Observer Radio Discusses 2 Mania Title Matches

On today's edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer talked about Daniel Bryan's WrestleMania opponent.

As of the time of writing, the reporter does not know exactly who Bryan will meet at Mania. However, he has been told that the opponent will be somebody who could be coming back to the promotion rather than someone Bryan has been feuding and wrestling with in recent months.

This should, as of the moment at least, mean that Kofi Kingston is out of the picture. Meltzer noted - on the show - that Bryan .vs. Kingston was not the plan for Mania, nor for the upcoming Fast Lane show, as of Monday morning.

Going with the idea that Bryan's opponent could be somebody who is coming back, Meltzer mentioned a few names. He immediately shot down some of them, but they were: Bray Wyatt, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Batista, The Undertaker and Kurt Angle.

John Cena's name was also brought up, but Meltzer said the same thing that I mentioned a few weeks back. If Lars Sullivan was meant to be Cena's Mania opponent, that would mean he was not the plan for Daniel Bryan.

Of the list, the person who makes the most sense to me is Bray Wyatt. This is considering that Bryan has Erick Rowan as ally and I have a feeling Luke Harper will be with them as well. Wyatt obviously has history with all three wrestlers as all have been part of the Wyatt Family.

For what it's worth, Sky Bet has Bryan .vs. Wyatt at 8/1 to be a match at WrestleMania in its RequestABet section.

Meltzer did point out, in the show, that the videos of Kevin Owens eating junk food (pizza on Sunday and popcorn last night) might be a subtle way to begin something with Bryan.

A Bryan .vs. Owens match is also 8s.

Looking back to recent Kambi markets where clients could wager on The Undertaker's WrestleMania opponent, the oddsmakers had Bryan at 10/1 in early December.

Taker has wanted to work with Bryan in the past and, if I recall correctly, Bryan was once Taker's choice to lose his WrestleMania streak. Of course this didn't happen, but it should highlight just how much Taker must think of Bryan.

By the way, Kurt Angle was 40/1 to be Bryan's opponent in a similar market.

After hearing the show, I'm still unsure what the Mania WWE Championship match will be, but it's somewhat clearer than it was days ago. It seems to me that it's either Bray Wyatt or Kevin Owens unless the company changes course after Kofi Kingston got so hot last week.

Out of Wyatt and Owens, I'd prefer it to be the latter even though the former seems to make the most sense going by who Bryan has allegiance with.

Another thing mentioned in today's audio show regards Asuka's Smackdown Women's Championship opponent for WrestleMania.

Dave Meltzer stated that Lacey Evans was initially lined up to be Asuka's challenger, but this is up in the air right now.

I had a feeling Mandy Rose would end up being Asuka's challenger for Mania. I didn't expect her to win, but thought I'd back Rose to win the ladies' Money in the Bank match.

The Evans news, about the company initially wanting her to be Asuka's opponent but now unsure whether to put her in the spot, made me consider her for the Money in the Bank.

My consideration even went so far as to thinking that her character would look good walking around with a Money in the Bank handbag on her shoulder.

Update: Shortly after writing this post, Dave Meltzer wrote a report indicating that Kofi Kingston was a front-runner to meet Daniel Bryan at WWE Fast Lane.