5 Ways to Book the Road to WWE WrestleMania 33

2. Universal Championship

So we still have Kevin Owens with the Universal Championship. He’s the standard bearer in WWE right now, but that may not last for too long. Coming out of Survivor Series it looks like we’ll have a Owens vs Roman Reigns programme, both men currently hold titles which makes for an interesting scenario.

At RoadBlock in late December, Owens will put his WWE Universal Championship on the line against Reigns. It will all come after some sort of shenanigans during the Survivor Series match in which both men will represent Raw. Owens will proclaim that as he’s the Universal Champion that he doesn’t need to fight for the United States title held by Reigns.

The match will see Owens walk away as Champion, but only after Chris Jericho has got involved to help his best friend Owens. Owens must react badly to that help, despite the fact that Jericho helped him in his real hour of need. Following that reaction we set off on a Jericho vs Owens feud, with the former friends going at it for the Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble.

Jericho is having a fantastic run in the twilight of his WWE career, it’s time for him to hold a trip title again. At Royal Rumble, Jericho beats Owens for the WWE Universal Championship, the wily veteran getting one over on his younger foe.

Also at the event we see the annual Royal Rumble match, the winner getting his shot at one of the top champions on the biggest night of the year, WrestleMania. After defeating Goldberg at Survivor Series, Brock Lesnar blasts through the filed to win the Rumble, and heads to ‘Mania to face the Universal Champion, at this point that is Chris Jericho.

After a few weeks of Jericho ducking every attempt to put him in any kind of match, the authority of Mick Foley and Stephanie McMahon finally get sick of his attempts to hold on to the title. It’s announced that on the Raw prior to FastLane we will see an announcement made. That announcement happens to be that if Jericho doesn’t defend his title at FastLane the title will be taken away from him and he’ll be fired. He agrees to defending the belt, but only if he can pick his opponent. Foley agrees, and Jericho picks Kevin Owens.

In the time since the Rumble, Owens and Jericho have settled their differences. Owens can see that he’d rather have his friend Jericho with the belt than anyone else, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want it back. Jericho picked Owens thinking that his friend would give him an easy night, that couldn’t be any further from the truth.

Owens destroys Jericho, wins back the Universal title, and is heading for a showdown with Lesnar at WrestleMania. The evil Owens leaves his friend Jericho a bloody mess in the ring and smugly walks up the ramp holding the title aloft.

The next few weeks sees a verbal joust between Owens and Paul Heyman,the advocate for Brock Lesnar. Two of the best talkers in the world give us some of the best promos WWE has seen in a long time.

Heading into ‘Mania this is one of the most heated matches for years in WWE. The Beast Incarnate vs the hottest property in WWE.