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Another week, another set of outside the box predictions for the week in WWE. There’s no more major shows between now and WrestleMania, so what matches will take shape?
One of my favorite pastimes as a WWE fan is to try and guess what’s going to happen in the future. I don’t go out of my way to spoil myself. But trying to get into the heads of the creative department is a good way to kill some time.
Now that Fastlane is out of the way – and it was better than most would have expected – there’s no more stops on the Road to WrestleMania. Both world championship matches are set, and Asuka finally chose her opponent for Mania. There’s turmoil in the SmackDown tag team division, while the Raw tag division is somewhat empty.
And then there’s John Cena. Once again, Big Match John came up short in a major pay per view match. And once again, Cena finds himself without a clear path to WrestleMania. Maybe after he whines about it a little bit, he’ll realize he’s John Cena, and just pick his own opponent for New Orleans.
I’m going to let the spirits from beyond guide me through this week’s bold predictions. See, I kind of dropped my crystal ball outside, and here in the Northeastern United States we’ve got a bit of snow on the ground. Needless to say, there may be a short in one of the wires, and the crystal ball is out of commission.
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So without further ado, here’s the outside the box predictions for WWE for the week of Mar. 12, 2018.
John Cena, Meet Your Mystery Opponent!
WrestleMania is just four weeks away. That means there are four episodes of Raw, and four episodes of SmackDown before WWE descends upon NOLA. So if someone has a match on the card, the fans should probably be informed this week. If too much more time passes without a match being made, those superstars will flop on the Grandest Stage of Them All.
Which brings me to John Cena. Whether on Raw, SmackDown, or both, I fully expect Cena to whine and moan for a while before anything of consequence happens. But this week is finally the week Cena gets his WrestleMania match made official.
But I don’t think we’re actually going to find out who Cena will face until WrestleMania itself. The way I look at it, it’s a calculated risk, but one worth taking. Look at the official Mania card as of this writing:
- Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns, Universal Championship
- AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, WWE Championship
- Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka, SmackDown Women’s Championship
- Ronda Rousey & Kurt Angle vs. Triple H & Stephanie McMahon
- The Miz vs. Finn Balor vs. Seth Rollins, Intercontinental Championship
- Finals of the Cruiserweight Championship Tournament
Does it really matter who Cena faces? That’s already a stacked card. Add in a presumed Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, maybe a KO vs. Shane McMahon, Sasha Banks vs. Bayley, and a Raw Women’s Title match, and Cena could face a broomstick and it wouldn’t push the needle one bit.
So announce that Cena will face a mystery opponent, and tease it for the next four weeks. Maybe it’s The Undertaker. Or Rey Mysterio. Hell, maybe Batista wants to plug Avengers: Infinity War and he cleared the weekend. It really doesn’t matter, so have some fun with it.
A Tale of Two Tag Divisions
When it comes to the tag team divisions, Raw and SmackDown are about as different as apples and orcas. Yes, you read that right. While there’s an obvious path to a potential WrestleMania match on Tuesday nights, the flagship show is kind of a mess. It wasn’t always this disparate between the two brands, but lately it’s been like watching two very different companies.
To highlight the difference between the shows, I think WWE will really play it up a lot this week. On Raw, Sheamus and Cesaro claim to have no opponents left. They think they’ve defeated everyone, so they’re in full-on coasting mode. So this week on Raw, I expect The Bar to either not have a match, or beat a random pairing of superstars to highlight just how empty the tag division is.
Meanwhile, on SmackDown, The Usos are going to be in a foul mood – if they’re even able to stand up. Same goes for their biggest rivals, The New Day. After a great first half of a match at Fastlane, the two teams were absolutely annihilated by The Bludgeon Brothers. It was merciless, total destruction – and if it didn’t ruin a terrific match it would have been more awesome.
So the SmackDown Tag Team Championship seems to be headed towards a triple threat match, but the Raw Tag Titles are in limbo. Could a co-branded, multiple fall match between a billion teams be in the cards? Remember way back when Kurt Angle held the Intercontinental Championship and the European Championship simultaneously? At WrestleMania 2000, he lost both titles in a two fall, triple threat match when Chris Benoit won the first fall (and the Intercontinental Title) and Chris Jericho won the second (and the European Championship).
There’s precedent, so maybe this is a way to cram all the tag teams into one match and get them on the card. It would be a horrible idea, but I wouldn’t count it out.
Two Good Halves Equal One Lousy Whole
Roman Reigns cut a promo two weeks ago that could best be represented by the fire emoji written over and over. Last week, Paul Heyman followed with something that wasn’t his best work – it leaned too heavily into the misogynistic, but he’s a heel, so people liked it – but was still okay.
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After Heyman finished last week, Reigns came down to confront him. Knowing Brock Lesnar will be on the show this week, Reigns advised Heyman to give a message to his client – be ready for a fight. And millions of wrestling fans got excited at the thought of these two powerhouses trading blows on Raw.
But if you honestly think Reigns and Lesnar will get physical with three weeks to go before WrestleMania, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you. (It’s a real nice one, too – one of Chad Gable’s after a German suplex.) There isn’t a chance that there’s any contact between the two until maybe next week, but more likely the go-home show right before Mania.
Instead, there will be an abundance of Detroit’s finest independent wrestlers security guards between the two Universal Championship match participants. While Brock Lesnar will actually be in attendance this time, most of the fans will probably wish he wasn’t around again. Maybe Reigns will cut another great promo; maybe Heyman will step his game back up again after an off week last time. But it’s not going to live up to the lofty expectations of the WWE Universe, that’s for sure.
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What do you expect to happen this week in WWE?