

Oh, and The New Day are going to win.

Rusev vs Bobby Lashley
(Tables)

Well…this storyline has been a bit all over the place.

First of all, this feels a lot like McMahon is trying his damndest to get revenge for 2015 when they originally tried to do a storyline where Rusev & Lana broke up, but they ruined it by having the audacity to get married in real life.

As a whole, this storyline hasn’t been great. There were a couple of weeks in the middle where things were ok, as the focal point was on the physicality between Rusev & Lashley, but pretty much any segment that relied on Lana’s talking ability was just plain awful and, for a married couple, she has surprisingly little acting chemistry with Rusev. In addition to this, Lashley has felt entirely unimportant to the story outside of giving Rusev someone to beat up, because he can’t beat up Lana.

Unfortunately, I don’t think this storyline is over just yet, Tables matches are prime contenders for screwy finishes and I’m fully expecting Lana to get involved and somehow contribute to sending Rusev through a table, handing Bobby Lashley the win and we can keep this whole stupid thing going into the Royal Rumble next month.

Roman Reigns vs King Corbin
(Tables, Ladders & Chairs)

So there have undoubtedly been a lot of bad storylines this month, but I’ve got to say that this is the worst of the lot.

For one thing, it involves a King gimmick, which have been done to death and quite frankly it’s just a half-assed excuse to give Corbin an extra shread of credibility. The thing with Corbin is that he’s been doing the same stuff for so long that I honestly just don’t care about anything he has to say or do, I don’t hate him, the stuff he says doesn’t generate any heat with me, it’s just pure apathy.

On top of this, Corbin’s style is one that Reigns doesn’t typically mesh well with as it generally makes for a pretty generic affair where Corbin “wears him down” with 10 solid minutes of rest-holds until Reigns suddenly comes flying out with a burst of exciting offence for a win. Unfortunately, this match was the one that got the TLC stipulation, so it’s going to be way too long, very slow and probably quite boring outside of one or two big spots.

If this were any other time of year, I’d be tempted to say that WWE were going to hand Corbin the win for shits and giggles, but we’re coming up to the Royal Rumble and in my mind, Roman Reigns is the main contender to win it right now, so he needs a solid and decisive win here.

Bray Wyatt vs The Miz

After Bryan lost clean to Wyatt at Survivor Series I was interested to see how they’d justify continuing the whole story, but I’ve got to say, this whole build has been great.

Removing Daniel Bryan in the way they did made the whole thing feel incredibly creepy and the way Miz has stepped in to stand up to Bray has finally helped legitimize The Miz as a face. I don’t think it’s any measure of a surprise when you consider how great these two guys are on the mic, but I’ve found each of their segments on Smackdown throughout this month to be really compelling, with the segment on last night’s episode, in particular, being fantastic.

I think having regular Bray Wyatt facing off against The Miz is an interesting twist and it opens up a world of possibilities for things that could happen, both in this match and with The Fiend in general going forward. I think it could be interesting if Daniel Bryan showed up in some capacity during this match, maybe The Fiend could appear on the screen, torturing Bryan backstage, causing The Miz to abandon the match and get beat-up.

I’m really interested to see what’s going to happen with this one, but I don’t have any doubt that Bray Wyatt is going to be the winner, he’s the Universal Champion after all, even if this isn’t a title match.

The Kabuki Warriors(c) vs Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair
(Women’s Tag Team Championships)
(Tables, Ladders & Chairs)

Apparently, TLC is the one time of year when Asuka gets treated like a real wrestler.

This is one match that I have no doubt will be great to watch, as it’s essentially just the match we had between Becky, Charlotte & Asuka last year, only with Kairi Sane involved, thus making it ten times better. I’m sure the tag team format will allow for a huge variety of spots and action to take place and hopefully, there’ll be a nice bit of drama to spice things up too.

The interesting part comes from the fact that this whole thing feels like it’s leading to some sort of twist. I don’t know what that twist could possibly be, but I’ve just got this gut feeling that there’s no way this can just be a straight forward match for the titles. In terms of what I want it to be, I want it to be Shayna Baszler, although I’m not sure how likely that is given that her title match with Rhea Ripley is less than a week away. Maybe it will be as simple as Charlotte turning on Becky, hell, maybe Becky will turn on Charlotte, although that will probably lead to a repeat of Summerslam 2018.

Either way, I highly doubt Becky & Charlotte are walking away with the tag titles. Mostly because it would just make the titles worthless props in a more important singles feud, much like the Raw tag titles were with Seth & Braun earlier in the year. I don’t know what kind of shenanigans are going to happen in this match, but the result is going to be The Kabuki Warriors walking away with their championships in tow.

And those are my predictions! Thank you very much fort aking the time to read this post, let me know what you think is going to happen, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure you check back here on Monday for my review of the show!