Preview: Clash of Champions 25 September 2016

The Red brand's first PPV since the split has had more time than Backlash to develop storylines. They've also got a bigger roster and now one more title. They will be expected to put on a better show and a couple of the matches have the potential to be show stealers. Here's how I think it will go down.

Alicia Fox v Nia Jax

Anything but a Nia Jax victory here would defeat the point of all the squash matches she's been having. I'm struggling to be interested in this because we've not really seen Jax up against anyone who would give her a challenge. Obviously, that's what this match is supposed to be but why build her up as so overpowering only to have her lose when the first serious challenger turns up. There's a reason this is on the pre-show.

Prediction: Nia Jax

Tag Team Titles:
The New Day (c) v Gallows & Anderson

Gallows and Anderson have lost The Club moniker for no explicable reason. I think it might have given them more credibility which has also been chipped away at by turning them into comedy characters. Perhaps they thought it would play best against the New Day to have them both quipping at each other. Despite this, the commentary teams have been constantly reminding us of the pair’s achievements outside WWE and trying to play up their threat. The guys are beasts who should be smashing through everyone in sight week on week but have been made to look a bit weak at times. It’s time for the organisation to show why they brought them over from Japan and give them the belts. The New Day would have been champions for almost 400 days and it’s time to spice it up a bit now there are other genuinely viable candidates for top team, which there hasn’t been for periods of their reign.

Prediction: Gallows & Anderson

Best of 7 Final:
Cesaro v Sheamus

When this started, I liked the idea of it. Since then it's sort of been buried with matches on pre-shows and house shows. It hasn't got the billing it needed to make it seem worthwhile or meaningful. Cesaro is on the way up and Sheamus is on the way down - both in terms of career and this series - and so I can't see Sheamus winning, especially when a title shot is on the line.

Prediction: Cesaro

Sami Zayn v Chris Jericho

There’s no way Zayn should win straight off. He’s marketed as the underdog from the underground and this personna works better if he’s lost a bout or two before finally overcoming his adversary. He’s a great performer and Jericho isn't so egotistical that he won't put over younger talent (witness his defeat to Fandango of all people) so Zayn will definitely get a victory at some point, but the start of what should hopefully be a good rivalry is not the time for it.

Prediction: Jericho

US Championship:
Rusev (c) v Roman Reigns

Rusev has had some pretty poor storylines recently. The Ziggler one with Lana yo-yoing between the two of them, and then Roman Reigns crashing his wedding. When he joined the main roster, he was an unbeatable monster and he’s been quite poorly booked since that undefeated streak ended. When him and Owens gave Reigns the beat down in the cage last night, it felt like they were trying to highlight the primal aggressiveness which was part of those early victories. Reigns has been jumping between the Universal and US title scenes and doesn't seem to have settled after what appears to be a demotion after his suspension. Reigns suffered a few near misses before he won the World Title and I think they would do best to have the same thing happen with the US title.

Prediction: Rusev

Women’s Championship:
Charlotte (c) v Sasha Banks v Bayley

The rumourmill had Banks only dropping this at Summerslam as they thought she would be out for a while. Charlotte had been champion for a long time and it felt like the belt needed a new holder, with Sasha being the obvious choice. The decision here is whether to just have Charlotte’s reign be a short one or to deny Sasha the reign that it feels like she has earned. Bayley's late entry feels designed just to make the match a bit more interesting than a straight out Summerslam rematch. I don't feel she will be given the title just yet. It looks like Charlotte’s relationship with Dana Brooks is breaking down and that she has a ready built feud good to go so I can see her dropping the belt here, perhaps with some interference from Dana. This could leave Sasha to renew her great rivalry with Bayley who has laid a claim to be the number one contender and there has been some tension between the two of them recently.

Prediction: Banks

Cruiserweight Championship:
TJ Perkins (c) v Brian Kendrick

I've not watched the Cruiserweight Classic, so my introduction to it was on last night's Raw. It's difficult for me to go for anything other than the newly crowned Perkins retaining his title.

Prediction: Perkins.

