The Road to Wrestlemania – Predictions #2

So Royal Rumble has been and gone. It didn’t really throw many surprises really other than the shocking omission of Daniel Bryan which was such a big deal it even made BBC News. But other than that, Royal Rumble paves the way for Wrestlemania, it’s the start of the show really. On that night and the upcoming weeks we’ll get to piece together the Wrestlemania schedule and rivalries.

So after Royal Rumble and Raw the following night how are things currently shaping up? Let’s see…

One rumour circling was that the Rhodes brothers would be facing off against each other. This is something I wouldn’t mind seeing at Mania in honesty. Goldust has been wrestling at an incredible level on his return to the WWE, and would fully justify a spot at the grandest stage of them all. The pieces have already started to be put into place as they dropped the tag titles at Royal Rumble, and then Cody accidently getting eliminated by his brother in the main event itself. I would also just like to add I enjoyed seeing Cody and Damien Sandow throwing punches when they were both still in the rumble, they fought as if that rivalry is still there from Money in the Bank, so it’s a possibility that this could always be reignited later on in the year also.

Onto another rumour that was around before the Royal Rumble is that Bray Wyatt was to face John Cena at Wrestlemania. Now before the Rumble I would have said that this was an absurd idea to be honest. I wouldn’t in a million years ever thought that Vince would go with it and have his top star in a match against a lukewarm Bray Wyatt. But at the Rumble Bray put on a spectacular showing against the ridiculously popular Daniel Bryan, and went onto to get a clean win against him. I’ve mentioned in various WWE articles I’ve done that I rate Bray highly for his commitment to his character, he’s one of the best at keeping his persona in the ring as well as out of it, but it was great to see that he can actually wrestle worth a damn too. And again as mentioned in the Rumble results article I mentioned that his name was thrown out in a list of other names from Randy Orton when he listed off title challengers, so something appears to be happening back stage. Following on from Bray’s win over Bryan at the rumble, he and his strange family attacked Cena costing him the title to Orton. This was all signs pointing towards the match for Mania.

However…

On Raw the following night the Wyatt’s would interfere in a match of significant importance. The winner of a 3 man tag team would get a spot at the Elimination Chamber PPV to fight for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. When they came out, it cost the Shield the match. So the understanding here would be that the Wyatt’s and Shield are set to feud it out for a few weeks now possibly ending at the Elimination Chamber PPV.

Perhaps Bray will still be a thorn in Cena’s side up to Mania and the match is still on, but it would appear that there will be a stable vs stable feud for a while at least.

This then also squashes or at least delays the Shield breakup. It’s no secret that since Survivor Series Roman Reigns has been the star of the Shield. He’s the only member to beat CM Punk when the strongest shield member segment was set, he was the force of the Survivor Series PPV and was again given a huge platform to shine on at Royal Rumble and he took advantage of that opportunity to set a record 12 eliminations. The thought would be Shield breaks up and Roman goes on to the dizzy heights of main event status. I don’t doubt it’ll still happen, and given the way in which Ambrose and Rollins were eliminated from the Rumble by Reigns, I’d taken that as a sign the Shield were close to collapse and perhaps disbanding before the Elimination PPV.

From Raw we also learnt that Daniel Bryan, Sheamus and John Cena will feature in the Elimination Chamber with Orton defending his title. We’ll pretty much guarantee that means Batista won’t be in that as he’s got his Mania title shot all booked and secure. So who are the other 2 to feature in the EC?

Brock Lesnar = Yes. He’s proven his point with Big Show, and unless Mark Henry comes back from ‘injury’ and seeks revenge there aren’t any other ‘monsters’ he can fight other than Batista. I’m honestly hoping he doesn’t get into a Mark Henry feud. I’d like to see Lesnar in the EC.

People mentioned Roman Reigns but as discussed above, I’d assume he’s tied up with Wyatt feud until at least after EC.

So if Brock’s in that leave’s one more person. I’m completely stuck as to who this will be. Knowing WWE it’d probably be Kofi Kingston. I’d prefer Dolph Ziggler, but watch it go and be Kofi now…

As for Batista, when his return drew closer, Alberto Del Rio was first to bad mouth him and set up a feud via social media, and before the rumble he made sure to make a comment or two on eliminating Batista from the event. So to get Batista back into the swing of things I wouldn’t be surprised to see him and Del Rio clash either on Raw or at EC PPV.

So from the main event at EC, will Orton remain champion to face Batista at Mania? I believe yes he will, but I think Daniel Bryan’s burial will finally stop. Something will happen which will turn the Mania event into a triple threat match. Batista vs Bryan vs Orton. I think even though Batista was billed up and returned to win the Rumble, I believe (hope) that WWE will finally wake up and see just how huge it would be to have Bryan emerge from the Mania Main event holding up the 2 belts that Orton walked into the ring with. I don’t know what the stipulation would be or what could trigger the triple threat main event. I’m probably grasping at straws, but just don’t see how he can be ignored after the reaction from Royal Rumble.

So to the nitty gritty now… predictions based on Rumble and Raw after Rumble results.

Elimination Chamber PPV –

Main Event = EC match = Orton vs Sheamus vs Cena vs Bryan vs Lesnar vs Kofi Kingston (Ugh) = Orton Wins
On the card = Shield vs Wyatts
On the card = Batista vs Alberto Del Rio

Leading onto Wrestlemania – Shield Disbands. United States & Intercontinental titles are unified

Wrestlemania PPV –

WWE World Heavy Weight Championship = Orton vs Batista vs Bryan (Bryan wins YES YES YES)
On the card = CM Punk vs Kane or HHH
On the card = John Cena vs Bray Wyatt
On the card = Cody Rhodes vs Goldust
On The Card = Sting somewhere he’ll feature
On The Card = Undertaker vs ????
On the Card = Roman Reigns for unified US&IC title against ???

Book it Vince…

– Murr

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*** LAST MINUTE EDIT – As I was about to hit the publish button for this article I was hit by the news that CM Punk has been pulled from all live shows and has said he has ‘gone home’. It would appear that he’s not happy with the way the company has gone on recalling part time wrestlers to get the big pushes over full time stars that deserve it more. So I’ve tried to re-tract any CM Punk predictions from the above, If you spot anything please ignore or read over.

I should also mention that I’ve now come to learn who are the final 2 opponents at the Elimination Chamber, And I’m afraid to say I was way off the mark 🙁 I won’t add them here as to not spoil for people who don’t know, but you’ll have to again gloss over my final 2 opponents part of this topic.Crazy how much can leak over the space of one night’s sleep huh!

Hope you still enjoyed the read.

– Murr