Well 2014 has arrived, and with it we’re back to the first major pay per view of the year Royal Rumble. It’s hard to say just where our favourite WWE super stars will end up this time next year, but I’ll try and at least have a guess at what may be in line for the first few months upto and including the main event of the year Wrestlemania.
Firstly before the Wyatt’s took Daniel Bryan away I would have put my mortgage on him winning the Royal Rumble, However since the Wyatt interference story line I’m now not sure at all. I don’t understand where this is heading. The most over WWE wrestler in the last quarter of 2013 now buried and just thrown out of contention for the WWE World Championship. Before Cena and Orton faced each other at TLC, Cena said that Bryan would be the first in line for a shot against him for the title. Well obviously Cena losing to Orton squashed that idea.
Okay so Bryan isn’t my pick for the Rumble any more, And we know that Cena vs Orton is happening at Royal Rumble, so neither of them will be winning. So my next pick went on to CM Punk. He’s been out of the main event / title contention picture since Rumble last year. While his feuds with Heyman / Lesnar and now Shield have been entertaining, He is a wrestler that can head line events with ease. So I got to thinking that he was the chosen one for this rumble to take on either Cena or Orton at Mania. That’d be pretty cool right…
Well that was working well till Raw showed a trailer of the Animal Batista returning conveniently just in time for the rumble. And one thing we all know is that returning main event stars are thrust straight back into main event contention no matter how long they’ve been out. Rock last year as a perfect example, Cena’s return and straight against Del Rio again last year as another. So I then think well Batista to win the Rumble, but rather than main event Wrestlemania, perhaps he’ll fight who ever wins the title at Royal rumble at the next PPV elimination chamber. Just to give him momentum, have him as the champion, and then perhaps Daniel Bryan will face and beat Batista at Mania completely justifying the title by beating the Animal clean. I figured that Batista fights Orton or Cena at Elimination chamber. And the chamber itself consists of Punk, Bryan, Cena or Orton (who ever isn’t champion) and 3 other fillers. Again started to sound good until…
Brock Lesnar also returns. Okay well now this is well and truly throwing me off the scent of what’s possible. It’s without question that he’ll also be involved in one way with main title events. So… here we are. We have current champion Orton, Cena who will always be involved, Bryan who I’m sure will be departing the Wyatts as quick as he joined, CM Punk who’s due another spot, Batista who I’m dead cert will feature and battle for the title and Brock Lesnar who Paul Heyman himself said is back for gold not just for feuds. Right now I couldn’t tell you who’d win the Royal Rumble… But I can tell you it won’t be Randy Orton or John Cena.
I’d assume the guys listed who aren’t already champion or number one contender will feature in the elimination chamber match itself.
And I’d also assume that any of those 6 will be headlining Wrestlemania. I’m under the assumption that Undertaker and HHH will feature on the Mania card, so I’d also wager their opponents would likely to come from that 6 listed. Brock vs Taker and Punk vs HHH being my guesses currently. Which would conveniently leave Bryan and Batista available for the main event match, while I’d expect Orton and Cena may have a pointless rivalry match just to fill the card? It depends if Bryan can continue keeping the crowd popping as much as he did at the end of 2013, if Batista is actually returning for that long?
With regards to 2013’s most powerful stable The Shield. I completely expect them to be splitting up rather soon, With Roman Reigns being given the face push which could eventually lead him to title contention himself. Not as early as Wrestlemania, But I’d certainly expect them to be split by Summerslam.
Unfortunately stars such as Ziggler, Sandow, Alberto Del Rio… I just can’t see where they’d feature now that the belts have been combined to one uber title. Intercontinental title now stands as the 2nd most prestigious title now, So hopefully see these guys feature in some good matches for that title too. And once Shield do disband I’d like to see Seth Rollins involved in a hunt for a title too.
Well, they weren’t really full blown predictions as such, more so what if’s I guess, Will be interesting to see how far off the mark I was come end of Wrestlemania. HHH recently said in an interview with Michael Cole that 2014 was going to be epic. With the arrival of 2 of the companies old animals so soon, i’d agree with that statement so far…
As long as John Cena doesn’t get another belt too soon this could be a good year. I would like to see Batista and Brock in a number 1 contenders match and Randy Orton defending his belt against the winner. I don’t think it really matters who Undertaker faces at Wrestlemania because he’s beaten them all before anyway. Well… not Brock at Wrestlemania but he has beaten Brock before. I would love to see Kurt Angle come back :].
I might actually start watching wrestling again if Kurt came back. I stopped after he left because, let’s face it. He was awesome and my favourite.
I stuck around after he left but stopped soon after. Shawn Micheals left, Undertaker has gotten old, Triple H isn’t the same. All the people I grew up watching are pretty much done now and there’s no point in me watching it anymore. It’s always John Cena now. I think I finally called it quits when Edge left. I loved him :]
A Batista vs Brock match sounds like it could be awesome. But I’d just hope it wouldn’t turn into the borefest that Goldberg Vs Lesnar was at Mania XX.
It’s probably without question that Cena will end up with the championship this year… again… I’d much rather Bryan get given a run with it for more than 24 hours. If not Bryan give Punk another run with it.