WWE WrestleMania 33: 5 Bold Predictions
By Tim Sherry
WWE.com
5. Shinsuke Nakamura Debuts; Wins Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royale
Braun Strowman winning the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal is the safe bet here. But is that too predictable? Yes. Very. We’ll predict that Nakamura will lose to Bobby Roode in his quest to become 3-time NXT champ at TakeOver: Orlando and that will, in turn, free him up to make his main roster debut. Why not make his first day on that roster a successful one? There are not too many other places on the card that Nakamura could fit in so a surprise, last-minute entrance into this match makes perfect sense. Having Nakamura run roughshod over the competition and oust Strowman, in the end, would not only be a major way for a guy to debut but would also give “The King of Strong Style” a ready-made feud for his first night on RAW.
And why RAW, you ask? Because the red brand needs a serious shot of life if they want to keep from losing any more viewership. Think about it: the World Championship on the show is being contested at Mania between Brock Lesnar and Goldberg. The former champion, Kevin Owens, is competing for the United States championship against a guy who also happens to currently be the most entertaining guy on RAW, but is also set to take time off after the show according to Sportskeeda.com, in Chris Jericho. The Champion before him, Seth Rollins, is battling a knee injury and Roman Reigns needs to stay far away from the title picture for a while. Suffice to say, RAW needs a new title contender. A win in the battle royal and subsequent one over Strowman would put Nakamura firmly on that path.
There a couple of issues to this method of debut, however. For one, it’s really hard to showcase a guy in the midst of a battle royal. It’s kind of anti-climactic. Plus, as of right now, winning the ATGMBR doesn’t seem to be that big a deal. Sure, Baron Corbin’s been on a good run since his win last year but it did virtually nothing for Cesaro and The Big Show. It’s a bit of gamble, but Nakamura is very capable of bucking both of those ideas. He’s just that good.