Tonight is the last episode of WWE Raw before WrestleMania 34, and there are still plenty of questions left to answer. Will The Undertaker finally respond to John Cena? Who will be Braun Strowman’s tag team partner? Here are five predictions for tonight’s episode.
We know that Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns will be WWE Raw’s biggest match at WrestleMania 34, because it’s all on the line. This is a rematch of their WrestleMania 31 encounter for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, but the classic brawl between these two elite athletes was interrupted by The Architect’s masterplan.
This year, Seth Rollins will be busy with The Miz and Finn Balor in a highly-anticipated clash for the Intercontinental Championship. So Reigns, who won the Elimination Chamber match this year, has a clear path to finally vanquish the Beast Incarnate and capture the Universal Championship for the first time in his career.
What we don’t know is if John Cena will truly face the Undertaker for the first time at WrestleMania. The Undertaker hasn’t resurfaced since his appearance at the 25th Anniversary on Raw, as he was ostensibly retired by Reigns in the main event of last year’s WrestleMania.
Let’s try to answer some of these pressing questions as we make five predictions about tonight’s episode of Raw.
The Big Show Is Braun Strowman’s Partner
After initially reporting that Rey Mysterio would face John Cena at WrestleMania, Sports Illustrated’s Justin Barrasso reported that Mysterio is now being “strongly considered” as Braun Strowman’s mystery tag team partner.
Neither of those two things were reasonable, and it’s quite clear that Mysterio isn’t even healthy enough to compete at WrestleMania. It’s impossible to rule out anything 100% in professional wrestling, but Mysterio himself stated that he won’t be competing at ‘Mania due to a bicep tear that he suffered last month.
Strowman is still in need of a partner, as he is set to take on Cesaro and Sheamus. While many of us would like to see him win the tag titles on his own, just because that would be cool and would suit his character, I believe he will have a partner. I also believe we will learn the identity of Strowman’s partner tonight.
That partner will be the Big Show, who looks to be in impeccable shape and continues to train his tail off. Show was written off of TV in September of last year after Strowman, who was a heel at the time, demolished him in a steel cage match. In reality, Show needed the time off to recover from hip surgery.
There’s no doubt that the Big Show is a lifer in WWE, and you can tell he’s still in top shape. It would be quite the send-off for him to have a run with Strowman, and it would be pretty awesome to see them team up together at WrestleMania against The Bar.
Bayley Goes Stone Cold
The drama between Sasha Banks and Bayley has been fantastic, and this feud could have easily led to one of the best singles matches on a stacked WrestleMania card this year.
Instead, we’ll have to settle for being treated to one of the best on-screen and social media rivalries in all of wrestling this year, and there’s no doubt that these two will provide most of the emotion in this year’s first ever WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal.
Last week, Bayley and Sasha had a backstage brawl that was the culmination of all of the tensions boiling between the two of them. For months, Sasha used Bayley and manipulated her in their friendship, happy to keep The Huggable One quiet. But after she abused Bayley’s trust by turning against her for no reason in the Elimination Chamber match, Bayley finally had enough.
The brawl started when Bayley proclaimed that Sasha knows she can’t beat her and that despite being a four-time women’s champion, Sasha can never hold onto the title. Banks had about enough of Bayley’s remarks, and she must have also been upset that she could no longer control the newly confident Bayley.
A few weeks ago, the WWE advertised that Bayley would channel “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, but that didn’t really happen. After last week’s brawl, I believe the WWE should do something cool with Bayley and have her make a huge statement on Sasha ahead of the Battle Royal, especially since it’d be such an important way to mark this new, stronger babyface version of Bayley. Beyond that, if one of these two were to win the Battle Royal or any subsequent feud, it would be Sasha, who has never defeated Bayley in a PPV match before.
Kurt Angle Gets Pedigreed By Triple H
At WrestleMania 34, Kurt Angle will team up with Ronda Rousey, branded as the biggest signing in WWE history, to take on Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. The latter duo provided us with one of the strongest video packages of the year last week, as they pompously spoke about their accomplishments and control over the company, in addition to bragging about their own athletic abilities. They even had their personal coach boast about how they outperform Olympic athletes in the gym. Angle and Rousey, of course, are former Olympic medalists.
As Stephanie and Triple H remarked in their video, it would be embarrassing for Rousey to lose to an executive in her debut match. So that obviously isn’t happening. It would also be ridiculous for Stephanie or anyone else to get the upper hand on Rousey, especially on the Raw prior to WrestleMania.
But the mainstream fans don’t necessarily know about the old wrestling adage that the people who stand tall on the go-home show are the ones who lose the week before. And since mainstream fans, at least in the WWE’s eyes, will be tuning into the Rousey segment (which will likely open the show), they might want to have Triple H and Stephanie stand tall.
The way to do that? Have Triple H Pedigree Kurt Angle. He’s done it several times, and while the big Angle marks may not be thrilled, it’s the best way to do it. Angle will be fine, and Triple H is always more likely to get “one up” on the older wrestlers than the younger wrestlers anyway.
Seth Rollins Defeats Finn Balor
Seth Rollins and Finn Balor have quite the history, huh? They’ve been in several multi-man matches against each other, including the Elimination Chamber match this year. Balor defeated Seth at SummerSlam 2016 to become the first Universal Champion, and he defeated Rollins again weeks ago on Raw in the build-up to this feud over The Miz’s Intercontinental Championship.
At WrestleMania 34, The Miz, Seth Rollins, and Finn Balor will fight it out for one of the most prestigious titles in wrestling history. But tonight, Balor and Rollins look poised to face off yet again, and I expect the WWE to pull some more 50/50 booking, with Seth pulling one back on Finn after the latter defeated him with surprise roll-up (though Rollins did beat Finn on the Jan. 15 episode of Raw).
This IC Title match at ‘Mania could go any way, but I expect either The Miz or Finn to win. In The Miz’s case, a title defense makes sense, since he’s the best dang mid-card champion this company has seen in years. Meanwhile, the IC Title could be an important stepping stone to another world title run for Finn, as the WWE might want to see how he performers as the night-in, night-out workhorse champion if they have cold feet about putting the world title on him again.
Either way, Rollins is getting his win back, and it will be interesting to see how far these two are willing to go tonight.
The Undertaker Shows Up As The American Badass
The build to this year’s likely showdown between John Cena and The Undertaker is already much better than the build for Roman Reigns vs. The Undertaker last year. I love these impassioned, yet comical promos from Cena, who has certainly taken advantage of social media to call out Taker. It’s clear that Cena is desperate for a response, even if he lies through his teeth that he’d be more than happy to attend WrestleMania as a fan.
But there’s no way the WWE has hyped up this match for weeks and teased it without it actually happening. The Undertaker is no coward, and there’s no way this man is ducking a fight.
He’s coming out, and he’s going to come out as the American Badass. It’s also going to be worth the wait, because after weeks of not knowing and years of not seeing him in this nostalgic character, the staredown between the American Badass and Cena will break the Internet.
Next: Will Rousey, Asuka Main Event WrestleMania 35?
This is the Undertaker’s chance to truly leave WWE on top and truly have that final WrestleMania match that suits him. Last year’s match against Roman wasn’t actually bad, but it was underwhelming considering the caliber of performers in the ring that night. His match with Cena will surely be different, and the American Badass character will add a special wrinkle to this match that most fans will be looking forward to.