By Haydn Gleed
Kevin Owens vs. Goldberg for the WWE Universal Championship: I’ve gone back and for on this, and WWE deserve a lot of credit for putting the doubt in the heads of the viewers. When this match was first setup, it was almost impossible to find anyone outside of the Kevin Owens superfans that thought the big KO had a chance of going into WrestleMania as champion. However, with the implied alliance teased with Triple H and Samoa Joe, WWE have put enough credibility to an argument for a Kevin Owens win here.
That said, when logic takes over, there is no way that they would give Goldberg the super push of the big win over Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series without having him go through everyone put in front of him in anticipation of Brock getting his win back. As much as I would love for Kevin Owens to go to WrestleMania as the champion, especially with the more serious character pivot that they’ve done with the big man, the only way I could see him retaining is interference from Brock Lesnar and logically there is no reason Brock would not want Goldberg to win the title so he could have a championship shot as well as the chance of revenge on Goldberg.
Will we see an appearance from Chris Jericho? I think it’s inevitable, which is backed up by the bookmakers odds. This will lead to a Jericho/Owens match for WrestleMania and obviously we know Goldberg and Lesnar will go one on one probably in the main event.
Goldberg wins the WWE Universal Championship.
Braun Strowman vs Roman Reigns: Well, sometimes things happen in the wrestling business that you wouldn’t have expected in a million guesses and one of those would be that Braun Strowman has become an entertaining big man monster heel. The match he had against Big Show was just mind blowingly good when you step back and really think of the people involved. Again, you have to give WWE a lot of credit for having a vision for Braun and sticking to it.
What WWE continue to be pulled up on and rightly so, is their continuing instance to miscast Roman Reigns as a huge babyface. I’m not going to reel off the reasons as we all know why Roman should be a heel at this point, but I honestly think we may be heading down that path. I do see Roman against Taker (yes, JBL I wrote Taker, deal with it) as the WrestleMania matchup and what better way to follow up on the whole “this is my yard now” comment from Royal Rumble than Undertaker making an appearance here costing Roman the match? Well, yes and no, because under normal circumstances that would be considered a heel move, but with the public opinion of Roman ever decreasing, this is one instance where I think this should be an exception to the rule.
I don’t necessarily see an Undertaker appearance happening here, but a moment in the match where the lights go off and the bell sounds distracting Roman leading to Braun getting the victory. I’m intrigued how these two mesh together as they are both talented wrestlers who usually do better when in the ring with a veteran who can help lead the match, but I also think they both will want to prove a point. Coming out of the light show distraction finish this will lead to Roman calling Undertaker out, challenging him to a match at ‘Mania and hopefully leading to Roman turning heel by cheating to win and then leaving ‘Taker in a bloody mess before heeling on the crowd the next night at Raw. Strowman? I honestly don’t know at this point, but I can see WWE have him win the memorial battle royal and then continuing his ascendency with possibly a program with whoever the champion is coming out of WrestleMania.
Brawn Strowman wins after some form of Undertaker distraction.
Bayley vs. Charlotte for the Raw Women’s Championship: At the risk of being hated by 50 percent of the audience, I despair at the way Bayley has been treated on the main roster. They seem to have forgotten the old saying of more haste, less speed and pushed her to the top without any character development or want for Bayley to win the belt by the majority of the casual fans. Before you throw something at me or call for me to be dragged through the streets while tied to horses, let me explain.
Chances are if you are reading this, you keep close tabs on NXT just as I do. I love the Bayley character and I’ve said and written many times that I feel she’s my little sister who I’m so proud is doing well for herself and I’m fully behind her. However, put yourself in the shoes of someone who only watches Raw on a weekly basis and that’s all they watch. While standing in those shoes and mindset, tell me who Bayley is. She hugs people, she pimps out hugger bears or whatever they were called, she has a cool entrance but her super fan routine was done by Sasha Banks and arguably better and more importantly says she will always do the right thing but has essentially cheated her way to a title. I could go on about this, but when you really sit back and think about it that’s all we know about her from Raw.
So with that being said, Charlotte will continue her “Queen of Pay-Per-View” routine and regain the Women’s championship for the 1,700 time (slight exxageration, but the key word being slight). They seem to be setting up for a Sasha Banks heel turn and the logical opponent will be Bayley, so how to get there? Sasha costing Bayley the championship that she won for her and leaving Bayley beaten down. Hopefully this will lead to some proper character development for Bayley on the main roster and undo the damage they have done with her. As for Charlotte? Unless they plan on bringing someone big for her to face like a Ronda Rousey or Asuka, I can only see her facing Nia Jax based on the current storylines. Will it be heel vs heel? I hope not, but we will have to see what they do if they go down this route.