Universal Championship:
Kevin Owens (c) v Seth Rollins

KO should not under any circumstances drop the belt here. It would undermine the fact that they gave him the honour in the first place. He should get a clean victory to cement the fact that he deserves to be the top man for the red brand. He’s been a really consistent worker all the way through from NXT and is great both on the mic and in the ring. There should be no interference from Triple H as Owens has the talent to win on his own and needs to prove it. Although I did enjoy his reaction on Raw when Trips pedigreed Rollins to give him the title, the win this time needs to be fully deserved. It will be interesting who the crowd cheers for here. Both guys have been heels that the crowd has loved. Rollins looks like making the move to be the brand’s top face so perhaps they’ll have Owens give him a merciless beat down after the victory to try to cement that.

Prediction: Owens

The Fall of the Roman Empire

Hello Mr Reigns,

You don't know me but we need to talk. It's for your sake, my sake and everyone's sake.

One of the reasons the original Roman Empire fell was due to overexpansion. It seems like overexpansion is one of the reasons why your Roman Empire is also looking pretty precarious.

I want to start off by saying that I really liked The Shield when you guys came into the WWE. You were dominating the whole scene and I thought you were pretty cool. You all dressed in black and didn't taken any prisoners. That's pretty cool to me.

Within The Shield, you were the muscle. The powerhouse. The heavy hitter. You were quiet too. The strong silent type. This was good. Your actions did the talking, and this worked well for you.

We found out why this worked for you when The Shield split up because, quite frankly, on the mic you've not got any charisma at all. Rollins and Ambrose were both more than capable of holding their own on the mic but you struggled. That's fine. Not everyone has the same skillset, and the world is better for this diversity.

Even so, you still did ok and had us onside. There were moments I was really rooting for you. In the 2014 Royal Rumble, for example. You surprisingly broke Kane's record by eliminating 12 people and it came down to you and Batista as the last two men standing.

At that point, with Batista being the guy that WWE were wanting to force down our throats, we wanted you as the unlikely winner. It wasn't to be. Batitsta had just returned from injury and we didn't feel he'd earned the right to main event Wrestlemania.

What has happened since then is that now you're the one that the WWE are forcing down our throats. And the same thing is happening. We want whoever is against you to win. We don't feel that you've really earned the right to be the main eventer that you have been recently.

You might have noticed you're getting booed by at least half the crowd. It's probably not fun because that's not the reaction you want. I'm sure that, at some point, pretty much everyone in the WWE has suggested you turn heel. I'm not sure who is blocking this - you, Stephanie, Triple H, Vince, someone else entirely. Whoever it is, you need to get them to change their thinking.

You might love hearing the crowd cheering for you. I'm sure it's quite intoxicating. The problem is that the longer this goes on, the less of them will be cheering for you. Take the fact that half of them legitimately want you to lose and play on that. Loads of other superstars have thrived after a heel turn. Your cousins, The Usos, look like doing so, and your old Shield buddy, Seth Rollins has become a true star from doing so. You just need to accept that when you do your job well, you will be getting boos not cheers.

As a heel, your mic skills (or lack of) will be less of an issue. You can just your your muscle and your power to beat up people. If you need to explain it at any point, you just want to be "the guy" and you don't care who you have to go through to get the title.

You can use the fact that the fans weren't cheering you as your character's in-ring motivation. You can just be hard and mean. I think people will buy it. We bought it when you were in the Shield, and I'm sure we will again. I think it will also legitimately make you a main eventer, not the fraud that you seem to have been since then.

So please, for my sanity and your career, turn heel.

Yours faithfully,

Stewart Cork.

Preview: Backlash 11 September 2016

The first pay per view for the Blue Brand isn’t filling me with excitement. I want to be disappointed. I want to be team blue, because I love Shane O Mac and all the massive bumps he has taken and I love Daniel Bryan – I physically jumped out of my seat when he won the title at Wrestlemania 30. They were always going to struggle with fewer draft picks but the way that they have shaped up both the tag team division and the women’s division to both have a wealth of competitors has been admirable. With only three weeks – and more importantly now since the brand split, only three shows (six hours of programming) -  between Summerslam and Backlash there doesn’t seem to have been enough time to build the hype around the show. This compares to Raw which will have had 15 hours of programming between Summerslam and Night of Champions. It says a lot that the match I am most excited about involves Heath Slater. And on that note…

Tag Team Championship:

The Hype Bros v The Usos

& The Winner v Heath Slater and Rhyno

The best resolution to the Heath Slater story is that him and Rhyno win the belts. There’s only so many times that the audience (and by the audience, I am assuming everyone thinks exactly the same way I do) will get behind the free agent with one last shot at a contract storyline, and he seems to be quite over along with it so it should play well.

