Below are our selections along with our reasons why. Neither of us are making any recommendations or tips. All this is is a bit of fun where we contrast our thoughts with the plan to look back following the event.
WWE Universal Championship
In what will likely be the main event of the evening, Brock Lesnar will defend his WWE Universal Championship against Roman Reigns.
Bookie: Roman Reigns is my pick because Reigns overcoming Lesnar has been Vince's three year plan.
Blogger: I agree. This has been the plan for quite some time. Lesnar killing everyone with one F5 for the past year leads one to suspect Roman Reigns will kick out of Lesnar's finisher before going on to win the strap.
WWE Championship
The 2018 Royal Rumble winner, Shinsuke Nakamura, will take on AJ Styles for the WWE Championship in another big match scheduled for Sunday night.
Blogger: As many of you know, I found WWE's booking of Shinsuke Nakamura to be quite a letdown since he was brought up to the main roster. I was very unhappy with how his WWE Championship feud with Jinder Mahal went. Since January, however, Nak has been rehabbed with the Rumble win. I think he has to win this otherwise everything that has been done would have been for nothing.
Bookie: Has to be Shinsuke Nakamura especially if AJ Styles needs to take some time off for the injury he suffered recently. I could also see Styles move to Raw post-WrestleMania, so losing the title here would allow the WWE Championship to stay on Smackdown.
WWE Smackdown Women's Championship
In one of three women's matches on the card, 2018 Women's Royal Rumble winner - Asuka - will take on WWE Smackdown Women's Champion, Charlotte Flair.
Bookie: Asuka's streak isn't ending at WrestleMania.
Blogger: If you've been following WWELeaks lately, I am sure you would have read that I thought Asuka would win this match by disqualification in order to set up Carmella cashing in the Money in the Bank briefcase on Charlotte. After this week's episode of Smackdown, which saw Carmella tease a cash-in and Corey Graves speculated that there could be a cash-in on the Smackdown Women's Champion, I'm back to predicting that - whenever Carmella executes her contract - it'll be done for Raw's title.
WWE Raw Women's Championship
Alexa Bliss will defend her WWE Raw Women's Championship against Nia Jax on Sunday's card.
Blogger: If Asuka wins the Smackdown Women's Champion, then my idea of Carmella cashing in on the Raw Women's Champion - whenever it happens - would allow for Carmella to replace Asuka on Raw and vice versa.... I'm struggling to think which wrestler wins this match, because I cannot shake off the thought that Carmella will make this a triple threat and walk away as the winner. It might be a controversial pick, but I'm going with my instinct and saying neither Bliss or Jax will win this.
Bookie: I'm going with Alexa Bliss by disqualification. I think Carmella will cash-in her Money in the Bank contract on a prone Alexa after Nia destroys her.
WWE Intercontinental Championship
WWE Intercontinental Champion, The Miz, will defend his title in a triple threat match against Seth Rollins and Finn Balor.
Bookie: This is a match where I could see any of them winning. However, I believe The Miz so he can go on to beat the record of longest days as IC Champ that is currently held by Pedro Morales. I can also see Miz move over to Smackdown so he can enter a feud with Daniel Bryan ahead of SummerSlam.
Blogger: I also believe Miz should retain and go on to break the record.
WWE United States Championship
A fatal four-way match will see Randy Orton defend the WWE United States Championship against Ruev, Bobby Roode and Jinder Mahal.
Blogger: Before Rusev was added to the match, I thought Orton would retain by pinning Jinder Mahal as a way to get back something from their feud last year. Now, however, I believe the winner has to be Rusev.
Bookie: There will be revolt if it's anyone but Rusev. Although, if for any reason this match is moved to the pre-show, like they did with the Intercontinental Championship at the last minute last year, I wouldn't be surprised if they go with Orton.
WWE Raw Tag Team Championship
In the Raw Tag Team Championship match of the night, Cesaro and Sheamus will defend the straps against Braun Strowman and a mystery partner.
Bookie: I'm unsure on this, but think they might have Braun or Samoa Joe in the main event scene against Roman Reigns post-WrestleMania. Therefore, if it is Joe as Strowman's partner, I could see them turn on each other and lose. I'm taking Cesaro and Sheamus.
Blogger: One thing I'd like to point out is the fact that - on April 27th - at the Greatest Royal Rumble event, Cesaro and Sheamus are scheduled to defend the straps against The Hardys. Samoa Joe is also set to tangle for the Intercontinental Championship on that card, so there could be something to what the Bookie is thinking.
Everything is telling me to go against Strowman and whoever he's teaming with, but my instinct is telling me to fade the champs. I'm going with Strowman and his team-mate. The Saudi match could easily be switched to a three-way.
WWE Smackdown Tag Team Championship
The Usos will defend the WWE Smackdown Tag Team Championship against The Bludgeon Brothers and The New Day in a triple threat match.
Blogger: I've bet on The Bludgeon Brothers. It would be kind of backwards to have them lose after everything WWE has done with them lately.
Bookie: The Bludgeon Brothers haven't lost since they've been repackaged.
