We’re officially on the road to Wrestlemania! The two-night event will be coming from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, and for a bit of fun, I thought of predicting an incredibly early title card.
This is my disclaimer, as wrestling is a changing beast. We still have two B-level PPV in Elimination Chamber and Fastlane, and Vince McMahon could change his mind at any point.
Before the predictions, I can see one of the Chamber matches will be for the No.1 contender to the WWE Championship. The other one will lead to a new Raw Women’s champion heading into the show of shows.
SmackDown Tag Team Championship – The Street Profits (c) vs The Usos
This could be the start of a rivalry that matches what the Usos did with The New Day.
It’ll come down to when Jimmy Uso returns and becomes part of the Bloodline because, if Roman leaves with the Universal title, it’s the beginning of a dominate faction on SmackDown.
Additionally, this is the best tag match left on the table SmackDown could do.
Winners – The Usos Are The New SmackDown Tag Team Champions
Raw Tag Team Championship – The Hurt Business (Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin) vs Ricochet & Riddle vs The New Day
Out of all of wrestling, Raw’s tag division is the worst because while I suspect it to be just New Day and Hurt Business, I can see a makeshift team being part of the triple threat.
The reason for putting Ricochet and Riddle together is both have had run-ins with the Hurt Business. They could make a decent babyface team because they’ve got nothing else to do.
This could also be the match that Alexander or Benjamin costs the faction the titles leading to one (or both) of them getting kicked out.
Additionally, either babyface team would help the Raw after Mania introducing a faction that would Shock The System.
Winners – The New Day Are The New Raw Tag Team Champions (again)
Intercontinental Championship – Six-Man Ladder Match – Big E (c) vs Seth Rollins vs Daniel Bryan vs Apollo vs Jey Uso vs Cesaro
One of my favourite recent Intercontinental matches was the six-man ladder at Wrestlemania 31, where Bryan won.
We all know the history where roughly six weeks after winning the title, he had to relinquish it due to serve injury and retired from wrestling. So the storyline is there to win back the title he never lost and go on a historic run before hanging up his boots.
Elsewhere, Apollo can still be a thorn in Big E’s side and beat him in a non-title match. Uso (depending on if brother Jimmy returns by then) can go out to prove himself to his cousin Reigns.
With Rollins returning on the 12th February Smackdown he could begin a program with E and gunning for the strap. Finally, I was 50/50 on Cesaro because he could have a WM singles match against Shinsuke Nakamura that could tear the house down.
If that is the case, I’d have Kevin Owens stand by to replace Cesaro or Jey Uso.
Winner – Big E Retains The Intercontinental Championship
United States Championship – Bobby Lashley (c) vs Braun Strowman
Lashley is on the best run at the company right now as part of The Hurt Business, which is also a highlight of a mediocre show, but finding an opponent for the US title has been hard.
Which is why I went with Strowman, it’s not the most interesting of matches, but the build could be fun with MVP doing most of the talking for everyone.
Winner – Lashley Retains The United States Championship
WWE Women’s Tag Championship – Shayna Baszler/Nia Jax (c) vs The Riott Squad vs Bella Twins vs Winners of the Dusty Rhodes Classic
At this point, these are the only teams I can see realistically taking part. The Riott Squad are the only legitimate tag team currently in the women’s division. If it weren’t for the Bella’s involvement, I’d have Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan win the belts.
However, with the Bellas in, there’s only one winner, and it will help the titles in the long run, if they have a long run (even as part-timers) going across the promotions.
The NXT team that I think will be winning the Dusty cup and be involved will be Dakota Kai and Raquel González.
Winner – The Bella Twins Are The New Women’s Tag Team Champions
NXT Championship – Demon Finn Balor (c) vs Karrion Kross
If there’s one character in NXT that would unleash the demon, it’s Kross. He has a legitimate reason to go for the title because he never lost it and is furious he’s waited until now for a title shot.
Like Bryan, he had to relinquish it due to injury, which led to Balor being the champion.
However, throughout the build, I’d continue to make Kross a monster with not only winning matches but destroying Balor at any moment. So for Balor to beat this monster is to become a monster.
It would also mark as Kross’ last match because he and Scarlett would be a massive benefit to Raw.
Winner – Balor Retains The NXT Championship
Raw Women’s Championship – Charlotte (c) vs Asuka vs Rhea Ripley
It seems like this story makes scenes.
WWE will want something high profile for Charlotte to do and going into Wrestlemania having won the title at the elimination chamber covers it. Asuka will want her rematch and Rhea wants revenge for last year.
If WWE is serious about building the future, then there’s only one winner, and she should pin Charlotte to do so.
Winner – Ripley is The New Raw Women’s Champion
SmackDown Women’s Championship – Sasha Banks (c) vs Bianca Belair
This is a knockout match and could seriously headline as the main event of night one.
This match hypes itself up; with both of these competitors, it could be the best women’s match in WWE history. Especially within the storytelling of the match have Banks turn heel.
Winner – Belair Is The New SmackDown Women’s Champion
WWE Championship – Drew McIntyre (c) vs Keith Lee
McIntyre has been an incredible champion since beating Brock Lesnar last year and has proven himself to be the face of the company.
Every match he wins builds on his legacy and makes him a better champion, and facing Sheamus helps with that.
However, Randy, Brock, Goldberg, Sheamus have been a specific type of heavyweight. In contrast, the Scot may have beaten Lee previously at Raw Legends night. Give both men time, and it could be an incredible match.
To get to this point, Lee wins the No.1 contender at Elimination Chamber.
You can use the previous title match as a part of the story with Lee learning how McIntyre beat him last time, but this time he reverses it.
Winner – Lee Is The New WWE Champion
Universal Championship – Roman Reigns (c) vs Edge
The battle of the spears and the only face vs heel singles title match on the card.
This worries some fans because of how wrestling works, and as Head of the Table, this is Roman’s best performance and run in the company to date.
The thing is, we’re only stretching the surfaces with his Bloodline faction because we still have Jimmy to return and the end goal is a full packed Wrestlemania match against The Rock.
To get to that ultimate goal, Roman continues to dominate and he will, it’s just a shame Edge won’t get his fairytale ending but the rub it will give the Trible Chief character will be massive.
Winner – Reigns Retains The Universal Championship
The Bear Cave 