Tuesday 21 August 2018

New 'Champion After' Markets From Sky Bet

Sky Bet published a batch of new 'Champion After' markets following SummerSlam.

Three of these markets were taken down ahead of last night's episode of Raw. However, I was able to make screen grabs yesterday afternoon and will post them. First, I'll start with one that is still available as of the time of writing and will be temporarily closed before tonight's Smackdown.

WWE Smackdown Women's Champion After Charlotte Flair (August 2018)
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The above is for Smackdown's version of the Women's Championship, which was won by Charlotte Flair on Sunday night. The market will pay out on the person who succeeds her for the strap.

Following the triple threat match, Becky Lynch turned on her friend and is unsurprisingly the favourite in this market. She's 1/2.

Former champ - Carmella - is 4/1.

Raw's women's title was won by Ronda Rousey. The bookies had a market available for her successor. This can be viewed below.

WWE Raw Women's Champion After Ronda Rousey (August 2018)
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Former champion, Alexa Bliss, opened as a favourite to claim the strap after Rousey.

There are interesting names on the list and a couple of conspicuous absences.

First, Natalya - who is a friend of Rousey both in real life and in storyline is a joint second-favourite along with Nia Jax. Both kind of make sense as future opponents of Rousey. Natalya is sure to turn on her friend and the Rousey/Jax feud - if you can call it that - was left open ended as it segued to Rousey challenging Bliss for the title.

The first name that I mentioned as a conspicuous absence is Nikki Bella, who is reportedly facing Rousey in the WWE Evolution main event on October 28th.

Charlotte Flair - who many have speculated will compete against Rousey at WrestleMania 35 - is another name that isn't on the list yet.

With Rousey and Flair both currently holding the respective championships, I'm starting to wonder whether Rousey .vs. Flair will take place at Survivor Series if the company has the champion versus champion deal like last year's edition of the PPV.

The name that stood out to me, when I ran through the list, is another one of Rousey's real-life friends - Shayna Baszler. She was installed at 7s.

Raw's secondary title was won by Seth Rollins on Sunday. It too has been given a new market.

WWE Intercontinental Champion After Seth Rollins (August 2018)
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The market for the Intercontinental Champion after Rollins opened with both the former titleholder, Dolph Ziggler, and his bodyguard Drew McIntyre, as joint-favourites. This made sense at the time because it looked like Rollins and Dean Ambrose would continue their feud with Ziggler and McIntyre post-SummerSlam.

At the conclusion of last night's Raw, Ambrose and Rollins reformed The Shield with Roman Reigns and beat on Braun Strowman when the Money in the Bank winner was attempting to cash in his Money in the Bank contract.

Going by how the commentators were reacting to what The Shield did to Strowman, I felt that the trio will be more tweener than heel. Still, it made me wonder whether Ziggler/McIntyre will remain at the top of this market when it's republished.

On the topic of Reigns and Strowman. The latter opened as a favourite to be the Universal Champion following the current titleholder.

WWE Universal Champion After Roman Reigns (August 2018)
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As you can see, the Monster in the Bank is 1/3 to become the next Universal Champion. He's followed by Kevin Owens, who I would guess is second-favourite because WWE sent a placeholder lineup to the arena that's hosting Hell in a Cell next month with Reigns versus Owens listed.

The Rock in third is likely because of the rumours of him looking to wrestle again. If he is coming back for one more match, Reigns makes the most sense. Winning against Reigns doesn't make sense, though.

Former champion - Brock Lesnar - who, in storyline, is looking for a rematch is 12/1 but I doubt we're getting Lesnar beating Reigns for the strap.

When available, the markets are found alongside other WWE specials and match markets on the Sky Bet Website.