WWE Hell in a Cell 2015: 10 Things That Must Happen

Photo Courtesy of WWE.com

John Cena Must Lose the United States Championship at Hell in a Cell

If it is true that John Cena is taking some well-deserved time off after Hell in a Cell, then it’s a foregone conclusion that he will drop the belt to whomever he faces tonight. In the case of John Cena, though, you can never be too certain thanks to the cardinal rule of the WWE: John Cena practically never loses.

Even if John isn’t taking a break, the belt needs to change hands anyway. Cena has done more than enough to raise the status of the U.S. Championship from the depths of being a meaningless mid-card title, and now we need to see if the belt can retain its newfound prestige around the waist of someone else.

The three potential opponents I previously listed are all capable of keeping the U.S. Championship relevant for their own individual reasons:

Kofi Kingston would make a good choice since if Kofi has the belt, then that means the New Day has the belt. It runs the risk of becoming too gimmicky, but seeing the U.S. Championship defended via the Freebird Rule could also be extremely entertaining. Having three men defend the title instead of one opens up a lot of interesting booking possibilities.

In the case of Finn Bálor, the belt could reestablish itself as a proving ground for up-and-coming superstars, and, simultaneously, it will have the recent, foundational backing of belonging to John Cena to prevent it from fading back into obscurity. Sure, there’s the chance that the belt becomes an emblematic NXT Title for recently called-up wrestlers, but would that really be so bad?

Finally, regarding Daniel Bryan, the second cardinal rule in wrestling is that John Cena practically never ever loses clean. Bryan is one of a handful of wrestlers in the past few years who have bucked that trend, and him winning the title would be believable and beneficially two-fold: he’s WWE’s closest superstar in popularity to John Cena, and Bryan could pursue not only keeping the U.S. Title relevant, but making SmackDown relevant again, too. Before Bryan got injured, that was the projected course of his IC Title reign, so he could essentially pick up where he left off.

Again, any of these three would be more than a satisfactory successor of the U.S. Championship. There are other superstars who would work as well, but John Cena must drop the belt to someone.

Besides that, though…

Next: What About the Other Belts?