I think it’s safe to say that this has been the longest 3 weeks in wrestling history. Seriously, Clash of Champions feels like it was months ago by this point, with NXT’s move to the USA Network, Smackdown’s move to FOX and AEW Dynamite’s debut on TNT so much has happened in the world of wrestling in such a tiny space of time that this show seems like the biggest afterthought of the lot.
I mean seriously, we only have four matches announced for the show, meanwhile, WWE have decided to focus on booking matches for the inevitable trainwreck that will be Crown Jewel at the end of the month. What blow my mind is that the two biggest matches on this card seem like really big deals in the world of WWE and yet management are treating it like it barely matters.
Still, let’s go through what matches have been announced (as I expect a handful to be added last minute) and see if we can’t predict the winners.
Daniel Bryan & Roman Reigns vs Luke Harper & Erick Rowan
There were lots of potential outcomes when this weird story of Roman Reigns being attacked by a mystery assailant began a couple of months ago, but I don’t think any of us would’ve predicted that “a big push for Erick Rowan” would be what we ended up with, and I’m including WWE’s writers in that statement. As I mentioned in my Clash of Champions review, I’m happy to see Harper back on TV, but I hate that he’s been paired up with Rowan for the hundredth time and I can’t help but feel like this isn’t going to last very long at all.
That said, I actually think this match will be a fun one to watch. Roman Reigns carried a tag match featuring Shane McMahon and an ageing Undertaker to a good quality, so I can only imagine what we’ll get when Reigns is in there with the best wrestler in the world, the most underrated wrestler in WWE and Erick Rowan. This should be quite the chaotic match which, as I constantly say, is the perfect pace for a tag team match.
As for a winner, there are a lot of aspects at play here that make it quite difficult to pick with any sort of confidence. First off, you’ve got the fact that Luke Harper’s just returned, which typically means he needs a win here to look strong, but we know all too well that Vince despises him for basically no reason whatsoever, so that could very well be off the table. It would be nice to see Rowan carry on the momentum he got from beating Reigns but I just don’t think it’s going to happen, not to mention the fact that this feud had been going on for months with almost nothing in the way of face victories, so I’m going with Daniel Bryan & Roman Reigns.
Bayley(c) vs Charlotte Flair
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)
I’m not entirely sure whether or not I’m happy about the way Bayley’s been handled in the past couple of months. She’s been getting storylines that are actually about her for once and her character’s been given a new lease of life with this heel turn, but at the same time, she seems to be unable to do anything without Sasha being around to lend a hand. She outfoxed Charlotte last month but that mostly felt like it was because we needed to stall for a month until Sasha got her hands on the title.
Hopefully this match will get more time than it did at Clash of Champions (it bloody well better given the lack of content for the show right now), I just hope creative can pull something cleverer than another dirty finish out of their back pocket because I don’t think I can be bothered with two in a row. Still, if it gets the time and a bit of freedom, I think this will be a fun one to watch.
I’ll be honest, I don’t have much of a rationale for picking Bayley to win here. It also certainly won’t be clean if she does, but I can’t see WWE letting Charlotte take a clean loss to this version of Bayley. I think having Bayley lose the title just as Sasha wins hers would sweep the rug out from under the both of them in a major way and could really stifle Bayley. Once we’ve had the draft and the brands become more sperate I think it will be ok but for now, I say Bayley needs to hold on to the gold.
Becky Lynch(c) vs Sasha Banks
(Raw Women’s Championship)
(Hell in a Cell)
I’ll be honest, I was very worried that this storyline would start to derail after the wonky finish last month but creative have done a great job of making sure that the heat to this feud only builds and I can safely say that I’m just as hyped for this rematch as I was for their first encounter last month.
I think the match will be just as good too, both of these women have put on high-quality weapons matches in the past – Sasha in the Cell against Charlotte and Becky in Last Woman Standing, also against Charlotte – so I’m not approaching this with my usual sense of dread, the pace should stay reasonably fast and the spots will be a spectacle to watch.
The key thing here is not to do another wonky finish and definitely don’t have Bayley help Sasha win. This whole feud has made Sasha look like an ass-kicker, but I’m worried that Bayley’s going to sneak her way into the Cell somehow in order to give Sasha the win, but I think that would hinder Sasha in the long run. Regardless, I think Sasha Banks is coming out with the win and hopefully, it will be clean. It’s unclear what format Survivor Series is going to take this year, but I could see them using it as a stop-gap before having a finale match to close out the year.
Seth Rollins(c) vs “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt
(Universal Championship)
(Hell in a Cell)
I’m really not sure what to make of this one.
On the one hand, Bray Wyatt is without a doubt the most popular thing in WWE right now, it’s a cool and original concept the likes of which we haven’t seen arguably since The Undertaker debuted so capitalising on it with a world title victory – especially as WWE positions themselves to move into a new era – seems like a great way to go about things. On the other hand, it seems way too soon for any of this to actually happen.
I’m optimistic for the match quality here, The Fiend has already shown that the style in which they wrestle is different and oddly compelling to watch and the addition of Hell in a Cell and all of the weapons there-in looks to only benefit the performance. I just really don’t know if I can see them winning the Universal Title this soon.
Seth Rollins still isn’t that far out from slaying the Beast and winning back the Universal Championship, while The Fiend has only had one televised match before this one. On top of that, I’m not entirely sure how The Fiend as Universal Champion would even work on week-to-week TV. Bray can, of course, do all his talking through the Firefly Funhouse but the fact is we only see The Fiend once per show when he cuts the lights and attacks, someone. It’d create this spectre of an immortal monster residing over RAW and the more I think about it the more I want to see it.
After thinking it through, I’m picking “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt to win the match, because now Finn Balor’s announced a return to NXT, I can’t see any way they could book themselves out of this where Seth keeps the title, but doesn’t actually beat The Fiend, thus, The Fiend has to win.
And that’s it! Sorry for this post being shorter than usual, but there’s not a lot I can do with only four matches to talk about. Still, thank you very much for taking the time to read this, let me know what you think is going to happen in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure to come back on Monday for my review of the show!
The Strong Style Smark 