Charlotte regains the Raw Women’s Championship.
Samoa Joe vs. Sami Zayn: Again, I’m going to give credit to WWE with the way they have booked Samoa Joe as the badass heel that everyone needs to be wary of. The way he has taken to the main roster should be no surprise to anyone who has been fortunate enough to follow his career and he’s now in a position he probably should have been 5-10 years ago.
Sami Zayn is an incredible talent, and whereas I can’t get my head around what WWE have done to the Bayley character, I praise them for the opposite and correct approach they have taken with the former El Generico. He’s now in a position where he has helped make Braun Stowman and will continue to make Samoa Joe look like an unbeatable monster. However, he’s also in a position where has hasn’t lost too much credibility with the fans who only know his main roster work so he’s positioned to be pushed to the moon in a Daniel Bryan=esque storyline when WWE deem the time is right.
Very much like Joe against Cesaro on Raw, while both men could have a wonderful professional wrestling match, this won’t happen here. Joe will be positioned as unbeatable and the great sympathetic babyface that is Zayn will get the occasional hope spot but otherwise it will be destruction from Joe. There will be a time in the near future for a back and for match that we will talk about for years but now is not the time.
Samoa Joe wins.
Neville vs Jack Gallagher: Having seen Jack Gallagher on the UK independent scene I’m bored senseless with the act. Yeah, it was cute and fun the first ten times I saw it, but by the end of his run in the UK before going to the cruiserweight championship I was over him. I get the sense that the tide of the people who first saw him in the tournament is starting to turn this way also, so WWE have again been smart for booking him in this match and eek out what’s left of the popularity of the gentleman. I hope that following this little run on the “main event” of the 205 Live brand they will try to change and tweak his character a little so he doesn’t go the way of The Vaudevillians.
Neville has been great as a heel and has been the only reason I’ve tuned in for 205 Live week in week out. The anticipated feud going into ‘Mania is Neville against Austin Aries and I personally can’t wait for this as they are both talented enough to make this match a must see moment. So with that in mind, Neville to retain to give Neville vs Aries at WrestleMania that extra bit of juice and Gallagher to continue to bore me.
Neville retains the WWE Cruiserweight Championship.
Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows vs. Enzo Amore and Big Cass for the Raw Tag Titles. Hey, it’s those guys who got beat by Roman Reigns on his own against the pervert and the deer in the headlights. As you can tell, I’m not looking forward to this match in the slightest. Anderson and Gallows have been damaged for reasons unknown and don’t look anything like the threat they did under a year ago when they were invading different shows. Enzo and Cass, despite still having the crowd chant their catchphrases, seem to be running out of steam quickly.
I’m going to go for Anderson and Gallows to retain here and go on to defend in a tag team turmoil style match at WrestleMania. There have been hints at a Enzo and Cass separation recently and it would be a neat undercard match at the big show, but I would have hoped when they split there would have been more of a buildup. However, it’s the only thing that I think will give traction back to these guys so what the hell, if we are going to fantasy book, Cass turns on Enzo beats the living tar out of him at WrestleMania, gets drafted to Smackdown and forms a union with Carmella. Why not?
Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows retain the Raw Tag Titles.
Sasha Banks vs. Nia Jax: Sigh. The match they had a few months ago on the pre-show was awful, but it was designed around Sasha being injured and Nia dominating. As a result, I assume this will be a better match. I can see a possible moment where Bayley comes out to help Sasha as a thank you for helping her steal….er….win the title and it backfires hence the issues later in the evening I’ve already written about.
Nia Jax wins.
Rich Swann and Akira Tozawa vs Brian Kendrick and Noam Dar (Kickoff Show): Ever since I saw Noam Dar at an independent show some years ago in PCW, I’ve been a huge fan of his and thought he had all the tools to become a big star. Although he’s been given an awful storyline in WWE, he has made it as good as it could have been. He hasn’t shown what I know he can do in the ring yet and that’s a shame. Apart from Noam Dar for my own personal reasons, I literally have no investment in this match at all.
I think with the talent in the ring it will be a decent showcase but this match alone highlights the issues with the 205 Live roster, which feels like it already needs a reboot. I will write about that more some other time. As for the winner….uhh….wheres my coin? Heads, the babyfaces wins tails the heels win, that’s how little this match means.
Rich Swann and Akira Tozawa win the coin toss.
As always if you want to talk discuss, disagree or agree with anything below, you can find me on twitter @haydngleed or email me via haydn.gleed@gmail.com
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