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Who could “replace” Randy Orton at WrestleMania 33 with the upcoming battle royal on WWE SmackDown?
To close out Tuesday’s episode of WWE SmackDown, Bray Wyatt defeated John Cena and AJ Styles to retain the WWE Championship in a pay-per-viw quality main event. They received over 20 minutes of in-ring time and dominated the show. It resulted in Wyatt likely getting to move onto WrestleMania 33 as the WWE Champion.
However, as Wyatt celebrated, Randy Orton came down to the ring. He would surprisingly say that he no longer wants to invoke his 2017 Royal Rumble match prize of facing the WWE Champion at WrestleMania 33. He “refused” to go forward with facing his “master”, setting up some unexpected intrigue.
If you’ve followed the WrestleMania 33 match card rumors from the Wrestling Observer, you’ll likely figure out where WWE is going here. Even if you don’t, it’s likely that Orton isn’t going to stay out of the picture for long.
There is one interesting hurdle, though — the battle royal to determine a new No. 1 Contender to Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 33. Daniel Bryan made this official on Talking Smack.
BREAKING: @WWEDanielBryan announces a #1Contender #BattleRoyal NEXT WEEK on #SDLive to replace @RandyOrton, who refuses to face Bray Wyatt! pic.twitter.com/f9WCD4D6Tz
— WWE (@WWE) February 15, 2017
Now we’re either in for some type of diversion to get us to Orton vs. Wyatt, or the WWE Championship match is about to become a triple threat. Someone has to win next Tuesday, so we broke down the three most likely Superstars to walk out victoriously.
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3. John Cena
John Cena already won and lost the WWE Championship within two weeks. It abruptly ended his 16th World title reign, which WWE made little note of. This led to the loss at Elimination Chamber, handing the title to Bray Wyatt.
While the rumored WrestleMania 33 match card has Cena doing something outside of the title picture, maybe WWE decides to have him win this battle royal on SmackDown. He and other options wouldn’t necessarily replace Randy Orton, but join him and Bray Wyatt in a triple threat match at WrestleMania 33.
Cena vs. Orton vs. Wyatt would be a star-studded affair, as one of the top matches of the show, especially for the WWE Championship being the prize. It’s worthy of the main event like WWE keeps saying this bout will be (even though Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar seems inevitable to go on last).
While this is yet another World title match for the Leader of the Cenation at the Show of Shows, it can’t be denied that he brings anything he’s in to another level. It makes better use of him than a mixed tag team match too.
The problem with Cena being a legitimate option is he just got pinned clean in the ring twice in three days for the WWE Championship. Would WWE put him right back in the mix without hesitation?
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2. AJ Styles
AJ Styles became the first person to enter the battle royal to “replace” Randy Orton at WrestleMania 33. He made it to the end of Elimination Chamber and didn’t get pinned during the triple threat match on SmackDown, so the momentum is high for Styles as an option for winning next Tuesday.
Heading into WrestleMania 33 season, the Phenomenal One is surprisingly without direction either. SmackDown stars like Orton, Bray Wyatt, John Cena, Dean Ambrose, and Baron Corbin are trending toward specific paths, leaving Styles without someone to face.
Hotshotting Styles into the Orton vs. Wyatt program doesn’t make much sense, however. He’s had nothing to do with either one for the past six months of the brand split, so slipping him as the third member would make him an outlier. It’s not like he’s going to join the Wyatt Family overnight and become involved in this inter-stable program.
If WWE wants a great triple threat match at WrestleMania 33, then Orton vs. Styles vs. Wyatt makes plenty of sense. From a storyline reason, though, it doesn’t. This may lead to the Shane McMahon match that everyone has speculated for the past month.
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1. Luke Harper
The one who makes the most sense to win this battle royal is Luke Harper — and it’s not even close.
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From the moment Randy Orton joined the Wyatt Family, he and Harper had tension. They seemed to have worked it out by the time their SmackDown Tag Team Championship reign came about. Once they lost, however, this ended and turned things back to the normally tense situation.
Now Harper is a babyface for the first time in his WWE career. It’s seen him get laid out by Orton and Bray Wyatt, only to return the favor over the past three weeks, confirming his departure from the Wyatt Family. One of those instances came when he attacked Wyatt before his WWE Championship match on Tuesday, signaling that these two are far from done. So could that have been a tease for this battle royal?
Next: WM 33 Card Projections 7.0; Post-Elimination Chamber
Harper winning would create even more intrigue in the WWE Championship picture, becoming Orton’s “replacement”. Even though the Viper is likely going to go forward with his title opportunity, this should still leave Harper involved and place him in a triple threat with his former Wyatt compadres at WrestleMania 33. It’s something no one probably saw coming just one month ago, but with the quick babyface character build, excellent Elimination Chamber pay-per-view match, and long-standing storyline with Orton and Wyatt, the path is there for him to join the fray.