WWE Cruiserweight Championship
The final of the Cruiserweight Championship tournament is another bout that will take place on Sunday. It'll see Cedric Alexander go up against Mustafa Ali.
Bookie: I would love to see Ali win this, but don't think he will. I believe they'll go with Cedric Alexander because I get the feeling they wanted him to beat Enzo Amore anyway.
Blogger: Just to add a bit of drama, I'll side with Mustafa Ali. I won't be betting for real, though.
Kurt Angle and Ronda Rousey .vs. HHH and Stephanie McMahon
The mainstream match of the night will see Ronda Rousey team up with Kurt Angle to take on the team of Triple H and Stephanie McMahon.
Blogger: As I've written a few times, there is NO WAY Ronda Rousey and Kurt Angle lose this match. Ronda is coming into WWE after losing two legit fighting contests in succession. These two losses have been covered by the mainstream sports news and were brought up to Ronda when she was doing media work promoting Mania. There is NO WAY the company hands the media another Ronda loss story this week. It would be very short-sighted if it does. This match is all about having Ronda armbar McMahon for the win. And the press it'll garner.
Bookie: Rousey and Angle aren't losing unless there is interference from NXT representatives and I'm not talking about Shayna Baszler.
WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal
The WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal will be another match on Sunday's card. It'll feature talent from not only Raw and Smackdown, but also NXT.
Bookie: I'm going with Bayley to win this by eliminating Sasha Banks to enhance their feud that should progress to the pair meeting at SummerSlam.
Blogger: With ladies from NXT being involved, I think I'll go for an outside the box pick like Ember Moon, If I could choose 'Anyone from NXT', that would be my pick!
Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
The Fifth Annual Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal will see another wrestler claim the Andre the Giant Memorial Trophy.
Blogger: As I wrote the other day, early favourites have never won this match. I could make a case for so many people, and none of them will end up winning it. I'm just going to blindly pick a name and move on - Samoa Joe.
Bookie: I think it would be perfect with the HBO Andre the Giant documentary coming out to have a new big man to push.
Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon .vs. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn
Daniel Bryan will make his return to the squared circle as he teams up with Shane McMahon to take on the team of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. If the latter wins the match, they are reinstated by WWE.
Bookie: It's hard with two unsanctioned matches taking place on the weekend (referring to NXT's Johnny Gargano .vs. Tommaso Ciampa on Saturday). The NXT match might change my pick, but I think there might be some shenanigans that will see Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon lose. I can't have Bryan lose his first match back from retirement, but a McMahon costing him again with Shane saying he has had enough of Bryan overshadowing him by coming back.
Blogger: The stipulations on Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are hard to ignore, so I'm going to have to back the heels here.
The Undertaker .vs. John Cena
Blogger: I am unconvinced that this is going to be a match. If it were, I'd go with The Undertaker.
Bookie: I think it's too close to call, but I also cannot see The Undertaker lose at two WrestleManias in a row. Maybe they don't have a match at all and this is a segment where The Undertaker chokeslams Cena to set up a match for Wrestlemania 35?
And there you have it. Here's a table pointing out the selections we've backed.
We're against each other on the following bouts:
- WWE Raw Women's Championship
- WWE Raw Tag Team Championship
- WWE Cruiserweight Championship
- WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal
- Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal
There will be a post a few days after WrestleMania where I'll take a look back at our picks to see where we went right... And wrong!
More Bookie .vs. Blogger posts are planned beyond WrestleMania, so please leave any feedback or ideas you might have in the comments section.
Great stuff as always lads! Should be a memorable show
ReplyDeleteThank you, Marc.
DeleteCheers marc
DeleteI don't think Ember Moon will be in the Battle Royal. I can see her selling an injury after Takeover loss
ReplyDeleteI think it more sense in Balor or Rollins win. That can make feud between them for next PPV
ReplyDeleteWe've seen Balor/Rollins back-and-forth on TV a lot lately.
DeleteAll 3 make sense but with the superstar shake up due and making miz daniel bryans first feud makes sense as he is a safe wrestler for a feud and the promos will be excellent and the matches with miztorage too
ReplyDeleteThere's no way that WWE would let Miz lose when he's so close to beating the record. Surely not, anyway...
ReplyDeleteI also personally think The Bar have been embarressed by Braun far too many times recently for Braun (and partner) to take the titles.
DeleteIt would have been quite amusing to see a handicap tag-match where Braun has both titles at the end of it, though.
It would have been fun to see Strowman as a 'tag team champions'.
DeleteCarmella can only cash in on SD champion. I don't know why the Raw thing keeps being brought up.
ReplyDeleteAlso Sheamus & Cesaro being announced as defending in Saudi Arabia is because they are the current champions....if they announced every title match now they would be doing so with current champs. No spoilers, its standard procedure. It actually masks obvious title changes. It's anti spoiler :)
This is great, thank you! FWIW, I'm on Joe/Cass, Field vs Banks, Bliss, Styles, Reigns, Miz, Angle and Rousey, Rusev, Owens and Zayn, and Bludgeons. Not super confident about any of them. Why is the Reigns line dropping?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ike. I'm pulling for you on a few of them.. but the others.. bah!
Delete