For this, American Alpha needed to be out of the picture. They’ve been built up as an unstoppable force and without an injury would have been certain to hold the belts. The injury to Gable will keep them out of action for around about a month, giving them the opportunity to take the belts that they deserve from Slater and Rhyno at the next pay per view.

The Usos heel turn after their 30 second loss against American Alpha should be enough to get them to the final. The attempt to give them a bit more of a personality needs to be followed through, and they should beat the Hype Bros, potentially with a bit of underhanding dealings to cement their bad boy status.

The only other possibility that could work out would be the Usos somehow screwing Slater and Rhyno out of the win and a contract, but I think all the necessary parts can be put in place without this happening. Slater needs to win to justify a contract. Shane and Bryan can’t go back on their word without seeing week so this is the logical conclusion.

Prediction: Slater/Rhyno to beat Usos in the final.

Women's Championship:

Nikki Bella v Carmela v Becky Lynch v Alexa Bliss v Naomi v Natalya

I like elimination matches. I think it comes from watching the old style Survivor Series matches as a kid (and I am hoping there will be a red v blue one this year). This format will allow most competitors to get a moment in the sun. Only three of these I can see as potential winners – Natalya, Becky and Nikki.

Nikki seems to be going into a feud with Carmella and I can’t see her challenging for the title any time soon, so that pretty much rules Nikki out as a winner. As the longest reigning female champion, she doesn’t really need it at this stage, either. I can see her perhaps getting close but then Carmella coming back after previously being eliminated and hitting a knock out move on Nikki for someone else to eliminate her.

Naomi is getting more over but she’s not at the stage to push for a belt yet, and Alexa needs more of a push before she is getting there.

This leaves Becky and Natalya. I imagine they will be the last two in the match, and whoever loses will be the likely number one challenger afterwards. I’m going to plump for Becky as she has had more exposure over the last few months but I wouldn’t rule out Natty getting it in the near future.

Prediction: Becky

Predicted order of elimination: Alexa, Naomi, Carmella, Nikki, Natalya

Randy Orton v Bray Wyatt

There’s been a lot less hype about this match than Orton’s against Lesnar, for obvious reasons. However, I can see this being a much better match. I am a fan of Wyatt and he’s the sort of character that can lose and still come out really well. Orton will be in need of a moral boosting victory after Lesnar smashed him open and it’s hard to see him take a clean pin.  Wyatt needs to build his own standing, so I don’t think a run-in from a returning Luke Harper would really help him out. Wyatt’s rivalries often last a few months, so I think the likely scenario is an Orton victory with Wyatt keen on revenge.

Prediction: Orton

Intercontinental Championship:
The Miz v Dolph Ziggler

This could go one of two ways. The first is that Ziggler has become fired up after coming close to the main title recently and is on fire, making light work of The Miz. The other is that he fails yet again, increasing his frustrations and leading to the heel turn that has been teased. Over the last year or two he’s had some really good moments (at Survivor Series as part of Team Cena) and some really crap moments (his entire feud with Rusev complete with girlfriend stealing storyline) and he definitely deserves more good than bad for a while.  Either one of these storylines could suit him to give him the push he needs to justify the title shot he received at

The top heels on the Smackdown roster are AJ Styles, Bray Wyatt and The Miz. The first two are not true heels (the crowd gets behind both at times, especially Styles) and I find Miz quite lacklustre, so there’s potentially space for a heel Ziggler to make his stamp upon the blue brand as one of the top heels. It’s difficult though to see him take a heel turn during the match as I don’t care if he cheats to beat The Miz, so I think Miz’s never ending Intercontinental tour will likely continue.

Prediction: The Miz, with a heel turn for Ziggler on Tuesday.

Heavyweight Championship

Dean Ambrose v AJ Styles

This is interesting. Styles has had all of the momentum this year with two clean wins against Cena to become the New Face That Runs The Place and solidify his spot at the top of the roster. Ambrose’s title reign is still quite fresh and he has stigma of being the man that brought the title to Team Blue. To take it from him now would seem like it is too soon to me. I just really can’t call this one. Styles came up short against Roman Reigns at Extreme Rules in a match when he had The Club by his side, and my hunch is that it will stay with Ambrose as Styles perhaps hasn’t paid quite enough dues.

Prediction: Ambrose